~ Let us give thanks ~

Hello Blogger Friends! Thanks for stopping by to visit with The Charmed Life Blog.

 

We had a busy weekend starting with Friday night and our youngest grandson's (Ethan) football game. The weather was rainy and it lasted for the entire game. We had to sit under our umbrellas in a big downpour. I spent the night with my son and daughter-in-law and it was great to get back to their home and change into dry clothes.

 

Saturday I got together with some of my stamping friends for the afternoon. We enjoyed a nice lunch, conversation and card making. I managed to get some Thanksgiving cards made. I was making shaker cards and on each card I would forget to put the window sheet in before I used the foam tape. Too much talking and not enough concentrating I think.

 

Sunday we had a covered dish at church. It was held right after service. There was so much good food and such a different variety. We had a nice afternoon talking and eating with friends. I made a beef stew that was well received and totally eaten. That always makes you feel good when your dish is enjoyed.

 

Now onto my card for today. This one I made for the color challenge #605 on Splitcoaststampers. Karen was our hostess and she chose crushed curry, pumpkin pie, cherry cobbler and garden green for the color palette. Optional was to have a leaf or two on your card.

crushed curry pumpkin pie cherry cobbler garden green

For my card, I die cut the leaves from several CottageCutz dies - build-a-grapevine wreath, give thanks and the cornucopia die. I cut with whisper white cardstock. Used a sponge dauber and sponged the leaves in the challenge colors. When that was done I pressed them on a Versamark pad and then used clear embossing powder. IRL there is lots of shine on the leaves that doesn’t pick up on the camera. I saw this technique used on the KittieKraft Blog.

I layered the leaves down the side of my card and stamped a few leaves as well. For some reason my 3rd leaf is photographing dark. I used garden green and pumpkin pie on this one. On the stamped leaves, I used crushed curry and a cherry cobbler marker for a little definition. I happened to see a card on the Hero Arts site that I used for inspiration.

Used some Stampin’-Up designer paper from the "Festive Party" collection on the right side of the card. Stamped a sentiment on a banner, added some gold thread, scattered a few gold sequins, and with the spritzer tool and a pumpkin pie and cherry cobbler marker sprayed my background.

I really liked how this one turned out and will probably send it to my son and his family for Thanksgiving. Well, that's it for me for this post. So until next time........God bless.

 

 

 

card details:

Stamps: Scenic Selections (MFP), Bountiful Harvest (Verve)

Paper: pumpkin pie, whisper white, Festive Party Dsp (Stampin’-Up) 

Paper Size: A2   

Ink: crushed curry, pumpkin pie, cherry cobbler, garden green, Versamark

Accessories: build a grapevine wreath, give thanks, cornucopia dies (CottageCutz), gold sequins (Darice), gold metallic thread (DMC), nested pennant die (Spellbinders), spritzer tool, cherry cobbler, pumpkin pie markers (Stampin’-Up), clear embossing powder (Hero Arts  

I am also entering:

1.  My Time To Craft has an autumnal colors challenge.

2.  Addicted To Stamps has a lots of layers with a stamp.

3.  Lil Patch of Crafty Friends has an anything goes challenge.  

 

 

~Christmas - our house to yours~

Hello Blogger Friends! Thanks for taking the time to stop and visit with the Charmed Life Blog. Can you believe that October is almost a wrap?

 

The countdown to Christmas is starting. Yikes! I am behind on both Christmas and Thanksgiving cards. Hopefully, I can correct that some this weekend. Today my card is one that I made for my DT post on the CottageCutz Blog.

a whimsical style card that would be very easy to mass produce. It's featuring the Nested Ornaments: Bulb and some Peachy Keen Face Stamps. 

 

Our design team partnered with Peachy Keen Stamps to celebrate their new release of face stamps that work perfectly with the CottageCutz Christmas ornament dies. Just a little way to bring some whimsy to your holiday crafting. Check out the site because Kathy is offering some promotional pricing on her new stamps + the CottageCutz dies.

 

Let's get started with my card and some details on what I did.

 

Real Red Card Base: 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"

White Embossed Layer: 4 1/8" x 5 3/8"

 

I decided to use this Cuttlebug winter themed embossing folder as the backdrop for my ornaments. Wanted to create some background interest.

