Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Happy Holidays to all!

MFT - Birdie Brown Cool Day, Mama Elephant - Femme Frames, Waffle Flower - A Homemade Christmas

It's crunch-time, folks! We're entering the holiday zone that's filled with frenzy of baking, wrapping and arranging the gifts, along with Christmas parties, dinners and all kinds of wonderful (but busy!) times.

Since I'd really like to enjoy the holidays and have fun with my family, I'm probably not going to post anything in the next week or so. But, I wish you all a very happy holiday season and a fantastic new year!

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Santa Gift



Holiday baking is in full swing, so today's post is just a picture of another Christmas card. This time, it features Birdie Brown's Jingle All The Way.

Happy Holidays!
~Elle~

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Cup of Cheer



Today's card is a masculine holiday card, featuring the cup from Birdie Brown's Merry Christmoose stamp set. Although none of the elements I used were specifically masculine, using cool colors and a simple and clean design gave this card a masculine touch.

I added a touch of sparkle with a silver cardstock snowflake, and finished the card with some enamel dots.

Thanks for reading!
Elle

Supplies:
My Favorite Things - Birdie Brown: Merry Christmoose
My Favorite Things - Blueprints 24 die
My Favorite Things - Blueprints 25 die
My Favorite Things - Green-Eyed Monster cardstock
My Favorite Things - Winter Wonderland (sentiment)
My Favorite Things - Calm & Cozy Chevron 6x6 paper pad
My Favorite Things - Silver Glitter Cardstock
Simon Says Stamp - Eliza Snowflake die
Copics
Enamel Dots

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Owl Christmas

Another sparkly Christmas card today, this time featuring Lawn Fawn's Winter Owl. This cute stamp set is another adorable mini that's very affordable and fun. I kept this card pretty simple, focusing on the owl and the shimmery gold.

After stamping and coloring the owl with Copics, I die-cut it out and set it aside. I created a front panel out of white cardstock and die-cut the right edge with the Puffy Cloud Borders die. I used distress ink to add some bright blue background for the owl, then adhered it to the card with foam squares.

I put a strip of glittery gold cardstock on the right side of my card base, then adhered the white panel on top. I stamped the Christmas sentiment from Cozy Christmas onto a stitched banner die and adhered it to the card.

As a last touch, I added a few enamel dots.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Monday, December 14, 2015

Merry And Bright Bear

 
Today's card features the lovely bear from Birdie Brown's Cool Day. The stamp set was one of my favorite purchases last year, and I still absolutely adore it. It features two bears (pst, card with the other bear is coming soon!), as well as an ice floe, a North pole sign, pair of mittens and a nice mug for hot cocoa. The sentiments fit the images great, so if you haven't gotten your hands on this set, I strongly recommend it.

One of my other favorite things is a striped sweater. So, I used my Copics to color in the bear and free-hand colored in some stripes. I did not try to make the stripes be absolutely perfect, because I think it adds a more whimsical touch that way. I added a couple of other pops of color on the hat and the mug, then carefully cut the image out, leaving a small white border.

The rest of my card design was a bit more experimental. I wanted to play with circles, so I die-cut a piece of birch patterned paper. I adhered a sparkly strip of silver cardstock across it and added the bear on foam squares. I stamped the sentiment onto a small banner and adhered it above the circle.

I let the rest of the embellishment carry the circle theme by scattering a few sparkly clear sequins, enamel dots and a piece of flair. The card is simple, fun and merry.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Supplies:
My Favorite Things- Birdie Brown "Cool Day" stamp
My Favorite Things Blueprints 25 (banner die)
My Favorite Things Circle STAX die
My Favorite Things Silver Sparkle cardstock
WPlus9 Christmas Sentiments stamp (retired)
Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear sequins in 4mm and 6mm
Lawn Fawn Snow Day flair (retiring)
Copics (W2, R11, R22, 0 colorless blender, G14, YG67, V12, V06, V17, B00, B45, B18)

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Chatty Sunday: Plans for 2016

In my last post, I mentioned that I wanted to make a chatty post about my plans for the new year, and I figured today was the best time to do so. The rest of December is jam-packed with holiday prep and events, work and trying to make sure I haven't forgotten anything major. I'm also looking forward to spending some quiet moments with the family, once the holiday celebrations are out of the way.

You may recall my super excited post last year, where I talked about my One Hundred Cards challenge... Sadly, I did not complete that challenge (boo). After some thought, I'd come to the conclusion that it's because it was just too ambitious. 100 cards is a lot - even in a year. While I definitely want to take up this challenge again, I don't think I can make it into a yearly resolution. Instead, it will be an ongoing project - maybe one I can finish in 3 years or 10!

