Life is Beautiful

This is one of my favorite new stamp sets in the Holiday catalog.
It was inspired by Million Dollar Sales Achiever Lee Ann Greff.  It also uses the “DistINKtive Design”.  It gives the finished image more depth.

  

The “Life Is Beautiful” stamp set works great throughout all of the seasons.

#154871 – Life is Beautiful – $17.00 (p. 51 – Holiday Catalog)

Hope your week is going well so far!  Enjoy!!!

 

Dare to Get Dirty!

 Hello!  Happy Wednesday!  Today my son was able to finally start remote learning via Google Classroom's live Stream.  That means 4 hours of listening to 5th grade being taught in the background.  I forgot how much fun 5th grade could be!  I just hope he finds it fun even though he is here at home.  Hopefully in October we can switch to in class learning for him, but only time will tell.

This week I am involved in the Splitcoast Stampers Dare to Get Dirty challenges.  I kind of took it literally because I bought myself some new mediums to use for my challenge cards.  I have a new effect paste and a few spray mists to add to my collection of distress mediums.  My hands have gotten so dirty and my desk has a few more freckles LOL!

Here are my creations thus far!

Slimline Challenge

 

I love, love, love this card!  Maybe because I absolutely love snowflakes!  I used Stampin' Up!'s new Snowflake Splendor DSP and Snowflake Wishes Bundle to create this slimline card.  A slimline card measures 8.5x3.5 which fits nicely in a #10 envelope.  This has the potential of becoming our Christmas cards this year.  I also used my Wink of Stella pen to add glitter to the navy and white snowflakes to match the sparkle of the silver snowflakes.

Isolation Challenge

Finding Beauty Challenge

Sketch Challenge

Positive and Negative Die Cut Challenge

Unicorn Challenge

 

The Unicorn card was a lot of fun using Golden Nugget Effect Paste and a Dollar Tree stencil.  I don't own any unicorn stamps!  I added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to make it sparkle like any good unicorn does!

 

Still many more challenge I need to complete before the week's end.  I hope you will pop back in to check out my completed challenges.

 

Please remember, if you know anyone who needs a smile, most of these cards will be sent out as "Smiles" and I'd be happy to send one to someone you know!  Simply email their name and address to letitsnowstamping@gmail.com.

First Day of (Remote Learning) School

Only a couple of hiccups on the first day of Remote School for my youngest today.  I call it a win!  My older boys were arguing over who needed more WiFi during classes, but they seem to have figured it out.  Thank goodness because now I need it to do my blog post!

I have been busy making a cute study station for my youngest so he can work right along side of me while I work on cards and stamping.  We also did a major overhaul on his bedroom because we have a special visitor this week.

Even with all of that I was able to make a few more cards to send out to friends next week!  It feels like it has been forever since I last mailed anything out.  I have been working so hard on stocking the Etsy store that it bit into the time I spend sending out smiles.  I need to find a better balance because sending out smiles makes me smile too! 

I want to thank everyone who has shared this blog and the Etsy LISStamping shop on social media!  That really helps a lot!  Every little share helps!

Hopefully I will be able to post a few more cards to the shop today to share with everyone.  Also, the new Hello, Pumpkin! Paper Pumpkin kit is available to order until September 10th.  Click Here to Order!

When you order Paper Pumpkin you have the opportunity to make your own beautiful cards.  It comes with everything you need!  Scissors are really the only thing you need from home.  My customers who buy a kit can also make the cards in the kit with me in a special Facebook Live.  We will make one of each card together.  From there, you can personalize the cards and make them a little bit different to suit your needs.  Make sure you search "Let It Snow Stamping" on Facebook to join the group for updates!

Now, let's see what I've been working on.  To view my entire gallery CLICK HERE.  

I made more Sympathy & Get Well Soon cards for those who requested them.  It is amazing how many Get Well cards I have had to send out recently.  I count my blessings that I have not had to send out too many Sympathy cards.  

I love this cute little bug card.  It was so much fun to make!  I used sponge daubers to create the fun background, stamped the bugs in black, and then used an embossing folder to add texture.

I absolutely love working with Distress Oxide ink.  The background is all handmade.  I used a base layer of Dye Ink and then layered three different Distress Oxide Inks on top.  Finally, I spritzed it with water to blend the Distress Oxides together and to create the watermarks.  I needed a few more masculine cards and those backgrounds were a perfect fit for the map stamp I had in my stash.

I hope you will take the time to find all of the above cards in the Etsy LISStamping shop.  Please don't forget to share the links with friends on social media today!  Just click on the icons below!

I Laugh....

This past week I promised I was going to do a walk through video of the new Holiday Mini catalog.  The day I tried it, it was relatively quiet in the house.  I even warned everyone I would be filming.  I laugh because my son and dog kept making me stop the video with their movements and noise.  I should have known this video thing was going to be harder than I thought.  However, there

is light at the end of the tunnel!  My hubby will begin traveling for work again, so I will take advantage of his office that has a locking door!  My "office/craft room" is our open area dining room that my family can access from two different directions.  The good thing...I can hear everything that goes on in the house.  The not so good thing...my microphone can too!

In lieu of the video I decided it would be a crafting week.  I have posted 11 new cards and have a few more left to post.  Please let me know if there are any themes that I could use more of or haven't thought of yet.  Currently, I am working on Sympathy, Get Well, more Birthday, more Thinking of You, and soon I will be working on Fall and Holiday cards (I'm just not ready for Fall and Winter yet!).

Please remember to share this post with your friends by clicking on the social media buttons below.  Ever share helps ten-fold!

Wow! It's August!

Holy Moly it's August already!  Time flies when you are crazy busy!  But, it was a GOOD kind of busy for Let It Snow Stamping!  I have opened the LISStamping Etsy Shop to share all of my wonderful creations with you! 

Whew!  I never realized how much work goes into it all.  Good thing I take photos of all of my cards to share online.  Remember, I also have a Facebook Page and a brand new Instagram!  Follow one or follow all so you don't miss out on something fun!

With all of that going on, Stampin' Up! has also released the new Holiday Mini Catalog!  There are so many new and fun items to play with.  Later this week I will post my first  video walk through of the catalog and show you some of the beautiful cards you can make.

Don't know how to make handmade cards?  No crafting supplies?  Short on time?  Well, I have a solution for that!  Join the Paper Pumpkin Beginner Group at Let It Snow Stamping!  Each month the group receives the latest Paper Pumpkin all inclusive kit and we make some of the cards together via Facebook Live.  I will admit I am a little scared to do my first Facebook Live, but with your support, I am sure I will do just fine once I start!  I will practice with the current Paper Pumpkin kit called Summer Nights - July 2020.  Now this has sold out, but I want you to see the types of supplies you receive in the kit each month.  There is no commitment to the group or to purchasing the kit every month, but I am sure you will not want to miss out on all of the fun stuff you can make in order to spread smiles during this crazy year!

A Card A Day Keeps the Summertime Blues Away

Well, I haven't been exactly making a card a day.  I do it more in spurts.  On Friday I made 4, then nothing over the weekend because my hubby wanted to take the boat out all weekend (I'm not complaining), then I made 3 on Monday, and 3 on Tuesday.  Let's see what I finish today!
Friday's cards:

Happy Heart

Happy Heart - This card was made to cover two challenges.  One challenge was to use a sketch that had a partial circle positioned in one corner of the layout.  The other challenge was to make a card not using any stamps.  For the Sketch challenge I found a beautiful floral die I hadn't tried yet.  I had even forgotten I had it because it got lost in the die set drawer because it is solo.  For the No Stamp challenge I was able to use stencils and die cuts.  I love that you do not need to have a ton of supplies to make cards like Happy Heart!

