Penny's Challenge #19 - Monochromatic & A Christmas Classic

Well ... are you ready???? For Christmas of course ... and one more Penny's Challenge before we ring in the New Year. Today Penny has challenged us to create a Monochromatic Card. We are a little short handed this week with the busyness of the holidays and all ... so I decided to do TWO cards.

This first creation was quick & easy. The base card is royal blue and the designer papers are from a DCWV holiday 12x12 pack. The image was given to me by a friend (and sorry, I can't remember the designer ... I'm sure you know ... please shout it out). I've used Prisma markers for coloring and Nestabilities Classic & Scallop Ovals for matting.


For my second card, I used scraps of DCWV designer paper that was in my scraps bin, bordered with a gold Pilot marker and layed them in opposite directions on my base card. My images is a digi from Creations By Penny ... called Snow Family. Penny has a HUGE sale going on right now ... so jump on over and check it out!!! Aren't they adorable!! I've used the Nestabilities Decal Rectangle die for cutting and sponged around the edge before removing the image from the die. My snowmen were colored with Prisma markers and given texture with Liquid Applique.

We hope you'll come play along ... and when you do, be sure to jump back over to Penny's Challenge Blog and upload your creation to Mr. Linky. If you're uploading to additional online galleries, please use the keyword "PC19" for this challenge.

Don't forget, we are doing our challenge twice a month now so our next challenge will be on January 6, 2010. Won't you please come join in on the fun!!

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One of my husband's favorite holiday stories is Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. There are so many different versions out there ... but his favorite is the 1951 version starring Alastair Sims and I would have to agree. It is a CLASSIC and wonderful to watch year after year. That is exactly what we did this past Saturday evening.

It was cold and snowy outside and while Mark got the DVD set up, I prepared the hot chocolate and popcorn. There are so many wonderful scenes in this movie and I seem to realize new parts that I don't remember from the last viewing (or maybe my memory's just not as good as it used to be, LOL).

Mark not only has the video of this classic, but has the leather bound book which he enjoys reading through out the year. He says like Shakespeare, Dickens is enjoyable any time of the year!! Hmmm, Shakespeare ... another subject I don't know much about!! Now ask me about planting a garden & home canning and I can teach you a thing or two ... LOL!!

Mark & I have come from very different backgrounds and he has shared so many wonderful, new experiences with me. With me being a "country girl" and he being a "city boy" ... we have had fun sharing each others differences. I guess the old saying "opposites attract" is correct because we are certainly perfect for each other!

Thanks for letting me share this little holiday tidbit with you. Do you or your family share a favorite holiday book or movie?? If not, why not start a new tradition this year?? Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule this time of the year to stop by, take a peek and say Hello!! Wishing you well and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Monochromatic Challenge on PCP

Happy Sunday Everyone!! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I am hosting a NEW WEEKLY CHALLENGE over on the Crafty Secrets Group of Paper Craft Planet. If you are a member of PCP and have Crafty Secrets products, please come join in on the fun!! There will also be RAKs along the way!! On to today's challenge.



Today we are going MONOCHROMATIC. Believe it or not, I had more trouble with this idea than any of the others??? What's up with that??? You would think staying in one color family would be a breeze to create ... not for me!!!



My first thought on this card was to cut the hole in the card front (which I did) ... placing this Crafty Secrets Homemade image on the inside [reminded me so much of the commercials we used to watch growing up on our old black & white TV] of the card and make the outside look like an old time TV. Good thought but wasn't working out very well so I moved onto Plan B.




The framing is made with the Scallop Rectangles by Nestabilities and I've used Creative Memories markers to do the dots around both the frame & my sentiment panel. The ribbon is from Michael's and the dots are by Colorbok. (You can CLICK on the images for a closer view.) This image is so cute but I'm not sure who I'd send this card to since the man is saying "Thanks Honey, now I'm just another regular guy ... and she's pouring him a bowl of BRAN flakes" . Guess this is one for Dear Husband, LOL!!!




OKAY ... let's try this Monochromatic Thing one more time!!! This time I've decided to use Shades of Brown for my card. I recently received the cute Coffee & Tea set from Crafty Secrets and wanted to make a card to send to my neighbor. She is a HUGE coffee fan!! My coffee making skills have deminished lately since DH hasn't been able to drink coffee for the past year or so (due to all the aweful taste in his mouth from the chemo) ... but I figure if nothing else we can always take a run up to the local Starbucks.


I have to say again ... I'm not really happy with this card!! I've used a scrap piece of Flair Designs Inc. designer paper, chocolate chip cs, carmel cs, and light ivory cs to compose this card. I also used the coffee bean image from the Coffee & Tea set to create my lower panel designer paper. (I think it's the coffee pot cut out that I don't like ... maybe I should have just put it on the inside of the card??? Sorry, thinking out loud while posting ... must stop doing that!!) For this creation, I've used the Martha Stewart doily lace border punch, Michael's single stitched ribbon, The Paper Studio flowers and Making Memories antique brass brads. My main image has been stamped using Versafine Sepia ink and embossed using Detail Clear embossing powder. I've used my swivel craft knife to cut it out and popped it up with dimensional tape.



Well, that's it for me today. I still have more mulching to do and friends are coming for a short visit this afternoon. It will be nice to have visitors again!! Mark is still having some problems with his stomach (due to all the chemo drugs used during the transplant) but I do see improvement with each passing day! Happy Stamping my friends!!!!