Snowman Hugs

Just a quick post today. I got some of these sweet Bear Essentials stamps from UK based Buzzcraft. So adorable! I wish I could have them all...

Colored with my colored pencils, and I added some Polar White Flower Soft for fur and snowflakes. The DP is SU from last year's catalog, retired, whaaaa!! It's a good thing I have a couple of packages, I love that paper!

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Buzzcraft Bear Essentials

Ink: Memento

Paper: Bristol vellum, The Paper Co. shimmer cardstock, SU, Heavenly white

Accessories: Nestabilities, SU striped ribbon, Scarlet double faced satin ribbon, Martha Stewart snowflake edger pucnh, colored pencils, OMS, Flower Soft, PTI button, SU modern lablel & Word window punches

Noel's Christmas Letter

I don't know why I haven't tried this before, all monochromatic, neutral colors. I love the antique/vintage look it has! I only used my brown Distress inks to color this beauty, with just a little bit of red and green for tiny accents. I LOVE it! I'm not sure I can part with this card, LOL! I may keep it for a while, till I get tired of looking at it.

This is the new Christmas 2009 Sara Kay Collection made by Stampavie, available at 7 Kids College Fund.

Here's a neat trick for getting a 'label' die look even if you don't have the Spellbinders labels dies. Or sometimes you just don't have the right size/shape label die; use the Martha Stewart Flourish punch to punch each side of your paper exactly in the center, then use a corner rounder punch. And you have a label look in any size you want! I think it's pretty neat.

Hope it inspires!

Stamps: Stampavie, PTI sentiment

Ink: Ancient Page, Distress

Paper: Heavenly white, Bristol vellum, Basic Grey, Stardream shimmer cardstock, The Paper Company

Accessories: Martha Stewart flourish, snowflake/corner rounder, Fiskars apron lace & SU snowflake punches, glass glitter, Scribbles 3D paint, self stick pearl, SU wide striped ribbon, PTI button/twine, Copic Spica pens

Whipper Snapper Snowman

Here's the last of my Whipper Snapper Featured Designer cards. This set was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed working with them. I love the leaf hat this snow guy is wearing, hilarious!

Layering snowflakes is one of my fave embellishments for winter/Christmas cards. I have tons of different snowflake punches/dies! This one is a SU punch, and a Martha Stewart punch. I used glass glitter to sparkl-i-fy the bigger snowflake(yes, I just made that word up). I love glass glitter because it looks like actual ice crystals.

Stamps: Whipper Snapper

Ink: Memento, Distress

Paper: Basic Grey, Stardream, PTI

Accessories: Fiskars edger punch, SU Snowflake punch, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, Making Memories fancy brad, glass glitter, SU designer label punch, felt ribbon, colored pencils, OMS

Creepy Ketto

I always thought the Ketto's from Stamping Bella looked a little 'goth' to me, so naturally they're perfect for Halloween cards! I think it's the striped stockings, LOL!
But isn't she cute?! I love the Twilight paper from Memory box too, the Halloween colors are much more subtle than your typical scream-in-you-face Halloween colors.

I was digging through my stash for a suitable sentiment, though, but nothing seemed right. I wanted something about Gypsies, or something to that effect, because this little Ketto also reminds me a bit of one. I seem to remember a quote about the Gypsy Harvest somewhere, I guess I'll have to do a search for it. Maybe I'll print something out for this card, out of ALL the stamps I have, not one sentiment is right?! How could that be? Maybe I need more stamps?

Stamps: Stamping Bella

Ink: Memento, Distress

Paper: Bristol vellum, Memory Box, PTI, Bazzill

Accessories: Nestabilties, rhinestones, Martha Stewart spider web punch, plaid ribbon, colored pencils, OMS, Copic Spica pens, 3D paint

Noel Charity

Lovely Noel is collecting for her favorite charity at Christmas. I LOVE these vintage children images by Sara Kay. So nostalgic! As usual, I colored the image with my colored pencils.

A couple of people have asked what kind of colored pencils I use, and my answer is--ANY kind! LOL! I have Prismacolors, Faber Castell Polychromos, Lyra, Koh-i-noor, Design Spectracolor (discontinued). I'm not particularly loyal to one brand, which pencil I use depends solely on which color I need or which paper I'm using. For example, if I'm coloring a digi stamp which is printed on smooth paper (then sealed with a workable fixative) Koh-i-noor works best. It lays down easily where the other pencils tend to be very light. So, I hope this helps some of you!

