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!