Christmas at Sweet Stampin' Snow People

Hello, everyone!
Thank you for dropping by.
Today, I'm cooling off from our very hot and humid Florida temperatures with a fun-loving Snow Person who is making Snow Angels!
Ahhhh, cools me off just thinking about it.

Today begins a new challenge at 

Christmas at Sweet Stampin'!

My brilliant teammates have fantastic samples to share! The challenge is ANYTHING GOES for ANY Christmas theme craft project. August's Challenge has an optional theme of Snow People!

My project features SheepSki Designs "Snow Happy" image!
This digi stamp makes me laugh! Can you picture it animated? I can!


"Happy" was colored with Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901 Color Pencils and Gamsol, and then he was die cut:


I wanted to distress the interior of the panel without any of the embossed detail around the edges have blue on it. So Post-It Tape came to the rescue:


Double Sided Tape was placed on the under side of the frame, and dredged with clear glitter from the top:


The panel behind was dry embossed and distressed with the same two distress ink colors. An old Martha Stewart Starlight edge punch was used on one side. Again, on the underside, double stick tape was applied to the star edge, and dredged with navy glitter.


He is so cute!

Some Products Used:

• Stamps: Andrea Norris SheepSki Designs "Snow Happy", Hero Arts Seasonal Sentiments CL722
• Dies: Sue Wilson Ornate Pierced Design CED5507, MS Starlight Punch
• Colored: Distress Inks (BluePrint and Mermaid Lagoon) and Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901 Color Pencils with Gamsol (in blues and turquoise blends)
• Clear Glitter (for border), Blue Glitter for stars

Challenges I'm submitting this card to:

1. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #54 AG Christmas 8/25
2. Cute N Crafty Christmas #16 Anything Christmas Goes 8/25
3. ScrapyLand Challenges #119 AG SL Dies (Sue Wilson) 8/17
4. Merry Little Christmas Challenge #13 Anything Christmas Goes 9/1 (check 9/5)
5. SheepSki Designs Facebook Challenge #38 Fave Embellishments - (my favorite embellishments are to put glitter or embossing powder on die cuts, creating dimension on a flat card using that glitter and/or embossing powder) 8/19
6. 52 Christmas Card Throwdown color challenge 8/17 (sep post)
7. Dream Valley Challenges #207 Hand Coloured Image 8/25 (sep post)
8. Sparkles Christmas Challenge #103 "It's Snowtime!" 9/1

Stamping Hugs,

Christmas at Sweet Stampin' - A Little Sunshine

Hello, Christmas Lovers!
If it snowed in Florida, would we still be called The Sunshine State?
I hope so, and so do my little characters today.

Today begins a new challenge at 

Christmas at Sweet Stampin'!

My brilliant teammates have fantastic samples to share! The challenge is ANYTHING GOES for ANY Christmas theme craft project. July's Challenge is open until August 10 and has an optional theme of Sunshine!

This cute Snow Couple was colored with Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901 Color Pencils and Gamsol.  Such a loving couple, I cannot help but be attracted to them. 



The sunshine is stenciled, contrary to our Florida Sunshine, which is vibrant all year!

• Bugaboo Snowmen Couple
• Dies: SB Scallop Labels One, SB Grand Scallop Squares
• Inks: Adirondack Stonewashed Denim and Pool, Distress Lemonade and Straw, Memento Tuxedo Black
• Colored with: Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901 Color Pencils and Gamsol

Challenges I'd like to play in please:

1. Merry Little Christmas Challenge #12 Anything Christmas Goes 8/1
2. Cute N Crafty Challenge #29 Christmas in July 7/28 (sep post)
3. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #52 Anything Goes Christmas 7/28
4. Kerst Christmas FB Challenge #7 AG Christmas 8/2
5. Crafty Calendar Challenge (July) Christmas in July 8/3
6. Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge #445 Christmas 7/14
7. CCC Digi Creations #105 Christmas in July 8/3
8. Jingle Belles Rock (July 5) Tie-Tac-Toe (diagonal Snowman, Red or Green, Diecuts) 7/18

Wishing you a great day!

