Christmas Wishes...

Good morning everyone! It's a cold (50 degrees), windy, cloudy day here in Houston and I am so thankful that it has finally cooled off again- bring on the 40's baby! When you live with super heat all summer, you are so ready for some cool air when it comes. If only I could stay home and snuggle under a blanket *sigh* and enjoy it.... A quick post, then I'm off to beg for money, oh, I mean write a grant:)

Sometimes I cut shapes for a card, then find they don't work, so I keep an ever growing pile thinking I will use eventually use them. I decided to dig into that pile last night and found some matching scraps/shapes which were perfect for this card.

The main image was stamped with the Santa image from the "Christmas Mail" set by Craft Secrets- I love their vintage images! The image was colored with Copic markers, except the key in Santa's hand which was colored with a gold Spica glitter pen- it sparkles IRL- so cool! After cutting the image out with a circle Nestie die, the image was sponged with Creamy Caramel ink with the die still in place to leave a clear edge. The rest of the shaped layers were also sponged before layering them together.

The card base is layers of Early Espresso, Very Vanilla and a sparkly snowflake print from MME "Wonderful Winter", tied up with some soft brown suede ribbon. The greeting cut out by hand and mounted onto a Espresso oval from the scrap pile. A few bronze brads finish the corners.

The inside has a scrap strip of the same sparkly snowflake paper, a mail register mark and a vintage greeting from this set as well. This card is nice because it doesn't have too many layers and should make it into a standard envelope (yay- less postage!).

Hope you're having a great day~

Joyful Season...

I can't believe it's Monday already- I am sooo not ready to go back to work and start what I know is going to be an insane week. I have a grant to write (which I have not yet started...), hubby is on the inpatient service at the hospital and we have a 3-day finals swim meet over the weekend- I'm tired already! Such is life, I'm sure for everyone at this time of year~

I was playing around with some stamps I recently bought from Verve and trying to get the hang of getting well inked images with clear polymer stamps (there were several versions in my recycle pile-lol!). I made the card base from Old Olive, Whisper White and some Bazill red card stock that came with a kit years ago. I stitched a piece of patterned paper from Basic Grey's Blitzen collection to the top layer and added a piece of the red stripe across the card with an eyelet border peeking from underneath.

The tag was inked with Cherry Cobbler and Marina Mist markers, stamped on WW card stock then cut out with their matching die. The word "Joy" was stamped along the top and the whole tag was layered onto a hand cut piece of red card stock, then tied with a green taffeta ribbon from last year's SU Holiday mini. The snowflakes were stamped in Marina Mist, cut out by hand and attached with brads- the big brad has a snowflake image and is part of the SU Antique Brads set- so perfect for this card!

The inside was finished with snowflakes down the left border, a greeting from this set and a strip of paper to match the outside. I didn't want to add any more embellishments to the inside because I want to get this into the mail without any extra postage:)

Hope you enjoyed my card today- have a great one!






Supplies:
Stamps: Glad Tidings (Verve)
Paper: Old Olive, Whisper White, Bazill red, Basic Grey "Blitzen"
Ink: Marina Mist, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories: SU- Scallop Trim border punch, Antique Brads, silver brads, green taffeta ribbon, dimensionals; Sweet Scallop die- Verve; sewing machine

Let the season begin!

The last few days have been a blur of activity- I didn't even get a chance to post a Happy Thanksgiving (serious cooking going on in my kitchen)! I've spent the past two days recovering from rich food, great wine and lots of company- fun, but tiring. It's taken me until now to become motivated enough to get into my craft room and think about holiday cards and teacher gifts.

I usually make some special gift for my kids' teachers or buy a special ornament and make a gift box for it to go in. Now that my daughter is in middle school, she has 9 teachers- this makes gift making/giving a bit more complicated (not to mention expensive!). I saw the tutorial for these double ball paper ornaments on Splitcoast Stampers and decided that this might fit the bill perfectly.

I used paper from the "Wonderful Winter" paper pack by MME that I bought last year and a hat pin from the Stampin' Up Pretties kit. I added some beads at the top and bottom for a bit of sparkle and a long ribbon with a bow for hanging.

For this one, I used a turquoise and pink combo with a pink glass bead I pinched from my daughter:). These were a quick, fun project and definitely something I can make a bunch of! Because these use very little paper, they are a great way to use scraps from Christmases past.

I'm off to dig further into my daughter's bead stash to make some more of these- enjoy your last day of holiday break!

Merry little snowman...

I don't know about you all (y'all here in Texas:) but I can't believe it's Monday already! I had to work this weekend, but thankfully there were no emergencies and I didn't have to go back to the hospital after I was done rounding on my patients (which is really a credit to my fellows who need to stay there- thank you!). Still, somehow the weekend slipped away with the arrival of my FIL and AIL (aunt in law) for the holidays (both in their 80's), a Girl Scout trip to a Masquerade Theater show (which had content that I will be "explaining" for some time to come...) and building 3 gazillion piece Legos with my son.

I had hoped to get a bit further along in making my holiday cards and teacher gifts, but all I managed to finish was this card- an achievement all in all-lol!

