FCD November Blog Hop!!

Pamela sent each of us 2 of her new Christmas Sets to work with for the next 2 months.  I have been having a ball creating with Mistletoad and Christmas Phrases.  It's not to late to order YOUR christmas stamps.  Order online today!  Shipping is fast with Pamela! 

On the 8x8 Layout above I used one of the phrases from Christmas Phrases along with one of Pamela's other Christmas stamp sets, Season's Greetings.  The tag below was designed using Season's Greetings as well.   

Pamela also designed a special Manger Digi for us to work with as well.

I combined it with Christmas Phrases to create THIS CARD.

And you can check out the projects I have designed using Mistletoad HERE.  Only 2 Mistletoad sets left at the store, so check out these projects and then place your order today!  While you are over there check out the Flower Soft and Shimmerz!

I can't wait to share the other projects I have designed using these sets.  Please check back weekly to check out some more options using these sets!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Christmas Banner Challenge

Today I'm posting the first section of a Christmas Banner.  The girls at Ready, Set, Stamp Challenge Blog have inspired us to create a banner one section at a time, every 2 weeks.  So at the end of the 8 weeks we will reveal the completed banner.  No cheating allowed because you have to wait for the specific recipe every 2 weeks.  Our banner has to be an inverted triangle.  We get to choose our own colors.

A few other standard rules with their challenge are 1 stamp minimum, and no "cute" projects.  So please don't tell me my project is "cute", teehee.  Here are the rest of the ingredients for this portion of the challenge:

As you can see they have very specific requirements, so this one will limit me and may prove to be one of the hardest challenges I've done.  So hopefully I will make it to the end!  Last year I ran across a Dover Publications Book with lots of vintage images for different holidays.  So I've been dying to use them, and this seems like a great challenge to work my Christmas images from that book into a project.

My triangle measures 6 1/2 across the top and 7 1/2 from top to bottom.  I stamped and heat embossed the stars (Crafty Secrets) in gold to my DP (Creative Imaginations) and then ran the VersaMark pad along the edges of the triangle and embossed in gold as well to make it coordinate.  Obviosly my primary colors will be red, white and gold with a splash of green.  I added some Stampendous white Pearl Glitter to the letter "J", the snowballs, on the tree and around the edges of the triangle to tie that element in.  I used Stampendous red Pearl Glitter on the berries for the holly.

The next set of ingredients will be posted tomorrow, so I can't wait to see what they are!

Hoppy Holiday Treats!

Good Morning.   Just wondering if anyone else has started their Christmas shopping?  Me?  NOPE!  And my DH told be last night he expected HANDMADE cards to be sent out to his family this year!  I usually only share my handmade cards with other crafty friends.  But I guess that's about to change by proclamation of King Fred, teehee.  I hope you are further along than I am.

I hope one of these projects inspire you to get started if you haven't!

Hoppy Holidays Treat Box for challenges on the

Charisma Challenge Blog

Designed using Mistletoad by FCD.  Sold out right now, but Pamela says she is getting more in.  So keep checking back if you love this little guy.  Isn't this a cool image.  It looks like he's crawling up the treat box.  I couldn't help but add a little texture.  I used liquid applique on the hat band and Prisma Glitter on the fur ball at the tip of the hat.  I think the ribbon is American Crafts.  I've had it forever and was so happy to use it today!

Glory to the Newborn King designed for challenges posted at

Digital Tuesday Challenge Blog and Gingersnaps Challenge Blog

This card was designed using one of FireCracker Designs by Pamela's new digis.  You can check out all of Pamela's Digi's HERE.  Just scroll down on that page to see the manger!  Combined with the sentiments from Christmas Phrases by FCD.  I used yummy Pearlescent Chocolate embossed with clear for sentiments.

I colored the digi with Prismacolor Pencils and OMS.

Last Minute Gift Labels

You can make your own by stamping on these standard mailing labels by Avery.  OOPs, I just realized I didn't draw the lines to "hang" the ornaments.  This tiny bulb came with my Christmas Phrases set by FCD.

StampTV / Center Stage Spotlight DT Blog Hop!

Welcome to our first Center Stage Spotlight Design Team Blog Hop!

Blog Hop begins November 4th 10pm CST / 11pm EST

Jessica Fick, the Design Team Coordinator for GinaK Designs has issued a challenge to all of the past and present CSS team members to make a Christmas card with one of these sketches:

   

I used Magic of Christmas Stamp Set for my card.

