The Flower Challenge #98 Reminder

I know you are all busy preparing for the holidays, but I hope you will find a bit of time in your busy schedule to make a card or two!  How about one or more for us at The Flower Challenge?  There's still time!  Here's my sparkly reminder...

Another Concord&9th Festive Blooms creation with lots of sparkle by way of my friend Stickles - I love that the only bit

of white is that sentiment foiled in gold for a little more sparkle!

Here's hoping your days are crafty, and bright this season!

=] Michele

Baby, it's cold outside!

I promised to show you more of the newest addition to my ever-growing collection of embossing folders - this SSS Bundled Up was one offered with a set of dies that cut out a few of the hats and mittens that can be tucked into the folder for embossed dimension.  You'll see what I mean... and I couldn't resist keeping it simple in red and white!

Anyone heading out here today would be out of their minds

to go without a warm hat and mittens - an added scarf would 

be wise... wish SSS had added a die for the scarf, too!

Those tiny little hearts on those red mittens were leftovers from

the gift bag's tags from this card.  One should never waste these little treasures!

My 'belly bands' for sentiments were created using one of 

PFS's essentials: Noteworthy frames - not sure if they are still available nor

do I think MFT still makes the sets where I found these sentiments but

I'm shopping my stash more these days especially for Christmas cards!

Okay it is definitely time to hit the shower, dress and warm up - 20F here this morning!  Hope you have something fun planned for your weekend!

=] Michele

Freshly Made Sketches 2024 final

Gosh, I don't know about you, but this year has flown by me!  And here we are, the final challenge of 2024 at Freshly Made Sketches!  Jennifer B. has a fun one for us...

Set's itself up for a Slimline card, right?  I had just the die for it: 

SSS Village Snowman

I'm seeing this as less a snowball fight, and more a snowflake relay! lol

Aren't they cute?  I cut all the pieces from 110# Neenah and used my Ohuhu markers to color their cute hats and coats in a rainbow of colors.  That sweet sentiment

was found among my many MFT sets.  The larger snowflakes are oldies from

Reverse Confetti and those they're passing are from EH.

You wouldn't mind another would you?

I helped myself to a few goodies when SSS sent me a gift code for my birthday.

You'll be seeing more of that embossing soon, promise!

=] Michele

Just another Penny Black Saturday Challenge for Monday!

After all those paper-pieced cards, I looked forward to a little coloring this morning - what better way to start the day than with these sweet little Penny Black characters?   Who better to share them with than the gals at the Penny Black Saturday Challenge?

I found these little fairies among my PB Christmas sets and

right away thought they would be darling in the Color Hues colors!

Here are my little snowman-building Snow Fairies!

Personal note to Bobby: This is my last embossed piece - can you help a girl out? lol

After the holidays will do, thank you!

Happy Monday, my friends!

=] Michele

Oh! the fun!

No challenge, no deadlines - a just for fun few hours of play to share with you today!  You know that I got the C&9th Spring print die for my birthday... and cut this:

From that I made a purple/blue card for Color Hues, 

and a pretty cream, red, and green for Color Throwdown, too.

But still, I was left with dozens of pieces - so I put together 

these:

Tom was blocking the light - tee hee!

And I found an even BETTER way to make a 'jig' for piecing

by using the die and an embossing mat...

Which made putting these together really quick:

Using some other elements from the die set and coordinating

stamp set I quickly had a set of 6 cards for a gift set for my fabulous

stained glass creating cousin!

Because I like to mix it up a bit, there were two that I left some of the

white un-papered: 

and two that I added texture to using my SU! Subtle Texture

embossing folder before gluing the pieces down:

So, in the time it takes to watch a full-length movie on Prime,

I have a wonderful gift to give!  OH, and this:

Packed away for a rainy Spring Day - if I can wait that long!

=] Michele

For those of you who are saying they can't find this, C&9th has the

bundle I bought right HERE!

