a Christmas driving by adventure

 The Jingle Belles have asked, at the beginning of their 12th! season, "What did Santa bring you?"  My favorite gift this year was new ink pad & marker storage units but I couldn't imagine how to incorporate them in a card.  The rest of my new stampin' goodies came from the January-June mini and Sale-A-Bration catalogs that start tomorrow, and they will make great Valentine and spring/summer occasion cards, but Christmas?  Not so much...

Leena Girsa posted some great ideas for the Driving By set - FREE during Sale-A-Bration with any $50 purchase! - that I was CASEing.  I kept thinking all 3 vehicles are just adorable, but something seemed off about the little VW.  Finally I realized that the gifts on top of the car evoked Christmas more than birthday for me!

stamp set - Driving By; ink - Memento Tuxedo Black; Stampin' Blends - Gray Granite combo, Cherry Cobbler combo; Stampin' Write markers - Evening Evergreen, Soft Succulent; card stock - Basic White, Evening Evergreen, Soft Succulent; designer series paper - Tidings of Christmas; Stampin' Cut & Emboss machine with Word Wishes and Layering Circles dies

The other two cards I made (only slightly different than Leena's) really showcase the "not so much" Christmas vibe of this set:

stamp sets - Driving By, Birds & Branches; ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Pumpkin Pie; Stampin' Blend combos - Smoky Slate, Pool Party, Granny Apple Green, Bermuda Bay; card stock - Basic White regular and thick, Pumpkin Pie; designer series paper - Pattern Party; Stampin' Cut & Emboss machine with Tasteful Labels dies

stamp sets - Driving By, Special Moments; ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark; Stampin' emboss powder - Basics White; Stampin' Blend combos - Smoky Slate, Poppy Parade; card stock - Basic White, Basic Black, Poppy Parade; designer series paper - Pattern Party; Stampin' Cut & Emboss machine with Layering Circles dies and Tasteful Textile 3D embossing folder; Banners Pick a Punch

The greetings in the Driving By set, in addition to "you've got style" are "awww, thanks" and "DRIVING BY just to say hi" - the convertible with its balloons make me think of a wedding or anniversary - is it just me?

Twofer NBUS Challenge adventure

 Recently, I've been working through my overly large and growing collection of Never-Before-Used-Stuff, and I had just decided that this stamp set was next, when the Twofer Card Challenge prompt #31 ~ Trees appeared in my feed reader (which I'm also working through).  Well, obviously this had to happen:

Can you tell which one I colored first? (lol)  I made the one on the left as a Thanksgiving card, but I haven't stamped the inside yet, so it could end up as a birthday card, since this set includes a Happy Birthday stamp.  Or I could just write a note inside, but I'm not much of a note writer anymore.  The cabin stamp has trees, but to be sure, I also used the same embossing folder on both cards - no one said the trees had to have leaves, right?

stamp set - Rustic Retreat; ink - Balmy Blue, Cinnamon Cider, Shaded Spruce, Stazon Saddle Brown; Stampin' Write markers - Cinnamon Cider, Shaded Spruce, Misty Moonlight, Bumblebee, Seaside Spray; Stampin' chalk marker; Stampin' Blends - light & dark Smoky Slate; card stock - Very Vanilla, Bumblebee, Cinnamon Cider, watercolor paper; Stampin' Emboss folder - Woodland; Stampin' Cut dies - Stitched Nested Labels

stamp set - Rustic Retreat; ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Old Olive; Stampin' Blends - light Crumb Cake, dark Old Olive, light & dark Smoky Slate, light & dark Soft Suede; card stock - Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Old Olive; Stampin' Emboss folder - Woodland; Stampin' Cut dies - Layering Ovals

I've mentioned before that I live in a log home in a clearing in the woods, so you KNOW I couldn't pass up this stamp set.  It made this challenge nearly non-challenging, as it includes several sentiments and more images, also.  Embarrassingly, I bought it in January and today is the first time I used it.  

