CFS Sugar Plum Fairy and Ballerina Fri-Dies

  

Hi Folks! We have a special mini-release at CAS-ual Fridays Stamps today! The adorable ballerinas with the flowery tutus that came out this summer are now available in a Christmas set! Only instead of flowery tutus and headbands, she's changed into a snowflake tutu and headband. Super cute!

 

   

The Sugar Plum Fairy set also comes with several tiny snowflakes that you can use to build a snowy curtain of twinkling goodness.

 

 I couldn't resist a healthy dose of chunky glitter to up the twinkle!

I like the idea of the ballerina dancing through her "visions of sugar plums."

 

 Check out the rest of the Ink Squad to see more awesome projects with these stamps. This set and the coordinating Fri-Die is now available in the CASual Fridays Stamps store! And don't forget, the code KELLY2017 works on everything, including these new release items.

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Winnie & Walter Premiere Day No. 4

Hi Folks! On this last day of the Winnie & Walter release, we have two of the cutest Christmas critter sets ever!! You saw some of it in yesterday's post, with the skiing bear and the dancing penguin cards. Well here's another image from the set ... a bear and his friend bunny dragging a tree they just cut so they can have somewhere to put their presents under at home. So adorable, these two! They're from Winter Wishes with Evelin T Designs.

Since the scene was so large, and since these sets have coordinating dies, I decided to make it into a 3D card with the bear and bunny popping out from the card base.

They pop out by way of a strip of paper I cut and folded into a rectangle. When the rectangle is open, the bear and bunny stick out from the card, grabbing all the attention, but also serving as a stand for the card.

Of course when the rectangle is closed, all the layers are flat and the card is ready to be mailed. Although the banners were hanging out earlier, these also lie flat. The banners were made by cutting out triangles and then stringing them through a double layer of gold thread. The letter spaces make a perfect spot to tie the banners to. Love how they swing back and forth after you stand them up.

The "season's greetings" is from In a Word: Holiday Tiles. To make "Seson's" stand up I just went slow while die cutting and stopped just before the cut was finished. Then with an exacto knife I trimmed the negative portions from the card base. "Greetings" was much easier, as all I had to do was die cut it from the patterned paper.

I was so excited to show you this card! 

This next project is not a card, but an ornament! ...

I used all the pieces from the Essentials: Josephine Hexagon Cutaways and tuned them into an ornament. With a NARWHAL in the center. Saying to believe. Hahaha!

When it's time to put them away, you just fold them flat. Did you notice the narwhal's Christmas striped horn?!

To make them, you just fold the hexagons in half, and then glue them all back-to-back. 

So much fun, I made an extra ornament with the leftovers. Nothing gets thrown away!

Then when it's time to store them for next year, they easily fold flat. 

    

Well that's it! We've made it to the end of the release. You can see the other projects on the Winnie & Walter blog. As usual, leave a comment there for a chance to WIN all of today's goodies. The Big Giveaway is also going on with a chance to win the entire release!!

    

Hope you enjoyed it all!

-Kelly

Winnie & Walter Premiere Day No. 3

Hi Folks! So far we've had big words, stencils and tags revealed in the Winne & Walter release, and now it's time to ooh and ahh over two sets of floral stamps and coordinating dies. I'm happy to say they were designed by our very own team member Lydia Evans! So proud of her : ) Here I've used the layered poinsettia and coordinating cutaway as an accent to the sentiment, which I appreciate is Christmas-y, but not expected or used often. Plus I'm nutty about the font!       

I couldn't decide who would make more of a clatter ... the polar bear whizzing down the ski slopes, almost running into a tree, or the penguin kicking her heels up to her favorite tune. So I made both! I put the penguin directly over the word "clatter" to reinforce the message. And tomorrow we just might get to see more of their friends!

The corresponding cutaways are available for all the tiny pieces of the poinsettia so it's nice to have an additional layer for the tiny flowers in the middle. The poinsettia's are covered with lots of clear, chunky glitter. I think the fake variety often comes that way.

Here's a better look at the glitter.

For the backgrounds I cut some hills out of copy paper, blended some distress inks over the hills, and flicked some water on the inked card base. I like how the white spots make it look like they could be in a snow storm, with the large spots/flakes being really close to your face.

For as many bits and pieces I used of the In Bloom: Debra's Poinsettia with Lydia Evans set to make this wreath, there were just as many that I didn't use. You get quite the variety, that's for sure.

There are several different colors of green here, and again, lots of different plant materials.

The background is made by sponging ink through the wonderful Ticking Stripe Creative Screening laid on an angle, and then stopping just before the wreath. This keeps the card one layer. And really, I think this is about the only way to get a pattern on the background, without having to fussy cut around the wreath. 

 

    

We've still got one more day of product reveals, and it's actually my favorite! Make sure to check it out, and also all of today's other amazing projects on the Winnie & Walter blog. As usual, leave a comment there for a chance to WIN all of today's goodies. The Big Giveaway is also going on with a chance to win the entire release!!

