Blizzard of Hugs

 Hello crafting friends, Esther here today sharing fun winter card that features the sweet Winter Hugs stamp set that now has coordinating dies! 

I had so much fun creating that night sky by blending three shades of distress ink on mixed media paper. I started by swiping three strips of the lightest ink (cracked pistachio) in the center of my paper and adding the next darkest color (peacock feathers) around the strips and over the rest of the card front. To finish off I added the darkest ink (prize ribbon) just around the edges, coming up a little deeper on the bottom to make it look like ice. 

This card was simple enough to make that a couple of my Sunday School girls (10 and 6) created their own versions during a recent card making afternoon I had with their mom. 

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Supplies and Tools:

• From Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps:
• Winter Hugs
• Thrill Of Hope
• Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink 
• White Acrylic Paint
  
• Arteza Real Brush Pens
• These colors of Distress Ink (Ranger):
•  Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio, Prize Ribbon

sending a blizzard

 Hello! There's just two more weeks left of the Anything Goes challenge and a big giveaway at Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps!

How do you share to enter? 

Simply upload your NEW creations to the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps VIP Facebook Group in our

DECEMBER GIVEAWAY Album.

If you aren’t already a member you’ll definitely want to join for this awesome giveaway!

Today I have two cards to share using the Cheerful Snowmen and Winter Hugs stamp sets. For my first card, I punched a bunch of 1 1/2" circles, then layered them onto a 3 3/4 x 5 panel and trimmed off the extra. I simply stamped the snowflake on each...love this color combo!

I LOVE the snowmen in this set but for my second card, I decided to use the little bird and layer him over an extra embossed piece of white cardstock laying in my pile. I also used some scraps of patterned paper and an extra sentiment strip so this came together rather quickly.

Be sure to play along with us and upload your projects for a chance to win!

Have a Merry Christmas!

Diane

Roses are Red and So are Penguins!

 Hello Friends!  

I hope everyone enjoyed Christmas, New Year's and time off with your families.  

As you have probably already noticed in stores, we are headed full speed towards Valentine's Day.  I got this wacky idea (trying to think outside the box, lol) that I needed a red penguin on a Valentine's Day card.  Here is the end result!

So, I kind of love him!  I did add a heart to his tummy- I used a heart stamp from the Sweet Little Lamb Stamp Set.  This sweet guy is from the Winter Hugs Stamp Set, as is the sentiment.  He was colored with Copics and then fussy cut out.  I was a bit stumped from there.  Several different backgrounds, layouts, and color schemes later, I was still without anything but this cute bird.  I rifled through some patterned paper and happened across this pink and red graphic paper that is perfectly 'Valentiney'.  Best part is it already had the heart shape die cut from it from some previous project.  It was the perfect way to finish off this cutie.  I added some sequins and stamped Happy Valentines Day on the side- the stamp I used is from the Lots of Love Stamp Set.  I tried to get a picture here, but with bad lighting due to a very dreary day, I could not get a good photo of the inside of the card.  Here are both stamp sets that I used~

This next card is also monochromatic red and it started out as a Valentine's card as well, but as you can see, it did not end up as such.  

Isn't this just the best bird image?!?!  If you like realism (like me!) then this is THE bird image for you.  This guy is from the Singing Praises Stamp Set.  I stamped him with Versafine Onyx Black Ink using my MISTI and then water colored him with my well loved Ken Oliver Colorburst Watercolors.  The bird was fussy cut out.  

For the background, I decided to use the faux water coloring technique.  The floral image is my favorite in the Flower Garden Stamp Set.  Once the background was dry, I die cut a circle out of it and them popped up the negative panel on the card base. I stamped the sentiment and added a few sequins and called it done.  If you want to see my inspiration for this card, head over to my blog!  

Please excuse the photos, all.  I am still getting used to a new computer, new editing program and trying to take photos with my phone.  I will get there eventually!  

Don't forget, the January Release Bundle is available through January 9th- you can save over 10%!  