 

My next step was to die cut my ornaments in red cardstock. I used the smallest ornament in the set.  The face stamps come in different sizes and for this ornament I used the 1 1/8" set. I made a guy and a girl ornament to coincide with the sentiment I used.

 

Before I assembled my card I stamped my sentiment. The "from our home to yours" is a one line stamp. I used my MISTI Tool to get the placement I wanted on 2 lines.

Using the MISTI I placed my Merry Christmas stamp on my background panel.

 

 

I lined up the "from our home to yours" stamp and masked off the part of the stamp I didn't want on the 2nd line of my greeting. 

2nd line of sentiment stamped

 

Repeated the same masking process and stamped my 3rd line of sentiment.

 

Now I am ready for the card assembly. I used some 1/8" striped red ribbon to "hang" my ornaments. Scattered some red sequins and my card is completed. I hope I gave you some additional inspiration for Christmas.

 

Also don't forget about our newest challenge going on right now. The theme is fall. Here is the link for more info.

 

Well, that's it for me for this post. So until next time........God Bless.

 

 

 

Whimsical Christmas Star Card

Hello Blogger Friends! Thanks for taking the time to stop and visit today with the Charmed Life Blog.

We are having a rainy Friday here in Pittsburgh and last night we even had a thunderstorm. Seems so out of place for late October.

So in the midst of heavy rains I am here creating Christmas cards. This one I made for my weekly DT post on the CottageCutz Blog.

 

Our design team partnered with Peachy Keen Stamps to celebrate their new release of face stamps that work perfectly with the CottageCutz Christmas ornament dies. Just a little way to bring some whimsy to your holiday crafting. Check out the site because Kathy is offering some promotional pricing on her new stamps + the CottageCutz dies.

Let's get started with my card and some details on what I did. I started my card this week with the idea of using the Nested Star Ornaments. I had a layout in mind that I wanted to use as well so I just needed my card colors and patterned paper.

 

Vanilla card base: 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"
Cherry layering piece: 4 1/8" x 5 3/8"
Patterned Paper: 4" x 5 1/4"
Vanilla Sentiment Panel: 2 3/4" x 3 3/4"
Olive green layering panel: 2/ 7/8" x 3 7/8"

I searched through my Christmas patterned paper for a fun pattern to show off my whimsical star image. I thought dots and stripes would work together well. I was on a definite roll to get my card completed. Dots on the patterned paper and stripes in the way of ribbon for the bottom rectangle piece on the sketch.

My sentiment is computer generated using Word to set it up and then print on vanilla cardstock. After I printed it I used the CottageCutz Rectangle dies to cut it to the size I wanted for my card. I used the 2nd largest die on this one.

 

I decided to die cut my star in the cherry cardstock for some contrast on my card. I used the Peach Keen 1 1/8" Face Set and stamped in Memento tuxedo black ink. I think these are just the cutest face stamps.

 

From here I assembled my card. I added some stars to the sentiment panel and also to the striped ribbon panel. The stars are from the CottageCutz Merry Christmas Ribbon die. Used a Wink of Stella clear pen for a little sparkle.

 

Well that's it for me for this post. I hope I gave you some additional inspiration for Christmas. Also don't forget about our newest challenge going on right now. The theme is Fall. Here is the link for more info.

 

So until next time........God bless.

 

 

 

 

Autumn Seasonal Tree

Hello Blogger Friends and a happy Friday to you all. Well, it's officially fall here in Pittsburgh. We had our first frost last night.

 

So that is the end of our flower gardens. They were still producing dahlias, zinnias, gerbera and African daisies. I cut flowers yesterday and brought them inside to enjoy them. Here is a picture of what I have from our beautiful gardens.

 

But, we still have the beautiful fall leaves to enjoy, and they have not reached their peak beauty yet. Here in this area anyway. So I thought  I would go with a fall card for today's post. I used this super cute seasonal tree die to create it. Let's get started with some details on my card for today. This one I made for my weekly DT post on the CottageCutz blog.

really rust card base: 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"
chocolate chip layering panel: 4 1/8" x 5 3/8"
Autumn Vine designer paper panel: 3 7/8" x 5 1/8"
tilted panels: 2 7/8" x 2 1/2"

I used this week's sketch #614 from Splitcoaststampers for my layout. It's a basic sketch but I liked the tilted panels. I added a couple of extra layers to the sketch just for some additional interest.

