Crafty Elves' Countdown - Merry Christmas!

Well!  We made it!!  Merry Christmas!

My friend Debra Davison and I made a pact that we would create a Christmas card a week all year and we've been sharing on the 25th of the month each month of the year the cards we made.  Today is the day!  (Most) of my Christmas cards are in the mail.  I have one more batch to go out Thursday.  Ok.  Yeah.  I had them all made, but still wasn't able to get them all out.  But it's all good.  It's still the earliest I've gotten them out in a long time!

I've been sharing Christmas cards all month again, but I wanted to share something new today so I got a start on next year's batch:

I decided on a quick design for today using some paper from one of my local papercraft stores, The Paper Collage along with some dies from Paper Smooches (also local to me!)  I made four of the same card and it took me about an hour to put them together from concept to complete.

Isn't that cactus paper cuuute and fun?  I picked that up at the Paper Collage (their own design) and decided with all it's got going on I'd let it shine with just a simple die cut sentiment.  I used the Joy Dies from Paper Smooches to create a shaker panel.  I cut my strip of white and then die cut the largest background Joy from it.  Then I cut the smaller Joy from red paper and just added the outline to the window after placing the acetate behind the panel.  Finally I added the strip of plaid from my stash and then just popped the sentiment up over it after adding sequins... easy peasy!  That pretty bow from the Ribbon Dies was perfect to finish it off!

That's me for today!  

I have had so much fun making Christmas cards all year!  And we're gonna do it again in 2020 and guess what!!  We've got a couple more people that will join us too!  So for today, be sure to head on over to Debra's blog and check out what she's got for you!

Now for the winner of some Happy Mail from last month's post:

Whoop!  Meghan please PM me your address so I can drop something in the mail to you!

Thank you so much to those of you who have stuck with me all year!  Leave me some love on this post here and maybe I can send you some Happy Mail next month!

Crafty Elves' Countdown To Christmas - September 2019 Edition

Welcome to the Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas!  Can you believe it's already September!!  And it's a very busy month around here... work deadlines and lots of crafty stuff going on... it's been so much fun!

If you're new here, then you'll want to know that my friend Debra Davison from Meticulosity agreed that for 2019 we would make a Christmas card a week and on the 25th of each month, we'd share the cards we've made that month!  And by December we'll have all of our Christmas cards ready to go!  We've both stuck to it and have a nice health pile of holiday wishes to send out.

Here's what I have for you today:

You may remember that in the beginning of the month I made a card for the Paper Smooches challenge for September and used the Wavy Wishes stamp set along with the Wavy Pattern dies.  That one was a little bit of a rainbow and after cutting the dies from all those different colors I had a whole bunch of leftovers!  So I created some backgrounds with them and have been sharing cards all month.  If you're interested you can find Wavy Card 1 here, Card 2 here and Card 3 here!  And this one makes 4!  I have a couple more to go too!

I love that Wavy Wishes includes a Merry Christmas sentiment!  I knew I wanted to use it for my monthly Christmas card post.  One of my fave stamp sets, Warm Hearts was just right to finish it up!  And of course my snowman has some coffee!  There's always a coffee cup in my Christmas Card post and always some kind of theme.  This time around the theme is Local Papercraft stores!  I'm so lucky and I have no less than 3 full blown papercraft stores and did you know that Paper Smooches' Artist and Owner Kim also has a Paint & Wine Studio not to far from me in Goodyear, AZ, called Our Creative Escape and up front in the studio there are some wonderful little giftie items, a Paper Smooches section and a limited selection of awesome papercrafting supplies.  It's an inspiring setting and lots of fun!

The rest of my cards today are made using an adorable paper collection called Gnome For the Holidays from another one of my favorite stomping grounds, Scraps of Love!  I picked mine up at the Scrapbook Expo and made a few quick cards for today:

This paper was designed by Scraps of Love and printed by Color Play.  The patterns are fun and there's even a plaid! #madforplaid  It also includes a 12x12 set of images that can be colored (on Copic friendly paper) and cut out (either in just a rectangle or fussy cut or cut with a Scan N Cut like I did!)  The flip side of that sheet has a random pattern that you can also choose to color if you'd like.  And Scraps of Love has some beautiful stamp sets too!  Most are Arizona themed and I picked the Christmas Cactus set!  The Cactus on this one is from the pre-printed images and the sentiment was stamped with the stamp set and fussy cut.  I used a polaroid die from A Jillian Vance Design to frame my images.

