Holiday Branches

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you're having a great week! I'm knee-deep in all products Christmas and am shocked (as I am every year) by how much of it is NBUS. Do you think Hammy has figured out how to get on the computer in the middle of the night and order things?! I'm not complaining because it's like Christmas when the mail comes, but he needs to finger out a way to give me more hours in the day to USE everything!

Anyhoozle, we're all busy this time of year, so I'll prolly do more posts, but quick ones, just to share the cards I'm making which may spark ideas for you. Today I have cards I made using a NBUS full-size Holiday Branches stamp from Echo Park. The design itself is a CASE of a card made by Jenny Mullens, which  I saved from a Craft Stamper magazine ages ago. Thank you, Jenny!

The great thing about using a full-size stamp is that you can cut it in half and make two cards using the same design, as I've done here, or you can cut it into even smaller pieces for borders, small panels, etc. Wait. What? Clumsy me. What I meant to say was you can cut the stamped panel in half, not the actual stamp! (Is it bedtime yet?)

To begin the card, I did a watercolor smooch panel on mixed media paper using shades of green Distress Ink. (It's Evergreen Spruce that takes on a bluish tint.) For the first card above, the white heat-embossed sediment is from The Ton. The die-cut sediment on the second card is from Creative Expressions. The white paint lines on both cards were made with a Pen-Touch paint pen, a gift from Lolly, and the schplatters are watered down gouache paint.

Challenges for card one:

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Make your mark.
• CAS Watercolor: Monochrome.
• CAS Christmas: Warm and cozy.

Challenges for card two:

• Country View: Hand-stamped.
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas: Anything Christmas goes.
• Krafty Chicks: {Winter.}

 

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Here's one of another Twofer I made using the same stamp heat-embossed in white. I wanted to show you how pretty it looks on gold paper. The yummy-textured snow paper is from my friend Chrissie. I'm don't know the manufacturer of the Be Merry die. I used an American Crafts gold metallic pen for the transition line.

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps: Anything goes.
• Cards for Galz: Let it snow.
• Christmas Kickstart: Snow.

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* Please keep the residents and fire fighters in New South Wales Oz, in your prayers as they deal with the catastrophic fires.

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower! Please let me know you came by so I can be sure and return the flavor!

Note to Bette: I don't have your email address, so I hope you see this. Chester's card was made by Cornelia. The stamps used for Chester are from Cats on Appletrees. In the future, if you ever have any questions about the card illustrations on The Back Stories, you can always click on Cornelia's name at the bottom of the story and that will take you to her blog for details about her amazing cards. Thank you for asking!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling: Click CTL + Home. Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post. Click Page Down to reach the end of the post. Click Comments and a pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)

Santa's Belt Buckle and Joyful Rusticity!

Hello Stamplings!

I've fallen down on being committed to making my Christmas cards. Thank goodness I didn't break a hip! But seriously, I know that if I don't get back on the scheduled train to the post office by the end of November, I'll be committed to the loony bin instead! You can avert your eyes if the sunshine around you prevents you from enjoying the sight of C cards, but you'll miss a coupla cute designs. 

Onefer

When I was at the Impress stamp store in Seattle I bought a few rolls of Washi tape and this one of Santa's belt was irresistible! A sediment from MFT and shazambam! I believe in the magic of making QACAS Christmas cards! The sunshine makes Santa's belt look tarnished, but PAH-leez! Bite your tongue if you think for one minute Mrs. Claus would allow her husband out of the house with a tarnished belt buckle! Trust me, it is pure gold and schparkly.

This even CASier design captures the gold a little better:

Challenges

• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge: AG with option of Washi tape.
• Sparkles Christmas Challenge: Santa.
• The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge: Anything Christmas Goes.

and card two:

• CAS(E) This Sketch

 

Twofer

This card was made specifically to participate in the last challenge of Merry Monday which calls for rustic Christmas cards. I sometimes confuse rustic with vintage, but I think rustic means lots of texture with an outdoorsy country feel. The corduroy texture paper makes a unique card background. The birch trees and cardinals are from a NBUS Mama Elephant die. The JOY is from Hero Arts.

You might wonder how I made those birch trees. About (cough) years ago my friend Gail sent me a few goodies and among them were a coupla sheets of soft fabric-like black and white paper with a raised pattern of flocked flowers and flourishes. Hammy, who has a great memory of the specialty papers I have, pointed me to these. It not only adds a texture you can feel, but it makes an interesting pattern on the trees.

I want to thank Lesley and Lori and the entire Merry Monday Design Team, past and present, for all their hard work bringing us Merry Monday Christmas challenges to kick us into gear all these years. You will be missed!

Challenges

• Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge: Rustic Christmas.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use those snippets!
• Rudolph Days: Anything Christmas goes.
• The Merry Christmas Challenge: Anything goes.

~~~

Rachel

Several of you have inquired about how our lovely DIL Rachel is doing. With her permission, I can share that she is doing very well. She had a double mastectomy last month and will not need either chemo or radiation. She is still healing and will have her final surgery in September. She wants me to thank you all very much for your care and concern, and for your cards and prayers. We all feel incredibly blessed with the outcome and your friendship!

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower! Please let me know you came by so I can be sure and return the flavor!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling: Click CTL + Home. Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post. Click Page Down to reach the end of the post. Click Comments and a pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)