I decided to create a pretty snowflake stick pin for this card. I die cut some flower shapes out of wool felt, punched a snowflake out of shimmery cardstock, added a Swarovski crystal bead and threaded it all onto a bent silver stick pin. I get these pins from Fire Mountain Gems, but I've heard that you can find them in craft stores, too. It's an easy way to add a little 'gift' to a card that the recipient can remove and wear.

Hope it inspires, thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Stampavie

Ink: Ancient Page, Distress

Paper: Bristol vellum, Cosmo Cricket, PTI, Coredinations, Stardream shimmer C.S

Accessories: EK Success fleur de lis punch, Spellbinders flowers dies, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, silver stick pin and clutch, Swarovski crystal bead, wool felt, colored pencils, OMS, sewing machine, Sakura Glaze pens, double faced satin ivory ribbon

Folk Santa

Wow, I can't believe I'm doing so many Christmas cards already! It's only September! At this rate I'll be doing spring cards in November, LOL!

But how can I resist this adorable Santa from Whipper Snapper? I love the little feather tree next to him.

I stamped the background paper with the Winter Quilt set in white ink. I found a big wooden button in my stash to embellish the ribbon bow. That wide striped ribbon from Stamp Simply is to die for. I love it. My name is Kathy and I'm a ribbon addict...lol

Thanks for looking, have a great day!

Stamps: Whipper Snapper

Ink: Memento, Distress, Perfect Match

Paper: PTI, Cosmo Cricket, Bristol vellum, Stardream

Accessories: Spellbinders Labels die, striped ribbon, PTI grosgrain ribbon, wooden button, Making Memories brad, colored pencils, OMS, Sakura glaze pen, Martha Stewart loopy punch

Winter Quilt

Well this card took quite a bit of time to create! All the little individual quilt squares from Whipper Snapper's new cling set were individually colored, cut out with my Nesties and layered onto their own individual squares.

I love the look of it though! Like a real quilt. I wanted a neutral snowflake background that was pretty subtle so as not to compete with the busy-ness of the quilt, so I just stamped different kinds of snowflakes with Distress ink onto cream cardstock. And of course, this is an old quilt, so everything had to be distressed and aged! LOL.

I hope you like it, thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Whipper Snapper, SU, Verve Visual

Ink: Distress, Memento, Adirondack, Perfect Match

Paper: Bristol vellum, Stardream, PTI

Accessories: Nesties, striped grosgrain ribbon, PTI button, Stickles, Liquid Pearls

Introducing Whipper Snapper 'Spirit of Christmas'

I still can't believe that Anna Wight a.k.a Sweet Miss Daisy, asked me to be a Whipper Snapper Featured Designer for September/October! This is very exciting for me, being a big fan of hers as well as Whipper Snapper's.
Well, once again she has two new sets being released today that are so cute! I mean look at this little angel. She is part of a set of 7 stamps, three images and four sentiments. I love them all!

I used very neutral colors for this card, with just a little red to accent. The decorative papers are from SU's Holiday Mini. Gorgeous! I love the little snowflake medallion centered on the ribbon. When I used Martha Stewart's snowflake punch on the shimmer paper, the negative looked so pretty, I couldn't resist using it instead of the actual punched out snowflake!

I've got more samples to show you using the new WS sets, you're going to love them, so stay tuned! And Splitcoast has a whole bunch of gallery pictures from the other Whipper Snapper Featured Designers, you can see them here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Whipper Snapper Designs

Ink: SUInk, Distress, Perfect Match

Paper: SU, Neenah Heavenly white, shimmer cardstock, Bristol vellum

Accessories: Spellbinders Labels 8, Fiskars apron lace punch, red rhinestone, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, SU striped ribbon, Stickles, colored pencils, OMS

Open if you dare...

Isn't this card eerie?! I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I decided to make it a recessed window card to really showcase that glorously creepy haunted house. I made a litle background paper using Adirondack reinkers on wet watercolor paper. The colors bled into each other creating really cool patterns. Then I just stamped/embossed right on top of that.

Stephen King would be proud of this one... LOL!

Hope you like it, thanks for looking, have a great weekend everyone!

