Pink Christmas Cards for the Cure

 I'm thinking pink today in celebration of October being breast cancer awareness.  I created this mixed media card with all of my favorite ink pads, Tattered Rose and Worn Lipstick Distress Ink and SU! Rose Romance.

 The sentiment is by Verve, stamped onto pink velum.  The flowers are Tim Holtz Tattered Poinsettias.  The Christmas sweater background is by Stampendous.  The doilies (MFT) are cut from used coffee filters.

I'm racing over to Jingle Belles for their Deck the Halls - in Pink <3 challenge HERE, where Stephanie and Lauren are donating $2 for each completed card in the link up.  I'm also linking to Winter Wonderland for their Christmas with Ribbon challenge HERE, to Classy Cards 'n Such for their Pretty Pink Christmas challenge HERE, and to Pile It On challenge #91 for Lace or Ribbon HERE.  Thanks for looking!

A Matchbook Fancy Fold Fall Card

 My fancy fold card is an oldie, but a goodie.  One of my first stamping classes (ages ago) featured a matchbook fold card and I've loved it since!  I create this fall themed version with some beautiful double-sided paper and a leafy image by Inkadinkado.

 I printed the quote for the inside and inked it with my Tintz inks, similar to Distress Stain, only better but also discontinued.  :(  To make this card, cut a piece of paper to 4.25 X 11.5" then score at 4.5 and 10".  Fold 'er up!  I punched two holes to attach the ribbon, which secures the flap down.

I'm sharing this simple, easy to mail card with Allsorts Challenge Blog for their All Sentimental challenge HERE, with Crafty Cardmakers & More for their Autumn Colors challenge HERE, and with Just Add Ink for their Fancy Fold challenge HERE.  Happy AUTUMN!  ;0

Sunflower Card with Verve Stamps

 I decided to pay homage to summer with a sunflower card for this week's Verve sketch.  I just picked up this DCWV pack and immediately fell in love with it!  The handwritten recipes behind the sunflower image stole my heart, reminding me of my Grandma...  I decided to use this beautiful Verve sentiment and embossed it in black EP.

I used pom pom fringe in place of the little tags.

 I had one scrap of this gorgeous grosgrain ribbon and made a loopy bow.  I've been knee deep this weekend in mixed media tags and decided to take a break for a simple card ~ now back to work!

 I'm adding my card to the VLV October Week 3 link up HERE and to WAW for challenge #205 HERE.

12 Tags of Christmas Reindeer Tag

Hello and I'm so glad to share my 12 Tags of Christmas Tag 3 with you, inspired by the beautiful designs of Linda Coughlin, from the blog the Funkie Junkie.  I was so thrilled to see how Linda created her "Christmas sweater" background from Tim Holtz' thinlet dies, but again I don't have these products.  I thought I'd share a little more of my process with you on this one.  Below I pulled out all of my "stripe" stamps.  Basic Grey, I don't know about the middle set, and BoBunny.  The red rubber is an UM by Lost Coast - not a stripe, but needed to be in the design because I love it and never use it!

I took my largest acrylic block and started lining up the stamps tightly, but not overlapping - important!  I tried to get close to the length of my tag, but left enough to use the UM as a stripe at the bottom.  The important part of this is to use a reverse inking technique, meaning to ink your stamp and then put the paper over the stamp instead of stamping down on the paper.  Gently rub all areas of the design, without moving the paper.  It is super hard to get an even impression from a stamp this large without doing reverse stamping.  You could stamp each line individually, but it might be hard to line them up on the paper, plus the cool part is that it's one and done and cleaning the stamps is much easier.

I chose to emboss with Judiken's tinsel gold embossing powder.  This bottle must be 15 years old!  EP lasts forever!  If you're having problems, it may be your ink.  I love Versamark for embossing.  :)

I painted the chipboard reindeer (Michael's dollar bin from the other year) with black gesso then direct-to-paper (DTP) a gold and white ink pad to tone it down.  I embossed the sentiment in white and used DTP with a white pigment pad to create the chalkboard look.

I added the Tattered Poinsettia flower from Basic Grey paper and the greenery from scrap ink clean up paper.  The plaid is a fabric sticker by Yellow Bicycle.

I just love the chalkboard detail and how the EP sparkles in the light...  To see all the posts in this series click HERE.  Hop on over to Linda's Funkie Junkie Boutique HERE to start your Christmas wishlist!

I'm linking up to the Funkie Junkie for the 12 Tags of Christmas challenge HERE, to Addicted to Stamps for their Bling/Glitter challenge HERE, and to Christmas Stampin' All Year Long for their Set of Tags challenge HERE.

12 Tags of Christmas Wise Men Tag

 As promised my second tag as inspired by the amazingly creative Linda Coughlin of the Funkie Junkie blog.  This moody, dark tag was my favorite yet and I just couldn't wait to play!  I had previously used stencil paste on a tag through a TH stencil.  The challenge was adding the ink to the entire tag after the paste - doy!  But I was charmed by the puddles around the stars.  After they were inked up, I rubbed gold pigment ink over the stars and embossed.  I like that they were half green/half gold.

 I use scraps for ink clean up paper and that helped make the perfect backdrop for this Verve sentiment which I just loved for this tag.  I decided to stitch it in place and leave it hanging - I always do...  I found the stars recently in my jar-o-metal-rubbish and my little one said I should surely add them to a project.  I humored him by placing them on my table, but turns out it was exactly what I needed for this project!  I gessoed it black and then rubbed gold pigment ink over it.  I found a remnant of hand dyed silk ribbon from ages ago and added it as my topper.

 The bundle of greenery was also cut from my clean up paper and stapled down, then a twine bow and group of jingle bell brads was attached.  These are from the Christmas section at HL.

 For my focal point I embossed this amazing Stampington wise men stamp in black.  It was drab because I inked the bottom of my tag in a darker green.  So I added some gold powder to the reheated EP and it was ugly!  So...  I added more black over that.  Still drab.  So I brushed white Distress Paint around and wiped it with a baby wipe to clear it from the image.  It ended up blending perfectly and helped highlight the stamped image - YAY!  I decided that with mixed media there can be no mistakes, just layers of "texture."  Right?!  To see all of the posts in this series click HERE.  Now head on over to Linda's Funkie Junkie Boutique HERE and get to shopping!  Want to win some amazing Funkie Junk? Link up your tags at Linda's blog for a special chance to win a Funkie Junkie Boutique prize!

I'm linking up to the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas challenge HERE, to Craft Stamper October Ink Stitch Paint Collage Paper challenge HERE, to Altered Eclectics for their Anything Goes Challenge HERE, and to Word Art Wednesday #205 HERE.  Happy creating!