I've been trying to decide what happened to me - I stopped reading blogs (over 2000 unread posts in the stamping and card making category alone!) and I made ZERO Christmas cards from February through July.  It's not as if I haven't had time - we've been home since March, and there were no Card Buffet events to prepare for.  Then I realized that's what happened.  With no events to prepare for, who was going to care if I wasn't making cards?  If I weren't making cards, why would I be looking for inspiration?  And, I think I had a subconscious reaction to everything being cancelled that made me feel as if Christmas would be cancelled.  So now it's September, and I need more than 100 cards in less than 3 months.  I guess I better quit typing and get back to stamping!

adventure with new FREE stuff

The everlasting Lovely as a Tree stamp set was one of my early Stampin' Up!® purchases, which I'm sure you've heard before, here and elsewhere.  The newly released Rooted in Nature set was the first thing on my wishlist from the 2018-2019 catalog.  Lucky me, it was one of the table giveaways at OnStage and still available when it was my turn to choose!  I've used it to make many cards already; this is the latest, for which I referenced yesterday's Sketch Saturday offering:

stamp set - Rooted in Nature; ink - Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand, Versamark; card stock - Sahara Sand, Whisper White

I'm as surprised as you are that the Big Shot didn't appear in my tools list! There is a coordinating set of thinlits (and of course they were on my first order), but the cross-section piece is easy enough to hand cut, and the set is big enough (12!) as it is.

I also received the Animal Outing set at OnStage, as all attendees did.  It wouldn't have made it to my wishlist, so I had to work a bit harder to put it to use.  For this one I used the Freshly Made Sketches challenge:

stamp set - Animal Outing; ink - Memento Tuxedo Black Soft Suede; Stampin' Blends - Crumb Cake light & dark, Smoky Slate dark, Old Olive light, Bronze; Stampin' Write marker - Soft Suede; card stock - Crumb Cake, Granny Apple Green, Whisper White; Big Shot with Layering Circles framelits

current challenge adventures

If you've been following along, you will have noticed that I've had some "issues" with the cards I've posted recently.  My theory is that it's because I've been pushing myself a bit to keep up with the challenges I've accepted.  I'm grateful today that I'm current on all of them!  Here are cards 37 through 43, five of which went together without issue:

I'm hoping you noticed the Christmas card in the back row center - here it is again, as part of Twofer Card Challenge #2, where the prompt is Hearts:

Of course, I've convinced myself that I was particularly clever in using not just the EXACT same die for both hearts, but actually it's just one heart; I've used both the die cut and the negative from one pass through my Big Shot ;)  

The Christmas card was inspired by the Jingle Belles' prompt of A-Coloring We Will Go.  I colored the bird last month, and cut him out as well, but couldn't decide what to do with him.  When the new Twofer Challenge posted, I searched Christmas, Cardinal and Heart on Pinterest and found this felt ornament - wow!  Unfortunately the link no longer works, but it gave me the inspiration I needed.  I was still dealing with issues, though.  I attempted to cut the heart through the front of a card base - it was both crooked and off-center, necessitating some serious trimming.  Then I was a little rough with the bird and broke off the leg on the right - it's been mended, but doesn't he look a bit spraddle-legged?  Maybe it's just me...

stamp sets - Best Birds, Christmas Pines; ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Smoky Slate; Stampin' Blends; Stampin' Write marker - Basic Black; card stock - Whisper White, Soft Sky, Smoky Slate; Big Shot with Sweet & Sassy framelits and Woodland textured impression folder