Stamp: Inkadinkado, Papertrey Ink sentiment, Studio G

Ink: Brilliance, Distress, Adirondack

Paper: Memory Box, Papertrey Ink, watercolor paper

Accessories: SU modern label punch, Black embossing powder, Stickles, brown, black and orange glitter, SU Heat n Stick powder, striped grosgrain ribbon, brad

Impression Obsession DT Challenge~Holiday Gift Ideas

It's time for the IO Holiday Gift idea challenge. Come and play with us!

Would you like to see your card featured on the Impression Obsession blog? Email your challenge cards using IO images to Shirley . Every week cards will be selected to showcase on the IO blog!!!

When I was thinking about doing this challenge, I couldn't figure out whether I needed to make an actual gift, or if gift packaging qualifies as a 'Holiday Gift Idea'. Well, I tried to think of something as an actual gift, but nothing was coming to me. So I settled for a gorgeous gift package.

This is the new Poinsettia stamp from IO. How beautiful is that! I whipped out the watercolor paper, two Twinkling H2O's and set to work on a layered flower. After I cut the two layers out, I flipped the paper over and 'sculpted' the petals with a special tool I got from Punch Bunch. A little elbow grease, and the effect is awesome! I love doing flowers like this, especially large, showy ones. I adhered it to some layered Spellbinders Labels to make a gift tag, added some wide ribbon, and that's it. You could put ANYTHING in this gift bag and it would be super special, LOL!

Don't forget to check out the other Impression Obsession Design Team's blogs for more holiday gift ideas:

Dina

Jeanne

Laura

Hope it inspires & thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Impression Obsession

Ink: Distress, SU

Paper: Watercolor paper, Stardream

Accessories: Spellbinders Labels, Twinkling H2O's, Scribbles 3D paint, striped grosgrain ribbon, fine permanent pen, SU gift bag

Forever Friends Bear

When I saw these adorable little bear stamps on Tammi's blog a little while ago, I fell in love. But, they're not sold in the US, I only saw them in UK stores :-( I just couldn't bring myself to start collecting yet another line of wood mounted stamps, especially from overseas, so I asked her to do an image swap.

I got lots of adorable bears (and some other extras) so here's the first one I colored up real quick. The layout was inspired by an older Mojo Monday sketch, I love the scalloped bottom of the card front. It actually doesn't look too much like a Christmas card, but it is! That adorable Jolly by Golly paper from Cosmo Cricket, love the pink snowman pattern! I also used the new Justrite Christmas stamps, it's so easy to make an embellishment/sentiment all in one.

Well that's all for now, have a great day all!

Stamps: Forever Friends, Justrite

Ink: Memento, Distress

Paper: Cosmo Cricket, Stardream, SU, PTI

Accessories: SU scallop punch, Nestabilties, colore d pencils, OMS, Copic Spica pen, red grosgrain ribbon

Christmas Village

This is another one of the older Penny Black stamps I got from PB Stamps. Isn't it darling? It's like a little fairytale village. I colored everything very lightly with my colored pencils, then added some touches of Polar White Flower Soft to the rooftops and trees.

The DP I made using Papertrey's Guide Lines 2 set. I stamped it on Baja Breeze paper with white, Baja Breeze, and Riding hood red.

Thanks for looking!

Stamps: Penny Black, Papertrey Ink

Ink: Memento, Perfect Match, SU

Paper: Bristol vellum, SU, Stardream, PTI, Prism

Accessories: Silk ribbon, Martha Stewart Glacial snowflake punch, Fiskars edger punch, silver brad, colored pencils, OMS, Flower Soft

Tilda & Lantern

This is one of my all time favorite Tilda images. I love her old fashioned lantern and her sweet coat and hat. The ribbon I used on this card was the whole inspiration for the color scheme. I think I bought it a long time ago on Etsy, just never used it. Striped mulitcolor ribbon is hard to use on cards in my usual way. Normally I pick an image first, then choose the DP I want to use and use colors from the DP to color the image with. 99% of the time, I won't be able to find a matching ribbon from the huge stash of striped multicolor ribbons I have after I have already chosen the papers. BUT, if I choose a ribbon first, like this one, then the color scheme is easy to put together after that.

I used a bit of shimmery brown cardstock just to add to the Christmas-y feel, love that stuff. I don't know where I got it, or where I can get more, LOL. I really need to keep track of this stuff! I have to dig through my scraps and hope I can find a piece that still has the brand label on it.

Thanks for looking, enjoy your weekend!

