May Christmas Cards!!

I actually got them made before midnight (my time anyway) and posted even! This month Tracy posed a color challenge for us:
Here are my cards:

Card base is Kraft with a poinsettia of Riding Hood Red dp and SU sentiment from Graateful Greetings punched with the large oval punch. The rest of the pieces were all cut using nesties. I stamped a holly cluster mini background stamp (SU) in Versamark and embossed with clear ep.

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

Design Team Member
Sentimental Sundays
Catch the Bug
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

By the hair of my chinny, chin, chin!

Finished my March xmas cards for Tracy's Christmas card challenge. The challenge this month was to feature a snowman. I used my favorite snow people from pcCrafters Cold Hands Warm Heart collection.

Still in catch-up mode but I'm getting there!

Thanks for visiting.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Design Team Member - Kaboodle Doodles
If you have any questions about techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

February Christmas Card Challenge

Yesterday I showed you my goof up card for this month's Christmas Card challenge sponsored by Tracy. My new take on this (minus the dp) was to use a layer of embossed card stock instead. Card base is (what else) Pacific Point! Layers are Kiwi Kiss and Soft Sky (I really dug into my stash of retired colors!). The image is from KAH-Wink-E-Dink, a company I just discovered and who you will see images from again very soon on this blog. Fun stuff! I punched the snowflakes with a MS snowflake punch and also punched the inside as well and let the color show through the cut outs. The bling is more of my little gems from the jewelry department at one of the "big box" stores whose name I cannot mention.

Image was colored with my KIN pencils and oms and I also used my markers as it is hard to get a true red with my pencils. I cut the image out using deckle scissors.

I'm off to party with my stampin' buds today. First brunch with some of my grandchildren though. Maybe I'll take my camera along and share some pix with you later. Grandma's are always looking for excuses to show off pictures of their grandchildren!

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Design Team Member - Kaboodle Doodles
If you have any questions about techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

January Christmas Card and a Breath of Spring

Well, Tracey is hosting her monthly Christmas card challenge again this year and I had such fun doing it last year, I'm going to give it a shot this year too. It was so great to have all those cards all done and ready to go out the door in December! The challenge this month was to make an easel card. Here's mine:

The image is from Prairie Fairy and I colored him with colored pencils and oms. Because it is so hard to get a really red pencil, I colored the bird with a red marker though. The checked paper is actually a background stamp - I love it - I can make it match my cardstock exactly! Card base is Pacific Point and contrast color is Real Red and the same colors on the ribbon.

Look what I found blooming in my dining room this morning!


I have two hibiscus plants in the dining room for the winter and this red one just keeps blooming and blooming. The yellow one has lots of foilage, but so far no blooms. Both are anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring when they can once again enjoy the fresh air and sun on the front porch.

Thanks for visiting today!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Design Team Member - Kaboodle Doodles
If you have any questions about techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

September Christmas Card Challenge

This month Tracey challenged us to use one of five proposed techniques to create our cards. I chose embossed resist! Here are my cards.


I stamped the snowflakes in versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder. I sponged on Brilliant Blue, layered the panel on Brilliant Blue on a white card base. I added ribbon and a punched snowflake embellishment with a little mini-tag stamped with "Joy" to finish it off. Stamps used are Serene Snowflakes, Sweet Season, Many Merry Messages and Mega Mixed Messages.

Thanks so much for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Design Team Member - Kaboodle Doodles
If you have any questions about techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

August Christmas Cards

Well, Tracy posed another great challenge for us for our Christmas cards this month - designer paper needs to be the focus!

Here's a picture of my parts and pieces:

I know that I have seen this paper saving technique somewhere before, but I thought I'd just put this up here to illustrate a way to save some paper. You do not need to have anything except the border showing, so why not use the insides to punch out some of your elements! I ended up with a bunch of extra ornaments and scallop ovals to use on other projects.

Here's the finished product:

Inside:

All together:

Card base is Always Artichoke. First layer is Brushed Gold, embossed layer is Always Ivory. Ornaments are punched in gold and the dp is from The Paper Company and is called Florentine Green & Gold. Sentiment on the outside is from PTI and is embossed in gold and punched and layered on gold. Inside sentiment is from Many Merry Messages and the ornaments are stamped in Apricot Appeal, Riding Hood Red and gold metallic and are from the Tree Trimmings set. Of course I had to use my trusty Fiskars corner punch too!

Thanks for visiting today!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Design Team Member - Kaboodle Doodles

July Christmas Cards

Tracy's challenge to us for July was to create single layer Christmas cards. I had an idea before I left for DC and used a border CB folder on some white cardstock and then finished figuring out what to do with them when I got to Washington. Here is the end result:

I used two of my new SU sets and an oldy but goodie for the sentiment. I added a horizontal line using my scorpal and that was that! Easy peasy and I think they are pretty.

