25 Days of Christmas Tags: Burlap Bell Tag

Hi folks! It's time ... Tracey McNeely's annual 25 Days of Christmas Tags series has started up already! If you are at all looking for inspiration for Christmas tags, you need to head over to Tracey's pinterest boards from the last couple years that she's hosted this event. I guarantee you'll find something to get you started!

This tag was die cut from burlap. HINT: if you're die cutting burlap and have a thin piece like the hole at the top of this bell, I recommend that you secure the burlap to cardstock before cutting. Otherwise the thin section will just fray away. I used glue to make sure the burlap was firmly attached to the paper, and put the whole thing under a heavy box to set for 10 minutes.

The flower is made from the CAS-ual Friday's 4 Petal Fri-Die. The green leaves are from that same die ... I just cut the 4 petal die in half, and bent the two remaining petals closer together.

Inside is where I stamped the "to" and "from" so I could keep the outside pretty : ) I'm excited about this handmade paper because:

1) it has an actual evergreen branch inside it; and

2) it's probably one of the first "fancy" papers I bought about 15 years ago (I also think that's the last time I used it!)

All stamps and dies are from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps: 
Bell Tag Fri-Dies, 4 Petal Set Fri-Dies, Sleigh Bells

Tracey has assembled an impressive amount of companies who are giving away prizes during the 25 Days event. You can check out the details here. There are also prizes available for commenting on the Guest Designer posts like this one along the way. Just leave a comment by November 26th!

Thanks so much for looking!

Kelly

Fusion Challenge: December Daily

The photo inspiration from the Fusion Challenge is so amazing ... gorgeous ombre blue with crisp white detailing on top! I really wanted to make 3 or 4 different projects! I went for a sponged peacock background with 4 layers of heat embossed snowflakes on top (from CAS-ual Fridays Must Love Snowflakes). 

 

 It's not on a card this time, though ...


  
This is FINALLY THE YEAR that I am going to do December Daily!

For the last 4 or 5 years I've wanted to jump on the Ali-Edwards-bandwagon and join her and thousands of others in documenting my favorite month of the year. Instead of mourning over the years I've missed documenting, like I was doing earlier in the week when I found a folder of December Daily things I collected 5 years ago when my youngest was still a toddler, I'm putting my big girl panties on and committing to do it this year. It's especially important to me to do while Santa is still a real presence in our house : )

The photo is from last year to give you an idea of what will go there, as I'm assuming I'll have a White Christmas shot sometime in the month of December. Journaling will go on the lined paper. I was happy to follow the challenge sketch, making this a true fusion!
 

I love adding vintage seam binding tape when I can ... here I sewed a running stitch down the middle, gathered it loosely, and adhered it along the side of the journaling block. Instead of hiding the end behind the journaling block, I left it hanging to the side with the thread still attached for a more whimsical feel.

To give the 16 (representing December 16th) more weight, I added layers below including a vellum die-cut snowflake from Papertrey, a snowflake cut from some trim, and some Pretty Pink Posh sequins.

I forgot about these awesome High Rise Uppercase alpha dies from MFT which I love for larger scale projects like this 8x8 scrapbook page. Cutting them in vellum will allow for some of the photo to show through. They're just adhered with vellum tape on the bottom since I'll switch out the photo as soon as it snows in December : )

I really can't wait to get started on more December Daily pages! Thanks for letting me share this with you, as now I feel more accountability to really see this project through. It's my hope to finish the shell of all 31 pages before December starts. That will be the only way I'll have any hope of staying on track!

And now check out some fabulous projects by our design team!

Amy Tsuruta

Betty J.

  Danielle Robeson

Deepti Malik

Julia Aston 

Katie Brooks

Lynn Mangan

Kimberly Wiener

Lyndal Higgins

Michelle Williams

Michelle Lupton

Stephanie Severin

Winners: Will be chosen by all of our teammates in two weeks. We each will choose one favorite. The winners will be announced at 4 am (PST) in two weeks!



I'm also entering this into the Virginia's View Challenge with the theme of All Things Metallic. The crisp and cool metallic finish just goes so well with anything winter-related!

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

CFS Feature: Stamping with Cork + Some Great News!

Want to get more use out of your dies? Another way to get a different look is to die cut a piece of cork (in this case I used the 4 petal die from CAS-ual Fridays), 

adhere the cork die-cut to an acrylic block, and stamp. Instead of a smooth, saturated image you get a soft, blotchy image. Note that the cork absorbs A LOT of ink. The good thing is that you can stamp a dozen times without re-inking. The bad thing is that it's hard to change colors, especially if you start with a dark color and want to switch to a light color. For that reason, I often just cut another piece of cork and used a fresh "stamp" for each color. You can see a third stamp on the other side of the block above.

For this wreath I used the cork stamp to make the green 4 petal flowers. Layered on top is a solid red stamp, and layered on that is a small silver-embossed 4 petal flower. The wreath is filled in with more small 4 petals and sequins. The white panel and burlap are sewn to the card base. Afterwards it looked a little too stark, so I used the cork stamp on the edges of the white panel.

