December Swappies

I loved this design so much I just HAD to put together a few more for one of my swap groups!

Of course, now I see that the hat band is missing from the little guy on the Left... excellent staging, Rach.  Nice job! ;)

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

More Krafty Goodness!

I made this set of cards as a belated Christmas present for my niece, who happens to love purple!

I didn't want to put away this FABULOUS doily stamp yet, so I whipped up this set of cards!  I used my favorite Nesties to die cut the cards, so they're just a little smaller than 4 1/4 x 5 1/2.  The purple ribbon is seam binding bunched on a piece of ScorTape, and the sentiments are all from my favorite Mint Motif set!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

A Strange Visitor

I'm not sure how this little guy found his way into the house, but he sure is pretty!

Please ignore just how GROSS my window is, it's being replaced as soon as the snow has melted!

Cheers!

Can't forget the pooches in the family!

I did a round of baking just for the four-legged kids in the family!

These whipped up in a flash, with just a bit of Kraft cardstock, my neglected paper crimper, and a couple of cute Inka stamps!  I figured I'd better make it really obvious that these are dog treats this year, since last year someone actually ATE one of them!!  A little gritty, but still tasty!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Cookie Tins!!

I decorated a few more of these fabulous little tins for all the goodies I baked for Christmas:

I managed to do all of these out of nothing but scraps!  Who says scraps are a bad thing? ;)

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

I love this time of year, because I can pull out things like this that make me happy!

Doing lots of baking, not much crafting, and absolutely NO housekeeping!  Hope you're enjoying the season!

Cheers!

Gearing up for the Holidays

I'll be taking a break from blogging this week to get ready for the holidays.  In the meantime, here's a little taste of winter up here in the Northland!

Stay warm, everyone!

12 Trendy Days of Christmas - Day Ten

 

Today's trend is Doilies!  Ohmygoodness these are EVERYWHERE!!  From the little crocheted flowers to the crocheted ribbon that seems to be on so many cards, all the way down to packages of paper doilies for sale on the scrappy sites! 

I absolutely LOVE this stamp!  I can see it getting a lot of use, especially paired with this white embossing powder and the Kraft cardstock!  The stamp is called Circle Lace from Hero Arts, and I used my TopBoss embossing pad to stamp the image. 

The ribbon is actually some purple seam binding I picked up.  I'd seen a tutorial on Kim's blog on how to make this cute little ruched technique with a piece of super sticky tape, and hadn't had an excuse yet to try it out!  I thought it added just enough to the card without being too busy.  The little sentiment stamp is also from Hero Arts, and I used my trusty Nesties to cut out the card base and the sentiment label.  Be sure to check out For The Love Of Paper for more Trendy Goodness!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

12 Trendy Days of Christmas - Day Eight

Today's trend is Heirloom Ornaments!  When I heard the theme, the first thing I thought of was the ornaments we had on our tree when I was growing up.  I remember we had this glass bird that I had to be very careful with that clipped to the tree branch!

Our bird was actually in these colors, this pretty turquoise and green, so I had a lot of fun with this card!  I kept the design pretty simple so the bird would be the focal point.

I stamped the bird in StazOn on a transparency, then used Crystal Lacquer on the back and some Martha Stewart glitter to add some bling to the bird.  Then I pressed it onto some white cardstock and cut the image out.  It's hard to tell, but I used my silver leafing pen on the back of the transparency for the beak, tail, and clip.  I think if I do this technique again with this image, I'll use silver glitter instead, since it has so much more visual texture.  Head on back to Kim's Blog to check out the other eye candy!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

12 Trendy Days of Christmas - Day Seven

Todays trend at For The Love of Paper is Burlap!  I've seen a lot of Christmas decorations that have burlap lately, especially coupled with bling and velvet!  I like that shabby chic look, very home-spun!

I pulled out this fun image from Inkadinkado, since it has always seemed very shabby chic to me.  The papers are from a DCWV paper stack, and the card base and mats are from my stash.  For my burlap embellishment I sprayed a piece of linen from my cross stitching stash with a quick drying spray starch, then used my heating tool to dry the fabric more quickly. 

I found that placing a piece of scrap cardstock under the linen when I ran it through my Cuttlebug made for a cleaner cut with my Spellbinders die.  The spray starch kept the linen from fraying, and then I topped the two-layered flower with a button from CTMH.  A simple bit of twine threaded through the button finished it off!  I sponged all the layers with CTMH Chocolate and colored in the image with Prismas.

