Happy Birthday to Hubby! (And Happy New Year to YOU!)

Short post because it's my hubby's birthday (not to mention New Year's Eve) We have a bit of a standing joke about how he never wants to become a "grumpy old man" so I couldn't resist the hilarious Bureau of Complaints by Bloobel Stamps.  I combined it with Selfie Stick (also from Bloobel and NO, I don't have one) to create this card.  The images are colored with Copics and I've used digital paper from AMBillustrations.  I've used faux stitched die cuts from Gina Marie and La La Land.  The sentiment is computer generated.
Inside it says "It's your birthday.  No grumpy old men allowed." He laughed... fortunately.

So in case I don't get back here tomorrow, I'm wishing you all health, happiness and more love than you could ever imagine in the coming year.  xxx

I'm entering this in the DL.Art December Linky Challenge, the DL.Art Thankful Thursday ATG challenge, the Outlawz Twisted Thursday ATG, and Simon Says Wednesday ATG.

He Found Out!

Gotta say I've been having a tough time crafting since the week before Christmas but I finally managed this for the Outlawz Challenges today.  I chose the theme of Waiting for Santa in Festive Fridays using a fabulous Santa's List digi that Sandra Caldwell gave her DT and several of us guest designers for Christmas. The adorable little girl is #1223 Pretty Please.  I thought they went well together.  I used the new sketch from the Wednesday Sketch Challenge. Yea, me!

Okay, so mine's a little busier.  What can I say?  Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is looking forward to a fabulous 2017.

I'm also adding this to the DL.Art December Linky Challenge and Simon Says Wednesday ATG.

Have Yourself a Meowy Little Christmas

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and abundant blessings in the New Year.

Lots of love from the Mundinger family.  xxxxx

Non Traditional Christmas Colors for The East Wind FB Group

There's a new FB contest in The East Wind Group with the theme of Non- Traditional Christmas Colors, meaning NO red or green.  This was a no brainer for me since I LOVE creating with icy blues and I just HAD to use the gorgeous new Aurora Red Heart Nose and my new frosty ice border embossing folder by Sheena Douglas.  I've sort of fallen in love with embossing vellum and this time fussy cut the frame to reveal the lovely digi.  the added snowflakes are from JoLee's and the silver borders and sentiment are stickers.

Here's a closeup of Aurora Red Heart Nose.  She's colored with Copics and Prismacolor pencils and I've Stickled the snowy patches on her head, trees and hillsides.  I've used the no background png version and printed her on a background from Gecko Galz.

I'm adding this to the DL.Art Thankful Thursday Any Winter Holiday Challenge, the Outlawz Paper a la Mode Anything Goes, A Snowflakes Promise Winter #35, and lots more when I have more time. 

The Outlawz Color Challenge

So is everybody ready for Christmas?    Yeah, me neither, but I'm getting there. I almost blew off last week's Outlawz Tuesday Color Challenge since it required a gift bag using the colors black white, red and green, with a twist of adding lace.  Seriously?  Fortunately, lying on the floor was this little bag from Bumble and Bumble (hair products) which got me thinking.  First of all, it was black and white. Then all the "B's" reminded me of the cute #1076 Bee an Ornie from Sandra Caldwell.  I colored him like a candy cane and made a little wreath from pine needle pipe cleaners, added some tinsel and a bow and finished it off with some sparkly holly.  WooHoo!  DONE!  Oh yeah, almost forgot the crocheted adhesive lace.  Sorry for the crap pic.  That wreath really is green but the lighting was bad and I was in a rush.  I spent the rest of the day fighting with the family room Christmas garlands.

I'm also adding this to the Simon Says Wednesday Gift It challenge and the DL.Art December Linky Challenge. 

For the Outlawz Progressive Freebie and Sunday CAS Challenge

There are some advantages to getting up at 4:00 am.  If I can tear myself away from the computer, I just may get a little coloring done before I start my day and that's what happened this morning.  I had this cute snowman  from SandiSamples already printed for the Outlawz Freebie/Progressive Challenge and after coloring, I checked out the new Sunday CAS theme which is "Your Perfect Holiday Destination" which for me would be Lake Louise or Banff Canada.  We left 2 days after Christmas and spent David's birthday (New Year's Eve) there about 10 years ago and I sure would love to go back.  I gotta say I really miss snow, at least around the holidays, so I grabbed a couple of scraps that were laying on my desk and assemble this quick CAS card.  That's all for now.  Hope everyone's further along with their Christmas preparations than I am.  LOL

Bite Me!

