Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas-February 2019 Edition!

Welcome to this month's Crafty Elves post!  My friend Debra Davison (from Meticulosity) and I have promised to make a Christmas card a week for the year so that when the time comes, we'll have this part of our holiday all set!  I might even get my cards mailed out on a timely schedule... maybe... lol!  I especially love that it gives me the opportunity to use some of the many new products I purchased over the holidays that might otherwise be sitting and waiting for next November/December!  

And stay tuned because at the end I'll be announcing the winner from the comments on our first Crafty Elves post in January!

So here we go:

So let me just say that as soon as I saw this Happy Holladays stamp set by Darcie's Heart & Home over at Butterfly Reflections Ink I didn't even have to think about throwing it into my cart.  I knew I had to have it!  So many of my favorite things... coffee, that sweet deer, plaid, and that handsome lumberjack hipster santa..

I mean... cuuute right??  It was fun to use that pretty plaid from an old CTMH paper pack along with dies from Paper Smooches, Craftin Desert Divas, Lawn Fawn, and Pretty Pink Posh!  And it was also fun to use some denim material to texturize Santa's jeans.. tee hee.. love him!!

I'm linking this one up over at Double Trouble Challenge... this week there's a tic tac toe board and I'm taking the middle row across... Glitter, An Image, and a Sentiment.  (The board is at the end of this post) That was easy enough!  And I've met the twist which is Magic... I'd say that Santa and Rudolph are pretty magical (not to mention Coffee... it's made from a magical bean that turns me into a human being every morning!).  And since I met the twist, I can also enter into the Use Your Stuff Challenge which is Magic this time around!  They're partnering with Double Trouble and you have about a week to enter both challenges!

Next up:

O M Garsh I LOVE these adorable critters from Elizabeth Craft Designs... they are from the Winter Animals stamp set...so adorable!  I love how they all coordinated their outfits to go ice skating...maybe their mom was planning a scrapbook page and already had the papers picked out.  

Once Owl gets done skating he'll have some hot cocoa too... I'm sure of it!  I used some dies from CC Designs (the birch trees which I believe are no longer available), Kat Scrappiness and Craftin Desert Divas (which does have a nice die set with a birch tree here) to create my wintery scene... and lots of glitter paper... lots....

And then this Merry from the Merry Christmas word die from Pretty Pink Posh... I LOVE how it just happened to fit in the scallops perfectly!  This is one of my favorite word dies... you're gonna see it a lot this year!  And I almost forgot to mention that beautiful background snowflake paper from the Blizzard paper pad by Gina K.. LOVE!!

Did I mention I love this stamp set!  Wish I'd remembered that I did purchase the dies before I cut these out by hand...lol!

Oh... and if you are hoping you see this one in your mailbox next December... it's already spoken for.  You know who you are.... lol!

I'm playing along with Festive Fridays over at the Outlawz Challenges on Ning... the themes are Birthday, Get Well, Anniversary/Wedding, Christmas, and Anything Goes, so I'd say with Christmas, I'm good...lol!  I'm also playing along over at Mod Squad Challenges to use a Clear or Rubber Brand Name Stamped Image... I've used Elizabeth Crafts stamps on this one!

The next one is using some digital items from Graciellie Designs... she has the most beautiful digital sets ...

I started this one with a beautiful paper from the Rustic Winter Wishes digital paper set... that plaid... I wasn't sure if I'd foil it or not and decided not... then I thought I'd add some snowflakes with a stencil from Newton's Nook and some Deco foil transfer gel and foil those... so I added the gel and as it was drying I realized that wasn't going to work because the snowflakes would take the foil but so would the paper since i printed it on my laser!  So instead I added some gold embossing powder over the gel and heated it.  It's so much fun to watch it heat because it bubbles and has so much movement!  Crisis averted!

I printed a bunch of images from a few sets from Graciellie including Coffee or Cocoa, Christmas Cheer, and Winter Wishes and colored them with my Copics and added a little detail with my Prismacolor pencils.  I added a little sparkle using Liquid Pixie Dust from Ink On 3... love this stuff!!  I added it to the marshmallows and the poinsettia...just dropped a little into a container... just a tiny bit... and applied it with a paint brush.

I foiled the spoon and the sentiment... love that Gold Sequin foil from Gina K!!

I used one of my fave layering dies from Waffle Flower Stamps on this one!

I printed lots of images from these sets and can't wait to use them!

And last for this month but definitely not least:

I've had these images from Polka Dot Orchard printed and hadn't had a chance to use them yet so I was excited to use them this month!  That sweet bear!  There is something about his snout that reminds me of my dog... lol!  He's from the Winter Bear digital stamp set.

I colored up Winter Bear ... the furry parts first and then used some material from an old wash cloth and some Copic Blending Solution to texturize it.  And I love that the set comes with that adorable background already made up!  I just printed it; die cut it, and ran it through my Minc with some red sparkly foil from Gina K!  And that nose was perfect for some liquid glass... I just wanna boop it!

