Welcome to our Holiday Blog Blitz - and a chance to win one of the great new items on today's card!  Hello, Jean Okimoto here, introducing our new Watercolor Woodland Wide Washi Tape.  It's a beautiful holiday print with a hand-colored look  - and it's 4-½" wide x 11 yards.  That's a lot of tape for your holiday cards, tags, layouts and collages!  

Although the red stripes are hard to see here - the 24-sheet Dashing Stripes and Dots 6x6" set complements the Dashing Holiday 6x6" prints.  You can quickly create 16 beautiful 3-sheet combinations of the prints/stripes/dots for your holiday projects.

The Dashing Holiday set is also designed to work well after the holidays.  The reverse sides of the "very holiday" prints are versatile stripes, plaids and diagonals you can use throughout the year.  

Attach a strip of Watercolor Woodland Wide Washi Tape to white cardstock.  Cut a section with the 2.6" x 3.6" Pinpoint Rectangle Layer die.  

Cut accent strips of the red (¾" x 3-½") and green (1" x 4") stripes.  Cut a ¾" x 5-½" green dotted accent strip from the reverse of the green stripes.

Attach a strip of lined doublestick tape behind red cardstock and diecut "JOY" using the Mini Vintage Peace Varsity set.  Leave the letters in the die - just remove the tape liners and the center of the "0."  Cut a circle using the 1" Circle Basics die.  Press the letters (still in the die) firmly onto the circle and use a pokey tool to transfer them to the circle.

Attach everything to a green A-6 (4-½" x 6-¼") card.  Add ¼" punched red glitter dots.

Want to win a wide roll of the Watercolor Woodland Washi Tape?   Leave a comment on this post by Sunday, October 20th at 11:59pm EST.  One winner will be selected at random from the comments to win the washi tape.  Visit the blog from Monday, Oct 14th- Sunday, October 20th to see more of the new release and for a chance to win a prize each day.  Winners from the blitz will be posted on the Outside the Box blog on Monday, October 21st at 6:00pm EST.  Good luck!

Big thanks to everyone from last weekend's HOLIDAY GREETINGS - SIMPLY ASIAN class at Impress.  Special thanks to Jenny and Ann for your great snacks - we certainly appreciated them after that origami bird!  Thanks to Erin and Lynne for helping everyone fill their shopping baskets too.

Thanks for visiting...don't forget to add your comment to today's post - and all of the design team posts throughout our holiday blitz!

 

Supplies

 

PP1002 Dashing Stripes and Dots 6x6 pack

94338 Mini Vintage Varsity Peace craft die

WT498 Watercolor Woodland Wide Washi Tape

30065 Pinpoint Rectangle Layers

30087 Circle Basics Set

Welcome to Day Two of the Holiday Blog Blitz.  I am beyond excited about the 2019 Holiday release from Memory Box.  There's PAPER!  And WASHI TAPE!  Lots of new DIES!  And STAMPS!  See the entire 2019 Holiday release here.  Throughout the week members of the Design Team will share some ideas using the newest products.  And you will have a chance to win prizes, too.

I chose to combine the SNOWY CABIN CIRCLE 94332, the ANTIQUE HOLLY LABEL 94334, and the word "PEACE" from the MINI VINTAGE VARSITY PEACE 94338 for this holiday card.  I also incorporated a gray snowy paper from DASHING HOLIDAY PP1001 collection and both dark green distressed dots paper and one with light and dark brown stripes from DASHING STRIPES AND DOTS PP1002.

I started by cutting the gray snowy paper 4 X 5.25 and then adhered it to the front of a Juniper notecard. 

I die cut the Snowy Cabin Circle two times--once from heavy white cardstock and once from the brown striped paper.  I just popped out the three white pieces and inserted the brown stripey ones to create my log cabin.

Next I cut the Antique Holly Label from the dark green distressed dots paper.  I LOVE the label dies from Memory Box!  

Before assembling the card I decided to add yellow windows to the cabin but cutting that area of the die with yellow cardstock so I could pop out the white window panes and insert yellow ones.

