Crafty Elves Countdown to Christmas - October 2021 Edition

Welcome back to this month's Crafty Elves Countdown to Christmas!  Every 25th of the month, my fellow elves, Debra and Michael share the Christmas cards we created for the month!  And this month we have a special guest, Terri Albro Burson is joining us!  Be sure you visit them after you leave here to see what they've got for you!

Now!  Here's how I was inspired:

Some of you may or may not know, but my mom is a Close to My Heart Consultant and I love to see the new catalogs and (sometimes) even indulge and buy something.  When I saw these beautiful deer in the Holly and Ivy stamp set I knew I needed them!

I love the vintage look of these sweet deer!  I decided it was time to pull out my paper flowers  and create some bumpy cards for my Christmas stash.  I also used that cool frame also from CTMH, the Oval Frame Thin Cuts is perfect for this vintage feel!

All of my cards use a similar layout, but different papers and colors all from a Tim Holtz paper pack I picked up last year.

And I used all of the same Copic markers for each of them too... easy peasy!

Also, over at Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers they’re having a Falling For The Holiday Hop with lots of inspiration and prizes!  Check it out and play along!

I used die cuts from Rubbernecker and A Jillian Vance Design as well as some paper flowers from my stash and crocheted flowers from a crafty friend in Australia.  It was so much fun working in this style again... lots of layers and flowers.

I can't pick a favorite ... they all are similar but have a different feel and I love them all!

The white crocheted flowers were from a bundle I purchased on Etsy.

And the deer are so easy to color because there is a lot of shading on the image.  I stamped them in a dark brown Memento ink because I knew I'd be coloring them with Copics.

Of course I have some plaid in here... I'm Mad4Plaid!

These will all definitely take some extra postage!   But I've gotten pretty good at figuring that out without going to the Post Office... I think... hope you'll all let me know if I'm wrong!!  I usually round up though so I should be good!

That's me!

Before you go let's see who won some Happy Mail from last month's post:

Kim!  Email me your snail mail at bzscrapper66 at gmail dot com!

Thanks so much to everyone who hopped with us last month and we're gonna play again!  Leave a comment here and you could win some Happy Mail!

Now don't forget  to hop over to Michael, Debra and Terri's places to see what they've created for you this month!  Links are above!

 

Jingle All The Way - A Jillian Vance Design

Welcome back!  Today I'm sharing a card with some of my fave sets from the AJVD shop and starting on my Christmas cards for next year!  I've used these beautiful Tim Holtz papers again and am loving the vintage feel of them.

I can't get enough of these Jingle Bells dies for sure... and all of the perfect sentiments on the coordinating stamp set!  Such an easy way to create a fun Christmas card.  And it never hurts to add a little Fresh Cut Pine to the mix... here I cut it from some design paper.

And the beautiful Stitched Dot background and Instant Photo Frames work so well together to set off any stamps and dies and I discovered a new favorite!  The Minnie Pearl Bookmark die set is fantastic... but my favorite is the little tassle die that comes in it!!  I used it here to create a little embellishment and cut it from a red and white stripe which was perfect for some multicolored fringe.  I wrapped some silver thread around the top and it was fun to add just a pop of red along with the bows for the bells.

That's me for today!  Thanks so much for stopping!  Hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Below are links to all of the A Jillian Vance Design products I've used today:

Follow A Jillian Vance Design on:

From Our House to Yours - Miss Ink Stamps

Welcome to some Miss Ink inspiration!  I was flipping through a Tim Holtz paper pad the other day and came across this one with the pretty background and thought it would perfect for a scene with these cuties from the Woodland Hearth set and the trees from the Calm & Bright set. 

I just added a gittery snow landscape and then my images using various thicknesses of foam tape.  I just love this adorable bunny family and those trees from Calm & Bright are my favorite!!  I cut these with my Scan N Cut and it worked perfectly!

And the Woodland Heart set has some beautiful sentiments... I thought this one was just right.

I'm playing along over on IG with the Simon Says Stamps Winter Wonder Challenge #SSSIGChallenge and at Cupcake Inspirations Holiday Challenge!  You should check them out!

That's me for today!  Thanks so much for stopping by and come again soon!

Caffeine Fueled Paper Play Reminder With A Jillian Vance Design

Just a quick reminder that you have through the end of the month to play along over at the Coffee Loving Cardmakers with the Caffeine Fueled Paper Play Challenge for November!  A Jillian Vance Design is the sponsor and you could win the new Hug In A Mug stamp set!

I used one of the sentiments from the set along with the dies from the Coffee, Tea & Me set:

I started with that fantastic paper from a Tim Holtz Christmas pad and kept the rest black and gold aside from my white sentiment.

Love this cup!  You can use it with or without the embellishment die.

And I can't say enough about that steam... my absolute favorite steam die!  The Coffee word die as well as a Tea word die are also included in the set.

And that sentiment from Hug In A Mug??...lol!  Just one of the many cute and funny sentiments (along with a really great cup image and seasonal images to go along with it).

So!  Hope you'll play along!   You have until the 30th at 11:55pm!  You can find the linkup and rules at this post here!

And don't forget Stampalooza is still going on... while supplies last get some great deals on some awesome products!

