Merry Little Christmas ~ Non-Traditional Christmas Color Challenge ~ Unity Stamp Co.

 Hello there crafty friend!

Before I share my card, I'd like to wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving with your families!! I'm super excited to be sharing one last card for the Non-Traditional Christmas Color Challenge and I am using the adorable Peppermint Kisses Mouse Gnome along with the amazing Colossal Snowflake!!

I just can't get enough of this adorable mouse gnome... a new fantastic release by the super talented Jeanie Hays! Love her gnomes!

The Colossal Snowflake is stamped with Wow Clear Embossing ink on a blue card stock and then heat embossed with Alabaster White Embossing powder. I then die cut it with the coordinating Colossal Snowflake die.

The sweet Peppermint Kisses Mouse Gnome stamp was stamped with Gina K Amalgam black ink and then colored up with the following Copic markers:

Nose / Paws ~ E000, E00, E11

Ears ~ R20, R21, E000

Beard / Tail ~ N0, N2, N3

Hat ~ RV0000, RV13, R20, C00, C2

Candy Cane ~ RV0000, RV13, R20, C00, C2, B0000, B01, B52

Pink is one of my favorite colors for Christmas cards and I think it pairs up really nice with blue and white! So bright and sweet!

The Non-Traditional Christmas Color Challenge is coming to an end... I sure hope that you've been inspired to play along and add some sweet cards to your stash of Holiday cards. I'll see you next week with a brand new challenge!! I'm super excited for this one and I hope you all are too!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

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Wintry Merry Christmas ~ Non-Traditional Christmas Colors Challenge ~ Unity Stamp Co.

 Hello there crafty friend!

I'm back with more inspiration for the fun Non-Traditional Christmas Color Card Challenge in the Unity Show & Tell! Today my color combo is browns and bluish-green with just a touch of white.

A bit of ink blending on Kraft card stock over the new fabulous Mountain Scapes {stencil} with Vintage Photo, Antique Linen, and Walnut Stain Distress Oxide inks. I stamped the Woodland Layers trees with Forest Moss and Evergreen Bough Distress Oxide inks.

A little watermark stamping with a Wow Clear Embossing ink pad and The Christmas Tree background stamp from last month. I distressed the edges with Walnut Stain and Ground Espresso Distress Oxide inks. Added a bit of white acrylic paint splatter and set it aside to dry.

Die cut a stitched scalloped frame from Kraft card stock and distressed the edges with Ground Espresso. Adhered my layers and then adhered them to a kraft A2 top fold card base.

 I die cut the Merry from the Say It Big Holiday die set from Vellum and Kraft card stock... distressed the kraft die cut a bit the Ground Espresso Distress Oxide ink.

Stamped the Christmas sentiment from the Say it Big {Holiday} stamp kit onto Ocean Tides card stock with Wow Clear Embossing ink and melted some Alabaster White embossing powder. I just love the rustic feel of this card! I hope this card inspires you to use some browns in your Christmas card makes! Have you played along with the Non-Traditional Christmas Color Card Challenge over in the Unity Show and Tell group? There's been some really wonderful card inspiration shared for the challenge. I hope you come join in the fun!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

 

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

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Scrapping for Less ~ Christmas Card Challenge ~ Rustic Watermelon with Victorian House

 Hello there crafty friend!

Today I'm sharing inspiration for the new December Card Challenge for the Scrapping for Less: Show & Share Facebook group! This month is a Christmas Card Challenge. Super easy peasy... just enter your newly created Christmas card to the album! I think this would be a great way to get us inking up the new products from the October 2020 Christmas is Covered card kit!! But really you can enter any Christmas card that you've created, but please only newly created Christmas cards!

Before we get any further... the key to playing along with the challenge is being a member of the Scrapping for Less: Show & Share Facebook group so if you aren't already a member be sure to join in the fun ---> here. Also, please note that you don't need a blog to enter the challenge as you're adding a photo of your creation directly into the challenge album in the group. You are welcome to include a link to your blog in the description of your creation, if you'd like.

Ok... enough chit chat... let's get to my card!