Here's a tag which is designed the same way as the card ... you might be able to see the stamped layers better here.

All stamps and dies are CAS-ual Fridays:

4 Petal Set Fri-Dies, Funky Square Tag Fri-Dies, Christmas Carols

This card and tag are over at the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog today.



So, can I share my great news with you?

One of my cards is going to be on the March 2015 cover of Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking! Eeek! When I got the news yesterday I was the only one home and had no one to share it with in person. But, I'm sharing it with you all now ... whew ... I thought I would burst!

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

Winne & Walter: Premiere Day #4

ice, ice, BABY!

Seriously, that sentiment alone is worth getting this small-sized penguin set! Totally cracks me up, especially paired with their sweet expression. For the banner (held with a toothpick by the head penguin) I chose a yellow-orange since that's the penguin's beak color. Yellow-orange stripe paper is lined inside the card.



The background was a mistake, actually. I originally had this for yesterday's card with Santa on the rooftop. White glimmer mist is sprayed through the circles creative screening, but I wanted it a little darker so I sprayed again. As you can see, I did a lousy job lining up the stencil. No where close! But after looking at it awhile I thought it would make a great snow storm background, like when the snow is coming down so hard it's just streaking by.

The vellum ice cubes are cut free-hand to look more natural, and overlapped slightly for effect.

Even as I'm writing this I'm cracking up at "ice, ice, baby."



Thanksgiving is not overlooked in this release ... here's a small Stampets: Turkey set. Even if you're not having a large, fancy meal I thought these name cards would be fun to set out. They take minutes to make since they are so small. Each leaf (I lined up 4 at a time on a block) is one or two swipes with a watercolor brush.



I stamped the hat across an imaginary fold line, then figured out where the middle is and scored on either side of the hat. I used an exacto to cut the portion of the hat above the fold line. This way it pops right up when you fold the name card. You can see the back of one above.

A great way to add a little color to your table!

So, what do you think ... pretty crazy release, right?! I really enjoyed creating with these stamps, stencils and dies. I commented to our team that I'm dying to get back in the craft room after seeing everyone else's projects each day. Our guest stars were awesome too ... did you see Jingle's card yesterday where she used the manger for the "x" in "X-mas"?! Totally rocked it! If you'd like, check out the amazing projects from our guest stars, Julie and Shay on the Winnie & Walter blog. As always, there's a ton more inspiration on the personal blogs of our Talent:

Joni Andaya | Lea Lawson | Mayuri | Vanessa Menhorn | Gayatri Murali | Heather Pulvirenti | Laura Sterckx

All stamps, stencils and dies go on sale at Winnie & Walter today at 8 pm CST.

After trick-or-treating is done, you can get some treats for yourself : )

For what could be the largest w&w prize EVER, make sure you comment on this post for a chance to win the entire October release. With ten stamp sets and two entirely new product lines, you will be overwhelmed with how big the prize is! 
  

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Winnie & Walter: Premiere Day #3

Hi folks! Yep, you guessed it! The next new thing to be offered by Winnie & Walter is ...

DIES!

(affectionately called "cut-aways"). And not just any old dies, but dies for the super-popular scripty words!

It's a no-brainer that these word dies will quickly find new homes once they're released. The word dies in my home have already gotten quite a work-out! Especially the "joy" die which was used on this card to create a tone-on-tone background. I love having a secondary sentiment like this that is decorative as well as communicating an additional message.

On the inside of the card I used a bamboo patterned paper (American Crafts, Lucky Charm) because it gives the feeling of straw in a manger to tie back in with the front of the card.



The shining halo is a separate stamp so you can emboss it in gold.

The next card has a background with embossed snowflakes, blended ink, dropped water and clear sequins. Words from the Big, Bold and Merry set make a frame around the edge. To break between the "wishing you" sentiment I used a tiny snowflake. Those tiny stamps always seem to come in handy!

I used 4 layers of 110 lb paper for the cut-away words. Love how substantial they look, and it really helps to stand out on a busy background. I tried positioning the "joy" so the dot would be the center of a snowflake. 

This card uses the large-sized Happy Christmas set, which is packed full of scene-builders and sentiments. It also has add-ons to This Awesome House in the form of Santa, his sleigh, his reindeer, and a lamp post. Since I wanted the focus to be Santa and his eventual route into the sky, I only stamped the top part of the house. I sponged black ink into the star creative screening to show all the work Santa has in front of him.

[photo credit]

 
I had those charming, vintage Christmas houses in mind, so I chose muted colors like pink, aqua and silver sparkle.

I about squealed when I realized the scallops from Moonlight would make the perfect Christmas lights on this house! I colored them with Stampin' Up stamp markers. American Crafts Pow! Glitter paper is on the sides of the card.

So, are you as excited as I was about the word dies? I used them as soon as I received them. I'm always surprised how well they cut felt too, being so skinny and all. Please check out the amazing projects from Julie, Shay and the guest stars on the Winnie & Walter blog. As always, there's a ton more inspiration on the personal blogs of our Talent:

Joni Andaya | Lea Lawson | Mayuri | Vanessa Menhorn | Gayatri Murali | Heather Pulvirenti | Laura Sterckx
 

For what could be the largest w&w prize EVER, make sure you comment on this post for a chance to win the entire October release. With ten stamp sets, all the stencils and all the dies, you will be overwhelmed with how big the prize is! 
  

