Season's Tweetings

I really love how this one turned out!  The first time that I coloured this wreath image, I did it in the classic green leaves/red berries (which turned out great!!)  But then I decided to just do some cool & frosty berries using blue tones... and love the effect.  I kept it all fairly simple (I'm on a real kick to do flat & mailable cards this year):

I am entering this into this week's Curtain Call challenge... here is the inspiration photo:

 

Patterned paper is Dakota; Carstock is Twilight, Heavenly Blue & White Daisy; Stap sets are Season's Tweetings & Frosted WOTG; Crystal Blue Waxy Flax - all Close To My Heart;  Ink is Tuxedo Black, Memento and Whisper, CTMH;  Snowflake stamps are Merry & Bright, Verve; Copic Markers.

A Sweet 16 Birthday

Today is my daughter's 16th birthday :o)  She's a girl through and through... and loves nothing better than a little shopping excursion.  This little gift bag die is a favourite of mine, so I knew she'd love it on her card.  Here's what I came up with:

Patterned papers are Dolled Up, My Mind's Eye and Dakota, CTMH; Cardstock is Colonial White & Smoothie, CTMH; Stamp sets are Say it in Style & Let's Shop, CTMH; Ink is Slate; Shopping Bag & Labels die, Taylored Expressions.

And now to show you the sweet cupcakes she made to give to her friends as a thank-you for coming to her birthday dinner.  The cupcakes were simple - vanilla with a vanilla icing swirl; a few flakes of colour and a royal icing flower on top.

She placed them into petal wrappers, and dropped them into clear plastic cups:

Then she put them into clear cello bags, and tied them with little tags we cut with the Art Philosophy cartridge on our Cricut - they have little cupcake cutouts on the bottom:

It made transport to the restaurant very easy, and the girls could easily carry them home.

Humble Artist Swap

I haven't had a chance to post my December card for the Humble Artist Swap yet, so here it is.  Our guidelines were:
- must have minimum 8 layers
- make a winter themed card without red, green or blue
- you must emboss something
- add some bling
- must use at least 5 embellishments
- minimum 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"
(I hope I got them all correct, it's been a while!)

Patterned paper is Dakota; Cardstock is Black, White Daisy & Slate; Stamp set is Christmas Spirit; Ink is Black; Burlap, organdy, hemp, bitty sparkles & clear button - all products are CTMH.

Frame 'em up!

Here are the last two cards that we did at my Christmas card workshop.  We used the wood panelling papers from the Dakota paper pack, and cut them into frame pieces that they sponged softly with slate ink.  The ornament & mitts were stamped in the base colour, then again on scrap paper in contrasting colours that we glued on for the cuffs and the stripe on the ornament.  A little glitter, a few snowflakes and some baker's twine, and voila:

 

Patterned paper is Dakota, Stamp sets are A Very Merry Christmas and Glad Tidings (Verve); Inks are Slate, Sky, Gypsy, Cotton Candy, Black & Pear; - all CTMH; Martha Stewart glitter & snowflake punch; Baker's Twine, the Twinery.

Dynamic Duos

I'm a little late with my post - my internet has been acting up!  We have a lovely colour combo this week at Dynamic Duos: Sahara Sand and Cherry Cobbler.  Each week we post a new colour combo on the Dynamic Duos blog, and we'd like you to use just those two colours plus neutrals if you like (black/greys/kraft/skin tones etc).  If you don't have the exact colours, just use something similar to play along.  I used a little Dakota paper and cut out a snowflake border with the Art Philosophy cartridge:

Be sure to check out what the rest of the Dynamos have come up with - you can visit the Dynamic Duos blog, or see the list of blogs on my sidebar.  Get busy creating!  We'd love to see what you come up with :o)

Patterned paper is Dakota, CTMH; Ink is Tuxedo Black, Memento; Stamp sets are Hot Cocoa, My Favourite Things and Winter Wonderland, CTMH; Copic markers; Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, CTMH; Martha Stewart's coarse glitter.

Dakota Christmas

I'm a little sleepy, so forgive me if my post is brief... I had the most amazing Copic colouring class today with Suzanne Dean (I will share more about it later!), but wanted to post a card that we'll be making at my upcoming Card class.  This is using the western themed Dakota papers - which work amazingly well for Christmas.  I used the Artiste cartridge to cut the poinsetta, and shaped it to give it a little dimension:

Patterned papers are Dakota; Cardstock is Vineyard Berry, Topiary & White Daisy; Stamp set is the Oct SOTM; Inks are Slate & Vineyard Berry; Cricut Artiste cartridge - all CTMH. Pearls, Michaels.