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Animal Challenge

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A quick post to join in the CAS on Friday challenge: Animals. It gives me a chance to share a cute shaker card I sent off to Hannah earlier to thank her for her "letter" including some art work, and signed with her own printing.

BunnyThanks

I started by dry embossing the white cardstock with one of my all time favorite embossing folders by Sunny Studios, "Quilted Hearts." Then I die cut the open heart with My Favorite Things "Stitched Hearts," backed it with acetate, popped it up with two layers of dimensional tape, and filled it with all kinds of sequins and glitter from my stash. 

BunnyThanksFlat

The cute bunny with a balloon is from My Favorite Things, "Party Pals," was colored with Copic markers, and die cut with the coordinating die. The sentiment is from The Greetery, "Sentiment Suite: Thanks" and stamped onto one of the coordinating tags that match up with some of the different sentiments in the set. Finally, I added it to a bright blue card base. 

Hope you're having a great day! The snow has finally stopped falling (we have well over a foot of it), and this morning we actually saw some blue sky. It's amazing what a little bit of sunshine can do for your state of mind. 

Color Hues #11

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It's time for the next Color Hues Challenge! It's a perfect one for Valentine's Day which is just a couple of weeks away.

Color Hues Badge #11

Initially, I thought I had the perfect set of dies to create a card for this challenge. I made it; I gave it away as an anniversary card. But I decided I didn't love it, so went back to the drawing board. This card uses one of my all-time favorite Simon Says stamp sets, "Center Cut Heart." I've used it again and again for anniversary cards and valentines, but this time I decided to use only the center cut heart, making it clearly a CAS card.

PinkRed

I also own the somewhat coordinating die, "Deco Heart," so after I embossed the heart in black and colored the hearts with a red Copic marker, I used the die to create the perfect red border for the heart. 

RedPinkClose

I used an Ellen Hutson "Color the Strips" die to cut the three wider strips, and used my paper cutter for the thin strips at top and bottom. I added the center heart with some dimensional tape, and embossed the small sentiment in white on black cardstock with a sentiment from The Stamp Market's "Tons of Type." I like this sentiment because it works for Valentine's Day as well as an anniversary card.

Hop over to the Color Hues blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Julie, have come up with . . . and join in the fun!

 Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

 

Two Cards, Two Challenges

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After nearly a week of dealing with surgery on my right thumb and a nasty and exceedingly itchy rash on my back (caused ironically by a new anti-itch lotion), I'm more or less back to normal. At least back in the craft room. I have a couple of cards to share for some current challenges. First up, one for the Inspired By Challenge. It's another weekly challenge, so often comes and goes before I get my act together. Earlier this month, I made two cards to send to blogging friends that meet this week's theme: Tweet Messages. Since I think both friends have received the cards, I can post them now. 

Inspired By tweet messages January 28 2021

This is a new stamp set (for me) from My Favorite Things (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite stamp companies), called "Winter Songbird."

WinterSongbirdDuoFlat

These were fun to watercolor, and the sentiment came from the same set. Pretty quick, and definitely CAS.

WinterSongbird1Flat

Songbird2

I used my favorite Hero Arts Rounded Rectangle Infinity dies to cut the first two layers, and then added them to an Asparagus (Gina K) card base. 

The next card is a soft floral birthday card. It's for the new Fusion Card Challenge: Flowers.

Fusion 200121 Flowers-001

The pretty, soft floral arrangement is my inspiration.

SoftFlorals

This beautiful floral arrangement is from Altenew's "Bergenia Builder. I stamped it in a soft gray ink, and quickly colored it with Copic markers, adding some detail to the floral centers with a Staedtler Fineliner.

SoftFloralsClose

I simply trimmed this panel down with my paper cutter and added it to a gray card base.

SoftFloralsFlat

The sentiment is from an all-time favorite from Papertrey Ink – "Signature Greetings."

Off to catch up on my homework for Liz Steel's Sketchbook Design class. It's been absolutely wonderful; worth twice what I paid for it. 

 

 

 

Three Shades of Blue

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I woke up in the middle of the night on Sunday and while trying to put myself back to sleep, I came up with a card idea for this week's Just Us Girls Challenge: three shades of blue.

