A Very Merry (Non-Traditional) Christmas ~ Control Freaks October Blog Hop

Welcome to October's Control Freaks Blog Hop!

This month we are bringing you Holiday's With a Twist!  Hold on while you hop through some amazing creations with different color combos or themes...we're shaking things up!

Did you just arrive from Tami Hewlett of Swimming in Stamps ?  I can't get over how creative she is!!!  If you are just starting, make sure you hop all the way through so you don't miss a single creation!

The beautiful Whimsy & Wonderful Suite in the Mini Catalog is filled with wintery beauty in some non-traditional shades of gorgeous!  Yes, greens are typically a traditional Christmas color, but when you mix them with some blues and pinks you have a whole new non-traditional look!

I dusted off my trusty Stamparatus for the perfect alignment of these wispy trees in shades of Misty Moonlight, Mint Macaron, Mossy Meadow and Polished Pink.  I used the polkadot tree stamp to create some Blushing Bride snowflakes as well as a few Blushing Bride die-cut stars.  I had originally intended for the sentiment to be along the bottom of the card, but due to a little stamping mishap, I had to move it up. Don't you love it when you can cover up your mistakes???

Next up is another one of my favorite mini catalog suites, Painted Christmas.  I love all of the traditional reds and greens in the Painted Christmas DSP, but it was so much fun to ink up with Christmas Season stamp set in these soft colors.

After stamping the pinecones in Smoky Slate and Basic Gray, they were die-cut with the Season Labels dies and tucked in with some Misty Moonlight and Petal Pink holly and berries.  I chose one of the cheerful sentiments from Christmas to Remember stamp set and stamped it in Petal Pink on Basic White.  The Seasonal Labels dies were put to work again to cut the sentiment out as well as another pretty label to layer behind. A few of the Wonderful Gems was all that were needed to finish this card.

It was fun to break away from tradition and have some fun with different holiday colors!  I hope you find inspiration from everyone's creations!

Next up is Melissa Davies of Rubber Funatics.  Be prepared to be blown away!

Happy Stamping!

Wrapped up in the Christmas Season ~ #TGIFC326

Once again, we have arrived at Friday and another all new TGIF Challenges!  This week we have a fun technique challenge for you...Decorated Envelopes!

I don't know about you, but I am not the best at dressing up my envelopes.  This is something that I need to change, especially for cards that are being tucked in with a gift!

I am still working my way through my Mini Catalog pre-order goodies, so you get more Christmas in July today.  The Painted Christmas Suite was an absolute MUST have for me...I love everything about it!  I used some of the Painted Christmas DSP to decorate the envelope flap as well as the pretty label for the front.  I tucked in a pinecone, some sprigs of pine branches and some holly berries behind a sweet and simple Merry Christmas sentiment from the Christmas to Remember stamp set.  Oh, and a few Gold Holly Leaves too...can't forget those!  

Of course I had to have a card to go inside this beautiful envelope.  I CASE'd one of the samples in the Mini Catalog to create a simple, yet special card.  I love this sentiment, also from the Christmas to Remember Stamp set.

Christmas may still be months away, but I can't wait to give this to a dear friend when the season is here!  

I am going to make it a goal to make more of an effort to decorate more of my envelopes, even if it's just the flap!  This is a great way to use up some DSP, especially if you are a collector like I am!

Be sure to share your decorated envelopes with us this week!  We always love to see what you are creating!

Happy Stamping!

Products Used:

Mini Catalog: Stamps sets - Christmas Season, Christmas to Remember, Paper - Painted Christmas DSP, Other Supplies:  Gold Holly Leaves