Boy, do I know how to procrastinate or what?  This is my 3rd post of the day and I should be decorating.  But there are soooo many places to play, and I soooo don't feel like getting on a ladder, and I'm soooo late with some of the challenges I've wanted to enter, soooo... there ya go.  Now I colored these hilarious stamps by Bloobel awhile ago but it never made it to a card...until now.  I've combined Jolly Santa and Gingerbread Blues.

  
They're colored with Copics and I've merged the two stamps by removing the background of the jpg version of Gingerbread Blues.  Remember, Bloobel Stamps are totally transparent in the png version, so merging takes a few more steps in your printing program, if you're so inclined to do so.

I was inspired by the Outlawz Paper a la Mode Have Yourself a Funny Little Christmas challenge, Left of Center Fantasy Challenge (in this case perhaps LOC, although a crippled talking gingerbread boy and Santa himself could be considered Fantasy, I suspect) and the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers X is for XXX-Xmas.

(Now relax Sistahs, I'm just warming up, but if you look closely, his balls are gone too.  Hopefully I'll be back with something nastier.) Ho, Ho, Ho!

Santa Stop Here

I can't believe I'm not decorating!  But here goes with another for the last day of the Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. (sniff, sniff)  I fell in love with the Santa Coffee Mug from Limited Runs (a super sponsor for the Hop) and just had to color him up (BTW, he comes precolored too, kinda tempting but...)  Okay then, the good thing about the cool Stitched Quilt Die I used yesterday for the Hop, is you have a second one all cut with the opposite colors.  WooHoo!  Kept with the red/white color scheme (so pepperminty fresh!) and added the Santa stop sign (also Limited Runs).  The little "for Santa" tag was from a Recollections paper pack.

I'll also be adding this to the December Challenge in the Limited Runs FB Group, the DL.Art December Linky Challenge, and more when I get around to it. 

Merry and Bright

Ya know I'm still not fully decorated at my house but I can't seem to stop entering challenges.  I have SO MANY Christmas digi stamps, of every style and flavor, that all I want to do is craft. Hmmm...not too popular with the hubby, but he's obsessed with an attic project (seriously? right before Christmas?) so I'm not too worried about it.

This one is for the Outlawz Festive Fridays for the Christmas Tree Day theme and I just HAD to use the hilarious #1174 Christmas Tree Hippo by Sandra Caldwell.  Sandra has hippos for EVERY occasion!  You can check them all out HERE.  I just got a huge order of new dies and stuff from Kat Scrappiness and one was this fun stitched Christmas Tree (also the stitched rectangle).  I used the tree layers to frame the image and cut another top out of brown DP for the trunk.

Here's a closeup of #1174 Christmas Tree Hippo.  She's colored with Copics and I've used chalk for the glow of the lights.

I'm also adding this to the DL.Art December Linky challenge, Crafty Addicts ATG/Christmas Colors 3/3,  and the DL.Art thankful Thursday Any Winter Holiday. 

Happy International Tea Day!

So I sort of missed National Cocoa Day and posted a coffee card on the 13th and then posted another coffee card this morning for the Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.  OOPS!  So I thought it might be nice to recognize the tea drinkers on their day with a card of their own.  My BFF from college is a tea drinker and also just happens to be a quilter so I thought it would be apropos to combine the two. The Stitched Quilt #3 Die is by Gina Marie (I happened to get from Super Sponsor Kat Scrappiness), the tea cup is actually a Sizzix 3D die that I cut down to use on it's own (the little tea bag tag is also from that die) and the steamy swirl is from Taylored Expressions.  Stamped the sentiment with a tiny clear stamp from Studio G and there ya go.

Have a Merry Latte Christmas

Still having fun at the Winter Coffee Lover's Blog Hop and thought I'd share again with a quicky all digital project using Christmas Coffee Elements and Christmas Coffee Digital Designer Papers available at Imagine That Digi Stamps.  Gotta say I feel like I'm cheating doing something all digitally, but I couldn't resist this fun set (on sale at 50% off!) and had a minute to play yesterday before my appointments and this is what I came up with.  Of course I could have made this way more elaborate by fussy cutting elements, etc, but I was gone all day (didn't even get to chance to post this) so here it is. I still think it turned out cute and it would be a great way to make a bunch of easily mailed cards and sets quickly.  Thought I was clever using the "coffee stain" as a wreath.  HeeHee!  Now I'm gonna go have a cuppa (or two).

