Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas - May 2019

Welcome to the May edition of Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas!  Each month on the 25th, my friend Debra Davison from Meticulosity and I are sharing the Christmas cards we made for that month.  We've made a pact to keep each other going making a Christmas Card a week so that at Christmas time, we're all done and only have to mail them!  So far so good!  It's May and we've both more than stuck to our commitment!  Without further ado, here is how I was inspired:

I'm starting with these adorable deer from Your Next Stamp's Oh Deer stamp set.  It's not really a Christmas stamp set, but these two deer are easily added to a Christmas card.  I used papers from Papertrey Ink's Wonderland Paper Collection, Evergreen Dies from Impression Obsession, Holly Leaf Cluster from I.O., Scribble Snowflake Die from CDD, Mini Snowflakes from Lawn Fawn,  Jingle All The Way Die from Kat Scrappiness, and the Nested Rectangle Small Stitch Dies from Rubbernecker.

I basically used a similar layout and just moved things around a bit.  I made the white sentiment stand out just a bit against the background by stacking it over a dark gray die cut.

I love this leaping deer...lol!  So sweet!

Don't tell Debra, but I decided to use this one with the butterfly on her tail and the flower on her ear on a Summery card!  The sentiment is from the Oh Deer set.  I stamped it on one of the wonderful Bannerific Dies from Paper Smooches.  I also used the Nested Circle Scallop w/Holes Dies from Rubbernecker.  That adorable fence is from Whimsy and I believe it's retired.  The grass is from Craftin Desert Divas and those beautiful flowers I borrowed from my mother... they're from Impression Obsession and a set called Spring Branches... and I will have a set as soon as possible.

With this one I'm playing along over at Your Next Stamp's Bi-weekly Challenge #114!  It's School's Out For Summer and you can create something with a School or Summer Theme... I went with Summer!

Next I turned to this fun set from The Cat's Pajamas called Fat Cat Christmas; I also used the Nested Deckle Rectangle Dies from Rubbernecker and Stitched Scallop Dies from CDD along with some of my other favorites listed above.

Just love these adorable sassy cats with their even sassier sentiments!

And that old plaid CTMH paper was just the ticket!

I'm playing along over at Double Trouble Challenge Blog... their challenge this time around is to use Kraft!  Check it out before you start because you there are extra chances to win if you meet a couple other requirements in your project!

And last but certainly not least... a Lil' Inker... on this one I used the beautiful and adorable 'Tis the Season stamp set and that cup from the Coffee Talk 2 Die Set cut from the Papertrey Ink birch patterned paper from the same pack I used for the first few cards above.

Another month of Christmas cards in the books!

And now for the winner for some Happy Mail from my April post:

Verna Angerhofer!  Email me at bzscrapper66 at gmail dot com with your snail mail address so i can get something in the mail to you!

Thanks so much everyone for visiting and letting me know you were here!  We'll do it again this month!  Leave me some love and I'll pick another name for my post in June!

Now be sure to head on over to Debra's blog and see what she's created for you today!

Coffee Lovers Blog Hop Day 7 1/2

Welcome to Day 7 1/2 of the Spring & Summer 2018 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop!  You have today and tomorrow left to link up for chances to win (and of course have a lot of fun!).  Click on the main hop blog post here to find out all of the details and then play along!  This afternoon I'm using some products from Sponsors Stamps of Life, Your Next Stamp and Our Daily Bread!  Here's what I've got!

I don't know if you are familiar with Stamps of Life... I wasn't until a little bit before the hop... but you should definitely check them out!  My first purchase included this awesome Coffee Statement set that comes with the Coffee word die as well as the coordinating outline die and a stamp set of very funny sentiments that go along with it!

I started off with some of the papers from Crazy for Coffee paper from Your Next Stamp.  And I had the pretty oval diecut from Our Daily Bread Designs leftover from another project.  I decided I needed a different color so I had this one for this card which was perfect!  It's from the Layered Lacy Ovals die set (beautiful set!)

This Coffee die is large enough to be the star of the show along with the fantastic sentiments that come with it!  I embossed this sentiment in some Penny embossing powder from Brutus Monroe and it was just what I needed!

And I finished it off with that cute cup (not sure where I picked that up), flowers and these pretty glittery embellishments that I got from Your Next Stamp, but I'm not sure if they still carry this color.

I'm entering this one into the Double Trouble challenge to use two or more patterned papers and because I'm playing along with the Coffee Lovers Hop I get two chances to win at Double Trouble!  It runs through the end of the Coffee Hop!

Thanks for stopping!  I'm still moving along commenting in the evenings after work... so I'll see you soon if I haven't seen you yet!

Come back tomorrow!

Spring/Summer 2018 Coffee Hop - Day 2!

It's Day 2 and I'm here with this beautiful Cup of Columbine digi from Super Sponsor Power Poppy!  If you're new to the Coffee Lovers Bloghop, please do check out the main hop post here to get all of the details and then come and play along with us!

You may remember I used this digi on last Wednesday's post to play along with the May Challenge over at Power Poppy which is Black and White with a pop of color.  A good case for reading through the rules before you start - this was my first card and when I went to post it, I saw that we were to use a pop of ONE color...lol!  So back to the drawing board, but I love this one too and I knew I'd use it again for another day.  This is the version of the digi with the Robin (as you can see)...lol!  The digi version comes with two black lined versions of the stamp, one with and one without the bird and egg.  AND it also comes with the same two digis with a no line coloring option where the lines are much lighter.  Very cool!