Headed for Massachusetts on the train tomorrow to join dh and have a visit with his family. Another adventure! I'll try to be back with a post from MA and hopefully I will be back into blog reading mode too! It has hardly stopped raining since I got here and I'm really hoping that MA is not too wet! We'll be looking at a possible new boat on Friday and I'll let you know how that goes.

thanks for visiting today!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Design Team Member - Kaboodle Doodles

Christmas Card Challenge Cards - June

This month, Tracey posed a great challenge for us. Our Christmas cards needed to be made with a unique fold! Here's what I came up with:

Here's the inside view:

Here they all are together!

I got my new Scarlet Jewell paper from PTI and it reminded me of the retired designer paper Holiday Thyme that I have been hoarding. Well, I dug into the old stash and decided it was time to use it! The sentiment and snowflakes on the front are from the new hostess set Christmas Punch from Stampin' Up! I am a total sucker for punches and this set screamed at me out of the sneak peeks and I had to have it. The snowflakes fit the Boho Blossoms punch! Pretty cool! There's quite a few other stamps in the set too and they all go with the SU punches. I love that! Only a couple more days and I will be able to share more from the new catalog with you. Remember, if you want to book a party you need to get in touch with me soon. I will be on the road from July 21 until Aug. 4 so we should get your booking done now!

Thanks for visiting. Today is Kael and Natalie's birthday party and I am hoping we don't have a repeat of the weather that has plagued us every afternoon this week. They are having a Sponge Bob bouncy house and I am certain that everyone will have a great time.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Design Team Member - Kaboodle Doodles

May Christmas Cards

I actually got my May Christmas cards done for Tracy's challenge a whole day early! When Tracy posted this month's challenge - use pink - I immediately thought of poinsettias. I dug around in my boxes of Christmas stamps till I found the perfect set. It's called Painted Poinsettias from Stampin' Up. I stamped the flower and leaf outlines on the card front in Versamark. I got lots of practice with my Stamp-a-ma-Jig stamping the two flowers and the leaf on the image panel. I experimented with watercolor crayons first and wasn't happy with the result and switched to markers and am happy with how they turned out. I stamped first on a Regal Rose pad and then marked the edges with a Rose Red marker for the flowers and Old Olive and Always Artichoke for the leaves. The card base is Rose Red and the Whisper White image panel is mounted on Always Artichoke and Regal Rose.

Whew! Glad to have that done, now if I could only get my cards done for Libby's Courtney's Closet challenge! Also, be sure to check out my post HERE for the scoop on our current Lime Light Designers task.

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Design Team Member - Kaboodle Doodles

April Christmas Cards

Again this month I am participating in Tracy's Christmas card challenge. This month we needed to use a snowman image. Here's my cards!







I just love this Penny Black snowman. Every time I see him he makes me smile! Cardstocks used were Not Quite Navy, Lovely Lilac and Night of Navy with Real Red, Elegant Eggplant and Bashful Blue as contrast matting colors. Images and mats were cut using square nesties. Sentiments are from Little Paper Shop, Stampin' Up! and Papertrey Ink. Backgrounds were created with clear stamps, SU wheel and a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Thanks for visiting today! I am recovering very nicely and am sans crutches today!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

March Christmas Cards

I don't have all 5 of them made yet, but here is my card for this month's Christmas card challenge over on Tracy's blog:


This month's challenge was to use black, white and one other color AND a button! I have everything cut, just not assembled, so I'll put up another picture when they are all put together!

Edited to add:

I got them all done - and before midnight MST! Here they are:



Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

February Xmas Cards

I'm participating in a challenge over on Tracy's blog to make 5 Christmas cards every month. This month's cards had to be square and have NO sentiment on the front. Here's my cards:


I had a lot of felt flurries snow flakes and some of the bulk buy designer paper and so pulled it out and went to work.

Thanks for hosting this challenge Tracy - I might even be ready for Christmas this year!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Christmas Card Challenge - Month #1

Tracy of Tracy's Happy Place is hosting a Christmas Card Challenge and I have elected to participate. I love making Christmas cards and this will really help alleviate some of the stress that comes in mid-December when I suddenly realize I don't have any cards made to send out to friends and family. If you want all the details on this monthly challenge, check out this post on Tracy's blog.

Here's my card for this month:


I made a couple of these this past Christmas and I really liked the clean look of them, so I made some more!

Thanks for visiting. I'll be back tomorrow with the cards I made for the twins birthday and a report on our adventures at the aquarium!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.