Baked with Love

The Inspired By Cookies #IB359 has the cutest plate of cookies that made me want to bake and also make a cookie card. So here is my baking session card full of holiday cookies and a hot cup of cocoa to go with them. It reminds me of the good ol' days of having cookie swap parties.

Products I used:

• Papertrey Ink Cookie Swap dies
• My Favorite Things Crafty Hands dies
• Concord & 9th mini ink pads, Bake Shoppe stamp set
• Altenew Obsidian black ink pad
• Rhinestones
• Silver cardstock
• Stampin' Up! Pink Chunky Glitter

Since I couldn't wait to use make the cookies, that's where I started. The gingerbread one has a sparkly "sugar" center and the others have "icing" on top.

I die cut some hands and played with what they could hold and what would fit on my card front. I really wanted to use the rolling pin, oven mitt and spatula and was able to make them work. I also added some hot cocoa with a snowflake marshmallow on top to drink while making the cookies and "testing" some of them straight out of the oven while still hot. (wink, wink)

I really am ready for holiday baking. I've already tried out a new recipe for almond puff pastry bites. Yum!

Have a great week ahead!

Carol

A Cup of Cheer

I am so happy to be back again this month with another card for Coffee Loving Cardmakers. As we get closer to December and Christmas, this potentially chilly time can call for a hot cocoa or coffee. I couldn't wait to try out this die set for the season.

I played around with different backgrounds and colors of cardstock for the die cutting. I like having one traditional Christmas color, usually red, with non-traditional ones. Pink is becoming a regular on holiday cards and I love using it alone or with other colors. Since the white stenciling looks pink, I chose pink for the sweater. My daughter had cute little light blue snow gloves as a child, so I went that direction with these. 

The winter/holiday stenciled panel is one I made a while ago and just love it for the holidays. I used a white chalk ink pad on a red panel and I like that it looks pink. I adding stitching around the edge of the panel with a Sugar Pea Designs die.

To make the scene look dimensional, I popped everything up on foam tape. I was most excited about the steam made out of vellum. There was a card sample I saw on the Spellbinders site using it and it makes the steam look so real. I used microscopic dots of Bearly Arts glue at both ends of the steam so it wouldn't show through.

Here's what I used to make this card:

• Spellbinders Mugs and Mittens die set, Stay Snuggly stamp and die sets
• Sugar Pea Designs Card Front Element Builder die
• My Favorite Things Joy Love Peace stencil
• Altenew Obisidan Black ink pad
• Versamagic Cloud White ink pad
• Hero Arts Hero Hues Espresso mini ink pad 
• Foam tape
• Bearly Arts Precision Craft Glue
• Vellum

I hope this card puts you in the holiday mood for a special hot drink of your choosing, whether you are living in or visiting a cold place. This die set has a lot of cozy winter options to it. A gift card to a coffee shop for someone special might be a good use of this card. Shhh, don't tell my daughter!

Many many thanks to Amy for inviting me back to share a card at Coffee Loving Papercrafters!

Carol

Fall Card

For my card today I made a gingham background with a striped stencil. I just stenciled in one direction with Concord & 9th Grapefruit ink and in the other direction with Honeysuckle. Our Challenge #798 is for Stencil Week at Just Us Girls and we have lots of ideas for you!

Products I used:

• Stampin' Up! Stripes stencil
• Pretty Pink Posh Winter mug leaf die
• Papertrey Ink Pumpkin House leaf die
• Sizzix Big Alphabet Simple Letters dies
• Pink and Main Large Banner die
• Ellen Hutson All Inside stamp set
• Altenew Obsidian black ink pad
• Concord & 9th Grapefruit and Honeysuckle ink pads
• Gelly Roll white pen

Making this card consisted of lots of stenciling, ink blending, die cutting and planning the arrangement of the leaves. But stenciling is quick and fun, so I enjoyed the process.

What will you stencil this week for our challenge? See you in our gallery!

Carol 

Ciao

Did you know that October 25 is World Pasta Day? Its first celebration was in 1995 in Rome, Italy, and now every year the International Pasta Organization manages the festivities in cities all around the world. Read more here and check out the hashtag #worldpastaday.

For our Time Out Challenge #300 we are creating cards for Autumn Celebrations Around the World. Whether you celebrate it where you live or not, make a card that reflects one of these special days. It can be ANY autumn celebration anywhere in the world. Our design team has made an array of cards for this challenge as we are from all over the world. 

Products I used:

• Spellbinders Ciao die set, Pasta Friends die set, Notched Corner Frames Etched dies, Al Dente embossing folder
• Stampin' Up! chalks

I used the Notched Corner die to cut out a bowl for the pasta. I used the pasta dies from the Ciao and Pasta Friends sets to fill the bowl with spaghetti. For some color, I die cut some basil and threw it in the bowl as well.

Our sponsor is Doodlebugs with a generous offer of a $25.00 store credit as a prize for our Challenge Winner, who will also get an invitation to join us as Guest Designer for a future challenge.

We are joined by Jaydee of Stampin! with Jaydee, and winner of Time Out #295 as Guest Designer.

It will be a festive gallery during this challenge and we are looking forward to it! Won't you join us?

Carol

Stay Strong and Pasta On

This Spellbinders pasta stamp and die collection, starting with the Ciao dies a while ago and now the variety of carb loaded pasta of all shapes and sizes, just makes me smile! There are so many possibilities with all of the dies and stamps. This is my first card, using them straight from the mailbox to my desk in one fell swoop. 

For the current Inkspirational Challenge: Seasonal, I am looking at "Seasonal" based on some pasta products that are only available in the fall. My daughter introduced me to the Trader Joe's Autumn Harvest Creamy Pasta Sauce and their round pumpkin-shaped Zucchette pasta. She makes it with spaghetti squash baked and scraped out of the shell with a fork. Here is my card.

Trader Joe's Autumn Harvest Sauce and Pumpkin-shaped Pasta

Here's What I used:

• Spellbinders Pasta Friends and Ingredient Buddies dies sets, Stay Saucy stamp set
• Stampin' Up! patterned paper
• Altenew Obsidian black ink pad
• Sugar Pea Designs Card Front Element Builder die 

I decided to have a top-folding card with the pasta characters on the curved front edge. The detail dies like the arms, legs, hat, basil and bow tie add fun to these die cut cuties. I can't wait to use this collection more in different ways.

Happy Fall Y'all!

Carol

Here for the Candy

As Halloween and trick-or-treating get closer, these Tim Holtz images keep calling out to me to get some more use. This card utilizes the fabulous My Paper Insider cardstock. I used the UltraSmooth white cardstock to do my ink blending on the die cut stamps. The smooth green cardstock has a shimmer to it that seems very Halloween-esque. It is their Lime Satin Shine cardstock. The super sparkly, non-shedding (Yay!) glitter numbers were die cut using their Luster Diamond Glitter cardstock. It reflects all of the colors on my card. Last, I embossed their pretty Steam Purple cardstock for a festive touch. These are from Box 2 papers that were sent to me by MPI. Check out all the boxes on their website.

Here's what I used to make my card:

• Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Tiny Frights stamp set
• Waffle Flower Postage Collage die and stencil
• Sizzix Number dies
• Your Paper Insider Box 2 cardstock
• Stampin' Up! Dots embossing folder
• Altenew Obsidian black ink pad
• Ranger Distress ink pad
• Trinity Stamps Bubble Blow Out Embellishment Mix
• Foam tape

Are you caught up on your Halloween cards? I want to make a self-framed (Like this card here) Halloween panel to display every year. If I get around to making it, I will post it.

Happy Halloween and fall!

Carol

Keep It Cozy - It's Cold Outside

This week at Just Us Girls #797 our sweet teammate Carol has selected a fabulous fall Moodboard for us all! The colors and elements will no doubt get everyone into the autumn spirit. I took the hats and colors and made an easel card for our challenge.

Products I used:

Concord & 9th - Sweater Season stamp and die sets

Hero Arts - Hero Hues Core Ink Espresso ink pad

Simon Says Stamp - Circle dies

For those of you with cooler fall weather, these hats are for you! I got out some fall-colored cardstock, then cut a whole lot of hats, pom poms and details. My Versamark ink pad was used with some of the patterns in the die set to add a knit look on some of the hats, while others got die cuts to add the details.

We hope you join us with some fall elements cards this week! It's fun to see what you make of our moodboard. Be sure to visit all the team blogs as well as that of our talented guest this month, Greta!

I appreciate you taking time to visit here,

Carol