Head back over to Kimberly's blog to check out the other samples!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

12 Trendy Days of Christmas - Day Six

I'm super excited to be playing along with Kimberly Crawford's Twelve Trendy Days of Christmas!  Todays trend is Non-Traditional Colors!  Now those who know me know I'm a Non-Traditional kind of gal, so of course I jumped at the chance to play along with todays theme!

The ornament stamp is from Flourishes, and the sentiment is from Kim's line: Mint Motif!  I can see both of these sets getting a lot of use this season!  The CTMH Jingle paper pack is so much fun to play with, and I even got to break out my new Martha Stewart glitter for this one!  I stamped the ornament on a transparency with black StazOn ink, then once it was dry I added glitter to the back using my Crystal Lacquer.  This way the swirl details would show on the front of the ornament when it was done without being covered up by the glitter.  Then I attached the ornament to white cardstock and cut it out. 

The branches in the background are stamped in green StazOn, and everything is distressed using CTMH Grey Wool.  I used a sketch from Splitcoast for the layout idea, and my trusty Nesties to do all the die cutting!

Head back on over to Kim's blog to check out the other lovely samples!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Happy Blog-iversary to me!

Wow.  Can you believe it's been a year already?  I sure can't!  Not to mention that it's already December!!  Where did the year go?

So I've been looking over the past year, seeing how my stamping style has evolved.  My cards are much more involved than they used to be, and I definately seem to have an addiction to distressing!  I think my tastes are refining a bit, too.  I don't seem to "want it all" when it comes to new papers and stamps like I used to.  It's amazing how easy it is to say "No!" to a set of 10 stamps where I can only see a use for one of them!  You wouldn't have heard that pass my lips a year ago.  And since it's the beginning of December, it's time to think of my goals for 2011 as well!  I have quite a few project ideas that have been marinating in the back of my mind for a while now.  Seems like a good time to shake them out and see if they're do-able!  Thanks for hanging on with me during this crazy ride!

Cheers!

All Decked Out!!

Here is the third card I did for yesterday's CTMH Party.  I had a blast putting this little guy together!

All the stamps are from the All Decked Out set, except for the sentiment, which is from Ms. Holiday Cheer.  I wanted to do a non-traditional color scheme for this card, so the paper is actually from the Twitterpated pack!  I used Chocolate, Sweet Leaf and Crystal Blue cardstock for the mats, hat, and scarf.  I think this is by far my favorite card of the three!  I wanted to do a "get your feet wet," a "normal," and a "slightly more involved" card for the gathering.  Obviously, this is the "slightly more involved" one!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

An easier Holiday Cheer

Here's the second card I made for the Close To My Heart party I will be doing on Sunday.

It's the same design as this card, but I kept this one a little simpler.  I eliminated the distressing and the label for the sentiment, just to make it a little easier to put together for everyone.  The tree, present, and "bow" flourish are all from the A Timber set, and the sentiment is from Ms. Holiday Cheer.  The papers and ribbon are from the Mistletoe Creative Basics pack, and the green mat is New England Ivy cardstock.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Finally Finished!!!

I FINALLY finished the second curtain for my living room window!  It's only been sitting on my kitchen table since last Christmas! 

I picked up this lovely fabric from Hancock about three years ago.  They were having an unadvertised sale on Home Decor fabrics at 75% off, so I picked up 10 yards of it!  I knew I wanted it to be in the living room, but had no idea what style of curtain I wanted, so it sat behind a door for over a year.  I finally pulled it out before Christmas last year and figured out a pattern based on some drapes I had seen online.  The first curtain turned out beautifully!  Unfortunately, I could NOT get myself to make the second one!  The pieces were even already cut out, all I had to do was iron and sew it up! 

Well, I sat down last night to finally start working on it, since we'll have a house full of company for Thanksgiving.  It was either finish the second curtain, or take down the first one so the window didn't look lopsided!  I hemmed up the first edge, and went to iron the seam, and promptly MELTED the fabric.  *sigh*  It's also not the first time I've melted the fabric.  The bolt sat in the direct line of a space heater two winters ago, and it melted a lovely triangle through about 3 layers of fabric.  This would be why my Dining Room curtain is a Roman Shade instead of drapes!

 So then I cut ANOTHER piece, and started over.  This is why I bought ten yards of it!!  Anyway, to make a short story long, the curtain is finally done!  Now I can go to bed and get some rest for tomorrows mayhem!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

A Holiday Thank You!