I've had a big pack of My Mind's Eye paper from last year sitting on my craft room table, so I've been digging through these fabulous sparkly patterns for all my cards lately. I loved these trees so the trick was not to cover all of them with my image and accessories! The snowman is digital image from an artist named Zlatoena whose drawings I just love- so whimsical! The snowman was printed on Whisper White and colored with Copics. The ric-rac is actually patterned paper cut out with a ric-rac shaped die (this one is definitely going to see some more use!). The ribbon is the new seam binding ribbon from SU- love how beautifully this ribbon ties- just gorgeous!

The inside was finished with the same polka dot/ric rac theme with some photo corners to provide balance. Because the patterned papers took up so much room, I decided to stamp the greeting directly on the white background and not mat it so I have "some" room for a note.

Hope you like my sweet little snowman as much as I do- he makes me smile every time I see him!

Heidi

Believe...

As Christmas approaches and we begin to discuss what might be in letters to Santa (trying to get some hints so I'm not scrambling at the last second!), I am waiting for my middle school daughter to ask the dreaded question... is there really a Santa? I think this conversation is imminent since she has recently given up on the tooth fairy, although she plays along for her little brother. I'm totally not ready for them to lose the magic and am determined to hold onto it for as long as possible, so definitely some extra steps this year (more to come on that!). She's a good sport, though, so I am sure if there is disclosure, she will maintain a good front for Matthew.

Since I was in a Santa mode, I pulled out some stamps from Crafty Secrets that I bought awhile back and have yet to see ink. I do love some of their images, but I really am not a fan of clear polymer stamps- a red rubber girl for sure (sounds kind of kinky, actually-lol!).

The main image was stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa ink on Very Vanilla card stock, then cut out using a circle nestability die on my Sizzix machine. While the die was still in place, I sponged Creamy Caramel ink around the image, revealing a clear border when the die was removed- I love how crisp this comes out! The image was layered onto a larger circle of Early Espresso and a "Labels 13" shape cut from Cherry Cobbler.

The edges of all the layers were sponged with Creamy Caramel to make them match the vintage feel of the image. The card was finished off with some pearls and a bow made from Early Espresso satin ribbon.

The inside was finished with a computer-generated greeting cut with the same Labels 13 die and a strip of the glittery snowflake paper- very sparkly IRL!

Hopefully lots of Christmas and Santa cards and decorations will keep the magic alive for another year~

 




Supplies:
Stamps: Vintage Christmas (Crafty Secrets)
Paper: Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Wonderful Winter (MME), Early Espresso DP
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Creamy Caramel
Accessories: Basic Pearls, Early Espresso satin ribbon, nestabilities, Sizzix machine, Stampin' Sponges, dimensionals

Northern Snowflakes...

Oh, what a beautiful morning...OK, people up north may hate me right now, but this is the time of year that Houston makes up for the long, hot, humid summers! I am definitely going to need to find an excuse to walk across campus today....

This is the last card in the series from my class last Friday night and was probably the favorite (funny how the simplest ones are often the big hits!). The card is simple layers of black, white and a snowflake print from the "Holiday Thyme" Designer Series paper pack from Stampin' Up a few years back (trying to whittle down my stash:)

The bottom edges were clipped with a corner rounder punch which gives it a nice look. The snowflakes are from the Level 1 Hostess set from the new Holiday Mini catalog, called "Northern Hearts" and has some nice patterns for quick cards and gift tags. The snowflakes were inked with Bashful Blue, then over-colored with Basic Black for accents, then stamped on Whisper White and cut out. The top of the inset panel was stamped with a greeting from the "Bright Christmas" set (love these!) and dots were make with a black marker and the mat pack as a guide. A little black dotted organdy ribbon with a double bow and it's done.

This card could be jazzed up with some silver brads, layered snowflakes and machine stitching, but it works the way it is for a quick, pretty card!

Hope you're having a great day- I'm trying to convince the painters that they really can finish my new master bathroom before the onslaught of in-laws for Thanksgiving:)

Christmas Bells...

Good morning everyone! It's a beautiful, cool breezy morning here- I'm loving this 50-70 degree range we're in right now- finally!! Just a quick post this morning to share another card we made at my class last Friday night.

This card started with a Cherry Cobbler and  Kraft base, layered with patterned paper from the "Deck the Halls" set. Stampin' Up has put out some fabulous matching fabric this season which is perfect for accents on cards and small sewing projects like Christmas stockings, quilted coasters, etc. I used a strip of the fabric for a ruffled ribbon by laying down a strip of Sticky Strip and pleating the ribbon over the top. You could also stitch the pleated ribbon on top of the card for a fancier look.

The bells from the "Bells & Boughs" set were stamped on Very Vanilla card stock with Memento Rich Cocoa and colored with Copics- for the class we colored the image with Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke and More Mustard reinkers using an Aquapainter, which looked remarkably similar. The image was cut out using a circular nested die on my Sizzix machine and sponged with Creamy Caramel while the die was still in place to leave a clear edge. The image was matted onto an Artichoke circle and a Cherry Cobbler die cut and mounted with dimensional dots.

A quick and easy card that could be dressed up with some machine stitching and some Prima flowers, but elegant the way it is.

Hope you're having a great day~

 




Supplies:
Stamps: Bells & Boughs
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Kraft, Very Vanilla, Deck the Halls DP, Deck the Halls Designer fabric
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, More Mustard, Creamy Caramel reinkers
Accessories:Sizzix machine, nested dies, Aquapainter, Stampin' Sponges, red rhinestones, dimensionals