It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Thanks to Hurricane Sandy we've got some white stuff outside and even for Ohio this is crazy weather!  We hit almost 80 degrees last week.  Thank goodness we got most of our yard work done although my ferns are still hanging on the front porch looking pathetic. 

 

Since snow makes us think Christmas I might as well share these two Christmas cards I made the other day.  These little "inchies" were laying on my desk from previous projects so I couldn't let them go to waste.  Added them to the Apothecary Accent Framelit that I hadn't used yet then decided to layer the whole piece on this Embossed Holiday Frame.  I don't do much white on white layering, but I think I like the clean look.  What about you?  Finishing touches include a Mini silver brad and two regular sized silver brads, along with some dotted scallop ribbon which I tried like the dickens to tie in a bow but it just didn't work out. 

Here are more little inchie squares I had left over so made this one very quickly! 

 



 And here is the inside using the one pattern that didn't lend itself to a 1" square.  The paper is called Be of Good Cheer DSP.

And finally, a peek outside my backdoor.  It is supposed to change to rain soon so thought I'd take a picture before it is all gone.  We are all happy to have a day off from school today thanks to Sandy!

Have a great day!  Safe and warm wishes to our friends on the East coast being affected by the hurricane and her after effects! 

~Kristin

SUO Supplies
Stamps:  Joyous Celebrations, Many Merry Messages

Colors:  Very Vanilla, Soft Suede,  Cherry Cobbler, Gumball Green

Accessories:  Big Shot, Holiday Frame Embossing folder, square punch, postage stamp punch, silver brads, Cherry Cobbler scalloped dotted ribbon, Apothecary Accents Framelits, small oval punch, Be of Good Cheer DSP

Not 1, not 2 but 3 cards this time!



I had so much fun using THIS SKETCH from Create with Connie & Mary that I just had to use it again.  I LOVE the diagnal aspect!  Just like my last card, I used the Comfort Cafe DSP, but this time I used it for a casual card that could even be considered masculine I suppose.  I cut this boot out in three different colors before I got it right- this one is River Rock stamped with Soft Suede ink. 

 My daughter needs some thank you notes for birthday presents she received this month so I set my sights on those.  This one puts 2 challenges to test:  The sketch from Fab Friday (which I took some artistic liberties with) and the color challenge from Color Me Beautiful (Calypso Coral, More Mustard, Raspberry Ripple, Always Artichoke, Vanilla).  I just love how this turned out- the colors are fallish but wonderfully vibrant together, and the variety of textures are so FUN- just what I needed on this cold blustery day!  Edited to add:  the Color Me Beautiful sketch is one from several weeks ago that I'd written down in my sketch journal.  Oops! 

 Here's another Thank You note.  This time I followed the sketch from Paper Players, and the color challenge from Color Q.

 

Quick shot of the inside. 

 

Well, thanks for stopping by! 

~Kristin

Christmas Cards for Sale! Limited Supply.

 Hello!  Long time no see.  I have something new for you today- two somethings as a matter of fact!  How would you like to have 12 of your Christmas cards all done and ready to go?  This selection is available and come complete with inside greetings and envelopes too.  In fact, for $35 we will even throw in shipping for FREE.  These were all hand made by myself and two other Stampin' Up! Demonstrators from leftover supplies from our recent Stamp-a-Stack.  They are high quality and made with 100% Stampin' Up! product.   If you are interested shoot me an email (Stamp_for_smiles (at) embarqmail (dot) com) or leave me a comment here with your email address.  Supplies are VERY limited so first come first serve. 

Next up is yet another Christmas card, and you can make this one yourself!  ;)  Found this fun sketch at Create With Connie & Mary but guess what... yep, I missed the contest deadline again.  That's OK because I love how it turned out and love the sketch enough to use it again just for FUN! 

Thanks for stopping in to visit me toay!
~Kristin

 

SUO Supplies

Stamps:  Bootiful Occasions, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Colors:  Whisper White, Pool Party, Midnight Muse

Accessories:  Comfort Cafe DSP, Northern Flurry embossing folder, Liquid Applique (no longer a SU product, Whisper White Organza ribbon, scallop border punch

Blue Ribbon Birthday- a Mojo Sketch & TEXTURE!

Surprise!  Yep, I'm back to stamping.... at least for today.  Saw the weekly Mojo sketch in my email inbox and couldn't resist.  So between laundry loads and other things I managed to squeek this one out. 

