balloon birthday

We went to birthday party today for my nephew's son (yes, I'm a grand aunt :-)) who is turning 1 year old on Tuesday - so i needed a boy birthday card. Makes me think of primary colors ya know? Anyway I had a bit of the striped paper I used on a birthday card for one of my nephews in December (yes I have many nephews ranging in age from 35 to 6). So I thought I'd used that along with a Papertrey Ink set, Tiny Treats: Birthday. There are so many adorable stamps in this set but I finally chose the balloons cos it seemed to work well with the striped paper. I stamped the large green and white polka dot image with versamark and used white embossing powder. I colored the little balloons with colored pencils and a few markers. I am really looking forward to making a bunch of cards with this set - it has sooo many images for just about anyone on my list.

Sending a Big Thank You

So I needed a Thank You card. I used a new Papertrey Ink set: Celebrations. And PTI also has just the nicest dies that coordinate with stamp sets - makes putting together a card so stinkin easy! I had a Basic Grey Wisteria paper pad calling out to me so I used that along with some cardstock. Then i threw in some stitching and poof - thank you card done. Actually while I was at it, I made two :-)

Butterfly Birthday

So i needed a birthday card for a friend. Something a little collagey, purple and maybe a little shabby chic. I had some lovely diecuts and papers from K&Company - yeah that'll work. Needed to pull it together so a little ink (to a flourishy stamp). ok.
Then I wanted to use a bit of a Noteblock stamp from Purple Onion Designs - the "make a wish" part. Oh and I wanted to stamp that Make a Wish on a piece of acetate so I wouldn't be covering up all the pretty paper underneath. Eek - all that means "masking". Well, she IS a special friend LOL. I don't mask for just anyone.  In retrospect I shoulda found a larger piece of acetate so it covered the entire bottom half but I'm ok with it. Oh yes, I even pulled out my sewing machine and did a little stitching.

snow day

well a wee bit of snow and what seems like more ice than anything. at least on the driveway. Anyhow I took this as my cue (excuse) to have a little day off.  No purging, no usual cleaning - regular day off duties (although we did venture out to the grocery store just to get it out of the way). So what did I do? No, I didn't make anything. (gasp) I probably shoulda given it a try but I just wasn't in the mood. What I was in the mood for was reading. So I did. Read a book I started last night. No One You Know by Michelle Richmond. Very good read. On my Nook (which I love quite a bit). Hope you are having an enjoyable day, snow or otherwise.

A little excursion

Last Thursday nite we went here... no we didn't see an opera. Do you know where this is?

Ah this may give you a clue.... a rather large bust of John F. Kennedy .. Yes! The Kennedy Center in DC

We went to see Billy Elliot-The Musical. It was wonderful

nothing else for today. still working away at "the purge". Did not get much done today - I really need to ignore the phone but every time it rang it was one of those calls I haaaad to take. Tomorrow I swear I'm letting the machine get it.

The Great Craft Room Purge 2012

i have to date this purge because,, as we all know, this happens juuuuuuuust about this time every year. I am trying to be a bit more ruthless this time round. I'm just at my wits end with the mess. I can't even think in this clutter. So wish me well. I've thrown out 3 bags of trash so far.

happy hello

well clearly not my best effort but i'm posting regardless. this is what often happens. i start with elements i love and the result isn't what i hoped for. I was trying to use that heart stamp, which i love but hasn't gotten any love from me. Do you have stamps you've bought and never used? or stamps you love, used them a few times, and they are now sitting unloved, uninked? Well i'm gonna try and rectify that in 2012. if i'm not using them then i have to consider finding them a new home cos they're taking up valuable real estate!

Since I'm on a roll

I thought I'd just check in...
Last night we watched The Help - such a good movie. I really loved the book - was one of my "beach" books this past summer. Right now I'm reading  In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. It's really quite good.  I'd read another of his books The Devil in the White City - also a good one. Neither are light reading but fascinating and worth the time in my opinion :-)
Wondering if anyone is watching the Project Runway All-Stars? I only saw part of it the other night and am planning on watching the rest tonight.
Ok... gotta run !

Religious Conversion

So I needed a card - thinking of you kinda card. But I needed it kinda quick. Get it done Tracy - no obsessing allowed.
If you know me, this is practically a foreign language - no obsessing? I mean it's like another religion.

But I think I may be ready to convert!

