Have yourself a very Merry Christmas

This could possible be my last post for a little while, I still have not finished all my Christmas shopping so I'll be busy getting that done. Plus my DH is almost home for the holidays so that'll make it a lot easier to get things done. We celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and Christmas day so I will not be around much next week. I love Christmas but I also love it when things go back to normal.

So I'm starting to get off my Christmas card making kick and I actually made a different one, it's a set I've been eying for a while and I finally took the plunge. It'll be a great set for masculine cards. As you can tell, I really enjoy cards made using the reverse mask technique, so simple, fast and yet beautiful.

Recipe:
Stamps: Winds of Grace, Sincere Salutations
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Baja Breeze
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Other: Hemp Twine, Jumbo eyelets

Here's another simple reverse mask card using the retired Peaceful Wishes stamp set. Love that set.


Recipe:
Stamps: Peaceful Wishes, Sincere Salutations
Ink: Always Artichoke, Riding Hood Red
Paper: Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla
Other: Crystal Effects

Thanks for looking!

Merry Christmas to me...

My husband hates Christmas shopping, HATES it. So for a couple of years now I've told him that it's fine, I'll just find something I like and get it myself. Not the most romantic but works for us. So when I saw the Bind it all on sale for 30% off, I knew that would be one of my gifts. I absolutely love this thing. I'm making both grandparents these little brad books, and I can hardly wait to make a bunch of different books for myself. It punches through chipboard so easily and it looks professional. If you don't have one, get one!

Thanks for looking and have great day!

Merry Christmas

It's been a while since I last posted, life has been crazy in our household. We are moving up north, 10 hrs north to be exact and so my Dh is already up there with his new job, and also house hunting. Well I think we finally have a house, but it's been such a wierd season for us so far. We are doing some renovations to the house before we sell or rent, so that has me busy, I've been sick for over a week now, the kids are all sick, my daughter slammed a car door on her finger yesterday so it's all blue, and the list goes on and on. I was actualy kind of relieved when I got the call this morning that school had been cancelled, even though that means Janae's pre-k concert will be cancelled too. So my postings might become sparse over the next month or so. My DH has about 3 weeks off over the holidays and so we thought we'd try to be packed by then so that we don't have to make the trip twice. I'm already dreading the thought of packing my finally organized scrapbooking room. But I'm really hoping the new house will have a bright office for my next room.

But onto some cards that I've been working on. We had a ladies cookie exchange in our church last night and we gave the ladies the opportunity to try there hand at cardmaking. We kept the cards simple and easy for a beginner. I won't post the recipe for these since there are quite a few and I'm really not feeling that well. If you want to know any details please ask, and I'll let you know.

Thanks for looking and I hope everyone's having a great Christmas season!

Here's a quick one...

It's been a great day in our home. We took my 4 year old daughter to get her ears pierced, she was so brave. She didn't cry, but we could see that she was really fighting the tears, which actually made it almost harder to watch. She had begged for 2 weeks straight already for earings so we thought maybe it was time. Now she's in love with them and showing them off to anyone that'll look. After that we took our kids to a hockey game which was hosting it's annual teddy bear night. I love to watch all those teddy bears hit the ice, it's insane.

But onto my card, I saw a simular card on SCS and I thought it would make for a really quick but elegant card. This card really does look so much better IRL. I added dazzling diamonds to the centres of all the snowflakes and it really doesn't show up very well in the photo.

Recipe:
Stamps: Sincere Salutations
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Paper: SU Kraft, dsp unkown
Other: Dazzling diamonds, crystal effects, ribbon from Michael's loonie bin

Thanks for looking and I hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Good Morning!

Well, it's almost lunch time, not really morning anymore but it does feel like a nice morning. I love mornings where there's nothing going on, kids are playing and I'm catching up. I did another card last night and one this morning. Although the pictures don't do them justice. I bought a cheap camera because I was sick of lugging out my big SLR everytime I wanted to take some simple pictures. Well now I just have to get used to not getting the picture quality with this thing. Great to slide in your pocket but not so great when you're used to the quality of a big SLR.

This first card is a card that I'll be using as part of a door prize at our ladies Christmas banquet coming up. We're trying to promote simple homemade gift giving in our Prayer Sister group so we thought we'd try and have the doorprizes homemade as well, kind of like the whole "practice what you preach" idea. So I'm making a bunch of cards that the winner can use through out the year on her prayer sister plus some other altered goodies.

