Angelic Joy

It's a bit of a Monday in our home today, and it's not Monday! So I figured maybe a card might turn it into a better day and I think it helped, that's what I'll tell myself anyway, lol.

Today's card is showcasing another new stamp set out of the Holiday Mini, this Angel is perfect for a little bit of subtle colour. I finally used some of our new Glass Glitter, which is supposed to tarnish a little as it ages which makes it great for those vintage kind of cards. I used it sparingly to keep the card from looking gawdy, hope it worked.

Stamps: Angelic Joy
Paper: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, DSP-Elegant Soiree & Deck the Halls
Ink: Crumb Cake, Black, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Always Artichoke, Blush Blossom
Other: Glass Glitter, Lace Trim, Always Artichoke Seam Binding, Pearls

Have a great day!
Tina

Merry Crittermas

Now before some of you ask if I'm blogging on our Anniversary... no I just scheduled this post to get posted today, I don't think my husband would be too impressed if I delayed our date over a card, lol.

This cute little beaver is one of many in a new set from the Holidays mini, it comes with an assortment of cute little critters. I stamped the images on water colour pp and then coloured them in with my blender pen. The circle ruffle that's at the bottom is made by first running the paper through my bigshot with the Polka Dots embossing folder and then punching out circles with the 1 1/4" punch. Glue the tops down and slightly curl the bottoms. The twill tape is something that I've had in my stash forever, a gift that I received a few years back had this wrapped around it and why would I throw that out when I can reuse it!

Stamps: Merry Crittermas
Paper: Baja Breeze, Garden Green, Whisper White, Water Colour pp, DSP-Candy Cane Christmas
Ink: Black StazOn, Blushing Bride, Real Red, Garden Green, Wild Wasabi, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Baja Breeze, Daffodil Delight,
Other: Brads, Twill Tape

Have a great weekend everyone!
Tina

Fireside Christmas

I can hardly believe that tomorrow will mark the day that I've been married to my sweetheart for 11 years, it sounds so cliche to say "where does the time go" but seriously! It seems like only a few years ago that we said I do, but realistically we have almost 8 year old boys and a 6 year year old daughter to remind us that we are indeed getting old, lol. But I wouldn't trade it for anything, I love my life and I embrace getting older, well I might have a panic attack when I hit 40 but I still have a few years to brace myself, hehe.

Are you getting sick of Christmas cards yet? Well I'm not so I guess that means you'll have to put up with them, yes I'm getting a little cheeky here! I promise I will get back to your regular scheduled programing soon with only small doses of the Holidays thrown in to keep us on our toes.

Can you believe I had this set sitting in my stash for weeks already and had not inked it up yet until last night?! This was one of the first ones on my list, I love the warmth you feel just looking at it. It took a while to colour this in but it was fun.

Stamps: Fireside Christmas
Paper: Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, DSP-Deck the Halls, Water Colour pp
Ink: Black StazOn, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Bravo Burgundy, More Mustard, Not Quite Navy, Wild Wasabi, Basic Grey, Daffodil Delight, Cajun Craze (phew, I think that's all)
Other: Lace Trim, Always Artichoke Seam Binding, Pearls

Have a great day!
Tina

Embossed Tree Trimmings

I'm a little late with dinner today so I thought that would be the perfect to post my card while waiting.
I am such a strange stamper, I buy a bunch of the new stamps out of the new Holiday mini and then what do I get inspired to use? Last year's stamp sets, lol. Go figure, I LOVE the stuff in the new mini but suddenly I'll see a colour combo or sketch that I really want to try and it just so happens that one of my other stamp sets is perfect for the project.

This card started as a case, but I ended up changing it so much that it's definitely my own, hehe. I stamped the ornaments with versamark and then used white embossing powder. I coloured the insides of the ornaments with Baja Breeze which kind of looked greenish when I was done. I originally was going to use Baja Breeze Ribbon and cardstock instead of the green but I'm so happy I went with the green, love that ribbon! I used White Craft ink to soften the edges of the Crumb Cake cardstock and then to finish it off I sprayed the front piece with shimmer paint, you can see a little of it in the picture, I dread the day Stampin' Up! is going to retire the shimmer paints!