I used some Scor-Tape behind the snow and a glue pen on  parts of the cabin to adhere it in the upper right of the card front.  I used a glue pen then to add the brown striped cabin logs, door, and the yellow window panes.  I placed the Antique Holly Label so that it overlapped the cabin scene, gluing down the outline first and then adding the label strip and the holly leaves.

For the final step I cut "PEACE" from the scrap of gray snowy paper and used the glue pen to place the tiny letters in the label space.

Want to win your own SNOWY CABIN CIRCLE craft die?  Leave me a comment on this post by Sunday, October 20th at 11:59pm EST.  One winner will be selected at random from the comments to win the die.  Visit the blog from Monday, Oct 14th- Sunday, October 20th to see more of the new release and for a chance to win a prize each day.  Winners from the blitz will be posted on the Outside the Box blog on Monday, October 21st at 6:00pm EST.  Good luck!

Happy Crafting!

Snowy Cabin Circle 94332

Antique Holly Label 94334

Mini Vintage Varsity Peace 94338

Dashing Stripes and Dots PP1001

Dashing Holiday PP1002

Guess what?!  Memory Box has new dies to add to your holiday collection as well as brand new papers!  There are two new 6" x 6" packs that coordinate with each other.  The first is called Dashing Holiday:

The second is called Dashing Stripes and Dots:

I used papers from both packs for my card....the dots for the thanks and some striped paper from the Dashing Holiday for the background paper.

This time of year makes me think of creating cards giving thanks.  Therefore, I really wanted to make a thank you card.  I know I will be needing some to have on hand.

To create the card, I started with some Strathmore Bristol paper and cut out the Scribble Leaf Bundle Background (solid leaves).  Next, I added some yellow, orange, red and brown Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to the solid leaves and softened the color with a waterbrush:

Next, I cut out the coordinating Scribble Leaf Bundle Outline dies from dark brown paper and glued them on top of the solid leaves.

The Thank You sentiment are letters that are cut to piece together like a puzzle.  I love the design!  I especially like that they aren't meant to be lined up straight...  a skill that I don't really have.

To finish the card, I outlined the cream cardstock with some Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink and layered all the pieces:

Want to win your own Thank You Puzzle Letters craft die?  Leave a comment to this post by Sunday, October 20th at 11:59pm EST.  One winner will be selected at random from the comments to win the die.  Visit the blog from Monday, Oct 14th- Sunday, October 20th to see more of the new release and for a chance to win a prize each day.  Winners from the blitz will be posted on the Outside the Box blog on Monday, October 21st at 6:00pm EST.  Good luck!

 

 

Supplies

 

94352 Thank You Puzzle Letters craft die

94343 Scribble Leaf Bundle Background craft die

94346 Scribble Leaf Bundle Outline craft die

30082 Stitched Rectangle Trimmings

PP1001 Dashing Holiday 6x6 pack

PP1002 Dashing Stripes and Dots 6x6 pack

Hello and happy Sunday. Thanksgiving is tomorrow here in Canada, so that was the inspiration for this simple watercolor thank you card.  I don’t make autumn themed cards very often, but the beautiful Grateful Autumn stamp set from the holiday release sure makes it easy when the need arises.

Started by diecutting a rectangle panel from mixed media paper using the second largest die from Recrangle Basics die set. Ink smooshed Fossilized Amber, Wild Honey and Gathered Twigs distress oxide inks in the top right corner, ensuring to dry with a heat tool in between each color.  Stamped in VersaMark and heat embossed the Grateful Autumn image with Liquid Platinum embosding powder. 

I love rich vivid autumn colors, so watercolored with red and orange Zig markers without adding too much extra water.  For some texture, spritz with water and splattered with white gouache paint.  I thought gold splatters would have gotten lost in all that yellow.

The Thanks Jotted script sentiment was die cut from gold foil paper and its shadow from black.  Assembled the panel onto a split black/white card base to finish.  Very simple.  Before I go I want to wish my fellow Canadians a happy thanksgiving, and everyone a wonderful week.  Thank you for stopping by.

