Loll's Christmas Tags - Day 5

Good evening, and Yay - the weekend is here! There's a neat 12 Tags of Christmas going on over at Stamping with Loll. As you may remember, I don't do many tags. However, Loll has been so encouraging & inspiring that I wanted to try to play along in this fun challenge. So I've been trying to work on some tags. Here is one that I finally got finished to play along on Day 5. If you enjoy Christmas themes and if you enjoy creative tags, this challenge is for you! Check out my new watermark - which was designed by Kylie.   How do you like it????

purchased tag was covered with gesso, dried over night. Stamped 2 ivy images with versamark, heat embossed with Rangers Christmas green (which is really a combination of green & some red - looks pretty when it's heated). After heat embossing, used DI Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters and Pine Needles to sponge over the tag, then wiped off around the embossed areas. Sprayed with a gold spray and let dry.

- Focal image was stenciled using Ranger Texture paste & the Tim Holtz Holly stencil - then dried over night. Used Silks inks to color & die cut with a S/Binder Adorning Labels 25 shape, sponged with Peeled Paint, the Shabby Shutters around the edges. Applied Viva Décor Pearls in red over the berries.

Close up of the texture paste embossing (shows my blunders a bit)

- Penny Black Holly Berries die was cut from a snippet front of a generic card sent by the company where we purchased our vehicles. This company always sends us birthday cards & Christmas cards. The backside of the front piece was white, hmmm...I can die cut that! Colored the white with Wink of Luna pens, and trimmed the die to fit where needed. Might go back and add some Viva Red Pearl to those berries since they don't show up well on the die cut.

- Elizabeth Craft sentiment die, from the same waste white card snippet, colored with Copic R29, then WoStella red pen. There is a red ribbon behind the focal image. Red & green cording with a gold ribbon were threaded through the top of the die, and a jeweled brad covers the hole. That's it folks.

Linking this tag to Loll's Twelve Days of Christmas Tags, Day 5.  I have another tag in process, so I hope I can get another one finished in time to play another day. This Challenge is open until November 16. Hope you'll check out this challenge and join in.

Here's a picture of some of the products I used:

Just checked to see that the Snippets Playground is still open for a few hours remaining in Week 149 - so off to say hello to Parsnip and all the Snippeeters. Folks, you still have a few hours to play here.

Thanks for joining me this evening, and I'm hoping you are all set for a great weekend. Big Hugs.

DeeDee's Pilgrim Owls

Good morning. Thanks for stopping in for a visit on a gloomy drizzly Thursday morning. Let's start the visit with a welcome to 2 new lovely followers:

Charlene of Expresstions of me! and Linda of Lovely Linda's Craft Central. I think you'd certainly enjoy taking a few minutes to pop by and say Hello to these very talented ladies and at the same time enjoy a stroll through some inspiring posts! Thanks, Charlene and Linda for taking time to become followers & leave comments. I love making new friends - and it's fascinating to know that my friends live all over the world. As I've said before, to me - that's the most fun part about this blog hobby.

Now, on to the card for today. Took me forever to get it finished, and I just don't know why, because it was an easy card to assemble. These digi files are so very easy to use and make a quick card if you're pressed for time. But every day when I'd say 'Today I'll finish it', something would get in the way. So here goes!

- DeeDee's precolored digi Pilgrim Owls were printed twice. One set was die cut with S/B Labels 4 Gold, sponged with DI Tea Dye and Spiced Marmalade. Set #2 shaded with some copics and WoS for a little glitz, then fussy cut, shaped a bit, then adhered to Set #1 on the label.

- Background papers were from an 8x8 G45 Autumn pack, and the pumpkin border was the reverse side of the green paper. Seemed a bit busy for a background for these cute little pilgrim. A S/Binder Curved bracket die cut each side of the border.

- There are some gold Starform sticker leaves over this border, but don't seem to show well in the photo. The lower right pumpkins were also a Starform sticker outline. Adhered the sticker outline to Sookwang (double sided tape) applied over a snippet of c/s, and then used various shades of Ritz glitter on the sections to create some shading.