But first...COFFEE!

I'm having fun checking out all of the coffee related projects in the Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and although I'm so far behind in my Christmas preparations, I thought I'd join in today with this cute image from Sandra Caldwell called #399 Santa Coffee Break.  Gotta have a little caffeine buzz to get him though the LOOONG night, for sure.  He's colored with Copics with some gel pen and silver pencil on his sunnies.  The tree dies are Magnolia and Santa's sleigh is from Joy crafts.  The fun paper is from the Recollections Santa's Belt pad.  Come join the fun!

I'm also adding this to the DL.Art December Linky Challenge, the Outlawz Twisted Thursday ATG/ Christmas Tree Twist, CHNC Christmas Challenge Extra for Dec, Crafty Hazelnut's December Patterned Paper Challenge.

New Cardinal Sprite Gift w/Purchase and a COUPON from Aurora Wings

EEEEK!  Look at this cutie!  It's the new Gift with purchase for ANY order this weekend at Aurora Wings.  This new cardinal Sprite couldn't be cuter, don'tcha think?  I made a little quickie CAS, sort of vintage inspired card using Christmas Photo Frames from Iralamija.   I covered the greeting on the bottom with my own and added a bow and a few red "berries" uptop after inking the rounded corners and cut out.

Here's a closeup of Cardinal Sprite and what fun he was to color.  I Googled pix of cardinals to sort of get the difference in shading and one of the most vibrant birds.  I also went for some variegated holly.  He's colored with Copics in the R32-39 range with some W1-4 for shading.  The "black" is done with the high end of the N grays.  

I hope you can take advantage of this GWP, and to sweeten the deal, there's a Coupon code too!

Don't forget we have an extended Blog challenge, Winter Wonderland, that lasts through January 14th and our FB Group challenge, Happy Holidays runs all month in our FB Group page.

Here's how to keep up with all that's happening at Aurora Wings.

Aurora Wings Challenge Blog

Aurora Wings Showcase Blog

Aurora Wings Etsy Shop

Aurora Wings Digi Shop

Aurora Wings FB Group

Aurora Wings FB Fan Page

I'm entering this in the DL.Art December Linky Party, the DL.Art Thankful Thursday Any Winter Holiday Challenge, Crafty Addicts ATG/ Christmas colors and the Outlawz Monday Greetings Happy Holidays (but keep it CAS) challenge. 

A Two-fer for the Outlawz

Okay, I'm still having all kinds of trouble with the pictures and I've barely begun decorating my house, but I managed a quickie to sneak into the Outlawz Festive Fridays under the Santa's Workshop theme and the Wednesday Sketch challenge which just started yesterday, because I missed it last week and who knows how much crafting I'm gonna get done from now on.  (Do I sound like a stress case?  Well, YOU BETCHA!  'Tis the season...) The adorable image is #430 Gift Wrap Class from Sandra Caldwell.  I'm pretty sure when they're not delivering, Santa has them wrapping gifts.  They're colored (very quickly) with Copics according to the DP I chose.  Here's the sketch, too.

I'm also entering this in the DL.Art December Linky Challenge, and the  Crafty Addicts ATG/Christmas colors .

Season's Eatings

Okay, I'm not even going to tell you what it took to upload these pix to my computer from my phone because my camera wouldn't load into my dropbox, but it suffices to say that I got NOTHING done today except for this card.  I'm new to smart phones and the actual phone service is hit or miss in my home because we're in some sort of dead zone, so you can imagine I don't use it much, but seriously?  Am I just too old to figure this stuff out in a timely manner? (End of rant, now on to my card)

Speaking of timely, my plan was to use this adorable image, Turkey Dinner, a freebie from Ike on the Ike's World challenge blog, as a Thanksgiving card but it got a bit lost in the queue so I added a wreath made from some of that Tim Holtz wired greenery, added perfect pearls gold berries and a ribbon and VOILA!, a Christmas card.  As a kid, we always had turkey for both Thanksgiving AND Christmas, so it works for me.  I still managed to keep the color scheme as orange green and brown to just slip this in the DL.Art Thankful Thursday color challenge as well, so all was not lost.  Okay, so there's not a lot of orange, but I think the carrots will do here, as had I finished it before Thanksgiving, I would have added DP with a bit more of it.

