Merry Tuesday (x3)

When it comes to stores putting out Christmas decorations in August and September I am vehemently opposed, but as crafters we need a little extra time to make our projects so they will be on time for Christmas.  It was only October 3rd when I saw this monstrosity at Lowe's.  <shake my head>  Told DH NO!!!! That's just wrong in any season! Although, it might be a fun gift for my father in law.  lol  He loves fishing...

Big Bass Santa

 Now that we are in October, you will likely see Christmas cards from me a couple of times a week, at least, as I work to get all my cards made.  Today I'm super inspired by the Merry Monday challenges and have 3 cards to show you.  :)

MM#173

First is this card I made for last week's Merry Monday Challenge: Rainbow Christmas.  I used the Stitched Alphabet Upper stamp set from Whimsy stamps and colored each letter in using my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.  Next I took my Wink of Stella glitter pen and smoothed them out.  Sorry the camera didn't pick up the sparkles.  I'm having a "throw your camera out the window in frustration" type of day. 

If you look closely at the top of my card you will also see a sneak peek of the soon to be released Stamp of Approval: Holiday Magic collection.  I just love the little star banners that come in the Scenery: Holiday Trimmings set from Winnie & Walter.  <3

Stamps: Scenery: Holiday Trimmings (Winnie & Walter for SOA); Stitched Alphabet Upper (Whimsy Stamps)
Ink: 32, 22, 52, 50, 40 (Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers); Onyx Black (Versafine); Golden Glitz, Silvery Shimmer (Delicata)
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White Thick, Red Foil (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Merry & Bright Die (Essentials by Ellen); Clear Embossing Powder (SU); MISTI; Black & White Twine (Doodlebug)

MM#174

If you check out the challenge blog you will see I was completely inspired by Kristie's card.  She was working on this card when we were together last week at a StampNation Design Team retreat.  I should have paid more attention to what she was doing, because then I would have known she embossed her image to get it a bright white.  Anyway, I was in my stamp room yesterday and decided to pull out my Heartfelt Holiday stamp set and make 2 cards.  One with Crumb Cake cardstock and the other with white.  

As I was trying to stamp the hearts inside the mugs on the Kraft card I made a little boo-boo.  To cover it up I decided to try out the tiny heart in the Little Bits die collection from Neat & Tangled (also in the SOA: Holiday Magic Collection)  They fit perfectly!  How cool is that?  Whenever I cut out those little bits I save the extras, and since the gold hearts were also sitting on my table I decided to add them to the card. Hopefully my card isn't too much of a CASE of Kristie.  It's difficult to make the same images look different when you are working in the same color pallet.  

Stamps: Heartfelt Holiday (Wplus9); Lovely Snowflake (CAS*ual Fridays Stamps)
Ink: Crumb Cake, Real Red (Stampin' Up!); White (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper: Crumb Cake, Gold Glimmer Paper, Red Foil Paper, Whisper White (SU)
Accessories: Little Bits (Neat & Tangled for SOA); Stitched Square Frames (My Favorite Things)

WPlus9 Design Studio Clear Stamps, Heartfelt Holiday

Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies, Merry & Bright by Julie Ebersole

My Favorite Things Die-namics, Stitched Square Frames

ZIG Clean Color Real Brush Marker 032, Persian Blue

ZIG Clean Color Real Brush Marker 052, Bright Yellow

ZIG Clean Color Real Brush Marker 050, Yellow

ZIG Clean Color Real Brush Marker 040, Green

ZIG Clean Color Real Brush Marker 022, Carmine Red

Doodle Twine Spool, Beetle Black

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black

TBT on Wednesday with Wplus9

Today I am playing in a new challenge.  My friend, Maureen Merritt, has a challenge up on the Wplus9 blog and I just had to play along.  Maureen introduced me to Wplus9 and I fell in love with their images and sentiments.  The challenge is to use an older set, but I'm still fairly new to the company.  That made this challenge difficult for me.  I decided to use the first Wplus9 set I had purchased and CASE one of Mo's cards.  Here is her card.

Maureen's TBT Card

This card really caught my eye because the focal image was recessed behind the white border.  I decided to give it a try. Here's what I came up with.

After I sponged the background I stamped in an aqua color (Soft Pool), then inked up my stamps again with black, shifted them slightly and stamped again.  This gives a soft blue shadow for each of the stamped images.

Stamps: Banner Love, Heartfelt Holiday (Wplus9)
Ink: Black Licorice (MFT Hybrid);  Soft Pool (Hero Arts Shadow Ink); Shaded Lilac, Spun Sugar, Tumbled Glass (Distress)
Paper: Whisper White (Stampin' UP!)
Accessories: Rounded Stitched Rectangles (Lil' Inker Designs)

From Our Home To Yours

Have you had a chance to take part in the Housewarming Party blog hop on Catherine Pooler's blog yet?  You can enter to win one of the prizes from her fabulous sponsors just by commenting, but it's more fun (and 3 more chances to win) if you make a project to share.  Here is my second card for her blog hop.  Even though I'm fairly certain I am NOT eligible to win anything.  I made this one just for fun.

Don't forget that you can try out StampNation for just $1 right now.  Clicky  Offer expires soon!  9-17-14

Which card do you like better?  The first one I posted last week (clicky) or this one?

Stamping Supplies
Stamps: Heartfelt Holiday (Wplus9)
Ink (SU): Baked Brown Sugar, Real Red, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi
Paper: Whisper White (SU)
Accessories: Springtime Mix Sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Pansy Purple Sequins (PPP), Sparkling Clear Sequins (PPP), Oval Framelits (SU)