Thanks for stopping and come again soon!

National Tea Day With Honey Bee Stamps and The Coffee Loving Cardmakers!

So excited today!  It's National Tea Day and over at the Coffee Loving Cardmakers we are hopping along with Honey Bee Stamps and sharing inspiration with some fantastic Honey Bee products!

I don't often drink hot tea actually... I do like it with lemon when I'm not feeling well.  But every few days I brew a fresh pot of Black Mango Tea and keep it in the fridge.  I fill my cup every day before I go to work with a slice of lemon and keep myself caffeine infused all day.  I just keep adding water so by the end of the day it's barely caffeinated which works out well for bedtime...lol!

So!!  What's going on today??  We've got lots of inspiration for you!  Hop and comment along the way for your chance to win one of two $30 gift certificates to the Honey Bee Shop!  You have until Friday, April 26th at 11:59pm to leave us some love and be entered in the drawing to win!  The more love you leave... the more chances you have to win!  Winners will be announced on the Honey Bee Stamps and Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blogs on April 27th!

You should have arrived here from the Coffee Loving Cardmakers blog!  If you get lost along the way, just head there or to the Honey Bee Stamps Blog for the full hop list!

For my first card, I wanted to combine the beautiful Honey Bee Spring Blossoms set with the quite awesome Tea Time Stamps and Honey Cuts:

I decided to do some line coloring with my Prismacolor pencils... my first time and while it didn't turn out as I had imaged, I do love the way it looks!  And these flowers are perfect for the technique.  I created three different layers in the corner of my card.

I stamped and die cut the cup and lemon slice from the Tea Time set and colored them in with my Copics and nestled it into the flowers.

And I built my sentiment using the Perfect Blend sentiment set.  I love this set because there are so many sentiments and single words or short phrases that can be combined together to create so many different sentiments!

And with this pink pretty I'm playing along with the challenge over in the Honey Bee Stamps Buzzworthy Challenges group on Facebook... would you just take a gander at this inspiration photo:

I'm also playing along over at Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge....it's all about Beautiful Blooms!

That's quite the inspiration isn't it?  Just join the Facebook group here and add your creation to the challenge album!

The coolest thing about the Tea Time dies is not only do you get a die to cut out each of the stamped images, but there are also a few that are stand alone dies so I decided to make a card using those:

I used some pretty design papers from Authentique and of course my cup is plaid!  And another sentiment that I built from Perfect Blend.

Yeah... I'd buy that cup!

With this one I'm playing along with the Simon Says Stamp Spring Mood Board... it's also a beautiful one!

And I'm also playing along at Kat Scrappiness' Pastels Challenge for April!

And finally I was inspired by the packaging that my last order came in!

Yup... that background paper was cut from the bag that my order was packed in!  I used a bunch of the images from Tea Time for this one.. it's such an awesome set!

Edited to add:

This one got top pick at Inkspirational!

Making me hungry....

And I really can't say enough about the Perfect Blend sentiment set... it can't be beat!

With this one I'm playing along over at Inkspirational... it's a fun Tea Photo Inspiration!

And there you have it!

Thanks so much for stopping to see me today!  I hope you enjoyed your visit and please do be sure to hop along through and see what everyone has created for you today!  From here you should head on over to my awesomely talented teamie Helen Gullett!  Comment along the way for chances to win one of the two $30 gift certificates that Honey Bee is so generously offering up!  And Happy National Tea Day!

Miss Ink - Have A Brewtiful Day!

Welcome back for some more inspiration from Miss Ink Stamps!  A brand new stamp company that opens on March 16th!  They are celebrating on Instagram now with lots of giveaways!  You can check that out here!  We're lucky to be celebrating with Miss Ink over at the Coffee Loving Cardmakers and today I'm sharing a card using the Brewtiful Stamp Set!  Here's how I was inspired:

Absolutely love this Brewtiful stamp set with it's gorgeous Coffee plant images along with a couple fantastic cups!  I created a little morning scene using a Tim Holtz stencil and distress inks for my background along with some clear embossing paste.  Then I layered over that a "window" to really push that bright sunray background behind so that these gorgeous images would stand out.

Carrying on my theme of Rainbow for March, I picked out a few Copic markers and created a rainbow coffee cup using one of the plain cups from the set.... I'd buy that cup!  And I used some Doodlebugs Sprinkles as steam.. I chose the orange so it was almost like they were clear and that bright sunshine was just shining through them.

And I loved coloring in these Coffee bean plants... I took some liberty with the flowers... they are in reality pretty white, but I added some bright green centers 'cause I wanted to... lol!  And I love the challenge of red so coloring the beans was fun and scary!

I fussy cut the Brewtiful Day sentiment and another one of the smaller flower stamps were perfect to accompany it in this corner along with a few more sprinkles.

I'm imagining sitting in front of a window here in Sunny Southwest AZ and looking out at the bright beautiful morning sunrise and drinking my liquid sunshine.  

I'm playing along with the Create A Scene challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge!

Thanks for stopping and be sure to follow Miss Ink Stamps at these places:

Facebook  |  Instagram   |  Blog   |   Store

And follow the Coffee Loving Cardmakers on Instagram too to see all of the makes we share during the release as well!