And, making use of a NBUS stamp set that has so many options I temporarily had a bit of creativity paralysis, the companion card, a bit more Clean And Simple:

stamp set - Waterfront; ink - Marina Mist, Soft Sky, Peekaboo Peach, Fresh Fig, Always Artichoke; Big Shot with Sweet & Sassy framelit

new product adventures

OK, I know you've seen these products before, including here (assuming you've been here before) but my Stampin' Blends and Brusho Colour Crystals are still new enough to me that I feel I need a lot more practice.  I loved this card of Amy O'Neill's, but couldn't bring myself to make any more blue cards; for some reason, half of the cards I've made and added to my display stand recently have been mainly blue!  I changed the colors and also changed the layout a bit, using the new one from Sketch Saturday:

stamp sets - Flying Home, Yay You (hostess); ink - Memento Tuxedo Black; Soft Suede; Stampin' Blends; card stock - Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight, Soft Suede; designer series paper - Wood Textures; Big Shot with Stitched Circles and Layering Circles framelits  

Looking at it now in the photograph, it seems like it just needs a little something more - maybe a spray of leaves tucked under the right side of the circles?  I'll try that...

Before I go, though, I also wanted to share this card, which I made with my favorite color of purple for Tuesday Throwdown:

stamp sets - Beautiful Day, Yay You (hostess); ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Melon Mambo; stampin' emboss powder - Clear (I think, maybe White?); Brusho Crystal Colours - Brilliant Red, Prussian Blue; card stock - Watercolor, Very Vanilla, Dapper Denim, Perfect Plum  

I'm pretty pleased with it, other than having inadvertently shortened the butterfly's body.  The Stampin' Up! set of Brushos doesn't include purple (whaaaat!?), so I mixed my own by combining blue and red crystals on a palette and mixing them together with water.  I used an Aquabrush to painting the watercolor onto the butterfly, which is stamped and embossed on watercolor paper.  I used the same two colors for the background by simply sprinkling them onto dry Very Vanilla card stock and spraying water at an angle across them.  I've found that I can use the less expensive plain card stock without an issue if I don't try to "work" the colors.  The red spread and lightened more than the blue, so to give it more definition, I stamped the flower image over it using stamped-off Melon Mambo.

adventures with Stampin' Blends

When I saw the newest sketch at Atlantic Hearts Challenge, I thought about posting the card I created last week for CASEing Tuesday (you can see it here, in the upper left), since the sketch was similar and I hadn't yet posted it here.  Then I realized that it was a good reason to use one of the other stamps in that set (it's my favorite set this week) and practice more with my Stampin' Blends:

stamp sets - Better Together, Flying Home; ink - Memento Black, Dapper Denim (on the envelope); Stampin' Blends - various; Stampin' Write markers - Calypso Coral, Old Olive; card stock - Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Calypso Coral, Marina Mist; punch - Blossom Builder

I can't tell you exactly which Stampin' Blend colors I used, because several times I didn't like the color of something, so I colored over it with another color, and sometimes a third, until I liked it - one of the best things about using Stampin' Blends, and there's no paper pilling!

new year resolutions adventure

I don't make resolutions for a new year; if there's something I want to change or begin, I don't wait.  For things that can be counted though, January 1 is as a logical starting point.  I set myself two goals this year - read more books and create more.  Cut It  Up Challenges  requested cards that indicate our resolutions or goals:

stamp set - Crafting Forever; ink - Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Dapper Denim, Lemon Lime Twist, Versamark; Stampin' Blends; Stampin' Emboss powder - white; card stock - Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Dapper Denim, Lemon Lime Twist; Big shot with Layered Ovals and Banners (retired) framelits

(edited to add): I almost forgot to tell you, I used the sketch from Hand Stamped Sentiments!

Two of my Stampin' Up! team members came over for a Stampin' Blends play date and I've had the paint brush pot sitting on my table since then.  I have a couple of birds that are looking for places to roost, too...

I won't know whether I've actually read more books and made more things if I don't know how many I did last year, so, I counted the cards I made last year (259) and joined the #365somethings2018 challenge.  To date, I've made 14 of my #365cards2018.  Here's this week's set:

I'm only one ahead, at 14 on the 13th, but I need a few more for Card Buffet Wednesday evening; at least two designs for the options to make and two more for the samples display, so I'll get back to work now - thanks for stopping by!