I struggled a bit with the newest prompt at Jingle Belles - "primarily feature the color red." I'm not sure why, but nothing inspired me until I watched someone sponge two colors onto a piece of foiled designer series paper. I used one color, a different piece of paper, and a brayer instead of a sponge, but it was definitely the inspiration I needed:
stamp set - Brightest Glow; ink - Really Red, Versamark; Stampin' Emboss powder - Gold; designer series paper - Most Adored (Sale-A-Bration); card stock - Real Red; Stampin' Cut dies: Thoughtful Expressions
I can't decide whether I wish I'd worked harder to get the background color more even, or if I like the variegated look better - I stopped with a variegated look, so let's say that's my preferred look. Either way, I really enjoyed the process with the newest Stampin' brayer! I have both the softer rubber brayer and the sponge brayers we used to offer, but this one was much easier to work with.
I was cleaning up a bit yesterday and found these die-cut letters I hadn't used last month. They would have looked stunning on a white background if not for the hint of green peeking out from the underlayer. The pine boughs die cut I've had for a few years provided some green for the background, but then I needed a "buffer" so the word didn't disappear. I decided my newest dies would be exactly right for a vellum layer, pulling together something old and something new for the current Jingle Belles challenge:
After painstakingly weeding out the pinecones and boughs, I remembered why I don't use that die set more often, but it's worth it for a special card
If you're new here, you may not know yet how much I love the Jingle Belles blog, where Stephanie and Lauren have inspired us for 14 years! "to prevent holiday mayhem" by making Christmas cards January through November. For January they've prompted us to use wrapping paper. Sometimes I find it easier to narrow down my creative choices if I have more direction, and over the years, I've found several other favorite sites that help me out with that. The snowflake theme for my card today is from Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round and the sketch is #617 from Freshly Made Sketches:
stamp set - Ringed with Nature; ink - Versamark; Stampin' emboss powder - metallic silver; card stock - Shimmer White (retired), Brushed Gold (retired), Basic White; designer series paper - not really, it's tissue gift wrap I received from a friend a few years ago
All that white space tends to make me a little nervous, but it's got a sweet subtle shimmer in real life.
Just a quick note to say that reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. Oh, wait, that was Mark Twain. But unlike several of my all-time favorite authors, Mark Twain included, I'm still having adventures in the current realm.
When I retired, I vowed to make more things and read more books. In 2023 I made 316 cards; the only year I made more was 2020. So far this year, I'm on track for 366 cards in 366 days, but it may be a bit early to have my hopes up. Here's my first, using a a template from JessCrafts.com:
I have consistently read more books each year since I retired, but for 2024 I'm simply hoping to match my 2023 record of 60 books and 20,000 pages.
In 2022 (which you may have noticed is the last time I posted here), I was gifted a Nintendo Switch Lite and Animal Crossing New Horizons - that became a daily habit! Towards the end of last year, I realized that "play more games" should have been one of my retirement goals as well, but I don't think I'm going to quantify that one.
Watch this space for new updates - I'm hoping to blog a bit more actively this year. That won't be a difficult goal to achieve, based on my 2023 activity!
The situation in Ukraine has weighed especially heavily on my heart and although I realize that thoughts and prayers and making cards aren't enough (or even helpful in any real way), it's all I can offer right now. I made this card a few days ago in response to the ModSquad challenge Standing With Ukraine and the special challenge at Color Hues. I posted it on Instagram for my #100daysofdailycreativity challenge but I hadn't posted it here because I didn't "love" it. This evening as I was catching up on blog posts, I read the options for the World Planting Day challenge at Festive Friday. The card already had flowers and encouragement, but the addition of an insect was just what it needed:
I know rabbits are for Easter, but the Twelve Days of Christmas have been a long-time source of questions for me, and I've spent a lot of time wandering around that particular rabbit hole. It started in grade school (do they still call it that?), when we learned the song in music class (do they still have that?). I wanted to know which twelve days they meant (starting or ending on Christmas?), why were there suddenly rings in the middle of all those birds (and other living beings), and what exactly were colly birds, anyway? As you can imagine, more than one grade school teacher, music teacher, or parent told me I asked too many questions. When I found other versions of the song with calling birds, I settled for that. And, I finally learned from a novel set in medieval England that the twelve days start on Christmas (and end on January 5, the day before Epiphany).
Then I tried to decide on a color for the calling birds on the card I was making for the Twelve Days of Christmas prompt at Jingle Belles. Cardinals are a popular Christmas icon, but the birds in my stamp set don't look like cardinals. So I thought I'd try an internet search. It turns out the use of "colly" in the song predates "calling" by about 100 years, and in the time the song first became popular, colly was a form of "coal-y" and referred to blackbirds. I wasn't willing to stamp black birds on my Christmas card, though, so I used the blue from the background designer series paper:
I added hearts as a way of hedging my bets - these birds are calling out true love.
While wandering around the rabbit hole this evening I saw a mention that "gold rings" may have referred to ring-necked pheasants. I didn't chase it down, but that makes so much more sense to my logic-loving mind!
Do you love sweets as much as I do? I didn't try to fool myself into resolving to give them up, but if you did, the Jingle Belles have reminded us that the paper versions have no calories AND make great Christmas cards:
Sometimes I buy designer series paper that I think I'll love, and I do, but I get tired of it if I over use it. When this paper was available last year, I started out with a one-sheet wonder design to make fourteen cards, and then I just kept using the paper. I never got tired of it, and I'm pretty sure I used it on more than 30 cards. It's still a favorite, maybe because gingerbread was always one of my favorite Christmas treats!
I made a few selective edits (somewhere, I saw CASE explained as Copy And Selectively Edit, but I can't remember where...) to make my version fit a couple of challenges. I used the colors from The Paper Players
Then, I used twine instead of ribbon to make it more suitable for a teenage boy, according to the prompt at The Male Room
I think Heather's design is perfect for this versatile stamp set and her tutorial for using a Stamparatus makes it easy!
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!
I knew I hadn't posted in a while - but, since April? Oops! I think I'm the only one who notices, though. I have a few new stamp sets that need inking, and the sketch #441 at Paper Craft Crew sparked my imagination:
I seem to have not used the new stamp set other than on the envelope (oops), but that counts, right? I used a new die set and a new embossing folder, though, and the new sparkling ombre specialty paper that I forgot I bought (oops)
I intended to be completely faithful to the sketch, but I needed the bat to cover an imperfection in the punched corner of the square (oops) and then I forgot all about the sequins (oops, again). It's a good thing for me that perfection is not required for card making or for participation at Darnell's fabulous NBUS Challenge!
Really, it's *not* another CASE 😉 I've been working on #the100dayproject again this year and I'm doing well so far, much better than I usually do! I'm sticking with what's easiest for me, cards, but I've never done one daily for an extended period, and I don't have that many original ideas, so I Copy And Share Everyone else's ideas a lot of the time. I found an idea I was going to copy for one of my new stamp and die sets, but I wanted to change the colors. I remembered seeing one I liked but couldn't remember where, so I was browsing through challenge sites - I found it at The Paper Players. Before I found it again, I found a sketch I really like at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge so I'll save the design I was going to CASE for another day.
I'm sorry about the title, but I just couldn't resist. The past two weeks Jingle Belles have been taking back December with cards that use dies, Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round are using the letters G and H for inspiration and Christmas is the theme at Addicted to Stamps and More! 
stamp sets - A Wish for Everything, Banner Year; ink - Shaded Spruce, Soft Seafoam; card stock - Shaded Spruce, Soft Seafoam; stampin' cut dies - Word Wishes
I found some holly in a new-last-year stamp set and I've been trying to remember to use the word dies more often - I think they worked well to bring these three challenges together. I'm really pleased that I kept track of the little dot for my i long enough to get it glued on!
I wanted to try a cleaner card with the same stamp and die set I used last wekk for the Jingle Belles prompt (it ends today!). This time I combined it with the newest Mystery Monday layout from TXStampin Sharon Armstrong:
I changed the shape of the sentiment and didn't stamp the embellishment, but other than that I was faithful to the mystery clues, and I think it works.
While I was working, I remembered that Stampin' Up! released the retirement list today, so I checked it - the stamp set and all of the dies I used are retiring! If you're interested in adding them to your collection, they are only available until supplies are exhausted, or May 3 - get them now!
I've been keeping up with #The100DayProject this year, today is day 47. Some days I have to CASE cards because I don't have an idea and some days ideas pop into my head from the challenge blogs I read. This card was inspired by Shopping Our Stash #441 The Rainbow Connection (yes, that brings to mind a sweet little green frog!):
Years ago my parents and some friends owned a hot air balloon, and we traveled around a bit to balloon festivals. The rainbow balloons were always a favorite of mine.
The lovely Jingle Belles are looking for The Holly & The Ivy , or any other holiday foliage, this week, and I just happen to have some:
stamp set - Peaceful Boughs; ink - Shaded Spruce; card stock - Basic White regular and thick, Gold Foil, Shaded Spruce; Stampin' Emboss - Evergreen Forest; Stampin' Cut - Beautiful Boughs, Layered Ovals
I believe I may have gone just a bit overboard on the foliage, but less didn't look better to me. Hmmm, maybe just one bough? I may have to have another try...
I created two cards from the Jingle Belles sketch this week! My first attempt wasn't the traditional color scheme I wanted to use, as that wouldn't have worked well for the images I selected. It also seemed to work better if the sketch was upside down:
I used lots of the Oh So Ombre paper I was working on last month, but most of my posts are on Instagram. It's quicker to put a post up there, and I'm working on making 100 #handmadecards in 100 days for #the100daychallenge. Then I allowed myself to buy some paper, so this month I'm working on using Hydrangea Hill paper - it's so pretty! Most of those cards are also on Instagram. I have a few off cuts from those projects that worked perfectly for Freshly Made Sketch #475:
I have new designer series paper (it was FREE! from Sale-A-Bration) and I've been a little obsessed with trying to use it hoping I won't have most of a package left over after it's no longer available. Here I've used it as a subtle, and subtly textured, background for the Text Me Christmas prompt from the Jingle Belles:
card stock - Whisper White; designer series paper - Oh So Ombre (Sale-A-Bration): stampin' cut & emboss - Word Wishes dies and Tasteful Textiles 3D embossing folder; other - Adhesive Sheets, Stampin' Dimensionals
I had a small gathering of stampers last month for card making and we used Adhesive Sheets for some delicate die cut elements. I was pretty pleased with myself to remember to use them, and even more tickled when I cut these sentiment pieces were from the leftovers without losing the dot for the i!
