Paper Smooches Sparks: Anything Goes

Hello Everyone,

I can't tell you how great it is to be back in my craftroom again (we had a basement flood at the end of the summer and the renos were recently completed)! The best part of being out of my room was setting it back up, as I was able to reconfigure it to better suit my crafting needs. Today I have created a simple little Christmas card for the latest Paper Smooches Sparks challenge. I love the Anything Goes challenges, but this time i was almost stumped because I wanted to make a Christmas card, but I don't have any PS Christmas sets. So even though this is a simple little card, it actually quite a while to make as its composition is thanks to the combining of Four PS sets... none of which are Christmas sets! Talk about stretching my stamps!

The "holly" branch is from Botanicals 2, the "berries" are the little open dot from the Reflections set filled in with a little red Wink of Stella, and the sentiment was created using the Mini Monograms set. Finally, I felt the sentiment just needed a little something extra, so I added the tiny heart from the Sweet Hearts set! It is hard to see the twinkliness of the Wink of Stella (I also added some clear to the leaves on the holly sprig), but in real life it adds just the right amount of shimmer. 

Thanks for stopping by, I love to hear your feedback!

Happy Stamping,

Meg

CASology: Eat

Hello Everyone,
I was thrilled to be picked as an honourable mention at CASology for last week's challenge. You can see my entry here. It is time to play along with CASology where the cue card this week is "eat". This almost had me stumped until I remembered the Cheeky TAWS stamp set Tooty Fruity! I kept this card very simple by colouring the tomato with my copics. How does relate to eat? Tomatoes are edible after all...

I am thrilled with the way this simple cheeky card turned out. Thanks for stopping by and as always, I love to hear your feedback.

Happy stamping,

Meg

Muse: Keep it Sweet and Simple

Hello Everyone,
I am thrilled that I was to see that I was a top three featured member over at Muse! You can see my card here. This week the challenge is to keep it sweet and simple with this card as our inspiration:

I am taking my inspiration from the simple colour scheme and the tag focal image. I decided on a white on white with a pop of red and green. I mounted the focal sentiment on a central panel to mimic the tag. Here is my card:

I die cut the fabulous Avery Elle sentiment from some beautiful gold foil paper. The holly is part of the sentiment die and I simply coloured the leaves with a green Wink of Stella and the berries with a red one. The background panel is embossed with a holly embossing folder. Here is a look at the gorgeous golden foil paper.

I am thrilled with this simple card.

Thanks for stopping by - I love hearing your feedback.

Happy Stamping,

Meg

CASology: Flag

Hello Everyone,
Today I am playing along with CASology where the cue word is flag. My card is inspired by my wonderful country Canada's flag. I have always loved the simplicity of our red and white beauty with its proud maple leaf front and center.

I bought this set of Memory Box coordinating tree dies last Holiday season and didn't use them as much as I thought I would. As I was moving back into my craftroom and unpacking all my schtuff, I rediscovered them. I also came across some foil paper that I had forgotten about. This card just popped into my head - colour scheme (red and white) and the red central image were inspired by our flag. The sentiment is from a retired Stampin' Up set - I think that was one of the first stamp sets I ever bought. The foil paper was really hard to photograph - only an angled shot would capture the glorious red.

Thanks for stopping, I always love to hear your feed back!

Happy Stamping,
Meg

One More for Less is More

Hello Everyone,
I was sad to see that I missed the deadline for the Virginia's View challenge, but am happy that the card I made fits the Less is More challenge for More than One tree!

I bought this Impression Obsession die in the summer and have been waiting to be able to use it. I love the way the bright white pops on the craft background. This die makes me think of my cottage and its beautiful paper birches. I smeared a bunch of Tsukineko Delicata ink on white cardstock to create my own metallic paper. Then, I die cut the fabulous Avery Elle Christmas sentiment from it. This has got to be my favourite gold ink because it really sparkles in real life.Once I glued the craft panel to the card base, it looked a little too plain, so I added the thin strips of red to either side.

Thanks for stopping by - I love to hear your feedback. Don't forget to head over to Less is More to see all the beautiful creations posted there.

Happy Stamping,
Meg

One More for Muse and Less is More

Hello Again,
I am back with another card for this week's Muse Challenge and I was thrilled to see that it qualifies for the the Less is More challenge, which is more than one tree! You can see the Muse inspiration card here; it was created by the fabulous Marion Vagg. I love the ombre-esque quality to the balloons and the way the black sentiment pops against the colour and all the white space. This is the source of my inspiration.

While I was at Home Depot yesterday, I was ambling by the paint department when the paint chips hollered at me. So, of course I had to pick some up in all sorts of colours. I die cut my trees from them to capture that ombre effect. I wanted dimension, so I didn't die-cut the sentiment out fromthem directly. Instead I die-cut it in white and popped it on top - I wanted it to pop the way the black panel pops on Marion's card. The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink die as is the snowy hill. The tree is a die I picked up from a local craft store - I don't remember the company name. I also embossed the background with my trusty Swiss Dots EF - that was the very first embossing folder I bought! I love the way the monochromatic colour scheme and the white space create a very clean look.

Thanks so much for stopping by - I would love to hear your feedback. Please head over to Muse and Less is More to see all the wonderful creations.

Muse Challenge 94: Marion Vagg

Hello Everyone,
It is great to be writing this blog post! I posted awhile ago that I would absent from blogland - we had a flood in our basement and I had to pack up my craftroom and move things into a pod that has been living in the driveway. Finally, The basement is pretty much done and I have my craft space partially set up - I retrieved the necessities from the pod, as I just couldn't wait. So, I had enough of my stamping "schtuff" to make a card or two. They are moving the rest of the things from the pod back in later today - Yay!

At any rate, when I saw the Muse inspiration card from Marion Vagg, I just knew that I would have to play along. Here is Marion's card:

I Love the die cut sentiment and the soft ombre style effect of the sponged balloons. I saw this card by Laura Bassen and decided to combine the two inspirations. So, I created this card:

I used a little Christmas tree die to create a stencil and sponged my colourful trees. Then I used the sentiment die from Papertrey Ink and die cut it out of the panel. Finally, I cut three more of the same sentiment and layered them all before inlaying it back in to the panel. I feel the trees emulate the colourful balloons and love the way the peace sentiment blends and pops the way Marion's Happy does. Overall I am pleased. I made one more for this challenge, but I will post it separately so that I can enter it too. Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Stamping,

Meg