Here is the first card I made for the Close To My Heart party I'm doing this weekend.  I wanted to start out with a very simple card that had a bit of pop!

The papers are from the Jingle Level 2 paper pack.  The sentiment is from the set Thank You, and the flourish is from the Free Spirit set.  The layout is from the Wishes book, and the brads are from CTMH as well. 

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

A Bit of a Bloggy Break

I'm taking a bit of a bloggy break this week, I have several projects to complete before next week's Thanksgiving shindig, and none of them are really post-worthy!  I've also had a serious mojo block when it comes to stamping, so I've been working on some other crafts to mix things up a little bit.  Hopefully I'll have some progress to show for it next week!

Cheers!

Angels Among Us

Here is a third layout I did for last weekend's VSBN challenge, Angels Among Us:

The challenge was to create a layout of some sort of angel in your life.  I decided to celebrate our sweet sugar-kitty, Tigger.  We lost him in 2004 from complications from Diabetes, and I've had a hard time deciding how to approach a page about him.  The journaling is hidden in the lower left panel, and held in place by the photo turn.  I used a silver leafing pen on clear acrylic letters for the butterfly and the title, and then used glue dots to attach all the acrylic pieces down.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Grooms Dinner

Here is another layout I did for last weekend's VSBN challenge, Define Cloud Nine:

The challenge was three-fold; to step outside your comfort zone, have a minimum of three layers somewhere on the page, and to accent one of the photos in some sort of "ultimate" way!  I've been meaning to get a start on my wedding photos for quite a while, since we've been married almost 10 years now!  I used a pattern out of one of my CTMH books for the design, and used the Manhattan paper stack for the layout.  The bigger group shot is accented with photo turns as an "ultimate" touch, and most of my layouts unclude only one or two photos, so using six was definately stepping out of my comfort zone!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Looking for the Silver Lining

Here is the layout I did for my challenge during this weekend's VSBN, Looking for the Silver Lining:

The challenge was to use silver somewhere on your page, and to create a layout describing a time in your life when it seemed like you were living under a cloud, but when you look back on that time it had a silver lining after all!  Moving North definately took me out of my comfort zone, but looking back I think it was the best decision we ever made!  The journaling is on the card that is tucked behind the leftmost picture, and the pictures are all one print that I cut into thirds.  I used the CTMH Chocolate Large and Small stamp sets to do the title, and embossed the stamping with Silver Embossing Powder.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

VSBN is HERE!!!

This is a quick page I did to get my mojo going for this weekend's VSBN.

I had made this page during the last VSBN I participated in, and I'm definately a two-page layout kind of girl!  I've been wanting to do a companion page since I finished the first one, so kept the scraps and embellies seperated out so it would be quick and easy!  Now, I'm off to fortify myself with some serious caffeine to get ready for Coordinator Duty over at Splitcoast!!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Cat Bed or Clown Car??

It looks like someone is reeeeeeeally tired of the cats always taking over her bed:

I tossed the cat bed on the floor because I needed to get into the drawer it was on, and Little Missy here made herself comfortable!  I was amazed, not a single part of her was on the floor!  Such a poor, dejected mutt!

Cheers!

Bitten by the Sewing Bug!

While trying to distract ourselves from a disappointing performance on Sunday Football, the Hubs asked if I could make something to keep his hands warm while he hunts.  He prefers to not wear gloves, because they keep him from feeling the trigger on his rifle, and up until now he has just pulled his hands into his coat.  As we all learned when we were kids, this No-Workey so well!  I offered to make a Manly Muff like the ones the Quarterbacks wear.  (You were wondering what this had to do with football, huh?)  He was very excited to go to Gander to buy one, and I asked him if he really wanted to spend the cash on something I could make pretty easily with the stash I have on hand... it's amazing what the guy will agree to when it protects his Hunting Beer budget!  ;)

Anywhoo, this is what I came up with.  I'm definately a Make It Up As You Go type of person, especially when it comes to sewing.  I threatened to make this with pink fleece and add little lace trim to it.... but he behaved himself and earned the boy colors.  The outside layer is a waterproof flannel, and the inside is two layers of polar fleece.  I made straps on the back so he can use the belt of his pack to hold it in place, that way he doesn't get stuck in it when he goes to shoot.  I had visions of a Chinese Finger Trap when I was making it; that kept me very entertained while I repeatedly ripped out seams!  The Hubs kept asking what I was giggling about, but I didn't want to hurt his feelings, and thankfully he doesn't read my Girly Blog!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!