When I print my sentiments I'm sure to leave room around them so I can use dies to cut them out... and then I foiled this one with some turquoise foil... perfect with the color scheme!  I love that the Gina K Designs foils come in a flat pack so I don't have to deal so much with the curling... it's tricky enough as it is!!

I used dies from Kat Scrappiness, Stamplorations and Craftin Desert Divas on this one.

He's such a cutie!!  Also printed out some more images from Polka Dot Orchard so I'm sure you'll be seeing those in a coming month's post as well.

Hope you enjoyed your visit today!  And now for the winner from the January post!  Thanks so much to everyone for stopping by and leaving me some love!  The winner of some Happy Mail from me is:

Vannessa Osbourn!

Vannessa, please email at bzscrapper66 at gmail dot com with your address and also your blog address and/or Instagram if you have one... I'd love to see the cards you've created so far!

And hey!  Let's do it again!  I have lots of cards to mail out so leave me some love and I'll pick a winner and announce it in next month's post!

Now head on over to Debra's place and check out what she's created for you today!

Spring/Summer 2018 Coffee Lover's Blog Hop! - Day 1

The Coffee Hop is Here!  The Coffee Hop is Here!

If you visit here often, you know that the Coffee Lovers Bloghop hosted by Amy over at The Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog is like a holiday for me!  The celebration starts today and runs through Friday June 1st at 11:55pm Pacific Time.  There are tons of Sponsors and lots of chances to win.  You can link up any new creation with a Spring/Summer and Coffee, Tea or Hot Cocoa theme and for each linkup you get a chance to win a prize!  Check out the Main Hop Post here for all of the details and to get a gander at all of the sponsors.  You will be amazed!  I'll be making rounds to all of the posts as always so I'll see you at some point for sure!  Also, if you're not already a member in the Coffee Loving Papercrafters Facebook Group, you should join here for sure!

So here's one of my two makes for today: 

Not too long ago, Super Sponsor Kat Scrappiness had a sale and my wish list was pretty long so I took the opportunity to make a dent in it.  I LOVE these Distressed Edges Rectangle dies from her shop and discovered them when another member of the Facebook group posted a card she made using them and had to have them (that happens quite a bit in this group...lol!)

And I do believe it was the same person that made me add this Layered Coffee Cup Die to my wish list as well...I love the size and love all of the pieces to the lid... it was a great add to my coffee collection!  I have a goal to use up this paper pad from Simple Stories during this hop.  Don't get me wrong... I LOVE it, but it feels so good to use something up doesn't it?

I knew I wanted a Llama on this one... I have a few and this one was perfect for this card!  She's from Darcie's and I think she's just the sweetest!  Of course, I needed a llama to go with that Llama Latte sentiment!  Cute right?  That one is from Super Sponsor Stampin' Funn!  You should definitely check out her shop!  She has some awesome and funn (mostly sentiments) stamps!  

And I thought this sentiment from the Darcie's set was a good complement to the Llama Latte one... how else would you escape some drama?!

Hope you enjoyed your stop here today!  Come back soon and often this week!  And be sure to check out my second card for today here!

Now, get going and get something made so you can link up too!  If you don't have anything coffee, check out some of the sponsors' websites that have digis (sometimes you can even find some freebies to use during the hop).  Digis are inexpensive and you can download them right away!  Cannot wait to see what you create!  Or how about a background made with real coffee rings... coffee and a coffee cup... all you need!  I know you can think of something!  See you around the hop!

Owl Be Seeing You!

Popping in with a quick post .... a quick card I realized I had to make for a co-worker who loves owls... I decided to use this owl stamp I got a long time ago... it's a Darcie's stamp and I knew she'd love it because she loves owls like I do... and she's not really about the cute owls... so I dug this one out and can't figure out why I haven't used it in so long!  In fact, I think I'll take this one with me on vacation and use it again...

I needed to keep it very simple because most of my stuff is packed to go right now so I took some kraft paper and mounted it onto some pretty gold foil cardstock from a Christmas paper pad I got at Michael's on clearance last year.  I stamped the owl in Versamark and heat embossed it in gold.

While I had the embossing powder and heat gun out I thought I'd add the flourish from the set at the top knowing I'd cover some of it up, but I thought it would add a nice touch.  In case she wanted to keep this on her desk I didn't want it to say Happy Birthday on the outside of the card, so I chose this sentiment from an old CTMH set that I love and used it along with a strip from the gold card base...I added a few sequins from the Latte Coffee sequins from Paper Sweeties... LOVE this mix!

And that was that!  I had such a hard time photographing this one and still don't feel the photos do it justice... it really is so pretty in person... and she loved it!  I made it and gave it to her yesterday...

So... I'm on my way tomorrow... I have a few scheduled posts while I'm away and hoping to have lots of things to show you when I get back!

See you soon!  Don't be a stranger!  I've been super busy at work and home this past week getting ready, but I'll be visiting you over the next week while I'm away... Happy Crafting!

Oh!  And don't forget about my 100 follower celebration in July!  You can find out more by clicking here!