Turkey Dinner cames as a no background png so I was able to use digital paper from Gecko Galz that reminded me of fancy dining room wallpaper.  I've colored the image with Copics, and added quite a bit of shading and fur detail with Prismacolor pencils and some silver gel pen on the fork.  He looks like my Goliath, don'tcha think?

Of course I'm adding this to the new SUYP (Cats only) Krimbo Kitties Challenge, and also the Outlawz Twisted Thursday Christmas Card Challenge too.

Winter Wonderland for Aurora Wings

It's time for a new challenge at Aurora Wings with the lovely theme of Winter Wonderland.  Gotta say, this time of year I really miss (the idea of, ha!) snow and the very first thing that came to mind was the quote "Snowflakes are winter's butterflies" so I ran with it. Or should I say crawled with it?  I knew I would be using the adorable Butterfly Sprite, but as for the design, well...??  It finally came together (yesterday!) as a card, but I toyed with the idea of a canvas, shadowbox, and even an ornament (which I still might do) but lack of time, and/or supplies forced me to take the easy route and allowed me to use my new Frosty Ice Border embossing folder by Shena Douglass that arrived just in the nick of time and saved the day.  WooHoo!  I LOVE how it looks with vellum, don't you?  

I adore this little Butterfly Sprite.  This one has simple wings, but she also comes with fancy wings HERE.  I printed her several times so I could layer her up.  The simple coloring was done with Copics and the wings were then covered with Be Creative Tape and frosted with transparent microfine art glitter.  The main snowflakes surrounding her were cut with Impression Obsession dies and layered with JoLee's beaded centers.  The little glittered ones with gem centers are also JoLee's.  The sentiment is a sticker.

Here's a little closer look at the layering of Butterfly Sprite.  I used Nuvo Crystal drops to the eyes on her head and dropped tiny diamonds on them while they were still wet.  Instead of fussy cutting the antennae, I used silver wire to which I glued little plastic snowflakes I cut from a mini garland and again added little diamonds.  A small layered snowflake was tucked under her chin, and finally she was adhered to a glittered acetate snowflake (from MAMBI) and then to a Spellbinders Grand Butterfly die that I ran through my Xyron and dusted with another type of fine glitter 

And here's the dimensional shot.  Gonna have to make a special box for this one.  Doesn't anyone have any tricks for adhering vellum to cardstock?  I thought I had some vellum tape, but it seemed to have yellowed and dried up. Yuck!  I finally used some 1/8th " red line tape which did show through, but I remedied that by using a white sticker border to cover it.

The Stella Team has outdone themselves with fabulous projects, so I hope you go check out the Aurora Wings Challenge Blog and leave them some love. Also, this is our last challenge of the year and both teams will be taking a bit of a break to enjoy the holidays, so this challenge will run through January 14th 2017.  I hope that gives everyone plenty of time to enjoy the holidays yourselves and still come play along.

Here's how to keep up with all that's happening at Aurora Wings.

Aurora Wings Challenge Blog

Aurora Wings Showcase Blog

Aurora Wings Etsy Shop

Aurora Wings Digi Shop

Aurora Wings FB Group

Aurora Wings FB Fan Page

I'm entering this in the DL.Art December Linky Challenge, Simon Says Wednesday ATG, the Outlawz Twisted Thursday Christmas Card challenge, 613 Avenue Create ATG/Holiday Happiness, Come and Get it Christmas, Crafting When We Can Bingo (using Top Row Monochrome, Snowflake, Pearl), Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #47 ATG, Crafty Calender December Christmas Time, Dragonfly Dreams Christmas, Creatalicious ATG, Open Minded Crafting Fun #11 Christmas/Hanukkah, Sweet Stampers Christmas, Your Scrapbook Place Sparkles, Sweet Stampin Let it Snow, Crafting With Friends ATG, CHNC Vintage/ATG Christmas, CHNC December Christmas Extra, Creative Fingers Challenge #121 ATG, A Snowflake's Promise #34 Winter,  TTRCD ATG through Dec 5th, Craft Rocket Winter Time, TTPH Winter/Christmas Colors, Dies R Us ATG Christmas w Dies and Crafting with an Attitude December ATG. 

Holly Jolly

As I've said in the past, I struggle with CAS cards but I'm trying to overcome my tendencies towards excess by playing in the Outlawz Sunday CAS challenge which asks for all white with one (and only one) red embellie.  I did what I was told, squelching my urge to add a teeny red border around the embossed sentiment from Tim Holtz and holly berry gems.  The Holly folder is from Cuttlebug.  I find all white cards soooo elegant, but they sure are a bitch to photograph.  I took a bazillion pix, in every room of the house, before I finally gave up.  Best I could do.

