Last Minute Holiday Ideas, Remarkable Blog Hop

So, things are winding down towards Christmas and maybe you're looking for a few more Christmassy projects to do.  Why not make your thank you cards? Or make some to give as gifts.

For this idea filled blog post, I used a stamp set that is in the annual catalog (so maybe you already have it, or you can order it anytime) and The Reason For The Season set featured in my blog last month. And apparently I used a retired set! But I'm including it anyway as we have so many awesome and similar snowflakes in the Holiday catalog that you could use with the same layout. I used Stampin' Up's notecards and envelopes for all of the projects.

So, let's get started!

So quick, so simple, it's White Christmas. I mean really, I'm not sure anything could be cuter.

Here's your Reason For The Season, again, super simple but a bit more sophisticated.

The Thank You greeting is from the Four You stamp set. 

I used it again here, with some Home for Christmas DSP.

And the last one features some snowflakes.

Here are all the cards together:

I packaged them up with five to a pack to give as gifts.

I hope you enjoyed your stop here with me. For more crafty ideas, check out the rest of the blog hop!

Stay crafty!

Click here or the graphic above for Maria's blog.

Here are all the links:

Nancy Amato - http://stampinallnight.blogspot.com/2015/12/last-minute-holiday-ideas-from.html

Melissa Bolinger -  http://creativeblessingsbymissy.blogspot.com/2015/12/remarkable-blog-tour-last-minute-gifts.html

Tamra Davis - http://www.theCardLadies.com/remarkable-blog-hop-last-minute-girl-here/

Arden Dougan - http://stampinarden.blogspot.com/2015/12/remarkables-blog-tour-december.html

Tracie Langley - http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/traciesallaboutstamping/blog?directBlogUrl=/blog/86481/entry/remarkable_stampers_blog_tour_las

Anne Matasci - http://wp.me/pCcBw-206

Heather Mathieson - https://inkyladybug.wordpress.com/2015/12/10/remarkables-blog-tour-o-christmas-tree

Ann Monhollen - http://annscreativenook.blogspot.com/2015/12/last-minute-holiday-gifts.html

Audra Monk - http://thecraftyyogi.blogspot.com/2015/12/last-minute-holiday-ideas-remarkable.html

Maria Pane - http://stampinandscrappinwithriri.blogspot.com/2015/12/home-for-holidays-last-minute-su.html

Michele Reynolds -  http://inspirationink.typepad.com/inspiration-ink/2015/12/december-holiday-bundle-blog-tour.html

Pam Staples  - http://wp.me/p3p2VA-1cs

Janet Wakeland - http://wp.me/pHIQD-7tA

More Bundles, More Fun!

Hello crafty friends!

This month on the Remarkables blog hop, I'm featuring the Reason for the Season stamp set, which you can get bundled with the Festive Flower Builder Punch (15% savings).

Things are a bit busy in my crafty land so I'm going to keep this short and sweet.

So, the cool thing about this stamp set, is that it's a two step set--actually in this case, a three step. You stamp the outline, then the petal color, then the leaf color. It's so easy!  And it makes such a great impact. For this card, I went traditional and sophisticated. Cherry Cobbler and Mossy Meadow ink paired with Very Vanilla. 

Next, at the encouragement from my upline, she challenged us to make a card that sparkled and had bling. Check this out!

Isn't it lovely?? I embossed the outline in silver and added Pool Party to color the petals. Small rhinestones at the center, Glimmer paper, and two kinds of silver ribbon. Whew! It's a present I'd like to receive.

So you're probably wondering, Audra, when are you going to use the Festive Flower Punch? Well, the correct answer, is in the future. You'll have to check back next week and see the fun things that are in my head make it to the paper.

Stay Crafty!

Click here or the graphic below to go to Maria's Blog.

For more inspiration, check out the other Remarkables blogs:

Nancy Amato - http://stampinallnight.blogspot.com/2015/11/bundle-up-for-holidays.html

Melissa Bolinger - http://creativeblessingsbymissy.blogspot.com/2015/11/remarkable-blog-tour-holiday-bundles.html

Arden Dougan - http://stampinarden.blogspot.com/2015/11/remarkable-blog-tour-november.html

Tracie Langley - http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/traciesallaboutstamping/blog?directBlogUrl=/blog/86481/entry/remarkable_stampers_blog_tour_bundle

Anne Matasci - http://wp.me/pCcBw-1Zx

Heather Mathieson - https://inkyladybug.wordpress.com/?p=215

Audra Monk - http://thecraftyyogi.blogspot.com/2015/11/more-bundles-more-fun.html

Maria Pane - http://stampinandscrappinwithriri.blogspot.com/2015/11/home-for-holidays-remarkable-stampers.html

Michele Reynolds -  http://inspirationink.typepad.com/inspiration-ink/2015/11/november-holiday-bundle-blog-tour.html

Pam Staples  - http://www.sunnygirlscraps.com/remarkable-stampers-holiday-bundle-blog-tour 

Janet Wakeland - http://wp.me/pHIQD-7rc

Halloween Card Fun

Happy almost Halloween. I love holidays! I know lots of people say some of them were invented to just get people to buy stuff, and I am OK with that. We can buy or not buy. But what I like is that it reminds me to let family and friends know that I'm thinking of them. An upcoming holiday gets me motivated to make and send some cards! So here we go with the Halloween edition. Enjoy!

So I started a bit ago with my parquet (I know I'm stuck on this technique, but we're gonna just keep going with it) cards. It's such a cool way to use lots of fun designer series paper. These are cards for my college students and adult friends. The stamps are from the Cheer All Year set.

Here's a close up of some of the seriously cute and spooky DSP. The card base colors reminded me of candy corn, so I had to eat some.

Here's what I came up with on round two. The cute little vampire from the Haunt Ya Later stamp set made an appearance.

For all my littles, I went to town coloring the images from that stamp set. I've seen a lot of recent articles about how coloring is great for adults, playing with your stamps and stamp and write markers is even more fun than adult coloring books, I think.

I stamped the images in black Stazon ink and just had fun coloring.

Here is my group of happy witch cards:

I mean, really! So cute and easy and I'm pretty sure my little niece's will be super happy to get these cards in the mail. For my nephews, I colored up a few vampier boys.

Isn't he cute peeking in the window!?! Here are a few more fun cards:

And just for fun, here's a picture of all the cards I made!

When thinking about getting the cards ready to mail, I thought I should stamp something cute on the envelope. I was going to go with the spider stamp from Cheer All Year, but then I didn't want to scare or startle postal workers and friends all over the country, so I used the owl stamp from Among the Branches instead!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope that I have inspired you to make a card or two and send it out.

Stay Crafty!

Bundles of Spooky, Remarkable Blog Hop

The Remarkables keep on blog hopping! And we are sticking with our theme of bundles, showing you awesome ideas, using tools that work great together, and that save you a little bit of cash. I mean that's awesome, right?

I like to send seasonal cards to all my "littles" so let's get to work on some Halloween cards! I really do like Halloween, the orange and black, the cats, the witch's hats, the owls and spooky trees. The candy corn and pumpkin everything! But I do tend to like my Halloween a bit more on the cute side than the spooky side.

As you may know(check out my last blog post), I am currently loving the parquet technique with all of Stampin' Up's wonderful DSP. So I decided to start there with the Happy Haunting DSP. I cut a bunch of it into 3/4" wide pieces. This is my table at the beginning, it certainly looks Halloweeny!

And here's my table after a few minutes of fun.

Wait, you say, what does this have to do with Bundles? I know, this is all really cool and looks like it should be a bundle, but the feature (mostly, I'll admit all sorts of awesome Stampin' Up! product started showing up) of my blog post is the bundle of the Happy Scenes stamp set with the Hearth and Home thinlits. This set has a really cool window frame, which you can see on the right side of the above picture, and will now see here in my first card.

Isn't this cute? A fun mixed up backdrop, a crooked window and spider webs!

And what could be better than all that? Why cats of course! There's another awesome bundle in the catalog which has the Festive Fireplace stamp set with the Festive Fireside Framelits which has a cat. And cats and windows often go together, so I just had to use that one too!

And better than one cat? Why three of course!

I got fancy here, cutting the edges off the window frame, flipping it on it's side and adding the window box/ledge. And I'm still having fun with my parquet technique backgrounds.

Here's all three cards together.

And just for fun, here's the window die, with someone looking in!

Seriously! I think that is the cutest thing ever! The little vampire and the cute little cat are from the Haunt You Later stamp set. The greeting is from the Cheer All Year stamp set, the set has images and greetings for Halloween, Fall, and Christmas. Which is the same deal with the Happy Scenes stamp set. If you don't like spiders, or want more options, there are cute Fall and Winter scenes.

So, I hope you had a bundle of spooky fun here on the crafty yogi blog.

Stay Crafty!