Supplies

 

CL5243 Grateful Autumn clear stamp set

94011 Thanks Jotted Script craft die

30086 Rectangle Basics Set

Hello everyone!  Today I have a clean and simple Birthday/Halloween card. I have so many birthdays in October, it's fun to combine them with Halloween.

To make this card I die cut the smallest Stylish Frame in the center of a piece of white cardstock.  I die cut the frame again, along with the medium frame from silver cardstock.  I wanted the medium frame to be a little smaller so I cut a section off.

I sponged Distress Oxide Inks onto the center of my white card base and then adhered my card front to that.

I glued my die cuts to the front of my card and die cut the witch from black glitter cardstock. I stamped my sentiment on a strip of black cardstock and white heat embossed it.  Using foam tape I glued it to my card front.

That's it!  It's a very clean and simple card.  Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

 

Supplies

 

94324 Cloaked Witch craft die

94308 Stylish Frame Trio craft die

CL5237 Best Life Typewriter Sentiments

Hello!  Today I thought I would do something a bit different for you.  I used the new Holiday Greenery Stamp Set from Memory box for my Watercolor Card. Isn't this swag just beautiful?  I'd love to have something so fresh and Christmasy in my own home during the holidays.

This was really easy to create.  I started by heat embossing the image onto a piece of Canson Bristol Smooth Cardstock using Versamark and Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  I took a combination of May Green, Green, and Dark Green in my Zig Markers and just scribbled it into each of the leaves.  Using a brush with very little water, I moved the color into the edges and let everything just kind of blend together how it wanted to.  I used the Red Zig for the Berries.  Next, using light blue, I went all around the swag, working the color outward with more water this time.  Once I got in and around all the berries and greenery, I added more of the light blue and worked it outward, turning the paper rather than trying to turn my hand.

I set this aside to let it dry before continuing on to the next steps.  While I was waiting, I chose the colors I wanted to use for all of the background layers. I chose Navy, Teal, and Satin Red, and die cut them with Rectangle Basics Dies.  

I mounted those to a 4.25 x 5.5 Top Folding Navy Cardbase.  Using my Copic White medium, I mixed a little bit on the top of an acrylic block and using a Princeton Neptune #1 Script Brush, I put white splatter over the entire panel to make it look like snowfall.  Again, I set that aside to dry.  I've found that the longer bristles and smaller sized brush give me the type of splatter I was looking for in this case. 

Once that was completely dry, I added some Nuvo Drops in Ivory Seashell (white pearl) for the little berries and some White Blizzard for the highlight on the red berries.  I let that dry overnight and then hit it with some shimmer mist on the following morning.  Not too much as I didn't want the watercolor to run, but enough so that the recipient will notice when they receive the card.  Then I attached that panel to the card base with all the layers that I had prepared.  I also added a plain white panel on the interior for a note.  A simple gold sentiment to match the gold embossing, "Peace" in Cheshire Script finishes this card off.

This is a little bit different of a style for me, so I hope you like it or that it inspires you to try something new to you.   I'm not super comfortable with watercolor, but I keep practicing, which means I am improving. Thanks so very much for stopping by today.  

 

 

Supplies

 

30086 Rectangle Basics Set

CL5244 Holiday Greenery clear stamp set

94017 Peace Cheshire Script craft die

Create a watercolored background with the large, leafy Grateful Autumn clear stamp and Distress Oxides - then add the dimensional Thankful Jotted Script for a quick card.  Our new fall and winter clear stamp sets are great for color-lifting, watercoloring and layering.

Hello, Jean Okimoto here with another fall design featuring one of our newest clear stamp sets.  We'll begin with the watercolored background today.

Brush - or sponge - Distress Oxides onto the smoother side of a 6" square of watercolor paper.  Set it aside to air-dry.  The colors I used here are Carved Pumpkin, Fired Brick, Mowed Lawn and Abandoned Coral.

Have two sheets of facial tissue and an extra acrylic block nearby.

Spritz the large leafy branch stamp with water - it should be very moist, but not drippy.  Press the moist stamp firmly onto the watercolor paper for about a minute.  Carefully remove the stamp and lay the two tissues  over the wet paper.  Press the tissues onto the watercolor paper using the extra acrylic block.  Remove the tissues and heat-set the inks.

Diecut the design with the 3-¾" x 4-¾" Pinpoint Rectangle Layer die.  

Cut the delicate Thankful Jotted Script from metallic bronze cardstock.  Cut the background script from green cardstock. Attach the bronze script to the green background.  

Stamp "for this day" - from the Grateful Autumn stamp set - on green cardstock with Pinecone VersaFine Clair.  Dry the ink and trim the strip. Attach everything to a side-folded 5-½" square natural card.  Add orange gem stickers.

Special thanks to Roxy, Anne and everyone at Stamps and Memories Hawaii for a great HOLIDAY GREETINGS - SIMPLY ASIAN class!  Thanks also to Norine, for the great cookies and to Roxy for the beautiful orchid lei and more cookies!  Hope you liked the cards - and the Memory Box, Poppystamps and Birch Press designs we introduced to Hawaii.

We're having another HOLIDAY GREETINGS - SIMPLY ASIAN class at Impress on October 12th.  Join us if you're in the Seattle area - the class techniques include origami, a bit of stamping and a lot of layering. 

Thanks for visiting...see you again next week!

 

 

Supplies

 

CL5243 Grateful Autumn clear stamp set

94076 Thankful Jotted Script craft die

30065 Pinpoint Rectangle Layers

Hello there.  Today is going to be a quick post since the Christmas card I’m sharing is super easy.

Started by watercoloring the stripe background on watercolor paper alternating between Shaded Lilac and Salty Ocean distress inks.  Used a heat tool to speed up the drying process.  Spritz with a Sparkle spray for some shimmer, then splattered with white gouache paint.  Set aside to dry.

In the meantime, the mistletoe from Mistletoe Swag was white heat embossed on vellum then fussy cut out.  The Christmas sentiment from the same set was white heat embossed on black. The Wishes Jotted script sentiment was die cut from black foil paper and its shadow from white.  Assembled the card onto a white card base, and added clear glitter drops on the berries to finish.  

Attaching the vellum mistletoe without the adhesive showing was a bit tricky, but a matte liquid glue applied behind the embossed lines worked just fine.  I think vellum is so pretty and makes it so easy to create beautiful cards. Instead of creating your own background you could use pattern paper.  And that's it from me.  Thank you for visiting.  Enjoy the rest of your week.

Supplies

 

CL5247 Mistletoe Swag clear stamp set

94122 Wishes Jotted Script craft die

Hello there!  It's Vicki and today I have a card for you featuring some of the new Holiday 2019 Dies from Memory Box!  Given my love for shimmer and shine any time of year, you know that I had to use some of that on a winter snowflake card!  I started by misting up a couple of 4.25 x 5.5 card panels with clear shimmer mist.

I strongly considered using white on white for this card, but I wanted an "icy" color for the card base.  I chose Pearlized Powder Blue from PaperPapers.com.  Once my white card panels were dry, I die cut the Bauble Snowflake Frame Die from one panel and a couple of the smaller snowflakes from the Sparkling Snowflake Trio.  I mean, with "Sparkling" in the name, you know I had to do it.  With the other panel, I cut several more of the snowflakes so that I could layer them up on the front of the card and the inside of the card as well.  I could also have used a shimmer or metallic white cardstock but that paper doesn't give quite the same effect as the white card stock with shimmer mist on it.  These dies cut so well that I don't have any trouble popping them out of the negative.