Recipe:
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Ink: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip,
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Other: Chocolate Chip 5/8" ribbon

This next one is something I saw off of Dawn's blog (link on the left). So I tried it, changed it a little and I think it's a great simple card, really fast to put together. The technique is called reverse masking, very easy but very effective.

Recipe:
Stamps:Always, Fundamental Phrases
Ink: Not Quite Navy
Paper: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Not Quite Navy, Urban Garden DSP
Other: Rhinestone brad, nestabilities, Versamark & clear embossing pwd for the heart.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're having a great day. Is anyone else panicking about how close Christmas already is?! Yikes.

Merry & Bright

Well my week is starting to feel a little more normal now. I even had time today to sit down and make a card, one that wasn't even for a craft sale or anything. It's a very simple card, not even sure if I like it but it was just nice to get back into my regular groove, at least for a little while.

Recipe:
Stamps: Merry & Bright
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Bravo Burgundy
Paper: Chocolate Chip, kraft, DSP from our LSS
Other: Hemp Twine, Crystal Effects (on the trees over the Burgundy)
Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Great Sale!!

First off, sorry about the gap between postings. Our craft sale went well, I sold a lot of stuff, made new contacts and had a lot of fun. But the next morning my DH and I went on a road trip and I was sick the entire time, it was not pleasant. Through this road trip we decided that we're moving 10 hrs north to a small town called Peace River. My DH got a job offer up there and we've been wanting to move for a while already. So long story short, we're moving and my life is not slowing down, yet. I'll post pics of the craft sale ASAP.

On to the sale, right now SU! is offering up to 50% off bundled pkgs. Wohoo! I've been wanting to purchase the All in the Family set and now I think I might just have to get it. Check it out, tons of great stuff on sale. I can't believe the curly label punch is on sale too, I just bought that set, grrr. I don't even have it in the mail yet. Oh well.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll post pics as soon as I get my head back on straight.

Almost caught up!

What a busy two weeks it has been for me, but I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have only a few more things that I need to work on for the craft sale and then I should be back to normal card making. Here's a bunch of photos of everything I've made so far. I won't list the recipes for these since it would take me forever but if you need some info, please ask and I'll do my best to answer your questions.

The first project you see is called Christmas Fudge. It's basically a chocolate bar wrapped in DSP and a poem added about how life was too busy so this year's homemade fudge is a chocolate bar,.

I found these adorable money savers at the dollar store and I think they look so cute with the DSP. I think these would even make great baby piggy banks for those mothers that like to scrapbook...

These next two photos are of some composition books that I've altered. In these pics I have the super small & medium, but I did also make some bigger ones too.


I love these Reindeer poops, so cute. I made a bunch of these so I really hope they sell well. They'll only be a dollar so I think they should.

I have absolutely fallen in love with post it note holders. I have one on my fridge and I'm always grabbing for it. I made over a dozen of these, if everyone finds them as useful as I do, I should sell out.

Next we have some simple peppermint patties. I have no idea if they'll be popular but I'll sell them for cheap and see what happens.

And last but not least, my Snowman soup in a mug. I've heard these are big sellers so I made a dozen and now I've got my fingers crossed.

Well, that's all I've got for pictures, I'll take lots of pictures of the sale this weekend and post them as soon as I can. My hubby and I are going on a mini vacation after this is over so it I won't be posting until the middle of next week, but it'll be full of pictures from the craft sale.

Wish me luck and thanks for stopping by!

Busy busy!

So the craft sale is just over a week away and I'm starting to panic. I'm a procrastinator and that usually leaves me stressed before an event. I've been working all day, every day this week trying to get stuff done. Once I have everything organized I will post some pictures and I'll definately be posting pictures of me at the craft sale. I'm getting a little nervous too. I'm doing this mainly to get my name out there but I'm also hoping for a lot of success with selling my stuff.

These are gift card holders that I made this morning. I think I'll make maybe a dozen or so to take along to the sale since gift cards are becoming a very popular gift and this way they have something nice to present them with. I won't post the recipe since some of the paper is not SU, sorry.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Ack, so sorry!

Well if you hadn't noticed, I've been slacking for the last week or two. Life just got a little busy all at once and it won't slow down until after Christmas. But hopefully after the craft sale in mid November I'll still be able to get some cards done. Cardmaking really is my therapy.

I've been super busy the last two weeks getting my kid's halloween treats ready for their classroom parties, I decided to make about 50 pop top cans. I kept them simple as I figured the kids wouldn't notice if I hadn't gone all out on the extras. For the inside I added some halloween smarties, bubble gum and rocket candies. Even I"m tempted to open one, or more...


