Blog Candy Giveaway and Mark's Finest Papers

Christmas approaches and t'is the season to give!

This month, Mark's Finest Papers is sponsoring the Stamping Vacation blog and, as a design team member, I received a beautiful stamp set to promote! So the team here at Aspiring to Creativity put together a lovely blog package for one lucky commenter to receive!

Included:
Mark's Finest Papers stamp set (as pictured)
Stampin' Up Christmas stamp set
Hero Arts stamp set
Basic Grey bitsy stamp set
Studio G assorted holiday stamp sets (2)
assorted American Crafts and other ribbons
Cuttlebug die and embossing folder (Tricks and Treats)
Cricut Cuttlebug Companion embossing folders (Once Upon a Princess)
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (Frost and Peppermint Stick)
Tim Holtz Masks (Concerto Music and Flourish)

To Enter:
Go to Mark's Finest Papers and take a look at their excellent quality stamp sets! Choose one that you like, come back here and tell us which it is and what you like about it.

Also, if you have a blog, please post about our giveaway! Thank you!

End Date:
This giveaway will end November 30th at 11:59pm MDT. Comments will be closed at that time. The winner will be chosen by random.org and announced sometime on December 1st.


Thanks for visiting!

Stamping Vacation DT: Lots of Paper Challenge

This month's Lots of Paper Challenge at Stamping Vacation asks us to use paper with trees on it:

Card construction is pretty self-explanatory but the thread used on the focal tree is a variegated quilting thread with blues and greens in it... Very pretty! The stitched border had to be done twice because the bottom border didn't quite match the other sides. Don't like it but it was a calculated choice. ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

• Cardstock: Stamper's Select, New Leaf, Pinefeather, Vellum
• Patterned Paper: Christmas Prints
• Stamps: Vintage Ornaments
• Ink: Palette Noir
• Other Tools: rhinestone flourish (dollar store), sewing machine/thread, A2 Envelope Liner die

Christmas Traditions - Music

Anyone who loves Christmas celebrates it with Christmas music! It's a tradition that has long endured. For the musical family, it plays a big role in celebrating the season. I remember years past, as the children and their talents grew, when there were piano, flute, cello, and violin performances at home during the holidays. It seemed to be a time when the children didn't seem to mind as much practicing to play the seasonal music. We even had voice performances with my two older daughters who loved to sing in parts as they got older. Truly, a joy at Christmas. I just love classical and tradtional Christmas music. Here is a page designed for a music loving family.

In the making, I used:
Cuttlbug Christmas Tree folder & musical note die, Spellbinders Stars & Snowflakes, Martha Stewart cedar twig punch, Liquid Pearls, pearls, Frosted Lace Stickles, and Teresa Collins "Noel" paper collection.

Aqua & Pink Christmas

I love traditional Christmas colors, but it is always fun to create something using non-traditional colors. Over the past few years, we see more and more color combinations to for Christmas decor. This is one color I've seen on trees and home Christmas decor. I've seen it on both the traditional green tree as well as on white trees and either way, it is a beautiful look.

I used the following:
Silver foil cardstock, Spellbinders Snowflakes, 3 Poinsettias stamped & cut out into 3 layers (each layer pop-dotted), White Opal Liquid Pearls, Icicle & Silver Stickles, and a jeweled flourish.(I've had the pink tipped leaves for a while)

Remember This ? Well I Made It A Set!

I posted this scrapbook page/shadow box layout a few days ago. Since then, I realized that it might be nice to make matching cards and gift tags for some the pages I had made. I had a few extra cut out pieces left over from I created the page, so that made making the card and tag so much easier.

I took close ups of the card and gift tag, but unfortunately they were too blurry to work with and post.

I'm not well today, having the flu, so this is all I'll write today.

There only two days left to enter for the Blog Candy! I can hardly wait to see where we will be sending it!

More Bo Bunny Purple, Turqoise, and Lime Green Christmas

Here is my second  Bo Bunny Purple, Turquoise, and Lime Green Christmas page for a 5 x 7 photo. I guess you say these colors Jazz up the holidays.

On this page I used Stickles, Liquid Pearls, jewels, Clear Accents, white gel pen, buttons and embroidery floss, Spellbinders snowflakes, and Martha Stewart's punch that looks like a cedar branch. Next are some close ups.

Now I need to find some inexpensive shadow boxes for some of these pages - the more dimensional ones. I'm sure some the previously posted pages will very good in a frame. I have some more, but need to borrow the camera to get some shots; which will probably happen before this get posted (this is a scheduled posting).

Christmas will soon be upon us and I still need to get my personal cards written, some baking done, and of course decorate the tree and make some gifts! You think I'll get that all done?! Hope you are all better organized that I am. Have fun!

Purple, Turquoise, and Lime Green for Christmas?

Ooh yes! It's all the rage with one of  Bo Bunny's collections, and the stock on this particular paper collection went so fast at the South Scarpbookers Paradise store, that I didn't get all I needed for yesterday's class! But the paper I used for this page, and another still to be posted, is not the paper from the collection that I need. So without further ado, here it is! These popular colors are found in Christmas decor these days, and I bet a pre-teen girl would love to have a family photo framed with these colors.

This is the only (so far) scrapbook page where I laid out the photo box to accommodate a landscape photo.
Here are some close ups.

These were actually quite fun to make, and I've been thinking that perhaps the bright cheerful colors may have contributed to that fact. LOL!

Hope you're having as much fun with yours, as I'm having with mine.