I'm playing along over at Double Trouble Challenges Something Plaid AND they are partnering with Use Your Stuff's Frames/Tags (which is also the twist at DT!)... I've used that awesome Polaroid Frame from AJVD!

For this one I stamped, colored and used my Scan N Cut to cut the images and fussy cut the sentiment from the Christmas Cactus stamp set.  I kept my designs simple and just added a few snowflakes from Lawn Fawn and sequins to embellish.

I'm playing along over at Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge which is Stitch It (Real or not)... I have some faux stitching in my die cuts!

And the Collection also includes some journal card sized images perfect for a quick and simple bunch of cards!  I used just a few to make these four cards along with more snowflakes sequins and some twine:

Hoping to have some more local shop fun in my next post.

Now before you go I've been choosing one lucky commenter from each Crafty Elves post to win some Happy Mail!  And it's time to announce the winner from last month:

Theresa!

And we're doing it again!  Leave me some love so I can send you some!

Thanks for stopping!  Now be sure to head on over to Debra's blog to see what she's cooked up for you today... there is some real cuuuteness going on over there!!

Caffeine Fueled Paper Play - Altenew

I'm up on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog today and playing along over at Altenew's July Inspiration Challenge!  Here's a sneak peek and I hope you'll hop over to check out the details!

Coffee Lover's Blog Hop - Day 8 - Final Project

Guess I've gotta talk about it now... no more avoiding it.  For me, this is the end...lol!  Oh that sounds SO ominous...lol!  I mean, this is my last project for the Spring/Summer 2019 Coffee Lover's Blog Hop!  You can still link up until 11:55 pm Pacific Time tonight... but me... I need to do some shopping before all of the great sales are done!  Priorities people!!

Did you know Jessica Lynn Original has some really adorable digis over in her shop?  And all of her coffee stamps... digital and clear are on sale!  Get the code and details at her Coffee Loving Blog Post here!

Here's how I was inspired:

Isn't that cactus adorable??  He's one of the Cactus coffee digis in the shop and he is Happy Cactus In A Cup!  Of course he's happy!  He's greeting people at the Coffee Shop!

I created a very lightly stenciled background... it's not really about the background... but those stencils from MFT are awesome!!  Whether they're the star of the show or just a light backdrop!

I love cacti SO much!  They are so friendly even though they're a little prickly... don't try to hug them... it won't end well.. in case you didn't know!  I'm trying to teach that to my grand dog that has come to live with us for a little while.  He grew up in the mountains of Montana in winter so he's not used to them!

Isn't this this die from MFT great??  It's the Boutique Dynamics and you can make any kind of shop from it... but of course I made a coffee shop...lol!

My first thought for my sentiment for this one was one of the Newtons Nook cactus cup sentiments... you know.. prickly and all that... but then I ran across this Got Coffee die from Kat Scrappiness and it made me giggle as the name of this Cafe' because back in Buffalo we have Spot Coffee... lol!  Anyway, I like to make myself giggle.  AND I love this Got Coffee die!  I decided instead of trying to create a scene inside the Cafe, I'd create a shaker which was quite easy to do with this set... the window cuts out automatically when you cut out the building... love it!  And the sequin mix is from Craftin Desert Divas.  It had the perfect colors in it!

And that my friend, is it for me.  Don't worry... I know you are... I'm sure I'll be back soon with more coffee...lol!

Thank you so much to everyone who has been stopping by and leaving me some love.  Don't forget about my giveaway!  You can find out about it in my Honey Bee post here!

Come back soon and enjoy the rest of the hop!!

The Cutting Cafe - Folded Calendar Inspiration!

Welcome to some Cutting Cafe Inspiration!  Today we're playing with the 2019 Folding Calendar!  This is a fantastic, easy and fun file to play with!  The size is around 3x8 as it comes, but it could easily be modified to a smaller size if you wanted.  It's the perfect size to throw into a purse or bag for a quick reference.

I cut mine from some heavy kraft cardstock... the perforations that the file creates help this to fold SO easily and lay so flat.  I tried to keep it that way so I chose some pretty Arizona papers from my LSS and simply added the 2019 on the front using some die cuts.  I chose to keep mine closed with some ribbon, although a cool elastic type band would help to make it more purse friendly, so I'm going to see about getting something like that.  But for now, the green ribbon makes me smile!

I decorated the inside calendars using a cactus stamp set and then I highlighted important dates with color coded hearts.

I added my coding on my "Notes" page, but the cool part is I could replace this page any time with a new fresh notes page if I want.

And I printed this cute sentiment from the 2019 Planner file and foiled it to decorate the inside... I love this saying!  It's a good reminder...