Color Hues #100

You might remember there was a tray-full of bits and pieces cut from colored cardstock recently - guess who picked out all the blue and purple pieces yesterday?  While without power.  Bundled up to keep warm in her 57-degree home?  Yes, that's how much I love you Color Hues! 

Happy 100th!

Since there were three shades of each card cut, it was easy

to make another!

I love the 'stained glass' look of these - that's why one of them is

heading to my fabulous cousin in Denver who creates stained glass

masterpieces from Masterpieces!  This is one of them:

I'm looking forward to the next 100, my friends!

=] Michele

Freshly Made Sketches #665

Kim over at Freshly Made Sketches offers what might be pretty straight-forward to everyone - but me!  Lucky for me, I had out on my desk one of my favorite older sets as my friend LeAnne reminded me that it had not been used this year!  

First things first... here is Kim's Sketch #665:

And here is how those little friends lead me down their forest path...

These darling 'birch tree' straws were purchased at TJMaxx MANY years ago

and we quickly put them to work in our Paper Christmas Village...

my 'snowy' background is that newest embossing folder: 

Bark - by Simon Hurley from Spellbinders.

Of course, there were many more where those came from...

I even managed to make a new little woodpile for the village from the 'leftovers!'

Which reminds me we need to get that Village out this weekend!  Until then, I better get this 'hand-deliver-only' card into the FMS gallery!

=] Michele

Color Throwdown #822

Me again! I had good intentions on playing along with Color Throwdown last week - you know what they say about the best laid plans, right?

Kelly Schirmer has the perfect color trio for Color Throwdown #822 - but instead of a Christmas card, I pulled a new-to-me set from Concord & 9th: Spring Print Dies [thank you darling friend for your wonderful gift!]  I've had it on my radar ... well, since SPRING! lol

First up, that gorgeous inspiration:

 

Then!  You have to see the load of fun I have to look forward to... 

talk about a jigsaw puzzle!

Each piece has been assigned a number, and I have a 'jig' saved for future piecing!

[Thanks for the help, Tom!]

Okay - enough chatting... ready for my card?

All together now - using the cream for the background and the little postage stamp, and various green and red cardstocks - also from Concord & 9th.

Those of you who know me well know just how much I love a good jigsaw puzzle!  'Tis the Season!  Thanks, Kelly for the lovely colors for its premier!

=] Michele

The Flower Challenge #98

Hello, my friends!  It's Christmas time - and our last challenge of the year at The Flower Challege!  I hope you have a floral Christmas card to share with us!  Here is your challenge - add sparkle!  after all, it's tinsel time!

I had a little bit of fun for my card using an inking technique on an embossed image - you've no doubt seen this trend around this year.

It starts by adding ink to your paper using the embossing folder as a guide...

Then, run the piece through your machine with the 'debossed' side of the folder...

Using a flat sponge applicator, I went a little 'outside the box' reaching

for Espresso Distress Oxide ink instead of black ink... before adding sparkle with embossing powders gold paint and a few PFS gems - I love those brown ones!

A bit of extra sparkle can be found on my sentiment strip -

copper metallic sparkle to be exact!

The brown might not be for everyone, but I do love a little drama!  YOU do YOU and join us, won't you?

OH!  and a little news!  We have a new team member, and you will love Marie as much as I do!  Come see her premier and the sparkly goodness from the team right HERE!

=] Michele

Just us Girls #755 Stencil Week

I have a small-ish tray of 'yet to be used' items that are just too pretty to discard.  Like this lovely Poinsettia from The Ton that Marcia and I stenciled together when she was here the first week of November!  Hey, stenciled!!  That works for Just us Girls #755 where my friend Lisa is asking for just that!

 

You asked for it, my friend!  I couldn't bear to cut off too many of those pretty leaves!  But it will fit nicely into a 5.5" envelope!

That darkest blue drove the choice of my card base - low

and behold there was a gorgeous, embossed piece of PTI Dark Indigo

ready for me in the packaging!

A stamped and fussy-cut sentiment from my ASD Poinsettia set

and my card is ready to be delivered!

Happy holidays to the entire JUGS team!