And with your purchase of $75 or more you get free shipping!  AND, with a purchase of $60 or more, you get the January Stamp of the Month- Happy Mail- for free!  

That's a lot of free! 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

Lee Ann  

Looking Back on the September Release

 Hello, Hello!

Well, here we are, the last day of September!  Can you believe it!?  Before you know it Thanksgiving and then Christmas will be here.  

Christmas.  September has been all about Christmas!  I simply love this month's release.  Let's take a look at Vintage Van.  What a versatile set this is! Christmas, birthday, Fall.  It covers it all!  

I opted for the fall version of the van for this card.  I started by stamping the van in Versafine Onyx Black Ink and then watercolored it.  I used trees from the Scene Silhouettes-Trees Stamp Set and inked them up with distress inks shades of fall.  The foreground was done with distress inks as well; I smooshed them onto my craft mat and then used them to watercolor.   The leaves in the very front most foreground is stamped in the same color as the ground; the image is from the Falling Leaves Stamp Set.  Once I was done with finishing up little details here and there, I place the panel in the MISTI and stamped the sentiment, from the Fall Remix-Autumn Splendor Stamp Set in Versafine Black Ink.  A hemp twine bow finishes it off. 

Next up, the adorable gnomes.  

I went for a very simple look on this card with a very muted color palette.  I started with the igloo image from the Winter Hugs Stamp Set. 

I stamped it in a light grey, then masked it off and stamped the gnome.  Everything was colored in neutral shades of Copics with a pop of red added.  The igloo was even decorated for Christmas with the wreath from the Vintage Van Stamp Set.  'Peace on Earth' is also from Vintage Van.  

Next up, the gorgeous sentiment set, Holiday Greetings.  

The pine branch was stamped in various shades of green distress ink and was spritzed some with water to get the ink moving.  The branch is from the Christmas Pine Stamp Set.  Next I stamped the ornament from the Deck the Halls Stamp Set.  Initially I tried some no line watercoloring, but thankfully I had left the stamp in the MISTI so I was able to restamp in Versamark ink and heat emboss in gold when I decided the no line look did not work for this card.  

Once again I used the wreath from the Vintage Van Stamp Set and heat bossed it in the center of the ornament.  It was the perfect size! 

Lastly, I added layers of blues and greens in the background.  The sentiment was heat embossed in gold ep.  

That's it for me! I hope I have inspired you to get out your September stamps and play a little!  

Lee Ann 

Blizzard of Hugs

Hello Sweet 'n Sassy Stampers!

It's Ceal, here to share a couple cards with you for my last post of the year. I can't believe that it will be 2020 on Wednesday. 

The first card uses the adorable set Winter Hugs. I stamped the igloo, masked it off and then created the background. I used the trees out of the Thrill of Hope set.

My second card is a CAS card that can be used for Valentines day which is another holiday I love making cards for.

I used the Cheerful Snowmen set and colored it using Copic markers. 

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Today I have three cards to share with you. I decided to use up backgrounds I found on my desk - mostly from last month's fun with Folk Art Snowflakes and Snow Much Fun. Then I inked up and Copic colored all of the adorable critters from this month's Winter Hugs Clear Stamp Set. I also used the sentiments from this set as they were so perfect for my cards.

For my first card, the background was from when I practiced some ink blending with Distress Oxides (Shaded Lilac, Hickory Smoke, and Black Soot). Squee - the sweetness!

For my next two cards, I created some dimensional hills with a stitched border die. For these backgrounds, I used Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord, and Shaded Lilac Distress Oxide.

For this last card, I also added some background trees using the Thrill of Hope Set - I love this silhouette set! I added some snowflake buttons to finish my card. 

This was super fun and these critters make me so happy!! Aren't these polar bears so so so cute!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lyn

Winter Hugs

Hi sweet friends! It's Julee popping in to share a few new creations with the ADORABLE Winter Hugs set. Seriously, could these polar bears and penguins be any cuter? I think they'd make for some sweet little Valentines, too. (And now I have to go try out that idea! 😄

I started with these sweet little penguins. They are the happiest little dudes, don't you think? I colored them with Kuretake Clean Color Real Brush markers, which seem to be my medium of choice of late. I've had them for years, but am just now actually taking the time to get to know how they work, which is entirely unlike Copics! Anyhow, I used a glitter brush pen to blend them out, so they are SPARKLY! Once I was finished, I fussy cut the images, then hand trimmed a little slope from white cardstock for the snow bank.

Next I worked on the background, sponging tumbled glass, faded jeans and chipped sapphire inks, then dripping on some water and blotting off.  I then stamped the snowflakes randomly in the background and intended to emboss with white embossing powder, but accidentally pulled out the clear instead.  I do like how it turned out, though. The clear picked up on soem of the lighter blues and left a nice iridescent sheen.  I finished with the sentiment embossed in white (got it right this time!) and then layered it all together and added a few grey shading areas with copics to the snow.

My next card was super simple.  I found a pad of paper at Michael's a few weeks back that had polar bears and penguins, so I just cut a piece of that donw to card size for the background.  Next I used a journaling card from prima, rounding the corners and matting with silver cardstock.  I then colored the sitting polar bear and fussy cut to pop up and finished with a bit of silver cord. Easy breezy beautiful!

Well, that's all from me today! I h ope you have a super day! Thanks for stopping by!

Winter Friends

Hello All!

The countdown to Christmas is on!  Are you still making Christmas cards?

Today I am sharing a couple of cards that can be Christmas or general winter cards.  The first one uses the brand new Winter Hugs Stamp Set.

He is just the cutest!  I colored him with Copics, using the pointillism technique to give him a bit of a warm, fuzzy, baby penguin look.
The background was actually a reject from a prior project.  I stamped snowflakes from the Folk Art Stamp Set in Versamark ink and heat embossed them in white.  Then I used the Smooshing technique to add pink and red color to the background.
Snowy hills, a sentiment and a few sequins finish it off.
This next card uses some oldies but goodies stamp sets.

I started with the line of trees from the Thrill of Hope Stamp Set.  I used my MISTI to get perfect placement and did second generation stamping in red ink.  I stamped the larger two trees in the same red ink, again using my MISTI so I could get good coverage of ink.
Next, I stamped snowflakes from the Thrill of Hope Stamp Set as well as the Snow Much Fun Stamp Set in grey.  Lastly, I stamped the deer image in the Thrill of Hope Stamp Set in Versafine Black, using the MISTI to get solid ink coverage.
I was inspired by some of Korin's recent cards to use patterned paper and do some layering; this was difficult as it is not something I do often anymore!  I do like how it turned out though.  I added a sentiment strip across the bottom, heat embossing several sentiments from the Christmas Wordfetti Stamp Set in silver ep.  Some embellies and a linen thread bow finish it off!

That's it for me!  I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and I will see you back on the blog next year!

Lee Ann 

A blizzard of hugs

Hello everyone! You might know that I love cute images so the Winter Hugs set is a great set for me 😀.

For this card I colored one of the penguins and one of the bears with alcohol markers and cut them out. I had a patterned paper with little penguins that was perfect for these cute images. So I decided to die cut two circles out of patterned papers with similar colors and to create a couple of layers with patterned papers behind the images and the stamped sentence. I love layering on cards but I'm still learning how to use it on my own cards.



I hope you're inspired to create!
- Lucinde

Winter Hugs

Hello Sweet 'n Sassy stampers!

It's Ceal, here to share a couple cards today featuring one of our December release sets Winter Hugs.

This set is so adorable with those sweet polar bears and penguins. 

I am late posting today as I have had no internet and then I remember I could hotspot off of my phone :)

To create these cards I started with a white top folding card base. The first oe I stamped the image and colored it using Copic markers. to create the background I used some stencils.

The second card I stamped the penguin and then masked it and stamped the igloo. The christmas lights are from another december release set Happy Camper and the greeting is from the Warmth of Christmas set.