Twelve Days of Christmas Day 7: Heat Embossing Vellum

Happy Saturday dear friends!! I'm a little bit behind as I didn't feel well last week, but the Twelve Days of Christmas continues!  Today's post was inspired by PTI's Make it Monday 144: Heat Embossing Vellum. I made two card as I just had to try to emboss the City Scene Stamps like the amazing Melissa Phillips did and of course I had to do a take in my own style.  I stamped the beautiful bells from PTI's Bells and Boughs onto the vellum in Versamark ink and then sprinkled the bells with Pink Embossing Powder and then I embossed the bells once more with Versamark and then sprinkled with gold embossing powder.  How fun to have two toned embossed bells!!

Just in case you haven't noticed, gold is my "go to" color this year! Everything is coming up golden!!  I used some old October Afternoon papers for the card base along with some scraps of Pink Paislee's Snow Village to embellish. 

 In the next card I used a scrap of Webster's Pages papers for the card base.  I heat embossed the village on vellum and I'm really loving the colors.  I wish the Zing and Ranger embossing powder was a little finer grained, but I'm loving the color choices, so I won't complain too much!!  Both cards use non traditional colors for Christmas Cards and I'm loving it!!

I'm going to have to play around with the City Stamps a little more.  There will be so many different possibilities with those stamps!!

 Supplies Used:
Papertrey Ink City Scene Stamps and Dies
Papertrey Ink Bells and Boughs Stamps and Dies
Papertrey Ink Rustic Wreath Die
Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White, Gold Shimmer and Vellum Cardstock
Zing Blush Embossing Powder
Ranger Red Pepper Embossing Powder
Fine Gold and White Embossing Powder
Simply Chartreuse Felt
October Afternoon and Pink Paislee Papers and embellies from my stash

Thanks for stopping by and I will see you throughout the next several days for the rest of the Twelve Days of Christmas Series!!
Kristii

Twelve Days of Christmas Day 6: Sugar Cookies

Hi there dear friends!! I hope you are having a joyous Holiday Season!! Friday night my hubby and I got our Grandparent fix babysitting for some friends of ours!  It was a ton of fun and we were blessed beyond measure!  We read books, played Duck, Duck, Goose, and watched a little Frosty the Snowman!  It was an enjoyable evening indeed!  Today we spend the entire day decorating our house and doing laundry.  Whew!  I'm exhausted!  I also baked some sugar cookies today and I used my all time favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe!

We call the recipe Nancy's Sugar Cookies as the recipe was given to us by a dear friend twenty years ago and they have been a family favorite ever since.  They are so good, I thought I would share them with you!!

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Nancy's Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1-1/2 tsp vanilla

1 scant tsp salt

1-1/2 tsp soda

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cream of tartar

6 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs, milk, and vanilla.  Mix together flour, salt, soda, powder and cream of tarter.  Mix dry ingredients with butter mixture one cup at a time.  Refrigerate one hour.  Roll, cut and bake 6-10 min @ 350 degrees.

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do!! You can also cut this recipe in half for a quick batch of sugar cookies if need be!!

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you tomorrow for the next installment of the Twelve Days of Christmas!

Wishing you a wonderful week,

Kristii

Twelve Days of Christmas Day 5: Repurposed blocks and Chalkboard Art

Happy Fifth Day of Christmas everyone!  Today I have a little something different to share with you!  If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you know I have used some of my sons old wood blocks to create some fun seasonal projects and I thought it would be fun to add a Christmas project to the block series!  The blocks looked like this  before I started:

I took those plain old blocks that were sitting in a box collecting dust and turned them into this:

