Mele Kalikimaka is the Thing to Say*

We're still showing off What Santa Brought Us at Jingle Belles, and you're still invited to come along and make a holiday card that features something new and crafty; whether it came officially from The Big Guy, or perhaps you helped him out by choosing something fun for yourself? 

This week's card is admittedly a little bit of a stretch... except in our 50th state! But having received not one but TWO awesome sets of tropical flowers and foliage from Santa Stephanie, I literally could not wait to use them... so I didn't! I cut all of the pieces from Lawn Fawn's Happy Hibiscus and Tropical Leaves out of colorful scraps; fashioned an appropriately Hawaiian Holiday sentiment from stickers and attached everything to my bold and beautiful A9 card.

Head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card, then start thinking about what you'll make!

*sorry about the earworm! :)

Painted Peony Power

Pink Fresh's Painted Peony Mix Stamp Set from The Ink Pad is exactly the breath of spring we need on a cold, grey, January day, I hope you'll hop over to the TIP Blog and check it out! 

Have an ICE Day!

I have to confess that, in real life, I'm not overly fond of snow and ice; but... I am a huge fan of Eyelet Outlet Polar Bear Brads, for whom snow and ice are the ideal habitat, so I've tried to recreate it in card form. See?

In addition to said handsome Polar Bears, this card features Twig Washi Tape and tiny silver Star Sequins. Be sure to check the EO Blog often, the design team are always coming up with awesome ideas to inspire you!

Things That Start with S(OS)!

It's the first challenge of 2022 at Shopping Our Stash and we've got some lovely new teammates, including Stephanie Severin, so I'm extra excited. This time we'd like to see cards or projects which include Something That Begins with the Letter S... so there's quite a bit of scope there... but be sure to mention your S's if they aren't obvious, k? 

My card features Small, Sweet Seahorses Swimming on a Swirly Sea, in a Star-Shaped Shaker full of Sea-quins (geddit?!) over Sparkling Sand, Surrounded by Shells, Sanddollars and Starfish; with a Silly Sentiment and Strategic Stitching! For the record, the seahorses are from a Lawn Fawn mini-set (Sea Horsin' Around) that I've had for over a year and only just inked. The swirly sea paper is from Sassafras Lass... remember them? (And YES, this was from the era when they still had the "Lass" on there!) The brads and sequins are Eyelet Outlet, o'course; and the shaker is built using the two largest dies in my Nesties Stars set.

Be sure to hop over and welcome the new SOS Teammates, bid farewell to a few who are leaving and soak up all the S-based inspiration!

Merci Beaucoup!

I'm thrilled to be a guest on the Ranger Blog today, with a tutorial for that most timely of January papercrafts: Thank You cards! I used Wendy Vecchi's "Merci and More" Stamp, Die and Stencil Set plus one or two other goodies (like the awesome Bravo set); and my new favorite color palette of Wendy's Periwinkle and Thistle Archival Inks. I'd love for you to hop over and check it out; and be sure to follow @ranger_ink and @wendyvecchi for lots more amazing ideas and inspiration!

Happy Mandala Monday

It's the first Mandala Monday of 2022, so let's start the year off right with some bold color:

I'm not sure if I'll manage to blog EVERY Mandala Monday, but I thought it might be fun to have a whole strand I could look back on at the end of the year, so we'll see how it goes. Meanwhile, this mandala was drawn with Pitt Artist Pens from Faber-Castell on Strathmore Watercolor Paper, and colored using my beloved Tombow Dual Brush Pens from Paper Anthology... then brushed and flicked with water to make a literal "splash" of color! ♥

It's January First...

...so it's time to start making Christmas cards!!! Ok, yes, to a civilian, that probably sounds insane; but to any papercrafter who's ever spent a big chunk of December making 50+ cards, trust me, this is a GREAT idea! So once again, at Jingle Belles, we'll be publishing a new prompt every other Friday, and Stephanie and I will each be making two cards for each. By December first (or thereabouts) we'll have at least 48 unique handmade cards; so if we're not actually finished, we'll be in excellent shape. Of course this is definitely a case where more is merrier... so we'd love it if you'd join us! No need to make a commitment or participate every single week, just jump in when you can and have fun along with us!

First up, we KNOW you have some brand new goodies you're dying to use, so break out those gifties (whether they came from Santa, or you treated yourself in the pre- or post-holiday sales!) and use them to make your first holiday card of 2022! Be sure to mention what you've used, so we can be suitably jealous!

Miss Stephanie gave me a beautiful Spellbinders' Woodland Wreath Die Set which I've used to frame up some paper and stickers from Photoplay's Christmas Cheer line, to which I treated myself at Paper Anthology in December. I filled in with an older plaid from Photoplay, some gorgeously realistic Prima Holly Leaves and a scattering of round red Eyelet Outlet Sequins.

Be sure to hop over to Jingle Belles to see what Stephanie has made, then sort through your holiday bounty and start making something fun to link up with us!