Snowflake in Blue

Crisp and clean...just like the snow falling right now outside of my window!

My design today features Our Daily Bread design's beautiful snowflake from December release, "Peace & Joy." What a lovely snowflake to emboss! I stamped the flake onto a linen vellum with Versamark ink. I then heat embossed it with PearLuster Sapphire embossing powder from Michael's. A Kaiser gemstone adds a touch of glimmer.

Look closely: you can see the texture from the linen vellum, as well as the beautiful blue embossing. A Spellbinder Small Octagon die frames the image, mounted with dimensional tape.

A pretty damask background paper, layered with more of the vellum, as well as a sheer ribbon finishes this design!

Stamp used: Our Daily Bread designs Peace & Joy
Ink: Versamark, PearLustre ep
Papers: Stampin' Up retired dp and Buckaroo Blue cardstocks, PaperTrey Ink Linen Vellum
Extras: Spellbinder Octagon, Kaiser rhinestone, SU corner punch, unknown white sheer ribbon

I wanted to share a picture of my new nephew, Silas John, with his mom--my sister Linda:

Silas was born December 23rd, and is a very precious Christmas gift for our entire family!

Thanks so much for stopping by on this beautiful, snowy Sunday! I hope that you enjoy your day!

Christmas Eve Thank You

Happy Christmas Eve! Having just returned from Christmas Eve church service, I had yet to design my Stamp Simply challenge card. Thankfully, the Stamp Simply challenge was to create a CAS thank you, and it came together quite quickly. My idea of a CAS is to chose a beautiful piece of decorator paper, layered up with a gorgeous Prima flower and luxurious silk ribbon.

My design today features a Bible verse from Our Daily Bread design's "His Gift." I stamped the verse with Versafine Black Onyx ink onto PaperTrey Ink white cardstock. A Spellbinder Long Rectangle die was used to create the sentiment panel.

The floral decorator paper is SEI "Juliette, Sweet Perfume" from Our Daily Bread designs. The Juliet Collection Berry Prima is also from ODBD.

Look at this rich and elegant ribbon--It's May Art's Rose Silk from the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store. The rose color goes so very beautifully with the gray tones in the dp. A tab and border of ribbon adds a touch of clean and simple elegance.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Stamp Simply DT designs:

Sharon

Janine Orchard
Jennifer Buck
Julie Koerber

AJ Otto

Tammy Hershberger

Barbara Anders

Jenny Gropp

Barb Schram
and Michelle Woerner, December's Guest Designer!

My wish for you is to have a blessed and Merry Christmas...filled with family and God's love! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Bright and Cheerful Fifth Grade Christmas Card

Here is a quick, bright and cheerful Christmas card easy enough for students to recreate. I put this design together for our elementary school's fifth grade class (only 7 students!--I work at a small country school!) and they completed the design in about an hour.

The fifth grade teacher had some leftover scrap booking paper from her daughter's stash that she wanted to be used for the project...thus the bright, non-traditional colors! The students had a brief lesson on chosing papers to match, and were very excited to begin!

I used Stampin' Up's Delightful Decorations stamp set and Delightful Decorations punch, as well as an assortment of Stampin' Up inks, brads, and metallic cord to dress up the layers of dp.

The "Merry Christmas" sentiment is from Our Daily Bread design's "Christmas Verses" stamped with Versafine Black Onyx ink.

The students did an excellent job! I'm certain that whomever receives one will be very pleased!

I hope that your week of Christmas preparations is going well! Thanks for stopping by!

Silver Snowflake Tag

This week's Stamp Simply challenge (ssnotime118) is to create a Clean and Simple design featuring snow. Well, snow I know! We get an enormous amount of snow in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan! In any case, there was plenty of inspiration available for this challenge! I decided to create a silvery snowflake tag for a special Christmas gift.

My starting point was heat embossing Our Daily Bread design's "Peace & Joy" snowflake onto white cardstock. I used Versafine Black Onyx ink, along with Stampin' Up's detail Silver Embossing Powder. The Versafine is great for embossing...even in black--the silver embossing powder covers the dark ink very well. A silver bead dresses up the center of the snowflake.

I used some beautiful silver metallic cardstock from Our Daily Bread designs. My trusty Cuttlebug, along with a snowflake embossing folder, added texture to my tag's primary background layer.