You can view the a photo of the stamp set and project details at the bottom of the post.

Here is another card I designed using this set.

We know you're going to LOVE what everyone has designed for us tonight!  So check out some of the other blogs listed below!

Gina Krupsky - Owner

First, here are the links for GinaK's Current CSS Team Members:

 Deb Felts

Diana S. Queen

Karen Knegten

Melissa Cash

Sharri Seffens

Sue VanDeVusse

and the links for all of the past CSS Design Team members participating:

Brenda Turner

Carla Suto,

Carolina Buchting,

Charlene Merrick,

Dawn Lusk,

DeeMarie Kelemen, 

Geri Utterback ,

Giovanna Smith, 

Janice Melton,

JenMarie Taylor,

Jennie Harper,

Joy Hadden,

Kay Simmons, 

Linda Payne,

Lori McAree,

Melisa Waldorf, 

Pam Imholz,

Selma Stevenson,

Shannon Bracken,

Shelly Wilson,

Sue Walsh,

Tina Gilliland

Some of GinaK's Senior Design Team Members and Illustrators wanted to get in on the fun tonight too:

 Asela Hopkins

Carolyn King

Cindy Lawrence

Jessica Fick

Lee Murphy

Lynn Mercurio

Nina Brackett

Melanie Muenchinger

along with Nina Brackett's Guest Designer: Lisa Hjulberg

All of these gorgeous cards from the entire team will be added to the StampTV gallery throughout the next few days with the tag cssjf1 (which stands for center stage spotlight jessica fick 1)

These sketches are also our sketch challenge for this week, so be sure to check out all the information in the discussion in our Challenge group over on StampTV Thursday morning.  We'd love to see your cards with the sketch too!

Project Details :

Stamp Set : Magic of Christmas - GinaK Designs

Card #1

Paper : embossed cardstock Bazzill, Snowflake DP - Reminisce

Other : Spellbinders Die, Silver Stickles

Colorization : Prismascolor Pencils with OMS

Card #2

Paper : K&Company (gold text paper), Red and Gold glossy paper - stock

Other : Spellbinders Die, EK Success Border Punch, Gold Stickles

Ribbon : Offray

Technique : Stamp and emboss images on red glossy paper and cut ornaments.  Stamp ornaments again onto gold glossy paper, then glue red ornaments over stamped image.

Wanna see a few more idea's using this set and some of the images I didn't use?  I found some inspiration over in the StampTV Gallery!

Diana S. Queen

Jen Marie

Joy Hadden

Judy Covey

Moving on to Christmas!

Hi ladies.  I hope everyone had a safe and fun weekend.  I got busy designing some Christmas Cards for some challenges.  I have 3 more almost completed for other activities coming up this week.  Impression Obsession is doing their DT blog hop on Thursday (I will have to post mine on tuesday).  There is a StampTV Blog Hop on Thursday I'm participating in and I will be posting my weekly FCD project saturday.  I created Christmas Cards for all of these!  I can't wait to share them with you and I hope you have started yours, if not, then maybe you will be inspired to get started this week!

 I'm going to start out just listing the challenges and photo.  I will post details at the bottom.  So here we go!

 "Oohlala" wanted to see a Victorian Christmas Card for Challenge #39

 "Ready Set Stamp" had a long list of "ingredients" required for Challenge #8 : Christmas, use colors lilac, black, & silver, snowflakes, a 2" x 4", & crackle.

Victorian Angel Card

Inspirational Card Sketches (icsketches) - I used sketch #40

Cooking it up with Katie Challenge #4 required the following recipe :

Christmas, sparkle, and a border!

The Magic of Christmas

I found all of these challenges through "The Daily Dare" Challenge Blog.

Deb Felts is so awesome to keep up with all of this and provide this service for us!

Thanks Deb!

Project Details

Victorian Christmas Card

I think this is the first time I've done a non-traditional color Christmas card.  I really like how it turned out!  Using the 2"x 4" panel  made it a little trickier for me, I ended up with an over all card size of 6 1/4" x 4 1/4".  I had a lot of fun using UTEE to create the crackle!
Stamp Set : Inkadinkado
Paper : Vellum snowflake paper by Making Memories, purple and silver glitter paper not labeled (I picked it up at Joann's this past week), black shiney cardstock not labeled (I found it in my stash).
Ribbon: I found the really cool snowflake garland at a local stamp store - A Small Cleverness.  It's made by May Arts.  The purple sheer ribbon was purchased a local craft store.
Embellishments : Purple floral is by offray (I found it in the ribbon dept. at Joanns)
Border Punch : Martha Stewart
Title : rub-on by "royalbrush.com"

The Magic of Christmas

I decided I wanted to "get warmed up" for the StampTV Center Stage DT Blog Hop on Thursday, so I used a couple of images from "The Magic of Christmas".   I will be posting another card using this set on  Thursday.  Isn't this a beautiful stamp set!