The fun part of this project is the Chalkboard Technique theme.  I actually used a free printable on one of the blocks and I used Papertrey Ink Stamps on the other one.  The honest truth is they are both easy and fun to make, it just depends on how much time you have and what sentiment you want.  I spent an hour tonight loading up fonts for the chalkboard technique so that I can make some wall art in the next few days.  I really want to put my spin on the whole digital side of this technique, it's just going to take me a little bit of time to put it all together.  In the meantime, I Googled free chalkboard printables and you would be amazed at how many free printables there are out there!!  The sky really is the limit with this technique!  The first block I have featured here is the stamped block.  I used PTI Photo Finishers stamps along with a sentiment from Stylish Sentiments: Holidays.  I stamped them with Versamark ink onto some Glitz Design Patterned paper and embossed the images with ultra fine white embossing powder.  Then I took a dried wipe and dabbed it on a white ink pad and added some white highlights like you would find on a chalkboard.  I added a nice big red bow and some pretty little embellishments to finish the little package.

 For the second block, I used a free printed chalkboard from this site.  I resized the printable in Photoshop so that it would fit on my block.  I printed the image and added some white ink just like I did on the stamped image.  I embellished with a big red bow, snowflakes and holly leaves.

I hope this inspires you to look around the house and repurpose some of those things that are collecting dust and make something pretty with them!!  It is so fun and very cost efffective too!!

Supplies Used:

Wood Blocks

PTI Photo Finishers and Stylish Sentiments Holiday

Versamark Ink

Ultra Fine Embossing Powder

Snowflake Dies

PTI Holly Jolly Dies

PTI Peace be Still Dies

Ribbon, Bells, and Boughs from my stash

Thanks for stopping by and joining in the fun of the Twelve Days of Christmas!!

Kristii

Twelve Days of Christmas Day Four: Shaker Tag Ornament

Happy Day Four of the Twelve Days of Christmas!!  Today I have a little shaker tag that I plan on using as an ornament on my tree.  Ever since Betsy Veldman made this card, I have been dying to try out a shaker tag for myself! Betsy is so amazing and she inspires me beyond measure!  Thank you Betsy for the inspiration!!

To make the shaker tag:

1. Cut out 5 tags- one out of patterned paper, one out of cream paper, one out of clear cardstock and two out of chipboard.  
2. Cut the centers out of all the tags except the base tag.  
3. Glue together the 2 chipboard tags.
4. Stamp the cream base tag with City Scene stamps and adhere it to the back side of the chipboard layers. 
5.  Add some glitter dots with the stamp set using sticky embossing powder and sprinkled it with glitter.  
6. Add some glitter to the inside and then adhere the clear cardstock tag on top of the chipboard tags and seal.
7. Cover with patterned paper.

 I love to make things!  It just makes my heart happy and so I thought I would leave you with this inspiring word:

Crafting your heart out makes room for your soul to grow.  ~ Sara Lanan

May you grow by leaps and bounds this holiday season!!
Thanks for stopping by and joining in the Twelve Days of Christmas Fun!!
Have a wonderful evening!!
Kristii

Supplies Used:
Tag Sale #8
City Scene Stamps and Dies
Confetti Garland Stamps and Dies
October Afternoon papers from my stash
Peaceful Pinecone Stamps
Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers Stamps
Pure Poppy, Aqua Mist, Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, and Simply Chartreuse Ink

Twelve Days of Christmas Day 3 - Modern Whimsy Shaped Card

Happy Day three of the Twelve Days of Christmas dear friends!! We are in the deep freeze here in Montana and I'm happy to say that we are no longer dreaming of a white Christmas!!  Whooo hooo!  Everything is beautiful and sparkly! It may be beautiful, but it comes with a price.  The low tonight has been forecast to be 8 below zero, brrrr!

I was inspired by the snow and I have to say that I am still enamored with Danielle Flanders' MIM Challenge over at PTI.  There is nothing more whimsical than snow and the idea was born!!

If you look closely at the white base of the shaped card you will see a little sparkly texture.  I temporarily adhered two snowflakes to the base and rubbed some gesso into the holes.  Once I filled all the holes with gesso, I took the snowflakes off and sprinkled them with glitter.  It made for a very nice textured background!

I know that I am going to have to play around with this technique some more! There are a lot of possibilities!!

