Over the last couple of days I finished most of the Christmas cards I needed using the Gina K kit, "Sparkle and Shine." I only have two of her kits but they are crammed with great products, and there are still quite a few stamps I haven't used yet. Today I pulled out  the "Snowflake Trio" dies to create a card for two challenges: AAA Cards: Along the Edge/Optional Snowflakes and CAS on Friday: Snow.

I found a piece of beautiful silver glitter paper in my stash by American Crafts for the three snowflakes. I think it was purchased at Michaels. After arranging them on a piece of Enchanted Evening paper I trimmed off the excess along the left side. I tried the snowflakes on white paper as well, but they just popped when I put them on the blue paper, so once again, my "white space" is actually blue space. 

I added silver glitter enamel dots to the centers of the snowflakes and embossed the sentiment from Avery Elle's "Winter Wreath" in silver.

Finally I layered it on a piece silver cardstock from the Paper Source before attaching it to a white card base. 

Next on the agenda is getting all the inside sentiments done on the Christmas cards. About half are finished, and I still have a few more cards I want to make. The stamps are in a little pile on my desk, patiently awaiting their turn. If I'm lucky I'll have a few made ahead for next year!

I'm happy to report that the title is for the Christmas Kickstart Challenge, and not our weather forecast. In fact, it's raining here, and expected to stay a bit warmer for the next few days. I'm not ready for snow or winter weather quite yet. There will be more than enough of it ahead!

I do, however, have a card to share for the Christmas Kickstart Challenge.

I fell in love with this set from Hero Arts as soon as I saw it. This is the first card I've made with it, but I have more ideas for it before the holiday card making comes to a close. It's called "Village Fancy," and I die cut just two of the three dies to layer on this card. 

I started with a piece of Blue Shimmer cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and layered the two die cut pieces with foam adhesive.  Then I embossed a silver star in the sky from the "Sparkle and Shine" set from Papertrey Ink.

The last step was to emboss the sentiment from "Christmas Cuts," also by Papertrey Ink at the bottom of the card. 

I'm getting close to having enough Christmas cards to send to all those on our list, but there are still several I want to make, so I'll be in the holiday spirit for awhile yet. 

Wishing everyone in the U.S. a Safe and Wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow! Despite the worsening numbers (we're now in an orange zone), I'm trying to keep my many blessings in mind as the holiday arrives.

One of my all time favorite stamps to send when someone is recovering from an illness or a surgery is an old wooden stamp by Memory Box. I think I picked it up at Impress Stamps in Seattle on my first trip to Seattle over 20 years ago. Sadly, Impress Stamps now exists only online, but I managed to visit their remaining store a year ago in September and brought home a little stash of great stamps and tons of inspiration from all the cards they displayed around the store.  

When I saw the challenge at Inkspirational: Frame It, I knew just what I wanted to do.

This is a more feminine version of the get well card than I usually create. This makes a great masculine card done on kraft paper with a plaid chair cover. 

Although I could have chosen a floral pattern for the paper piecing I really liked the simple stripes with the bright red cup of tea.

The white frame is Papertrey Ink's "Pierced Frames." I added a bit of Glossy Accents to the red cup. The sentiment is also from a Papertrey Ink set, "On My Couch: Additions" and the inside reads "Hoping you're fully 'Re-covered" soon!"

It's not often that I think the card IRL is better than the photograph, but in this case I do. I'm not sure why it didn't photograph particularly well, but the colors were off a bit with the iPhone, and the watercolors come out more harsh with the Sony than I think they really are. Nonetheless, I'm posting it as a final entry in the CAS Mix-up Challenge: Watercolor/Off the Edge.

The stamp itself is very large so even if the challenge weren't for off the edge, that's probably how I'd stamp it. 

I embossed it in gold on Tim Holtz watercolor paper, and watercolored it with a combination of Daniel Smith watercolors and paints from Altenew's 36 Pan set. 

I die cut the panel with the largest of Simon Says "A2 Frames" which leaves just a narrow border of cardstock around the edges. The sentiment (one you've seen repeatedly this year) is from Simon Says "Holiday Greetings Mix 1. 

I've been participating in Kathy Racooson's 11 Day Coloring Challenge.

Today is Day 10, and this was Day's 8's coloring piece. I purchased this stamp set from Papertrey Ink a year or two ago during a good sale, and have never pulled it out. I was a little hesitant to try to color such a small, detailed image with Copic markers, but it turned out not to be a problem.

