Merry Christmas from Stampin Sisters in Christ . . . challenge 120

Merry Christmas from Stampin' Sisters in Christ! This is our last challenge until January 8th of 2012 as our design team members are going to take a break for family and to celebrate Christmas. We have enjoyed having you with us through our challenges this year and look forward to a fresh start creating in 2012!

This week's hostess is Mieje from the sunny south with our Christmas challenge. Her verse for today is from Luke 2:14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." For her challenge, she wishes you to create a Christmas card or project that is Christian, image and/or sentiment must have the TRUE meaning of Christmas.

Our sponsor this week is Our Daily Bread Designs and one randomly selected participant will receive a $15 gift card to their store.

Please visit the home page at Stampin' Sisters in Christ to read Miesje's thoughts and to view the creations by the rest of the SSIC design team. I know they all wish you a Merry Christmas as well!

For my card I used an image of the three kings I purchased long ago from Cornish Heritage Farms, with a background creating by sponging around a Layers of Color stencil. Then I selected a verse from a Christmas sentiments stamp set by Papertrey Ink and played around with glitter and embellishments. I had fun creating this, hope you get a chance to play along too.

Summer OSW challenge

This is the fifth week of the Cornish Heritage Farms' summer design challenge. This was a one sheet wonder. First of all, let me say it really was a stretch. This is the first time I've tried it and it was actually a lot of work, but I needed a lot of cards for various people and this was a great way to get that. 

It took me a while to make these because I wanted each card to have an individual look and each one is for a specific person with a specific need. It took me less time this way to make a group of cards then it does when I make one card at a time, because I'm so poky. :)

So at the top you have the group of seven cards that I made and then two individual shots for a bit of a closeup. I stamped the sunflower background in chocolate chip craft ink on a confetti white sheet four times to cover the entire sheet, covered with embossing powder and embossed. Then I sponged with Ranger distress inks in mustard seed, dried marigold, spiced marmalade and vintage photo in the centers. 

For the sentiments and images I used a variety of sets from all different companies. The color scheme all involved paper colors of Close to Cocoa, Baja Breeze, Kiwi, Summer Sun and Pumpkin and confetti white. Thanks for looking. 

Light up my Life

This is week four of the summer challenges at Cornish Heritage Farms. I already saw the card on there that I think will be the winner, it is gorgeous. Mine started out goofy and got a little bit more tame this morning. 

We had to create a scene for week four. Now, I mainly own background stamps from CHF, so this truly made it challenging for me. 

I had been playing with the Cracked Montana Earth and wanted to see what it would look like on black. It made a very interesting effect, I thought, in versamark and embossed with iridescent ice EP. I really like the way it shines. We had a bit of sun this afternoon so I could take the pic outside and show you the shimmer. 

I used the sunflower background stamp with a Kaleidacolor blue pad stamped on blue to imitate a sunflower field at night or at late, late dusk, cutting around the petals.  See the bit of sunset just finishing? That's from my highly coveted remainder of a roll of SU wide rainbow organdy ribbon. I think the colors in it really mimic the colors of a sunset and make a nice foil to my 'fireflies.' Okay, we all know they're dragonflies, but pretend here with me! I used twinkling H20s on all of them, in different colors, and found that the lemonade color really reminds me of firefly tails, that bit on the end. 

One of my favorite summertime sights is fireflies lighting up the night sky. So here they are, lighting up the sunflower field with the night sky in the background as the sun slowly makes its way to bed. The sentiment is computer generated. Thanks so much for looking.

Stamps: CHF sunflower and cracked montana earth backgrounds, SU Unfrogettable

Ink: SU black, Kaleidacolor blue breeze, versamark

Cardstock: Bordering Blue, black, Elegant Eggplant, white. 

Other: SU organdy rainbow ribbon, twinklig H20s, bling, iridescent ice EP

Joseph's Coat flower

Here is number three for the summer challenge at Cornish Heritage Farms. This challenge had to involve some sort of resist technique, this is Joseph's Coat, a sort of emboss resist. The purple paper in the background does really match one of the purple tones in the flower, I just cannot get it right in the photo. 

Directions are pretty simple. Take a piece of glossy cardstock, use a brayer and a kaleidacolor pad and makes some bands of color. Let it dry. Swipe it with that little bag that reminds me of the bags bowlers use on their hands . . . anti static or something.  Then stamp your image with versamark and emboss with clear EP. Rub over the page with either a black craft ink (which I used) or you can use Brilliance black. 

