Christmas Stampin' All Year Long Final Challenge for 2011

Hi everyone!  Well, for the last nine months the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long design team has been bringing you inspiration for those Christmas cards that we love to make every year.

This week, we have a beautiful inspiration photo to help your creative juices flow in whatever direction you choose. 

We are sponsored this week by KennyK designs.  They have some great digi images!

I chose this image called Boy Gift.  What a fun, cute image indeed!  And I took the silver and green from the inspiration photo along with the shimmer and shine to create my card.

I had this glittery green cardstock that I knew would be perfect for this card.  I paired it with the Christmas tree paper from The Merry Days of Christmas by My Mind's Eye.  The shimmery silver ribbon is something I've had for a while and it was perfect for this inspiration. I added the pretty snowflake button in the center of the bow to spiff it up a bit!  I used a glitter pen for more shimmer on the package's ribbon.  The Sweet Sunday Sketch was perfect to display this image!  This card is just so much prettier in person than in this picture!  I also entered this in the Buttons Galore and More challenge.

Thanks so much for hanging with me through these last nine months of Friday Christmas Stampin' All Year Long challenges!  It was so much fun and very productive...I have so many great cards to send to family and friends!  And I just may be back again next year with more creative Christmas cards!  Make sure you stop by the CSAYL blog to see the fabulous creations from the design team.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Never Seen Ink

This is the second to last challenge for Christmas Stampin' All Year Long 2011.  And I think this is my favorite week yet...use a new or old stamp that has never seen ink!  Boy do I have a LOT of those!  LOL!!  So today I used a new stamp that has not seen ink.  I'm pretty sure my friend Cheryl Rowley bought this for me.  She's always so sweet like that.  This stamp is called Comfort Cocoa from Impression Obsession.  I love their stamps!

I love this sketch!  It's from SCS a while ago.  I searched for the perfect one and this seemed to fit the bill.  I used Jovial paper pack from Basic Grey and colored the image accordingly.  I've been having fun using these flourishes from Want 2 Scrap.  I purchased these at my LSS, but I have an order coming my way from W2S any day now with more!  I love bling and these flourishes are very good quality and easy to use.  For more bling, I used Star Dust stickles on the cream.  This card is going to have to go to someone who appreciates home made cards! 

Stop by the CSAYL blog and play along!   There's not much time left before that big day rolls around!  Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - It's My Fave!

Hi everyone!  I cannot believe we are getting so close to ending our Christmas Stampin' All Year Long challenges!  After today, we only have two more challenges!  I was looking through my box of cards I've done because of this challenge, and I breathed a sigh of relief!  I have so many cards done and I have some great packages to give as well! 

Today we are sponsored once again by Pink Cat Studios.  They have been so generous this year with their prizes and images for the CSAYL design team to work with...thanks so much PCS!  The winner of this week's challenge will receive 5 free digital images of their choice.

The challenge this week is "It's My Fave".  We are to use our favorite sketch challenge.  I chose Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge.  I use her sketches quite often and I love them.  I'm using her current sketch for my card today.

I chose Birds Make a Giant Cupcake from PCS.  I just realized that this really isn't a holiday image, but it looks good as one, doesn't it?  The paper is The Merry Days of Christmas from My Mind's Eye.  I just love this paper pack...so many pretty patterns in it!  The sentiment is from Holiday Button Bits from PTI and I cut it out using a nestie.  I finished the card, took the picture, and then thought the upper left corner of the image looked bare.  So I pulled out a bow die and red felt from PTI and added the bow and glitter dot.  Much better!

To see more inspiration, hop over to the CSAYL blog and see what the design team has created.  I hope to see you there!  Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Jingle All the Way!

Hi all!  Happy Friday!  I had the day off today because I had to take my mom to the doctor for a follow-up from her stay in the hospital a few weeks ago.  She's doing really well.  We went for breakfast because the appointment was at 7:30 am!  Quite early to get up on my day off, but it was a nice day.

Today starts a new challenge over at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long, and we have a new sponsor....Creations by AR.  They have some fun templates to choose from!  The challenge this week is called Jingle All the Way...use bells on your project.

I chose this Brownie Box.  It's just a cute little template that only takes one piece of paper to make.  A few score lines, and it was done!  I used a pattern paper from Jillibean called Christmas Chestnut Soup.  I love it because it's sturdy and wonderful to use for a template.  I tied the box closed with Riding Hood Red tafetta ribbon.  I strung five bells onto red and white baker's twine and tied it to the bow. 

This box will fit a lot of different small items, but I found that these pocket-size antibacterial containers from Bath & Body Works fit perfectly inside.  I was lucky that they had Christmas ones out already!

 Here's another shot of the box.  I just love this cute little thing! 

How are you doing on your Christmas cards and projects?  Why not stop by the CSAYL blog and play along this week?  We don't have many challenges left this year!  If you play along with us this week, you could win two templates from AR Creations!  Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great weekend!

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Spar-ka-lay!!

Happy Friday!  Boy, am I glad to see this day get here!  I'm very stressed work lately and it's really dragging me down.  Wine and chocolate are my best friends lately!  Sigh!

But what keeps me going is my stamping.  I'm really happy to go into my basement and do some crafting.  Today over at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long, we've been challenged to create something "SPAR-KA-LAY" using Bugaboo stamps.  I love snowmen, and I chose Bobble Head Christmas Snowman to work with.  I just love this little guy!

I started with this great sketch from Deconstructed Sketches and used Basic Grey's Jovial paper pack.  To make it "SPAR-KA-LAY", I used some chunky glitter on the wooden Maya Road snowflakes and the snow the snowman is standing on.  I also used it on the falling snowflakes and a little on his hat.  I colored him (or tried to!) according to an article I saw in Cardmaker magazine.  It was all about shadows.  I think I need a little more practice, but I do like it. 

Are you ready for more inspiration from the CSAYL design team?  Stop by the CSAYL blog to see for yourself!  Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a GREAT weekend!

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Seeing Spots

I have to interrupt this blogpost to ask you if you saw my cousin Caitlin Koch's performance last night on the X-Factor?  She performed at Simon Cowell's home in FRANCE!!  She was AMAZING and I'm hoping she makes it to the next round.  We'll find out on Sunday night!  I hope you are watching too!

Happy Friday everyone!  This week at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long we are being sponsored by one of my favorite stamp companies...Paper Makeup Stamps!  I might be a little biased because I'm on their design team, but I've been on it almost since the beginning, and I've seen them grow into a wonderful company with many versatile stamps!  And they are offering a $15 shopping spree to their store for our winner this week at CSAYL!

Our challenge this week is called Seeing Spots....you must use polka dots on your holiday creation.  Here is my card for this challenge.

I love this Snow Happy set from PMS!  It's been used quite a bit by myself the PMS design team!  It's got a homespun feel to it, so I went that route with my card.  I started with this great sketch from Card Patterns.  It gave me the opportunity to use four different patterns (two of them polka dots).  I stamped the snowman in Memento Tuxedo black, colored it with copics, and cut it out.  It's mounted on a base made from Vintage Cream cardstock and Bravo Burgundy cardstock, which was run through the Swiss dots folder.  I added some vintage seam binding (from Debbie Marcinkiewicz's Etsy store) and a tag made using the Little Moments PMS stamp set.  The wooden heart button is from Prima and the other from PTI. 

Are you ready to see more inspiration from the CSAYL team?  Stop by the CSAYL blog and enter your creation there too.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Christmas Stamping' All Year Long - A Purple Challenge

Happy Friday!  We are at the beginning of a long weekend for the US and Canada!  What a lovely time of year!  And we are on the heels of the Christmas holidays, so here I am again with another Christmas card challenge from Christmas Stampin' All Year Long.

This week we are sponsored once again by Pink Cat Studios.  The challenge that we have for you is to use purple on your card.  I almost fell off my chair with this one because I don't do purple very often!  But I trudged on through and came up with one that I really like!

I searched my paper stash for something with the color purple and came across this paper from Pink Paislee Pop Fashion Collection.  Love the plaid and text superimposed on it.  SU's new in color Wisteria Wonder matched perfectly with the dp.  The sketch is this month's Sketch for You to Try.  I ran the small piece of Wisteria Wonder through the Swiss Dots folder, added the white satin ribbon, and a pearl flourish by Zva.  The sentiment is from PTI's Holiday Button Bits.  I stamped it and used a nestie to cut it out.  The image is colored with copics and shaded around the image with Vintage Photo distress ink.  There are some star dust stickles on the image too for some sparkle.

