Masking Christmas Cards

On Black Tie Friday's the challenge is masking.  My personal challenge is to make a Christmas/Holiday card for the remainder of the year when entering a challenge.  Initially, I started off with the blue card and was using the post-it masking technique with embossing.  I really liked the gold wording through the white trees.  Then I decided to add some snowflakes using heat and stick powder.  I couldn't decide whether I should use white flock or glitter... so, I did both.  It didn't look too good.  The glitter seemed to look a little better.  So, I re-stamped the snowflakes on another piece of paper and added only glitter.  It looked great.  Then I thought, what if I re-heat the other snowflakes and just add glitter (I didn't want my trees and sentiment to go to waste).  Well, as I was re-heating I realized I was burning what little flock was left.  I added glitter anyway!  In the end, I have brown, glitter, blue, and flock snowflakes.  I still kind of like it but it's not amazing...  Then I realized, you can hardly tell I did any masking.  I went through all the effort to cut out around the trees and around the words for my mask.  

So, I decided to make another card to show masking.  I was stumped.  The first idea came so quickly and the second, I had to look around the room a bit for some inspiration.  I decided I wanted to mask some clouds...  Then I didn't know what to put with them.  I wanted to do an owl but with what????  I finally ended up with trees.  By this point I decided to just punch them out instead of stamping.  So, I masked the clouds with a scallop circle and ink.  Ripped up some glitter paper for drifts of snow and I punched out the trees using the pennant punch.  Add a little rub-on for a sentiment and I'm finally done!

I am masked out!  Now the next challenge, decide who should receive this cards for Christmas...

Challenge Entered:

Black Tie Friday #9 - Masking

Snowflake

Stampin' Up! has a single stamps promotion.  I love it, so does my Mom!  She bought 11 single stamps!  This snowflake is one of those new single stamps.  I also love that it coordinates with the blossom punch.  So, in an attempt to finally begin using my single stamps I used the Mojo Monday Sketch and Dynamic Duos color combination.

Supplies:
Stamps: Snowflake and More Merry Messages (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, Real Red instead of Cherry Cobbler (Stampin' Up!)
     Apparently I don't own Cherry Cobbler yet (Dynamic Duo Challenge is Real Red & Sahara Sand)
Punch: Blossom (Stampin' Up!)
Embossing Folder: ZigZag (Lifestyle Crafts)
Ribbon: Michaels

Challenges Entered:
Mojo Monday 267
Dynamic Duos #28 (Soft & Subtle)

Give Thanks

This is a card for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.  I tried to keep it very simple and use the leaves as the focal point of the card.  This card works perfectly for the Party Time Tuesday Challenge - Thank You Cards.

Supplies:

Stamps: Gently Falling & another stamp set that I can't seem to find at the moment... (Stampin' Up!)

Cardstock: Kraft (Bazzill), Lucky Limeade, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry (Stampin' Up!)

Ink: Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!)

Challenge Entered:

Party Time Tuesdays - #93 Thank You

Poinsettia - Black Tie Friday #8

I have decided that I should try to do as many Christmas cards as possible when doing card challenges. So, this week it was pick a one item from each row.  I may have got a bit confused and picked one item from each column.  Tomato, tomAto right?  Here were the options.

I chose: rectangle base, flowers, and green.  I used a poinsettia stamp from the Holly Berry House.  I stamped and embossed several images and then cut them out by layers to create a 3-D effect.  I used some ribbon for leaves.  Not quite sure if I love it, but it works.  

Supplies:

Stamp: Poinsettia (Holly Berry House - Colorado Springs), More Merry Messages (Stampin' Up!)

Cardstock: Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green

Ribbon: Gumball Green 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon

Gold Embossing Powder (Holly Berry House - Colorado Springs)

Challenges Entered:

Black Tie's Friday - #8

Dynamic Duos #27

My Stache

I didn't really jump on the mustache bandwagon until recently.  The more I see them, the more I like them.  I finally figured out how to use my Silhouette today... I ordered this back in June or July, got it last month and I have been too "busy" to figure it out and play with it.  I got some mustache files off of the Silhouette website and made my first project.  I love it!  I know, I don't really have much of a "stash" because I think it is still packed.  These are the few random coins I've found around the house.  I've had this project in the back of my mind for a while and the coins were actually already in the jar, just needed its "stache."  This thing is cracking me up even as I write this (I'm such a dork!).  Luckily vinyl is very forgiving, I know the letters aren't perfectly straight but it was as good as I could get it free-handed.  I bought transfer paper to help with moving vinyl a while back.  Today when I opened the package I realized I bought tracing paper... not helpful.

Supplies:
Machine: Silhouette (to cut vinyl)
Vinyl: Pick Your Plum
Jar: Ikea
Money: Probably Todd's

Mojo Monday - 266

So, I have an hour to make a card and post it!  Meeting the hubs for lunch and finally get to see where he works.  He's only been there a year and a half!  So, I attempted to follow the sketch from Mojo Monday.  I realized that I am not very good and guess-timating sizes.  My orange (pumpkin pie) piece definitely needs to be smaller and my purple (raspberry ripple) should be longer.  The green (lucky limeade) strip was bigger but I had to cut it down to fit...  Ugh, hopefully I will get better as I continue with more challenges.  I wanted to add a sentiment to my little banner but it was so tiny, I couldn't find anything that would fit.  Oh, well.  This is what happens in a time crunch...

Supplies Used: 

Stamp: Four Seasons (Stampin' Up!)

Cardstock: Kraft (Bazzill), Summer Starfruit, Raspberry Ripple, Pumpkin Pie, Lucky Limeade (Stampin' Up!)

Ink: Summer Starfruit, Raspberry Ripple, Pumpkin Pie (Stampin' Up!)

Challenge Entered:

Mojo Monday 266

I MUSTACHE You About An Ink-Redible Deal...

So, it's that time of year for No Shave November (and corny one word, one liners) ... which oddly enough was my inspiration for my blog facelift.  Todd, told me a couple weeks ago that he wanted to be on a TV show about awesome beards.  So, it's safe to say that Todd will gladly be participating in No Shave November.  Mustaches are the in thing right now and I really want to do some projects with them.  I need to make a card with them!!!  Maybe I can get Todd to help me out if they involve mustaches.  We shall see what comes of this mustache trend...  it will be so, Ink-redible.  Which brings me to my next topic, INK!  Stamp pads to be more specific.

Stampin' Up! is having an Ink-Redible promotion, if you spend $450 or host a workshop that earns $450 you will receive a free set of Classic Stamp Pads (Brights, Regals, or Subtles) - a $49.95 value!  Also, the free ink pads will be in addition to any hostess benefits that you receive.