For more inspiration, 

click here for Maria's blog!

Or, check out the whole blog tour with the links listed below:

Nancy Amato -  http://stampinallnight.blogspot.com/2015/09/remarkable-stampers-blog-tour-home-for.html

Melissa Bolinger - remarkable-blog-tour-holiday-bundles.html

Tamra Davis - http://wp.me/p2QFfC-wc 

Arden Dougan - http://stampinarden.blogspot.com/2015/09/remarkable-blog-tour-october.html

Tracie Langley - http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/traciesallaboutstamping/blog?directBlogUrl=/blog/86481/entry/remarkable_stampers_blog_tour_it

Anne Matasci - http://wp.me/pCcBw-1Y0

Heather Mathieson - https://inkyladybug.wordpress.com/?p=203

Ann Monhollen - http://annscreativenook.blogspot.com/2015/10/project-life-seasonal-snapshot-2015.html

Audra Monk - http://thecraftyyogi.blogspot.com/2015/10/bundles-of-spooky-remarkable-blog-hop.html

Maria Pane -  http://stampinandscrappinwithriri.blogspot.com/2015/10/remarkable-stampers-holiday-bundle-up.html

Michele Reynolds -  http://inspirationink.typepad.com/inspiration-ink/2015/10/october-holiday-bundle-blog-tour.html

Pam Staples -  http://wp.me/p3p2VA-17P 

Christmas Cards Continue

Hi Crafters!

I'm excited! For all sorts of reasons. I'm having a Christmas Card Stamp A Stack class this Sunday. People are scheduled to come and what was going to be really bad weather, (possible hurricane landing nearish to us, lots of rain and wind were predicted) should now just be an ordinary rainy day inconvenience. I'm happy with all my card designs (some of them have been on this blog already, so look back for more info) and I finally got around to making another video.

Doesn't that look like a nice pile of cards?

Before I show you the video, I want to give you a little more info about the All is Calm, All is Bright card. In the current Stampin' Up! Holiday catalog, there's a suite of products called Winter Wonderland.  I thought the Wonderland stamp set was beautiful. I love trees! For the card, I basically copied the idea from the catalog. But I saw on a crafty site I follow on Facebook a neat idea of lightly sponging a bit of color behind the trees. I gave it a quick try and I love how it came out!

I used Old Olive very lightly for my sponging. I used Mossy Meadow for stamping the trees, I stamped them once fully inked and then a second time, moving the stamp over a bit to give it that dimensional look. The snowflakes are stamped in Soft Sky.

Ok, next up is my video! Just a warning, this is real life crafting at it's best. My table is messy, my big head occasionally gets in the way, but I think you'll learn the technique and that's the important part.

I hope you enjoyed the bit of fun I shared today.

Stay Crafty!

Holiday Bundles Remarkable Blog Hop

By now, you might know that the Stampin' Up! Holiday catalog is live and that you can purchase the heck out of it.  To get you started and give you lots of ideas, the Remarkables are featuring bundles from the holiday catalog for this month's blog hop.

I'm going to wow you (I hope) with a Christmas card created with the Flurry of Wishes bundle.  The bundle features a beautiful photopolymer snowflake stamp set with a matching punch that punches out the two smallest snowflakes.

So, without any further ado, check out my beautiful creation!

Isn't it lovely? 

 The colors are Pool Party and Real Red with silver embossing for the snowflakes.  I made the background strip on our Shimmery White card stock.  I used my Stamp and Write markers in Pool Party and Island Indigo to color on the Softly Falling textured impressions embossing folder (also new in the Holiday catalog) then I spritzed it with water and pressed my piece of paper with just my hands inside.  I dried it with my heat tool.  Then I stamped the medium snowflakes in Versamark ink and used the silver embossing powder and heat tool to make the magic.  Here's a closer look:

I can't help being excited, it's so pretty!

I also stamped and embossed the smaller snowflakes on vellum paper and then punched them out.  I used pretty much every kind of silver ribbon we have to accent the greeting.  Which you can see a bit closer here:

I know you are wondering, where did she get that super cute red stripe washi tape?  It's from the Hello December 2015 Project Life Accessory Pack, also in the holiday catalog.

And finally, here's a look at the inside:

I stamped off to have a softer feel for the background snowflakes.

I hope you enjoyed my project!  For more inspiration, see below.

Stay Crafty!

Click here to see Maria's blog next!

Here's the whole line up:

Nancy Amato -  http://stampinallnight.blogspot.com/2015/09/remarkable-stampers-blog-tour-holiday.html

Melissa Bolinger - -http://creativeblessingsbymissy.blogspot.com/2015/09/remarkable-blog-tour-holiday-bundles.html

Tamra Davis - http://www.theCardLadies.com/remarkable-blog-hop-flurry-of-bundle-fun/

Arden Dougan - http://stampinarden.blogspot.com/2015/09/remarkable-blog-tour-september.html

Tracie Langley - http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/traciesallaboutstamping/blog?directBlogUrl=/blog/86481/entry/bundling_up_for_the_remarkable

Anne Matasci - http://wp.me/pCcBw-1Xb

Heather Mathieson - https://inkyladybug.wordpress.com/?p=192

Ann Monhollen - http://annscreativenook.blogspot.com/2015/09/peaceful-pines-for-christmas.html 

Audra Monk - http://thecraftyyogi.blogspot.com/2015/09/holiday-bundles-remarkable-blog-hop.html

Maria Pane - http://stampinandscrappinwithriri.blogspot.com/2015/09/home-for-holidays-remarkable-stampers.html

Michele Reynolds -  http://inspirationink.typepad.com/inspiration-ink/2015/09/holiday-bundle-blog-tour.html

Pam Staples - http://wp.me/p3p2VA-166

Janet Wakeland - http://wp.me/pHIQD-7nS

It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas!

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas...if you're a crafter that is!

Stampin' Up's Holiday catalog goes live for customers on September 1.  As a demonstrator, I was able to order at the beginning of August.  And unfortunately for my check book, order I did!  This catalog is amazing!  There are so many wonderful products.  I felt inspired.

I am really making all my Christmas cards this year!  There it is, I've said it.  I've never done this before.  I maybe even attempted to make them all last year?  I made a few, but not all.  I love Christmas and I love getting Christmas cards in the mail (even if they're not handmade).  So, to make about 100 cards, I need to get started now.  I mean, a little bit at a time seems to be a good idea.  As I'll still be making other cards over the next few months too.

And just a note, all the products used are from Stampin' Up!  Why?  They are really the best, everything coordinates, and I just like them.  If you want to shop online, you can: audramonk.stampinup.net. If you want a catalog, let me know.

Here are my first designs:

This Jolly card has some back story.  I had not made a card with this technique before.  I watched a quick tutorial by Brian King, but really the key is 3/4" strips and making a "T" and alternating the direction of the strips.  He has a video, but I'm thinking I might give a go at making one myself.  If I do, I'll come back and add it here.

This is what the strips look like coming together.  I really had fun with this part.

****Video is now here!****

I hope you enjoyed it and that you now can make lots of cards (for all seasons even) using this technique.

And this is what it looks like when you take all your card "parts"  out of town with you.  You chill at the Starbucks for awhile and put them together.

Well, thanks for checking in.  If you need more info on anything, let me know.

Stay Crafty!

Remarkable Blog Hop, Any Choice Bundle

This month for the Remarkables Blog Hop, we are sharing items made with any bundle in the annual catalog from Stampin' Up.  The catalog has lots of bundles and the awesome thing about a bundle, besides that the items go together is that they are discounted 15% and really, who doesn't like a discount?

I have a bunch of the bundles, and they're all pretty awesome.  How to pick one to feature here?  I went with the "cards I need to send" inspiration.  Last month we had a family reunion at my brother's house in Utah.  We're in Maryland, so it was quite a trip.  We had 24 of 25 family members there (Although a few of his college age kids were only there for part of the time).  We all stayed at his house which fortunately had enough room for us all.  My husband and I stayed in the "princess suite" also known as my niece Amy's room.  So, I have been planning for a few weeks to make her and my niece Rachel (my daughter and Amy slept in her room) some thank you cards.

With this blog hop coming up, inspiration struck in the form of the Watercolor Wings bundle and the color purple (Amy's room was purple).  Now, I'm gonna throw it out there, that I think the catalog is a bit heavy on butterflies this year.  And, I like butterflies ok, but not that much!  BUT, when I saw this set, it went on my first order!  Crazy, I know.

So, the cool thing is I made the three butterflies the same.  Soft Sky, Sahara Sand, and Wisteria Wonder, all spritzed with water and stamped on our watercolor paper (you might need to dry them a bit between colors).  Then I just started playing around!  It's pretty cool how different the cards came out.  It's all about the embellishments!  I also used a few stamps from the Tin of Cards set, but if you've been reading my blog, you already know that I love that stamp set.

I ended up with three cards, the last one is going to my other niece who will be starting 3rd grade this week, and she LOVES butterflies! Let me know which one is your favorite.

Amy's Card

Rachel's Card

Brooke's Card

We hope that we have inspired you to check out all the great bundle deals in the catalog.
Stay Crafty!

Click here to see what Maria has to share!

                                           You can check out the whole lineup here:

Nancy Amato - http://stampinallnight.blogspot.com/2015/08/remarkable-stampers-blog-tour-bundle-up.html

Melissa Bolinger - http://creativeblessingsbymissy.blogspot.com/2015/08/remarkable-blog-tour-watercolor-wings.html

Tamra Davis -  http://www.thecardladies.com/remarkable-blog-hop-ready-for-fall/

Anne Matasci - http://wp.me/pCcBw-1Vk

Heather Mathieson - https://inkyladybug.wordpress.com/?p=187

Audra Monk - http://thecraftyyogi.blogspot.com/2015/08/remarkable-blog-hop-any-choice-bundle.html  YOU'RE HERE!

Maria Pane -http://stampinandscrappinwithriri.blogspot.com/2015/08/remarkable-blog-tour-su-bundles.html

Michele Reynolds - http://inspirationink.typepad.com/inspiration-ink/2015/08/bundle-blog-tour.html

Pam Staples - http://wp.me/p3p2VA-14W

Janet Wakeland - http://wp.me/pHIQD-7m8

Better Get Better

I have a few extended family and friends dealing with some medical issues.  I'm pretty sure they'll be feeling better soon, to cheer them up,  I thought I would send them a card to encourage them and let them know I'm thinking of them.

I used the As You See It Challenges sketch to come up with this sweet little card.

I am a big fan of Smoky Slate with So Saffron.  I think the colors are divine together.  This card has lots of fun elements to highlight the sentiment set at center stage.

Here's the sketch:

You can find more info on their site.

http://www.asyouseeitchallenge.com

Stay Crafty!

Stampin' Up! In Color Bundle, Remarkable Blog Hop

This month on the Remarkable's Blog Hop, we are featuring the new 2015-2017 Stampin' Up! in-color bundle.  This is a great way to get the new inks pads and papers at a discount.

I decided to make some cards and I used the in-colors, plus momento black ink and Whisper White and Very Vanilla card stock.  I also used a little Designer Series Paper.

  

I love this card!  The contrast between the organic (the flowers and leaves from the Awesomely Artistic stamp set) and the graphic design of the wash tape make me happy.  This card features the colors Crisp Cucumber (stamped off once) and Mint Macaron. The card base is Tip Top Taupe. The greeting is from the Tin of Cards stamp set.

I used another Tin of Cards greeting in this card, featuring a stamp from the From Land to Sea set.

This card uses the in- colors designer series paper stack too.  The hot sun behind the lighthouse is done with a circle template in Delightful Dijon.  I also did another version of this card...

My next card goes back to the Awesomely Artistic flowers and paper layers style.  Featuring the colors Watermelon Wonder and Delightful Dijon.

And my last card gives the full impact of Watermelon Wonder!

This is a super sweet, super quick card!  I stamped the Definitely Dahlia in Watermelon Wonder on the same color of card stock, wonderful!  Tin of Cards again for the greeting!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope that I have encouraged you to have fun with the new in- colors.

Stay Crafty!

For more inspiration, check out Maria's blog here!

To check out the whole hop, you can also click on the links below.

Nancy Amato - 

http://stampinallnight.blogspot.com/2015/07/remarkable-stampers-blog-tour-in-color.html

Melissa Bolinger - http://creativeblessingsbymissy.blogspot.com/2015/07/remarkable-blog-tour-in-color-bundle.html

Tamra Davis - http://wp.me/p2QFfC-sL

Anne Matasci - http://wp.me/pCcBw-1T2

Heather Mathieson - https://inkyladybug.wordpress.com/?p=178

Audra Monk - 

http://thecraftyyogi.blogspot.com/2015/07/stampin-up-in-color-bundle-remarkable.html

Maria Pane - http://stampinandscrappinwithriri.blogspot.com/2015/07/new-su-in-colors-remarkable-stampers.html

Michele Reynolds - http://inspirationink.typepad.com/inspiration-ink/2015/07/in-color-bundle-blog-tour.html

Pam Staples - http://wp.me/p3p2VA-13Z

Janet Wakeland - http://wp.me/pHIQD-7ks