The Stamp Review Crew: Endless Wishes Edition

Wow, can you believe it is the beginning of December already?! This year has gone so fast. I can hardly believe it is almost Christmas.  I am not ready for winter yet, which has already shown up here in Indiana a little bit, but nothing too big yet. I do, however, love making winter cards. This week The Stamp Review Crew is using one of my favorite winter sets, Endless Wishes.  This photopolymer set was first introduced for a short time last year, and had such a huge response that it was brought back in this year's Holiday Catalog. Yay!  

You know that fabulous Pool Party tissue paper that comes with every My Paper Pumpkin kit?  That is what I used for my background!  I stamped on it, scrunched it up, and used Crystal Effects to glue it to a piece of pre-cut cardstock.  These snowflakes are perfect for making your own DSP!  I kept my sentiment panel fairly simply because I knew I wanted to add the two rows of gold sequins to tie in with the Brushed Gold cardstock and Gold Encore ink.  To finish things off, I added a few white snowflake sequins.

Thanks for stopping by!  Click on the links below to continue on through the hop!

Blog Roll:

1. Yapha Mason  http://yaphamason.com/blog/2014/11/30/stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes-edition/
2. Tanya Boser    http://tinkerin-in-ink.blogspot.com/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes-edition.html
3. Debra Burgin  http://heartfeltinkspiration.com/2014/11/30/stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes
4. Heidi Baks  http://runningwscissorsstamper.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes.html
5. Ann Schach   http://www.stampinchic.com/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes.html
6. Cindy Beach  http://stampspaperandink.typepad.com/stamps_paper_and_ink/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes-edition.html
7. Dawn Tidd   http://tiddbitsfromdawn.typepad.com/tiddbits-from-dawn/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes-edition.html
8. Rochelle Blok   http://rochelleblok.blogspot.com/2014/12/stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes-edition.html
9. Shana Gaff  http://stressfreestamping.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes.html
10. Wendy Weixler  http://wickedlywonderfulcreations.blogspot.com/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes-edition.html
11. Nancy Smith  http://iguanastamp.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes/
12. Mike Funke  http://stampin-style.typepad.com/stampin-style/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-endless-wishes.html

Wondrous Wreath

Ahhh, this has been a wonderful Thanksgiving break so far. I have enjoyed some of my favorite pastimes...eating, shopping, and crafting, of course!  Today we have a new challenge at Addicted to CAS for you to enjoy.  

Such a fun challenge!  We have Linda joining us as Guest Designer, and she has a great CAS Christmas card to share with us.  Make sure you stop by to give her some love!  

For my card, I have used the challenges at CAS(E) this Sketch! and Fusion for additional inspiration. 

                 

I know I have said this before, but 'tis the season to be thankful and I am thankful for all these wonderful ladies and gentleman who run the design challenge blogs to inspire us all!  Without them all, I would be lost!  They put in a lot of hard work and dedication to these blogs, and I appreciate them all so much! Here is what I have designed today using these three challenges:

I just love the red and silver together! I probably would not have chosen those colors for this stamp set if I had not seen that wonderful inspiration photo!  I just got Wondrous Wreath in the mail, along with the coordinating framelits, and I must say that it is so easy and fun to stamp and cut out!  I went over my berries with some Red Dazzling Details to make them pop a little bit, and my "Joy" is die cut in Red Glimmer Paper.  The silver dotted background is Brushed Silver Cardstock. I am down to just a few sheets...yikes!  Time to reorder! :)  

Thanks for stopping by to visit. Make sure to stop by the ATCAS blog to see the rest of the design team's lovely creations! 

Four Feathers

It's time for a new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More! and for once I am not getting my card finished at the last minute!  I really needed this weekend to do some crafting and since it is deer season, I am a hunting widow and have plenty of free time. :)  Our challenge at ATSM this week is Make Your Mark, so you can use markers, colored pencils, watercolor crayons...whatever coloring medium you want!  I used a few other challenges on my card for inspiration: Fab Friday, retro sketches and The Paper Players.

I made my card to thank all of you that have created and organize these wonderful challenge blogs.  I know it is a huge undertaking and I am so grateful to each of you for all of your hard work and dedication to help inspire those of us who are occasionally in a creative stump. :)  Here is what I came up with using these amazing challenges:

I started my background by coloring a large, clear block with Crushed Curry and Cajun Craze markers, then stamping Blackberry Bliss splatters from Gorgeous Grunge over the coloring. I then spritzed it with some water and pressed my cardstock onto the block. I use this technique a lot, I know, but I just love it!  I also used markers to ink up the Crushed Curry feathers, so I could get Cajun Craze on the edges. After I had my background finished, I traced the inside of a circle framelit with a pencil and cut it out with Paper Snips, cutting out the feathers that overlapped the circle.  I used a LOT of Dimensionals underneath it so it looked raised, and you can barely even tell in my photo. lol Oh well, in person it looks exactly like I had planned it and that rarely happens, so I am happy with it! :)

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure to stop by the ATSM blog to check out the rest of the design team's lovely creations!