My sister in law had a baby and so I made 50 baby showers favors which also kept me busy. I think they turned out pretty cute, and cheap since I had a friend who was able to give me her empty baby food jars.


Last but not least, I did make another Christmas card, and if it looks familiar, it should. I used the same design a few weeks ago but in baja breeze and this card is made the same way using old olive.


Thanks for looking and I'll try not to have such a big gap between postings!

Simple, Simple.

Today I made two cards that were both very simple one layer cards. I love those kind of cards but too often I don't think of making them. I'll also be selling these at our local craft show, I hope I won't be too disappointed in sales...

The first card still has me wondering if I should maybe add some white tafetta ribbon to the top. I tried and I like it both ways but I do want to keep it simple. There is a fine line between simple and plain and I'm aiming for simple.

Recipe:
Stamps: Peaceful Wishes, Holidays & Wishes
Ink: Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy, White Kraft, Sahara Sand
Paper: Sahara Sand

The following card looks so much better IRL. I added crystal effects to the red spots on the trees which adds a subtle elegance to it. I colored the trees with my aqua painters and classic ink pads, so easy.

Recipe:
Stamps: Merry & Bright
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red
Paper Whisper White
Other: Crystal Effects

Thanks for looking!

Have I mentioned...

That I love Christmas! LOL. It doesn't help that the craft sale I'm in is towards the beginning of November so I'm really busy trying to get all my Christmas cards ready for that.

This card is an idea I got from KWerner designs, (I have her blog on my list on the left hand side). I love how simple yet elegant this card looks. I used the swirly stamp from "Priceless" to get my design on the circles with heat & stick powder and then the dazzling diamonds. TFL.

Recipe:
Stamps: Priceless, Sincere Salutations
Inks: Versamark, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla
Other: Heat & Stick Powder, Dazzling Diamonds, Hemp Twine

Here's some advice!

If you don't want to lose all your hair, don't go shopping with one 4 year old and two 5 year olds too often. Wow. I took the kids to the city to try and get new snowsuits for the winter. I had at least a hundred questions thrown at me today, at least 100 moments of bickering about wether "Barbie" was sick or not, or wether she had feelings, and at least 100 "Mommy I'm tired, I'm thirsty, I want to watch the movie NOW" But through all of that, we still managed to have a good day, a very tiring day, but a good day. And I got what I needed, SNOWSUITS. Yeah!

So since I was buying a snowsuit, you know I had to make another Christmas card. This is another card that I saw on SCS. I'm waiting for the DSP out of the new Holiday Mini Catty but I have no patience so I made one with what I had on hand. I really like this one, I will definately be making these for the craft show, although with SU's DSP since it will be a Stampin Up! booth...

If you wondering about the clear strip it's your cheap transparencies paper that I bought at our local Office Depot, otherwise it's actually a very easy card to make.

Recipe:
Stamp: Random stamps from our LSS
Ink: Baja Breeze, Versmark
Paper: Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Transparency pp, DSP from our LSS
Other: White Embossing Pwd, White gg ribbon from Michaels.

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

Good Morning!

I'm on such a Christmas kick these days, I think I'm scaring my husband. It seems that every year I get started just a little earlier then the previous one. And the funny part, our three kids are becoming Christmas addicts like me, he he.

This card is one of those that looks so much better IRL. I got the idea from SCS but changed the snowflakes a little. This card is definately not what most would call a traditional Christmas card, and I love traditional so I'm surprised that I like it.

Recipe:
Stamps: Sincere Salutations, snowflake is from the LSS
Ink: StazOn Black, versamark
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black
Other: Ribbon from Michaels, Silver EP

This one is also one that looks better IRL. It has a very soft neutral feel to it. I bought this stamp set when it came out in the Holiday Mini last year thinking I would have so many cute cards to make with it, and now I struggle with it. I cannot seem to make a card with this stamp set that I truly love. Maybe it's because I didn't spend the extra $$ to buy the matching sentiment. But it was not cheap so I'll force myself to use it, even if it is just to relieve some guilt.

Recipe:
Stamps: Holy Triptych, Holidays & Wishes
Ink: Versamark
Paper: White mulberry, Base cs is from the LSS
Other: SU! Gold cording, ribbon from Michaels, Gold EP

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Happy Wednesday

I hope everyone is having a great week, we sure are. We've had a week of great fall weather, the leaves are changing colors and falling off the trees but it's still warm enough to be out in shorts. Love it.