So... I had a little fun with this card. Do you recognize the patterned paper I used? If you said Rustic Watermelon, you're right!! Yes, I had a fun idea for a pink and green Christmas card using the Rustic Watermelon papers. What do you think?! It's different... but I think it works!

I used the scalloped rectangle die and stitched rectangle die from the My Favorite Things Blueprints 20 dies. For the focal image I die cut white card stock with a Stitched Rectangle STAX die, also from My Favorite Things. I wrapped the focal panel with a light pink 1/4" grosgrain ribbon from my stash. I then tied a knot with the ribbon and cut fishtails on both ends for a faux bow. I did some simple copic coloring on the house with the following Copic Markers:

House ~ W00, W1, W3

Roof/Accents ~ N2, N4, N5

Windows ~ Y06, Y35

Bows ~ R27

Wreath ~ G000, G14

Snow ~ C00, C2

Christmas Lights ~ Y06, YR15, R27, G14, B02

And since I was already working on the one card, why not make two!

It took me a bit to find a green ribbon that works well with the green in these papers. I ended up using New Leaf Topnotch Twill Tape from Papertrey Ink.

Here's a closer look at the added shine from the Ranger Glossy Accents that I added to the windows and Christmas lights. Such a fun touch to the house!

I have a video on my YouTube channel sharing my process in making these cute cards!

You can check the video out... here!

I love how these two cards turned out using non-Christmas papers! I hope you like them too and are inspired to join us in the Christmas Card Challenge!

The December Christmas Card Challenge will run from today, December 1st, and will end December 31st at 11:59pm EST. The winner will be announced in the comments of the challenge album on Friday January 1st. Please use #sflchristmascardchallenge in any social media posts when playing along with the challenge. I can't wait to see what you create!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ Simply Beautiful Christmas Card

Hello there crafty friends!

Today, I'm sharing a super quick Christmas card using just a few supplies and a fabulous sentiment stamp by Stampendous called Christmas Sky. 

This card could be easily duplicated and with a slight change of colors, be made uniquely for each recipient. I stamped the wonderful sentiment from the Christmas Sky set using VersaMark watermark ink and heat embossed a fine black embossing powder. 

I blended over the card stock with Stormy Sky and Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide inks. I die cut the panel with the Eyelet Elegance Rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs and set it aside. 

I wanted to keep my card base simple so I ran a white cardfront measuring 4-1/4 x 5-1/2" through my Big Shot with a snowflake embossing folder. I trimmed it down to 4 x 5-1/4" and wrapped it with a pretty white ribbon. I adhered the snowflake layer to a white card base using Gina K. Connect liquid glue.

 I then popped up the main panel using foam squares. To finish off the card I added a bunch of Simply White Nuvo drops. A simple card design just perfect for multiple cards! I think this would look lovely in purples and blues and even pinks. What do you think? The Christmas Sky set isn't available in the Scrapping for Less shop, but I found a couple of cute scene building sets with fun sentiments that would work with this design... Here Comes Santa Claus by My Favorite Things and Merry Christmas Greeting by My Favorite Things.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ Lawn Fawn ~ Merry Little Christmas!

Hello! Today I'm sharing a bunch of super cute cards using Lawn Fawn's Say What? Christmas Critters along with a few other Lawn Fawn products. Let's have a look, shall we?

I really wanted to make a card that would showcase the sweet critters included in the stamp set but I also wanted to play with the Lawn Fawn Really Rainbow Christmas papers. I pulled out my collage die and started die cutting the papers. I went a little crazy... I ended up with more than enough pieces to make 5 cards.

Now it was time for assembling the card bases. I chose coordinating card stock to mat each collage. I adhered the outside piece and then adhered each stitched piece. Once all of those were done, I adhered each one to a white card base.

Time for the fun! I stamped each of the little critters and the sentiments in the word bubbles several times on white card stock with Memento tuxedo black ink and started coloring with my Copic markers. I chose colors to match the fun rainbow colors in the papers.

Penguin ~ N1, N3, N5, N7, YR14, YR16, R24, R27.

Deer ~ E23, E25, E51, E53, E31, E34, W4.