I started with the gold blingy paper by K&Company.  I loved all the Christmas sentiments on it.  The sketched used a circle.  But never be afraid to think out of the box and substitute a different shape for a sketch.  I used one of my Spellbinders Labels Sets.  I love Spellbinders!

Stamp Set : GinaK Designs

Paper : K&Company and EK Success (gold and red)

Ribbon : unknown

Ribbon Charm : unknown

Border Punch : EK Success

Gold Stickles

Just Breathe Week 4

This is my last project using Just Breathe.  I hope you have been inspired to use this set this month.  I was trying to think out of the box again and design something with this set you might not expect.  In addition, if you haven't started making your Christmas cards yet, I hope this one will inspire you to get started!!  This card was so quick to put together and I really like how it turned out.

Stamp Set : Just Breathe by FCD

Ink : Palette Noir

Paper : Green - My Minds Eye, Red - Prima, Black CS

Tools - Spellbinders

Sticker Jewels - Stampendous

Ribbon - Unknown

This one is so simple I don't think you even need instructions!

See you next month with 4 more projects using one of Pamela's awesome stamp set!!

Crafty Secrets Design Team Challenge!

Good Morning Ladies.

I'm very excited this morning to be participating in the Crafty Secrets DT Challenge as a Guest DT Member!  The challenge was to create something using birds.  Well the hardest part was trying to decide WHAT to use, because Crafty Secrets has lots of products with birds included.  I narrowed it down to 3 stamp sets!  teehee.   I know this post is way tooooo long and I probably should have just used one project, but I couldn't help it.  I figured you are only a Crafty Secrets Guest DT member once!!  Right!  


Make sure you check out the other DT Member links at the bottom of the post and the Crafty Secrets Blog.  I heard there was some yummy blog candy being given away at 1 of the DT blogs and by Sandy on the Crafty Secrets Blog!! 

I used the Christmas Joy stamp set on this card.  I also used paper from one of Crafty Secrets Paper Pads.

Check out the photo of the stamp set below to see how I layered the images.   I used Eclipse masking to build this scene.  You stamp the image that will be in the for-front first - bow, stamp it again on the tape, cut it out, and then cover the bow on your card before stamping the next layer.  Continue building in this manner.  I also used the holly to create a border.  Isn't this set awesome with so many possibilities.  I used it to create a layout in an early post.  If you want to see that, you can go HERE.

You can view more of my Cardboard Art HERE.

You can view more of my Collage / Mixed Media projects HERE.

I used Bird Notes on this friendship hanging decor project.  I used a swirly for the wings from the Mini Memories stamp set.  I used a swirly from the Flourishes stamp set on the corner of the bird house.  I started out with corrugated cardboard to create the bird house.  Tear off part of the surface paper to reveal the waves below, layer on acrylic paint, and glimmer mist to get the distress look.  I sprayed some white lace with glimmer mist as well and adhered to the base.  The bird dies are Spellbinders.  I have created a layout using this set in an earlier post that you can see HERE.

I used the Thanksgiving stamp set on this 2 1/2 x 3 1/2" Artist Trading Card.  I love using my stamps to create all kinds of projects, including ATC's.  I just thought this turkey and the sentiment were too cute.  The background is crackle paint distressed with some brown ink.   You could easily put this one a card as well.  To see a layout using this set go HERE.

Thanks soooo much for taking time to check out all my Crafty Secrets Projects.

To see more awesome projects in this Crafty Secrets Blog Hop and to qualify for some Blog Candy, make sure you check out the rest of the DT's Blogs.  These girls are awesome and it was so much fun to have the opportunity to play along with them!

Vicki Chrisman

Pam Hooten

Heidi Blankenship

Marisa Grosson

Michele Kovak

Linda Duke

Michelle Van Etten

Florence Teixeira

Crafty Secrets Blog

Crafty Secrets Online Store

Tune in tomorrow for my next FCD project!!

Have a great day!