Unscripted sketch #178 EEEK!

You just can't beat the Halloween color combos...orange, purple, black and green are so much fun! This is my take on Unscripted Sketches challenge #178, it was a great layout to work with.

For my (snow)flaky friends, the sequel

I found this Tim Holtz Kraft Core paper and thought it would be perfect to use with his grungy snowflake stamps for my second creation for the recent Jingle Belles Snow Challenge. It just so happened that the Christmas Cards All Year Round October Challenge is to use either a non-traditional image with traditional Christmas colors OR a traditional image with non-traditional colors so I'm also linking this up to CCAYR as these are definitely non-traditional colors!

For my (snow)flaky friends

I've been so busy that I never finished my card for the last Jingle Belles challenge, Going Postal. Lucky for me, it worked out to use it for the new challenge, snow-inspired Christmas cards! I love this Stampendous snowy postcard stamp I found at a little shop in Rapid City, SD, where my sister and I were visiting relatives. I stamped some Tim Holtz grungy snowflakes on craft paper as background and used colored pencils to give it a little sumpin sumpin.

Be of Good Bingo

This is the first card I've made (in my entire 9 months of card-making!) that my husband hates. On the plus side, now I know that he really means it when he tells me how cool they are! A couple of firsts for this card: I used a new embossing folder I just got in the mail from my good pal AND I embossed it on cardstock with a lighter core...something I just learned about from the same friend. One of the things I love most about making my own greeting cards is using non-traditional colors; the colors are actually quite a bit more vivid though. The sentiment is an EAD rub-on that I forgot about I think it's perfect for this blingy card. And for the second time in a row, this card is inspired by not ONE but TWO challenges. For the Jingle Belles Bingo challenge, I chose the diagonal row, starting in the upper right hand corner, bling, flowers, and dry embossing. And the layout is courtesy of Merry Monday Be of Good Cheer.

Scripty Santa

I just gotta say...making Christmas cards is hugely fun for me. I'm still learning but that's half the fun of it!

On Sunday I made one Christmas card to cover both the Christmas Cards All Year Round August challenge (kid's Christmas) AND the current Jingle Belles  challenge, based on Stephanie's awesome sketch.



I know...everybody else manages to get at least 5 challenges out of each card, but I'm just a beginner. Here's my Santa card, doesn't he look like he's having fun??




And since this little Santa actually pivots, I only glued down the rocking horse portion. That way kids can move him around...and this is what Santa looks like if someone slipped a little rum in his eggnog. But now I'm torn...do I really want to give this to a kid to demolish?? Hmm.

Unscripted sketch #171

I work with several non-profits and two of them involve support for US soldiers stationed overseas. Based in Folsom, Support4Soldiers, sends care packages to soldiers in Afghanistan at Christmas and the 4th of July. It's a great cause and a wonderful group of people to work with. And the letters of thanks from the soldiers are very touching. I'm sure they appreciate the snack foods and personal hygiene items, but mostly I think they are happy to know that people at home are thinking of them.

The group was recently contacted about a soldier who was severely injured by an IED explosion. He is now stateside and we were asked to reach out to him as he goes through a lengthy and difficult healing and rehabilitation process. Support4Soldiers has sent him a special package of goodies and many of us are sending him cards and letters as well.

I used this week's Unscripted Sketches challenge above as inspiration for my card to this soldier.

I also work with Baking GALS, a nationwide group of folks who send packages of home-baked goodies to soldiers every month. I am going to start sending a homemade card along with my home baked cookies on the next shipment.

Oh Christmas Sketch...

I was so excited to start the new Jingle Belles challenge yesterday (as always). I had plenty of time and an idea of what I wanted to do. Here's Stephanie's sketch, which is a great template to work with.

But no matter how many ways I tried it, I just could not get a look that I liked (I'm pretty sure it's because the snowflake paper I chose is too busy). I tried a GAZILLION ways of framing my embelli-flake, putting it on a tag, different color and shapes of die-cut card-stock, but it just doesn't float my boat. No matter...I had fun trying and someone will be getting this baby in the mail in December anyway! I did manage to make a birthday card and a thank you card yesterday as well, which is pretty good for me.