Stamps: Tree Trimmings, Tiny Tags
Paper: Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake
Ink: Versamark, Baja Breeze, Always Artichoke
Other: Shimmer Paint, Always Artichoke Seam Binding

Have a great day!
Tina

True Friend

Another windy day in Southern Manitoba, I hate the wind. Now that's being positive, lol. The card that I'm posting today is one of the projects that we made with my Club ladies (I love my Club ladies), it's showcasing the emboss resist technique and it gives everyone a chance to practice their colouring as well. Full credit goes to Theresa Momber for this card, I'm always amazed at what she can create with ink and a sponge!

First we clear embossed the swirly images, and then sponged Daffodil Delight over the entire piece. Then we took More Mustard and sponged just in the bottom right hand corner, now you really start to see the swirly images start to stand out. The flowers were stamped on water colour pp and the first coloured with DD and then we added More Mustard to the center. The flowers all got cut out and mounted on dimensionals.

Stamps: Simple Friendship
Paper: Early Espresso, More Mustard, Whisper White, Water Colour pp
Ink: Daffodil Delight, More Mustard, Basic Black, Versamark
Other: Clear Embossing Powder

Have a great day!
Tina

I Love Saturdays

I love weekends, Saturdays are one of the best, well the evening anyway. I spent the day cleaning, doing laundry, grocery shopping, etc. And then the evening rolls around and it's time to relax. We spent the evening over with some new friends, had a blast and then it's nice to end the day with a movie. My kind of day!

And at this point I feel like I should say "tricked ya", ha. You thought I was all done with Christmas cards for a while, lol. I figured I would give you a break and then start again, hehe. This card is a very simple card to make but I really like the results.

For the thread on the buttons I used slivers of cardstock and just wrapped it through and glued it to the back, easy!

Stamps: Occasional Quotes
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, DSP-Deck the Halls
Ink: Soft Suede, Crumb Cake
Other: Buttons

Thanks for stopping by!
Tina

Happy Weekend!

Hi everyone! our Internet was down for 2 days, my husband loves to laugh at me when that happens, I tend to get a little skittish or restless if I can't have my daily fix, lol. But thankfully everything is fixed and running!

My card today is not a Christmas card, you can all breath a sigh of relief, hehe. It's a very simple card with really not much to explain. I bought the rhinestone flourish at one of our local stores (the kind where you usually don't need much more then loose change :D).

Stamps: Tiny Tags
Paper: Soft Suede, Poppy Parade, In Colour Designer paper
Ink: Soft Suede
Other: Rhinestone Flourish, Ribbon, Hemp Twine

Have a great weekend!
Tina

Another Box and a Tutorial

A while back I posted a circle box that I made and some of you asked for a tutorial, so here goes! If you're in my club and you don't want a preview of what we'll be doing on Monday then you need to walk away from the computer... you've been warned, lol.

You'll have to ignore the horrible pictures, my stamping area is not the best place for photos but it'll give you the idea.

For the top and bottom I used the cardboard that comes with Stampin' Up! designer paper packs, it's perfect for these kind of projects! You could even use cereal boxes or anything similar.

Cut your cardboard into two 4"x4" squares, you'll also want to cut four squares of the same size in the cardstock of your choice, you will be covering both sides of the cardboard. Glue the cardstock to the cardboard on both sides, I use SU! glue sticks, it seems to work really well at covering the entire piece and it's not so wet.

Now take a scallop circle die, I used the Scallop Circle Die #2 out of our catalogue on page 207. I tried it with a nestability and it did not cut through all the layers, you could first cut the cardboard, then cut the cardstock and glue the pieces together, it's not as quick and easy but it works.

Now take your sponge and ink and lightly sponge the edges.

For the sides of the box you want two strips of Designer paper. One piece is 1 1/2" x 9 1/4" and the other piece is 1" x 9". Take your scoring tool and score all the way down the long side at 1/2". You want to make short little cuts close together on the 1/2" just up to the score line, see picture.

Fold over the score line and glue the sides together forming a circle.

