ADDICTED TO STAMPS AND MORE #522 - CHRISTMAS

Christmas in July here at ATSM - hopefully if you join in all year you will have made a great start on your Christmas cards.  I'm using one of my all time favourite  sets here.  I just adore the shine you get on those bells just from the way the stamps are cut.

The stamp set is an old one from Sunny Studio called Holiday Style.  It comes with these gorgeous branches too - which I've inked in Versafine Shady Lane and then I went over the stems with a marker pen.  The baubles are a three stamp set to create the shine and it can be a bit tricky to line them up but when you get them they shine perfectly.  I've added some extra red and white twine to them to have them hanging from the branches and added some red enamel dots. The sentiment is a simple one from the same set. 

I'm adding this into the following:

Little Red Wagon - Christmas in July 

Unicorn - No Design Paper 

Make My Monday - Christmas in July 

Peace on Earth - Christmas 

Avenue613 - Holiday

Dragonfly Dreams - Christmas Sparkle 

Inkspirational - Christmas in July 

CHRISTMAS CRAFT CREATIONS - SNIPPETS

Welcome to our January challenge over at Christmas Craft Creations.  I am on the Reminder Team which pops up half way through the monthly challenge to give you all a little bit of extra inspiration.  

I started my card by using the wonderful stamp set from Sunny Studio called Holiday Style.  It has the most wonderful realistic bell with the set which I've used before in projects.  This card uses the bough stamp and the ornament hangers.  I used Distress Inks for my boughs adding a touch of brown for the stems.  For my snippets I collaged a variety of old papers and then used a stitched circle to cut them out.  I love that tree paper in the middle.  I added a touch of silver thread to give the impression of hanging the ornament and used one of the sentiments from the same set.

This would be a great card to batch make with different papers for the ornament.

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Scraps of Life Rudolph Days 

Snippets Playground - the snippets are the papers on my bauble

ABC Christmas Challenge - both A anything Christmas goes and B for Bauble 

12  months of Christmas - AG 

Fiona 

INSPIRED BY.....

I was inspired by the new challenges over at Inspired By and thought I'd try and have a go at the Christmas one.  It feels like winter here in the UK anyway with dark skies and rain and I even had to put the heating on yesterday!

I realised that I really don't have very many Christmas foliage type cards or dies so had a hunt in my stash - most of it is in boxes ready for moving but I managed to come up with something which I think fits their sketch and the Christmas image.

I started off by using a Sunny Studio stamp from their Holiday Style set which is the lovely fir branch - I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough and stamped it in a circle.  I used the Tim Holtz Wreath Die and some Holly dies from Mixed Media Christmas to create the holly wreath and the foliage behind.  The candy canes came from another Sunny Studio set called Mug Hugs which I cut out and tucked behind the bow, which I covered in Dazzling Diamonds. I added jewels as holly berries.

I added a Tim Holtz stencil with the Christmas Foliage in Peeled Paint and added an old sentiment stamp from my stash.  I layered it onto some kraft cardstock, 

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Merry Little Christmas - AG 

Addicted to stamps #142 - Christmas 

The sisterhood of crafters - use leaves 

Watercooler Challenges - Occasion

The Holly & Ivy Xmas - AG 

christmas Kickstart - Photo Inspiration

SirStampALot - Celebrate Christmas 

Excited to say my card was chosen as a Top Sister for The Sisterhood of Crafters 

My card was chosen in the top 3 at Addicted to Stamps

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY - #TSOT486

Our challenge this week at Try Stampin on Tuesday has the optional challenge of sparkle - well, it is nearly Christmas.

I haven't played with this stamp set in a while and decided it needed another outing - those bells are just beyond belief!    The stamp set is Holiday Style by Sunny Studio.  

I used my Tim Holtz stamping platform to first stamp the tree branches in Distress Ink Peeled Paint and Forest Moss.  I then stamped out the red baubles first in Distress Ink Barn door and Festive Berries - they are two step stamps with the darker colour giving the shadow.  I fussy cut them out.

The silver bell was stamped in three inks - the first is an old SU one Going Gray, the second ink is a current ink I think from SU called Basic Gray and the final ink is Hero Arts Intense Black which is what gives the bell it's shine - isn't it amazing! 

For my banner I inked a piece of the card stock with some Peeled Paint and used a Tim Holtz Christmas tree stencil and used the same ink.  I edged it in Walnut Stain and added the sentiment from the set in Festive Berries.  I inked around the card in Peeled Paint and added some thread lines with a silver pen for the bells to hang from.  I then added a dusting of SU Dazzling Diamonds.