I did resort to my Staedtler Fineline markers for the dots on Santa's sleigh, and the black and white border. Once the image was colored I added some silver Stickles for the stars and a bit of Glitter Glue along the edge of the snow. After cutting it out with scissors I popped it up with some fun foam on a white piece of cardstock embossed with an old diamond-patterned embossing folder, and then to a red card base.

Trying to get the embossed panel to show up well in a flat photo turned out to be difficult enough that i just gave up! The sentiment from the same stamp set was embossed in white on red cardstock. I snipped both ends to create a banner and used some dimensional tape to pop it up like the focal image. 

I'm entering this in the Christmas Kickstart Challenge for which you need to use an embossing folder and a stamp, and both the Simon Says Monday Challenge and Wednesday Challenge where the themes are "Happy Holidays" and "Christmas." 

I have two big challenges when it comes to creating cards with stamps: layering stamps and no line watercoloring.  I practice both, but I'm never completely satisfied with the results. Layering in particular, is irritating because it seems to come so naturally to lots of people. No line coloring is difficult for lots of people, and it takes a lot of time and a lot of practice. I don't often share my efforts, but Just Us Girls is on Trend Week and No Line Coloring is the trend. And I do have a card that's been waiting to make an appearance.

One of the biggest problems with overcoming challenges is comparing your work with others who have spent way more time, and have some natural ability in watercoloring. I know better than to go there, but it's always in the back of my mind when it comes time to share. I'm happier now with this card than when I finished it; a little distance helps.

All the images are from Pinkfresh Studio's "Floral Vase," and were watercolored with Altenew's 36 pan watercolor set.  

The card also had some design flaws when I first made it, but ultimately I went back and made some changes that I'm much happier with–adding the narrow strips of green and black cardstock on the righthand side. 

Off to work on some projects where I have a bit more confidence! 

Thanksgiving in the United States is a week from Thursday. Many of us will be celebrating alone this year. There will just be the two of us here for the first time in our 47 year marriage. It's a necessary consequence of the pandemic, so I'm OK with it. One of my greatest blessings is to be spending all this pandemic time with my best friend. Being alone would make this so. much. harder. And indeed, I have several friends who do live alone, and I give them credit for keeping in touch with friends and family so they don't feel quite so isolated. I decided they might appreciate a card, so I made a set of Thanksgiving cards and will get them in the mail early next week. I don't think I've ever made a Thanksgiving card before, but these probably won't be the last.

I made two versions of the card, but both use the same stamps: Pretty Pink Posh's "Autumn Wreath," and a sentiment from Hero Arts "Autumn." Both were embossed in gold, and then watercolored with a combination of Zig Clean Color Markers and Altenew Watercolor Brush Markers. The first is a one-layer card—very unusual for me. 

Once I had embossed the images on the kraft cardstock, I decided to try  a piece of Fine Linen cardstock. I liked that better, so made four of these. One is also a one layer card, but I ended up die cutting the piece with a Rounded Rectangle by Hero Arts for three of the cards and layering them on a card base of Honey Nut. That turned out to be my favorite.

I'm linking up to the following challenges:  Simon Says Wednesday Challenge (Thanks/Thanksgiving), Time Out: Festivals–(I think Thanksgiving fits, although most of the entries seem to be birthday or Christmas cards), and Fusion (Thankful).

Less Is More Challenge is looking for silver and blue creations, CAS Christmas Challenge is looking for non-traditional colors, and The Paper Players Challenge is a CAS card for the theme Hooray for the Holidays. I pulled out a stencil and think the card fits all three challenges.

I purchased the stencil last year, but this is the first time I've used it. I ended up making several cards once I got started. The stencil is "Ornament Fir Tree" by Alexandra Renke. I used Gina K's Iridescent Glitz Glitter Gel on some Enchanted Evening cardstock. It's so sparkly in real life.

Once it was dried, I die cut it with a Hero Arts Rounded Rectangle die. The sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Floral Fantasy Christmas" was embossed in silver on vellum and wrapped around the blue cardstock to allow the glittery tree to show through. Then it was attached to a silver glimmer card base. 

In addition to the challenges above, this card also goes into Darnell's NBUS Challenge. So glad I pulled out this stencil this year!