Let's get those Christmas Cards Going

Good afternoon.

It's finally turning chilly here in Arizona. We will go no higher than 72 degrees today. Sweater weather, right? I know, the rest of the states are laughing at us. Seriously, I don't function in anything lower than 50 these days. I never want to see and/or feel those east coast days again.

On to my card. I decided to hunt for some challenges and found this one, Festive Friday.
I decided to enter this card. It's a 6x6 card which is a very unusual size for me, I recently splurged and purchased a British magazine from Barnes & Noble. It was quite pricy, but several British craft magazines include goodies all packaged up in good quality plastic. Cardmaking & Papercraft, October no. 28, had an embossing folder and papers and stamps. The price was totally worth it when you think about it. A folder this size can cost around $9.00. A sramp set such as the one included can cost $10.00. There you have it,

To round out my card, and make it totally Christmas, I added a die cut from CheeryLynn Designs, one that incorporates the words into the wreath, yet can be used with or without them. I aded a miniature ornament from my stash, as well as a ribbon. I am not sure I love this wreath. It is large which I do like, but rather skimpy. I think the next time, I will cut three of them and then overlap slightly askew to give it more dimension.

I'm going to keep dinner simple and probably skip my treadmill routine so that I can make cards all day. I'm planning posting a YouTube video of a haul I made yesterday at a semi-annual Convention held in a nearby town. It's huge. I'll link it up in my next post.

Hope you get to stamp today too.

Blessings,
Erica

Whatever

It's time for another fun card and I found the perfect digi....alas, it was a while ago and that's why I'm posting it for Simply Create Too's challenge no. 73, Shop in Your Craft Room, open now. Go join the fun.

I found this free digi and didn't take down the info about a month ago. It takes me forever to figure how to reduce/manipulate digis on my Mac so she sat smiling at me for weeks. Finally, I got her right and colored her up giving using lots of fun papers, flowers, and butterflies. The sentiment is a Studio G one word image that I sampled onto a word bubble. I felt it was perfect as I'm often accussed by friends and family of hiding out in my craft room far too often. What can I say? It brings me pure joy.

There is a RS Event in the next town over from me this weekend. I'm trying very hard to talk myself out of going, but I don't think I'm succeeding, so look for a haul photo early next week. GROAN!

Blessings,
Erica

Simply Create Too DT Submission for Challenge #72

Hi Stampers,

We don't celebrate Halloween in my home, but I don't think a little treat bag posted on my blog counts as a celebration. It's just an idea for the holiday, right....OK, humor me will ya'?

I created my bag using a tutorial on the Tube and added a few embellies. No need to buy a sentiment or the paper as they were both included in sets with other sentiments. and dsp. This bag can hold quite a few treats in it.

So play along with our challenge no. 74, "Halloween/Use Orange." Just have some fun before we head into my absolute fave holiday....THANKSGIVING!

Blessings,
Erica

The Popular Block Card

Hi Stampers,

Have you had a chance to check out the block card tutorials on YouTube? They look difficult and pack a big WOW factor, but they are quite easy to make. I think I'll be creating lots of these.

There are several tutorials to choose from. One I particularly like is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkK9r2taoms. This is from Dawn 5377. She is a regular on YouTube and an SU demo. I actually first saw a tutorial by Papercrafter45 on YouTube and many of her samples can be found on Pinterest here http://www.pinterest.com/papercrafter...
earlier this year. It's got so many possibilities.
I hope you will give this card a try.

Blessings,
Erica

Perfect Blend

Good afternoon Stampers,

It was National Coffee Day yesterday. Several of the larger coffee house chains had specials going on. I just stayed in my house and sipped on my very own freeze-dried Douwe Egbert's coffee from Amazon. With the addition of Dunkin' Donuts vanilla creamer and a bit of raw sugar...I like it sweet and light, I settled in to make a card to celebrate my love of coffee.

If you need some inspiration of your own, there was a one day blog hop going on here  Cuts, Crops & Creativity and since I love coffee and have quite a few coffee related stamps, I thought I'd create a card. Of course, I was late to the party. It was only for one day, but judging from all the entries, there's a lot of stamping friends just like me.

I chose a sunflower hue card stock from Recollections Spice Market for my base and added a creme border using a Whimsy Stamps border die. The images were all from an older Fiskars clear stamp set called Latte Love. I stamped in Versafine Vintage Sepia and embossed with Zing brown embossing powder. I colored the circles and heart with my pencils. The long labels are from a pack by The Paper Studio called Ninth Street and die cut with MFT's dies. I added 3 small sequins after the pic was taken and they definitely were needed. Try to envision my strategic placement please. :D

It was a quick card so that I could hurry and jump on my treadmill for a quick 4,000 steps. I may get in another 2,000, but 10,000. How do people manage this???

Blessings, Erica

Simply Create Too DT Challenge no. 70

Hi Stampers,

I have a new card up for the design team I'm a member of. It's a double embossed card. That's where you place and glue down a die cut of your choice and then emboss the entire piece as one. This one uses CB dies on Recollection's creme cs and a Tim Holtz' Tattered Leaves die cut from a scrap of green from my stash. I colored in the dots with a Stampin' Up dazzle gold marker.

As usual, I've been creating, but not taking photos and posting. October is going to be different....you heard it here.

Now go join in on the mid-post week at Simply Create Too and post your Autumn/Fall cards.

Blessings,
Erica

Devil Smackdown Card

Hi Stampers,

I love attending Rubber Stamping/Scrapbooking conventions. We have two that come to AZ each year. I can only afford one though. I stock up on un-mounted stamps and these two were irresistible.
They are from Rubbernecker. I don't see them in the big box stores, but their prices are great.

I just love this image and sentiment. They weren't sold together, but they sure go together in my opinion. The sink and her curlers are pink, but I think I used too dark a copic for the coloring. Can you ever have enough of these markers?

I sent this to a dear friend and she absolutely loved it.

Blessings,
Erica