Once I decided to use this layout, I went looking through my stash for some autumn themed designer paper. I found this Stampin'-Up paper from the "autumn vine" collection and matched it up with really rust and chocolate chip cardstock and more mustard ribbon. I used the ribbon for layer #2 in the sketch.

I used the chocolate chip and really rust cardstock for my tree and more mustard & sage shadow for the tree leaves. That picked up the background colors of the designer paper. I also cut a couple of pumpkins from the Harvest Scarecrow die. Layered the tree and pumpkins on some white cardstock. To ground the images, I sponged some old olive ink.

To complete my card, I stamped a sentiment from the Verve set "abundant blessings" in chocolate chip ink. I hope I have given you some ideas for this cute new die. I think it makes a great card for Thanksgiving or a Fall theme.

 

Also, don't forget about our current challenge #7 for October. The theme this month is Fall. This new die would work great for the challenge.

 

So until next time.........God bless.

 

Autumn Tree + Distress Crayon technique

 

Hello Blogger Friends! A happy Friday to you all. thanks for taking the time to stop and visit with the Charmed Life Blog. Another weekend is upon us. Hope you have plans for something fun and have a chance to get a little crafty. That would really be fun!

 

We are going to our youngest grandson's football game tonight and then tomorrow we have a painter coming to do some work in our kitchen. Yes, we are still working on finishing up the remodeling we started months ago. Sometimes what you think will be a easy project runs into something you didn't expect. Nothing on the schedule for Sunday as yet outside of church.

 

Today for my blog post I am showing a card that I made of r my weekly blog post on the CottageCutz Blog.  I went to a garage sale recently and the person holding it was selling some Ranger Distressed  Crayons. She had 18 of them for $5.00. They were brand new and she just didn't like working with them. What a find for me!!

 

So I watched some YouTube videos to see what to do with them and the idea for the background on this card was born. I am using some new dies from the Autumn 2016 release. These ones are the autumn tree w/ swing and the give thanks die set. So let's get started with details on my card for today.

 

Chocolate Chip Card Base: 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"

Kraft Layering Panel: 4 1/8" x 5 3/8"

Image Panel: 3 7/8" x 5 1/8"

 

Distressed Crayon Technique:

Step 1:  Used watercolor distressed cardstock and applied a layer of Gesso to prepare the paper. Set aside to dry.

 

Step 2.  After that dried I applied the distress crayons in fossilized amber, spiced marmalade, mustard seed and peeled paint. Used my finger and a little water to spread the color around. The finger method is what Tim Holtz recommended in of his videos. I set this aside to dry. You could use a heat tool to dry it as well. I used this time to start making my die cuts. 

 

 

Step 3. Once this was dry I took a sun-ray stencil laid it over top of the color and used a wet (but not soaking) paper towel. I followed the stencil layout and started to remove color. I was really pleased how this turned out. Especially since it was my first attempt with these crayons. I did make another one and didn't use the Gesso layer. The color is much subtler without the Gesso.  Just depends what you are looking for with your color. 

Step 4: Now that my background is prepared, I am ready to make my die cuts. I used various shades of fall cardstock and cut my autumn tree with swing, the leaves pumpkins and sunflower. I used some distress ink to highlight the colors.  The Give Thanks word I cut 2x in chocolate chip cardstock for dimension.  I attached it to the right side of the card and took it just slightly off the card for added interest. I didn't want to completely cover up the stenciled sun image.

 

Step 5:  Now my card is ready for assembly. I used a combination of Ranger multi-matte medium, glue dots and double sided tape on all the die cuts. 

 

Step 6: The image panel is layered on kraft cardstock. I then used foam adhesive for added dimension to attach to the chocolate chip card base. And with that, my card is completed. I hope I have given you some inspiration on a way to create a fall scene using a couple of different die sets.

 

Well, that's it for this post. So until next time......God bless

 

 

 I am also entering:

1.  Craft For the Craic has an autumnal twist - use kraft paper. Used kraft for layering plus kraft for some leaves

2.  Creative Artiste has an anything goes with mixed media

3.  4 Crafty Chicks has a die cuts challenge

4.  Cards 4 Galz has a fall colors challenge