=] Michele

Freshly Made Sketches #664

I'm a little late to Linda's party over at Freshly Made Sketches!  It's the perfect time for a card made with the sweetest gift I received yesterday in the mail - I love it when my friends share their extra buys with me!  From where I'm sitting it was kismet!

 

A few pretty papers from HoneyBee's Log Cabin collection of papers and a few

turns of the Cuttlebug crank with this darling Waffle Flower Flat Paper Bag die 

and voila!

Another addition to the 2025 stash is done! I'd better get these

little packages delivered to FMS664!  Thanks, sweet friend for this darling gift!

=] Michele

Food coma...

it's real!  But I'm thankful for my friends in The Group of Seven Cardmakers who quite often steer my path back to creativity!  Thanks, ladies!

I have two cards using their current technique: Textured Backgrounds using Die-cuts.  First, I had that wonderful pine branch my friend Bonnie gifted me when I visited her - it was easier to adhere them using SSS Micro Dot sheets as they are so very fine!  Any residual 'stickiness' was dealt with using my powder tool.

I found a pretty foiled sentiment made at Marcia's house long ago

in my sentiment stash - it's foiled in red... I'll show that in a moment!

The set is from The Greetery and called Opposites Attract: Holiday [2021]

There's that red foil - thanks TK for the reminder!! lol

Every single card made by the team was gorgeous, but I loved

Susan's stars and found a nested set in my stash that had not been used this year.

I'm not even sure where I found them, but they are made by Ellentina.

Those stars were making me think of wishes and so wishing I did!

This one in die-cut glittery form is SSS c. 2015!

I think I'll save this one for my granddaughter whose birthday is just

after Christmas!

Thank you to each and every member of The Group of Seven for making my gloomy, cold, and snowy day brighter!

=] Michele

CASE me a Christmas Card with Michelle Lupton

You can't imagine how happy I was to be invited by Michelle Lupton to join her for her 2024 CASE me a Christmas Card event!  Here's how it works:

I had to choose a card from her Instagram gallery to CASE - BUT here is the catch: it is my job to turn one of Michelle's all-occasion/birthday/sympathy cards into a CHRISTMAS card!  Now that all of my Christmas cards are done, it sounded like just the fun I was looking for as I prepare to snuggle in for the Winter! lol

It was quite a dilemma to choose just ONE of Michelle's cards, but here is where my heart landed - linked above to her IG account for your viewing pleasure... pack a lunch as there is SO much to love there - or you can check out her CASE of MY card right HERE on her blog!

Isn't that little gift-giver a sweetheart? 

Now to make it my own while using these design elements:

• Make it a 'dutch door' card meaning only the bottom of the front panel is intact
• Use an adorable stamp/character as the star of the card - Copic colored
• Have a lettered panel on the inside panel
• add a simple sentiment

Here is how I made the 'dutch door' on my card base by 'partial die-cutting' the front panel using a curvy slope die instead of a straight landscape cut ...

The excess was easily cut using my guillotine, and a scissor to finish the cut.

However!  That pesky tape left a mark!

Easy enough to 'partial emboss' it away with my favorite SU subtle texture!

This ADORABLE PB Sweet Sledder made her way into my stash recently -

it was the obvious pick for my card!

We all know how those Copics 'seep through' to the back of

our paper - I simply traced the portion that would be exposed

and added it to the back - easy enough!

I tweaked my 'Letter to Santa c. 1957' to print my lettered panel:

In case you're wondering - Shelly DID get that wished for, prayed for doll -

and I'm quite sure those naughty siblings were spoiled, too!

All the pieces came together, topped by something for that sweet face to look at and a hand-cut sentiment from a very old Clearly Besotted set. 

That lovely tree is one from Sizzix for Tim Holtz topped

with a glittery star from EH.

I won't lie - I'm very happy with my CASE

of Michelle's card!  Hope she likes it, too!

Thanks so much, Michelle, for inviting me to play!  I can't wait to see which

card of mine that you were inspired to CASE!

=] Michele one L