Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Black and Gray Christmas

Welcome back to Lost Coast Portal to Creativity where Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda collide to bring you twice the inspiration and double the fun!

Good morning, Cathy here with a Christmas card for you today.

🎄


Stamps Used:


I started out by cut a tag down. I then stamped the Poky Cat and colored it with copic markers. 
I then stamped a snowflake around the tag. 
Next, I added the tag to the gray snowflake paper I had for the base of the card.



Naughty or Nice (or Psycho)?

Welcome back to Lost Coast Portal to Creativity where Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda collide to bring you twice the inspiration and double the fun!


Here it is!


Use Tuxedo Black Memento Ink to stamp both the Alfred Hitchcock Standing image and Mini Gnome Santa with Toys from the Mini Gnomes 2 image onto white Copic-friendly cardstock.

Fussy-cut both images, but cut the Santa hat off of the gnome's head. Use Copic markers to color both images, then outline them with a black marker. Add wet glue to the brim and pom-pom on the Santa hat, add Cotton Ball White Fun Flock, gently press the Fun Flock, and allow it to dry. Once it's dry, brush off the excess flock.

Adhere the Santa hat to Alfred's head then set Santa Alfred aside while you create a background panel for him.

Trim a piece of winter-themed patterned paper to 5.25" x 6". Use Tea Dye and Vintage Photo Distress Inks to edge it. 

Cut a piece of white cardstock to 5.25" x 6.75" Add Film Strip Washi Tape to the base of the white cardstock. Adhere the winter-themed patterned paper just above the Washi Tape to create the background panel. Trim the patterned paper/Washi combo to 4 5/8" x 6 5/8". Edge the background panel with Tea Dye and Vintage Photo Distress Inks.

Cut a piece of red textured cardstock to 4.75" x 6.75" and use to mat the background panel.

Use "Naughty or Nice" die to cut red textured cardstock. Use an arrow die to cut red textured  cardstock twice.

Adhere Santa Alfred to the background panel as shown. Adhere the "Naughty or Nice" sentiment die-cut to the upper left. 

Measure the arrow die-cuts. Adhere the "be good for goodness sake" sticker an arrow's width from the left side. Adhere both arrow die-cuts as shown with the arrows' points overlapping the sentiment sticker.

Adhere the background panel to a a taupe-y brown 5" x 7" card.

~ ~ ~

You have a little less than two weeks to enter this month's Lost Coast Portal to Creativity's Christmas in July Challenge #211 for the chance to win Lo$t Coa$t Ca$h!


Thanks for visiting today!


Tuesday, July 21, 2026

Gimme The Box

Welcome back to Lost Coast Portal to Creativity where Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda collide to bring you twice the inspiration and double the fun!
 
Hello Portal Peeps!!    Gail here today with some inspiration for the Christmas in July challenge.  I was thinking about christmas boxes, which led me to cats, cos everyone knows cats love boxes.   So here's Lost Coast Designs Fat Cat in a box!!
I've made a bottle tag and I hand-drew the box and cut it out.  You can see why I use stamps LOL.  I die cut the bottle tag and smeared it with tumbled glass distress ink and stamped one of Lost Coast Designs Small Snowflakes randomly with dark blue ink.  I stamped Fat Cat and Santa Mona's hat, fussy cut them and added some distress marker colour.  I finished with some Misc. Words.
Thanks for dropping by.  The linky is open all month for your stamped festive anythings.   
We need at least 20 entries to award the prize so grab you stamps and tell your friends about our challenge.  The team is sharing inspiration all month so do visit us again soon. 

Thursday, July 16, 2026

#211 Christmas in july. Reindeer doll tag.

Welcome back to Lost Coast Portal to Creativity where Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda collide to bring you twice the inspiration and double the fun!

 

Dear blog visitors,
I created this tag for the challenge at Lost Coast designs/Carmens Veranda stamps.
The challenge runs until the end of the month, 
so if you have made something with a Christmas theme and used stamps in it, come and join in. 
You are allowed to participate even without LCD/CV stamps.
Please read the rules regarding this.

Now, here is how the tag was made.
What I used for the tag.
Distress Oxide:
Ground espresso
Uncharted mariner
Bundled sage
Speckled egg
Abandoned coral
Viva decor Ice effect
Ranger Stickles Cranberry
Stencil with stars

How its made.
I started with the
Made stains with water and Distress Oxide 
Uncharted mariner
Bundled sage
Speckled egg.
Build that up starting with the lightest color.