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Winnie & Walter: Premiere Day #2

Hi folks! Another great set of stamps are showcased today! There are several holiday directions you could go with these sets, but I absolutely LOVE that Winnie & Walter included several neutral stamps with neutral sentiments (like "happy birthday", "thank you", "just for you", etc.) which can be used well after Christmas. I don't stamp any Christmas cards since I mass-produce photo cards, but I do have several friends and family with December birthdays so I was happy to stamp seasonal cards for them. All three projects in this post are from Winter Wonderland.


This set has lots of great scene-building pieces, like pine boughs, berries, a few pine cones, and two different birds. The bird on this card is embossed with red glitter embossing powder. Very wintery, but not "Christmas". Julie and Shay have picked another great font for the sentiments in this set. This sentiment is curved around the circle, which is used to frame the stamped scene.


 
This present topper uses the other stamp that I had been daydreaming about (the first stamp is the peppermint swirl from yesterday's post) ... a cross section of a tree! Madly in love with this graphic natural element. It's such a great background and layering piece, like in this project, but it can also be a focal point like in the next project. Here the natural log fits in so well with the woven fabric and the kraft wrapping paper. Stamped with brown ink on a beige paper, it looks pretty close to the real thing.

When I wrap presents with fabric ribbons I'm always at a loss for what to do for a bow. Clipping on a topper like this is a great alternative to a bow. A mini clothes pin is attached to the chipboard on the back of the topper. Embossing on wood turned out well too. I used the same red glitter embossing powder and heat set it (twice) right on the other side of the clothes pin. So quick and easy to fancy it up a notch.

 Here's another one of the neutral sentiments, just perfect for the present topper.

Finally, here's a card using the log cross-section as a focal point. Instead of using browns, I've gone for a more graphic look with a masked stack of black and white logs and one rainbow watercolored log. My husband's fashionable cousins are all in their late 20s / early 30s and this card will be perfect for one of them.

We're only halfway through the release, folks! You're not going to want to miss tomorrow's preview ... a brand new product line will be revealed that I predict will make people quite happy! For now, check out the amazing projects from Julie and Shay on the Winnie & Walter blog. As always, there's a ton more inspiration on the personal blogs of our Talent:

Joni Andaya | Lea Lawson | Mayuri | Vanessa Menhorn | Gayatri Murali | Heather Pulvirenti | Laura Sterckx

For what could be the largest w&w prize EVER, make sure you comment on this post for a chance to win the entire October release. With ten stamp sets and two entirely new product lines, you will be overwhelmed with how big the prize is! 
  

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Winnie & Walter: Premiere Day #1

Hi folks! Hold on to your hats, you are absolutely going to be blown away by the amount of goodies in this latest Winnie & Walter release!! There are small, medium and large stamp sets, and TWO NEW PRODUCT LINES being debuted during this release. Let's get started!


 
There are two stamps in this release that I was daydreaming about before they got to my house. One of those stamps makes this peppermint pattern (Mini Scenery: The Peppermint Zone). LOVE. it.  You can leave it in its rectangle shape, or you can punch out the easiest paper Halloween candy ever. Here's how:

 

You stamp the image, punch it out with a 2" punch (you could really use any size here), and wrap it with some cellophane (tie up the ends with string). That's it!

You can get a lot of different looks with just this one stamp. Stamp with colored ink on white paper, black ink on colored paper, or rotate through several different colors of ink.

Of course you can also make a cute card with the paper Halloween candy. The "trick or treat" sentiment is from Moonlight. The background is NOT a patterned paper! It's made with one of the new product lines ... stencils!! Whoo-hoo! They are affectionately referred to as "Creative Screenings" and there are a ton to choose from. I picked the starry sky stencil for this card, and did a few sprays of Heidi Swapp White Glimmer Mist. So excited with the results after I removed the stencil! Lots of subtle shimmer going on in person. I better keep this stencil one out on my desk ... it will get tons of use!

The stencils not only come in negative images (like the starry night in the last card where you color through the negative hole(s)), but also positive images like this leaf. I blended a tiny bit of color around the outline of the leaf in fall colors. I like how you still get the feeling of "Autumn" but the card is very light and airy.  The delicate sentiment is from This Awesome House.

We've got three more action-packed days before we're done, so please check back in tomorrow. The other stamp that I was daydreaming about is in tomorrow's post, and I can't wait for you to see it!! For now, check out the amazing projects from Julie and Shay on the Winnie & Walter blog. As always, there's a ton more inspiration on the personal blogs of our Talent:

Joni Andaya | Lea Lawson | Mayuri | Vanessa Menhorn | Gayatri Murali | Heather Pulvirenti | Laura Sterckx

For what could be the largest w&w prize EVER, make sure you comment on this post for a chance to win the entire October release. With ten stamp sets and two entirely new product lines, you will be overwhelmed with how big the prize is! 
  

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly