CIC #39

Happy Sunday! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! Today's Cupcake Inspiration Challenge from Hope Stamps Eternal features such festive cupcakes - perfect for New Year's, or, in my case, a birthday card!

I chose to feature the Flower Patch and Alleyway papers from the Bella Blvd Honey I'm Home Collection. I love all the bright colors and thought they went so well with this week's inspiration photo! I dressed up the top portion of the card a little by adding Stardust Stickles to the centers of the flowers and to the little dots scattered throughout the paper. It's tough to see in the picture, but adds some nice sparkle in real life!

This simple card was finished off with a little birthday sentiment and some clear crystal flowers from the Zva Creative Crystal Flower Wheel. I like how those tie in the flower theme from the Bella Blvd paper and add a nice finishing touch.

If you want to play along with this week's challenge, make sure you add a direct link to your creation to Rachel's post by 9pm MST next Saturday in order to be considered for the Top 5 collage next Sunday.

Now it's time to visit the other Sweeties for lots more inspiration!

Bonnie
Carolina
Colleen
Elena (December Guest Sweetie)
Kelli
Michelle
Natalie
Teresa

Supplies
Stamps: PTI Everyday Button Bits (for sentiment)
Ink: PTI Fresh Snow
Paper: Flower Patch and Alleyway from the Bella Blvd Honey I'm Home Collection
Other: Stardust Stickles, Zva Creative Crystal Flower Wheel

CIC #38!

Welcome to the 38th Cupcake Inspiration Challenge from Hope Stamps Eternal!

I need to start out by apologizing for my even-worse-than-usual photo! I swear, I have got to somehow invest in proper lighting and a light tent!

Anyway, aren't these cupcakes so fun and holidayish?! I took my inspiration from the hearts, the candy canes, the holly, and the colors, right down to the black accents!

I punched hearts out of paper from the Imaginisce Polar Bear Expressions collection and the Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly pack to reflect the candy cane and holly motifs on some of the cupcakes. I then traced around the edges of the hearts with some Stardust Stickles. The larger center heart is raised up with a 2mm adhesive dot from Zva Creative, while the smaller hearts are on 1mm adhesive dots. In between the hearts I put different sizes of Zva Creative Crystal Dots.

Some silver ribbon from PTI sort of sets the top portion apart, and then the sentiment is from Keep Cozy by The Greeting Farm. More crystal dots in the smallest size appear on either side of the sentiment.

I've taken photos of all of the different Christmas cards I'm sending out this year, but I don't know if I'll have time to blog about them before Christmas. So in case this is my last post this week, I hope you and your families have a wonderful holiday!

If you want to play along with this week's challenge, make sure you add a direct link to your creation to Rachel's post by 9pm MST next Saturday in order to be considered for the Top 5 collage next Sunday.

Now it's time to visit the other Sweeties for lots more inspiration!

Bonnie
Carolina
Colleen
Elena (December Guest Sweetie)
Kelli
Michelle
Natalie
Teresa

Supplies
Stamps: Keep Cozy by The Greeting Farm
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly collection, Imaginisce Polar Bear Expressions, PTI white
Other: Stardust Stickles, 2mm adhesive dot from Zva Creative, Zva Creative 1mm adhesive dot, Zva Creative clear crystal dots

Hope Stamps Eternal Secret Sweetie Blog Hop

Welcome to a very Sweetie Christmas Hop! The Hope Stamps Eternal Sweeties have a big reveal to share with you today. A few weeks back we were each assigned a secret sweetie who in turn made us gifts and sent them to us to ring in the holidays. During this hop you will see what each of the sweeties put together for their recipient and reveal who they made it for.

Make sure to comment on each blog because one lucky person will be the winner of blog candy! If you didn't arrive here from Kelli's blog, be sure to go back to the beginning at Rachel's blog where you will be able to see a photo of the blog candy and then just follow along to the next blog from there.

I was very excited to be assigned to the fabulous Hope Stamps Eternal owner herself, Rachel! She is one of my dearest friends, and I was thrilled to have an excuse to send her a little Christmas cheer! I know that one of her favorite candies at this time of year are the Candy Cane Kisses, so my ensemble had to include some of those! I took my color inspiration from those, choosing products from the HSE store that fit in the silver/red/white theme.

First off is the bag of Kisses. I just put those in a clear cellophane bag and tied it off with some white polka dot ribbon from May Arts. It looks like she's just run out of the white ribbon, but check out the ribbon selection in the store for a variety of other colors. I then made a little tag for the bag using some paper from the Imaginisce Polar Expressions collection and a Making Memories snowflake blossom with a Zva Creative clear crystal dot in the middle.

I also made a little 3" x 3" card to match the set, using white and silver cardstock along with more of the Polar Expressions paper, white polka dot ribbon, and Making Memories snowflake blossoms. In the center of this snowflake, I used one of the gemstone brads that comes with the snowflakes.

