Inside Snowmen

The week before Christmas my kids and I spent a night of food and fun with our friend Kerri. She is an amazing artist and great friend. Kerri has had her work published several times but has a two page spread in the current Take Ten issue.

As a mixed media artist, Kerri was inspired by Sue Pelletier's past cover art in Cloth Paper Scissors to make these cute snowmen from plain clear bottles. It's a free fall for inspiration because the options are endless and it's definitely a glitter mess!

It was a blast and I'll make more in the future I'm sure. Check out Kerri's snow family. On Kerri's blog (November 8th posting) is the work of another group of friends. Thanks Kerri for a great play date and a chance to celebrate your divorce becoming final.

DeNami Product Challenge 5 - Paper Punches

Here are two cards I made for the paper punch challenge. When I was making tags for the blog hop last Sunday, I made two tags that featured punches. I was originally going to hold the snowflake tag for this challenge but it was my sister's favorite so I posted it for the hop. Funny, several people said it was their favorite of the tags I posted. I'm also including one tag I didn't post last Sunday.

So here is a snowflake punch card and a holly wreath card. I confess that I'm working hard to use the 'parts' of cards that I've had in my studio for a long time (even years). All of these punched snowflakes and holly are from punches I don't even own and were punched when Memory Lane was still open in Clifton Park. OK, it's been closed a couple of years. Anyone else hoarding partial projects and left over bits?

The snowflake card has a snowflake patterned paper layered on the card. The side has a strip of felt scalloped trim. The patterned paper has "let it snow" background stamp (retired) in blue and it topped with punched snowflakes and rhinestone snowflakes. It's not easy to photograph these subtle hues. For photography, punching a brighter color would have worked better, but I was determined to use my prepunched snowflakes.

As I reorganized my studio this year, I pulled together these 'parts' and I made one basket filled with ziploc bags of punched pieced, die cut tags, and chipboard pieces. When I went to make the tags for the blog hop, I was determined to use precut tags that had been hanging around and pulled out that basket. I decided that the snowflakes and holly pieces would make it into my punch challenge entires. I'm pleased to say that now I have used all of the snowflakes and holly pieces with this projects.

For the wreath, I used the large double circle stamp which I punched with on the outside and inside. To this wreath holder, I adhered leaves behind and on top. I adhered this wreath to a circle of metallic copper paper then onto a patterned paper. This is layered on another piece of copper and finally on the card. The wreath is topped with lots of rhinestones for holly berries and a copper taffeta ribbon bow. The Merry Christmas is stamped in sepia on the opposite side of the patterned paper then layered on top of a piece of copper which was punched with a Martha Stewart branch punch.

The holly tag includes the holly pick stamp embossed in gold on patterned paper. It's punched with an oval punch then layered on a swiss dot green paper punched with a larger scalloped punch. The outside layer has red rhinestones around the scallops and the tag is topped with gold trimmed ivory ribbon.

So here are my entries. I hope you enjoy them.

DeNami Gift Tag Blog Hop

Welcome to the DeNami Gift Tag Blog Hop. I'm so excited to share my pieces with these wonderful artists. I've barely begun my holiday shopping and decorating and this was a great way to jump into the season. Hopefully you take way some great ideas for adding your personal touch to your gift giving. You should have made your way here from the blog of Ann Cox. If you get lost along the way, you can start again or jump in at a specific spot by going to the DeNami Blog site.

If I had to narrow it down to one submissions, I’d pick the pointsettia tag so I’ll start there. I used a kraft die cut tag to start and stamped the small pointsettia blossom and single pointsettia in black. They have a quick color of markers and then I used a (very old) Christmas words stamp in green to overlay the text. I used several colors of distress ink to color from the edges of the card and topped it off with some ivory with gold taffeta ribbon and paper pointsettias with brads in the centers. I love using paper flowers. It’s a quick and beautiful embellishment.

The snowflake tag is a very simple tag. I just received my snow flake card kit so I was playing with the snow flake trifle stamps. They're stamped with medium/light blue. I used this ink to sponge some color around the end and then ran the edges through the ink for a darker color. I ran a piece of silver glitter ribbon along the edge. I love these ribbons. They are so unique. I punched blue and silver snow flakes and topped them with some silver rhinestones and stamp 'To" in black . These are my favorite crystals because each individual piece has adhesive - no cutting the strip and hoping the crystals stays with the adhesive. Finally, it's topped with blue taffeta ribbon. Let it snow (on my card and in my imagination, but not outside my home or anywhere I drive).

