I made up several of these cards for my good friend's family. I used her favourite colour for the rose. It made me think of a song we both learned to play on the piano growing up called, The Rose. 

 I have a friend who LOVES chocolate SO much! So of course, I HAD to make a chocolate card set for her for Christmas :).

My package from Taylored Expressions arrived just in time the other day to make up some Father's Day cards. I just love all of the names that come in this Building Blocks - Him stamp and die set and think it will be great not only for this occasion, but for birthdays, too! The plaid stencils will be awesome for masculine cards - something I often struggle with! I was inspired by Taylor Van Bruggen's use of these products and set to work with some Chipped Sapphire + Pine Needles distress oxide inks and some Toffee, Earl Grey, and Blue Corn cardstock.

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 :).

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.

Check out this amazing paper collection now available at Close To My Heart - Cedar & Pine! When I was prepping for another project and cutting this paper I happened to set it on top of a pile of kraft. It looked really lovely together so I decided to make another project with this pairing! I started out with Freshly Made Sketches. I added in some pine boughs behind the 'Merry' sentiment. I haven't decided which embellishments I like best or if I need any at all! I used both kraft and paper bag backgrounds. There is a slight difference to these Lawn Fawn cardstocks and I like them both :).



Christmas Card Count: 52 + 12 = 64

The cooler rainy weather has me looking towards fall so I put together this fall words card the other day. Using a stamp from an older Close To My Heart set (thanks, Auntie Karen!) I kept it simple so that I could play around with some more texture paste and stencils in the background. I also attached a couple of leaves and pumpkins at the bottom to add a little more interest and a pop of colour! I found some cotton sprigs at our local florist and I am in love with them - they may be in all of my next photos :)!

A fall birthday card for an upcoming family birthday. I know it's not exactly fall yet; however, as I painted these leaves and pumpkins at the lake a few days ago several little ones curled up close by to watch intently what I was doing (scroll down to the bottom of the post to see a lake picture). One of them has a birthday next week so I am interested to see if she recognizes the images on the card. I wanted to use the awesome simple sketch from Mojo Monday this week and set to work to create a textured background using one of the Knit Wits stencils from The Greetery. This is my first time playing around with textured paste so I look forward to trying it out some more. I wanted to create some scattered leaves with the tall rectangle feature of the sketch and then placed my pumpkins and sentiment on top.

How exciting is it for mail day when you actually end up having some time to play with your new stuff?! I happened to luck out the other day when I opened my package from The Greetery and had some free time during nap time to play around! Since I am having trouble getting the painted effect I want on the plantable paper I thought these stamps would be perfect to achieve the watercolour feel I am going for and they did not disappoint! I cannot wait to check out The Greetery's latest release next week!