Christmas "Pawlidays"

Now...before we even begin today's post, you need to understand that I am not a dog person. I'm not a cat person either. I'm a "I don't really want any pets in my home because I can't even keep a plant alive" person. However, when I saw the adorable "Happy Pawlidays" stamp set from MFT, I couldn't resist. For this first card, I paired the stamp set with the CTMH Fancy Tags Thin Cuts and some Oh What Fun paper. I also used a snowflake embossing folder.

For this second card, I used retired paper and a retired snowflake thin cut from CTMH as well as the current Fancy Tag Thin Cuts. 

Both images were colored with Copic Markers. Soooo stinkin' CUTE!!

Before you go, please enter to with the $150 Amazon Gift Card by following me and five other Inspirational Historical Romance authors. This drawing ends soon! And be sure to link through to my CTMH website for Cyber Monday Deals!!

Until next time,

Becca

Oh What Fun Christmas Cards with Felt Compliments

As promised in yesterday's post, here are the other six cards I created using the Oh What Fun Paper Packet and Felt Compliments.

I seriously had loads of fun using these compliments, particularly in conjunction with the Ugly Sweater stamp set. For the ribbing on the sweaters, I just used a white gel pen. The only retired product was used on the first card. I don't know about you, but I have a ton of Christmas stamp sets so I limited my purchases to just the Ugly Sweater set this year in favor of using the products I already have.

Again, please be sure to enter the drawing for the $150 Amazon Gift Card by following me and five other authors on BookBub. The contest closes in 2 days!

Until next time,
Becca

Christmas Cards with Tags

Whew! Thanksgiving company has left, the house is clean, and I could get back into my office to photograph some of the cards I've been working on for the past two weeks. If you've visited my blog at any time since CTMH came out with their new Fancy Tag Thin Cuts, you know that I love tags on cards. LOVE them. Today's post has two examples of double tag ideas.

This first one uses colors from the current Color My Heart challenge: Kraft, New England Ivy, and Candy Apple.

I saw this bent tree idea on a blog hop and neglected to copy down the information of who came up with it. Whoever it was...you're a genius! Except for the sentiment, everything on this card uses the current Stamp of the Month: Seasonal Trees (see sidebar for shopping link) which is only $5 with a $50 purchase. The sentiment comes from one of the Flower Market cartridge coordinating stamp sets. Isn't that perfect???

The stripe of red and white paper comes from the 'Tis the Season paper pack. I did a partial die cut with both it and the New England Ivy cardstock to create the tag top, layering them together afterwards. I cut a little too much of the New England Ivy so I just tore off the edge taking advantage of the white core of the cardstock. The piece I had leftover fit perfectly on the bottom, the white core adding another layer of interest. I trimmed the corners with Micro-tip Scissors.

This second card uses the Oh What Fun paper and Felt Compliments. Soooo cute!

The sentiment comes from a stamp set I purchased last year. I'll be featuring more cards using this paper and felt compliments in the next few days, so I hope you'll come back to see them. I made a total of seven cards and am seriously thinking about purchasing several more of the felt compliments because they are so stinkin' cute!

Before you go, please be sure to enter the Amazon Gift Card give away at the top of this blog post (through 11/27/18).

Until next time,
Becca

Ugly Sweater

I'm DONE!! Book three of the Montana Brides series is in the hands of the publisher...and I already know one problem. Fortunately, this is the first round of the process so I'll have time to fix it before it arrives in stores next year. The even better news is that I had a bit of time to play in my craft room last night with my favorite Christmas stamp set of the CTMH catalog: Ugly Sweater.

I used older papers and an old snowflake die cut on these, but sometimes it's good to pull out the old and combine it with the new. Both of these cards could easily be replicated with any paper you have on hand. (NOTE: I usually provide links to all the products used, but today I'm giving you just the link to the stamp set. Also available are the die cut for the tag and diagonal border on the top card.)

The top card shows you the stamped image of the sweater. The bottom one I stamped the image on the back side of the paper and cut it out. On the top one, I stamped the decorative part of the sweater in Whisper (retired but coordinates with the paper colors) then added color over the top with a red colored pencil and a black micron pen. On the bottom, I used gold a white gel pens to accent the decorative elements and to draw the bands on the cuffs, collar, and waist of the bottom sweater.

Someone please tell me I'm not the only one who still has paper from six years ago. Please.