JUGS

I'd like to tell you that I executed that card design with no difficulty, but if you could see my original idea there'd be little resemblance to the final card. 

BDBlues

This is a pretty odd angle for taking a photograph, but getting a clear photo of the six scored lines turned out to be almost as difficult as constructing the card. I started with a much older Papertrey Ink stamp "Ombre Builders." It includes seven stamps with different patterns. I started out with the triangles, obviously not what I ended up with. You will eventually see two other cards I also created with the triangles. When that attempt failed, I turned to the tiny squares. I masked off thirds and stamped the squares with three shades of blue, then trimmed around the panel and mounted it on a strip of Enchanted Evening cardstock. It definitely needed the scored lines on both sides. Finally I stamped the sentiment from Altenew's "Bergenia Builder" which was laying on my desk for another project.

BluesClose

The final step was to trim the whole panel down and add it to a card base of Enchanted Evening. My goal in yesterday's crafting time was to create some cards appropriate for males. I think this one would work for either men or women. One of the other cards I made yesterday went in the mail this morning to my BIL, and now I have two more in the stash.

 

 

Color Hues #10

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Times flies, and here we are with the tenth Color Hues challenge:

Color Hues Badge #10

One of my intentions for this year, is to make sure I'm using all the stamps and dies I have accumulated since the pandemic started! One of the dies is the "Altenew Circled Greetings." I have all four of them, but today I used "Thanks." I'll start with the card I posted on the Color Hues Challenge post.

NavyCream1

You can see that the die creates a wonderful focal point for an A2 card. I backed the open circle with a piece of cream cardstock on which I'd stamped with another new purchase, My Favorite Things "Peacock Pattern Background" in Dark Indigo ink.

NavyCream1Flat

I used a stamp from W+9's "Hand Lettered Thanks" for the small sentiment strip, and bordered it with a bit of the dark navy cardstock. The front panel was then added to a cream colored card base which is perfect for writing a thank you note.

The second card is very similar, but I chose to dry emboss a series of narrow score lines on the cream card base before adding the navy panel which I trimmed down to expose a narrow cream border.

NavyCream2

This time I chose a brighter hue of navy cardstock that has a subtle texture to it.

NavyCream2Flat

I added a few sequins and pearls from Lucy's Cards: "Pearl Necklace" collection.

Hop over to the Color Hues blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Julie,  have come up with . . . and join in the fun!

 Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

 

Warm Wishes

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The stamped images for this card have been lying on my desk since before Christmas. I realized sometime in December that I owned no snowmen stamps and ordered a couple sets from My Favorite Things during a sale. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with these cute snowmen and MFT provided not one, but two, challenges that fit this card. First, the MFT Birthday Challenge which is Winter Wonderland, and the MFT Outside the Box Challenge: Winter Scenes. Everything I used for this card also goes to the NBUS Challenge.

I've been immersed in a Sketchbook Design course with Liz Steel. Her courses are always loaded with content, and this has been no exception. But I've started a new sketchbook, and have a few pages started. I've found all my fountain pens, and although I thought I had them all working again, I've discovered that most of them are going to require a thorough cleaning before I can count on them. All that to say, stamping and card making has taken a backseat in my schedule.

It's not often that a card comes out just the way I imagined it, but this one comes pretty close.

WarmWishes

I constructed the box with Spring Rain cardstock. I don't own the Outside the Box snow drift dies, but created my own with the Ellen Hutson "Landscapes" die. When I purchased those, I thought they might work for a variety of cards and so far, they've been great. I used some Distress Oxide ink to create a bit of blue sky on the back side of the box.

WarmWishesTilted

All the stamped images were colored with Copic markers and then die cut. Before adding them to the snow drifts, I added the stitched panel with the sentiment (also from the "Toasty Greetings" set). 

WarmWishesClosed

Here you can see that the card folds so that it fits into an A2 envelope. You can also see the stitched side panels. I'm off to link up with these challenges:

Birthdayproject

OutsidetheBoxChallenge_BlogHeader

NBUS

 

Just Us Girls: Trend Week

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I had every intention of joining Just Us Girls last week where the challenge was "Hello," but the weekly challenges frequently get away from me. This week's challenge is to Use a Stencil.

