Jingle Belles 05

This week the challenge on Jingle Belles was to make a card based on a sketch (click and you can check it out). Nice and simple - just my speed in general and this week. Used some Basic Grey paper, a SU! stamp (retired) and some cute little Prima poinsettia flowers that I found on sale at Michael's. In general I'm trying to stay away from purchasing anything but these babies were marked down quite a bit (from 6.99 to 2.99 and I had a gift card!) And I made use of my Top Note die yet again - but the stitching is machine (which seems obvious as its not quite so perfect... but I thought I'd make that clear). Oh and a couple of yellow brads I had laying around. I'm loving this Jingle Belles challenge every week - if you're not playing - think about it !

the extended birthday

which is another way of saying - belated birthday.... sounds nicer though doesn't it? well we always say round here when the cards (and presents if we're lucky) keep arriving after the birthday - that it's been "extended". Don't know bout you but i like to extend my birthday celebration as long as i can - i mean isn't it nice to feel special for a few days? sure.. :-) anyway i'd gotten a little bogged down with having a wicked cold, working and a number of other things and hadn't gotten a card out to one of the nicest girls i know. So i made her this belated birthday card. I drew a piece of cake and the words, stamped on some forks, and used a ricrac die i got from papertrey (i love ricrac). It's a little wacky but I like it - I hope she does too.

Jingle Belles 04

the challenge this week - to use colors: Pink, Dark Pink and Lime Green - and possibly use papers that aren't necessarily Christmas. I looked thru my stash and found some old KI Memories paper - one of which was called "Summer" :-) I used my Stampinup Top Note die and also a Christmas tree die, threw in a few gems, and punched some of the striped paper with a star punch and used some holographic EP to make it sparkle a little. Not totally thrilled with my results but i kinda like it. If you haven't joined in the Jingle Belles challenge yet - give it a try - it's a lot of fun and hey - I've got 4 cards already!

Jingle Belles 03

I'm barely making it in under the wire on this one. The challenge was to use acrylic paint. I use it, but not a lot. So it would be a challenge. I found a stamp I thought I'd like to use (it hasn't seen much use so why not?) It's a Stampington stamp called Berries on Music. I stamped it with Versamark and used a clear EP on some dark olive cardstock. I watered down some celery green acrylic paint and painted that on - the EP resisting the paint. The fact that I painted my cardstock isn't apparent - but trust me when I say the original cardstock color is somewhere between the EP'd image and the resulting bg color. I used some red glitter glue to highlight the berries and a gold paint pen around the edge of the cardstock. I took a piece of Basic Grey Wassail striped paper and brushed on some watered down Cream acrylic paint on the right edge and then machine stitched that on. And finally I added a K&Co sticker to finish it off.
I hope next week's challenge isn't quite so challenging! LOL Have a good week!

Jingle Belles 02

Okay here's my entry for this week - we had to use inchies or twinchies. I opted for a round version of an inchie :-)
I used some great Christmas stickers i had hanging around - isn't that Santa a hoot? the candy canes are also stickers. I used a cuttlebug embossing folder on the red cardstock bg (the embossing folder has the same swirl pattern as Santa's coat) and swirly blue bg paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Jolly by Golly Mini-Deck. And the stamp - Purple Onion Designs - but of course :-) I used versamark and some holographic ep - hard to see here but it has a nice bit o'sparkle. Oh yeah - some Basic Grey snippets i had laying around are what i used to make the candy cane like corners.

Jingle Belles

yes... i know its been a while. i'm posting now to tell you about a fun challenge blog called Jingle Belles. The premise is making one Christmas Card every week so by the time it's December you've got a nice pile of Christmas cards all ready for sending! Sounded good to me - i did not get my cards out this year (and worse yet I bought them! that's how bad things got round here - you heard it right girls.. i bought cards. Eek. with all the fun card making materials i've got here it's almost a sin!) Anyway the challenge for the first week was Something Old Something new.
Everything on this card - with the exception of the Top Note die (which arrived yesterday LOL) -is old... and although its not my favorite creation I was happy to get to use up some stuff AND get a Christmas card made!
I know it's been months since I've posted. That should tell you something. I haven't been making anything. Life has been too busy. That's why this challenge, every week, is something I'm really looking forward to. I'll get my cards made, a little at a time, and I'll get myself back into MAKING THINGS - which is what I love. Why don't you join us over at Jingle Belles?

a birthday card

for my husband. Doesn't look very birthday does it? No matter - i'm feeling good about this one. it has components he will love. A map, screws (or a reasonable facsimile) and a bit of nature.
I had seen a card I believe in the Papertrey gallery - had a dragon fly on it and it got me thinking. I have a Quickutz die of a dragon fly. I also had some map scrapbook paper that had colors that would go nicely. And then there was that new Papertrey impression plate - Woodgrain -I was dying to try. I used the plate on a piece of kraft cardstock and then inked it up with some brown ink. I really liked the effect. I cut the shape (behind the dragon fly) with nestabilities, stamped in with a Purple Onion Designs Late 1800s script background stamp then sponged around with some Tim Holtz Distress inks (antique linen and tea dye). Those screws are Making Memories eyelets I bought years ago. Even when I bought them I knew they were destined to go on something husband-related :-) I'll be giving him this card on his birthday next Sunday when we're on our little vacation. I think I'll be sharing a pic or two from the trip so stay tuned.

Happy Father's Day

so not a very ornate or fabulous card but my husband will say it's beautiful (whether i'd spent hours or not). and i'm just a little pooped out. no ideas a-comin
I've gotta wrap a few presents, do a few loads of laundry and start on dinner so i'll post another birthday card tomorrow. Hope it's a wonderful day for you and yours ~

another princess and some tulips

i said i'd post another card with that little birthday princess so here you go. there is something very therapeutic about paper piecing I think. cutting out that little dress and gluing it down, know what i mean?
here's another card with a tulip stamp i love but haven't used near enough.
well i hate to post and run but i must!

birthday boy

I'm a little ahead of the game here - creating a birthday card for my son when his birthday isn't until the end of the month. Yeah me! But DH and I won't be home then (eek - first time I won't be with my son for his birthday) - we'll be a little vacation - by ourselves. The timing was dictated by DH's job - he's attending a conference and I'll be flying down to join him. More on that soon. Anyway I think we'll be having a little birthday party early for our son - hence the card making now while I had a little time. Actually, we'll be celebrating DH's birthday while we're away (as his birthday is the day after our son's) so that card is next up :-)
So here's the card for son. When I saw the Enjoy the Ride stamp set by Papertrey Ink I knew I'd be getting it. Son is a car guy. A car guy to the extreme. His vehicle gets more attention than some children in this world (which truly is a sad statement yet true. He loves his car.)
Anyhow, I am so pleased how the card turned out. The stamps stamp so well - and I'm not a big fan of the clear stamp but Papertrey's are really wonderful. You get a really crisp image. Oh - I can't forget to mention I also purchased the car die (to cut out the car). And with the clear stamp it was so easy to position for stamping. To make the card, I found some scrap striped paper - I believe it was SEI. The background blue was also a scrap - the flip side of a patterned piece of Basic Grey. I ran out of the dark brown ribbon I used so I found some taupe-y colored grosgrain and made a 2nd card (nice to have an extra card on hand right?)
that's all for now. I'll be back soon - hopefully with a birthday card for the husband!

happy birthday princess

On a day off last week, i went to a stamp store with my friend June and new friend Deanna (hey June and Deanna!). I could not resist this stamp - knowing I needed to make a card for my niece for her 2nd birthday (which was yesterday). I also picked up the 6x6 Basic Grey Green at Heart paper pad - the paper is so pretty and I thought it would pair nicely with the stamp. I paper pieced her little dress and colored the rest with prismacolor pencils.
It's funny but I've had my prismacolor pencils for forever and I haven't added any new colors in probably 10 years. I'd always looked in any store that carries them (I buy by the pencil - not sets) but stopped looking when i never saw any new colors. When we were shopping I was so surprised to see a bunch of colors I'd never seen before. (so of course I bought a few). Needless to say I've been a coloring fool whenever I've had a moment.
Anyway ..... I found the little jewels (I added to the scallop border) in my stash as well as the little brads. (finding the brads - well that's a little story in itself. A few months ago I decided to do a little cleaning up in my room here. I needed some more room so I decided to dispense with some storage containers - those hardware store type containers where you can divide up all your nails and screws etc into little drawers? - i had two of those which were huge and all my brads, buttons, eyelets were separated by colors and type into a bazillion little drawers. I decided if I needed something I'd just have to search through the 6 jars I dumped them into. So when I made this card I knew exactly where to find the brads - but I had to sift through a lotta brads to find 'em. But in the end I still like the jars.)
I'll probably be posting some more versions of this little princess - she's been stamped a few times and is sporting different dresses :-)

long time no see

it's been a while. I haven't had a lot of time to make anything but I did manage to make some Mother's Day cards (for my Mom and my sisters) so I thought I'd post them today.
The stamp is from Character Constructions and I've been wanting this stamp since I first saw it two years ago. I finally indulged myself.
I'll be posting a birthday card in a few days made with some new stamps I picked up on a little shopping trip with my friend June (Hi June!)

