Beautiful Blooms I Miss - Hellebore

I love that I don't live where it snows any more, but there are some beautiful blooms that don't grow well in the desert that I miss... the wonderful Hellebore is one of them!  This image from Stampendous was so much fun to color up!  I decided on purple and it's made me realize again how little purple there is in the crafting world!  I was so happy to find that purple plaid in the Summer Plaid paper pad from Your Next Stamp!  It was exactly right! 

I picked up this beautiful bloom, the Small Hellebore by Stampendous over in the White Rose Crafts Shop with my winnings from their monthly sketch challenge so I thought I'd use it to play along with the July Challenge:

Sketch challenges can be the most... well... challenging challenges for me.  I'm rarely able to be a purist about it, but I'd say I came pretty close this time!  And I'm quite happy with the results!

This "small" Hellebore is really the perfect size... I'd say not to small but large enough to be able to have fun coloring it and take up just the right amount of space on a card.

The Celebrate Die-Namic from MFT was also just the ticket... I was excited to get a couple of those leaves to stick out of the sentiment.  So happy I finally got my hands on that awesome word die!  And I decided to play on the green in the leaves with a strip of green CTMH Shimmer Trim... not sure if the green is available any more... I may have to hoard what I have left!!

I finished off with some clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh... I love those great big ones!  So much fun!

I hope you'll head on over to White Rose Crafts and play along this month!  If there are at least three participants, there is a $15 prize to the shop!  You just need to use any item(s) that's available in the White Rose shop to play along... and there are lots of items you may have in your stash!  Just create and share in the White Rose Crafts Gallery on Facebook to enter!  And there is a free shipping event going on through July 5th!

Happy Holiday!

Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas-June 2019 Edition!

Welcome to the June edition of Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas!  This is a monthly post where my friend Debra Davison from Meticulosity and I share the Christmas cards we make each month of the year.  We agreed to do this so that by December, all of our cards will be done and all we have to do is drop them in the mail!  And it gives me a chance to use some of the awesome stamps and dies that I purchased around the holidays, instead of making them wait a whole year!

Here's how I was inspired:

I love pink and aqua for Christmas!  So I got out some old papers and some really cute stamps I hadn't used yet and used them!

You may or may not be familiar with the artwork and stamps by Andrea Gomoll and if you're not, you should become acquainted... you can find her here!  Of course I had to have the Wintertime stamp set that had a Coffee flavor... and guess what... lots of sets including this one are on sale right now!  

I decided all she really needed was a beautiful frame and this one from Paper Smooches was perfect!  And the Merry was cut using a die from Pretty Pink Posh... you can find that one here!

And then these sweet owls from My Favorite Things Warm and Feathered Hugs stamp set.  I decided it was the perfect time to play along with the MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge!

I cut the top using a border die from Lil' Inker, the Border Builders Die set is here!

I created three cards using the sketch... sometimes it's nice to have a place to start!  I decided to use the leftover top piece from the first card on this one... it was a twofer!  And that double stitched circle is from MFT...it may not be available any more.. which would be silly because it's one of my faves!  And those cool Slanted Sentiment Strips from MFT were perfect for the sentiments with the stamp set!

That pink tree paper was my favorite one from the pack... I've been hoarding it 'til now...lol!

And here is the sketch:

So thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoyed my Christmas cards!  And be sure to head on over to Debra's place and see what she's got for you!

Oh!  And I have a winner from last month's post!

Denise, send me your snail mail address and I'll shoot you some Happy Mail!

We're playing again!  Next month I'll draw a name from all of the comments on this post and send that person a small gift!

MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge - Howdy!

I'm playing along with the MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge!  I'm on a crafty vacation right now with some really good long time friends and decided it was the perfect time to just play.  I didn't really plan on making any actual cards and was just going to color but once I got these adorable images from the MFT Animal Farm Stamp Set I needed to get them onto a card so I borrowed some cute papers and consulted this week's challenge!

Here is the sketch:

I think this stamp set is retired, but it's adorable!!

There are some adult and baby critters... that cute sign and quite a few adorable sentiments!  The flowers are from the Lawn Fawn Easter Party set.

I borrowed the fence and banner dies.

I'm playing along with this week's MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge which is Anything Goes!

Paper Smooches October Challenge!

Took a few moments to play along with a fun challenge over at Paper Smooches!  The October challenge is a sketch challenge and the graphic is below.

I decided to make a Halloween card because I'm also playing along with the Twisted Thursday challenge over at the Outlawz which is any Autumn Holiday and the current challenge over at Double Trouble is Halloween/Fall and they're partnering with the Paper Girls this time around who also have a Halloween Theme so I'm playing along there too!

I started with my background and ink blended some blue, purple and black onto the cardstock.  Then I sponged some Versamark through a star stencil and embossed with some white and gold glitter embossing powder.  I kind of messed up because I didn't think I'd gotten any versamark through the stencil so I went in a second time but of course it wasn't lined up and I had gotten Versamark on initially...lol!  But I'm good with it... it's just a little more distressed than my initial plan...lol!  The buildings and bats create the design that is in the sketch.

I'm also linking this one up to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which has a theme of Starry Night this week!

Love the adorable ghosts in the Spookalicious stamp set!  They're not really in the sketch... but that's ok... they're part of the "background"...lol!  I use sketches quite loosely most of the time.  The cool bat die cuts were cut with the Halloween Icons dies. 

And these buildings from the Super 2 Dies... so cool!  And the sentiment is from Spookalicious... so sweet, right?

So here's the sketch for Paper Smooches:

Hope you'll play along!  And don't forget that we're all about Fall/Halloween over at Three Amigos this month too!!