As much as I enjoy the traditional red, green, silver and gold of Christmas, I get a big kick out of color twists on this festive season. A pastel approach to a Christmas card makes me think of candy and frosting. Add in glitter and I think of sugar cookies. 

I used three dies to create this sugary pastel Christmas card. First, I knew I wanted a shimmery pink background. I randomly watercolored a piece of watercolor paper with two pink ink colors. I added a little splattering. Then I heavily spritzed the paper with a pearlescent glimmer mist. 

Perhaps I'll mail this card to someone with a sweet tooth. 

Ingredients:

CS: Canson XL Watercolor Paper, Neenah Solar White Classic Crest 110, vellum 

Ink: Distress Ink Spun Sugar, Stampin' Up! Sweet Sugarplum, both used as watercolor

Other paper: Patterned is Fancy Pants (2009) Christmas Magic collection On the Tree design, Glitter is Memory Box Delicate Pastels Glitter Pad 6x6

Dies: Merry Christmas Poe Script, Snowflake Background, Scalloped Stitched Frames all by Poppystamps

Embellishments: Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Pearl, Fairy Drops Clear by Poppystamps

I'm on the Poppystamps Blog today with this Hugs card. I just love this Luscious Script Hugs die set. "Hugs" is such a short, but appropriate sentiment for birthdays, get well, cheer up, and sympathy. The set comes with both the word and the offset background die. I wanted to make a slimline card (3.5 x 8.5") and decided on a tailored, masculine look using plaid, gold and navy blue cardstock. I pieced them together to make long mats, hiding the seams behind the word.  More on how I did this below. I decided to soften up the sentiment by using a couple of my favorite dies -- the Floral Cluster and the Orchard leaves. Finally, I added some gold liquid pearls to parts of the flowers and the background. I adhered everything together and attached the panel to a folded piece of beige cardstock as the card base.

Here's how I "stretched" my 6x6" paper. I used a single sheet from the plaid paper pad and cut it in half. I had a little notch in one piece from where the hanger hole was. I had my work cut out for me because I needed a piece that was exactly 3x8" to mat onto the gold piece. I also needed to hide a seam on a diagonal and match the plaids up. First, I took my two 3x6" pieces, overlapped them and taped them together with removable tape, making sure that the notch was going to get cut off or not show behind the die cut. Next, I figured out the angle I wanted the "hugs" at to fit across the card with little to nothing of the die cut hanging off the left and right edges. Then, I made a pencil line and made the cut. The two pieces fit together and made a piece much longer than the 8" I needed.  Finally, I decided I wanted my sentiment to sit about 1/3 of the way from the top, so I cut off a little from the top and bottom of my plaid piece so the seam would land just where I wanted the sentiment to land.

I was so excited to get the Harvest Mouse My Favorite Things Stamp and Die set in the mail. I won a gift card from them a while back (random draw!) and finally took advantage of a sale to snag this utterly adorable set. I was using both a color challenge and a sketch challenge to guide me into a design. 

I stamped with Versafine Black Ink on watercolor paper and heat set it for just a few seconds. Then I used my dear Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers along with a tiny paint brush dipped in water to color in the image. The inside of the ear was originally gray and I went back with a pink color later. I added white dots to the vest with a white gel pen. I added a sentiment up top. I die cut the mouse, leaves and the frame and backed the frame with a piece of lightweight text paper (I'm a sucker for text paper anywhere). I added the olive green strip which I stamped with the same color ink and mounted everything onto a kraft card. Can't wait to use the rest of this sweet set. 

Ingredients

CS: Dark olive green CS unknown, lighter green is Stampin' Up! Old Olive, kraft is Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake, Canson XL Watercolor Paper

Patterned Paper: Stampin' Up! Newsprint Designer Series Paper (retired)

Stamps: Harvest Mouse by My Favorite Things

Dies: Poppystamps Double Scalloped Stitched Frames & MFT Harvest Mouse dies

Ink: Versafine Black ink, Old Olive (stamped off)

Color: Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers 

Punch: I used a Fiskars Hexagon Punch to make the fishtail on the sentiment strip.

Challenges: Make the Cards Challenge #38, Freshly Made Sketches #508 and Just Add Ink #577

I made this card by using the Poppystamps Diamond Snowflake die set and cutting out snowflakes from 3 different colors of glitter cardstock. I stacked them one on top of the other so that parts of all 3 would show. I also used a gorgeous 3D embossing folder to emboss the white panel. I matted the white panel onto dark green glitter cardstock and then onto a seafoam green colored cardstock. I added gemstones on and around the snowflake and finished the card with a die cut sentiment from a new Poppystamps Christmas stamp and die set. 