Silver beaded trim borders the tag's base, and is also used for the tag's loop.

Be certain to check out the rest of the Stamp Simply DT designs:

Sharon
Janine Orchard

Jennifer Buck

Julie Koerber
AJ Otto
Tammy Hershberger
Barbara Anders
Jenny Gropp
Barb Schram

and Michelle Woerner, December's Guest Designer!

Have a marvelous weekend, and be sure to link your CAS Snowy design to Mr. Linky at Sharon's blog!

Flower Soft Candy Globe

Here's a quick and easy project featuring the Flower Soft Project Book & Papercraft CD ROM. This hanging candy snow globe is filled with wrapped caramels, ready to hang on someone's doorknob or coat peg. This is a perfect teacher gift, one that your child would enjoy helping out to create!

There is no stamping on this project. The background paper and snowman are downloads to be printed from Flower Soft's new CD. There are many different character frames to chose from, as well as multiple background paper designs available (in fact, 25 designs in 4 colorways!).

Polar White Flower Soft was used to provide fluff and flake to the snowman.

Prismatics Papaya Puree Pack, from Our Daily Bread designs, was used for the rich, textured background. What a gorgeous, deep color! This is the first Prismatics paper that I used...if you have not used it before, let me tell you a bit about it! One side has a subtle texture, almost an orange peel effect--the other side smooth. The Prismatic Packs from ODBD come in 12 X 12" sheets in three saturations: dark, medium, and light. There are also suggestions of accent colors right on the pack, ready to help out with mixing it up a bit! So fun! I can see more of this paper in my future!

A computer renerated sentiment, Stampin' Up punched hanging tabs, American Crafts Elements brads, twine, and a Basic Grey button tie this one up.

I hope that you enjoyed this sweet treat design! Have a great remainder to your week!

Barkley Says "Happy Birthday!"

Stamp Simply Challenge: Alter a Store Bought Card. I actually used a portion of a thank you card that I had received from my good friend Kathie--this cute little flocked dachshund image! Thank you Kathie!

Altering or recycling store bought cards can be fun! I just grabbed some funky Luxe Sugar Cookie dp that I had in my stash...covering a long chocolate chip base completely. So very easy!

I stamped the birthday sentiment from PaperTrey Ink (Birthday Basics) with Versafine Sepia ink onto PaperTrey Ink's heavy white cardstock. A Spellbinder Tag Trio die was used to cut the tag.

I used a bright pink Copic marker to dye some May Art Cream twine, then fashioned it into a little leash bow.

I'm eager to see what the other Stamp Simply DT members have come up with! Why don't you take a look as well!

Sharon

Janine Orchard

AJ Otto

Tammy Hershberger

Barbara Anders

Jenny Gropp

Barb Schram
and Michelle Woerner, December's Guest Designer!

If you plan on playing along with us, please link your creation back to Sharon's blog so that we may enjoy it!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a wonderful weekend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNIFER!!!

Christmas Carols

I'm home for a snow day today...we are getting socked with more snow. A good portion comes complements of Lake Superior. We are close to the lake, along being higher elevated, so we receive huge amounts of winter snows. One +plus+, I get to play with stamps (forget housecleaning!)

Today's Way to Use It Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers calls for the use of Christmas carols. I decided to use some decorator paper that features some of my favorite Christmas carols. I also wanted to tie in Our Daily Bread design's gorgeous new poinsettia image from "His Gift," one of the new December releases available now.

The last time that I used this image, I used the cracked glass technique. It fit the vintage feel so perfectly, I decided to use the cracked glass technique once again. It is a very easy and quick way to add a special touch to your design!

I began by stamping the image onto watercolor paper using Verafine Black Onyx ink. The Versafine ink shows every detail so very clear and precise! I used Lyra Watercolor crayons to watercolor the image, letting it dry completely. Cracked glass came next...you can find Beate Johns' tutorial here.

Just look at this gorgeous swirl of pearls (Zva Creative from ODBD)! I took one of my tan colored Copic markers and added a bit of color for distressing. A vintage mother of pearl button from my mother's button box joins the swirl to add a creamy gleam. A border of Wright's Flat Cluney lace, purchased from Walmart, completes the vintage appeal.

Layers of K & Company Madelaine dp, Flair Designs Christmas Carol dp, and black cardstock set the base of this design.

Thanks so much for stopping by...stay warm!