It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Hi Friends!

I am SO sorry I have been away so very long. H1N1 went through my house, and then it was Thanksgiving, and then I had to take down fall decor, and decorate (and shop) for Christmas (which we are having here this year)...and so my story goes. But I am back baby!

Over the weekend I put the finishing touches on the tree(s) and the entire house, inside and out, is DONE. Most of the shopping...DONE! ( key word: most) Have I sent cards yet? Nope. Have I wrapped anything? Nada. Zip. Zilch. Still plenty o' time, right?

BUT, the good part is our home is a winter wonderland, sparkling with twinkle lights aplenty, and glittered within an inch of its life. ( I will take some photos and post in the next days or so). I really, REALLY love LOVE me some Christmastime! I think I may actually be a magpie...anything sparkles and I am all over it.

Speaking of glitter and yummy sparkliness: I finally, for the first time in over a month, got to play in my studio and create!! I didnt do as much as I wanted to...I had planned to do a 2 page LO using the new Rockstar papers, but when it came to sitting down to create, I really just wanted to put Christmas music on and play in the glitter. So, I made a few holiday cards instead.

(I'll get to the Rockstar pages this weekend and post.)

So, for my Mother In Law I made this swanky cocktail Holiday Cheers! card... it goes along with some of the gifts we bought her. I used all CTMH products (except the cocktail stamp, which I colored in with Copics); ctmh Jingle Papers and cardstock; the snowflakes are made using punches (mainly MS punches) on ctmh white cardstock; the sentiment is from Ms. Holiday stamp set. The red and silver glitter is from the retired glitter stack, but any fine red/silver glitter will work. The rest of the glitter is Prisma.

My Party Animal/Happy New Years Card is bright, festive and fun...oh, and sparkling, natch! The martini and sentiment stamp is from 'our craft lounge' (everything is colored in with copics)...everything else is ctmh, except the mad amounts of Stickles I used. The paper is ctmh Whoops A Daisy, and ctmh cardstock hydrangea, ocean and textured cardstock in Citrus Leaf. CTMH stamps used: Merry Monsters, Spot On Backgrounds, and Please Join Us. ( the icicles border punch is by MS and the google eyes are from craft store). Cheers! ( hmmm...seems I had a cocktail theme going for a bit there)

Lastly, I wanted to make a winter street scene with the houses from the Neighborhood Stampset by CTMH. This is what I came up with.

Products List:

Patterened paper: ctmh Aspen

Cardstock: (ctmh white daisy)

Stamps: (all ctmh) Festive Thoughts ( for the sentiment, which is heat embossed in Silver, but you cant tell that in these horrid pictures, sorry); most of the trees are from The Beauty Of Christmas; and then, yes, Neighborhood. The houses, the bit of fence, the lamposts and the car are all from the 'Hood.

I paperpieced a bit, foam-squared, and prisma'd my heart out. The car tires are stamped in black, black embossed and cut out. The wreaths, they were a bit of a pain. The scale of the houses/doors were so darn tiny...so my wreaths had to be tiny. So, I used a tiny hole punch for the middles ( on green cardstock) and regular sized hole punch around the little hole, viola wreath(s)! The tree on the car I just free cut out a triangle from green cardstock, and a little trunk. The same with the tree on the townhouse. It was a bush on the stamp, but I wanted a conical holiday tree shape, so I just free-hand cut one out.

As always, you can click on the photos and see it bigger/in more detail. And, feel free to ask any questions you may have, I promise to get back to you.

Happy Holidays!

~Cheryl

This weekend's artwork

The Original Fangster Yo!

My little vamp fangster was originally going to be a card, but them I remembered I needed a festive gift bag to give my in-laws some Halloween treats. They are so sweet to us , they really deserve a tricked-out swag bag...so this is what I came up with.

Supplies used:

Stamp(s):CTMH ( Little Spooks set)

Cardstock: CTMH ( cranberry, sunflower, orange)

Patterned Paper: CTMH ( star paper from Game On pack); Making Memories

Inks: CTMH ( black , orange)

Other: black and orange Stickles, Copic markers, computer font for text

This Happy Haunting card uses all CTMH products with LOTS of sponge inking and torn sticky notes for masking.

Supplies used:

Stamp(s):CTMH ( The Beauty of Christmas-trees , Spellbound

Cardstock: CTMH ( aut.umn terracotta, black, white daisy)

Patterned Paper: (none used)

Inks: CTMH ( black , sunflower, honey, orange, aut. terr., chocolate, desert sand)

Other: corner punch, black glitter, sticky notes

This spooky tree card also uses the Spellbound stamp set and LOTS of sponging/inky fingers. The ground/horizon line is masked using ripped sticky notes and brayers black on the ground side and sponged in blues and black on the sky side. I also used a white paint pen for highlights and the stars.

Ooh la la!

Isn't mon cherie tres adorable, yes? She is colored w/ copics, and I colored a second set of legs and cut them out and foam pop-dotted them, so she is 3-D. I love layering, paperpiecing and adding textures and layers. I used CTMH Pear Paint ( brushed on w/ a foam brush) on the butterfly to give it shimmer and hold its shape. Overall, I think she turned out romantic and sweet.

Supplies used:

Stamp(s):various--Gorguss Girl; Eiffel tower (SU!)

Cardstock: CTMH ( amethyst, black, white daisy, key lime)

Patterned Paper: Websters

Other: CTMH ( ribbon, pearl paint); Copics ( colors shown below); Stickles

Jingle-Bread Land

I LOVE this yummy new paper pack by CTMH called Jingle...you are sure to see so much more of it this week, heck the next couple months! I also really adore the CTMH November Stamp Of The Month ( SOTM), Around The Block,

Another CTMH consultant ( shout out Karen P) had the brilliant idea to use this cute house stamp set to make a gingerbread house. Well, that got my creative juices flowing and I decided to try and make a little gingerbread scene. ( next I will make a village! tho, it will likely be a scrap page or something larger) This is just a quick & dirty experiment, so please excuse the sloppy heat embossing ( white daisy embossing powder).

I just hand drew the gingerbread man and little candy cane and cut them out. The tree is also just a hand drawn triangle cut out of a sheet of (Chistmas) music, then inked and glittered ( natch).

All products are CTMH except the stickles and sheet music paper.

Firefly and Crazy Frog

I made this firefly card for my girlfriend who gave us a bottle of Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka...sooo yummy. A perfect summer cocktail. Anyway, it is all CTMH products with the usual brayering and sponging and glittering. Again, skyline masked with a sticky note.

The silly frog uses the same technique and is all ctmh except the frog stamp, which is by Whimsy stamps.

Go Phillies!!! ( I need to make some Phillies cars and scrap pages soon!)