And that pretty plaid paper is from Super Sponsor Your Next Stamp!  It's from the Summer Plaid paper pad and just LOVE the colors in this one.. it's different from any other plaid papers you might have.

Even with a few different colors, leaving part of the image black and white and only coloring a portion really does give a dramatic look and I love it!  I focused on the blue, brown and orange on this one.  You might be happy to know that as of this week, you can also get this image in a clear stamp set.  The new set is called Cheerful Columbine and it's the image including the bird and there are a couple sentiments in the stamp set.

I just love this sweet bird so much!  Looks like she's eating the little seeds that are falling out of the flower that has gone to seed up top.  I used to have many columbine plants in my garden back in Western New York and they are one that I miss for sure.  Can't grow them here in the desert.  But back there they are perennial and they come up every year without fail and provide so much beautiful color... if I remember correctly around May-June.  I just can't get over how beautiful Marcella's images are and how much detail.  I'll be adding more to my collection for sure!  The new release is just gorgeous!

For my sentiment I used this Smile die from My Favorite Things.  I cut it and stacked four for dimension and added some liquid glass.  Those pretty scalloped mats were cut with the Fancy Frames dies from CDD... one of my most used sets!  I decorated with just a few Doodlebug Sprinkles and splattered a little bit of color shine in a few different colors.

Thanks for stopping!  Hope you enjoyed it and come back soon and often this week!  I'll have lots more caffeinated inspiration for you... hope you play along!

A Thank You To Super Generous Cas-ual Fridays Stamps!

So!  During the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop, Cas-ual Fridays had a special giveaway on their blog with a chance to win a WHOLE release and in this case an extra dear to my heart Coffee Release!!  All we had to do was comment... and since that's my specialty, I did it!  And much to my surprise and amazement, I won!!  And yesterday, after being gone all day at a crop and hanging out with some awesome crafty friends, my evening was topped off with a mailbox STUFFED with this:

Also pictured is the awesome Peace, Love and Coffee set I purchased during the last Coffee Hop.. I figured that deserved a spot along with this group of awesomeness also!  I whipped up this little card using some of the new release along with Peace, Love and Coffee set and some Winter Plaid papers from Your Next Stamp today to say ......

Thank you, thank you, thank you... I can't say it enough!  You can find all of this NOW right here in the Cas-ual Fridays Shop (along with a few other things you just might need!)

I'm linking up to the Outlawz Twisted Thursday Anything Goes with a Twist of Anything Goes!

Caffeine Fueled Paper Play with Your Next Stamp!

I'm up on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog today and this time around I'm linking up to a challenge over at Your Next Stamp!  Hop on over there and check out the details.  Here's a sneak peek!

And don't forget the Winter/Holiday Coffee Hop starts on Friday!

Coffee Lovers Guestie and a Winner!

Good morning friends!  I'm up on the Coffee Lover's Blog one more time and sharing with you a card I made using mostly some Stamplorations stuff along with a few other things.  I am playing along with the Stamplorations Never Ending Anything Goes Challenge with this freebie that I downloaded to use during the Coffee Hop that just ended and didn't get a chance to use it.  You can still download this freebie here and you can use it to play along with this challenge too!

I'm also playing along with the Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge which is always Anything Goes and this week the twist is... Anything Goes!  My favorite!!

For more details and links to everything I used please check out the full post on the Coffee lovers Blog!

Also!  I have winners for the pretty Beach Glass bracelets that were my Blog Candy for the hop!  I'll tell you.. I asked for smiles and was given so very many!  Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by to look and let me know you were here during coffee week and I sure hope you come back often!  I wish I could send out bracelets to everyone!  So without further ado, congrats to:

Rebecca Yahrling

and

Verna Angerhofer

Ladies, if you would please email me your snail mail addresses at:

bzscrapper66@gmail.com

Thanks for stopping and come back soon!

Coffee Hop Almost Day 5 and The Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge

Welcome to this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge!  I used this adorable Your Next Stamp stampset called Sweet Holiday Greetings and some of my new favorite chipboard embellishments from Make It Crafty... and because my card has a hot chocolate and a Winter theme, I'm also linking it up to the Coffee Lovers Winter/Holiday Blog Hop!

Just love the cute little character shaped mugs on this set along with some other holiday images like the candy cane, the gingerbread man and woman and a few other... and this sketch was perfect to highlight some of these smaller stamps!

The smaller snowflakes and the word Merry are from Make It Crafty.  I just LOVE this chipboard... the words come with two... an outline and a thinner word so you can layer them... or use them separately like I did and you have two!  They are inexpensive and very thin and this chipboard takes color very nicely.  Although this time I wanted a more natural look and the uncolored pieces were perfect!  And look how dainty those snowflakes are!

Since I made the mistake of not ordering other sizes of snowflakes and I wanted this one to be a bit bigger I grabbed one of my wooden snowflakes from my stash.  The color is similar, but it's much bulkier and the wood doesn't take the color as nicely... but since I was leaving it natural it's ok.  And that pretty white and gold twine is from Lawn Fawn.

I used some My Favorite things double stitched circle dies and my Craftin Desert Divas Scribbled Circle Die for the center.  The paper is from CTMH and it's called Oh Deer and it's beautiful!  And of course I had to throw a few Paper Sweeties gold sequins around.  I was going to play along with Color Dare this week which is using the Oh Deer paper packet, but I couldn't help myself and needed to use some pink and some gold... so I'll try again before the week is over...lol!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out all of the challenges I mentioned today and also check out my other coffee project for today... or really tomorrow because it's Monday right now, but it's almost Tuesday...lol!