Christmas at Sweet Stampin' - Divinity Designs

Hello, my friends!

First - thank you for staying with me - it's been a rough few months, and I'm slowly recovering. My fumble fingers are beginning to coordinate with my Mojo, and my strength is kind of getting normalish. I had a body-wide exacerbation which then triggered an unexpected, unpleasant infection. The ways our bodies respond to certain "stimuli" is just amazing (as many of you know first-hand). The most difficult thing is being patient with myself and flexible enough to be satisfied with what can be accomplished, even if it is, seemingly, a big Nothing.

Enough of that!

Today begins a new challenge at 

Christmas at Sweet Stampin'!

My brilliant teammates have fantastic samples to share! The challenge is ANYTHING GOES for ANY Christmas theme craft project. June's Challenge is open until July 6 and has an optional theme of non-traditional colors.

My non traditional color is BROWN.
How fun! I used a Christmas Tree Collage image that has been in my stash for 4-5 years and has never seen ink! How could I be so cruel?
I'm so pleased with the quality and details in the stamp, that I'll be buying more from this company.

My first brown card has an oval frame.



I began by creating a background paper with this beautiful poinsettia stamp, embossing powder and Ken Oliver Liquid Metal Heavy Metal Brushos. I both painted and splattered with them.

Here's a close up of the "Heavy Metals". I painted them around the tree's star halo, and a little on each ornament:

The frame is glittered, of course, and covers portions of the stamped collage:

The second card features the Cracked Glass technique. The image was stamped and distressed with inks. The background paper was also stamped with a Music background stamp. Here are the pieces before assembling:

I smeared Judikins embossing ink on the dried image, and heat set several coats of clear EP on it. Next it was put in the freezer for 45 minutes, and then "cracked". Black Soot distress ink was smooshed into the cracks. 

You can see the glassy effect here. The entire panel shines like that:



Hopefully you can see some of cracks here:



I love this stamp! How could I have neglected it for so long?

Will you come play, too? Remember, the non-traditional color is optional.

Two cards, one stamp, one brown color:

Some Products:

• Stamp (on both cards) Divinity Designs Christmas Tree Collage with VersaFine Clair Acorn Brown Ink

Oval Card:

• Me and Carrie Lou Poinsettia (apparently they are only sold at Violette's a brick-and-mortar store in Lakeland FL)
• Ken Oliver Liquid Metals Heavy Metals watercolors
• Vintage Brown Cosmic embossing powder
• SB Classic Oval die set
• SB Fleur de Elegance 5x7 oval die set

Rectangle Card:

• Embossing Ink (for cracked glass technique)
• Clear embossing powder (for cracked glass technique)
• Scattered Straw, Aged Mahogany, Black Soot Distress Inks
• Tutti 123 Arched Fir Branch die
• Tonic Studios English Picnic Rectangle die set
• MS Doily Trim punch
• Judikins Music Background Stamp

Challenges I'd like to play in please:

1. Merry Little Christmas Challenge #11 Anything Christmas Goes 7/1
2. The Holy and Ivy Christmas Challenge #51 Anything Christmas Goes 6/16
3. Christmas Cards All Year Round (June) Garland-Leaves or Christmas Flowers (one card has stamped poinsettias, the other has golden garland die cut) 7/1
4. Classic DT Open Challenge #6 June  AG for DT 7/1
5. Love to Craft Challenge Blog #35 Anything Goes 7/1
6. Crafting by Designs (June) Anything Goes 7/1
7. Artistic Inspirations #216 Anything Goes 7/2
8. Use Your Stuff #362 "Vintage" 6/17

Stamping Hugs,

Snowflakes - Christmas at Sweet Stampin'

Waving hello to all my blogging friends, and wishing you all the best!

We had a tornado hop-scotch across the county. Fortunately, we only have a downed tree, but our experimental tomatoes were also tossed around.

Not sure if they will survive, or if the trauma was too much for them.

I'll let you know!

In the meantime...

I've got a CAS Christmas card today.