Llama ~ W00, W1, W3, E41, E51, BG13, BG32.

Unicorn ~ YR16, R27, YG05, Y15, B00, BG32, R00, E0000, BV000, BV04, W4.

I then decided the little critters needed some trees behind them, so I grabbed the Lawn Fawn Winter Skies stamp set and stamped the trees several times on white card stock with Memento tuxedo black ink and also colored them in with Copic markers. I used ~ YG03, YG17, YG23, E57. I played around with the shading on the trees alternating the darker to lighter colors to give the trees some interest rather than make them all the same.

All that was left to do was assemble the cute critter scene on the cards. I decided to use the main sentiment to ground the scene so I die cut the banners from coordinating card stock using a banner die and stamped the sentiment using VersaMark ink and heat embossing a fine white embossing powder. I popped the banners up on the card with foam tape and then adhered the trees with a liquid glue. I alternated popping up the critters on the first four cards coordinating them to the particular sentiment. For example, I popped up the llama on the card with the 'fa-la-la llama' sentiment. On my last card I adhered several trees in the background and then popped up all of the critters having them 'sit' on the banner.

This is such a fun set to play with!! I loved it so much that I also made some tags!! 

I kept the design very simple. 

I die cut the bases of the tags from the Lawn Fawn Really Rainbow Christmas papers. 

I die cut the frames of the tags from white card stock.  I had some critters and sentiment bubbles left over from the cards that I had made so I just used those for these tags.

 I did change up four of them by adding the sentiment to a white base that I had die cut with the other bubble die in the coordinating Say What Gift Tags die set. To finish these tags off, I added some baker's twine from my stash. So cute! And quick!

Now, be sure to go to the shop and sign up on the waitlist for this fantastic stamp set!! You can do that... here!!

Thank you friends for checking out my blog post!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs!

~ Crystal

~ Growing in Unity Winners ~

Hello! I wanted to share the winners I've randomly picked for my Growing in Unity week. Thank you so much to all the wonderful people who checked out my blog all week and left me the sweetest comments! You made my week amazing!! On to the winners...

Random.org chose Day 3...

and comment #30... Congratulations Karen Adams!!

Random.org chose Day 1...

and comment #32... Congratulations Denise Bryant!!

Karen and Denise, please email me at crystalominkler@gmail.com with your mailing addresses to claim your prize of a grab bag of 25 fabulous deeply etched red rubber stamps!! You have two weeks to claim your prize.

I mentioned a few times that this or that card was my favorite and really it's hard to choose when it comes to the cards you've created, but I wanted to share my all time favorite for my week.

Why is this my favorite? Well, honestly, because I struggled with this one the most. I started with my color combination and really wasn't sure how the design would go... but it turned out way better than I could have hoped for... so this lovely card is my favorite. I do adore this Emerson Girl stamp!! Which one was your favorite? I'd love to hear... just leave me a comment if you have a minute.

Thanks again for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

~ Growing in Unity ~ Day Two ~ Be Merry

Hello and welcome to Day 2 of my Growing in Unity week!

My next Source of Inspiration is Color! Now for today's post I decided to go with Non-Traditional Christmas Colors. I received a wonderful gift last year from a friend that included card stock samples for Papertrey Ink card stock, so I pulled those little sample cards out to decide on my color combos. I had so much fun combining color combos that I got a little carried away and made four cards to share today. So grab a cuppa and let's get to it!

My first card using Unity's Christmas Magic stamp set has Aqua Mist, Olive Twist, Pure Poppy (Red), and my favorite... Kraft. For the main image I used the following Copic markers ~ R14, R27, Y000, Y06, Y13, YG93, YG95, YG97, N0, N3, N5, N8, E41, BG11, BG32. I stamped the sentiment with Memento tuxedo black ink and then mat the focal image on a piece of Aqua Mist card stock. I wrapped it a few times with a red and white twine... tied it off with a bow. I then popped up the panel onto a Kraft card base using dimensionals.

Here's a closer look... showing the glossy accents on the little Christmas lights in the wreath and the windows on the truck. I even put some on the brake lights. There's some clear wink of stella on the red bow and my final touch for this card was some red enamel dots.

