Deck the Halls

Happy Monday! I'm coming off a very busy weekend with family and prepping for the holidays. No decking of halls buts lots of gift wrapping. With a large family, there is definitely more of that in my future.

Today sharing a card made with Concord & 9th's Deck the Halls turnabout stamp set and PTI Holiday Double Cut dies. Lots of gold embossing and sparkle on this more traditional color schemed card.

CN9 Cozy Christmas

Been holiday crafting and baking since mid-November. Every year I make a promise to myself to start earlier, plan it all out and then something or another disrupts my best intentions. I try not to stress about it too much after all this is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year...and honestly if some of the items don't get completed the only person usually disappointed is me.

The good news is my church's holiday cookie walk and bake sale is done! We had a great turnout and some wonderful cookies, candies and desserts. I feel like I gained inches just walking by the displays of goodies. I'll post some images at some point, mainly of the decorated cookies I create for the sale. I like to do a comparison on my decorating progress and capacity. Five years ago when I began learning to use royal icing it took me an entire week to decorate a couple dozen cookies, this year I managed to complete 247 cookies in the same amount of time. Progress!

Along with baking, I have been busy creating some holiday cards. I always read about the super organized starting their holiday card production in mid-summer. Yeah, so NOT me. Envious? Yes! But I can never seem to break out the Christmas stamps earlier than November.

Today I'm sharing a card I created with Concord & 9th's Cozy Christmas stamp set. I'm a sucker for knit patterned stamps. The minute I saw the release this baby made its way into the cart. Washi tape from Michaels and those cute little mittens are from Simple Stories.

I'll be posting more this week as I finally got around to photographing all my cards and crafty things for the holidays.

PTI Twig Wreath

Another autumn inspired card for Thanksgiving. This one is using PTI's Twig Wreath along with the new dies from CZ. I stacked several die cuts for some slight dimension. I stamped the envelope with a set from Concord & 9th, pulling the colors from the wreath.

PTI Autumn Hills

Hello. Just a quick post today. I'm in the midst of renovating again so my time and energy are being spent on caulking, scrubbing and nailing. It's a good thing I had prepped some cards last month for the Thanksgiving season. I have a lot to be thankful for this year and high on my list are friends and family always on the ready to lend a helping hand when my schedule gets a bit too crazy. I'm spending a little each morning expressing my gratitude and keeping the postman busy.

The card I'm sharing today was made with an old PTI set Autumn Hills. This is definitely one of my favorites and makes a beautiful card reflecting all the splendor of autumn.

CN9 Wreath Turnabout Fall

Another Fall card this time using the Concord & 9th Wreath Turnabout stamp set. I've pulled this stamp set out a number of times this year. I'm guessing I'll pull it out one more time to try a holiday-themed color palette.

The sentiment is from a PTI set. I copper embossed the sentiment onto a strip of vellum.  I used a strip of light purple vellum behind the sentiment strip to give it a bit more pop and prevent it from blending into the background. And just for full transparency, that purple vellum is older than my nephew who's turning 24 this year. Well past time it got put to use!

CN9 Thank You Cards

Few more thank you cards this week. These are made using Concord & 9th products.

The background image is using the Lace Leaf stamp set. I see many people doing beautiful swashes of watercolor and inks as backgrounds. I've tried a few times but I'm just not very good. What I envision and the results are far different. More practice is needed but with so many nice messy background stamps available I really have little motivation to improve my hand at watercolor. I much rather expand my background stamp collection! This one is a winner. Like the results and it's a good size. 

What I'm really swooning over at the moment though is their Double Cut Alphabet dies. Nice modern, bold feel lending itself well to masculine cards and clean design. I'm hoping they come out with the same font as already formulated words. I made 8 cards and by #6 I was a bit tired of lining up  YOU to create the shadow effect. Maybe they can help a gal out?! 

MFT Flamazing Thank You

I make a lot of thank you cards. I have many blessings in my life and am a firm believer in recognizing acts of kindness and deeds well done. It doesn't hurt belonging to an old church which frequently needs some TLC and elbow grease. Your house or God's house, it all occasionally needs work and a note of thanks to the volunteers goes a long way toward ensuring future participation.

This is one of the cards I made thinking I would enter it into MFT's Superstar challenge but then opted to go with the Snow Flurry harvest wreath.

I use the radiating template for the background. It's one of my favorites and use it frequently. The Thank You die has been in my stash for a while; it's the first time I'm using it and I really like it. The stamps are from the Flamazing stamp set.