spring thinking

i'm thinking spring.
actually i've been thinking spring for a few weeks now - probably started whilst shoveling all that snow! LOL
anyway, as i've mentioned on other occasions, I belong to a little group online. Same group I send all those valentines to. We did a little tag swap/mingle and the theme was "spring". I decided to join in and here's what I made (not the best scan i'm sorry to say). I hand cut the little cardstock border - do you see the little loop on the right hand side? well that's where I punched a hole and added ribbon. The flowers and leaves are Quickutz and the alphas are Sizzix Funky Brush. There's also a cuttlebug swiss dot embossed background there too. For something so seemingly simple I fooled with this off and on for days. (ridiculous huh? well i couldn't decided if I'd use just one color for the flowers or not - actually it looked ok either way - the edge going to using 2 colors as you see above.) I'm in love with these colors - particularly the turquoise. I guess my tag really has more of an aqua... but hey its only a few shades away. Close enough for me. Interestingly enough, I just read Turquoise is Pantone's color of the year. I enjoy looking at the Pantone website. Have I ever mentioned I got to visit Pantone years ago? Long ago, in another lifetime - I was living in New Jersey and my employer had Pantone as a client. I had to visit there to meet up with some of their employees. Oh I wanted to just stay and hang out there... way cool.
Onward. I need to get back to scanning negatives of old photos. My current Suzy Scrapbooker project.

7th Annual Valentine Rakarama

It's time again for the valentine rakarama. This year I was pondering what to make and having no ideas. I was in Joann's at the beginning of January - and they had little trees with hearts on them. Ding! I remembered i had a very cute Purple Onion Designs tree branch stamp as well as some hearts from POD - a card is born.
I set about making my card background from paper i had around (i believe that's some old basic grey you see on the left side of the card) - some plain cardstock on the bottom right and the top right was made using the beauteous Purple Onion damask stamp.
I stitched all the backgrounds and got a little sidetracked - thinking wouldn't this be a pretty quilt?
I decided I'd dress up that largest heart by decorating it with a sparkly pen. As far as the little lines i drew for the hearts to "hang" from - well who knew it would be so hard to draw a straight line? well, i did.... but i did it anyway. some were more successful than others. I cut the circles with my nestabilities and finished off the card with a hand written sentiment and a bow. Here's a pic of them all done - wow that's a lotta little bows huh?
So what else have I been doing - besides making valentines? Working, shoveling, watching some Project Runway and the Bachelor (great accompaniment when you're decorating wee hearts and tying bows). Friday night we drove to see my daughter perform in a play. Long drive there and back but it was totally worth it! She was amazing (but i knew that already...)
Happy Valentine's Day kids!

valentines for family

I started all my valentines a month ago. I knew I wanted to do cards for my family and then another bunch of cards for the online group i belong to (- my 7th annual Valentine rakarama - I'll post pics of those tomorrow.) I'd been to stamp camp in early January and broke down and ordered the adorable Stampin Up! set Sweetheart, the heart shaped treat cups and the heart punch. Just too cute - I decided to practice "make do" another day LOL! I got the clear mount version of the stamps - they're still red rubber but not mounted on wood - repositionable on clear blocks. I love them. They store in what amounts to an elongated cd case (makes me want to unmount a lot of stamps and get more of those cd cases - i'd free up a ton of space here in my little room here - but not a project i'm going to get involved in right now!) My StampinUp! demo had used m&m's to fill the treat cups - and I did the same for some of my cards. But I had a number of recipients who don't eat milk chocolate. I began to search for dark chocolate Valentine m&m's and ya know what? Even the dark chocolate ones contain milk chocolate (not going to work for my vegan recipients.) So in these pics you'll see I filled some with teeny cinnamon candy hearts and conversation hearts. (by the way, they've ruined the conversation hearts - they're now fruit flavored - blech. The whole nostalgia moment I get from eating them was destroyed when i popped one in my mouth....). Ok that's all for today my dears. I'll post some more valentines tomorrow!