I die cut some Snowflakes, Leaves, Rustic Wreath and One Liners and embellished the sweet little shaped card.  I added a little lace, ribbon and a little pearl to embellish.

Supplies Used:
Papertrey Ink One Liners, Fancy Flakes, Happiness in Bloom Leaves, and Peace Be Still Dies
Sweet Blush, Vellum and Stamper's Select Papers
PTI White Ribbon
PTI Simply Chartreuse and Cream Felt
October Afternoon Scrap Papers
Gesso and Pearl from my stash

I have also entered this card into Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes!!
Thanks for stopping in for the Twelve Days of Christmas Celebration!
Hope you have a wonderful day!!
Kristii

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day 2 Modern Whimsey Banner

Happy Day two of the Twelve Days of Christmas my friends!!  One of my goals this Christmas is to make a Christmas Banner for both of my girls and when I saw the MIM Challenge at Papertrey Ink, I was totally inspired!! I love Danielle Flander's style so much and you can just imagine how excited I was to case her style!!!  Whoo hooo!! I had a ball!!

Here's a close-up of the whimsical style:

I used several different Papertrey Ink sets for this fun little Banner.  I started with the Banner Dies and cut two sizes of banners - one in red and one in Stamper's Select White cardstock.

Then I die cut  a Rustic Wreath out of Stamper's Select White and stamped it in Simply Chartreuse Ink and colored it in with Copic Markers.  Notice I wasn't too worried about staying in the lines to keep in with the Modern Whimsey feel.  I die cut several Confetti Borders out and some I stamped and the heart border I die cut in PTI red patterned paper.  I die cut a pink snowflake and a vellum snowflake using the Fancy Flakes dies.  Way fun!!  Then I cut out the Christmas One Liners which I totally love!! So fun and fancy!!

 I was wishing I hadn't sold my Tremendous Treats set to embellish this banner, but I made do with what I had.  So I grabbed the cute PTI Penguin, The 2010 Holiday Tags Reindeer, and the cute little snowman from Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers.    Such an eclectic mix of goodies, but this year is all about using my scraps and I am enjoying the challenge!!

Holiday Banner
STAMPS: Rustic Wreath, Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers, Confetti Garland Borders, 201o Holiday Tags; Winter Penguin
INK: True Black, Pure Poppy, Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush, Simply Chartreuse
PAPER: Pure Poppy Pattern Pack, Sweet Blush Cardstock, Stamper's Select, vellum
DIES: Fancy Flakes, Basic Banner, Rustic Wreath, Confetti Garland, One Liners; Winter Penguin
OTHER: Baker's twine
This Project also qualifies for the Wednesday Challenge over at Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes!!
Thank you for Joining me on Day two of the Twelve Days of Christmas!
See you tomorrow for Day three!!
Kristii

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Day One

Happy December dear friends!! Whooo hooo!  It's my favorite time of the year!! I am so excited to bring you my take on the Twelve Days of Christmas once again!!!  I will spend the next 12 days sharing different projects and goodies with you celebrating all things Christmas!!

My first project for this series is based on the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday Challenge #142: Decorated Kraft Bags.  I was so excited to use up some scraps for this challenge and break out one of my favorite PTI Sets: Shape Up Snowman.  Love, love, love this set!!

 I used PTI's Autumn Pattern Pieces to create the bottom border.  Another set I absolutely love!! I stamped the red in Pure Poppy Ink and the white was stamped with Versamark and then embossed with fine embossing powder.  I added a Confetti Garland border between my fussy cut images and the stamped border.  There are so many PTI sets that I love!!  This project uses so many of my favorites!! I love it!

The trees, gingerbread house, and snow man are all cut from various Webster's Pages papers that I have had around for quite a long time!! Whooo  hoo!!  So glad I was able to use them finally!

Isn't that little snowman the cutest!!  Sigh....I love Christmas!!!
Thanks for joining me for the first day of the 12 Days of Christmas!!  I will see you tomorrow for another installment in the series!!!!
Kristii