Old-Timey Christmas

Hi! Last week at Two Peas, Polka Dot Pixels released a series of digital chalkboard elements. I always love seeing the new releases, but I was positively giddy when I saw her new Chalked Journaling Title Cards. I love the old-timey fonts and scroll work....just like title cards in silent movies. (*squeal*)

I was so excited to start playing with them, and the timing was perfect for this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge. It's Color Splash time with the color maroon:

Using the journaling cards and these colors, I made a set of Christmas cards:

I'd love to say I pulled off Betsy Veldman-style stamping on these (like she did HERE), but the sentiments are the digital Chalked Journaling Cards.

I simply enlarged each journaling card, printed them, matted them on a piece of white cardstock, and adhered them to chevron paper. Other than spending a ridiculous amount of time deciding which shade of red chevron paper to use for the background (insert eye roll here), I made the set of cards in no time.

Here are four of the cards:

I think I'll be making more of these as last-minute Christmas cards... hee hee

Want to play along with this week's PDCC Color Splash? The winner will win a prize from the PDCC Prize Vault. You can link up your project HERE.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies
Cardstock: (Sweet Tooth) Stamp School
Patterned Paper: (Chevron Pack) Amuse Studio (thanks, Glenda!)
Digital element: (Chalked Journaling Title Cards) Polka Dot Pixels at Two Peas in a Bucket

Peace on Earth

Hello, hello! For all my American friends, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I'm back from a trip to Hershey, and had a blast. Well, maybe not the work part, but it was great seeing my mom and oldest brother and visiting the Hershey Factory. The chocolate upon chocolate was cool and yet almost absurd--very Wonka-ish (minus Slugworth). Of course, I loved how over-the-top it was.

Now the countdown to Christmas is on. To get into the holiday spirit, I wanted to share a card that was published in the Paper Crafts Magazine's Card Design Handbook:

This little guy cracks me up! This card is all-digital. I started with a Splendid Fiins' digital journaling card (the stick figure and speech bubble), enlarged it, recolored the background, and created my own sentiment.

I wanted to mention that I have a link to my Twitter and Pinterest accounts on the sidebar. You can click on the Twitter to see Elvis in my craft room (you know you want to see him!).

If you haven't had a chance to link up yet, The Play Date Cafe two-week challenge ends on Tuesday night. You can see the post HERE.

Thanks for looking! Have a great week!

Supplies
Cardstock: (white) PTI
Digital element: (journaling card from Blah Blah Blah Journaling cards) Splendid Fiins at Jessica Sprague
I used Photoshop Elements to make this card

Hugs to You

Next week I'll be traveling to Pennsylvania for work, but since I only have a few hours of work, I decided to extend the trip a couple of days and take my daughter. My mom is driving down to meet us, too. We're planning on going to the Hershey Factory. It's been about 10 years since I've been there, but I loved the Wonka-ness of the place. I'm really looking forward to seeing my daughter's face when she sees all the chocolate (well, maybe I'm looking forward to a little chocolate also. ;).

It's time for another Play Date Cafe challenge, and this one is a 2 week challenge. Here are this week's colors:

I loved those fingerless gloves (they wouldn't work in South Dakota, but I love how they look). It reminded me of a coffee cozy I saw a while ago (sorry I can't remember who to credit for this idea!). I used one of my husband's wool socks to make this cozy:

I started by cutting off the ribbed cuff of a wool sock. I stitched over the edges with some felt ric-a-rac to keep the edges from fraying. Yes, the hand stitching is atrocious....I was obviously paying more attention to the TV show I was watching. Seriously, though, I think a little adhesive would help when stitching through the heavy ribbing of the sock.

I die cut the white label and pink heart from Stamp School wool felt and added the same "homespun" stitching on the heart. The circle is digital paper from the "I Wanna Be" collection at Two Peas. Here's a close-up:

I slipped the cozy over a travel coffee cup just to show you how it looks. Other than the stitching, the project came together very quickly. Now I'm looking at my kids' sweaters to see what kinds of cuffs they have...

I also make a hybrid card to go with the coffee cozy:

I started by layering portions of the chevron papers from the same "I Wanna Be" collection. I printed the image along with a pink solid and green with grey hearts paper from the same collection. I die cut the same pink felt I used on the cozy.

For the arrows, the veneer arrow wasn't long enough, so I used two different arrows and covered them with the heart. I finished the card off with a Waltzingmouse sentiment. Here's a close-up:

Want to play along? This week, the PDCC is sponsored by Scor-Pal:

You can link up your project HERE, and remember, you have two weeks for this challenge.

Thanks so much for looking! Have a great week.


SUPPLIES

Coffee Cozy
Other Patterned Paper: (green chevron digital paper from I Wanna Be) Edeline Marta & Armina Designs at Two Peas in a Bucket
Other Paper: (premium matte photo paper) Office Max
Fibers: (Whip Cream and Cotton Candy felt) Stamp School
Dies: (Labels #10) PTI; (heart) WPlus9

Card
Cardstock: (kraft) The Paper Source

Other Patterned Paper: (all digital papers from I Wanna Be) Edeline Marta & Armina Designs at Two Peas in a Bucket
Other Paper: (premium matte photo paper) Office Max
Clear Stamps: (sentiment from Sweethearts set)Waltzingmouse Stamps
Dye Ink: (Tuxedo Black) Memento
Dies: (Limitless Layers) PTI; (heart) WPlus9
Accessories: (wood veneer arrows) Studio Calico

Be Your Best Self

I hope you're having a good week! This week, I led my daughter's Brownie troop to get their "I Love Scrapbooking" badge. I think I may have to steal the badge from her, although they need an "I Love Paper Crafting" badge (hee hee). I spent a solid hour die cutting pieces for two cards, and some of the girls finished their cards in 10 minutes. If only I could craft that fast. ;) It was so much fun to work with the girls.