 

These would make fantastic gifts too!  You could make them in any color and decorate as much or as little as you want!

So fun!

Now!  Head on over to the Cutting Cafe to see what everyone has created using this Folded Calendar!  Be sure to comment on the Cutting Cafe Blog for your chance to win three files of your choice and then hop around to check out all of the details!

Paper Smooches Anything Goes Challenge

Popping in today with a card I made for the Paper Smooches Anything Goes Challenge for August!

I started with some pretty Amy Tangerine Papers from the Better Together pad... picked this one up at the brick & mortar shop owned by Kim from Paper Smooches and her husband.  It's an awesome Paint & Wine that includes an adorable shop with some crafty items (including Paper Smooches stamps and dies) and lots of too cute gifty type items... you know... one for me... one for them...lol!  You can find more info about this awesome place to shop and create on the website!

Love the adorable Roadrunner from the Baby Birds stamp set!!  I've been wanting to ink him up for a while!  Super adorable!

And he's perfect perched up on top of these sweet vases/pots filled with sweet plants and flowers from the Garden Greetings set... LOVE these pretty "sentiments"!!  And that pretty Frame 1 die was the exact backdrop I needed.. love the stitching on that one!

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to check out this challenge over at Paper Smooches!  You need to use at least one Paper Smooches product and you could win some free stuff!

Papertrey Ink April 2018 Blog Hop Challenge

It's time for a new Blog Hop Challenge over at Papertrey Ink!  This is the inspiration photo (right up my alley).  And here's how I was inspired:

I chose my paper because it had the feeling of the textured background in the inspiration photo.  And the Plaid Mix and Mat... well... I just wanted to...lol!  I LOVE that die so much!

My initial plan was to stack my cups... but I cut my first one with this cool Fancy Tea Cup Die and I had the thought.. why does the height have to come from more cups... why not this:

I used some old retired cactus stamps from CTMH for the height and then the beautiful flowers and leaves are from the Stemmed Statements stamp set.  These are the geraniums from the set, but I used these flowers mostly because the size was right.. 

I picked the paper because of the pretty floral and it had the colors in the cups from the inspiration photo... all of the colors in the bottom cup,  alike yet different... and I thought it was pretty!

And since I knew I wanted to enter this into the Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge with a Twist of homemade flowers, I cut and rolled this 3D flower from the Impression Obsession Spiral Flowers set.  The center stamens were from a poinsettia set and then added a sparkly center using a Doodlebug Sprinkle in green... I love the way it turned out!  It really looks like some of the flowers that are blooming in my garden right now...

These smell really good too... it's an Argentinian Cactus... one of my faves... and they're almost as big as my face...lol!

I had this banner piece sitting on my desk and it was just the right color and size for the Simple Joys sentiment from the Stemmed Statements set.   I highly recommend this floral stamp and die set.  There are some really beautiful flowers and lots of smallish sentiments like this one.  I've already used it twice in the short time I've had it, and I know I'll be using it a lot more.  A few more Sprinkles is all this one needed to finish it up!

Hope you enjoyed your time here today!  This challenge only runs until this evening, however, if you sign up for the newsletter you get an advance peek at the inspiration photo each month so if you can't play along this time, sign up for the newsletter so you can play along next time.

Newton Rides (South)West!

Howdy!  Sharing a card with you today using the adorable Prickly Pear papers and Complements from CTMH along with a new stamp I got from Newton's Nook during the awesome release last month.  I won a stamp set!!! (not this one, but I'll share something with that later!)  I couldn't resist all of the cactus/western themed sets that were released and I just might have ended up with all of them taking up residence in my Southwest home...

I'm playing along with the Cardz TV Anything Goes Challenge #5 with this one.  You should check it out!

I just love Newton and especially love him in his Cowboy duds!  And there are quite a few adorable cowboy Newtons in the Newton Rides West Set... you can check it out here!  Here I did a simple little scene with Newton and the cactus and scalloped piece are from the Prickly Pear Complements.  The die behind them... I must admit I don't know who it's from... I borrowed it from my mom at a crop last weekend, but I plan on finding out because I love it!

The banner is from CDD and the cute little horseshoe and sheriff's badge are from the Newton Rides West set as well... so cute!

I used that fantastic Retro Arrow background die again from Paper Smooches that you can still get in the clearance section over there!  Love this die and the price is more than right!

So thanks for stopping by and do come back again.. I'll be back Monday with Atlantic Hearts and next week starts the Paper Sweeties August Release... hope to see you soon!

And don't forget my giveaway!  You can find out more about that here!