Today begins a new challenge at 

Christmas at Sweet Stampin'!

My brilliant teammates have fantastic samples to share! We hope to see your imaginative artwork each month in our "Anything Goes Christmas" Challenges. The challenge is for ANY Christmas theme craft project. May's Challenge is open until June 8 and has an optional challenge is snowflakes.

Today's card uses a background from my stash - it's a magenta colored piece of mirror cardstock that had some imperfections in it. Pearlescent acrylic paints were smooshed on it to create interesting "crystals".

When distressing the dry embossed panel, I dropped the finger dauber twice onto the stamped sentiment, so I tried distressing the entire sentiment to cover up my blunder. That made it worse, of course, so I used a glue pen and covered with glitter. Ahhh, glitter is a girl's best friend. Or shall I say, "Glitter is a Fumble Finger's BFF." (giggle)

Finished card:

Products Used: Beccy Muir sentiment "Milton Chasing Snowflakes", Tutti Snowflake Corner, Spellbinders Curved Borders One, Monarch Purple VersaFine Clair ink, Craftwell Delicate Dots EF.

Challenges I'd like to play in please:

1. Merry Little Christmas Challenge #10 Anything Christmas Goes 6/1 (sep post)
2. Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #49 Anything Christmas Goes 5/18 (sep post)
3. World Wide Open DT Challenge #4 AG DT 5/15 
4. Corrosive Challenges #5 Anything Goes 6/3
5. Beccy's Challenges (May) AG with Beccy Muir image (sentiment is from "Milton Chasing Snowflakes" set) 6/1
6. Crafty Creations #390 Anything Goes 5/21
7. Creative Moments #168 Anything Goes 5/22
8. Scrapy Land #113 AG SL die (Tutti, SB) 5/15

Stamping hugs,

Monochromatic Theme at Christmas at Sweet Stampin' Challenge

Good Morning, fellow crafters!
I'm starting the day with lots of glitter - are you surprised?
Please see my STAMPING ON GLITTER TUTORIAL HERE.

Today begins a new challenge at 

Christmas at Sweet Stampin'!

My marvelously brilliant teammates have fantastic samples to share! We hope to see your imaginative artwork each month in our "Anything Goes Christmas" Challenges. The challenge is for ANY Christmas theme craft project. April's Challenge is open until May 7 and has an option of monochromatic theme.

Technique: STAMPING ON GLITTER

if you're reading on my blog, enlarge the photos by clicking on them:

BOO BOO TIME

Having watercolored with this technique frequently, I was surprised at a huge boo-boo this card ended up having. Where the "crack and peel" portion of the sticker paper had been, some watercolor puddled there, leaving a visible line:

After waiting overnight, and the line not disappearing, I tried fixing it by hiding part, and adhering the other part. You can still see it a little bit when the light hits just "so":

The brads were dipped into the same pretty Mediterranean Star embossing powder as the frame.



To customize the "snowy" background, I used the same ink as the sentiment on an embossing folder:


All Done! It's quite sparkly in person:

Some Products Used:

Images: Penny Black Winter Song, SU Beauty of the Season, Glitter: Cloud Nine Microfine Glitter, Inks: Staz-On Azure Blue Ink, Adirondack Pool, Warm Breeze VersaFine Clair, EP: Mediterranean Star embossing powder, Dies: Surprise Creation Polygon Square Double Stitch die set, SB Grommet Tag Set

Challenges I'd like to play in please:

1. Sparkle N Sprinkle Creative Challenges (April) Use Glitter and EP 5/1
2. Classic DT Open Challenge (April #4) AG DT 5/1
3. Sparkles Christmas Challenges #93/99 Feature a Creature 5/1
4. Tuesday Throwdown #429 AG (rubber stamp on glitter) 4/23
5. Holly and Ivy Christmas #47 AG Christmas 4/23
6. Merry Little Christmas #9 AG Christmas 4/30 (sep post 5/5)

On a Personal Note:
Early Spring Morning last week facing the tree line as the sun greets me with a myriad of birds singing "Good Morning!":



Thanks for popping by today!
hugs,
de

Christmas at Sweet Stampin' PSX tags

It's me! I'm back! (giggle)
Welcome to my little blog - And some Christmas tags! Every year I intend to make "to-from" tags, and I never do! So here are three, and if no other tags are made, at least I finally did three (chuckle).

