Jan 15, 2020 | 12 Cards of Christmas, 2019 Holiday Catalog, Cards, Christmas, Watercoloring |
So Christmas came and went and I thought I was prepared for all the cards I wanted to mail out. I was wrong. This year I mailed out about 120 cards just before Christmas – short of the 170 on my list. I told myself that I had to come up with a new system. So I spent a while trying to figure out how to tackle making all my cards. Normally I start creating Christmas cards late in the fall just before the holidays start. I’ve never been a Christmas in July person. But this year I’m trying something new – making Christmas cards all year long!
Here is my plan:
One day each month I’ll design, cut, stamp, and assemble a set of Christmas cards. If I plan to make 12 cards (one design) each month, in December that would give me 144 cards. Then I’ll add the normal cards from my classes leading up to the holidays. So each month I’ll share my card and if you’d like to join me in this card challenge you can copy my card or create your own. Let me know how many you are making. Let’s start with January’s card.

This card I cased from another demonstrator – Ashley VanCamp. I had saved her version and decided to tweak it for my 12 Cards of Christmas project. I wanted to stick to current products. And yes everything I used on this card is current – so if you don’t have it you can order it and make this card too. I gathered up all my supplies, worked on all my pieces, and then sat and assembled everything – including stamping the inside of the card and a matching envelope.

The front layer is Shimmery White card stock. I started by using my Aqua-painter filled with water and getting the front wet. Then came back with the Aqua-painter loaded with Balmy Blue ink and water colored the background. To speed up the drying I used my heat tool. I stamped Shaded Spruce trees from the Perfectly Plaid Stamp set. Those were punched with the Pine Tree Punch and a vellum tree and a white tree. Using the Word Wishes dies, I cut “Merry” out of Gold Foil. Christmas comes from the A Wish For Everything stamp set – stamped on a scrap of white and I just cut straight around the word. The card is finished with Linen Thread and Gold Metallic Pearls. You can order all the products that I used for this card in my online store – the supply list is below.

Supply List
- #149418 Perfectly Plaid stamp set
- #149521 Pine Tree Punch
- #149320 A Wish For Everything stamp set (available as a bundle)
- #149629 Word Wishes Dies (available as a bundle)
- #146982 Balmy Blue card stock
- #100730 Whisper White card stock
- #101910 Shimmery White card stock
- #101856 Vellum card stock
- #132622 Gold Foil Sheets
- #107301 Medium Whisper White envelopes
- #147088 Shaded Spruce classic ink
- #147168 Balmy Blue classic ink refill
- #104199 Linen Thread
- #146282 Metallic Pearls
- #103954 Aqua Painter
- #129053 Heat Tool
- #104430 Stampin’ Dimensionals
- #144108 Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals

So that’s Card 1 of the 12 Cards of Christmas Challenge. Now to start thinking what I want to use for February.
Be sure to register for upcoming classes – just click on Registration under the Events tab.

Order online here – use hostess code ZRF6KVHJ for January 2020.
Aug 1, 2018 | Designer Series Paper, PAWS Team, Watercoloring |
One of my favorite things to do is to make little gifts for everyone that attends my retreat weekends. In July I hosted a Getaway Retreat weekend for my PAWS team and some other local demonstrators. We had a fun creative weekend together and I showered them with little gifts throughout. This week I’ll be sharing with you what I gave them. My theme was the new 2018-2020 In Colors.

On Friday when everyone arrived they had a sign with their name at the table plus a notepad and matching pen. This was their Lovely Lipstick gift. The notebooks and pens came from the office supply store and I decorated them with Designer Series Paper and tied them up with ribbon and a tag. It was the perfect thing for taking notes on the shoe box swaps everyone shared and for making a wish list!
Supply List
- Petal Promenade Designer Series Paper
- Lovely Lipstick 1/8″ Grosgrain ribbon
- Lovely Lipstick card stock
- Whisper White card stock
- Crafting Forever stamp set
- Stazon ink
- Aquapainter
- Crumb Cake ink
- Lovely Lipstick ink
- 1/8″ handheld punch
- Stampin’ Dimensionals
- Tear & Tape
Here is a closer look at the tag. I stamped the “stamp” image and water colored it, then fussy cut it out to add to the tag.

I shared the name signs yesterday but here it is again. The supply list is below.

Supply List
- Lovely Lipstick card stock
- Shimmer White card stock
- Stazon ink
- Aquapainter
- Lined Alphabet stamp set
- Lovely Lipstick ink
- Grapefruit Grove ink
- Pineapple Punch ink
- Call Me Clover ink
- Blueberry Bushel ink
Thanks for visiting today. Come back to see the next pillow gift everyone got.
Be sure to register for upcoming classes – just click on Registration under the Events tab.

Order online here – use hostess code FSYDU9M4 for July 2018.
Oct 6, 2017 | 2017 Holiday Catalog, Big Shot, Christmas, Watercoloring |
The little reindeer in Seasonal Chums is just the cutest thing. I just love how he turns out when I watercolor with my Aqua-painter.

Here I’ve used the exact same layout as my pumpkin card. Just a new image, different colors and different Designer Series paper. I stamped the reindeer on Watercolor paper with my Basic Black Archival Ink and then water-colored him. Crumb Cake, Soft Suede and Garden Green.
The Designer Series Paper is the Quilted Christmas Paper stack – it’s a 6×6 stack. The die cut snowflake is part of the Seasonal Tags Framelits dies that match the Seasonal Chums stamp set. And the circles are from the Stitched Shapes Framelits.
Like the last card I posted this is one with a short front. The strip of Designer Series Paper is on the inside. Here is a photo so you can see what I mean.

