I finally had a chance to play along with Tracey McNeeley's 25 Days of Christmas Tags! I have loved waking up each morning to check out that day's inspiration. I was very inspired back on Day 11 with Studio Katia designer, Liliya Rystar, with her white and gold tag on kraft. Here is my version:

I have enjoyed making applesauce for years, but I am so happy to make it for my two-year old son now, who thoroughly enjoys it! Making applesauce is really quite simple and does not take a lot of time, especially if you do it in small batches. You get the best taste when you mix varieties of apples. I like to do about 10 pounds of apples at a time and process it in a water bath to make it shelf stable. This recipe uses no added sugar (because apples are tasty enough!) so I can feel good about giving it to my son to enjoy when he needs a healthy snack.

It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air 

- W.T. Ellis

Isn't that a beautiful sentiment? I thought it fit perfectly with this gorgeous layered tree from The Greetery set amidst a snowy background. I used my new blender brush from Studio Katia with this stencil and cannot believe the difference and the ease with which I am able to create such a beautiful background! I even had to add a touch of white to my inside for my sentiment :).

This quote from The Grinch is one of my favourites and seems to ring more true for me each year. I love to make tags with this stamp set, but I thought I would also make up some cards with it, too. I decided to use the beautiful stencils from The Greetery to surround the words and thought I would create a gingham design for my envelope. I used Evergreen Bough distress oxide ink for both the card and the envelope. I used the new blending brushes from Studio Katia and cannot believe the difference they make!

I couldn't help but be inspired during the latest Studio Katia release! This half striped cover die is so fun to play with! I was especially inspired by design team member, Ilda, to cut the stripes out twice so that they spanned the entire card. I decided that a silver and gold combo might look especially nice and love how it turned out! These cards and more will be available this Thursday, November 21 at Lane & Meadow! Come check out their Very Merry Christmas Party from 5-8pm!

Here is a card I recreated similar to one I designed last fall. You can view my original version here. For this card I decided to do a sentiment inside the card and use a plaid banner along with the navy. Instead of popping up the beer image I decided to keep it flat amidst a blue hue. I coloured the beer mug with my Tombow markers this time and used some distress watercolour paper.

As I have mentioned, I was greatly inspired by the styles of the highly talented Dawn McVey and Heather Nichols during The Greetery release at the beginning of October. I couldn't help but try out my own version with this set and recreate the stunning photo by Dawn. I decided to make these in sets of 5, so my last version is in the photo below. I reached my goal for having 100 Christmas cards ready for the Kimberley Makers Market this weekend!



Christmas Card Count: 82 + 20 = 102

It's the Fall/Winter 2019 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and I managed to fit in time for a card amidst all of my Christmas market prep! I coloured up these pumpkin spice lattes awhile ago when we were in Vancouver. It was pretty handy to have them all ready to go! I inked up a flappable envelope stencil from The Greetery to create a gingham pattern with some ground espresso ink. While I am not a coffee fan, I absolutely love coffee stamps and making coffee cards! I used The Paper Players layout to create this card and thought about adding a sentiment to the bottom once it was all assembled but thought it would be too busy with all the words in the background from the amazing Echo Park papers. Check out the closeup of the coffee sayings. "Pour Some Sugar On Me - Coffee" is definitely my favourite, what's yours?