JUGS

It definitely is a trending technique, and I'm glad to be joining in this week with a card that also uses a large HELLO sentiment.

HelloStencil

I love Altenew's "Flowing Drops" stencil and used Distress Oxides inks to create the blue/green background. I trimmed the sides enough so the Hawaiian Shores card base would create a narrow border. 

HelloStencilFlat

The sentiment is from The Stamp Market's "Paper Hugs" set. I die cut it with white and layered it on the shadow die cut with Hawaiian Shores, and popped it up with some dimensional tape.

I'm also entering this in the Happy Little Stampers Stencil Challenge. I just recently happened up the Happy Little Stampers who seem to have monthly challenges for a variety of techniques/products. I'm much more likely to be on time with monthly challenges! 

HLS Stencils

 

Time Out Challenge

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Time Out has more than one meaning this afternoon after the assault on the Capitol yesterday. The horrific event will be haunting us for months (and years), and there are many, many questions that need to be answered. Although I do try to stay away from discussing political events on this blog, but this can't be ignored. I'm not one that watches television during the day, so I actually discovered what was happening in Washington when an international blogging friend emailed me to be sure we were safe—knowing that we were miles away. As it turns out there were demonstrations in other cities, but fortunately, not here.

But the Time Out I'm referring to is a card challenge:

Time Out Challenge 178

Last night after the Congress was able to resume and as I was listening to their discussions of the objections to the Electoral College votes, I decided I needed to find something to do at the same time. This My Favorite Things "City Block Background" had already been stamped, and I decided to do some spotlight coloring. Needing a masculine birthday card, I thought this might be a fun, albeit a bit unusual, one.

HBCityscape

I picked just a few of the buildings in the center of the panel to color with Copic markers.  After finishing the coloring, I used one of Simon Says "Stitched Rectangles" to die cut the panel, and added it to a very thin border of Honey Nut cardstock. The brown card base is one I've had in my stash for years.

HBCityScapeClose

Trying to decide on a sentiment was the next problem. I have a box of pre-stamped and die cut sentiments, and found that this one, "Penned Elegance" by Papertrey Ink, worked quite well.

HBCityscapeFlat

I backed the sentiment with thin strips of dimensional tape to lift it up and give it some space from the black and white background. I ended up making a second version (nearly identical) this morning. I think the card's charming, and I hope my buddies do too. 

Just a note: some photos haven't been showing recently. According to Typepad, it's an error on their end and should repair itself with time. If not, I'll be sending them a message and they will retrieve it. So annoying.

The Flower Challenge: Embossing

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TFChallenge#52

I'll bet I'm not alone when I say that watching my friend heat emboss a sentiment on a card over 25 years ago was the impetus to hop in the car and go to the local stamp store to buy some supplies. I still have a couple of the wooden stamps I bought that day, and just replaced my heat gun in May when a friend gave me an Amazon gift card for my birthday. It's been a favorite technique ever since so The Flower Challenge had me looking through the cards I hadn't posted. This card which has already been received by my friend (so can now be shared) has both heat embossing in gold, and dry embossing along the bottom portion of the card.

PinkMagnolias

The beautiful magnolias are from Altenew's "Magnolias for You" set. I embossed them in gold on Bristol and watercolored them with the Altenew 36 pan watercolor set. 

PinkMagnoliasClose

I had to fussy cut the flowers and leaves since I don't own the dies, and then arranged them at the top of the white panel. The sentiment, also gold embossed, is from The Greetery's "Sentiment Suite: Birthday" set which gets a lot of use. I decided the card was just too CAS (is that possible?), so added three lines of dry embossing with my stylus on the bottom portion. That was added that to a top folded card in Lovely Lady (PTI.)

I'm in the midst of trying to keep up with two online classes, so crafting time has been at a premium. Today's personal challenge is to get two masculine birthday cards created.

Color Hues #9

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Happy New Year and Welcome 2021! I imagine most of us are more than happy to put 2020 behind us, and hoping for a much better year ahead despite knowing that we still have some dark days ahead. For me, crafting has been the one way I can put aside all the fears and anxieties of the times for a few hours. I hope it does the same for you.  And the Color Hues Challenge is here to help. I love this round's color choices:

Color Hues #9

I'm a fan of Laura Bassen's graphic cards, and when she designed and released some graphic dies for Simon Says this winter, I picked up the "Geometric Builders: Squares." Putting the squares together is a bit like doing a jigsaw puzzle. It's not something I do quickly, but I enjoyed the challenge. And I have a lot of pieces left to play with to make one or more additional cards.

Red:Gray

I used three shade of gray from Simon Says: Fog, Smoke, and Slate, and my favorite red from Papertrey Ink: Pure Poppy. I love the clean and simple design of the card, and think it will make a great masculine birthday greeting.

Red:GrayClose

The sentiment from The Stamp Market, "Tons of Type," was embossed in white on black cardstock, and bumped up with some dimensional tape.

Red:GrayFlat

You may well see a similar design in a future Color Hues Challenge as this set is perfect for a two color challenge. Now check what our Design Team and Guest Designer have for you at the Color Hues Challenge.

Marcia, Guest Designer

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

Pull out some reds and grays, and join in the fun! I'll be back tomorrow to share my One Little Word for 2021.

 

Happy Birthday, Caleb and Hannah!

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Caleb turns nine today, and Hannah is four! We've only missed one birthday party prior to this year. But that was in 2019 when we went to Disney World with them in January and the spent another week or so in Wisconsin with them afterward. Nonetheless, here we are in New York, and there they are in Wisconsin. The blessing is that we'll have a FaceTime or Zoom visit and get to watch them open their presents and blow out the candles on their cake. 

I sent two gifts ahead of time, but one "big" gift is actually enclosed in their birthday cards. Because the cards needed extra postage and couldn't go through the machines, it took a long time for them to get there. Fortunately, they finally arrived on Monday.

Here are the birthday cards I sent. I wondered if the design was too "young" for Caleb until earlier this week when I saw that Laura Bassen had created one for her 17 year old daughter!

CalebHannahBD

As you can see, both cards have the same ingredients: My Favorite Things, "Better Together" stamps and dies; My Favorite Things, "Carpool" die; Ellen Hutson "Landscape;" Simon Says "Sentiment Labels" and "Tiny Words;" and My Favorite Things "Bitty Birthday Wishes" and cloud stencil.

Caleb

It took awhile to die cut all the pieces, stencil the skies, and color the cute critters with Copic markers, but it was an easy card to assemble once all the pieces were ready.

Hannah'sBD

I love the pink car, and I chose a couple different critters for this car pool.

Inside each card is a slider tag. I just recently added this die to my collection of interactive dies, and it worked perfectly. It's quite a bit smaller than the dies for the slider cards I made for the three little girls for Christmas. 

BDGiftTags

I covered the tag with two different patterned papers. Caleb's came from My Favorite Things "Birthday Brights" paper pad; Hannah's was a loose sheet stuck among the 6X6 paper pads so I'm not sure where it came from. I used 3-D stickers I found in my stash to decorate them. 

CalebGiftTag

Caleb's slides up to reveal a second year of "Grandma's Book Club." Last year Sarah and I tried to find an online book club that would meet his needs. The clubs were all quite expensive, none had enough choice, and the shipping costs were high. I finally decided to create my own, and it worked great. At the end of each month, I talk to Caleb and he tells me what book(s) he's interested in, and I have them sent to him. "For the Love of Books" was an Ali Edward digital product I had in my files.

HannahGiftTag

Hannah's also reveals a monthly birthday gift–a subscription to a Kiwi kit. When I'm in Wisconsin we almost always work on the kit together. They're very imaginative, and Hannah really enjoys the activities. There are always three or four projects and a booklet to extend the theme. I downloaded the image from the Kiwi site.

I'm going to pop these into the Simon Says Monday Challenge which is, appropriately, "Celebrate!"

