Sunday, December 28, 2008

Too Cute!!!

I just had to share this gift that my DD made for me. She knows I frequently carry fruit with me, so she knitted this fruit-cozy for me to protect it from getting banged around in my purse. It's about the cutest stinkin' thing I've seen in a long time, and it tickles my funny bone every time I look at it! Thank you, Shawn, sweetie! I love it!!!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Post Christmas




The Christmas rush is over for another year, and I'm always kind of sad to see it go. I really love the holidays. Here are the last few Christmas cards. I'm too wiped out to post the recipe for them, but you get the idea of the spectrum they cover, from humorous to "the reason for the season". ;-)

Now it's time to clean my disaster-area of a craft room and start the cards for my stampin' club swap in one week!

Santa brought me a BigShot for Christmas, so I may have to give it a test drive, too, LOL.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

More Christmas...

I really love the way this card turned out! I used the DT Monday Challenge *6* from the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Blog. The challenge was to do distressing/vintage on the card. It didn't have to be a holiday card, but since I'm so far behind, I made six of them to send out. :-D

This beautiful image, called "Lizzie with Muff", is from Whiff of Joy Stamps.

She was stamped with Brilliance Graphite Black ink on SU Very Vanilla CS and colored with Copic markers. Stickles was used to accent her headband and the designs on her dress, as well as the ribbons hanging from the puffs on her boots. Her earmuffs, muff and the puffs on the boots were "puffed up" with Marvy Liquid Applique. That stuff is so cool! It's like magic when you hit it with the heat gun (after letting it dry thoroughly, of course). Instant dimension!!!

Anyhoo, Lizzie was cut out and embossed with a Nestabilities Long Rectangle die, and mounted on SU Riding Hood Red CS cut/embossed with the Nesties Long Scalloped Rectangle. The patterned paper is from Anna Griffin, edged with SU Close to Cocoa ink and mounted on more Riding Hood Red CS.

The sentiment (from Inkadinkado's "Warm Holiday Wishes" set) was inked with SU Ruby Red Craft ink on Very Vanilla CS and cut with, you guessed it...a Nesties Scalloped Oval die, then edged with more of the same color.

The pointsettia was a gift from my BFF Barb and the gold fern leaves were cut from a large pick from City Lights, a delightful store dedicated to all things Christmas. I saw it and knew I could use it in card-making!!!

I added a little gold organdy ribbon, courtesy of Michael's, and the card was complete.

Yikes! One Week Until Christmas!


I have been frantically trying to get my Christmas cards finished and in the mail. I'd have them all done, if I didn't have a million other things I have to do, as well (laundry, shopping, cleaning, etc.). And this year, since I have made so many new friends on SCS, I have even more cards to send than usual.

My New Year's resolution will be to complete at least 5 Christmas cards every month, starting in January. ;-)

That being said, here's one that I finished earlier this week. I love that image from Impression Obsession - it just cracks me up every time I see it! I used Stampin' Up! Not Quite Navy Classic ink to stamp the image and blender pens to move the color where I wanted it. The scarf and hats were colored with CTMH markers and I added Stickles to the pompoms on the hats. The image was matted on DCWV glitter CS, then Not Quite Navy CS. Underneath it all is embossed Snowflakes done on the Cuttlebug. The glitter snowflakes were punched out using Marvy snowflake punches. Ribbon from Michael's.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Merry Card Swap!


I love challenges, and got to combine this week's PaperTake Weekly "Ready, Steady, Craft!" recipe challenge with my stamp club card swap, woohoo!! The PTW challenge was to use 1 ribbon, 2 rectangles and 3 small, round embellishments. The stamp club swap theme this month is "It's hip to be square". We were to make a square card no larger than 5¼" x 5¼" for the swap. Since it's so close to Christmas (Yikes! 20 days!!!), I went with a holiday card that the swappers could put to good use right away. I hope they like it!

I saw the gold net at the fabric store when I was buying the supplies to make my grandkids' Halloween Costumes. Naturally, since I'm so drawn to shiny, sparkly things, I had to get a ½ yard. I knew I could work it into card-making somehow! :-D


The tree image is from SU's
Snow Swirled stamp set, as is the sentiment. I love the detail in this stamp set. It makes wonderful heat-embossed images! The embossing powder is JudiKins Malachite, which I think is perfect for holiday cards. If you click on the close-up, you can see the different colors in the EP. Too cool!

So, after wrapping the green cardstock with the gold net, I stamped the tree using
VersaMark ink, embossed it with the Malachite EP, cut it out and inked the edges with CTMH New England Ivy. I stamped the sentiment with the same color and inked the edges, as well. The card base was covered with the So Swirly Stampin' Around wheel in Certainly Celery ink before I fastened the green, net-covered CS to the base. The tree and sentiment were then adhered to the net. I stuck the self-adhesive gold flat back spheres to the tree and added the gold ribbon to finish it.

Cardstock: Bazzill Kiwi Crush, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cover
Stamps: SU Snow Swirled set & So Swirly wheel
Inks: VersaMark, SU Certainly Celery, CTMH New England Ivy
Embellishments: Gold ribbon & self-adhesive balls from Michael's

Monday, December 1, 2008

Happy Birthday, Joshua!

Today is my DS's 32nd (!) birthday. I can not believe how the years have flown by. I baked his traditional birthday pie last night (he's never really liked cake, and always requested an apple pie instead). Today I made the card to go with it. It's supposed to represent me and his father bringing a truck load of love to him. ;-) Of course, we don't look nearly that young, but what the heck...*LMBO!*

The truck image (SU Loads of Love) was stamped on white cardstock, colored with Copic markers, and cut out with a Nestabilities round die. After embossing, but before removing the circle from the die, I sponged a little yellow dye ink around the edges to give it a sunny glow. The man and woman image is from the Loads of Love Accessories set. After stamping the man, I masked him off and stamped the woman, so it would look like she's a passenger in the truck.

I used VersaMark ink to stamp the Route 66 symbol and "Happy B-Day" on the Tempting Turquoise background. The sentiment was stamped and punched out with SU Designer Label Punch. I inked the edges with Tempting Turquoise, bringing it in quite a bit, then did just the outside edge with Basic Black.

The 'diamond plate' under the sentiment is a Nestabilities texture plate used on aluminum metal sheet from Making Memories. Doesn't it remind you of heavy duty truck bed liners?

Cardstock: Stampin' Up! Tempting Turquoise, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White
Stamps: Truck, people, hearts, sentiment & 'Happy B-Day'- Stampin' Up!, Route 66 symbol- Viva Las Vegastamps
Ribbon: Michael's