Just A Note

Just A Note - This card was made only using one stamp set.  I used one of it's main elements to make the collage background.It is a fun and colorful card for my artsy friends who are also musical.  This card took me less than 15 minutes to make, mostly because I needed to find my brightest stamp pad colors.  I really should write these colors down so I can remember to use them for another bright card!

Be Creative

Be Creative - This card was a little more subdued.  I love this retired stamp set, Crafting Forever, but I don't like that I have to fussy cut the images out.  I really am spoiled with matching die sets these days.  This card did take me a little longer because I had to fussy cut the scissors, but it was well worth it!  I used the new Tasteful Textile 3D Embossing Folder on the DSP background to make it pop a little more.  I also added the  Flax Ribbon for more dimension.  A little ribbon goes a long way and check it out, you don't even need to know how to tie bows to add it to a card.  (I hate bow tying!!)

Hello!

Hello! - This card was made for a Double Embossing challenge.  I was freaking out because I only had two embossing powders (black & white).  The challenge was to use an embossing paste, glaze, or gel.  I had no idea what these were!  I hadn't stamped in 10+ years before becoming a Stampin' Up! Demo again.  Back then I don't think there were pastes, glazes, or gels.  I only remember powders and I wasn't very fond of them.  I know I have more colors (somewhere in storage), but on the day of the challenge I only had black and white.  Luckily the challenge hostess posted a video to help.  On the video was a tutorial on how to mix two powders before heating.  I tried that and look how pretty the flower came out!  I was so excited.  But, my background was so boring!  I decided to run it through the Old World Paper 3D Embossing Folder and what a difference it made!  I'm still not great at using embossing powder, so I had speckled of it where it should not have been, so I covered them with the floral sentiment and Rhinestone Basic Jewels.  In person, the embossed flower shimmers ever so slightly and casts a beautiful glow.

Summertime Happies

Summertime Happies - Summertime Happies and the next 5 cards were made for the SCS Virtual Stamp Night Weekend challenges.  There were a total of 22 challenges (because I was catching up on 4 mini challenges, I know, I know!).  Summertime Happies was for the Summertime Blues challenge where you had to use at least 2 shades of blue on your card.  Good thing I love blue!  I started out by embossing the background using the Brick and Mortar 3D Embossing Folder.  Then I cut out a heart shape from a post it not to use as a mask.  I love free tools!  Then I used a small floral stamp set to create the heart, small flower punch, and word dies for the sentiment.  Another 15 minute card.

Summer Emojis

Summer Emojis -Isn't this such a fun card?  This was part of another Sketch challenge that required 4 of the same shapes in the corners of the middle rectangle.  I knew right away I wanted to use this emoji die set.

Cheerful Hello

Cheerful Hello -I love how this card turned out.  I love rainbows, so this rainbow challenge was right up my alley!  I used 6 different bright colors for the rainbow, then black to mat it and white for the card base.  Super easy card to make in less than 10 minutes!  Since I send "Smiles" in the mail, a lot of my cards have simple sentiments like Hello, Smile, or Happy on them.  It wasn't until I posted the card did I realize that my rainbow was mounted upside down LOL!  Oh well, it still came out cute!

Grape Day

Grape Day -This card was made for a Tutti Frutti challenge.  We could use any kind of fruit on our card.  I didn't really like any of the fruit stamps I had so I decided to try my hand at Punch Art, something I haven't done in about 15 years.  I used a 1" Circle Punch to make the grapes and then inked the edges with Whisper White Craft Ink Pad.  I love the sentiment I found online and printed.  Isn't today just a Grape day to smile?