 

 

The Last Christmas Card Share

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I always run out of time around the holiday to get cards photographed, uploaded, and blogged. This year was no exception in spite of the fact that I had a lot less to do! Christmas Day was lovely, and we've now had a couple of pretty low key days at home. I haven't had my usual energy or motivation to work in the craft room. I'm hoping to get my mojo back this week! I did, however, get a few more of the Christmas cards I made ready to post, and thought I'd share them now that most (hopefully, all) have received their cards. 

I'll start with one of my favorites. I only made one of these. It's a bit more time intensive, but this year I'm hoping to get Christmas cards made throughout the year, so if I come up with a card like this, I'll have the leisure to make several of them.

PineBough

I embossed Pinkfresh Studio's "Winterberry Background" in white, and then ink blended over it.  All the die cuts are from The Greetery: "Botani Cuts: Pine Bough" and "Fit to Be Tied."

PineBoughClose

I added a bit of glitter to the tops of the pinecones and the evergreen boughs and some details to the pinecones with colored pencils.

PineBoughFlat

The sentiment from Simon Says "Holiday Greeting Mix 1" was embossed in silver on the same Enchanted Evening (PTI) paper as the card base.

The next card comes from a Papertrey Ink set I've had for awhile called "Santa's Sleigh." It has two main images, and I posted a card-here- with one of those images earlier as part of a daily coloring challenge. The second image is so different, and I love both cards. Again, I made only one of these, but I'm likely to replicate this one again for next year.

ChristmasDeer

I colored the image with Copic markers, die cut it with a circle die and used two slightly larger circles to die cut a red and then a gold circle to frame it. The circles are from Ellen Hutson's "Essential Circles" dies. 

ChristmasDeerFlat

The gold embossed  sentiment is from an even older Papertrey Ink set, "Signature Christmas." One of my favorite sentiments from that set disappeared somewhere during this year's crafting marathon, and I'm sad that the set is no longer available. There are still a few Christmas challenges out there, so I'll be entering this in the current Christmas Kickstart Challenge: Christmassy.

This card was one of the last ones I made. On the first few I used Nuvo drops for the berries but on the last set I changed to small red pearls from AMuse. Had the other cards not already gone in the mail, I might have tried to change to the pearls which I like much better.

Joy

One of the very satisfying parts of crafting this season was having time to pull out stamps I hadn't used in awhile, or had never used. This is one I've used in the past, but a very different design. The "Winter Wreath" is by Avery Elle.

JoyClose

You can almost see the beautiful sheen to the red metallic paper used to die cut the "JOY" by Savvy. This is a die I've had for years, and I think I pull it out every holiday.

JoyFlat

The small sentiment is from WPlus9's "Hand Lettered Holiday."

The next card is one of the most unusual ones I've made. I came across a piece of patterned paper in a Pinkfresh Studio pack as I was looking for something else. I immediately thought of the Papertrey Ink "Warmest Wishes" set and the adorable polar bear with the wonderful sweater. I was pretty sure I could use the patterned paper as a background.

WarmestWishes

The colors were determined by the patterned paper, and this turned out to be a very quick card to make. I would have made several had I had more paper! I'm throwing this in the AAA Cards: Made in Minutes/Optional Christmas Challenge.

WarmestWishesFlat

It's almost impossible to see in either photograph, but I added some Glitter Glue to the tops of the mountains. I die cut the panel with a "Stitched Rectangle" from Simon Says, and attached the bear with some dimensional tape. The sentiment is from the "Warm Wishes" set.

Finally a card I made this year with a set I purchased last year for this very image! I used Simon Says' "Holiday Greeting Mix 1" set frequently last year, but I never stamped and colored this image which I loved from the moment I saw it. It's another quick image to color.

Merry

I embossed the image in gold on Bristol paper and watercolored it. The gold embossing makes the watercoloring go much more quickly. Here it's easier to see:

MerryClose

All the card needed then was to cut down the image and layer it with red and green papers. I used Concord and 9th's Evergreen and Cranberry papers–the perfect Christmas colors.

Now it's on to January birthdays, replenishing my "Thinking of You" cards, and getting out my thank you notes. 