Stamps: Magnolia, SU

Ink: Memento, SU, Perfect Match

Paper: Bristol vellum, SU, Bazzill, shimmer brown c.s., PTI

Accessories: Martha Stewart loopy punch, SU designer label punch, striped grosgrain ribbon, Cuttlebug EF, rhinestone, Flower Soft, Copic markers and Spics pens, Liquid Glass, colored pencils, OMS

Apple Basket

Here's another Elisabeth Bell stamp from Belles 'n Whistles. I am such a sucker for old fashioned children stamps! Actually I like most things 'old-fashioned', vintage or antique! Sometimes, I really do think I was born into the wrong era. I would've been happier in a more simple time. My sweetheart Jimmy feels this way too, only he thinks he would've been happier in the Wild West, LOL!

I'm glad I got this Spellbinders Labels 8 die set. I was seriously eyeing the Top Note die from SU, but I knew I wouldn't be happy with it, because I HAVE to layer papers, at least 2 or 3 of them. I wouldn't be able to do that with Top Note, so I patiently waited till someone else came out with something similar. Sure 'nuff, Spellbinders to the rescue! Of course, they didn't have the little 'stitches' around the edges, but that was easily taken care of with a fine point marker.

I hope you like it, thanks for dropping in!

Stamps: Belles 'n Whistles

Ink: Memento

Paper: Watercolor paper, SU, Bristol vellum

Accessories: Spellbinders Labels 8, Strano Designs ribbon, colored pencils, OMS, Fiskars edger punch, Copics

Masculine Birthday Card

I specifically got this stamp set for my sweetie. He loves hunting pheasant (among other things) so when I saw it I knew I would be using it for his birthday coming up.

To make the background I cut out a circle from masking tape, then using a brush and Adirondack reinkers I applied washes of color from light to dark to the paper. I can't brayer backgrounds worth a hoot, so this was my way of doing it. The pheasant is stamped, embossed, then colored with Adirondack markers, and carefully cut out.

I'm pretty happy with it, I think Jimmy will like it! Now to figure out what to get him for his birthday....

Stamps: SU, PTI

Ink: Adirondack, Brilliance

Paper: SU, PTI

Accessories: SU hardware, PTI twill ribbon, EP, markers, Martha Stewart flourish punch

Lemonade

I had to make one more 'summer' card before it's official end and this is it! Cheery bright colors, a pitcher of cold lemonade, if that doesn't speak summer, I don't know what does. This sweet little gal is another Elisabeth Bell image, but this time brought to us by Belles 'n Whistles. A new stamp store I discovered recently that so far has only a few EB designs.

I colored with colored pencils, and odorless mineral spirits (OMS), then I added some Liquid Glass over the pitcher and glass of lemonade. I love the effect, it's hard to see in the pic, though. I cut two rows of paper with the Martha Stewart doily punch and layered them to make it look like a petticoat or something, lol. It's totally a girly girl card!

Thanks for dropping by!

Stamps: Belles 'n Whistles

Ink: Memento, Adirondack

Paper: PTI, Basic Grey, Prism, Bristol vellum, watercolor paper

Accessories: stickly pearls, Spellbinders Lables 8, Martha Stewart doily punch, silk ribbons, Spica pens

Skating Girl

Here's another digital image from Mo's Digital Pencil. I love this one too! The sweet whimsical characters she draws just appeal to me! I used Cosmo Cricket's new Jolly By Golly papers, because they have the same whimsical feel to them. Plus the colors are awesome. Who would've thought pink and teal were holiday colors?

I glued some polar white Flower Soft to her muff and the brim of her hat and that was the perfect touch! A little texture always adds so much.

Thanks for looking!

Stamps: Mo's Digital Pencil, SU!

Ink: SU, Distress, Perfect Match

Papers: Bristol vellum, shimmer paper, SU, Bazzill, watercolor paper

Accessories: SU striped ribbon, EK Success scallop square punch, SU scallop punch, colored pencils, OMS, Flower Soft, Sakura glaze pen, Stickles, Martha Stewart Doily punch

Digistamped Witch

I don't know how I ran across Mo's Digital Pencil, one of my marathon surfing sessions no doubt, looking for something new. I printed out a couple of 'stamps' I bought last week sometime, and since then I've seen a couple of people discovered her wonderful illustrations as well! I had tried this one before with printed images, but couldn't watercolor with it, so I gave up on it. Well, now that I've alnost completely switched over to colored pencils and OMS, I figured there had to be a way to do this without smearing the printer ink. I didn't want to have to worry about staying in the lines, not coloring over them, that is NOT me, lol! So I tried spraying the printed images with a fixative. I used a Krylon brand fixative, and started coloring and blending away. It worked beautifully!