The bottom card is for an exchange. I made twenty of these last night while watching mindless TV with my hubs. While I've been on deadline, he's been watching a show which holds no interest for me. However, when he's been an absolute prince to do grocery shopping, make dinner, wash dishes, and do laundry while I spent twelve hours a day in my office to get this story done, you watch what the man wants to watch.

We're off to a marriage retreat this weekend. No rest for the weary. And then it's time to start preparations for Thanksgiving. How did that happen?? Oh...right...the world didn't stop while I was buried in my writing cave.

Until next time,
Becca

October Stamp of the Month - Thanks & Giving

Can I give you a small piece of advice? Never try to promote one book when you're on deadline to write another. This is particularly bad when CTMH releases your favorite Stamp of the Month at the same time and you don't have nearly enough time to play. Ugh!

But my eyeballs were bleeding from too much screen time, so I sat down at my craft table and got inky. That was about two weeks ago. I took pictures of the card but didn't have the SD card in my camera.

Yes, it's been that kind of month.

I only have a few minutes now because this book is due in two days and I have about 150 pages left to revise. Yeah. Gotta get cracking. So...here's the card:

I don't have time to provide all the shopping links, but here's the supply list:

• Grateful Heart Paper Pack
• October SOM-Thanks&Giving (link on sidebar)
• Espresso Ink
• Ruby Ink
• Goldrush Ink
• Saffron Ink
• Versamark Ink
• White Embossing Powder
• Markers (to color house and small flowers and add flower centers)
• New England Ivy Cardstock
• Ruby Cardstock
• White Daisy Cardstock
• Border Die Cuts (Line of flowers bordering the top of the Grateful Heart patterned paper)
• Tag Die Cuts
• Fern Thick Twine (Available in the Clearance section)
• Micro-tip scisors
• Glue

Okay...off to the writing cave. If you don't see me for another week, send chocolate.

Until next time,
Becca

FLASH SALE

Hey all...poking my head out of the writing cave to let you know about a FLASH SALE on one of my novellas. It's called The Gift of the Matchmaker, and it's on sale for $0.99 for a limited time. This is the first of two connected stories, so if you're curious about the maid, Rosalie, you can read her story: Cinderella's Masquerade.

Both of these stories come in Christmas themed collections. The first is "Merry Matchmakers" and the second is in "A Christmas Masquerade." The collections have many novellas by multiple authors and sell for $2.99. The individual novellas normally sell for $2.99 per story, so the collection is a great deal.

And now it's back to the writing cave so I can meet my Nov. 1 deadline. I promise, when this is done, I will back to crafting like a crazy woman because my fingers are ITCHING to get inky.

Until next time,
Becca

Second Bunches of Love with Thanks & Giving Stamp of the Month

Like yesterday's post, I combined Bunches of Love with the October Stamp of the Month: Thanks & Giving. This time, I used only the filler stamps from Bunches of Love for my floral image.

I've included the image of the Bunches of Love set so you can visualize my process as I explain it.

I stamped the largest flower twice, first in Ballerina then slightly offset in Peach. The centers are the smaller, symmetrical flower (top third, far right) in Smoothie with just one of the trio of dots (directly under "hello") inked in Pomegranate for the very center. The leaves were stamped in Sage.  The splatters were stamped in Linen which is my new favorite color. It took me a long time to order it because it's so light. I thought it wouldn't show up well. Boy, was I wrong.

The sentiment comes from Thanks & Giving and was stamped in Pomegranate.

Peach, Ballerina, and Sage are new inks introduced in the Holiday Expressions catalog that released last month. I'm loving all these soft colors. See yesterday's card featuring Sage, Lilac, and Carolina.

The lace border along the bottom was created using the only non-CTMH product. It comes from Altenew. I could have used the new Decorative Border Thin Cuts from CTMH, but I really liked the delicacy of that lace over the soft Ballerina pattern from the Boutique paper suite.

Here's the supply list (with links for your shopping convenience):

• Bunches of Love
• October SOM: Thanks & Giving
• Ballerina ink
• Peach ink
• Sage ink
• Linen ink
• Smoothie ink
• Pomegranate ink
• Boutique Patterned Paper
• Altenew Creative Edges Lace Die

And now it's time for me to get back to my day job. I've written myself into a corner - which was on purpose - but now I have to figure out how to get out of it. Oy!

Until next time,
Becca