Cut two circles, one slightly bigger than the other, they should fit nicely inside the box. I used my nestabilities for this but any circle cutter will work. Put glue on the outer edge of the circles and adhere this to the inside of your box, making sure to center everything. In the photo you'll see what the box looks like from the bottom.

The rest is super simple! Run glue all the way around the bottom of your box and lid, turn it over and adhere it to the scallop circle.

Now decorate it any way you want! Easy peasy!

More Mini sneak peaks!

Happy Wednesday everyone! The sun is out and it's feeling a little warmer today, like we're still in summer. My husband mentioned turning on the furnace yesterday after he came home, turning on your furnace in August is just wrong! Lol.

I have another sneak peak for you today from our Holiday Mini, for those of you that are on my mailing list you should start to see them any day now! For this card I used Bells & Boughs, such a pretty stamp set and some of the new Christmas designer paper called Deck the Halls, also so pretty.

I stamped the image on water colour pp and used my blender pen to colour it in, I used Cherry Cobbler on the poinsettia and then deepened the shadows with Bravo Burgundy. As you can see it took some time cutting out that image! I stamped the poinsettia part twice and cut it out to adhere on top with a dimensional, it gives it a nice effect, I also added crystal effects to the poinsettia centers. The ribbon that you see is new in the mini, it's really seam binding but you treat it like you would ribbon, love this stuff!

Stamps: Bells & Boughs
Paper: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Water Colour pp, DSP-Deck the Halls
Ink: Soft Suede, Cherry Cobbler, Bravo Burgundy, Daffodil Delight, Always Artichoke, Basic Black, Early Espresso
Other: Antique Brads, Seam Binding, Crystal Effects

Have a great day!
Tina

Merry & Bright: Take 2

Brrr, it's been a cool couple of days. You can almost feel Fall in the air, and it's not Fall yet! Personally I don't mind having a couple of cool days after the heat wave we had! What would we do without our AC or Furnace, lol. Well, probably whine even more then we as a society already do!

Today's card is one of those that looks better IRL, the photo is making it look a little blah. I used gold embossing powder for the sentiment and the photo doesn't really show it, but it's there. I cut this one to be a 8 1/2 x 3 card. The ornament stamp is one of the many included in a new set from the Holiday Mini called Tags til Christmas. You're going to love this set, they all coordinate with punches. And that includes 3 NEW punches, well two coordinate with the stamps and one is a larger circle punch!! The one in particular is my favourite, it's sort of like a curvy label punch and the stamp set has two matching stamps to go with it. LOVE it!

Stamps: Bright Christmas, Tags til Christmas
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, DSP-Jolly Holiday
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Versamark
Other: Gold EP, Glimmer Brads, Gold Elastic Cord (can't believe it's not in the Mini!)

Have a great day!
Tina

Merry & Bright

Here's another card for you using some of the new product out of the Holiday mini, the dsp is retired but fit well with what I wanted. I have wanted to CASE this card by Amy Sheffer for a long time already and the snowflakes from Stampin Up's new die is perfect for this. The snowflake that I used is the smallest one from the die.

I roughed up the edges of the designer paper and then inked them in black. The snowflakes all have shimmer paint sprayed on them, very shimmery IRL. I also sprayed shimmer paint on the sentiment which also happens to be out of the mini, the sentiment is mounted with dimensionals.

Stamps: Bright Christmas, Serene Snowflakes
Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Sahara Sand, DSP- ? Retired
Ink: Basic Black
Other: Champagne Shimmer Paint, Pearls, Satin Ribbon

Thanks for stopping by!
Tina

Ooh La La

Hi everyone! I had such an accomplished day today, did the laundry, cleaned the basement, and still managed to make a few cards using the product out of the new Holiday Mini, you guys are going to LOVE it! It's full of beautiful Fall and Christmas stamp sets, gorgeous new accessories, and new Bigshot products too! Love the selection.

The card that I'm going to show you today is a very simple one but I like it. I even managed to use a button on it, I am seriously button challenged. I see so many great ways to use buttons on a card but when I make the attempt it just looks wrong. The designer paper that you see is one of the new holiday dsp that will be in the mini, very cute. The snowflake is also a new die for your bigshot, it's a long die with 8 different snowflakes, yes you read that right, 8 snowflakes! On this card I dabbed white shimmer paint over it to create a really nice effect.