I made three cards today, all of which I'm not sure about. I'm sure most of us make cards that we're not loving, I usually don't have three at the same time but oh well. Can't win 'em all.

The first card is a very simple card with some watercoloring done. I used the new in color pink pirouette, love this color. It's the prefect baby color.

Recipe:
Stamps: Embrace Life
Ink: Pink Pirouette, rose red, chocolate chip
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, the light beige is unknown
Other: Chocolate Chip ribbon

Next is another card with the same color theme. I used my versamark and pink pirouette ink to emboss the heart. It's hard to see in the picture but I also matted the focal point with vellum.

Recipe:
Stamps:Always, Warm Words
Paper:Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Pink Pirouette, Vellum
Ink:Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, versamark.
Other:Chocolate Chip ribbon, cuttlebug folder swiss dots

This next card gave me some grief. I had envisioned a soft colored card but ended up with a much brighter card then planned. I might try and add something to this one to make it look more finished. I used my nestablilites to cut out the circle in the card base and then used one larger size to cut out the vellum and the tangerine orange circle. TFL.

Recipe:
Stamps:Fundamental Phrases, Always,
Ink:Kiwi Kiss, White Kraft (for the small flower)
Paper:Whisper White, Tangerine Orange, DSP from the LSS
Other:Ribbon from Michaels, Prima Flowers, Button ?

Thanks for looking, have a great day!

More Christmas Cards

I love making Christmas cards, absolutely love it. But right now I'm waiting on my order to come in from Stampin Up! which makes it harder to make them since I'm low on paper and a bunch of other things.

The first card is a very simple card made with the Peaceful Wishes set which is now retired. I inked the little berries in red before I added the dazzling diamonds but I think I would skip that step next time since you can't really even see it through the glitter.

Recipe:
Stamps: Peaceful Wishes
Ink: Always Artichoke, Riding Hood Red
Paper: Very Vanilla
Other: Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds


I saw the idea for the next card on SCS, yes I love the site! The orginal card used clear acetate for the front, I didn't have any so I used vellum instead. It's actually a very easy card to make. I can't wait to try it with the acetate.

And here's a view of the inside of the card:

Recipe:
Stamps: stamps from LSS
Ink: White Craft Ink, white gel pen, Baja Breeze
Paper: Baja breeze, Always Artichoke, Whisper White, Vellum
Other: White Grosgrain ribbon

Peaceful days

What better way is there to spend a day then to make cards. We're having a very quiet peaceful day in our house, my kind of day.

My first card was one I made late last night. I'm really enjoying the pocket silhouettes stamp set. Very calming.

Recipe:
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Inks: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, DSP Green Tea
Other: MM Brads, Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon


This next card was made using my cuttlebug swiss dots folder. I love my folders but sometimes forget to use them. Very basic card but I like how it turned out.


Recipe:
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, So Saffron
Other: Chocolate Chip ribbon, swiss dots embossing folder

The last card was just a simple idea I saw on SCS, using your white gel pen to highlight a stamped area. Very pretty effect.

Recipe:
Stamps: Sincere Salutations, Eastern Blooms
Ink: Chocolate Chip, White gel pen
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze
Other: White grosgrain ribbon

Great week!

My excuse for not posting for so long is that I had a busy week, my sister was here visiting, I had my grand opening party and the list goes on. I haven't even had time to stamp with some of my brand new stamp sets, which has been really hard.

My grand opening party went extremely well, I sold almost $900 dollars in merchandise, including my order. I can hardly wait for my order to come in. I ordered over 20 packs of paper, stamp sets, more designer paper, and a bunch of other stuff. I really tried to keep to my rule of stocking up on paper and not going on a stamp buying frenzy. The best part of having my party was that I have a lady who wants to hold a workshop in November and she already picked which Christmas cards she'd like to make, makes my job pretty easy.

It probably also helped that I am currently offering a free ink pad for holding a party plus another one when your party reaches $400 in merchandise sales. Plus Stampin Up has a promotion on right now from October 1 - November 30, earn a free stamp set from the catalogue sampler when your party reaches $460 in sales. So she has the potential of receiving quite a bit of free stuff.

Here's simple card that I made tonight with one of my new stamps, and also one of my favorites, it's called pocket silhouettes. TFL.