Rosey Hello

Rosey Hello - This card was for a Classics challenge.  We were to use a Classic Rose on our cards.  This retired die was perfect for the challenge.  At first I was a little intimidated to use it because the other rose cards were red roses and I wanted something softer. I used Purple Posy cardstock for the card base and the rose background.  I needed to makes the rose pop out from the card base so I used some white vellum cardstock.  It works wonderfully with the Old World Paper 3D Embossing Folder so that it doesn't look so flat.  Add some Pearl Basic Jewels and wa-lah, beautiful card!  The Sizzix Friendship Words: Script dies are so pretty when you want a non-stamped sentiment on the card as well.  Man, I could have used this card and the Grape Day card for the No Stamp challenge too, LOL!

Celebrate - Since I am quite new to the Country Music Scene I do not have any cowboy hat stamps or dies.  It wasn't until I was done with this card did I read the whole challenge and found that any hat

Celebrate

would do, LOL.  Oh well.  The plus side of making me think, is that I used ink in my embossing folder for the first time.  Talk about scary!  All I could think was "what if my paper slips and the ink smears?" and "my fingers will be a mess after this!".  Well, the first one didn't happen and well, the second one ALWAYS happens no matter what I'm doing!  I used my new Stitched Stars Dies for the red star and the beautiful swirling stars embellishment.  It really made my clip-art cowboy hat pop off the card as my main focal point.  It needed something more, so I stamped Celebrate because I didn't have a YeeHaw or Howdy stamp in my collection to finish off the design.

Fallin' in Love

Last but not least, Fallin' in Love - This challenge was a little more difficult.  We had to use the lyrics from Fishin' in the Dark by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.  I had never heard of this song so thank goodness for Google!  One of the line is "We'll be fallin' in love in the middle of the night".  Summer by the Sea is one of my favorite retired Stampin' Up! sets that I refuse to ever give up.  I don't use it much, but it still holds a special spot in my heart.  I had to finish that last sentence while laughing at myself.  Like I would EVER give up any of my stamps!  That is the reason poor Jay keeps seeing more and more storage cubes go up in my office (for all of the non-consumables!).  If you haven't tried the Stampin' Blends markers, you really need to!  They make coloring fun (I hate coloring).  They come in sets of two.  One is the light version of the color and the other is the dark version.  This makes highlighting and shading so much easier.

All of the current products have a link if you are interested in purchasing card making supplies.  Please use the following Host Code in the Special Offers section of the shopping bag for a chance to win a special card pack!  DK4M63CY

If  you have been so kind to make it to the bottom of this post, please post a comment and I will send you 3 free handmade cards!

Also remember,  I do send out Smiles for those who need one, so if you have an elderly or disabled friend or family member who is having a hard time during COVID-19, please contact me and I will be happy to send them a card from Let It Snow Stamping for free to brighten their day.

June Fun

Ruff Love

June has been a very productive month for me.  So far this month I have mailed out over 40 "Smiles" to family, friends, and those in need of a smile.  Every day I try to make new cards because, as you can imagine, they are being consumed just as fast as I make them. 

Puppy Thanks

Yesterday I made four cute cards in a matter of minutes.  They were very easy to make and assemble as you can see.  These were made with no stamps, just an embossing folder, a PDF image, two sets of dies, two punches, and three colors of paper.  I haven't even made all of the combinations possible yet! 

The first card titled Ruff Love is probably my favorite with it's simplicity.  The sentiment just pops out at you when you take it out of the envelope, not to mention the little red heart that actually does pop out because I used a Stampin' Dimensional on it.

Doggy Hugs

Kitty Love

Puppy Thanks used the second set of dies but could have easily been done with a stamped sentiment, then matted like the PDF image was in the last two designs, Doggy Hugs and Kitty Love. 

Doggy Hugs and Kitty Love use Stampin' Up!'s Dog Builder Punch and Cat Punch.  They make the cutest silhouettes you have ever seen!  I have made silhouettes in black and white for my cards and every time they make the card pop.

These cards are available for purchase as are all of my cards on this blog.  I do send out Smiles for those who need one, so if you have an elderly or disabled friend or family member who is having a hard time during COVID-19, please contact me and I will be happy to send them a card from Let It Snow Stamping for free to brighten their day.