Next up I embellished one of the 4 oz. round clear top tins, again using the same paper, ribbon, and snowflakes. I just love making a set of things that match - it appeals to the OCD side of me I think! I was trying to figure out what to put inside the tin and decide to make some magnets using dominoes. I used the snowflake stamp from Keep Cozy by The Greeting Farm and stamped two dominoes with red ink and two with silver. I then adhered small clear gemstones from the Zva Creative crystal wheel to the center of each of the snowflakes. To turn the dominoes into magnets, I cut up some self-stick business card magnets and stuck them right on the backs of the dominoes. Sorry for the less than stellar picture of the dominoes - I was taking these photos at night and could not for the life of me get a photo that wasn't too full of flash or too dark!

I had so much fun creating this set for Rachel and I hope she liked it! Now it's time to go to the next stop, Colleen at Glitter Ink. Don't forget - you'll want to leave a comment at each stop on the hop to have a chance at winning the blog candy!

Supplies
Stamps: Keep Cozy by The Greeting Farm
Ink: PTI Pure Poppy, Encore silver
Paper: Imaginisce Polar Expressions, PTI white, SU Brushed Silver
Other: May Arts ribbon, Making Memories snowflake blossoms, Zva Creative clear crystal dot, 4 oz. round clear top tin

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #37

How sweet are the cupcakes for this week's Cupcake Inspiration Challenge from Hope Stamps Eternal?! Adorable!

I obviously went with a snowman theme for my card this week, and also drew my color inspiration from the photo as well. My main image is from The Greeting Farm set Keep Cozy and I colored him with Copic markers. His hat is cut out and popped up with a Zva Creative 1mm adhesive dot for a little dimension and his hat and scarf are accented with Stardust Stickles. The final finishing touches on the image are 3 Zva Creative black crystal dots.

The snowman is punched out with a Marvy mega circle punch and matted on a Marvy giga scalloped circle. On each scallop I adhered a Zva Creative white pearl using a Quickie glue pen. The circle is then adhered to the base using more Zva Creative 1mm adhesive dots.

Speaking of the background, that gorgeous paper is more from the Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly collection. I know I've been using it a lot, but there are just sooo many awesome designs in that pack! The little snowflake embellisment at the bottom was created with a small punch and finished off with a Zva Creative clear crystal dot.

If you want to play along with this week's challenge, make sure you add a direct link to your creation to Rachel's post by 9pm MST next Saturday in order to be considered for the Top 5 collage next Sunday.

Now it's time to visit the other Sweeties for lots more inspiration!

Bonnie
Carolina
Colleen
Elena (December Guest Sweetie)
Kelli
Michelle
Natalie
Teresa

Supplies
Stamps: Keep Cozy by The Greeting Farm, sentiment from PTI
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly collection, PTI white, Spring Rain
Other: Stardust Stickles, Zva Creative 1mm adhesive dot, Zva Creative black crystal dots, Zva Creative clear crystal dot, Zva Creative white pearl

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #36

Hello and welcome to the 36th Cupcake Inspiration Challenge from Hope Stamps Eternal!

With Christmas less than three weeks away, this week's inspiration photo is just perfect! Holly is one of my favorite motifs for the holidays, and I knew right away that I wanted to use some of the paper from the Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly pack. Both the large piece of background paper and the small strip across the center are from that collection.

My main image is from the Greeting Farm Rain, Snow, Shine set and I colored her with Copics. As you can see in the inspiration photo, the holly leaves are dusted with glitter, so I knew I needed to have some glitter on my project as well! I used Stardust Stickles on all the trim on her outfit, as well as on her earmuffs. I also used the Stickles to create a border around the image. My picture came out crummy due to the rainy/snowy weather we had yesterday, but it's really pretty and sparkly in real life! The image panel is attached to the card with 2mm adhesive dots from Zva Creative. The last little details are the snowflake embellishments from Jolee's by You adhered on either side of the image.

I hope you'll participate in this week's challenge and knock another Christmas card off your to-do list! If you play along, make sure you add a direct link to your creation to Rachel's post by 9pm MST next Saturday in order to be considered for the Top 5 collage next Sunday.

Now before I send you off to check out the other Sweeties, I want to introduce you to our December Guest Sweetie, Elena at The Red Haired Girl. She's insanely talented, so be sure to stop by and see her take on this week's challenge. Once you've done that, go ahead and visit the other Sweeties for lots more inspiration!

Bonnie
Carolina
Colleen
Kelli
Michelle
Natalie
Teresa

Supplies
Stamps: Rain, Snow, Shine by The Greeting Farm
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly collection, PTI white
Other: Stardust Stickles, Jolee's by You Snowflake collection, 2mm adhesive dots by Zva Creative