It's time for a new Play Date Cafe Challenge. This week's colors are wisteria, fuchsia, and plum:

I went ultra CAS for this week's card since it's all about the sentiment:

Can I say how much I love this Rhonna Designs sentiment? Crazy love!

To make this card, I simply stamped the sentiment with the digital brush and selectively recolored portions. I tried a couple of other techniques with the sentiment, but ultimately, I liked the highly graphic look. I don't think I need a close-up of this card since it's pretty clear-cut. ;)

Want to play along with this week's Cafe challenge? This week, we're being sponsored by Simon Says Stamps, and the winner will win a gift certificate from them:

You can make anything for the challenge...a card, a layout, a tag, fabric creations, baked products (seriously! I'd love to see that!)....anything goes as long as it uses the colors. You can link up HERE.

Last week for my World Card Making Contest post, I was offering a copy of the Paper Crafts Tips and Tricks to a commenter. The winner is the super-talented Kelly Griglione. Kelly, I'll drop you an e-mail.

Thanks for looking! Have a great day!

Supplies
Cardstock: (white) Stamp School
Other paper: (Premium Matte Photo Paper) Office Max
Digital stamp: (Insta Quotes digital brush) Rhonna Designs

DSD Two Peas Hop

Happy Digital Scrapbooking Day! Yep, today is a celebration for the digital scrapbooking world, and members of the Two Peas Digital Designers and Creative Team are hopping for DSD.

If you're hopping along, you should be coming from Edeline Marta and your next stop will be Jackie Doremus. If you get lost along the way or want to start at the beginning, you can click over to the Two Peas Digital Blog.

At each blog, there will be part of a code. At the end of the hop, you will have the complete code that will allow you access to the fabulous collaboration FREEBIE in the Two Peas store.

We each used the Reflection collaboration kit to make projects, and I decided I would try and make a project using an element from as many of the Designers as I could (yes, I like a challenge). I ended up creating a fall card with the various patterned papers:

I started with the background, resizing the light blue paper and stamping the Hero Arts brush in charcoal grey. Next, I cropped, resized and printed several patterned papers, and because you might see the underside of the leaves, I printed a different patterned papers on the backside. I die cut the leaves four times to layer them. Here's a peek of the layering of the leaves:

I did a little distressing with scissors, and a bunch of stitching through the elements. All of the leaves were inked with inks, and I finished the card off by adding a couple of banner strips under the sentiment. Here's the other close-up of the leaf:

I managed to include 8 different patterned papers on the card...that may be a record for me. :)

The Reflection Kit is only available free for a limited time, so be sure to hop and write down the letters for the code. The part of my code is "P." I hope you enjoy the kit!

In addition to the freebie, there are several challenges over at the Two Peas Digital Blog, and each one gives you a chance to win a gift certificate for the Two Peas store.

Next up in the hop is Jackie!

Have a great day. Thanks for looking!

Supplies
Patterned Papers: (Reflections Collaboration Kit) Two Peas in a Bucket
Cardstock: (kraft) Papertrey Ink
Stamp: (digital sentiment from Say It Again) Hero Arts at Two Peas in a Bucket
Ink: (Frost) Colorbox; (Antique Linen Distress Ink) Ranger
Die: (Fall Leaf) Memory Box

Be Amazing and Some Good News!

Last week, I received a very happy e-mail from Holly at Paper Crafts Magazine, telling me I was one of the winners of their World Card Making Day contest! I was giddy, shocked, honored, and a little choked-up over the news. Yeah! I'm still on a high over the news (or maybe it's the two pounds of candy I'm eating while passing out treats for Halloween). Thank you so much, Paper Crafts!!

My card was for the Love category, and I had my son in mind when I made it. :) I can't show the card, but I thought I would share another card I made for Two Peas recently:

I used digital patterned papers from Adrienne Looman and fussy cut the roses from one of the papers (I resized the roses to make them larger).  Before I layered the elements, I misted the background with some green metallic spray mist. I do love that little bit of metallic.

I trimmed some leaves and die cut more papers for layering. The great sentiment is from SwissGirl Designs. Here's a close-up:

As a thank you, I thought I would do a Paper Crafts giveaway. Please leave a comment on this post by Sunday night, and I'll send one random commenter a copy of the new Paper Crafting Tips and Tricks issue.

Thanks so much, PC! Thanks for looking. Have a great day!

Supplies

Cardstock: (white, Ripe Avocado) Papertrey Ink 

Other paper: (Premium Matte Photo Paper) Office Max; (flower, blue floral, rust digital papers from Dad’s Closet) Adrienne Looman; (green chevron from Grapefruit Add On) Adrienne Looman

Clear stamps: (sentiment from Dream Real Big) SwissGirl Designs

Dye ink: (Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko

Pigment ink: (Antique Linen Distress Ink) Ranger

Specialty ink: (Lime Metallic spray mist) Maya Road

Accent: (Heydey Wood Veneer) Studio Calico

Dies: (label die) My Favorite Things; (Limitless Layers 1.5”) Papertrey Ink