- PBlack Words of Gratitude sentiment die cut from 3 layers of white snippets. After gluing together, used a gold Pentel pen to color. Now check out the little purple corner candees....these were sent recently by my sweet child, Brenda, of Friends Craftin' with Friends.  Brenda made a bunch of candees by melting pony beads.  Wasn't she kind to send me some, since I've not tried that as yet. Thanks, Brenda for being such a good friend. (BTW, Brenda & I have never met face-to-face. She was one of the first crafters I met in Blogland, and we share so much in common - aside from age! - that we decided she must be my 'other child'. Friendships are a treasure).

DeeDee's Digis is sponsoring Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog this week (Nov 5th - Nov 11th) and the challenge is Creative Corners. I rarely think to use decorative corners and this will get me  out of my comfort zone. Also there's an awfully cute festive digi available for the November Challenge & you can find out how easy it is to collect this holiday image if you follow the links. Hope you will come play at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge and you will have a chance to win a $10.00 gift code from Deedee's Digis. Which would be AWESOME since she just added more cute items to the store....check them out in the Newest Releases Section. The DT have already posted some adorable cards to start the MoJo. (which if you're like I've been lately, really needs a jumpstart!). I love the newest designs, so will have to get myself jump-started and get over this 'slump'.

Second, there is a new freebie that has been added to the shop. "Checked Recipe Cards" is now available for you in the "Try Before You Buy" area of the shop. For those who do lots of baking this time of year, especially gift items, so these might be helpful to have around. This set also coordinates well with this month's featured set -- "Mix it Up," and might be a fun addition to your challenge creations this month. Enjoy! ;-)

Also do be sure to check out the Cards by Friends section at the top of this post to see another cute Halloween card - that came along with the Candees to cheer us for Halloween.

OK, that's it...a long post. Thanks for joining me this morning. We're out of the house again today, as soon as I get this post finished and get ready to be seen in public. So you have a wonderful day, and remember...only one more day until the weekend. My, how 2014 has flashed by. Come again soon...Big Hugs

Edit: One of my sweet blog buddies advised this could play in the current  November Challenge #5 going on at Scrapy Land. (Thanks Donna). You might want to give a check because if you're using product brands that Scrapy Land markets, your card could be eligible to enter. I saw some terrifically gorgeous cards when I dashed over to link up.

More Fall

Hello again. As promised, I'm back with another post. First, let me say a big Hello to Miss Kylie, who is my newest follower. I found Kylie's blog over at Stamping with Loll. Kylie had done a nice watermark for Loll, and Loll shared her link. I contacted Kylie with the idea of doing one for me, and in the process, am making a new friend. Did you see the lovely P Hover button when you saw the Christmas Club post this morning? Well Miss Kylie got that working for me! If you visit Kylie's beautiful blog, she has a block on the upper right sidebar with info about watermarks, etc. So you might want to give a look-see if you are interested in a personalized watermark & enjoy some lovely cards in the process. Big Thank You to Kylie :-).

OK, we were expecting some rain last week, (didn't really happen, just a drizzle), so I decided I best take a couple of snaps around the neighborhood. It's sort of what we see from our front porch. Thought I'd share them here for anyone who loves the colors of Fall.




Our sunset maple in side yard

Neighbor's trees, our dogwoods & magnolia leaves are beginning to change colors

across the street from our house



Next door neighbor's tree. Our maple is to the left 



Normally our area would have been a blaze of colors like shown in the above pictures. As seen, there are still many trees that have not changed colors. Our dogwoods shown in the 2nd picture, are just beginning to change leaf color. The magnolia leaves turn a sort of dull bronze-brown. With all the wind we've had today, most of the leaves are now on the ground. The pretty red maple looks very bare. It's 11 years old, not growing very fast. Our pretty October Glory maple that got so tall in just a few years, was taken down a few months ago. Mr. was concerned that the roots were coming to the ground surface, causing mowing problems. Additionally, the tree was growing much faster than we expected - to be sited where it was. He wanted it gone  & I am missing it. But was probably for the best. We aren't famous for siting our trees & plants as well as we should.