I"m entering this in the DL.Art December Linky Challenge and Simon Says Wednesday ATG.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

I've had the sentiment for this card in my mind ever since I saw the adorable Mindy image from SheepSki Designs and I've finally managed to get it done. The look on this kitty's face is priceless, don'tcha think?  Anyway, there's a Christmas Animals challenge for SheepSki designs on the Markers! Papers! Digis! FB Group as well as an ATG Challenge on the SheepSki Designs FB Group so I get to do double duty with this card.  I really didn't know what I was going for as far as style until I messed with some of the scraps laying around my desk and then found the cute tree mini clothes pin and the teeny box of ornaments so it took on a kind of rustic homespun look with the Kraft paper.

Here's a closeup of Mindy, colored mostly with Copics with added fur detail with my Prismacolor pencils.  I actually got the pine branches green by cropping them out and recoloring them green in my Printmaster Platinum Program and then pasting it over the full image which I'd also lightened to gray, rather than black, as I was going to attempt a sort of "no lines" coloring.  Perhaps not quite light enough, but it worked with the gray I used for the kitty.  He's colored like my dear departed Max who found Christmas balls irresistible.  I cut him with a Spellbinders Deckle edge Rectangle and inked it with distress, as well as taking my scissors the the plaid to rough it up a bit.

So here's the inside.  This sentiment just cracks me up and I'm sure cat owners everywhere can relate.  It was done digitally, while the front is more of the Holiday Talk Stickers and I've added a second ornament that I fussy cut from another printing and cut apart to look broken. Finally, I punched a paw print signature in the right corner of the mat.

Of course I'm also adding this to the SUYP (Cat's only) Furrything Goes Challenge, the Outlawz Saturday Paper a la Mode ATG Challenge, the DL.Art December Linky Challenge, Simon Says Monday 'O' Christmas Tree, Simon Says Wednesday ATG and a few more when I'm not too tired to look them up.

Candy Cane Day

Squeaking in with another for the Festive Friday Challenge on the Outlawz, this time with the theme of Candy Cane Day.  Of course I knew I was going to use an image by Sandra Caldwell, the trouble was choosing which one.  Sandra has a whole slew of candy cane images and some are only $1.50.  You can check them out HERE.  I finally decided on the adorable #1249 What Candy Canes. It's a fairly CAS design using scraps from my messy table.  The background is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and I added a strip between the Spellbinders Oval die cut mat and the image.  The candy cane she's holding is from Recollections and the corner canes were punches that I colored.  I added red pearls to the centers of the bows like the one she's holding and balanced the design with larger ones in the left corners.

Here's a closeup  of #1249 What Candy Canes.  She's colored with Copics, except for the doodling I did for her curly hair with a very sharp Prismacolor pencil.  Lots of fun ways to play with hair on Sandra's fun images. 

I'm aso adding this to the DL.Art December Linky Challenge, Simon Says Wednesday ATG and the CHNC Christmas Extra Challenge for December.

'Tis the Season to be Jolly

What is it about men and the holidays?  Actually, not my hubby, but the majority I know could easily do without and the closer it gets to Christmas, the grumpier they get.  That's why I couldn't resist putting a Santa cap on Bureau of Complaints by Bloobel Stamps.  The Santa hat was flipped, cropped and sized in my Printmaster Platinum program from Jolly Santa.

I colored Bureau of Complaints a bit earlier with Copics with a smidge of additional shading from Prismacolor pencils.  The Outlawz Festive Fridays 25 More Days to Christmas Challenge finally got me to get him on a card.  Just in the nick of time, as usual.  I must have had these papers from the old Mistletoe paper pack from Making Memories in mind when I colored him because he matches pretty well and two of the sheets in the pad worked for the Christmas Countdown theme.

Again I used a sentiment from the Tim Holtz Holiday Talk sticker pack. Unfortunately the gold on black doesn't photograph very well.  I tried to lighten up the pick so you could read " 'Tis the Season to be Jolly ".

I'm aso entering this in the DL.Art December Linky Challenge, the CHNC Challenge 309 Use a Sentiment, the Crafty Hazenut's December Patterned Paper Challenge, Simon Says Wednesday ATG and the CHNC December Christmas Extra ATG.