More Scraps to Christmas Tags

Here is a second set of folded Christmas tags made from card scraps. These have a slight Malaysian look to them. If I have put more work into them I could have pushed that theme, but wanted a quick project, so  I opted not to.

Be on the look out for more Christmas gift tags to come. I made a lot of them!

ANNOUNCEMENT

You may be wondering about all these Christmas scrapbook pages, Christmas cards, and Christmas gift tags I'm making. Well, I have another craft sale coming up this month on Saturday the 27th, at the Willow Ridge community hall on Acadia, SE Calgary. So, needless to say, I'm getting ready for that.

Keep your creative juices flowing!

Another BasicGrey Christmas Scrapbook Page For A 5 x 7

With this page I combined two of the BasicGrey papers - a mistletoe background, and more of the burnt orange poinsettias I had cut out for an earlier page.

And next is a close up of the Glossy Accents I put onto the ornament cutouts.

This might be a good page for a garden lover to put their family photo onto.

Are any of you thinking ahead for your Christmas Family photos?  Have fun creating!

Cardstock Search Results

In the search for Christmas cards cardstock I came across a small bounty of a shimmer mauve and automatically thought to pair it with silver. I still have a few sheets of that color left and maybe Spring or Easter would be a good time to bring them out again. This color, of course, makes for a more feminine look, but we do have family and friends that are widowed, divorced, very feminine, or just love these colors for their Christmas decor.

So there you have it; Mauve, silver, and white Christmas cards. Now I should mention that between the overhead lighting and the flash the colors seem to vary, but they are all the same paper.

Have you tried unusual colors for Christmas cards? Happy crafting everyone!

70's Retro Colors Christmas Page For A 5 x 7

These BasicGrey paper colors brought back some young teen memories of avocado colored kitchen appliances and large orange-red poppy wall-paper.

I cut out of the paper the poinsettias and some of the leaves and flourishes. Using the Hero Arts Fabulous Flourish I heat embossed in each corner with gold embossing powder. I then popped up the cut out poinsettias and attached the leaf cutouts and flourishes.

This will look good in a framed shadow box, too!

What Goes With Navy?

Why silver and green of course. Of course there are other colors that go well, but for Christmas, those are the colors I chose.

Blue and silver

Blue, silver & green

Have fun designing your Christmas cards!

Rustic Christmas Scrapbook Page For A 5 x 7

Earthy tones, stars, buttons and jute string, make this rustic scrapbook page 'homey' with a country feel.

I used 2 Martha Stewart punches for leaves and cedar-like twigs. I have so many tiny and small red buttons that I thought they would make nice berries for this page.

The stars were cut with a Fiskars Star punch and edged with red ink. The pearls were placed at random throughout the page, which turned out to be a great idea for this page.

Stamping Vacation DT: What a Guy Challenge

November's What a Guy Challenge at Stamping Vacation asks us to use twine on our masculine creation. I incorporated this into a whimsical Christmas card I created using scrap deer from this project.

I tried to create a dark, snowy night starting with a snowflake Cuttlebug folder and white ink. I smudged ink on the edges and use a cotton swab to apply some ink to the embossed snowflakes as well as create my own fluffy ones.

The deer are from the Christmas Cheer Cricut cartridge and the sleigh from Joys of the Season. The sentiment is a dimensional sticker from Recollections (Michaels).

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

• Cardstock: Stamper's Select, Enchanted Evening
• Ink: Fresh Snow
• Other Tools: Snowflakes embossing folder (Cuttlebug--I believe it is an exclusive folder to Custom Crops); Cricut cartridges: Christmas Cheer, Joys of the Season; dimensional sentiment sticker (Recollections); cotton swab, black twine ribbon (Michaels)

Upcoming Scrapbookers Class - Jazz It Up Holiday Cards

Hello Calgarians! I have another class coming up at the South Scrapbookers Paradise store at Macleod Plaza #20, 9250 Macleod Trail S.on  Monday, November the 22nd, from 5:50pm til 8:10pm. There are still a couple of openings if anyone is interested!

Here are the cards we'll be making.

We'll be ink blending and using "Liquid Pearls again; using Spellbinders Nestabilities Inverted Scallop Circles and Standard Circles with Stickles and glitter pens; as well as learning a new technique of clear heat embossing and adding glitter. This technique is great as the glitter hardly comes off at all as in other methods! And you can use your stamps! We always have fun in our classes and would love to see you there.

Happy crafting everyone!

A Christmas Scrapbook Page For A 5 x 7

In an earlier posting I had mentioned that the Spanish Old World card previously created had inspired a scrapbook page. Well here it is!

I think that this would look fantastic in a framed shadow box! This page took a few hours to make with all that stamping, gold heat embossing, and cutting out. Then inking the scrolled text added some more time.The flourishes are from a SEI stamps set, and the holly is the Classic Holly cling stamp from Hero Arts. The scrolled text is cut from one of Teresa Collins Noel Tags & Borders collection.(click on the Tags & Borders for a closer look) Then as per the card, I used a lot of gold "Liquid Pearls" from the old stock, not the current new formula "Liquid Pearls".

Here are some close up shots to better view the details. You can click on any image for a closer look, too.

Well that's it for this page. I have more cards, tags, and pages to post, so I hope you'll check in again to find them.

Happy crafting everyone!

Christmas Gift Tags From Scraps

Part way down this posting a while back, I ended up with some scraps. This is what I did with them!

Below, I'm including individual photos of each tag.

                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                    
I've made over 50 Christmas gift tags! But, I won't be showing all of them individually. These and another batch I will, because they are the fold up ones and are a few in comparison. Have you made any Christmas gift tags with your scraps?