Keep going until you like the result.

Stamp the reindeer doll with Ground espresso.

Now we take the music border and cut off one piece.
Lost Coast Designs borders are generally quite long.
I really like that; you can often cut off a piece to use as a separate stamp.
Stamp the music border here and there with Ground espresso.

With the ice effect from Viva Decor and the stencil, 
you create stars in the open spaces.

Put the tag away and let it dry thoroughly.
In the meantime, we color the reindeer with the Distress Oxide.
I do this with water, as if it were watercolor paint.
I put a little bit of red Stickles on the hearts of the bows.
Cut her out; you don't need to cut the antlers as well.
They are so thin that it would never turn out nicely.
That is why we stamped the reindeer onto the tag first.
Glue the reindeer onto the tag and mat the tag with brown.
Insert a brown ribbon and you are done.



I hope you enjoyed it, and if you want to join the challenge, click here below.
GO TO THE CHALLENGE!!!

Wednesday, July 15, 2026

CHALLENGE #211 - CHRISTMAS IN JULY MID-MONTH REMINDER

Welcome back to Lost Coast Portal to Creativity where Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda collide to bring you twice the inspiration and double the fun!
 
Hello Portal Peeps.  
 
It's time for our mid month reminder for the Christmas in July Challenge.
Our challenges are now monthly!  A new challenge starting the 1st every month, with chances to win Lost Coast dollars. We will be announcing winners on the 5th of the month, so do pop back and see who wowed the team and gets our snazzy blog badge and the coveted Lost Coast dollars.

CHALLENGE #211

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

You have all month to share your stamped anythings with a festive theme.  Real rubber or clear stamping and the theme must be the focus of your project.  A small stamped sentiment in a sea of die cuts or digi images will not qualify to win the prize and you may be deleted!!!!  Bwahahhaaahaha.

Please read the updated Challenge Rules to ensure your entries qualify to win this month's prize!

You are welcome to play in our Challenges using rubber stamp images from any company but if you use any of our Lost Coast Designs or Carmen's Veranda stamps...we love it when you do...then you could win a bigger prize in our random prize drawing.  All winners get our snazzy Challenge Winner's Badge to proudly display on their blogs!

If you don't have a blog then no prob, you can still play in our challenges by sharing your projects from public photo sharing sites which includes our Facebook Company Pages for Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda.  Please include our Challenge info and the link back to our challenge in your photo's description!  As long as the privacy setting for your photo is public you're good to go.  See, it's so easy to join the fun!  FYI, you can't link up projects shared in closed Facebook groups! 

Here's a blizzard of inspiration from the team.  ENJOY!
 
Kathi used Carmen's Veranda Wish You Peace sentiment

Aimee used Carmen's Veranda Plaid Pants Santa with Lost Coast Designs Party Words
 
Darlene used Lost Coast Designs Cityscape
  
Now it's your turn.  Are you up for the challenge?  We can't wait to see your projects!  
Submit your entries in the linky party below by 23.59 PST on the 31st and don't forget to follow us so you don't miss anything!  The team will be posting more inspiration throughout the month so check back and join the fun.

Happy Stamping!
Gail
Challenge Host

Challenge #211- Christmas in July
July 1st - 31st Please read over out RULES to be sure your entries qualify you to win!
ALL rubber stamp companies are welcome.
Linky closes Friday, July 31st 23.59 PST.
All entries must be entered in our link up but your don't need a blog to win.  See our RULES page for more info

 
  

Sunday, July 12, 2026

Sheepy Christmas

Welcome back to Lost Coast Portal to Creativity where Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda collide to bring you twice the inspiration and double the fun!
 
Hello Portal Peeps!!   Gail here today with a cool sheep and some chilly snowflake inspiration for the Christmas in July challenge.  Maybe it's a bit early for you, but when the summer heat hits it's sometimes nice to immerse ourselves in a bit of snow and ice.
I used Carmen's Veranda Sheep Doll with Lost Coast Designs Small Snowflakes and Party Words
I love these folksy art stamps from Carmen's Veranda.   I actually originally intended to colour the sheep, but once I stamped the snowflakes on the corner of the panel I decided to keep it clean and simple, which is a bonus when you are Christmas crafting me thinks.
Thanks for dropping by.  The linky is open all month for your stamped festive anythings.   
We need at least 20 entries to award the prize so grab you stamps and tell your friends about our challenge.  The team is sharing inspiration all month so do visit us again soon.