I decided to pull out my Holiday Home stamp set to make this Valentine. I CASED a card made by my niece. Then I freehand drew the wisps of smoke. The inside of the card was made with the new Welcome Words and retired Good Greetings stamp sets.

And here's a tip I learned from Mary Fish's blog. Snip a slit in the top middle of the cardboard holder to tuck the tail of the thread to keep it from unwinding.

Holiday Home Votive

This cute little votive candle holder is made using a strip of vellum Staz-On ink and the Blendabilities (you have to stamp the image on one side of the vellum and then color with the markers on the opposite side) and the Holiday Home stamp set. I found this idea on Vicky Hayes' blog. I used her directions but she didn't have the instructions for making the base so, I had to figure that out on my own. It was hard to get a picture that would come close to doing it justice. It's so pretty with the little flickering battery votive.

CD Calendar - October, November and December

October is a haunted house with bats flying around; all stamps in the set.
November is leaves and pumpkin also in the set.
December is a holiday wreath and Santa and reindeer also all in the set.
Tada! All done using the Holiday Home stamp set.

CD Calendar - July, August, September

July's fireworks were made using the star from the Holiday Home stamp set and adding the tails using the white gel pen.
August is sunshine!
September is an apple orchard. I stamped three trees then added red apples using the darkest Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities marker. Then I used the Old Olive Blendabilities to make the tree leaves. Each tree was fussy cut.

CD Calendar - April, May, June

I wanted to make April showers... so I took the string of lights from the stamp set and inked just the tip of the light bulbs with Smoky Slate, then I rubbed that edge up the cardstock at a slant to make the rain. I colored the house in grey tones using my Blendabilities to add to the rainy day feeling.
For May I wanted to make May flowers but since there isn't a flower in the stamp set I decided to make blossoms instead... Cherry blossoms. I used the snowflake stamp set to make the blossoms then added just a touch of green in the tree branches using a marker. I put the trees in a row to resemble an orchard.
June is sunshine and green trees! I stamped the tree and then used my Old Olive Blendabilities to make the leaves. I wasn't thinking about the bleed that occurs through the card stock. So, I had to be sure to place the calendar over that blur on the reverse page.The sun was made freehand using a Blendabilities marker. This time I was thinking about the bleed but just made another sun on the reverse (see August tomorrow).

Holiday Homes Calendar

I have been making CD case calendars for many years. After seeing the framed Holiday Houses for a Year on Butternut Sage Designs I decided to use the Holiday Home stamp set and Homemade Holiday framelits to make this year's calendar pages. The top photo shows the CD case set up to display the current month and store the extra pages. You do have to take the case apart and put it together "wrong" to get the display "easel".
I challenged myself to only use stamps in the Holiday Home set.
January was pretty easy since there are snowflakes and snowman included in the set.
February also was easy since the set has a cute little heart and I used the lamp post also in the set. A word of caution when using photopolymer stamps... they stick to everything! I used most of the stamps as I was making the calendar pages. I needed a clean block so I pulled the lamp post off a block and did not put it away in the case. When I was putting everything away I couldn't find that stamp. I searched everywhere on my desk top. Then I began to search on all surfaces. I had already put so many things away. After searching for well over 30 minutes I finally found it stuck to one of the ink pads I had used and put away. So, my advice, "Put the stamps in their case as you finish using them."
For March I used the heart stamp to make the clover and then grabbed my marker of the same color and made the stem free hand.
The next three months will be posted tomorrow.

Christmas Cards!

I decided it was time to play with a few of the stamp sets and new tools in the Holiday Catalog. What fun! Here's the first card design I wanted to share.  

I made this one with Pool Party and Basic Gray card stock first. I wanted to do some more sponging and used the same layout as my Halloween card from last week. But I also wanted to use the new Confetti Stars Punch (135861) with the Holiday Home stamp set (135095 photopolymer) and Homemade Holiday framelits (135857). Get the Holiday Home and Homemade Home bundle (137631) and save 15%. I wasn't happy with the stars punched through the sponged moon and I wanted to try the design in another color combo. 





So, on the second card I punched a circle for the moon instead of sponging around a sticky note circle. The colors in it are Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler and Daffodil Delight card stock. I used Blendabilities (Cherry Cobbler 130995, Old Olive 130999, Smoky Slate 131005 and Crumb Cake 131004) Assortments to color the house on both cards. Basic Gray ink pad was used to stamp the trees, sentiment and sleigh on the top card and Smoky Slate and Pool Party ink were used to sponge the background.  Garden Green was used for the trees on the bottom card. Soft Suede was used for the sleigh and Whisper White for the sentiment. The background sponging was done with Crumb Cake, Soft Suede and Garden Green. 

Vellum Ghosts

As promised, today's card has some vellum ghosts popping out of the expressions box. Again I've used the Mingle All the Way (135773 c, 135770 w) and Holiday Home (photopolymer 135095) stamp sets from the Holiday catalog. I'm really enjoying the Holiday Home photopolymer set. It's so easy to line up your images with these photopolymer stamps!
The background of the card was made with a Gold Foil Sheet (132622) embossed with the new Lucky Stars embossing folder (135817) also from the Holiday catalog. This year's Holiday catalog is packed with wonderful products!
The ribbon is some Raven 1/2 lace trim currently available in the Stampin' Up! Clearance Rack. Great price, check it out.
I used Daffodil Delight and Calypso Coral Blendabilities to color the embossed stars. For more on this technique click here .

Thinking ahead to Halloween!

This card is a CASE from Linda Heller at Stamping School. I changed it up just a bit by adding the stamped and punched Hello Honey moon. After I took the photo I realized I forgot to add the little ghost I stamped on vellum. Oh, well... I'll share some vellum ghosts in tomorrow's post.
The stamp sets here are  Mingle All the Way (135773 c, 135770 w) and Holiday Home (photopolymer 135095) from the Holiday catalog. I used the coordinating Homemade Holiday framelits (135857) and the 2-1/2" circle punch (120906). The house was colored using Blendabilities Daffodil Delight Assortment (130998) and Smokey Slate Assortment (131005). To stamp the pumpkin I used the Tangelo Twist and Mossy Meadow markers from the 2014-2016 set (133654). The card stock is Hello Honey, Mossy Meadow, Lost Lagoon, Basic Black and Whisper White.