Memory Box Dies are made in the USA of 100% US Steel.  I don't know about you, but that is something that's important to me as a US Citizen.  They also cut beautifully, every single time.  I am not using a metal adapter plate, but as my cutting pads wear, I may need to add one to my die-cutting sandwich.  I do have a Gemini, but I feel faster cranking everything through my Cuttlebug. When I found out that the Cuttlebug was being discontinued, I bought a dozen sets of "B" plates and a couple of "C" plates.  Eventually, I will have to switch over, but I'm going to be fighting it every step of the way.

Once I had all the snowflakes die-cut, I started laying them on top of each other to see how I would group them.  I always like to put a sparkly little gem in the very center, so it was mostly a matter of what snowflake went on top of which other one. I pretty much always do the largest on the bottom getting smaller with each layer.  I also rotate the additional layers slightly to make it look like there are as many "branches" as possible together.  After I adhered them together at the centers, I laid them on a piece of white printer paper and Misted them yet again with the some Silver Iridescent Shimmer Mist.

After I set those aside, I grabbed the frame and used micropore tape all along the backside of it to keep the little pieces from falling out.  Then using my Tonic Nuvo Shimmer Pen, I went all over the front of the frame.  This gives the most sparkle possible but you need to be squeezing the brush a little the whole time to keep the product coming out.  I wouldn't really do it on something that was any larger because it would be pretty hard on your hands, but I wanted that super shimmery shine today.

After making my card base, I laid everything out on my card to decide how I wanted the layout to look.  I put foam tape all the way around the large frame and adhered it to the card base.  Next, I put Multi Medium Matte all around the small, skinny frame with the dotted detail and adhered it directly to the card.  I put gems around the larger frame at the inner corners and then at the center point on each outer side of the frame in the center of that side.  The detail in all Memory Box dies is just incredible and I have to say I love working with them.

Normally, I try to block the sunlight from the afternoon hours by pulling down my blinds.  I hadn't quite gotten it done when I snapped this picture.  The sun had just gone partly behind a cloud eliminating the really dark shadows that come with full sun.  

This is really simple to do as it is primarily assembly.  With a variety of small one-word dies to choose from, it's easy to put a card together.  You could do mass die cutting, and then sit in front of the television and do mass assembly if you wanted to.  I have so many projects and ideas to share right now, so I'll be back soon with another project to share with you.  I'm trying to get better at remembering to take process photos for you, but there weren't really any in this case.  It was simple die-cutting and assembly.

Supplies

 

94017 Peace Cheshire Script craft die

94314 Bauble Snowflake Frame craft die

94287 Sparkling Snowflake Trio craft die

Here's a card that might spark an idea for the Falling Leaves Challenge this month.

My cast iron squirrel is peeking out from this card which features the HARVEST BRANCH CORNER FRAME 94301 and the two branches from the HARVEST DOUBLE ARCH 94394.

I began by cutting each of the dies from heavy watercolor paper.  (I used Canson Cold Press 140 lb. weight.)

I used a waterbrush and my Autumn Leaves Kaleidacolor raised dye ink pad, picking the color up from the ink pad with the waterbrush and scribbling the extra color off onto scrap paper when I changed colors.  This has become one of my favorite ways to paint lately, just using a waterbrush and dye ink pads.  I also find it easier to leave the die cut image in its background while painting and then pop it out when it is dry.

Once everything was dry, well almost dry, I auditioned background paper and colored notecards to find a combination that was pleasing to me.

I decided to use Mango Distressed Dots Paper cut 4 X 5.25 and I attached it to a Jack O'Lantern notecard.  I also lined the inside of the notecard, both panels, with more of the Mango paper.  

I used 1/8" Scor-Tape to adhere the frame to the front of the notecard and Glue Dots for the Double Arch pieces attached in the upper righthand corner.  I really like the look and the dimension that I got when attaching the stems only at their ends in the corner.  I chose a pretty white-dotted orange bow to finish it off.

Do you have an idea that might turn into a project you could submit for the Falling Leaves Challenge?  I'd love to see what you create during my favorite month of the year!

HAPPY CRAFTING!!!

Harvest branch Corner Frame 94301

Harvest Double Arch 94304