Amazing Birthday

Welcome to another round of blogging hopping from The Stamp Review Crew!  This week we are using my favorite birthday stamp set from the annual catalog, Amazing Birthday.  I tend to use the biggest stamp in the set the most, so I challenged myself to use some of the other sets!  The circles are really nice because they match up with our 1 1/4" Circle Punch. The banners also coordinate with the Banner Framelits.  It sure makes things easier when you can cut them out quickly and perfectly every time!  

I picked out some of this year's In Colors for my card. I stamped off each color onto scrap paper before stamping on Whisper White cardstock to give them a more subtle look.  The stamp that I used for my background was really easy to stamp because the words are all crooked on the stamp, so I didn't have to stamp them perfectly to get them to look good!  I would have loved to sew my banners on, but I don't have a sewing machine so I did some faux stitching.  I did this by using my paper-piercing tool to pierce the holes, and then connected them all with my Blackberry Bliss marker.

Thanks for stopping by!  You can click on the links to go backwards or forwards through the hop.  Happy hopping!

1. Mike Funke  http://stampin-style.typepad.com/stampin-style/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday.html
2. Dawn Tidd  http://tiddbitsfromdawn.typepad.com/tiddbits-from-dawn/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday-edition.html
3. Yapha Mason  http://yaphamason.com/blog/2014/11/16/stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday-edition/
4. Cindy Beach   http://stampspaperandink.typepad.com/stamps_paper_and_ink/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday-edition.html
5. Shana Gaff   http://stressfreestamping.blogspot.com/2014/11/amazing-birthday.html
6. Kerry Willard Bray   http://www.peoniesandpaperchains.com/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday-edition.html
7. Tanya Boser  http://tinkerin-in-ink.blogspot.com/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday.html
8. Adriana Benitez  http://escape2stamp.blogspot.com/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday.html
9. Wendy Weixler   http://wickedlywonderfulcreations.blogspot.com/2014/11/stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday-edition.html
10. Ann Schach  http://www.stampinchic.com/2014/11/the-stamp-review-crew-amazing-birthday.html

Kinda Eclectic

Okay, so I have a confession...full-time teaching is not for me!  I miss having some days off during the week. I cannot believe I did this for seven years. Of course, I have had six years of not working outside of the house at all since then, so that could be part of the reason I am feeling so exhausted. Not to mention the fact that I was much younger then!  I know I'm not old now, but I sure do feel like it by the end of each school day!

My crafting has taken a serious hit now that I have lessons to plan and papers to grade. Thank goodness for the few design teams I am on to give me a little bit of an excuse to take a break several days each week. :)  Today I snuck in a few early morning minutes to work on our new challenge at Addicted to CAS!

ATCAS is celebrating it's 2nd birthday!  I can't believe it has been two years, and I have been on the Design Team since Kylie came up with this wonderful challenge blog.  Joining us for this challenge is Linda L.  Make sure to stop by her blog and give her some love. She has created a beautiful winter card with this set.  Make sure you check out the rest of the Design Team's cards too. They are such a talented group!  Here is what I came up with.

I may have gone a little bit overboard to be CAS, but I could not help but add the layered butterfly on there. (This is my secret way of saying there was a smudge that I needed to cover up. lol)  There is still quite a bit of "white" space, so I decided it would work. Plus, it's been a while since I've made a card, so I couldn't stop having fun. :) Okay, enough with the excuses. Thanks for stopping by to visit!

Oh,one more thing...I finally figured out how to add my watermark that the lovely Kylie created just for me!  Isn't it beautiful???  If you would like have her custom make one for you, here is her business card!  :)

Traditional Christmas

It's time for another challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More! and we have a beautiful inspiration photo this week!

When I looked at this photo, I immediately saw the stars and traditional Christmas colors. I combined those with the photo challenge at Just Add Ink.

I also noticed the little snowflakes on the ornament and the swirls of ribbon and wanted to include those on my card, too! 

I turned my star into a little shaker and put little white snowflake sequins inside it.  I added the squiggles around the outside to replicate the swirls of ribbon. My sentiment comes from Endless Wishes. I just love this font!

Thanks for stopping by. Make sure to check out the rest of the design team's beautiful creations! 

Lovely as a Tree

It's time for another challenge at Addicted to CAS and I decided to pull out a classic stamp set for this challenge...Lovely as a Tree!  Here is the challenge code word chosen by our lovely hostess Vicki:

Joining us this month as Guest Designer is Linda. Make sure to stop by and welcome her!

For my card this week, I used the challenges at Nacho Average Challenge and Colour Me...!

For the color challenge, I chose the first combination of Basic Gray, Garden Green and Blackberry Bliss. This is a lovely Christmas card combination!

I made a little shaker card with the snowflake and sequin embellishments from the Holiday Catalog. They are so much fun!  Here is a closer look:

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure to stop by the Addicted to CAS website and see the rest of the design team's creations. :)