Stamps: Bright Christmas, Tiny Tags
Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Real Red, Baja Breeze, DSP-Candy Cane Christmas
Ink: Basic Black
Other: Button, Hemp Twine

Have a great day! Check back I should be posting more sneak peaks of the mini all weekend!!

Tina

Masculine Birthday Wishes

I love that Stampin' Up gave us so many masculine stamp sets in this catalogue, I love the floral sets but let's face it, we all have men in our lives and I don't think they would appreciate the floral as much!

There's not much to explain about this card, others then it was not a 5 minute card, lol.

Stamps: Countryside, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Water Colour pp, DSP-Newsprint, Woodland Walk
Ink: Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, Garden Green
Other: Antique Brads, Ribbon, Hemp Twine

Have a great day!
Tina

Fast & Fabulous

It's been a really hot week, and I mean hot. Which also means that I've been super grateful for our AC, what would we do without it?! Well I know what we would do but I really don't have time to take 5 showers a day, lol.

Here's another card I made yesterday during my "stamp my mojo back" day, hehe. It's simple but I like it. I wasn't sure if I needed this set since I already own a similar one, but now I'm really glad I chose it! I was also happy to finally use my new antique brads, they're so beautiful!


Stamps: Fast & Fabulous
Paper: Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Soft Suede
Ink: Soft Suede, Baja Breeze
Other: Antique brads, Taffeta Ribbon

Have a great day!
Tina

Just what I Needed

How nice it was just to stamp the day away, with breaks of course. I finally had the chance to put ink to these cute little girls. My six year old daughter pleaded for this set the first time she saw them in the catalogue and has enjoyed colouring them!

I stamped the image on water colour paper and used a combination of blender pens and aqua painters with various colours. I paper pieced one of the dresses, love the look! Once I was done colouring I ran the paper through my big shot with a circle Nestability and sponged Baja Breeze for the sky before I removed the paper from the die. I added faux stitching to the designer paper pieces with my Chocolate Chip marker. I realize that I forgot to add a sentiment to the card, (who does that?!) I'll add one before it gets used, this will probably make a good Birthday card for one of our daughter's cousins or friends.

Stamps: The Nicest Things
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Water Colour pp, DSP-Sunny Garden
Ink: Basic Black, Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait, Blush Blossom
Other: Striped Grosgrain Ribbon

Have a great day!
Tina

Shhhhhh! Can you Hear it?

If you listen really carefully you might just hear might husband groaning in the background! Why you might ask? Because I made a few Christmas cards, lol. Every year I go through an early Christmas mood and every year you see my DH shaking his head at me, hehe.

As most of you know we were on holidays last week and of course when you get back you have so much to catch up on, and then to top it off I've lost my mojo, aaaack! All these pretty stamps and no motivation, and not to mention that I EXPEDITED my new Holiday Mini pre-order and it should be here tomorrow. And it's mostly Christmas stuff that will be in that brown box, wohoo! I think my husband might want to take up fishing or something. :D

But, no fear! I have a plan of attack for my getting my mojo back. I'm going to stamp it back, yup I will be stamping today, all day and I won't feel bad about it. So if you happen to drop by today I will warn you already that there will be dishes in the sink and the kids "might" be watching TV on this warm sunny day. You can either judge me for it or you can do the same! (Doing the same would be way more fun, lol)

Ok, on to my cards, yes I made two Christmas cards. Both are not cards that I'm super excited about but like I said I'll stamp until my mojo reappears! The first one is made with a new stamp set called Come to Bethlehem. I know this set has great potential, I just need to tap into it! The second card uses Serene Snowflakes and the emboss resist technique, you can't see it in the photo but I sprayed the main panel with Shimmer Paint.

Stamps: Come to Bethlehem
Paper: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler
Ink: Early Espresso
Other: Clear Rhinestone, Ribbon


Stamps: Serene Snowflakes, Occasional Quotes
Paper: Marina Mist, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Versamark, Marina Mist
Other: Clear Rhinestones, Shimmer Paint

Thanks for stopping by!
Tina