Life Is Tweet Birthday Card

This colorful little birthday card came together easily.  I used CTMH Lagoon cs, and ran the inner piece through my Cuttlebug.  The bird and sentiment are from CTMH's "Life is Tweet" stamp set.  I stamped the bird once on the tag, and then again on a separate piece of paper and cut it out.  I paper pieced the body over the image on the tag so the image went off the tag, but I didn't have to cut around the skinny bird legs.  The punch along the left edge is from EK Success, and the punch around the sentiment is from SU.

Beer Mug Birthday Card

This card was completely lifted off of Pinterest.  I couldn't follow the link because it was blocked, so I'm not sure who originally designed the beer mug, but I think it makes a great guy card.  On mine, I used CTMH's "Victory" paper for the background.  The beer and mug are all paper pieced.  I used CTMH's Goldrush ink and cardstock for the beer.  The sentiment is from CTMH's "Card Chatter - Birthday" stamp set.  Cheers!

She Knows Her Own Strength

     Back to blogging!  I have a lot of new post-Christmas inspiration and hope to spend a lot of time in my studio now.  I bought this stamp set online before Christmas from Artistic Outpost.  I like the image of the woman.  She looks like one tough broad, and I appreciate that.  The B&T papers are from CTMH's "Dakota" set.  I colored the images with Copic markers and distress ink, and distressed everything in black ink.
     Something I've just started experimenting with is art journaling and, along with that, sprays.  Here is an admittedly beginner's art journaling attempt I made:

It's becoming a new obsession, which is just what I need--a new reason to buy more art supplies.  This page includes sprays, chalk, ink, Copics, Stickles, Liquid Pearls, and probably more that I can't recall.  The journaling, which is hard to read in the pic, is "Life Is Far Too Short Not to Have a Little Umbrella in Your Drink."  The little umbrellas are in different colors--blue, green, and lavender. 

Let It Snow! Shadowbox

Another shadowbox.  This time I filled it with fake snow, a pine cone, and a few red glittery Christmas balls.  "Let it Snow!" are glitter stickers.  It came together in about five minutes.  I gave it to a friend with three little kids, and they love it.

And, it must have worked, because after having no snow on the ground yesterday, this is what we woke up to today--about 10 inches at our house, and much more in other areas of Iowa:

And the Winner Is . . .

We had a very sophisticated drawing here at Ms. Molly headquarters.  By that I mean I made up little slips of paper numbered one through eleven, and then I interrupted my husband's football game to ask him to draw a number from my cute snowman dish.  The winner, No. 7, is TERRY.  Congratulations, Terry!  I've contacted you via Facebook, and will get your Hooray Bouquet stamp set in the mail to you as soon as I receive your mailing instructions.

 

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to enter and signed up (or was already) a follower of my blog and left a comment.  I saw a huge increase in blog traffic during the last few days, so thank you, too, to those of you who just stopped by.  I hope you all continue to read my posts.  For those of you who entered but did not win, if you have a blog, my next step is to become a follower of your blog, because that just seems fair.

I Used All My Christmas Stamp Sets! / A Hooray Bouquet Giveaway!

This is it!  I used at least one stamp from every single Christmas stamp set I own.  This cute snowman is called "Mini-Me's Sleigh Ride," and it's actually a rubber stamp from Whipper Snapper Designs, Inc.  It was fun to color with my copic markers.  I pretty much followed the colors right from the example on the back of the wood mount.  The blue cs background was dry embossed using my Scor-Pal, then sanded to show the white core.  I also added a punched snowflake, some baker's twine, and a few pearl embellishments.

