PTI November Blog Hop

Happy Black Friday everyone!  I'm not a fan of long lines and shopping crowds, so I'm choosing online shopping options along with supporting local small business owners if I do venture outdoors today!

I'm joining in on Papertrey Ink's November Blog Hop with inspiration from this delightful holiday photo!  I was especially drawn to the aqua and gold dotted boxes and was inspired by the pine Christmas trees and hot pink ornaments. One of my fave new Christmas stamp sets is PTI's Holiday Greens!  Since I wanted a blue spruce look to the pine boughs, I stamped in Old Olive then stamped again using Coastal Cabana ink by SU.  Berries were stamped with Melon Mambo and pine cones with Soft Suede.  The card base is Hawaiian Shores CS (PTI) and the gold dotted vellum (SU) was adhered with spray adhesive over white CS.  The tiny scalloped borders are Edge Essential Confetti Cuts by Reverse Confetti.  The sentiment die is by PTI.  

Be sure to hop along with other participants by heading to the PTI blog!

Color Throwdown #420

Hey everyone! I'm hosting this week's Color Throwdown Challenge using the following colors: light blue, sage green, gray and amber/yellow.  I was determined to use a new to me stamp/die set by Altenew called Poinsettia and Pine.

All of the images were embossed with Stampendous Detail White embossing powder on Ranger watercolor CS then watercolored with distress inks.  The pine branches were embossed directly onto the base panel and the others were die cut with some of them popped with foam tape for more dimension. I splattered some Hickory Smoke ink over the background and added a tiny scallop edge of black CS using Reverse Confetti's Edge Essentials die.

STAMPS: Poinsettia and Pine (Altenew); Holiday Wishes (Altenew).
INK: Tumbled Glass, Fossilized Amber, Hickory Smoke, Evergreen Bough, Cracked Pistachio, Mowed Lawn distress inks by Ranger; Versamark; Versafine Onyx Black.
PAPER: Christmas Wish 6x6 pad by My Mind's Eye.

Congratulations to the talented Kim Hahn - our guest star stamper this week!  Be sure to stop by her blog and say hello.

For more details on how to play along, head on over to the Color Throwdown Blog and you'll find the information on the right sidebar!  You can also visit the rest of the design team's creations - along with our guestie Marisa - for more inspiration (click on the links below):
Amy Rohl 
Amy Rysavy
Barbara Anders  
Broni Holcombe   
Jodi Collins 
Lisa Henke
Lori Tecler
Lynn Put  
Vickie Zimmer 
Wanda Cullen (you are here)  
Marisa Ritzen - November Guest Designer
 

Fusion Card Challenge

The goal of creating 50 Christmas cards is slowly but surely getting closer - lol! Another CAS design with some emboss resist watercoloring using Mijello Mission Gold watercolors for the current Fusion Card Challenge.  I followed the sketch primarily but also chose my sentiment based on the inspiration photo.

STAMPS: Poinsettia and Pine (Altenew).

DIES: Poinsettia and Pine (Altenew); Winter Words (Reverse Confetti).

Thanks for stopping by...

Sunday Stamps Challenge

A quick post to share my card for the sketch at Sunday Stamps! This came together very quickly using papers from MME's "Merry Little Christmas" 6x6 pad.  I already had this Snowflake Trio (Reverse Confetti) die cut from a previous project. This is a very flat and easy to mail card with the die cut sentiment as the focal point (from Lil' Inker Designs).

Off to the grocery store to get some Thanksgiving menu ingredients!  Have a great day!

Mojo Monday

It's time for another Mojo Monday Challenge and it was a great opportunity for me to knock out two more Christmas cards!  I started with watercoloring a panel of Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock using Mowed Lawn and Twisted Citron distress inks.Because the patterned papers were rather busy, I kept the focal point clean and simple by gold embossing this tree from Verve's Holiday Greeting stamp set.  
While supplies were out, I created a second card with only a slight variation from the first.

Here's what I used...
STAMPS: Holiday Greetings (Verve)
PAPER: Very Merry 6x6 pad by Reverse Confetti; Real Red (SU); Avocado and Lime Green (Reverse Confetti).
INK: Versamark; Twisted Citron and Mowed Lawn distress inks.
DIES: Stitched rectangles by Lil' Inker Designs; Holly Confetti Cuts by Reverse Confetti; Stitched Fishtail Flags Die-Namics by MFT.

For more inspiration with this sketch, click on the mojomakers' blog links below...or...you can go to the Mojo Monday blog and click on the first seven thumbnails.
Julee Tilman (Owner)
Justin Krieger
Lori Tecler
Marisa Ritzen 
Sarah Bigelow
Teresa Kline
Wanda Cullen (you are here)
 
Hope to see you in the gallery!

Retrosketches

This card is for the new Retrosketches #241 challenge.  It's been a LONG time since I've used this Spellbinder ornament die.  I kept it plain and simple and dry embossed with a snowflake folder by Sizzix.  I topped it off with the Holly Confetti Cuts by Reverse Confetti.  The sentiment die is by Papertrey Ink - cut twice with Simply Chartreuse CS (PTI) and once with a silver glitter CS. Patterned papers are from My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas 6x6 pad.  

I started decorating our house for Christmas earlier this week.  I'm about 80% finished with the main tree being the last thing to assemble.  Yup, I'm an artificial tree lover now.  No more needles and sap dropping on everything and no more crooked trunks with a tree crashing to the ground after it's fully decorated.  That was the straw that broke the camel's back in 1993!  It's been non-living trees ever since. The temperatures drastically dropped today...making it feel more like Christmas.  Thanks for stopping by...

Inspired By...All the Little Things

Check out the great inspiration photo with these sweet vintage style trees for the new Inspired By...All the Little Things Challenge! Since the photo is very clean and simple, I knew I wanted to stay with a CAS card design.  I was inspired by the circular medallions in the mantle - thus the wreath element.  I also went with the coral and bluish green tree colors and knew right away I wanted to layer up Reverse Confetti's Branch Out dies.  I watercolored 3 different pieces of Ranger watercolor cardstock using Abandoned Coral, Evergreen Bough and Pine Needles distress inks.  The wooden tree bases led me to choose kraft as a layer.  So...how will YOU be inspired this week? Sure hope to see you in the gallery!

We're happy to welcome Myra Webb as our guest this week!  Be sure to stop by the Inspired By blog to get to know her better and see her wonderful sample! 


STAMPS: Christmas Blessings (Reverse Confetti).
PAPER: Forest Foliage (SU), Kraft (PTI), White, Ranger WC cardstock.
INK:Versamark; Abandoned Coral, Evergreen Bough, Pine Needles distress ink by Tim Holtz.
MISCELLANEOUS: Gold sequins; Branch Out, Edgers and Wreaths Confetti Cuts dies by Reverse Confetti; Queen's Gold embossing powder by Ranger.