Think you don't know what to do with purple?  Then stop by the CSAYL blog for some inspiration.  If you play along, you could win 5 free digis!  Can't win if you don't play!  Thanks for stopping by today!

Resist the Temptation

My niece posted on Facebook last Sunday that it is just three months until Christmas. It is going to fly by, just like this month did! But I'm ahead of the game this year because of the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long challenges.  I have so many cards/3-D items in my stash that weren't there this time last year!  Yeah me!

This week we are sponsored once again by Perfect Presentation.  The challenge is called "Resist the Temptation"....no stamping!  With all the embellishments and beautiful papers out there, this was an easy one.

The template I chose to use is called Perfect Parcel.  This is the cutest little template!  I thought it was going to be bigger, but it's the perfect size for some candies inside.  I recently saw these candy corn candies in a caramel apple flavor and bought them because I thought I could use them for one of my Christmas projects.  This little template was the perfect one for it.  You can fit a nice bag of these in the box.  The colors inspired me to use this retired dp from SU called Holiday Treasures.  I can't get enough of this paper...LOVE it!  All I did was cut the template on my Circut with the red cardstock and the panels from the dp.  I then tied it up with this beautiful chocolate satin ribbon (also SU, retired I think).  I was going to put the poinsettia flower on the front of the box, but it didn't look right.  So I added it on top covering the knot.  The front then looked so plain, so I added crystals to the chocolate designs on the dp.  That's it!  Sooo simple and stunning!

If you want to see more inspiration from the CSAYL girls, stop by the CSAYL blog.  They never disappoint!  And if you play along with us, you will have a chance to win a template of your choice from Perfect Presentation!  Thanks for stopping by and I love your comments!  Have a great Friday!

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Clean and Simple

Happy Friday everyone!  I haven't been posting much because my mom has not been feeling well and I was tending to her, but I did find time to create this week.  This week over at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long, we are being sponsored by Karber Digital Images. 

We were all given this cute Rudolph image to work with.  The challenge this week at CSAYL is to create a clean and simple card.  So I headed right to the Clean and Simple challenge blog for a sketch and went creating.  Here's what I did.

I started with a Crumb Cake base and ran the front of it through the linen impression plate from PTI.  Then I chose this paper from Eskimo Kisses by Basic Grey.  It matched nicely with the image.  The scalloped border is Purely Pomegrante and was punched with an SU punch.  The image was sized to fit into this nestie, printed on my computer, and colored with copics.  I added some Star Dust Stickles for some sparkle.  The sentiment is from PTI (I wrote down the set, but misplaced the piece of paper I wrote it on!), and was stamped in the Purely Pomegrante ink.  Easy peasy and clean and simple!

If you play along with us this week, you could have the chance to win two digital images from Karber Digital Images.   Stop by the CSAYL blog to get more details and see more inspiration from the team!

Thanks for stopping by today!  I'm hoping to have more crafty days coming up!  See you soon!

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Fancy Schmancy Cards

Happy Friday! It's my last day off before I have to start getting up involuntarily at 5:30 am every day for school! Summer is over and it's getting closer to the holidays!  How are you getting on with your Christmas cards?  Why not start with this great challenge from Christmas Stampin' All Year Long? 

We are sponsored by Pink Cat Studio this week and the challenge is to make a fancy fold card....a card that is folded in any way other than a regular card.  I used Friendly Snowman and the Two Way Open card.  I found this tutorial a while ago on SCS and thought it was such a cool card.

I used this retired Christmas Cocoa paper from SU that I just love!  The brown and red are so beautiful together.  It coordinates with Soft Suede and Real Red cardstock.   I colored the image accordingly and then cut and embossed it with a nestie.  The smallest nestie was used for the sentiment.

 This is how it looks when you untie the ribbon.

And finally this is the inside.  See?  It opens Two Ways! 

The winner of this challenge will get 5 digis of their choice from Pink Cat Studio.  Stop by the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long blog to see what the other girls have done!  Also stop by our guest designer, Julie!  Thanks for stopping by today!