Also decided to join the SUO Challenges to use texture.  Duh!  That's not too hard.  Gotta love those embossing folders.  I managed to use THREE on here!  Polka Dots, Stripes and the Chevron.  So fun! 

 

I had planned to join a color challenge somewhere but somehow these colors grabbed my eye from my own scraps and I HAD to go with them.  Basic Gray, Perfect Plum, Wisteria Wonder and Summer Starfruit! 

 

Besides the texture on here I spiffed things up with some Summer Starfruit stitched satin ribbon and some Filigree brads, and of course several punches! 

 

I also made a new necklace this weekend so if you're interested hop on over to my Beading and Jewelry page (link at top below my blog title).  Here's the sketch if you'd like to play along!

 

 Thanks for stopping by today! 
~Kristin

Christmas Deer

 So have you seen this Christmas Deer stamp set in the Stampin' Up! Catalog?  It is on page 19.  If you like it, I highly recommend the "wood mount" version for $4 more because of the teeny tiny nature of the ornaments.  I would NOT want to lose one. 

This is my "rustic" version using the deer, complete with the Woodgrain background and the beautiful new Brushed Bronze button from the Holiday Catalog.  This must be a Utah deer because the deer I've seen in Ohio don't have bodies quite this big usually. 

Here is my first attempt to recreate yesterday's card using the deer instead.  I stamped him with Versamark ink then melted the Heat and Stick powder and immediately doused with Dazzling Diamonds glitter for some serious sparkle.  In person, the detail of the antlers does show up much better.  Hard to photo.  This isn't the version we'll be making on Saturday at my annual Holiday Stamp-a-Stack either....

 

But this might be the final version!  This time he is embossed in Pewter then sponged with some Midnight Muse ink.  The ribbon is the new Satin Stitched in Midnight Muse. 

So what do you think?  Do you like this as well as yesterday's card?  I ended up using Marina Mist instead of Baja Breeze.  I didn't have enough of the Baja cardstock and no time to order more... plus, Marina Mist is just my favorite blue anyway!  If you have suggestions on how to improve this feel free to speak up.  I'm unsure of the sentiment placement since this stamp isn't as symmetrical as the tree from yesterday.  And I do miss the paper piercing, even though I don't think the deer would fit anyway.  Hmmmm.

Thank you for stopping by, and for your comments!  They do make a girl feel loved!  Have a great day.
~Kristin

Stampin' Up! Supplies

Stamps:  Christmas Deer, Snow Swirled (sentiment)

Colors:  Marina Mist, Midnight Muse, Whisper White

Accessories:  Pewter embossing powder, scallop border punch, sponge, Modern Label punch, Satin Stitched Midnight Muse ribbon

Editing Magic!

 Good morning fellow stampers!  I'm back with another Christmas card I promised a few days ago.  I was so happy with this one when it was all done, but got busy and left it sit around on my desk waiting to be photo'd... when tragedy struck. 

OK, I'm being dramatic, it's just a card... but it felt like the end of the world for a few minutes when this card, which was my favorite of the last dozen or so, fell over onto an open red inkpad.  Have you ever had this happen??  It's NOT a good feeling.

Here's the original picture.  Isn't that sickening?  But thanks to some wonderful editing tricks I managed to get it close to it's original state, at least in the photo.  Now in person it is still ruined!  And the red inkpad didn't discriminate, it ruined the main image, the ribbon and all the layers of scallops too just to be sure I couldn't reuse any piece of it.  Except the little sentiment down there. 

This was a design I had experimented with for the Stamp-a-Stack this Saturday (still time to register if you live in the area- Kenton, Ohio).  While I love this one, it is not one of the finals because I bought the new Christmas Deer stamp and really wanted to use it.  So the design will be the same, but the stamp and the ribbon (this one is retired) will change.  Plus, the paper piercing is left off- much too time consuming to have 20+ women trying to do it with only one template. 

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!  I'll be back with more SAS designs in the next few days hopefully. 
~Kristin

Oops, forgot the supply list, sorry! 

Stampin' Up! Supplies

Stamps:  Snow Swirled

Colors:  Baja Breeze, Midnight Muse Whisper White

Accessories:  Clear Embossing powder, Paper Piercing Essentials pack, Modern Label punch, Baja Breeze Seem binding ribbon, scallop border punch, sponge