Friends Make the Holiday MERRY!

Here's my last NBUS entry for Darnell's NBUS #3 challenge. I'm also going to enter it in the CAS-ology NBUS challenge and Merry Monday which is featuring Christmas Critters. For this design I used another new Mama Elephant set called Arctic Penguins. Just LOVE all the sweet penguins included! The stamped sentiment is from another Mama Elephant set, Jolly and Merry which includes lots of images and sentiments that work great with the penguin images. I have no idea where I got that patterned paper but loved the plaid and fun penguin!

Challenges Entered

Thanks for letting me share another card! I loved playing again!!

Sharron

Supplies:

Stamps: Arctic Penguins, Jolly and Merry (Mama Elephant); Tinsel and Tags (PTI)

Cardstock: White (Recollections); Cupid's Bow (WPlus9)

Dies: Anytime Tags (Lil' Inker): Tinsel and Tags, Wet Paint Holiday (PTI)

Additional: Patterned Paper (source unk.); Tuxedo Black, Bamboo Leaves, Cottage Ivy, Lady Bug Inks (Memento); Copics; Clear Wink of Stella for the berries

NBUS Joins CAS-ology!!

While my posts last year were at a minimum, it didn't keep me from purchasing new supplies. And quite a few of my new stamp sets were from Mama Elephant. So when I was looking for materials for Darnell's NBUS challenge, my Mama Elephant file was an easy choice. I am so thankful that Darnell has encouraged me to finally play with some of these fabulous sets. And since I have several new Christmas sets, I will be ahead of the game for Christmas 2015!

And what fun when I saw this week's cue word at CAS-ology. None other than Darnell's very original term--NBUS, which stands for 'never before used schtuff" Visiting Darnell's blog is always a treat--her humor and creativity are amazing!! If you have never stopped by, put that at the very top of your to-do list!

So for my card........ Aren't these little Mama Elephant Alpine Carolers so adorable? There are dies to match but I don't mind fussy cutting and like my images cut on the edge instead of having the white border. The bells and sentiment are from another Mama Elephant set, Winter Wonderland. Three sizes of bells are included. The glimmery background paper is from Bazzill and I brushed the white in front with clear Wink of Stella.

I have another card I will be posting shortly. Hope you are having a wonderful week!

Sharron

Supplies

Stamps: Alpine Carolers, Winter Wonderland (Mama Elephant); Heartfelt Mix (WPlus9)

Cardstock: White (Recollections); Aqua (Bazzill)

Dies: Stitched Circles (Lil' Inker)

Additional: Gold Embossing Powder (Ranger); Tuxedo Black Ink (Memento); Copics

CASEing Michele!

I've found a new blog and it's filled with inspiration!! Tracey, In My Creative Opinion, who is one of the 12 Kits members, mentioned the blog in a post so I went to visit. I instantly fell in love with all the fabulous creations and yesterday took the time to explore further. Michele Ferguson, I Card Everyone, has a wonderful CAS style and I found so much inspiration. In the card below she used a PTI set, that I have but had never even opened. for a stunning white and silver design. Below is a photo of her card.

And below is the CASE I did. Unfortunately I have a terrible time photographing metallics! It is much lighter and sparkly IRL. I used Memory Box's Contempo Circles die and patterned paper from S.E.I. The sentiment and bird are from PTI's Trendy Trees. The landscape is embossed with silver.

I'm so looking forward to making many visits Michelle's blog as I am now a follower! I am also entering this in Darnell's 3rd NBUS Challenge and in Virginia's View Challenge #11, Clean Slate.

Don't faint but I just posted two days in a row! Thanks for coming by again,

Sharron

Congrats, Kara

One of my favorite places to visit for inspiration is Kara's (KandRDesigns) Friday Inspiration File. And she is celebrating her 200th week of posts with a challenge. Click here to find out the details. You can select any pin in any of the files for inspiration and create a project. I needed a masculine sympathy card and had been really struggling finding something special when I came across this card by Jill Foster in Kara's file.

I used a tree stamp from PTI's Through the Trees and embossed it with gold embossing powder on some watercolor paper. Sorry the glittery gold doesn't show up well. Koi watercolors were used for the subtle background. The sentiment is from Altenew's Ori Kami and is one of my favorites for sympathy cards. The layer of green cardstock is WPlus9's Green Acres.

I enjoyed my review of Kara's files so much, even though I didn't make a dent in visiting all the wonderful inspiration projects. I have started a list of some I want to CASE. This will really help me get back into the stamping routine that I have been missing so much in 2014! Thanks, Kara!!

Thanks for letting me share,

Sharron

The 12 Kits of Occasions: December with Cathy!

It's time for our December reveal as another amazing year is drawing to a close! Thanks to all of you who have followed our blog and let us share our projects. This month's hostess is Cathy, The Empty Nest Crafter, and the theme is "Baby, It's a New Year". This was an appropriate theme for Cathy as her first grandbaby was just recently born--an exciting event she has been looking forward to for quite a while. Her kit included such wonderful papers and so many die cuts (see photo below). Everything was so much fun and easy to use! Thank you so much, Cathy!!

PHOTO BY KARA

We do have some sad news this month though! This will be Renee's last month with the 12 Kits group so she can spend more time with her family. The group wouldn't even exist if it weren't for her and she has been such an inspiration to all of us. She is going to be greatly missed! Hope she can pop by occasionally and perhaps be a guest designer.

All supplies were included in Cathy's kit except for a couple of pieces of felt. I want to keep my post short so you can visit everyone else. Just click HERE to go to the 12 Kits blog where you will find links to all the blogs.

Wishing you all the very best in the year ahead!! Don't forget to come back and visit us on the last day of January!

Sharron

A Very Merry Christmas to All!!

Just wanted to share a few of my Christmas projects and to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! I am so glad I ordered PTI's Tinsel and Tags set this year. It has been so much fun! I made a dozen globes  to use on Christmas gifts and still have a few more that are stamped and ready to put together. All are the same except I used two different sentiments.

I had requested this My Favorite Things Jingle All the Way set a while back from a favorite Kansas City stamping store. I had several other tags that I had been working on but when it arrived in the mail, I instantly fell in love with these adorable little Santas. I know it's not very practical to do tags that require a lot of coloring but I couldn't help myself. I've made a LOT of these! The 'a gift for you' sentiment came from Tinsel and Tags.

Except for hubby's gift and also his birthday present (BD is the 27th!), I think I'm actually ready for the holidays. The baking is even done!!

If you are celebrating Christmas, Hanakkah, or Kwanza this month, may December bring you peace. Wishing everyone a wonderful season,

Sharron

The 12 Kits of Occasions: November with Kim

Hi everyone! For those of you in the States, hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's the last day of the month and time for the 12 Kits of Occasions group to reveal this month's creations. The theme is "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" and what could be more appropriate. Have you gotten your decorations out and started your shopping? Did anyone jump into the rush of Black Friday? Definitely not me!!

Our wonderful and very talented hostess this month was Kim, Cupcakes, Cards and Kim. And below is a photo of all the goodies we each received. Our kits were stuffed full of fabulous stamped images and sentiments, wonderful die cuts and plenty of great embellishments. Thank you so much, Kim--I loved your kit!!

PHOTO BY KARA

Kim included several Santa images. This was such an easy card to make and one of my favorites. Kim even included that fantastic stamped envelope. I used my die cut 'Merry' on another card but had the same die set so I cut out a dark green version for this 'Merry Christmas'.

Below is the inside of the card.

Another great Santa! I was tempted to add some color but decided to stay with the black and white image and add this gorgeous die cut done in silver.

I thought the inside should be coordinated on this card too!

I added embossed snowflakes to go with this sweet bunny. All the snowflakes were brushed with clear Wink of Stella but that unfortunately doesn't show in the photo. Love the large framed die cut!

This next card was so easy. The papers are the front and back of a single sheet. Perfect design to use the jingle bells Kim included!

There were a couple of sheets of black cardstock so I thought black would make a great background for the sweet owl. I added a birch tree die cut using a Taylored Expressions die and a Mama Elephant sentiment that went with the 'Merry' in my kit.

Hope you find some inspiration for your holiday cards from all of the 12 Kits designs. That is if you haven't gotten everything done already!!! Just click HERE to connect with the 12 Kits blog where you can find links to all the other designers' blogs. A list of all the materials included in Kim's kit can be found at the top of the page.

Enjoy the hop1 And thanks so very much for dropping by,

Sharron