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Monochromatic Challenge

Hi all! This week's challenge at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long is to make a monochromatic holiday creation. Well, I have a difficult time with this type of technique, but that's what a challenge is for, right? So I looked through my Christmas stamps, found one I don't think I've ever used, and trudged on! Here's what I came up with.

I've had this stamp from Hero Arts called Mona Lisa collage for I long time. I purchased it at JoAnn's for a reason...can you guess why? Mona "Lisa"...my brother used to call me Mona all the time. I even have a picture of her in my living room that I found in an antique store for $20...I love that picture!

So I digress....I stamped this image in Versafine black ink because of all the fine details on it. Versafine is wonderful for stamping these types of images. It's stamped on Vintage Cream cardstock, then I swirled some antique linen, tea dye, and wild honey distress inkson it to make it look more worn and antique. The Vintage Cream mat behind it was run through a Sizzix folder (Tim Holtz?) and I used the same three inks to distress it. The dp behind it is from Basic Grey's Jovial paper pack and then it's layered onto a Vintage Cream base. I added the Riding Hood Red ribbon on the top of the tag, red stickles to the holly berries on the tag, and finally a pretty fabric poinsettia from Prima with a red glitter dot in the center. Of course, this card really looks much better in person...I just can't seem to get a good picture lately (or maybe it's just me that's not satisfied with my photography!).

I'm doing so good on my Christmas cards by doing these challenges! How are you doing? You still have lots of time to get started! And if you play along with us this week you have a chance to be a guest designer on the CSAYL blog in September. You can get all the details for this week's challenge on the CSAYL blog and see all the monochromatic cards the girls have created! We'd love to see what you create!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Recipe
Stamps: Mona Lisa collage (Hero Arts)
Paper: Vintage cream, Jovial dp (Basic Grey)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, antique linen, tea dye, and wild honey distress inks
Accessories: Sizzix embossing folder, ribbon, red stickles, Prima flowers, glitter dot, dimensionals

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Inspiration Challenge

Happy Christmas stamping everyone!  How are you doing with your Christmas card making?  If you play along with Christmas Stampin' All Year Long, you'll have a good head start on them!  This week, we have this yummy inspiration photo for you to work from.

Yummy indeed!  I love my sweets and these certainly are sweet and sugary!  I knew the exact stamp I was going to use when I saw this photo.

This is a stamp I purchased at a stamp show.  It's by Art Gone Wild called Jar of Sweets.  I used copics to color the candies in red, then I used some light blue copics (B00 and B0000) to shade the jars.  I then added Crystal Effects to make them look shiny like real jars. The label behind the image is from Labels 20.  I just cut it in half to make it fit behind the main panel.  I ran it through the Swiss Dots folder.  (I own so many embossing folders, but I always seem to reach for this one all the time.  Does that happen to you too?)  I added the baker's twine for more of the red and white. The sentiment is from My Time Made Easy called Sugar & Spice.  It was stamped in Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder.   I used the Fall to Layout #152 sketch below.

So what do you think you can do with this yummy photo?  If you play along, please link your post to the CSAYL blog.  One person will be chosen to be a guest designer in September!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - "Gimme the Bird"

Pretty shocking title, huh?  Well, it's not as bad as it seems!  At Christmas Stampin' All Year Long this week, we are challenging you to use a bird on your Christmas card!  We are sponsored by Pink Cat Studio this week.  If you play along, you could win 5 free digi images from PCS! 

I've chosen the Christmas Chicks to use on my card!  It just made me smile when I saw these cheerful little chicks!

This is a digi image, so I was able to color it in GIMP.  Then I took a copic marker in a darker yellow and just hilighted the yellow a bit.  I sponged in some clouds and added Star Dust Stickles for some "snow".  The patterned paper is from an old DCWV Christmas Stack.  The satin ribbon is from Offray.  I made it into a double bow (free-handed) and added a button tied with floss.  I stamped a small sentiment on the bottom.

The sketch is from this week's Card Patterns.  I'm also entering this into the Buffalo Stamps and Stuff challenge Monday Idea Challenge to Mix It Up - mix different patterns and colors, which I think I've done here!                                         Stop by the CSAYL blog and see what the girls have done with their bird cards!  Thanks for stopping by and have a great Friday!