Tag It! with Dies

I made a bunch of tags this year using all sorts of my favorite dies, a little stamping and some washi tape. I also used some vellum, embossing folders and gems. Too many to go into great detail, but if you have a question about a specific product I used, feel free to email me via the contact feature on the side of the blog.

I am entering these tags in the Tag It challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and the Holly Jolly challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. 

Snowflake Flurries Christmas Card

Did I mention I absolutely love dies? Even more than my stamps lately! No stamping on this card at all, but I love how it turned out. A friend called me one afternoon and told me to check out HSN to see all the awesome dies from Die'sire and Crafter's Companion being sold at special prices. I watched for an hour or so, then my husband came home- which was a good thing because I would have bought even more if I watched the next show! I did buy a set of three gorgeous border dies from Die'sire and a great scoring board to make boxes with. The dies cut, emboss and act as a stencil if you want to add ink before removing the die from the paper. I cut and sponged the snowflake Edge'able die twice on the scored sides of a white A2 card. Then I simply added a navy blue layer to the inside and die cut "Merry Christmas Present" from Die-Versions in silver for the sentiment. Here are a couple more pictures showing the inside and the detail on the snowflake border die:

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at Scrapy Land and the Winter challenge at Cut It Up.

I am Thrilled to Announce...

I have been chosen to be a Tonic U.S. Blog Ambassador!! For the next six months I will be sharing projects using products from Tonic Gold U.S. here on my blog and on the Tonic U.S. blog! The announcement of the whole team of ambassadors is being made today on their blog and I am so proud to be part of this talented team of designers! Here is a link to the official announcement: https://www.tonic-gold.com/s/tonic-us-blog-ambassadors/

I was so excited to get this wonderful news recently and of course I had to play with some of the Tonic goodies I already own to share with you today. I wanted to design some boxes to give gifts in this Christmas with the box becoming part of the gift. I started this box with two 7 3/4 inch square pieces of white cardstock. I scored the top piece at the one inch line on all four sides. The bottom piece was scored just a little bit smaller. I die cut Tonic Studio's gorgeous "From Me to You" Semi Die out of the top of the box and also in blue cardstock. I cut the blue one in half and attached the side with the words "From me to you" just slightly offset under the white half. I cut the flowers out of the other half and attached them on the left side. I die cut Tonic's beautiful "Fae Ella" out of a lighter blue scrap and attached her on the top of the box. I finished the box with some blue and white gems. Here is another look at the intricate detail of the "From Me to You" Semi Die Set:

To see any of the Tonic Gold products I used today, visit here on the Tonic website.

(Edited to add- if you saw this announcement earlier, I had to pull it because the day of the official announcement at Tonic got delayed. Now that it is finally here, I can share the good news, get back to blogging daily and get to work on my Tonic projects for their blog and CHA! Woo Hoo!)

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at 613 Avenue Create and Crafting from the Heart.

McVodka Super Sized Please!

If you follow me, you know I love using humor in my cards and that is why I had to buy a bunch of the lol stamps from Two Lips Stamps sold by Polkadots and More in my home state of Wisconsin. This stamp cracked me up so I had to make a card with it. I cut the stamp apart into three parts of a conversation and used speech bubble dies from My Creative Time. I cut the speech bubbles out of the white embossed cardstock and out of aqua blue and peach cardstock. I spattered gold and teal ink all over the front of the card with Tim Holtz's Spatter Brush, then inserted the conversation pieces back in the die cut holes. I attached the front piece to a teal card for a completed CAS LOL card.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Art By Miran and Brown Sugar.

Winter Fun 4 Kids at Send a Smile 4 Kids!

It’s Saturday and time for another fun challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids! This time our challenge is Winter Fun 4 Kids! Create and link any winter card appropriate for a child, and you could win one of our great prizes.

We have three very generous sponsors for this challenge: Dollar Graphics Depot is giving their winner a $15 gift certificate! Lacy Sunshine is giving their randomly picked winner 3 digis of their choice!  And One Happy Cut’s winner gets a $15 gift certificate! TEAM S.A.S will also be choosing their favorite cards for our top three and the winners will receive a blog badge and an opportunity to be a guest design team member on a future challenge.

For my first card above, I used a sweet digi by Lacy Sunshine called "Snowflakes Quality Control". I printed her on white cardstock, did a little coloring with Copics and paper pieced her dress. I cut a frame with a large snowflake die from Darice and embossed the blue card front with a Swiss Dots embossing folder from Cuttlebug.

I created a gatefold card for my second card featuring "Chili Pete Loves the Snow" from Dollar Graphics Depot. I embossed the white gatefold card with a snowflake embossing folder from Sizzix. I printed Chili Pete in color, cut him out and attached him to the left side of the gatefold. I stamped "Warm Winter Wishes" on a circle and attached it to complete the CAS kid's card.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Crafting from the Heart and Craft Your Passion, and the Let It Snow challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

Reach for the Stars Color Challenge

The first Wednesday of each month at Repeat Impression’s blog, The House that Stamps Built, is going to be a color challenge. We give you the color inspiration, and you can make a card using those colors to possibly win a great prize of Repeat Impressions rubber! Here is the color palette chosen this month:

I decided to make a card for a graduation or encouragement instead of a Christmas card with these colors. I started with a white A2 card base and then cut a cranberry front piece.  I stamped Repeat Impression’s large and small star silhouette stamps with Versamark and heat embossed them with gold detail embossing powder from Stampamania. I also stamped and heat embossed the perfect sentiment with white detail embossing powder. Then I stamped RI’s smaller star cluster with Versamark ink for the watermark look in the background on the cranberry paper.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at 613 Avenue Create and Crafting from the Heart.

**Don’t Forget: for a 10% discount on any size order at Repeat Impressions, make a note of my discount code (rr10kh), click on the blog badge on the side of my blog and go to the website here to shop and save!**

Dancing the Disco Side-step with Die-Versions Dies

Happy Die-Versions Tuesday! It's my turn to post a card on Die-Version's blog and mine. Today I am sharing a side step card I created featuring the Retro Disco dies from the October release available here on the website.  I haven’t made a side step card in a while, but it seemed to be the perfect platform for my disco dancers so I found a tutorial here and made one with Tim Holtz’s Kraft-Core Shattered Cardstock from Core’dination. I die cut the Retro Dancers twice with pink and black cardstock and layered them together. They are side-stepping on the stairs of the card. I cut “Disco” and the Retro Disco Ball out of gold cardstock and attached. Makes you want to boogie the night away, right? Here is another view of the card from the front.

**Remember you can get a 15% discount on any of Die-Versions great dies by simply using my discount code karen15 when you check out at the Die-Versions website.**

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge  and at 613 Avenue Create.