Recipe:
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Ink: tangerine orange, chocolate chip, whisper white, Hawaii Papaya dsp, versamark (for the stamped images on the tangarine orange)
Other: Chocolate chip ribbon

Make & Takes

I've agonized and stressed over what cards to make at my party. I'm even losing sleep over it, yeah I know. But I have my two make & takes ready and I don't plan on changing them. I wanted to showcase two techniques that I personally love but also not make them too hard for possible new stampers.

The first one is made using the new in colors and the new stamp set Upsy Daisy (which also happens to be the door prize). The technique on this one is using any ink pad to get the heat embossed look. You basically dip your stamp in a versamark pad and then straight into your ink pad. This allows the ink to stay wet enough to sprinkle your clear EP over. Love this technique!

Recipe:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Ink: Old Olive
Paper: Old Olive, Baja breeze, Whisper White, DSP Green tea
Other: Old Olive ribbon, versamark, clear embossing powder

This next card has caused me a lot of stress. I love this stamp set, love the brayered sky technique but had a really hard time coming up with a design that did this stamp set justice. The only thing I might change is to remove the ribbon and use three brads instead.


Recipe:
Stamps: Nature Silhouettes, Fundamental Phrases
Ink: So Saffron, Apricot Appeal, Really Rust, Riding Hood Red
Paper: Basic Black, Really Rust, So Saffron
Other: Apricot Appeal Ribbon, Versamark, Black Embossing Powder

Door Prizes

Well I think I've finally got my door prizes ready for my grand opening party next week. I will be giving away two note card boxes with finished note cards, one set of clips assorted and with every $30 spent in merchandise you will be entered a draw for a chance to win the Upsy Daisy stamp set. I'm getting more and more excited. If I receive any orders online that are over $30 in merchandise sales you will also be entered for the Upsy Daisy draw as well as the other door prizes. But your order will need to be in by Tuesday afternoon (September 23rd.). Wish me luck!

I love Stampin' Up!

I've been buying from them for quite some time, but I'm only now really beginning to appreciate their product. I love that everything matches so perfectly. I never have to hunt forever for a shade of paper that is "close enough".

I've been busy trying to come up with different Christmas cards for our local craft sale. I want the cards to be simple but still have the wow factor. I think these next few are okay, but we'll find out in November...

Recipe:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Sincere Salutations
Ink: Old Olive, Certainly Celery
Paper: Old Olive, Whisper White
Other:Old Olive ribbon, dazzling diamonds


Recipe:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Holidays & Wishes
Ink: Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White
Paper: Bravo Burgundy
Other: Bravo Burgundy ribbon, dazzling diamonds

This next card is not a Christmas card but I kind of like how it turned out. I wasn't sure about the color combo but now I like it.

Recipe:
Stamps: Hoidays & Wishes, Embrace Life
Ink: Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Always Artichoke, Baja Breeze, Whisper white, Green Tea DSP
Other: Ribbon from Michaels, MM rhinestone brads

Silence is bliss

My mother took the kids for the afternoon which gives me some much needed silence at least for a few hours. I love my kids but they can try your patience, especially if it's on a day where all you want is some peace and quiet.

So I tried my hand at making these adorable boxes. I got the template from Split coast stampers. Although I did change the measurements so that they would hold your typical card measurement of 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. I'm thinking about making some of these for the local craft show that I'll be at this year. I was thinking I would make maybe 5 simple cards to go in the box with envies. They're so easy to make.
I won't post the recipe for these since they were made using paper that I've had laying around for ages so I don't remember where they're from.

Stampin Up!

I'm having a workshop at my house towards the end of September so these are the cards I made to hand out to everyone that I know. I'm really excited about what Stampin Up! has to offer and I love sharing with other stampers.

Recipe:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Sincere Salutations
Ink: Old Olive
Paper: Baja Breeze, whisper white, Green Tea DSP
Other: Scallop Punch, versamark, clear EP, ribbon from Michaels

Possible Make & Take

I've been trying to find card ideas that will interest the ladies but be simple enough for my first cardmaking party. I think this card fits the bill. I forget what the technique is called but you basically tap your stamp in your versamark pad and then straight onto your colored ink pad of choice. This allows you to add clear EP to the image. I love this technique because it eliminates the need for so many colors of embossing powder. I'm hoping that by using SU's latest in colors and DSP that it'll spark some interest.

Recipe:
Stamp: SU Upsy Daisy
Ink: Old Olive, chocolate chip
Paper: Chocolate chip, baja breeze, very vanilla, DSP - Green Tea
Other: SU ribbon in old olive, versamkark, clear embossing powder