I absolutely had to share this new wintry Angie Girl called Emerson Girl... isn't she beautiful. Now for this card I went with a color combo of Pinefeather, New Leaf, Green Parakeet, and Amethyst Allure. I love how this one turned out! I colored Emerson using the following Copic markers ~ R20, E000, E000, E00, E23, E25, E29, E79, N0, N1, G17, G29, V0000, V12, V15, V17. I mat the main panel on a piece of Amethyst Allure card stock and set it aside. When color is your inspiration sometimes it's a challenge to find the right coordinating items... and I got a little nervous trying to find the right papers for this card. Luckily for me, I'm a bit of a paper hoarder so I found these great papers with greens that work perfectly... it's from The Paper Studio and it's called 12 Days of Christmas. I adhered all of my layers to a Pinefeather card base. I wrapped some purple baker's twine around the last layer of green. I then popped up Emerson on the card and decided to not add a sentiment since the background paper says Merry Christmas. My final touch for this card was some clear wink of stella in the hat and scarf... sadly the picture doesn't show that. 

My next card features this gorgeous stamp set by Tierra Jackson called Cozy Mitts. Now for this card, I wanted a rich color palette with a pop of pink... so I went with Raspberry Fizz, Royal Velvet, Plum Pudding, and Enchanted Evening. I colored the main image using the following Copic markers ~ G17, G29, V04, V06, V09, RV17, R30, E25, E74. I also added some gold accents to the tips of the pine cone using a Uniball gold pen. For the sentiment, I decided to mask it off and just stamp the word Cozy. I stamped the entire sentiment on the inside of the card (no picture ~ sorry) on a white panel that I adhered inside. I found these beautiful wood panel with music notes papers in my stash... they're from The Paper Studio and they're called Pine St. Square. I adhered my layers to an Enchanted Evening card base, also adding a few brads and that finished off card number three.

My final card you may recognize from my entry into the Interactive Card Challenge in the Unity Show & Tell Facebook group. I used a few different stamp sets for this card, starting with the Days a Little Off set that has this sweet snowman. My color combo for this card is Sweet Blush, New Leaf, Berry Sorbet, and Weathervane. I started with a Weathervane card base that I cut the scalloped square window from. I stamped the snowman on a piece of white card stock and then colored it in with the following Copic markers ~ N0, N3, R00, R01, R05, R12, R22, B0000, B000, Yg23, YG25, E35, E57. I then adhered it on the inside of the card so the snowman peeked through the window. I die cut the Merry Christmas sentiment out of white and Berry Sorbet card stock. I adhered them together leaving a bit of the white peeking out. I die cut the holly and berries, sponged a little color on the edges, and then popped them up on the front of the card.

That white panel left from the peeking snowman was not pretty since the Copic markers bled through, but I just covered that up with a piece of Weathervane card stock that I had stamped and heat embossed the sentiment from the Cheerful Prancing sentiment kit.

And now for the Shadow Box portion of the card. Jennifer McGuire has a great video showing how to create these Shadow Box cards. I altered mine just slightly to fit my card. I stamped the trees from the So & So Loves set on a white panel and then colored it in using the same Copic markers I used for the snowman, excluding the greens and browns. I trimmed that panel down and adhered it behind the window. I stamped another snowman and colored it just like the first snowman. I fussy cut it out and adhered it to the side of the window. I had die cut another set of holly and berries that I adhered to the top corner. My final touch for this card was touches of clear wink of stella in the hearts of the trees, the die cut berries, and of course the snowman's hat, scarf and buttons.

I know today's post was much longer and if you've made it this far, I thank you!

I hope you've enjoyed these cards and found some inspiration to use fun color combos for your cards, be it Christmas or any occasion.

Be sure to leave a comment on each of my GIU blog posts for a chance to win one of two fabulous grab bags of 25 stamps from Unity Stamp Company!!! 

If you missed Day One, you can check it out... here.

Come back tomorrow for my next Source of Inspiration post (I promise, tomorrow's post is shorter)!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal