Wrapped With Love - Waffle Flower

Hi, Friends.....

Quick post here to wish you all a Merry Christmas Eve and to share a last-minute Christmas card I made for the Waffle Flower Challenge of Layered Stamping.  I used one of my "marker refill water" backgrounds and two different Waffle Flower stamp sets:  Flower Circles and On My Mark. 


The Flower Circles set is ideal for Layered Stamping.  

To make the Christmas balls, I took one of the patterned circles and turned it over to stamp a (mostly) solid circle with distress inks from the reverse.  Then I stamped it right side up to show the pattern in Versamark right over the solid circles and heat embossed with silver powder.  

I used the stamen stamp for my ornament "stems" by turning it over and stamping the reverse, making a solid piece, instead of three little lines. (See the photo of the stamp set above.)  For the ornament strings I used the single stem stamp, which I gently straightened into a straight line on my acrylic block.  Both of these were stamped with Versamark ink and heat embossed with silver powder.

The sentiment is from the On My Mark set, which also was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in silver. A few shimmery sequins and matting completed the card. Hope you like it!!
****************************************************
Hey, exciting news!!  Our son has moved his bedroom down to the basement and I have his old room as my craft room now!!!  YAY!!!  We have the Christmas tree in there right now and my things still  sitting all over the place in boxes, but here is a shot of the view out one half of the window.  (I would have done both halves, but the screen was doing its optical interference trick and looked ghastly.  lol... )

This is a cherry tree outside the front door, which badly needs to be trimmed and pruned....the tree, not the front door! It has the most lovely blossoms in the spring (the tree, again, not the door!)....can't wait to have that view out my craft room window.  I also am excited to get a bird feeder up soon that I can see through my window.  :)


You can see our festive icicles and snowy Idaho landscape. I do love living here where we nearly always have a White Christmas!!

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone.  Remember that Jesus is the Reason for the Season!!  

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1.  Waffle Flower December Challenge - Layered Stamping
2.  Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Winter Wonderland
3.  Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Make it Sparkle

WINNER of Mystery Prize for Coffee Lovers Hop

Hi, Friends.....

Sorry I am a little late getting the winner posted for my Holiday Coffee Lovers Hop MYSTERY PRIZE.  Bad back day today and the meds totally wiped me out.  Ugh...  

Congratulations goes to:   mandysea
Hooray for my Tasmanian follower!!!  I still have your address, Mandy, so I will get your little package mailed out to you soon to begin its trek over the Pacific and over the equator.  The parcel won't know what to think being mailed in winter and arriving in summer!

Thank you for the wonderful comments each of you left.  I appreciate all of you.  Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

<3 
Janis

Retro Christmas Card

Hi, Friends......

I am here with a quick card I didn't get a chance to post yet.  I made this with leftover things from my cards here and here.  

This card features a layered embossed background using DCWV scraps and my Darice - Interlocking Circles folder, an Echo Park journaling card, and some wonderful 3-D Christmas stickers with the fun little VW bug from my past, I mean my stash.  I added a tiny "pinch" of baker's twine for the smoke curling from the chimney.  LOVE!!!  

I will figure out who won my mystery prize on the Coffee Lovers Hop and try to get that posted tomorrow.  

I am still baking cookies and getting cards ready to mail.  Not sure how Christmas manages to sneak up on me so cleverly each year.  What would I do if it fell in March or something??????  lol...

Hope your homes are bright and merry and your friends and families are gathering around.  We have a fresh blanket of snow and more on the way.  White Christmas, here we come...  I LOVE Idaho!!!

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. The Male Room Challenge #25 - Christmas or Seasonal Greetings
2. Pixie's Snippets Playground - Weeks #208/209 - Use Snippets
3. Amusing Challenge - Happy Holidays
4. Amusing Challenge - Anything Goes
5. DL.Art Thankful Thursday Challenge #170 - Use Red/Green or Blue/White alt. Thank You
6. Cards in Envy - December Challenge - Very Vintage Christmas Card
7. Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Just A Pinch of..... Bakers Twine
8. Simon Says Stamp - Work it Wednesday November Challenge - Holiday Cards
9. Choux Choux Challenge #2 - Christmas/Winter
10. Craftin Desert Divas Craft it Up Link it Up Christmas Linky

Coffee Lovers Hop and Unity FWF Card

Hi, Friends......