So... For the upcoming year, I decided to scale back quite a bit and make a more reasonable goal. It might sound like a bit of a boring goal, but I'm personally really excited and inspired by it.

In 2016, my goal is to spend the first half of the year just using up my existing supplies. I'm planning on keeping close track of how often I use up my consumables such as adhesives, patterned paper, cardstock and embellishments. At the same time, I plan to also make use of all the stamps and dies I own -- especially those that I've owned for a while. In doing so, I'd like to see if I have any stamp/die themes where I need more variety or areas that are getting too large to use effectively. I'm also thinking about posting my reviews of the products I used up. I know I love reading reviews, as they help me make a better decision about what to buy (or not to buy!), so hopefully all of you out there enjoy them too.

One of my recent big challenges has been finding room for all the supplies I own. A big part of that is my tendency to be prepared, so I stock up on things like extra adhesive, extra cardstock, extra embellishments, ink refills etc etc. However, without a clear idea of how many materials I use up on a regular basis, this can quickly (and easily!) lead to being overstocked. I think I probably have enough re-inkers for my hybrid inks to last me for years, for example. Since all of those things take up valuable stash space, I definitely want to make sure they're being used up. This is especially important because newer and better supplies continue to come out, and I don't want to end up throwing out hundreds of dollars worth of things years from now because they're just not useful.

The only thing I did not stock up for is Copic refills. I'm sure there are a few of them I could really use refills for, but I'm going to try to hold out and either use the palette that still works or switch around to other methods of coloring (pencils, watercolor, etc). I've been meaning to branch out and use all kinds of coloring techniques, so that works out very nicely for me.

For the second half of the year, I'm going to continue using up supplies while making a few small purchases to replenish my consumables and grab those can't-live-without supplies (spoiler: it will be a lot of new Lawn Fawn and Birdie Brown stamps). I'm hoping that those first 6 months will help me make much more informed purchases and help me focus on getting things I really truly need instead of things I'm afraid of running out.

In preparation for this, I've been working on some extra organization in between finishing up my holiday projects/prep. I've made some mini-kits for papers and embellishments, as well as pulled out a few stamps I feel especially inspired to use. As geeky as it might seem, I've really enjoyed planning this out and I'm looking forward to what the new year will bring!

Thanks for reading through my rambly chat.
~Elle~

Friday, December 11, 2015

Mice Christmas



Today's card features Mama Elephant's Festive Mice stamp set. When this stamp set was released, I was immediately drawn to the cute and whimsical style. But I hesitated buying it. It actually made it in and out of my cart quite a few times over a couple of weeks, and then I finally bought it. What made up my mind was that I still felt inspired each time I saw it over a period of a few weeks. A stamp set like that definitely ought to have a spot in my collection.

I kept this card very clean and simple, using some bright red patterned paper and a couple of strips of glitter gold cardstock to highlight the mice and the sentiment. I kept my coloring on the mice relatively monochromatic, with warm grays, red and a touch of pink.

As embellishment, I scattered a few sequins above the sentiment.

Join me this weekend for a chatty post about my plans for the new year!
Thanks for reading.
~Elle~

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Pink Bunny Christmas



Today's card is a holiday card featuring the adorable bunny from Lawn Fawn's Winter Bunny. The stamp set in question is small, affordable and really fun to use. I used it for a couple of cards last year, and I just could not resist using it again this year -- especially since I also got its coordinating die.

After stamping, coloring and die-cutting the bunny, I decided to go with a layered look and used Lawn Fawn's Stitched Party Banners die, along with Mama Elephant's Femme Frames die. I used a couple of non-traditional colors, as well as silver glitter cardstock. I tied a pink ribbon around the banner frame and adhered everything together with a combination of foam tape and regular adhesive.

I wanted a bold sentiment, so I die-cut Christmas from Simon Says Stamp's Merry Christmas die out of bright red cardstock. I added "Merry" with alphabet stickers (Webster's Pages Nest collection), and the card was finished!

Thanks for reading.
~Elle~

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Eskimo Christmas.

And onward with another Christmas card!

This card uses the Polar Pals stamp set from Avery Elle. While this cute set has a boatload of winter images, what really drew me in were the snow-geared Eskimo boy and girl. I love that their outfits are similar and that they're looking at each other -- and I can already see myself using this set for a Valentine's card, too!

I used bright tones to color in the boy and the girl, as I wanted to make them pop. I also popped them on foam squares, just so they'd sit up a bit from the background. Although this stamp set has coordinating dies, I just used my trusty scissors to cut the pair out, leaving a small white border.

I wanted to keep the rest of the card very simple. I die-cut a couple of curved rectangles (retired die) out of patterned paper and silver sparkle cardstock. I set the panel against a neutral-colored Nordic Sweater pattern and scattered a few enamel dots around the top.

I really like how this card turned out.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~