Anything But Cute Secret Santa

Happy Friday!! I hope you have fun plans for the weekend!! The design team of Anything But Cute held a Secret Santa drawing to create a project for one of our dear sisters. I was so excited to draw as my Secret Santa, the sweet, lovely and amazingly talented Branka of Vintage Handmade!! She is one of the nicest, most talented artists I've met in blogland and I'm so honored to be teamies with her!! I wanted to create something special for Branka since she is such an amazing person!! This is the card that I sent in a package to her in Croatia :)

For this card, I used papers from Maja Designs Winter Frost Basics set. I love this paper stack, and especially this vintage Santa image!! I wanted to showcase it with this card :) What a beautiful representation of Christmas!! The edges of all the papers were distressed with a Zutter DIA.

The back layer is a Precious Marieke Snowflake border die. The gorgeous crinkle ribbon is Steel Blue from the DL.ART Blues Bundle which matched perfectly with the papers. Tucked beneath the Santa photo are Impression Obsession Pine Branch dies, Impression Pine Sprigs dies and Sue Wilson Designs Holly Sprays.

The tree is an Impression Obsession Fir Tree die. It was covered in DecoArt Crackle Paste and once it dried, it was brushed with DecoArt Antiquing Cream in Raw Umber, which was then wiped off, leaving it in the cracks. Believe is a My Creative Time die and it was cut once in Maja paper and once in black for a shadow. It was popped up with foam tape for dimension.

The card was finished up with DecoArt Snow Writer for a frosty effect :) I am entering this in the following challenges:

1) Dies R Us - Christmas

How excited am I that my Secret Santa is the amazing Pamellia of My Little Craft Things!! Oh, I can't tell you how honored I am to own one of her stunning masterpieces!! Wow!! They are even more spectacular in person!! It's sitting on a special shelf in my craft room where I can gaze at it every day and be so inspired!! It is truly a work of art!! And not only did Pamellia send a card, but...

...she created this gorgeous handmade ornament, too!! I have my (sadly artificial) pre-lit tree up and I haven't had a chance to put any ornaments on it at all. I can't tell you how happy I was to receive this stunning one!! It is the most gorgeous ornament I've ever seen!! It's the showplace of my tree!! Please stop by Pamellia's blog, My Little Craft Things, so you can see what she created for me, and then go to the Anything But Cute blog to see what the rest of my sweet sisters created for their Secret Santas!! I guarantee you will be inspired!!

Thank you so much for stopping by!! Have a great weekend!! Big hugs :)

Scrapy Land Challenge #53 - Anything Goes

Happy Wednesday!! I hope you are having a wonderful week!! It's time for a new challenge at Scrapy Land and as always, the first challenge of the month is Anything Goes using a brand of die that Scrapy Land carries...there are over 40 to choose from!! You could win a gift certificate for $15 to shop at Scrapy Land!

More Christmas cards today :) For these cards, I used papers from Lemoncraft's Christmas Greetings stack. The edges were distressed with a Zutter DIA.

On the top of the card, I used a Precious Marieke Snowflake Border die, tucked behind the mountains from the Elizabeth Craft Skis die set.

This was one of my favorite cards to make because when I saw the skis die, I just had to have it!! For many years, I lived in Lake Placid, New York, in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains. Lake Placid hosted two Olympic Games and winter sports is king there. I'd never skied until I moved there.

I wanted to give the skis a rustic, used look, so I covered them in DecoArt Crackle Paste. Once it dried and cracked, I used DecoArt Raw Umber Antiquing Cream to bring out the cracks. The bindings were cut in silver paper.

To cut the curved edge, I used the Memory Box Curved Dashing Through the Snow die, and adhered the words along the curve as well. The gorgeous ribbon is from DL.ART.

Beneath the Wild Orchid Crafts poinsettias, are Impression Obsession Pine Branch dies, Impression Obsession Pine Sprigs and Sue Wilson Designs Holly Sprays. This beautiful ribbon is from DL.ART as well. The cards were topped off with a DecoArt Snow Writer, glitter and splatters of white paint with a Tim Holtz Splatter Brush.

I am entering this in the following challenges:

1) Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes
2) Scrapping4fun Challenges - Anything Goes

Scrapy Land Dies Used

Impression Obsession Pine Branch

Impression Obsession Pine Sprigs

Sue Wilson Designs Holly Sprays 

Elizabeth Craft Skis

Spellbinders Curved Borders 1 (inside)

Precious Marieke Snowflake Border

Memory Box Curved Dashing Through the Snow

Now it's your turn!! Head on over to Scrapy Land to see the amazing projects my design team sisters have created for today's challenge!! Then link up your Anything Goes project using a brand of die that Scrapy Land carries!! I can't wait to see what you create :)