 

Thanks for following along as made myself use some of my stash of stamps that sometimes gets overlooked.  In case you want to look back at all the projects, here are the sets I used linked back to their posts:

Pear & Partridge WOTG

Flakey Friends

Happy Hour (SU)

Heartfelt Christmas

Wonderland WOTG

Believe WOTG

Bundled Buddies

Penguin & Snowman (Recollections)

Snow Friends

Holiday Wishes

I Believe

Nature's Gift

Santa's List

Snow Flurries

Merry Pursuits

Pair-a-Phrase

Christmas Greetings

Winter Joy

Feathery Flakes AND Perfect Fit

Father Christmas

Just for the Holidays

Stocking Style

Evergreen

December Word Puzzle

Sparkly Tannenbaum

Holiday Magic

 

Hooray!  I did it!  And in the holiday spirit of giving, I'm going to give away a brand new Close to My Heart stamp set, "Hooray Bouquet," to celebrate.  To enter, just sign up as a follower to my blog AND leave a comment to this post.  I will randomly draw a winner and announce it on Sunday, December 9, so have your comments in by 5 p.m. CST Sunday!  Good luck!

Hooray Bouquet CTMH Stamp Set

 (No comments submitted from "Anonymous" will be eligible--I get too much spam from Mr./Ms. Anonymous.)

Holiday Magic Card

I bought this stamp, CTMH's "Holiday Magic" at least a year ago, and this was the first time I can remember using it.  I love the different patterns on the trees and the sleigh.  There are also two stockings on the set with two more different patterns.  The background of this card is B&T paper from the "Mistletoe" paper pack.  The sleigh and sentiment banner are raised with dimensional adhesive, and I added the little ribbon bow to the sleigh.  No bling at all, but I like the traditional feel to the card.

Sparkly Tannenbaum Tree Card

The color in this photo is poor, but at least you can see how glittery the tree is.  I used CTMH stamp set "Tannenbaum" for both the tree and sentiment.  I paper pieced the tree using a red background, then I covered that in red Stickles.  The tree really sparkles, but without the glitter getting everywhere.  The background B&T paper is the CTMH "Mistletoe" paper pack.

December Word Puzzle Christmas Thank You

This simple thank-you card was made with the little trees of the CTMH "December Word Puzzle" stamp set.  The punched scalloped circle is raised on dimensional adhesive so it pops off the card base.  The bright green cs makes the Ruby ink and baker's twine really show up for a modern look.

Evergreen Card

This crooked little tree and the surrounding sentiment come from CTMH's "Evergreen" stamp set.  I used second generation stamping for the tree stand, then tipped the tree for a little quirkiness.  There's a lot of Stardust Glitz making the tree shimmer.  I repeated the "merry and bright" sentiment stamp arround the whole edge of the pink background.   I'm getting close to using all of my Christmas stamp sets!

Stocking Style Tag

Although it was made as a package tag, this stocking would work fine as an ornament too.  It's from CTMH's stamp set "Stocking Style."  I just added the snowflake punch, punched a hole in the corner, and tied on some red ribbon.  Super easy and it will look great on a gift.

Just for the Holidays Nugget Boxes

These paper-crafted Nugget boxes have been around almost as long as Hershey's Nuggets, but they're still a good little gift.  I made these with CTMH's "Jingle" papers, Tulip cs, and the "Just for the Holidays" stamp set.

Of course I used my favorite snowflake punch and added some CTMH Stardust Glitz to both snowflakes and the tiny snowflake in the center of the mitten on the stamped image.

I chose to make a box that holds three Nuggets, but there are patterns all over the Internet for all different sizes.  I might be the only blog that hasn't done a how-to post on these.  Maybe for Valentine's Day....

Tag Brag Book

Here's another example of a the quick mini book I made from coin envelopes and tags from Staples.  My first post about this kind of album can be found HERE.  I helped my niece make this brag book full of picture of her baby, Aiden.

This picture shows the book open.  Each envelope is a page, and there's a tag inserted in each envelope with more pictures.

And here's poor Aiden (and his mom) being made to pose with the book.  I think if Aiden could describe the process, he would say, "I spit up a lot during the making of this book."  :)

Father Christmas Easel Card

Easel cards are simple to create but impressive.  I used CTMH's stamp set "Father Christmas" and B&T paper pack "Believe."  This was a great image to color with Copic markers.  For skin tones I always use E00 Skin White first, shade with E02 Fruit Pink, then blend with E00 again.  Because I wanted Santa's cheeks to be rosy, I blended in some pink here as well.

Here's a picture from the side showing the easel: