Layered snowflakes will always be fun.

Last year I got a card kit from My Favorite Things that had layered snowflake dies. While I only made one card with them last year, I made a bunch of the snow flakes and put them aside.

Today I used round tag dies and made a bunch of tags with the layers of snowflakes. What could be more fun?  The sentiment is from an old Alley Way set, stamped and silver embossed on a mini tag from MFT.  The white panel is embossed with snowflakes, with a folder that has been in my stash for years.

Nontraditional colors can be fun, right?  I will decide later if these shall remain tags or if they will go on cards.

Simply red (deer)

I am enjoying these deer die from My Favorite Things. They are called Delightful Deer, and are similar to last year's Deer Love. 

I used more of the gold shiny paper, and a birch tree die from my forgotten stash of dies. I've forgotten where I got them, that is. The sentiment is from an old Hero Arts set that I use every year. I'm a big fan of that font and I keep returning to  it.

As I was getting ready to name this post, the name Simply Red popped into my head. Anyone remember them from the 80s? They were great. 

Fa la la! etc.

This reindeer is from a stamp set in my collection for years. I think I got it in 2015, but it came out in 2012. It is "Fa La La" from The Alley Way Stamps.  The actual "falala" on this card is from a die cut, possibly Simon Says Stamp. I'm entering this one in the Retro Rubber Challenge as it is an "anything goes" challenge. I never seem to have the right theme going on for them, but this is perfect because it is anything, LOL.

I cut the falala from the gold foil background panel and covered up the hole with the brown patterned paper. After adding the cut falala on top, and the Copic colored reindeer, I decided to add a bunch of small die-cut snowflakes. These are from My Favorite Things and Paper Smooches. I cut them from foil and glitter card stock, and topped each one off with a drop of copper or gold Nuvo drops.

I added red Stickles to his nose, and when it dried flat I added Nuvo crystal glaze to give it more shine and some dimension.

It is kind of tricky to photograph mirror-foiled paper, but you can really appreciate all the shine on this one. It's one of my favorites so far this year. Deck the halls you all. Whenever you're ready, of course.

Warm wishes for you, deer.

I'm trying my hand at this week's Color Throw Down Challenge. The colors are slate blue, orange, brown and white.

I can tell you right off the top that working with slate blue is not in my comfort zone. But, moving onward, I started by ink blending 2 similar colors of Distress Oxide ink, Faded Jeans and Stormy Skies. After adding the snow hill, I cut the 2 deer from orange and brown paper. The orange is quite dark in this photo because I tried to ink up the edges with more Distress ink. I also added some typewriter text clear embossing over both deer. I added clear Stickles to the orange deer's antlers, and finished with white and copper Nuvo drops.

The deer are from My Favorite Things' Delightful Deer Dienamics set, and the sentiment is from an old Lawn Fawn set called Winter Fox.

I stopped myself just before I added a copper drop behind one of the deer. I really have to remind myself of how things might actually look.

I've got no business in Michael's. None.

Every year I buy patterned paper at Michael's that I seriously don't need. I am having a very good time making cards with the paper I already have. And yet, I did it again. Christmas Pets, this one is called.

I made a couple of quick cards with it:

I realized pretty quickly that there were not enough larger images to make focal points. These are the 2 largest, and there are 2 more duplicates in the pad. All the other images are smaller.

Ha! Serves me right for making impulse purchases in Michael's. 

Deck the Howls

Today, 2 new cards featuring the cute Christmas dogs from My Favorite Things' Deck the Howls set. The dogs are so cute, but I learned this time that when using Copic markers, the paper REALLY matters. For these cute dogs, I stamped them with MFT's Extreme Black ink on MFT's Smooth White card stock. It came in the flamingo kit, and it feels wonderful. But, I won't do that again as the Copic colors bled, a lot. I  had stamped them 2 times, so the next group will be some other color medium, like pencils. This card stock will make great bases, though.

Anyway, for the red card, I die cut the word Joy from 3 different fonts, and had the dogs (and a bone) coming through the "O"s.  On the green card, I used the new free word die, and added a couple of dogs. I will stamp an appropriate dog-themed sentiment on the inside.

Yes, another flamingo card! This flamingo is colored with my Polychromos pencils on some very inexpensive children's watercolor paper from Walmart. I like it because it has a pretty good texture for colored pencils.