Are you as excited as I am that the Winter Holiday Coffee Lovers Bloghop has begun?????  So many fabulous sponsors and awesome prizes for commenting and linking up!  I hope you will join in!  

For this card, I used the sweet Unity - Java Friend set I received as a prize last time around from my crafty friend, Gail, at Crafty Nomad.  (THANKS, Gail!!)  

I STILL have a bunch of leftover backgrounds from my marker refill water experiment!  I stamped one with Unity grab bag snowflakes and Distress Inks (Stormy Sky and Weathered Wood).  I also misted the dry snowflake stamps with water and stamped them on the background for some watermarks.  I love this effect!

I stamped both the image and sentiment from the Unity set with Versamark and heat embossed it with silver.  Yum!!!  Then I used my waterbrush to make a big watermark around the sentiment and some little thought bubbles.  I also used it to remove some of the color from the mug.  Love how this turned out!!!!

Now I have a little giveaway for you......problem is that I don't know what it's going to be yet!!! lol... This hop kind of sneaked up on me and I don't have anything picked out yet. But if you are interested in this small mystery prize, please state in your comment: "Yes, count me IN!" or something very obvious to that effect. This giveaway is open to all my readers world-wide. Comment on any or all of my Winter Holiday Coffee Lovers Bloghop posts by Friday, December 18th at 11:59 pm Pacific.  One random winner will be chosen. 

Thanks for stopping by.  There are tons of things happening in the papercrafting blogosphere, so I will see you around!!!

<3 

Janis  

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:

1.   Unity Stamp - Designer Hop and Friends with Flair

2.   Winter/Holiday Coffee Lovers Bloghop - Winter/Holiday theme using coffee, tea &/or cocoa images.

3.   Shopping Our Stash Challenge #230 - Use your UFOs (Unfinished Objects) I used one of my marker water refill backgrounds.

4.   Word Art Wednesday Challenge #213- Anything Goes Family Friendly
5.   DL.Art Thankful Thursday Challenge #170 - Use Red/Green or Blue/White alt. Thank You

6.   Penny Black at All Sorts December Challenge - Anything Goes must stamp

7.   Choux Choux Challenge #2 - Christmas/Winter
8.   Amusing Challenge - Let it Snow

9.   Verve Stamps December Inspiration Challenge - A Cup of Kindness

10. One Crazy Stamper December Challenge - Christmas/Winter

11. WOW! Embossing Powder December Challenge - Winter
12. Craft Stamper Take it Make it December Challenge - Sharing the Season

And now for some creative whipped cream!!!

Not whipped cream, but too funny!

My First Box Card!!!

Hi, Friends....

Blogger is giving me fits tonight, but I'm here to share my very first box card....if all goes as planned!  Warning:  my formatting is waaaaaaaay off because of this Blogger weirdness.  Arrgh.  

I was inspired by the tutorial challenge over at Mark's Finest Papers and followed the fun instructions for making the pop-up box card here.  

I used DCWV patterned paper for the decorative background panels. There is another coordinating pattern covered up by the flaps hanging down.  You'll see it later....

I used an ancient Christmas stamp set I got at a thrift store some time ago. (First time it has seen ink at my house!) I stamped the images on scraps of white cardstock with Versafine ink in Olympia Green and then watercolored them with a very old set of kids' watercolors. (My kids are 26 and 29, if that gives you any idea of how old the set is!! lol..)

I love the vintage look of these festive images, so I decided to add a little bit of cotton fluff behind the panels. This reminded me so much of old decorations from when I was a child that used cotton for snow. It seemed to go with the images.

Since this is for a Mark's Finest Papers challenge, I used some of their images, too. I pulled out the PEACE from the Mark's Finest Papers - Crisp Winter stamp set. (This is a lovely set that I need to showcase sometime.  It is just stunning.)

I teamed the Peace with a fun little sentiment from my Mark's Finest Papers - Silly Shells stamp set: Glad TIDEings. :) The Silly Shells is a beach image set but I turned this around and, wonky spelling and all, used it on a Christmas card. :) I added a little snowflake from my Mark's Finest Papers - Calendar stamp set that maybe looks like a little starfish to go with the TIDEings. (Okay, maybe not.... lol...)

On the other side, I used a sweet little snowman motif also from my Mark's Finest Papers - Calendar stamp set. Since it is for a calendar, it is only Frosty's head. I added more cotton fluff for his body and some more snowflakes.