Today begins a new challenge at

Christmas at Sweet Stampin'!

My marvelously brilliant teammates have fantastic samples to share! We hope to see your imaginative artwork each month in our "Anything Goes Christmas" Challenges. The challenge is for ANY Christmas theme craft project. March's Challenge is open until April 9.

This month I'm playing with a virginal "used" stamp gifted to me by friend Paula. Paula and I both went into deep mourning when PSX stopped producing.
Do you remember PSX? Do you have any of their beloved stamps in your stash?
This stamp has been in my stash for years, and I'm guessing that Paula had it for at least 10 years previously.

Sporting blue (for my cold northern friends):



Pretty in Pink for my girly-girl blogging friends:

And red-green for traditionalists:

All the products are "golden oldies" except for the colored pencils. It was fun making these sweet tags!

Some Products Used:
Image: PSX F1321 Christmas Bird House - Ebay has one here.
Dies: Darice Ornate Rectangles, Poppystamps Stitched Main Street Tags, Poppystamps Stitched Festival Tags, Spellbinders Labels 23, 
Colored With: Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901 Color Pencils and various inks.

Challenges I'd like to play in please:

• ABC Christmas Challenge (March) E-F-G (E embellishment, F fabric, G glitz) lots of embellies, fabric ribbons/fibers, glitter & Gold glossy 4/1 (sep post)

• The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #45 AG Christmas 3/26 (sep post)

• Merry Little Christmas Challenge #8 AG Christmas 4/1 (sep post)

• Crafting from the Heart #238 AG 3/18

• Incy Wincy Designs #16 Let's Use Ribbon 3/18

• Colouring in Scrapland (Mar 4) "Critters" 4/1

• Happy Little Stampers (March 5) Christmas Tags 4/2 (winners tag right bar)

On A Personal Note:

(if reading directly from blog post, click photos to enlarge)
Are you familiar with a tropical plant called Platycerium (commonly known as a Staghorn Fern)? Most people see a "pup" in a nursery:


We moved ours from Tampa back in the 1980s and they were already 15 years old. Because our climate has frequent freezes and frosts, we used to "cover them" with many king-size quilts and blankets for weeks at a time to keep them warm enough through the winter. But they have grown considerably, and we have grown not quite as energetic, so they are no longer covered during freezes and frosts. Apparently they have acclimated because these photos were taken last month after 2 days of freezing temperatures (and other frosty-freezing days prior to that):



Hanging in homemade wire baskets that are about 4 feet across with long quadrupled lengths of 1 inch "mule tape", the fronds (leaves) are rather "pale" and beat up from cold northern winds at this time. The fronds are between 2-3 feet long each.

The "shield fronds" cover the base of the plant where the lengthy fronds come out. If a knife or ice pick is used to puncture a green shield frond, more "pups" will emerge. Then the pups can be cut out later and transplated, or left to grow in place, as we have done here. They are about 8 feet across (2.5 meters) and seem quite happy with their home. We never dreamed they would survive here.

In the following photo the bright green trees in the background are wild NON-indigenous cheery trees (no fruit) which are, SADLY, taking over the native oak habitat. Those are on someone else's property. We remove all non-indigenous trees on our property.

We call the oak trees "Live Oaks", although there are several varieties of oaks in our hammock. There are 2 squirrel-proof bird feeders (to the extreme right a box, and left, a cylinder). The one on the left is a dream at keeping the heavier birds and squirrels out of the feed. The right feeder is 30 years old and needs to be replaced. The squirrels can "hang" from the top because of the rust (giggle).

The azaleas in the far back right are twice the height of a person:



At the top left (below) are some white and pale pink azaleas, again, twice the height of a person. Azaleas require shade in Florida due to the hot, sunny summers, and enjoy an acid soil:



thanks for visiting!
hugs,