The holly tag is also simple. It starts with a die cut green tag. I used the mini star and versamark ink for a subtle watermark look. Next I cut a piece of holly holiday paper and embossed the “To” in gold. It's layered on gold cardstock and has a coordinating ribbon across the top and bottom. The ribbon adds another strip of color and some texture. I added the ivory with gold taffeta ribbon on top to finish the tag.

Finally, I wanted to use the wreath stamp as the basis of a gift tag and I decided to use the espresso stamp set (and a coffee bean stamp) as the focal points. I added a little color and some rhinestones. Both the wreath and the background paper were punched with Marvy craft punches. Because I wanted to show that sharing a cup of coffee can be a special treat between friends, I used two tags on this card which were liked by the coffee theme and the background paper. The green grosgrain ribbon is wrapped around the bag of coffee and both tags are hanging like stockings on the mantle.

I hope you enjoy the hop and appreciate your stopping by my blog today. Please leave a comment to have a chance to win a DeNami gift certificate. I would have no problem using that up quickly.

The next stop on the hop is

Simone Naoun

Enjoy the day and have a happy holiday season and new year.

Huge blog give away from Wee Memories

Check out the fabulous give away from Wee Memories. The blog reached over 700 followers. You can also follow Wee Memories on Facebook. Congratulations for reaching this goal.

DeNami Color Challenge #5

Whew. Lots of camera issues getting my cards posted today and this weekend so please bare with me. I don't think the shots do justice to the cards. In the morning I'll try to get a better shot of the cards posted.

Of all the color challenges, this is my favorite. I love these colors and had a hard time deciding which papers, stamps, embellishments, etc. to use. I love using real things from nature when the theme of the card is nature and with these colors I thought of fall and leaves.

The first card includes one of my favorite papers from Magenta, a favorite stamp from DeNami and flower soft. The opposite of all my efforts to pick up leaves, I actually worked on spilling leaves, but its a much smaller mess than my front yard tree did to my yard :)

The second card shows a beautiful paper from my stash. The leaf is cut from the patterned paper, curled slightly for dimension, and has a stick with gold thread and seed beads as embellishments.

The final card includes that same Magenta paper, but shows the other side. A green skeleton leaf and another piece of nature finish the card. Thanks for viewing my art and Happy Thanksgiving.

DeNami Blog Hop - Christmas

Thanks for joining in on the DeNami Christmas Blog Hop. I love participating in these hops. I enjoy seeing the work of my fellow artists and LOVE having so many visitors to my blog. Please sign up to follow my blog and check out my first give away on the previous post which includes another DeNami card.

If you are making your way through the hop, you should have traveled here from

Amy Smidebush's

website. Amy has two wonderful card featuring DeNami stamps. Check out her other blog posts. She's posted many Christmas cards. She's so talented.

If you get lost, hop back to the DeNami site.

Each year I have a hard time narrowing down which images to use for my Christmas cards. I often use several different designs so I can enjoy many stamps. I had a hard time deciding which DeNami designs to use for this hop. I have a few (ha ha) new and old designs. Plus I have lots of winter stamps and some Hanukkah stamps.

I decided to go to Santa himself for my design. These little stamp sets are so cute and make quick and easy cards. The background paper is from Cosmo Crickett. The hat and boots have crystal lacquer and glitter stickles for extra embellishment. I know, I know, fun flock would be perfect but I'm on a stickles kick.

Thanks for joining me. The next stop is

Michele Gross.

Michele is a member of the Design Team and always has clever ideas. Look for her ideas on the DeNami blog posting as well.

Please remember to leave comments along the way. Each posted comment increases your chance to win a prize from DeNami. Thank you Paulina for organizing another great event and here's wishing you an early Merry Christmas.

Christmas Cards

If you've seen the pictures of my studio you know that I have some stamps. Even with all the stamps you see, I have some tucked away that I can't get to easily.

I'm keeping the holiday and seasonal stamps in trays under the cabinet and in the corner bookcase. It took some time to pull out all the winter and Christmas stamps but one I did I was ready to jump in.

These cards show off the products of some of my favorite companies: Graphic 45 papers, DeNami stamps and ribbons, Magenta stamps and paper, and Memory Box stamps and paper.

Post Christmas, all those trays have get put back........