Collapsed.  Now you can see the other patterned paper.

The cool thing about these pop-up box cards is they collapse and fit flat into an envelope!!!  Yay!!  


I don't know why my camera isn't focusing well lately. I hope you can see my photos well enough. I will have to see what's going on with it. Ugh...




Hope you enjoyed the card.  It was a lot more fun to make than to post on here!!!!  :)

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this box card in the following challenges:
1.   MFP Tutorial Challenge - I followed the pop-up box card tutorial
 http://mfpstampshop.blogspot.com/2015/11/nov-blog-hop-final-day.html
2.   Double Click Connections - Use a Snowman
http://doubleclickconnections.blogspot.com/2015/12/wishing-you-happiest-holidays-brrrr-its.html
3.   Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.com/2015/12/pixies-snippets-playground-week-206.html
4.   Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes Family Friendly
http://www.wordartwednesday.blogspot.com/2015/12/challenge-213-anything-goes.html
5.   DL.Art Thankful Thursday - Use Red/Green or Blue/White alt. Thank You
http://dianamlarson.blogspot.com/2015/12/dlart-thankful-thursday-challenge-170.html
6.  The Paper Girls - Christmas
http://thepapergirlschallenge.blogspot.com/2015/12/challenge-93-christmas.html
7.  Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Holly Jolly Days
http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/?p=3301
8.   Penny Black at All Sorts - Anything Goes must stamp
http://pennyblackatallsorts.blogspot.com/2015/12/december-challenge-anything-goes-with.html
9.   Paper Issues - Christmas
http://paperissues.blogspot.com/2015/12/new-issue-owl-i-want-for-christmas.html
10. Addicted to Stamps Challenge - Christmas
http://addicted-to-stamps-challenge.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/challenge-115-new-dt-members-and-prize.html
11. Choux Choux - Christmas/Winter
http://www.chouxchouxpaperart.com/2015/12/christmaswinter-challenge-2.html
12. Amusing Challenge - Let it Snow
http://stampedblessings.com/2015/12/amusing-challenge-let-it-snow/
13. Craftin Desert Divas - Christmas Linky
http://www.craftindesertdivasblog.com/2015/11/craft-it-up-link-it-up-christmas-linky_29.html

Twiny Christmas Cards

Hi, Friends.....

I am here to share a festive set of cards I made for Jennifer Grace's Frosty Festivities 2015. These were inspired by Jennifer's "Speedy Crafting - Using a Recipe" post here.  Again, I didn't really use a recipe, but I was very inspired by Jennifer's cards with the loopy twine underneath the panels.  I hadn't ever tried doing that before because it seemed like it would be hard to arrange and look "spontaneous" ....lol... (Oxymoron, right?  :) )  It really wasn't that hard, though, and I am pleased with the results.

This time I dry-embossed my three-scrap-strip background with my Darice - Checkered folder and used some older Echo Park Christmas collection ephemera from my stash.  

A few buttons from my neglected button box......

 No, it's not your eyes.  Sorry so bluuuurrrrrrryyyyy.....Ack! 

......and foam snowflakes that have the wrong number of sides on some of them!!  (Maybe next year I will have these crazy lop-sided things used up!!) .....

......all mounted on kraft card bases.  Done.  

Whew!!  That concludes my entries into Jennifer Grace's Frosty Festivities for 2015.  I want to say a huge thank you to Jennifer for all the fun and inspiration.  It is one of the highlights of my holiday crafting season!!!  

I hope you have enjoyed seeing me try new things and perhaps get some ideas for your own crafting.  Thank you for visiting!!!

<3

Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card duo in the following challenges:

1.   Jennifer Grace's Frosted Festivities 2015
2.   Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #206 - Use Snippets
3.   Addicted to Stamps Challenge #173 -Holiday
4.   Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper December Challenge
5.   Craftin Desert Divas Craft it Up Link it Up Christmas Linky
6.   DL.Art Thankful Thursday Challenge #169 - Christmas alt. TY
7.   Shopping Our Stash Challenge #229 - No Stamping

Collage-Style Christmas Cards

Hi, Friends.....


I am here to share a pretty little pair of cards I made for Jennifer Grace's Frosty Festivities 2015. These were inspired by Jennifer's "Speedy Crafting - Using a Recipe" post here. I really didn't follow a recipe, per se, but I was inspired by the collage look using a background of three patterned papers and layers of ephemera. Anytime I see a background like that, I think "SCRAPS!!!" :) Love getting to pull some of those out of my stash to use!!!

I dry embossed my background panels with my Darice - Interlocking Circles folder to give a nice finished look........and also to flatten the panels after wet gluing the three strips on the cardstock base that you can't see! :) (Always give your liquid glue plenty of time to dry before dry embossing! Don't ask me how I know that...... lol..)

After preparing my backgrounds, it was time to have fun arranging the little ephemera.  I used some pieces from older holiday DCWV stacks that had pages of tags, etc to cut out.  

So sad this shimmery gold meshy ribbon is almost gone....WAAAAAAAH!!!!  :*(

The piece with the little dangling ornament design above had a To: and From: printed on it....I covered that part with the NOEL piece.  I bet you thought that was artfully arranged, instead of desperately arranged, didn't you?  Ha. 

I added some subtly patterned cardstock die cut with my Sizzix - Fancy Labels Dies and a poinsettia with added Prima layers and a pink brad from my stash that I couldn't believe actually matched.

HINT:  Don't be afraid to try out some colors together that initially don't seem like they would work. My daughter and I were trying to layer up this poinsettia with colors closer to those in the card. They just didn't have the right look....until I thought to try pink, of all things! Then to discover I had a brad that same color was just amazing. Even though there is no other pink on the card, I think it is perfect here. What do you think?

I hope you enjoyed this little duo. It's another no-stamping project! With so many pretty papers and ephemera, I could just put all my stamps and ink away, couldn't I? lol... Nev-uhhhhh!! But I do like to make no-stamping cards, occasionally. :)

As much as I would like to have participated in Jennifer Grace's Frosty Festivities more, I have just one more project to post for it. Then it is on to other parts of holiday preparations. (I told myself I would make as many cards as I could for her blog event and then I would stop with holiday cards. That was before my son brought me home a beautiful thrift store rubber stamp to use for Christmas cards!! Sooooooo, I will make some with it, but it won't be until next week. Then I will be done. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight..... lol....)

Thanks for stopping by. Your comments mean so much to me!! Have a lovely weekend.

<3

Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card duo in the following challenges:
1.   Jennifer Grace's Frosted Festivities 2015
2.   Mod Squad Challenge - Use three or more Ingredients (I chose patterned paper, ribbon, die-cut, embossing-dry, and flowers.)

3.   Addicted to Stamps Challenge #173 -Holiday
4.   Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper December Challenge
5.   Craftin Desert Divas Craft it Up Link it Up Christmas Linky
6.   DL.Art Thankful Thursday Challenge #169 - Christmas alt. TY
7.   Shopping Our Stash Challenge #229 - No Stamping

8.   Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #206 - Use Snippets

9.   Cards in Envy - Use Some Extra Layers

10. DL.ART December Linky Challenge

Snowflake Ornament Cards

Hahaha....Grumpy cat snowflake!  Whoever did this was a genius!!!

Hi, Friends.....

I am here to share another set of cards I made for  Jennifer Grace's Frosty Festivities 2015.  These sweet little snowflake cards were inspired by Jennifer's awesome card here.  Jennifer used her Cricut to cut the ornaments, but I don't have an electronic cutter so I improvised with my Big Shot and some dies. 



First I die cut some older double-sided Echo Park "Winter Wishes" papers from my stash with the lovely Spellbinders - Carnival Dream die set.  This fun set has a fold and tuck design so your reverse pattern shows.  You can see in the photo below some of the ones before and after folding.

After folding, I squeezed on some silver glitter glue for extra sparkle and let them dry overnight.

The next day, I layered the two sizes of folded die-cuts and added a dazzling big rhinestone in the center.   I tied on some icy blue ribbon for hanging the ornament.  

I die-cut pre-made glittery card bases in silver and turquoise with my Sizzix - Circles, Scallop die set and used repositionable adhesive to attach the snowflake on the front so the ornament can be removed and hung on the tree, if desired.  The scalloped edge of the die cut allows the card to stand up nicely and since the card base was an A2 size, this flat ornament card will fit in a standard sized envelope.  Yay!!   

I absolutely love how these turned out.  I ended up making a set of 4 of them....2 in blue and 2 in silver....my favorite color combo for Christmas.  My little stack of cards keeps growing!  Thank you to Jennifer Grace for the lovely inspiration.

Thank you for stopping by and leaving your awesome comments!!!
Hope your holiday preparations are well underway.

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering these cards in the following challenges:
1.   Jennifer Grace's Frosted Festivities 2015
2.   Mod Squad Challenge - Use three or more Ingredients (I chose patterned paper, ribbon, fave color, glitter/bling, die-cut)

3.   Addicted to Stamps Challenge #173 -Holiday
4.   Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper December Challenge
5.   Craftin Desert Divas Craft it Up Link it Up Christmas Linky
6.   DL.Art Thankful Thursday Challenge #169 - Christmas alt. TY
7.   Shopping Our Stash Challenge #229 - No Stamping

8.   4 Crafty Chicks Challenge #275 - Winter 

9.   Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Let it Snow! 

10. DL.ART December Linky Challenge

More No-Stamping Half 'n' Half Christmas Cards

Hi, Friends......


I am back with more cards inspired by this project over at Jennifer Grace's Frosty Festivities 2015.  As you might have noticed, I was super-inspired by the half and half design with a solid color on top and a patterned piece below.  I made two other sets using that look:  here and here.  I found it was a really good way to use scraps and to give a multi-patterned festive look without being too fussy.

In my efforts to "Hoard No More", I actually used some Graphic 45 "12 Days of Christmas" bits and pieces from my stash.  (THANKS, Gloria Stengel!!!)  [Several of you have told me how hard it is for you to use your hoarded G45 papers, so you knooooooooow the soul-searching that was involved with me using these!!!  lol...  I think we each deserve a pat on the back anytime we use our G45.  :) ]

I love how the Graphic 45 die cuts coordinated with the DCWV scraps.  

Although I followed the same exact formula for each of these cards, they each have their own unique beauty with the different ribbons and lovely focal pieces.

Again, I added little touches like a decorative border and photo corners for accents.  The Core'dinations kraft card bases look great with the vintage designs.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Hope you enjoyed these pretty Christmas cards.  They were fun and easy to put together.  We have another handbell concert tonight.....then only one left!  So glad our Christmas concerts get done early in December!!!  

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this set of cards in the following challenges:
1.  Jennifer Grace's Frosted Festivities 2015
2.  Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #205 - Use Snippets
3.  Crop Stop Linky Party #10 - Anything Goes using a brand CS sells (I used Core'dinations cardstock)
4. .Cards in Envy - Use Some Extra Layers
5.  Craftin Desert Divas Craft it Up Link it Up Christmas Linky
6.  DL.Art Thankful Thursday Challenge #169 - Christmas alt. TY
7.  Shopping Our Stash Challenge #229 - No Stamping

White on Kraft - NOEL

A kitty during one of those rare angelic moments.....  :)

Hi, Friends.....

Quick post here...because we have our first handbell choir concert tonight and I would like to get most of this post done before I have to get ready.  

My card is inspired by this project over at Jennifer Grace's Frosty Festivities 2015.  One of the creative ideas Jennifer asked us to try out was to stamp a frame around the edge of a card or project.  I pulled out some ancient, but adorable, Hero Arts Christmas stamps and decided to do a very simple heat-embossed white on kraft one-layer design.  (I got brave to try this again after being pleased with my first one-layer attempt here!)

I teamed up the HA stamps with a simple NOEL stamp from a dollar rack set.  Cute!  I ended up liking this design so much that I made 4 of them.  Yay!!  I am into making small multiples this year and my little stack of cards is growing.  :)

That's all for now..... 

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1.   Jennifer Grace's Frosty Festivities 2015 Link-Up
2.   Craftin Desert Divas Craft it Up Link it Up Christmas Linky
3.   Cutie Pie Challenge - Simply Cute and Christmassy
4.   Penny Black All Sorts November Challenge - Anything Christmas
5.   Amusing Challenge - Anything Goes
6.   DRS Designs Challenge #202 - Let the Holidays Begin
7.   Double Click Connections Challenge #36 - Christmas or Blue and White
8.   Christmas at Sweet Stampin' November Challenge - Stars
9.   DL.Art Thankful Thursday Challenge #169 - Christmas alt. TY
10. Crimbo Crackers Challenge #94 - Angels
11. Verve November Inspiration Challenge - Rustic Winter