 I did not allow myself time to think.. much. And of course the first card you see here is my 2nd thought. (already a sinner... )
But actually here's how it went. I took my favorite "thinking of you" stamp (StampinUp long since retired I'm sure) and decided I'd go with Versamark and white embossing powder on that paper I already had out of my drawing table.  I stamped twice and pulled out the heat tool (amazing I could even find the thing its been so long since I embossed). I pulled out my Nestabilities and quickly (really!) chose the oval ... cut cut. Hey let's add the white scallop to that I said.  Approximately 5minutes have elapsed (seriously.. a new world record!)

I figured why not go with that other paper - the patterned one - also still on my drawing table. Cut that twice (I'm already making one card why not go for two).  So now I'm thinking I have everything cut - I'll go make dinner (I know... the family really enjoys food in the evening so why fight it?) and come back and assemble.
So I return to the drawing table and start thinking.
This thinking thing is what always gets me into trouble.
What would some kraft cardstock look like with that blue. I'm thinking good...
So I decide to make one card with a card base that's kraft and instead of ribbon I'll make some faux ribbon with the leftover kraft cardstock. Cut cut. Tape tape.
One card done.
I then turn to the other pieces and decide to go with the original plan - pull out some white grosgrain (which is a bit smooshed in this scan but you can imagine right?) Cut Cut. Tape tape. 2nd card done.
Total elapsed time probably about 10 minutes.
Really! I think I'm a total convert.
Have a wonderful day kids!

Outta this world

One of my nephews is having a birthday on Sunday so I made him a card (to go with the gift that I sent a month ago - hey you gotta take advantage of the free shipping when you can right?).
I used a Papertrey Ink stamp set, prismacolors to color most of the little rocket (yeah- they have metallic prismacolors) - also used a Copic and a StampinUp marker. The little stars as well as the rocket and flame were cut using the coordinating die from Papertrey (I love those coordinating dies!). Decided those stars needed something so I added Ranger Glossy Accents to give them a little shine and dimension. The sentiment is also from the same PTI stamp set but I personalized it with my nephew's name using Purple Onion Designs Garamouche Small.   Have a wonderful day - I'm hoping it's a little warmer day than yesterday!

A thank you

I needed to make a thank you note for a very special person. I decided I'd use these tulips from the PTI stamp set "Friendship Jar Spring Fillers" - coloring them with my prismacolors. And I also used the PTI jar die to cut the jar out of some transparency film i had hanging around. I cut the little label using the Nestablilities label die #8 and hand wrote my "thank you" using a Pitt Pen. I don't think the scan is really doing it justice but I am happy with the result. I did toy with the idea of a little stitching around the top portion but ultimately decided I'd better leave well enough alone.
Have a wonderful day!
PTI MIM#47 - Colored Pencils #30

Paper Cookies

okay so it's an illustration of a cookie. A gingerbread man to be exact. I did two of these for some special friends - it's a little recipe card (around 5x7 so I guess it's not so little).
I used a Pitt Pen for all the lettering and the outlining. And prismacolors to color things in.













And I did one slightly different for Geri (of Geri's Gingerbread fame.... my sister). It's frosted ;-)  The background didn't scan well - it's a light green just for the record.   I'll post some non-Christmas related items soon.....           

I baked

a lot - did you? I did a round of cookies for home and another round for our 2nd Christmas celebration with my husbands family. Here's a pic before I closed the box on the sugar cookies. Of course I had to decorate them. It wouldn't be Christmas without painted sugar cookies. If you look closely you can see a snowman peeking out from underneath a layer of trees and stars. When my kids were little they'd help me decorate them but nowadays I get to paint them all by myself. I love using the gold dust (and lemon extract) to paint the stars. Back oh say maybe 20 years ago that gold dust was hard to find locally. We didn't have such things when I was a kid but we did have food coloring. My mom would sit us down at a table filled with cookies, gave us painbrushes and we'd go to town painting away!
Hope you're enjoying 2012 so far while i recap the end of my 2011.

Happy New Year!

it's been a little while but i've been busy as I'm sure you all have been!Over the next few days I thought I'd  show you a little of what i've been up to. First up - a birthday card for my nephew at the beginning of December. I really like the combo of red and blue and i love Papertrey Ink's stamps and dies. A fast and easy card - i forgot to take a pic of the envelope but I used another plane to decorate it.