Let it dry for a good hour, then pat the black ink off of your embossed image. This was the tricky part. I think next time I try this I might use regular cardstock because the glossy paper resists the black ink too, and it is easy to rub off too much.  Thanks for looking! Hope you had a good weekend!

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms grunge flower, Clear Dollar Stamps Christian sympathy (sentiment)

Ink: Kaleidacolor Berry Blaze, Silver craft, black craft

Paper: SU black, PTI Raspberry Fizz, silver, Bazill purple, glossy

Other: Martha Stewart edge punch, butterfly punch, silver cord, silver EP, brayer, tissue

Paper Pieced Poppy and a blog award

First I have to say thank you to my friend Traci for giving me a blog award, which appears on the right hand column. Thank you so much, you are so sweet! Please visit Traci's blog 'Major Moments' also listed on the right, she has lovely work and some pretty photography from Colorado. (There, I think I did that right . . . I feel I'm getting this blog etiquette down a bit better.)

  Secondly, I have been an absent blogger and commenter for a bit here. Took my mom on a short camping trip to Duluth, Minnesota with the hubby and youngest DD. Duluth is so very pretty, there is lots there to see and do. We enjoyed the fireworks and the symphony and scenery immensely. 

  The next day after coming home I had a wee operation. The pain medication knocked me for a loop for a bit, but I'm feeling so much better today! 

  So I had to get in my card for the second week of the Cornish Heritage Farms challenge, to get that 25% off certificate! LOL! Who wants to miss a week because of a silly operation? Unfortunately, other than a few backgrounders, the poppy is one of the few CHF images I own, so you'll be seeing it a lot . . . although I think I have a different one available for next week's challenge. This challenge was paper piecing and I made myself use my PTI dotted DP . . . agh the agony, what if I run out? I'd have to use one of the hundreds of other sheets of DP in my stash, oh no! :) I really like my cutterbee scissors for this, the tips are so sharp and the scissors just the right size. And so as not to waste a single jot of that patterned paper I punched out circles after the paper piecing to ring the oval and carry some continuity with the color scheme. The chocolate ribbon on the side is the same shade basically as the poppy center, and then I got to use some PTI buttons . . . my new crafting obsession next to patterned paper. Thanks for looking. 

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms Poppy, SU Dots and Daisies background, Sweet and Sassy stamps for sentiment

Ink: Black, white craft

Paper: Kraft, white, Marigold Morning, PTI Melon Berry, Spring Moss, and assorted PTI dotted DP shades in melon, lemon tart, avocado, etc. 

Other: ribbon, PTI buttons, white EP, oval nesties and oval punch, circle punch

Sympathy Poppy

Cornish Heritage Farms is having a summer contest, one challenge each week for five weeks. The competition is out of this world already, but here's the fun part . . .if you enter a card each week for five weeks, you get a 25% off coupon for your entire purchase at their store. You don't have to win or be the best stamper, you get the coupon just for entering. How cool is that?Check out the details here. 

The first week is a coloring challenge. Lots of talented stampers have colored those intricate Thomas Kinkade stamps . . . um, I tried one once. Let's move on! 

This is a wee bit simpler. I decided instead of the more traditional red poppy to color this one as a California golden poppy. First I used my SU watercolor crayons in orange and pumpkin on the poppy flower petals. Poppy petals are very shimmery, so I overlaid the crayons with twinkling H20s in Mandarin Blush and Mango Mamba. I also used a black crayon, painted with an aquapainter, for the poppy center. And here is where my botanical knowledge leaves me, but you know the center of a poppy looks like hundreds of little black balls (pistils? stamens? something). I used black diamond stickles to recreate that look. The stems and leaves are colored in with crayons and I sponged the outside of the oval with chalk.

My daughter picked up on the symbolism of the black bird, she said she didn't like it, it reminded her of death. This is a sympathy card, that is what the bird is meant to represent, so I guess it works. This is an Autumn Leaves stamp that actually faces the other way, but I wanted it to face the poppy to keep the focus inside the card and not draw the eyes outside, so I stamped it on acetate and flipped it so it faces center. Notice I have the edges under the ribbon knot and the orange panel so the mini glue dots I used to hold it down are hidden. Thanks for looking. 

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms Poppies, Autumn Leaves Round and Round

Ink: Graphite Black Brilliance ink

Cardstock: SU black, Garden Green, Certainly Celery, Tangerine, Summer Sun, Neenah solar white, acetate, someone's DP

Other: SU watercolor wonder crayons, SU chalks, Twinkling H20s in Mandarin Blush, Mango Mamba, dewdrops, Nestabilities, fiskars corner embossing punch, Martha Stewart edge/border punch, PTI lemon tart ribbon, gold pen