It’s fun because when the card is opened you have the paper still showing. And easy solution for a card base that has been mis-cut or mis-scored.
Have a great day!

Oct 4, 2017 | 2017 Holiday Catalog, Big Shot, Halloween, Watercoloring |
I love the new Seasonal Chums stamp set and Seasonal Tags Framelits Dies in the Holiday catalog. They make quick and easy fold over tags. Each image has a front and a back and the dies cut out both at the same time. But the images are perfect for cards too.

This one uses the Pumpkin for a Halloween card – and there is the little bat in the die set!
So the story behind this card design is this – I was preparing for a card class and cut and scored a stack of card bases. Only to realize that I had scored them all at 4″ instead of 4-1/4″. Oops! I didn’t want to throw out all my nice thick card stock so I set it aside until I figured out what to do. Later this card design was born. I trimmed the back side to 4-1/4″ and that left the front side short at 4″. The solution was to add a strip of Designer Paper on the inside so it peeks out to the front! I really loved this – it’s also a great way to use up little strips of designer paper.
For this card I used the Painted Harvest Designer Series Paper – it’s part of the October Paper Sale. The colors of my Stitched Circles came from the paper – Lemon Lime Twist and Peekaboo Peach. I also water-colored my pumpkins to match using the Tangerine Tango, Garden Green in addition to the Peekaboo Peach and Lemon Lime Twist.
After stamping and water-coloring the pumpkins I cut them with the dies and then cut the front and back apart to add to the card. There is also some Black Metallic Thread and the little bat.
So don’t worry when you cut or score something wrong – just set it aside for a bit until an idea comes up. You never know what creations you will get out of the mistakes you make. Sometimes they are better than what you started with!
Enjoy your day!

Aug 10, 2017 | SU Pillow Gifts, SU Ribbon, Watercoloring |
This was a quick and easy project that I made for the girls on my SU Demo Getaway weekend. I was shopping in the Target Dollar Spot one day (well maybe they don’t call it that anymore) and saw some fun pencils that looked like our SU colors – they were Emerald Envy, Blushing Bride and Basic Black. I picked up a bunch of them to use as a little “pillow” gift for the getaway weekend. Here is what I did with them.

I put three pencils in one of the 6×8 cello bags and stapled it shut. The pencils are about as tall as the bags so I pushed them to one side at the top and stapled as close as I could get so that it would hold them in there.
Then I wanted to decorate the bag with a fun tag. I decided the Pick a Pattern Designer Paper was a perfect fit and grabbed one of the Emerald Envy patterns and one of the Basic Black patterns – I cut those into strips and punched with the Triple Banner Punch. I also cut a strip of Blushing Bride card stock and punch the end of it. I stamped on the card stock with the Pieces & Patterns stamp set. I also grabbed little bits of ribbon in the coordinating colors – Emerald Envy Crinkled Seam Binding, Blushing Bride Double-Stitched Ribbon and some Black Mini Sequin Trim. I stapled all those together at the top of my bag.
To finish the tag I stamped a bunch of the bears on Watercolor Paper and water-colored them in with some Sahara Sand ink. Then I fussy cut the bear and attached him with a mini Stampin’ Dimensional.
Aspen was helping with the bears!

Not really he was just sleeping next to me and I wondered how many bears I could lay on him before he noticed. The answer is 6 – just 6. Then he looked up at me like what is going on here.
I love fun pencils and have lots of different ones. I pretty much write everything in pencil – because then I can erase mistakes or when things change. My calendar would be a mess if I didn’t write things in pencil. Do you use a pencil or mostly write with a pen?
Have a great day!

Jul 5, 2017 | 2017 Occasions Catalog, Big Shot, Cards, Stamp, Scrap, & Create Retreat, Uncategorized, Watercoloring |
Well I’m really behind on sharing about the Spring 2017 Stamp, Scrap & Create Retreat. It was a few months ago and I didn’t share about it on my blog then but I’m going to do that now. And be sure to save the date for the Fall retreat – September 29-October 1. I held the retreat at a beautiful cabin in the North Georgia Mountains. I’m actually heading back up there later this month to host a Demonstrator Getaway Weekend. It is so much fun to getaway for the weekend and be creative with friends.
At the Spring Retreat we had Make&Take projects for everyone there. We had a project for Friday night and another one for Saturday.
For Friday night we stuck with a fairly simple project – a card and a little 3-D succulent.

These use products from the Oh So Succulent Suite from the Occasions Catalog. We used the Popcorn Box die and cut it shorter to create the container for the succulent. The card uses 4 x 5-1/4 piece of designer paper that is cut at a diagonal. You can mix and match the patterns from a pack of designer paper. Everyone at the retreat got a piece of all the different patterns in the pack.
On Saturday we had a bigger project and taught 5 different water coloring techniques. We used the Dragonfly Dreams stamp set and dies to create a set of 4 cards – each with a different technique and a card holder with a 5th technique.
Everyone also made a 3D project to match the cards using the Window Box Thinlits Dies. Since I prepped everything ahead I did a ton of Big Shot cutting for this one!

Inside the Window Box was a battery operated tea light – the back of the box opens up so you can turn on your light. We strung a wire through so you could hang it from a hook somewhere.
The projects turned out great and everyone enjoyed making them and learning the new techniques. I hope you can join me in the fall.
Thanks for stopping by.