 

 

 

 

 

Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men

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Regardless of our religious affiliations or political leanings, I think we can all agree that more "peace on earth," and "good will" among men would be a blessing in the coming year. One of my favorite new Christmas dies this year was the Little Town of Bethlehem. I used it to make four different Christmas cards, all for friends of our in our congregation, and one devout Catholic friend. I thought today would be a good day to share them.

BethlehemIB

For this version, I ink blended a sky and used black cardstock for the die. The sentiment is from an old favorite, Papertrey Ink's Signature Christmas.

BethlehemBlue

BethlehemClose

This one used a navy blue shimmer paper from Papertrey Ink which is easier to see in the close-up. For all of the cards, I ink splattered with white ink for the skies. I finally found a process that produces pretty consistent results.

BethlehemBlack

When I ran out of the navy blue shimmer cardstock, I switched to black. I'm on the wait list for both papers to come back in stock.

BethlehemBox1

BethlehemBox2

The last version uses My Favorite Things Outside the Box die and a stencil from Taylored Expressions. I had a scrap of the navy shimmer cardstock just large enough for the sky and banner. I changed the sentiment because the previous one would have been "lost" on the stenciled background and embossed it on a banner from Neat and Tangled. I was pretty sure I'd taken a photo of the card when it was closed, but I think it may still be on a memory card! These were taken with my iPhone. The box does fold flat and fit into an A2 envelope. This card is a CASE of a card posted by one of the Design Team members for My Favorite Things. 

 

In Praise of Snail Mail

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For us, one of the most pleasant surprises of Caleb's homeschool curriculum is a weekly letter writing assignment. He alternates between his four grandparents, and his letters are utterly charming! They require, of course, a card and a note in return. One of the charms of his letters is the way in which he responds to what I write to him. For my most recent note I used a new stamp set (NBUS!) by Concord and 9th called Snail Mail which I purchased with grandchildren in mind. (Must admit, the bulk of my acquisitions in the last few months have been with grandchildren in mind.)

The first card I made was this one.

GreenSnailMail

The colors just didn't seem right for an almost nine year-old boy, so here is #2. I'm much happier with it. But I do have a couple of friends who live alone who will find the green card charming–the young in heart!

RedSnailMail

RedSnailMailFlat

Caleb and I already had a "conversation" about "Happy Mail" so I told him that Snail Mail = Happy Mail! One of the joys of the holiday season is receiving so much Happy Mail in the form of holiday greetings, and letters from friends we haven't seen sometimes in years! 

Of course, whenever a card goes out to Caleb, one needs to go to Hannah as well. The dies in the Snail Mail set include this die which creates an adorable card in just a few minutes!

LoveYouLots

After cutting out the die, all that the card needed with a few score lines for interest behind the die cut, and a sparkly silver inlaid heart with a pink rhinestone. Perfect for a nearly four year-old girl!

LoveULotsFlat

The AAA Card Challenge is still open for their theme "Made in Minutes," so I'll pop this one in the gallery. I'm skipping the optional challenge this time. Also getting this into the NBUS Gallery for December as well. 

 

#180 NBUS

 

 

 

Modern Christmas Tree

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I have another red, black, and white Christmas card to share for three challenges. First, AAA Cards: Made in Minutes/Optional Christmas. This might be one of the fastest cards I've made this season. Second, The Paper Players where it's a theme challenge: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and finally, the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Fun with Dies.

#180 Pp520 Wednesdayblog-logo

My card is simple, but striking. It was quick enough to make that I made several of them.

SpiralTree

Creating it involved two dies–my favorite Stitched Rectangle by Simon Says and the modern Christmas tree ("Winterland Tree") by Memory Box, and one stamp: "Sentiment Suite: Christmas" by The Greetery.

SpiralTreeFlat

After adhering the die cut to the black panel, I added some favorite red pearls from A Muse and bumped the panel out for a bit of dimension with some black fun foam. The sentiment was embossed in white and die cut with Simon Says "Sentiment Labels." I resisted that purchase until a recent sale, and it was a great purchase. No more cutting these strips with a paper cutter or by hand – perfectly straight the first time!