quick post

yeah, i know i've been a bad blogger. I am trying to get over the guilt LOL. I just decided when i got a minute I'd jump on here and post a card. I've been busy with work and trying to make some valentine's (the yearly rakarama is coming up you know) and get back to scrapbooking - which had gone by the wayside entirely over the last year pretty much. More on that another day. But I did make a birthday card for my friend Michele. Yes, all the stamps are from Purple Onion Designs (naturellement!). I'd been wanting to use the damask background stamp since I'd gotten it - and stamping it on a paper bag might seem odd but I liked the look. I used a little scrap of Basic Grey and some purple cardstock and stitched it all on my machine. Oh and I colored the hand using some prismacolor pencils. So there you have it. We had some snow yesterday - advertised as a dusting but it ended up being a few inches. We did some fast shoveling this morning and got some shopping done afterward so this afternoon I'm thinking I'll try and work on the aforementioned scrapbooking. Have a wonderful Sunday!

all is calm, all is bright

Christmas can feel like a storm (and of course we can get a storm during Christmas time - like 20 inches of snowstorm... which can play havoc with ones plans... but i digress) therefore after Christmas we can have the calm. Today is that .... lovely, peaceful... calm. It's beautiful outside and peacefully calm inside. Everyone is taking it easy after several weeks of non-stop activity and I for one am grateful. And tired. My craft room here is lookin a little like a tornado went through it. So I'm hoping to get a little order restore in here. The mess makes me feel a little crazy. And I don't know about you, when things are organized, I feel better all over :-)

I did manage to make some quickie gifts for three coworkers on Christmas Eve Eve -Wednesday night (I have literally hundreds of coworkers every day at work but these 3 are in my department and I wanted to give them just a little something - no big deal). I'd been making Christmas cookies for the past week (in any spare moment I could steal) so that seemed like an easy choice. The first pic shows all three together and the second pic is just a closeup of one. Not the best pics I know but hey - i took them! LOL The paper is Basic Grey and the gingerbread boy is from Purple Onion Designs. He's just so darned cute! The tag and top piece are cut with nestabilites. I tied some ribbon around it and said DONE! They looked cute and everyone loved it - can't ask for more right? Best part was when I went to make something on the fly I had everything I needed.

I'm still seriously catching up so I'm off. Hope to post again before the New Year!

Christmas Tags - a few more

i was wrapping up gifts this morning for niece, nephews and one grand niece (eek that makes me sound old doesn't it... i like to put a different spin on it... I'm a grand Aunt :-)) Anyway here are a couple of the tags. The stamps are Purple Onion Designs - are they not the cutest gingerbread boys and snowmen?

ok - gotta get ready for work. Have a wonderful day!

Christmas tree tag

i've been absent - i know. between work and christmas shopping there hasn't been a lot of time. (i do believe i hear your nodding in agreement...). But one day I did make this tag which i think turned out really nicely. So i'm sharing. :-) That's that Chatterbox plaid paper which I love, a little distress ink going arond the edges, some German scrap i picked up at least a year ago (maybe longer); the trees along the bottom are some foam stamps from Making Memories, and the main Christmas trees stamp and border stamp are from that same Cornish Heritage Farms (The Rummage Bin) stamp set I used previously on a card (the hot chocolate one if you'll recall).

Anyway i hope your holiday preparations are coming together. hopefully i'll be back posting soon.

Christmas Card #11 - Oh by golly.....

and yes, the inside does say "have a holly jolly christmas this year!" courtesy of a cute sentiment stamp by Purple Onion Designs! The "HoHoHo" is also by POD - great stamps, huh?

Those adorable snowmen are from the 6x6 Jolly by Golly Cosmo Cricket pad. The embossed background is a Cuttlebug embossing folder and the snowflake is from Quickutz - glittered up with some glitter i believe i bought at Walmart (who knows when!) The background paper - is a patterned cardstock by Memory Box i bought a while back from Ellen Hutson - and when i received my order they tucked in that ribbon you see on the card - as a thank you - isn't that lovely? I've bought from Ellen Hutson a few times just for that reason - wonderful customer service. Oh yeah - the tag is from Nestabilities - from the Double Ended tag set - i just trimmed off the bottom "end" and covered it up with the snowflake.

Well - off to fold laundry! have a great day kids!