I haven't made a spinner card in years, but I want to send one to a family with young kids for Christmas. No time like the present. 

Happy World Card Making Day! I hope this post finds you doing just that. I had so much fun with this sweet little barn animal and his messy greeting. I started by cutting the Poppystamps' Whittle Pig from both a light and dark peach colored cardstock, so I could use the darker nose portion in place of the lighter one. Next I wanted to get the look of splattered mud, but with some control. So I took Gathered Twigs Distress Oxide ink and using Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge splatter-looking stamp, I carefully stamped on the lower portion of the pig.

Using the Poppystamps Whittle Wood Picture Frames dies, I cut the larger wooden frame from kraft cardstock. I used the same wood frame die to cut a leftover stenciled background with sky and grass, and then used the negative portion from that inside my kraft frame. I also used this die to cut the lower portion of my piggy, so it would fit perfectly inside the frame.

The mud came from the hanging frost and icicles piece that is found in the Winter House Pop Up Easel die. I trimmed these pieces down, covered them with a glossy glaze, and glued them on top and behind the frame.

I was thrilled to be chosen the winner of a recent Poppystamps (PS) Challenge with my Turquoise and Coral card. But after that, things got even more exciting. I was contacted by the Design Team leader and asked if I'd like to join their Poppystamps Design Team and make projects showing off all their great stamps and dies. You get one guess what I said. 

So, to kick off my new endeavor, I wanted to design a slimline card, which typically measures 3.5” x 8.5” when folded. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the lovely PS Soaring Tree Frame and I cut it from kraft cardstock.

I used blue cardstock and cut the washi-covered piece down to just fit behind the tree. I used the same blue for the card base. Next, I die cut the adorable PS Pile of Pumpkins (I adore pumpkins!) I used a plain circle die to create the green hill, and then I swiped Versamark ink on the tops of pumpkins, the hill, and in one area of the tree. I heat embossed with white embossing powder to give it the look of snow. I went over a few more branches with a white gel pen. I probably could have used the gel pen on everything instead of embossing, but I like the look of the shiny powder on the pumpkins. 

I adhered all these pieces together along with the washi-covered background, and then used my same fall-colored cardstock to die cut PS Orchard Leaves. I cut apart these to make a nice variety of leaves for the card front. I used foam adhesive tape to pop up the snowy scene and added a computer printed sentiment.

Stay tuned for a lot more from Poppystamps here on my blog and thanks so much for visiting.   

CS: Stampin' Up! Hello Honey, Cherry Cobbler, Dapper Denim(?), Crumb Cake, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, and Cajun Craze; Pumpkins are a deep orange from my stash
Washi Tape: Poppystamps Snowspeckle

Embossing: Taylored Expressions White Detail Embossing powder, Versamark ink

White Gelly Roll gel pen

I just love the MFT Warm Hugs & Frosty Kisses stamps and dies, and when I found a sketch challenge from MFT and a color challenge on Color Throwdown, I had my plan. Putting the star together was a challenge. I used my Silhouette to cut the star. I used Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide to ink the sky, with a few well placed water droplets for stars. Next I used the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders dies to cut the hills. If I had thought it through, I simply would have used precut stars with the hillside borders, so everything would stack neatly. Instead I just used some scrap cardstock and glued it down, then trimmed the edges to fit the star shape base. That was not easy. I used light blue cardstock sprayed with pearl glimmer mist for the ice. I did precut this in a star shape, so that made fitting the lower half onto the star very easy. The sweet doggy and penguin are colored with alcohol ink markers. The sentiment is printed from my laser printer and backed with a slip of SU's Night of Navy. 

Ingredients:

CS: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb, Gina K Pure Luxury 110lb, Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake, Night of Navy (under sentiment), Seaside Spray (ice)

Stamps: MFT Warm Hugs & Frosty Kisses 

Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Stampin' Up! Smoky Slate (ice patch)

Dies: MFT Warm Hugs & Frosty Kisses, Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders

Alcohol Ink markers: Copic B41, B45, Dick Blick cool grays

Glimmer effects: Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Pearl, Clear Wink of Stella on trees

Embellishments: Stampin' Up! Elegant Faceted Gems

Challenges: MFT Sketch Challenge 557, Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, Kat Scrappiness September Challenge, Clever Dexter Challenge 21, Color Throwdown 658