More Holiday Cards

Hi friends! While I was working on my tags for yesterday's Keeping Christmas blog hop, I ran across a bag filled with cut and colored digitals that didn't make it onto cards last season.  I had a bit of time, and decided to make a few more cards before I stuffed all the Christmas goodies back in the closet for another month.

I loved these two papers from the Sugar Plum collection, so cut them to 4 x 5.25" for the back panels, then used the remainder for the horizontal strip on each card.  I added some riding hood red mats and a border from the Lacey Trim Duo Die Set to give a little contrast, then got to work layering everything together.

The sentiment for the first card is from the My Cup to Yours DIGITAL Set and had already been foiled with my Minc machine in silver.  I accented with the three holly mugs... one from the Good Cheer DIGITAL Set and the others from Holiday Sweets DIGITAL Set.  A little stickles on the berries and whip cream and that card was done. I wasn't able to capture the shiny silver Minc foiling in this photo, but did capture it on the top photo.

The second card uses the cupcake images from theHoliday Sweets DIGITAL Set. and a sentiment from the  Good Cheer DIGITAL Set.  I matted the sentiment and added the cupcakes to finish off this super easy card.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulous Tuesday. The boys have their Kindergarten graduation this morning so there's sure to be tears as we say goodbye to the fantastic teachers who have poured their souls into our little boys for the past 3 years. Isn't their graduation portrait adorable? 💓 💓 💓  So proud of these boys!

Enabler's List
Stamps:  Holiday Sweets DIGITAL Set., Good Cheer DIGITAL Set, My Cup to Yours DIGITAL Set  (Verve)
Paper: Sugar Plum (My Mind's Eye), Riding hood red (SU!), white
Ink: laser printer, Copic markers, wink of stella clear glitter pen (Zig)
Accessories: Lacey Trim Duo Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), circle dies (Cottage Cutz), stickles

Cheer to You and Yours

Hi friends! I'm popping in with a fun little holiday card today. The sentiment is from the limited time free My Cup To Your digital and the sweet little stockings are cut with the Winter Friends Die Set.

The Diva Inspirations challenge this month had me thinking of this sweet St. Nick paper from a few years back. All the different styled stockings are so cute, so I dug the collection out and aged the panel a bit with three shades of distress ink and then blended a Prima oil pastel around the edges. The stockings are cut from coordinating paper and then again from white paper for the cuffs. I cut off just the cuff part and glued it over the top, then sketched in the design of the stockings with a marker, scraping on a bit of gesso to lighten up the cuff, then clipping on with mini library clips so they would look like they're hanging from the lines on the paper.

The sentiment is a mixture of two digis from the My Cup To Yours set. I'm really drawn to this holiday cheer sentiment and just keep using it!  I cut out the holiday cheer portion and then hand trimmed the banner from the other holiday cheer sentiment to pop up underneath.

If you want to play along with our Diva Inspirations challenge, please do. I love peeking at everyone's creations!  There are no rules, and you can take the inspiration any direction you like.

Enabler's List
Stamps: My Cup to Yours digital set (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Saint Nick (FancyPants), white
Ink: antique linen, brushed corduroy, ground espresso (Ranger Distress), Oil pastels (Prima), laser printer, gesso
Accessories: Winter Friends Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), mini library clips (SU!)

Holiday Cheer

Hi friends! It's Friday and I'm squeezing in one more card for the Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. This one uses the limited time free digi from Verve.

I started with a soft sky base, stamping the stripey cup from Get Together randomly tone on tone and then filling in with the larger snowflake from Jolly Jingle.  Next I cut a panel of white at an angle and stamped randomly with the snowflake.  I wanted to fill in with the smaller snowflake from the set, but couldn't find it, so pulled out a snowflake from Holiday Treats to fill in.  I added a strip of foil washi across this panel and then lined each border with baker's twine.

The ornament portion is created by cutting the digi sentiment with the Vintage Oval Die. I then cut two more vintage ovals from black and offset just a little on the top and bottom for a makeshift mat.  Once they were all glued together, I punched a hole with my neglected Crop-a-dile and tied on some baker's twine.  I finished by coloring the digi cup image with Copic markers and hand cutting to pop up over the sentiment.  The Cuppa Joe die set actually fits this image, but I couldn't find mine on my chaotic desk, so did it the old fashioned way!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a wonderful start to the weekend!

