Keeping Christmas - January 2020 Edition

Hello there!  It’s the 25th of the month and I have my first Christmas Cards of the year on my blog today for our Monthly Keeping Christmas Blog Hop.  Kelly Lunceford started this tradition on her blog many months ago (February 25, 2017) and eventually the former "The Challenge" designers came to be a part of it.  We share Christmas cards and projects with you on the 25th of each month to show you different ideas, techniques or projects to help you get a jump start on your Holiday cards and tags for the coming year.  All of the designers have projects to share with you today.  We have 3 new members this year and I know they are names you’ll recognize!  We are joined by Carol Hintermeier, Nancy Penir and Marybeth Lopez this year! Here is the Blog Roll:

Kelly Lunceford (Creator)

Vicki Finger

Claire Broadwater

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Nancy Guse

Marybeth Lopez

Nancy Penir

Carol Hintermeier

I have a single card for you today.  I normally try to do multiple cards or projects, but I haven't had much time in the last several weeks.  We did a lot of traveling in the weeks before and after Christmas and we are getting ready to go on a short vacation the first of February so I'm scrambling slightly to get my work done before we leave.  I've also made several cards for other things as well.  We lost my Mother-In-Law between Christmas and New Years Day, so I had several "Thank You" cards to make for some of the special people who helped as we were making arrangements to say goodbye.  So I've been creating, just not necessarily on Design Team projects.

I got this beautiful Stitched Poinsettia Die from Pretty Pink Posh just a few weeks before Christmas, but since I was finished with all of my cards, I hadn't had a chance to use it yet.  I set it aside, but still on my desk to use for this month's card.

I used some Pure Poppy Cardstock to die cut the bloom with Ripe Avocado for the leaves. I used some iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist on the cardstock once I die cut it and let that dry.  I wanted something a little less traditional for the card base and I chose to use Aqua Mist Cardstock.  The label I used is an old favorite.  I got it at the Dallas Scrapbook Expo in 2006 at the Spellbinders Booth.  It is a bookplate label that has been unavailable for many years.  I still love it and it both cuts and embosses!  It embosses much better if you mist the cardstock from the backside before you run it through with an embossing mat. Then, leaving the paper in the die, I also inked it up through the openings to add the colored detail using Aqua Mist Ink. This particular Spellbinders die can also be used as a stencil for the details.  I think most of their dies work like that, but I'm not positive.

I just wanted to make something simple for this month.  I will be gone for most of February and will just be getting back in time to work on next month's Keeping Christmas Blog Hop Projects. The sentiment that I used here is from the Papertrey Ink "Happiest of Holidays".  I used Versamark to ink it up and then heat embossed it with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder which continues to be my favorite.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great month and get a jump start on your holiday cards!  

Love & Romance

There's a new challenge up at The Card Concept and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.  The image on the left is our inspiration for the theme of "Love & Romance" at The Card Concept and Simon's theme is "The Color of Love". I never need an excuse to use pink, but I do love to incorporate it into Valentine's Day projects.  Since I enjoy making cards so much, I love having all types of cards ready to go for each occasion and Valentine's Day is no exception.

I love the colors in this particular inspiration image and I wish I had a scrapbook store nearby so I could peruse the paper section for some paper that looks similar to this. It's got the French Country look to it and that's a style I love.

For today's card, I started with a top folding card base made from Stamper's Select White.  The Silver and Pink Paper is a sheet that found at Michaels in Dallas when I was there at Christmas. I only got one sheet because I tend to use a lot more gold than silver, but I think this is so pretty and elegant and I knew it would make a pretty card for just the right person.  The hearts are cut from an Accucut die that I have had for a number of years that cuts and embosses at the same time.  I cut these from Silver Cardstock and Lovely Lady Cardstock.

The sentiments both came from the Hero Arts Love Stamp & Cut Set.  I used Stick-It on both sides of a piece of White Fun Foam, then added the silver cardstock to the top of one side and die cut the whole thing to get the thick word die cut. I'm still not very good at working with Stick-It so I consider this more practice. The small little sentiment on the pink strip is the only stamping I did on this entire project. I used Versamark with Detail Silver Embossing Powder.  Once I had the card put together I added some Sparkling Clear Sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. The ones I have are a mix of sizes in 4, 6, 8 & 10 mm all in one package.

This card was easy to put together once I decided on how I wanted my design to look.  It was simply a matter of die cutting and assembling.

Thank you so much for coming by today and checking out my project.  I love this theme so I hope to have time to make a couple more cards for this challenge. I'm thinking I need to make another of these for a young lady who is getting married in May of this year.  If you'd like to leave a kind of encouraging comment, I do read each and every one of them.