 

Hope you enjoyed seeing a little look at the area where I am blessed to live. I surely am not enjoying adjusting to the time change. I wish the folks who make these time decisions, would just leave the time alone, at whatever is chosen. I am so thankful I don't have to get up for work...when I did, I was invariably late or an hour early when the time changed. Never failed!

 

Also hope that your day was just grand. Ours was quiet; I stayed inside while Mr. braved the wind to walk his two excursions. He's been following the cardiologist's advice pretty well, with the daily walking. I do admire that. (if I weren't so lazy, I'd do it too!). G'd evenin'. 

Christmas Card Club - Snowmen

Good afternoon, and Happy first Sunday in November to all of you lovely readers. I hope everyone remembered to set the clocks back an hour here in the USA. It's very pretty - but much colder & quite windy - in Upstate South Carolina today, . Yesterday morning we even had SNOW! Now I slept through it, so it's only hearsay on my part. DH assured me that he saw it on the house roofs as he was walking, & Bro #1 (who lives down the street), said he saw it laying in the yard. I'm just as happy to have been asleep while it happened.

Today our bi-monthly Christmas Card Challenge theme of Snowman was selected by our Miss Lorraine.

I've been playing with some background techniques while I've been MIA around here...just generally being slothful. Had seen this pretty card done by Maxine, and had been wanting to try making a gesso'd tissue paper background. Now my results look nothing like Maxine's, but it was fun. (and will be trying again to achieve such a pretty look as Maxine did). So here goes with the Christmas Club Snowmen card:

- Stampendous Snowman Friends (P235) using Memento Grey Flannel, colored with copics and WoS. Die cut with S/B Card Creator Detailed Scallops, sponged edges with DI Broken China and Salty Ocean. Diamond stickles for snow. Brushable glue on fur & pompoms, applied Sparkle n Sprinkle Twinkling Clouds.

- Die-Namics Snowflakes from some snippets of glitter paper.

-  S/B Enchanted Labels 28 (5x7 size) cut side fold shaped card base - though you can't see much of the details.

- PBlack Creative die Red and Greens (holly) cut from snippet of white c/s, colored with Copics & gel pen.

Now for the background mat: Gesso over Mixed Media c.s (#98 Canson), let dry. Gesso another coat, and crumpled snippets of blue tissue paper (saved from package wrappings from online orders). Tore these pieces and placed around the wet gesso, let that dry. Gesso'd over the top of the tissue, dry, then used Dylusions sprays in Bubble Gum, Teal and After Midnight. Some of these sprays were mixed with the White Linen, some just diluted with water. None were used full strength. Lindy's starburst sprayed over the partially dried Dylusions layer. This was done over a TCW stencil, but it's not showing very well. Maxine's stenciling showed up much prettier than this one did, but I still liked the result achieved. When testing papers for matting for these snowboys, tried the look of the tissue experiment, decided I liked it. Oh yes, forgot to say, that after drying, the edges of the tissue & paper were trimmed, as the tissue looks very raggedy when applied. I didn't try to keep a straight edge to the work in progress. It's easy to trim once the layers have dried.



Lower right corner showing texture

Top left, texture and card die detail

I hope you'll have time to take a look at my team members - list is posted on the sidebar. It's such fun to see each members' interpretation of the week's challenge. I'll be back later with some pictures of the fall in our neighborhood.

Since there's a few snippets on this card, and since I've not visited the Snippets Playground for a while, I'm off over the pond to see my little friend Parsnip, who guards the gates of the Playground for the Snippeteeers & week 149. Ya'll c'mon if you have time.

Also will submit this card over at The Mixed Media Card Challenge where the theme is Christmas for challenge #5.

Thanks for stopping to visit. I will try to do better about more frequent posting. Dunno why I've gotten so lazy of late...just don't seem in the mood to accomplish very much..but as they say: It is what it is! Ya'll come back when you can. Big Hugs.