Angels We Have Heard on High...

Happy hump day everyone! Knowing that I will be off at the end of this week is making time go so slowly... I am ready to be home finishing up all the things I haven't yet done and beginning to enjoy the holidays (the hardest task!).

Today I have a card to share that we made at my class last week. For the holidays, I tend to make non-religious cards, Santa, snowmen, etc, but I was drawn to this angel stamp from the Stampin' Up "Angelic Joy" set. It's a nice size and the detail lends itself to watercoloring.

The angel was stamped using Memento Rich Cocoa onto Very Vanilla paper and colored with Watercolor Wonder Crayons and an Aquapainter. She was cut out using a deckle edge die, sponged with Creamy Caramel, then layered onto Always Artichoke and Early Espresso. The background layers, from the "Deck the Halls" DP series, were tied together with some Vanilla seam binding ribbon and the greeting tied on with some gold twine. I added a few pearls in the corners to finish it off.

The inside was finished with a strip of the patterned paper and a die cut greeting, also from the "Angelic Joy" set, leaving lots of room for a holiday note.

It ended up to be a very pretty card and easy to make- good thing because I still have a lot to go!

Gift card hat...

Holy cow- it's only a little over a week until Christmas! Each year promise myself I am going to be more prepared than the previous year, but then I'm not. I finally got my tree decorated this weekend, I haven't even taken my holiday card picture (much less made the card) and haven't put any lights up outside other than the ones in the garland around the door.

The top of the list for this week is teacher gifts- most of them will get a small ornament but I like to give them a gift card or some money for all they do for our kids all year long. I saw a tutorial over at Splitcoast for these cute beanie cap gift card holders and decided to give them a try for my class last Friday.

These hats were made from the Holiday Thyme paper set from a few years back, with Cranberry Crisp as the contrast paper. I used the Circle Scissor to cut the 5" circles then cut them in half on my paper trimmer to form the top of the hat. A little faux stitching with a Uniball white gel pen, a hand cut felt tassle, some ribbon and rhinestones and the outside was finished. Note: I wrapped the rhinestone brad around the center of the bow and used it to hold the card together instead of an eyelet.

I stamped Merry Christmas from the "Christmas Greetings" set leaving a small space for a note. The gift card sits in this slot between the greeting and the hat band- too cute! Definitely try one of these- other than cutting the circle, they're super fast. If you don't have a circle cutter, find a plate to trace!

Hope you're all doing better on your lists than me~

White Christmas...

Hi everyone! This is going to be a super quick post today with a super quick, CAS card today! I was inspired by a card by Amy Sheffer seen here and decided to make a version of this for my class this Friday night.

 

The top white layer was cut by placing the ornaments die in the Movers and Shapers die before cutting. This is the first time I have used this die combo and it was really cool. It allows you to cut a shape from the front of a card or a layer exactly where you want it to be, and further into the card than punches can reach. After the ornament hole was cut, the top layer was run through my Sizzix machine with the Fleur-de-lis embossing folder- it's amazing how much embossing adds to a card!

The ornament from the Tags Til Christmas punches set was stamped in Cherry Cobbler so that it lines up with the hole (hint: make a pencil outline of the hole on the bottom white layer to guide stamping). The top and bottom white layers were adhered together with dimensional dots, silver brads were added to the corners, then it was layered onto a Cherry Cobbler layer, then the white card front. The card was finished off with a greeting from the Four the Holidays set and a ribbon tied from Cherry Cobbler Seam binding ribbon.

Have a great day and hope to see you tomorrow night at my holiday class!

CAS Season's Greetings...

I am finally finished with the grant I was writing and felt an enormous sense of relief when I clicked send yesterday afternoon- now I just need to dig out from all the things I put off while I was writing that-lol!

I have a quick CAS (clean and simple) holiday card to share with you today that we will be making at my class on Friday night. We have many friends/family who do not celebrate Christmas and try as I may, I never get Hanukkah cards out on time, so "Season's Greetings" it is!

 The card starts with a 5.5" Soft Suede square base (which requires 20 cents more postage, BTW...). The Very Vanilla panel was stamped with snowflakes from the Serene Snowflakes set in Soft Suede and Champagne Mist Glimmer Paint (so pretty IRL!). I heat set the shimmer paint with my heat tool, then tied a burgundy silk ribbon/bow around the snowflake layer before adhering it to the card base. "Season's Greetings" from the "Many Merry Messages" set was stamped in Soft Suede, cut with a Nestie oval die and layered onto Cherry Cobbler and Soft Suede die cuts. All the Vanilla and Suede layers were sponged with the Suede ink- this defines the edges of the brown paper and softens the edges of the Vanilla paper.

The inside was finished just as simply with a stamped greeting, two snowflakes and some sponging. This card was not at all what I had in mind when I started, but I like the outcome so much (and the small time commitment required) that this may be the main Christmas/Holiday card I make this year.

Thanks for stopping by~

A good hot soak...

Good morning! I don't know about you all but I am sooo glad it's Friday! I am almost finished with my grant and now my hubby gets to shred (I mean edit:), it over the weekend then it's done! This has left me zero time this week for stamping/crafting and I am ready to make some cards and decorate my house for Christmas! Speaking of decorating, I figured that since I didn't have any cards to show you today, I would share my other major projects that I've had going on- redoing my bathroom!

Our house is 17 years old and although we've been redoing some rooms bit by bit, others still scream early 90's- especially our master bathroom. Our good friend is a builder and got his guys together for a super fast rip out and redo- he's the man! Here are a few before and after shots that I took-

The old shower had glass block, a shiny brass rimmed door and really *pretty* flowery wallpaper (old owners, BTW) The new shower was rebuilt to have a more open feel and a clear glass enclosure. It's physically the same size but feels so much bigger with the wall on the left side gone and the clear glass!

This is my vanity before and after. We got rid of the boxed fluorescent lights, trimmed out the cabinets with extra molding and replaced the tops with a pretty brown marble.

The painters are my new favorite people:) They did the most amazing glazing on the cabinets- it's incredible how different the whole bathroom looks with the white cabinets turned all creamy and chocolatey! You can just see a peek of my chandelier hanging from the middle of the room- a little indulgence that makes it fabulous to sit in the bathtub. Speaking of which, I threw out my back sealing all the new tile and grout (2 coats of really smelly chemicals-yuck!) so I took the first bubble bath last night- pure heaven!

Now I have to figure out my next project:)'

Have a great day~