I find that I can't get as deep a color as with a stamped drawing, I think the fixative makes a 'film' that prevents too much build up of the pencil, but it doesn't smear at all! Fabulous!

This adorable witch was the end result of my experiment, and she does look sweet, if I say so myself! I am definitely adding digistamps to my stamp collection.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Digital image from Mo's Digital Pencil, Papertrey INk sentiment

Ink: Versafine

Paper: Bristol vellum, Bazzill, PTI, Karen Foster designs

Accessories: Cuttlebug EF, May Arts ribbon, PTI button, SU oval scallop & oval punches, orange rhinestones, colored pencils, OMS

Hot Cocoa Gift Box

I know I haven't posted lately, it's been to painful to sit at my craft table! I was cleaning my car, vacuuming the floor when all of a sudden this screaming hot pain shot down the base of my spine. Owwww! I could barely walk up to the house, never mind finish cleaning my car! I don't know what I pulled, but it's not the first time, this happens every once in a while. Takes a while to recuperate, but in the mean time, sitting for long periods of time bent over a table coloring or stamping, is too painful. I can't stay away too long though, it's like going through withdrawl, LOL!

Anyway--I knew when I saw this new Toasty Treats stamp from Impression Obsession exactly what I was going to do with it. I had seen someone on SCS use a clear box that the Papertrey Ink stamp sets come in to package a little hot cocoa packet, marshmallows and peppermint sticks. Of course, I've been saving my PTI boxes for exactly something like this!

So I just made a band to go around the top and bottom of the box, lined it with some coordinating DP, decorated it and filled it with a couple of hot cocoa packets, a little bag of marshmallows, and some old fashioned peppermint sticks. So CUTE! I know lots of people who love hot cocoa, so who wouldn't love this little gift?!

Makes you think about all the things you might have been throwing away, huh?

Hope it inspires!

Stamps: Impression Obsession, Papertrey Ink

Ink: Ancient Page, Distress, Perfect Match

Paper: Graphic 45, Prism, PTI, Bristol vellum, Shimmer paper

Accessories: Nestabiltiies, Labels dies, red grosgrain ribbon, Sizzix snowflakes dies, SU brad, Stickles, Copic Spica pens, Colored Pencils, OMS, Liquid Applique

Homespun Stocking

I discovered an old Penny Black catalog and started looking through it only to see some of the most darling stamps I had ever seen. Of course, every single one of them MUST be retired, I thought. But apparently, you can still get them HERE! Dick the owner is a really nice guy, and helped me get this stamp, which apparently was the last one, although it said on the catalog page that they were no longer available! So for all you PB fans, you can still get a lot of the old stamps, just contact Dick.

Anyway, I colored the image with my colored pencils, and OMS. I tried to make the stocking look like it was woven, I used three different colors for all the stripes. I love the sweet little snowguy, I am such a sucker for snowmen!

The snowflake is three different layers of die cuts and puches. One from shimmery brown paper, one from wool felt, and another from regular cardstick. Pretty huh?

Hope you like it, come back soon!

Stamps: Penny Black

Ink: Memento, Distress

Paper: Papertrey Ink, Bazzill, Cosmo Cricket, The Paper Co., Bristol vellum

Accessories: Sizzix snowflake dies, Martha Stewart snowflake & simple scallop punches, antique brad, Stickles, PTI twill ribbon, grosgrain ribbon, button. sewing machine, Copic Spica pen, white gel pen

Santa's Toy Co. This one's for you Nancy!

A very nice lady from SCS sent me some stamps to play with, Cornish Heritage Farms' 'Just Believe'.
I love primitive folk art style! These stamps were made for me! Instead of coloring with my usual colored pencils, I used my Distress inks to watercolor with.

I used an assortment of Cosmo Cricket's Christmas papers, all very homespun that went well with the vintage theme. Lots of stitching, some Scarlet Jewel buttons with twine, and there you have it!

I hope you like it, thanks for looking!

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms

Ink: Memento, Distress

Paper: PTI, Cosmo Cricket, SU, Bristol vellum

Accessories: Fiskars apron lace punch, PTI buttons/twine, Copic Spica pen, sewing machine