Enabler's List
Stamps: Jolly Jingles, Get Together, Holiday Treats, My Cup to Yours digital set (Verve Stamps)
Paper: soft sky, basic black (SU!), white (Neenah)
Ink: soft sky, pool party (SU!), laser printer, Copic markers
Accessories: Vintage Oval Die (A Cut Above by VERVE), foil tape (Recollections)

Time Out for Joy

Hi friends! This is such a busy little season. So much to do in so little time and this morning when I woke up I felt overwhelmed and beat down and like I could just fall back into bed and hibernate until July. So after I dropped the boys off at school I drove to Dutch Bros. to get an Americano.  And the car in front of me paid for my coffee!  I've done this many time for others, but it was the first time I had been on the receiving end and it totally made me smile.

On the drive home, the radio station was reading grown up letters to Santa and the one I heard was asking for the gift of time. Time to shop and time to bake and time  to spend with family and time to give to others and the one that struck a chord with me the most was time for myself without feeling selfish.  Definitely.  This gal read my mind. So with my cup of Dutch Bros. in hand I decided to let the to-do's pile up and take a little time for myself  to make a quick card.

The Time Out challenge seemed like the perfect match.  Through December 21, they're CASEing the talented Kim Heggins.  I'm not typically much of a CAS stamper, but I sure do admire those like Kim who can make this style look effortless. And I'm really wishing my finished cards were easier to mail right about now! So crossing over to the CAS side is definitely looking pretty tempting to me!  LOL

I quickly laid out some of the My Cup To Yours digis in my graphics program to a 4" x 5.25" size, then print and cut so I could do a little stress-free copic coloring.  I added some sparkle with a wink of stella glitter pen and one small rhinestone in the center of the snowflake.

To give it my own flair, I added a little black matting and skewed things just a bit with some white accents.  Quick and easy and my soul feels a little bit brighter after taking some time to refresh.   I'm also linking up to the Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop, because...  coffee!  {grin}  And also the December Diva Inspirations challenge, because the snowflakes remind me of a chandelier I was singing Sia's Chandelier song the whole time thinking of that fun graphic with stockings hanging from a chandelier!

Enabler's List
Stamps: My Cup to Yours digital set (Verve Stamps)
Paper: white, black
Ink: laser printer, Copic markers, wink of stella glitter pen, white gel pen
Accessories: rhinestone

Cup of Joy Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Hi friends! Today is the kickoff to the Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. It's that time when we get to see visions of coffee dancing through blogland for an entire week!  Verve is a sponsor once again, plus I've designed a limited time free digital set you can download over in the Verve shop.

Today's card uses two of the digis from the My Cup to Yours digi set printed on white cardstock. I cut the cup with the Cuppa Joe Die Set (yep, the digi works with the die, so hooray!), then cut the sentiment with a stitched circle die and sponged inside with antique linen.  I wanted to add a gift card holder to my card to tuck in a Starbucks card, so designed a simple little pocket to hold one.

It's a 2.75" x 3.25" piece of cardstock, scored 0.25" from each of three sides.  I ran it through my Big Shot with a snowflake embossing folder and also punched a notch in the top center with a 1/2" circle punch. I then folded the three sides under and used score tape to adhere to a 2-3/8" x 3-1/8" panel of black cardstock.  I finished with some fun My Mind's Eye paper, a greena bow and silver jingle bells.

For another card from me using this new freebie, head on over to the Verve Blog for our Super Sponsor post! Just make a winter themed coffee, tea or cocoa project and link it up to the official Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop post for a chance to win one of the fabulous prizes! The hop runs through next Friday, December 16.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a wonderful day!

Enabler's List
Stamps: My Cup to Yours Digital Freebie (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Comfort and Joy (My Mind's Eye) black, white
Ink: antique linen distress ink (Ranger)
Accessories: Cuppa Joe Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), stitched circles stax (MFT), snowflakes embossing folder (Darice), bisque liquid pearls (Ranger), 1/2" circle punch (SU!), ribbon, jingle bells, thread, gift card