    

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Winnie & Walter Premiere Day No. 2

 

Hello Folks! Yesterday we started the Winnie & Walter release celebrations, and we have a lot more to show you today. One of my absolute favorite products of this release is not a stamp or a die, but a stencil!

The Buffalo Check Creative Screening is large and wonderful, and completely on trend. I started noticing bits of plaid in the retail stores last winter, and this year it has completely taken over. This buffalo check stencil gives you a fun version of plaid without all the work of multiple colors, stripes, laying out, measuring, etc. I've used it on this card to make the red background, which reinforces the cozy feeling from the hot drink.

The drink is from a set that is actually free with a qualifying purchase! It's called Warm Wishes to You, and includes a few sentiments, the cup, and the drink inside. After stamping it, I cut it out and wrapped the handle with baker's twine that Shay so nicely tied all of our release sets with in shipping.

I folded a little doily over the charcoal cardstock so my cup has somewhere to sit. While I'm not exactly sure what occasion this card will be for, we do have several December birthdays, so I think I will add "on your birthday" on a strip of charcoal cardstock and layer that on top of the doily when I'm ready to send it. 

This card got me even more excited about the buffalo check, so I knew I wanted it to be the star of my next card ...

I was super excited to see what would happen if I flipped the stencil over and blended a second color in the negative spaces. I liked the solid red and green squares together, but I was most impressed with how the intersecting striped squares looked, and can imagine this with many other color combinations. The lime green squares were the perfect place to add a tiny tree (from yesterday's In a Word: Merry) in a darker green to give the pattern a little more depth.

Since the background was so busy, I knew the sentiment had to be super simple. I went with tiny white letters spelling "JOY" from the Peace, Love, Joy die from yesterday's In a Word: Holiday Tiles Cutaways. 

To make the sentiment stand out more, since the letters are so small, I "underlined" them with a white bow from my vintage seam binding ribbon. 
  

    

That's all for today, but we still have two more days of products to reveal! Be sure to check out the other amazing projects on the Winnie & Walter blog. As usual, leave a comment there for a chance to WIN all of today's goodies. The Big Giveaway is also going on with a chance to win the entire release!!

    

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Winnie & Walter Premier Day No. 1

Hello Folks! Well, Halloween is officially over, and I think we all can safely start turning our attentions to the holidays at the end of the year without having to feel guilty about it. Winnie & Walter is having an enormous release of holiday products this week that you are not going to want to miss! There are lots of dies (especially word dies), cute critters, lovely florals, tags, and several new creative screenings (stencils). Today's card features all the "merry" stamps in the In a Word: Merry stamp set. 

They are all stamped off the edge of the card to varying degrees, with a dose of gold Glimmer Mist spatered around.

I like the contrast between the colorful, vibrant, abundance of text on one side, vs. the solitary, simple gold Christmas in plain font on the other side. Plus I think it's a quite happy, slightly quirky, card.

Be sure to check out the other amazing projects on the Winnie & Walter blog. As usual, leave a comment there for a chance to WIN all of today's goodies. The Big Giveaway is also going on with a chance to win the entire release!!

   
Be sure to stop by over the next three days ... there is just so much left to show you! 
  

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Chibitronics Sweet Stamp Shop Blog Hop

 

Hi folks! The design teams from Chibitronics and Sweet Stamp Shop are collaborating this week and have come up with some really great projects! You can see them on the blogs of both companies. I'm on the Chibitronics blog for Day #2 with this card, featuring a glamper (defined by Wikipedia as "luxury camper"). I firmly believe banners and bunting make everything better. Apparently, retailers think we all share this opinion, as it seems like every holiday now has several different pre-made banners available to purchase. If only banners on a camper can keep the mosquitoes away, right?! But I digress...

On this card the camp fire and the widows in the glamper light up once you pull the tab. Wanna see?

The yellow and orange vellum on the fire makes it glow nicely. Although it's a little more complicated, I do prefer the pull tab method for turning the lights on as opposed to pressing on an area of the card. It's a little better to control, and makes it more apparent to the recipient what to do, I think.

Here's a quick video. More information is on the Chibitronics blog if you're interested. 

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

25 Days of Christmas Tags and CFS

 
Hello Folks! I'm so happy to be joining Tracey McNeely's 25 Days of Christmas Tags with CAS-ual Fridays Stamps! If you haven't had the pleasure of being at Tracey's blog in November, she's filled it with the most gorgeous Christmas tags from all over blog land every singe day from the 1st through the 25th. It's definitely a place you want to hang out at this month!
   

This cute and quick tag uses the Tag Buddies Fri-Dies, Sleigh Ride, and Snowy Sayings. I like just using a portion of Santa's sleigh. One, because the whole thing just wouldn't fit on a tag, and two, because it keeps you guessing at who's on the other end and how many presents does he have for you : )

   

This tag is also over at the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog today if you'd like additional information. Feel free to use my code "KELLY2017" which will save you 15% off any purchases at CAS-ual Fridays Stamps.

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly