It's a Blue, Blue Christmas

This month's challenge at Sparkles Christmas Challenges is "It's a Blue, Blue Christmas."  I used blue snowflake paper and colored the edges with a little distress ink.  The lace border is from a Martha Stewart punch and it needed a little ink too.  The Merry sentiment is from a set of Making Memories stickers that I found at Archiver's several years ago.  These stickers still adhered perfectly.  The gathered ribbon on the side finished the design nicely.

 

I have these silver filigree snowflakes in my stash (from Dry Gulch), but since the challenge is all about blue, I decided to paint them with pearlescent paint.  The paints are made by Creative Inspirations and are luscious.  They have tons of colors and the paint is easy to use.

 

We would love to see your blue Christmas creations.  Our sponsor is Marianne Design and you could win a prize.  This month's prize is your choice of either 2 dies or 1 stamp and 1 die.  The challenge is open all month so good luck.  Be sure to stop by and see the beautiful projects from our design team.

Just Because

The new challenge at Ruby's Rainbow Challenges is "Just Because".  I chose a butterfly surrounded by crystal gems with lots of vintage lace.  I added a flourish and some pretty flowers.  The filigree in the corner is from Dry Gulch.  Join us at Ruby's and show us your creations.

U is for Unicorn

 

The next challenge at Alphabet Challenges is "U" for Unicorn.  This challenge had me procrastinating and scared.  I have seen lots of cutesy images, and that is just not my style.  Since vintage style is my usual technique, I decided to search for an image of a vintage unicorn.  This is what I found and I think it is perfect.  I added vintage lace that came from the sleeve of a very old dress.  I layered the card with a fussy cut frame and then I distressed the edges of the unicorn printout.  Little snippets of lace, gems and sparkles make the perfect vintage embellishments.  Join us at Alphabet Challenges to see my teammates' inventive creations.  Be sure to give this challenge a try and show us what you make.

Dry Gulch November Color Design Challenge

Dry Gulch November Color Design Challenge

Use our colors to inspire your creativity! Post your project using the color palette above. Your design will be eligible to win a $25 gift certificate to Dry Gulch Beads.

Anything can be created for this challenge, including; finished jewelry pieces, headbands, wearable pendants/pins, handmade cards, lampwork beads, seed-bead art, sewing design, metal-smithing/art, paper crafting, clothing/fiber art, leather work, painting, even your favorite culinary delights (like cupcakes), etc. Your project must be created newly and specifically for our current monthly challenge. The sky is the limit! Show us how creative you are with our color palette.

For this challenge, Dry Gulch is offering a $25 gift certificate prize to the winner. The judges will be looking for adherence to the color palette, creativity of the project’s design and effort. You may purchase and use Dry Gulch components in your project, but that is not a requirement to win.

Your judges will be the 3 generations of women who create at Dry Gulch Beads and Jewelry. The judges may create and post their own visions of the monthly color palette also, but for inspiration and presentation only. We’ll publish each created work on Facebook and here on this challenge page.

Add your photo in the comments on our Color Design Challenge Facebook Event or email us your photo to custserv@drygulch.com. When uploading, you may add a description of your work. If also Facebooking and/or blogging your Dry Gulch Color Design project, please add a link to the Challenge on your page. Entries for the Dry Gulch Color Design Challenge may be turned in from now until midnight CST, Sunday, November 30, 2014.

Lots of Christmas Cards

It is the time of year to create lots and lots of festive Christmas cards.  I managed to complete 12 of them the other day.  I still have quite a few to make, but it is nice to have that many ready.  I am a design team member of Sparkles Christmas forum, so I already had a jump start from creating one card each month.  I love the continuous challenges - they are the perfect motivation to start designing.

I used my CraftRobo to cut several swirly Christmas trees, reindeer and ornaments for my cards.  Several of these cards are simple, but that is what makes them elegant to me.  The cut files are from Bird's Cards.  She has many free files that are intricate, yet they cut beautifully.  Now, if I could just get some tags made!

Non-Traditional Christmas Colors

Our new challenge at Ruby's Rainbow Challenges is to create a Christmas card using non-traditional colors.  I chose aqua blue for my project.  There is just enough dark red in the card to make it a Christmas card.  I used a K & Co. sticker for the center which is actually a book that opens.  I layered the book sticker on a diecut that I cut with my CraftRobo.  The tinsel and pom pom trims finish out the card.

Traditional Christmas colors

Our new challenge at Alphabet Challenges is Traditional Christmas Colors.  I chose a vintage bird postcard image that I distressed and inked.  I layered it over a K & Co. poinsettia border and added a flower and a crystal gem flourish.  I love the soft reds and greens of this card.  Stop by and show us your creation using traditional Christmas colors. 

Tim Holtz November 2014 Tag

This month, I am super early with the Tim Holtz tag for November.  As usual, I had to do a lot of improvising, but I think the over all look is similar.  I used distress paints and stains to color the base tag.  I embossed the tag with a leaf design embossing folder and then inked it to bring out the leaf edges.  I used a piece of corrugated cardstock for the top layer, peeling away sections until it looked completely shabby.  I did not have the sentiment, but I found a metal label holder for my acorn ribbon.  The label holder was pink so I embossed it with fall colored embossing powder.  Since my leaf cutout was a little different than Tim's, I ran out of room at the bottom of the tag.  I added the label and metal bar to the side.  This was definitely a challenge!