Golden Birthday

Good morning friends.  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  Ours was low key, but that was a nice change of pace after the busy-ness of the past month.  Our youngest even treated my husband and I to the movies last night....saw "Silver Linings Playlist", and other than the profanity, it was a really good movie!  It's de-decorating day at our house today, so I guess I better quit gabbing and get on to my card for you today!

My niece Dawn is celebrating her "golden birthday" today (31 years old on Dec. 31) and here is the card I made for her:

Lighting was not the best this weekend (cloudy and snow), but I think you can get the idea!  I am still totally in LOVE with this SU stamp "Blooming with Kindness", so you will probably be seeing a lot of it in the future.  That's the whole beauty of stamping though...using one stamp in many different ways to get your moneys worth!  This is a larger card and I started with a 5 1/2" square base with SU's Whisper White cs.  I stamped the flower image on Whisper White using SU's Pumpkin Pie ink first, and then dabbing SU's Cherry Cobbler around the edges of the petals and a little in the center of the flower.  I cut out the flower using a circle die (Spellbinders), sponged around the edges with Cherry Cobbler, layered another circle behind it, and then layered again with a larger scalloped circle cut out in Cherry Cobbler cs.  I used some scraps of design paper (aren't you proud of me Steph, and even on a Scrappy Monday, no less!!) behind the main image to take away from the all white background and also added a few silver nailheads (Gina K) to bling it up a little.  My final touch was to add a little banner with the birthday sentiment (PTI's "Blooming Button Bits" stamp set), a small bow, and another silver nailhead.  I was quite pleased with the way it turned out and hope my niece likes it too! :0)

I have one more picture to share with you today too.  My sister-in-law suprised me with a gift this Christmas, and I'd like to introduce you to "Diablo":

 
Is he not the cutest, or what?!!!  Shari has been making these "Yo Yo" pets (the bodies are made from LOTS of circles of material that sewn around, gathered, and then strung on heavy elastic cording) all fall, and had shown me some of the patterns and I jokingly told her I'd take one of the reindeer ones.  I completely forgot all about it, but Shari didn't and suprised me with "Diablo" on Christmas Day.  She named him "Diablo" she said, because his head was a real pain to put together and she'd had to do it many times over before it looked just right.  Apparently being anal about our crafts runs in the family! :0)  Anyway, I think he is just too cute, and will not put him away just yet!

Thanks for stopping by today and sharing a part of your day with me.  Have fun celebrating New Year's Eve this evening and I'll see you all next year! :0) 

COLOR!!!

Good morning friends!  We have woken up to a blanket of white in my neck of the woods, and my dogs are overjoyed!  Our oldest dog Brinkley lies right down in it like he's been roasting for months and can finally cool down...what a goofball!  Anyway, on to cardmaking!  As much as I love making Christmas cards, I'm kinda tired of using red and green, and am more than ready to start using color again!  Yesterday I posted an all white card, and the card I'd like to share with you today is the same flowerpot card, but done in color (this was my mom's Mother's Day card this past year).  Take a look:

I won't go into all the detail of making this card, as you can look at yesterday's post for that.  When I made this, I was trying to match the colors to a flat of Impatients I had gotten my mom.  Most of the time I use SU's card stock, but I had trouble matching on this one and ended up using some different peaches and cream colors from my local scrapbboking store.  I did use SU's Always Artichoke for all the greenery.  And the flowerpot is a tan dotted swiss (local SS) sponged in SU's Soft Seude.

This is what the card looks like when you pull the top part up to see the message.  I did add a ribbon pull for my mom on the back and explained to her what she needed to do to open it, or she would have destroyed the card trying!

And here is the basket I made (PTI's basket die) to put a few of the flowers in to match the card.  Kind of hard to tell in the photo, but the basket is made with the same tan dotted swiss cs and then a dark green ribbon (Michael's) added around it.

Well that's all for today.  I have one more Christmas get together that I need to go get ready for, but I'll be back again tomorrow with some more color!  Hope you all have a wonderful Thursday and thanks so much for stopping by and sharing a part of your day with me...I LOVE it when you do! :0)

PTI's December 2012 Blog Hop

The challenge for Papertrey Ink's December 2012 Blog Hop is to make an all white card (harder than you think and even harder to photograph!), so here's my take on it:

I chose to do a flowerpot pocket card (the flowers are added to the top of a 2 1/2 x 4 1/2 base that you can pull up from the flowerpot to add your message) for the challenge, and used 3 different PTI die's.  The flowerpot itself is a 9 x 3 1/2 piece of SU's Whisper White cs, scored at 2" and 5 1/2" and then trimmed on a diagonal to make the bottom of the pot smaller than the top.  I lightly stamped SU's "Weathered" background stamp with SU's Going Grey ink on the flowerpot just to give it a slightly different color than the flowers.  The largest flower is PTI's "Notched Flowers" die, cut out with American Crafts POW white glitter paper.  I distressed the edges a bit with the edge of my scissors to give a little depth to the flower, and then added a pearl and gold brad (the Paper Studio) to the center.  The next largest flower is PTI's "Bloom Builders" die cut out of vellum and a large white pearl added to the center of it.  The 2 smaller flowers are cut from PTI's Flower Fusion #12 die - one with the same glitter paper as the largest flower and the other with SU's Shimmery White paper.  One has a pearl center and the other has a large clear gemstone (Michael's).  The larger leaves are cut with SU's Sizzlits Little Leaves and the smaller leaves are from the MS branch punch.  You can click on the picture to see a little more of the detail...as I mentioned earlier it's hard to photograph and pick up on all the details.  I thought this would make a perfect wedding or Mother's Day card.

Check out Nichole's blog (http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/) to see the rest of the challenge entries...there are some absolutely beautiful cards on display!  Thanks for stopping by today and checking out my all white card...it's actually kind of appropriate as I look out my window and see Old Man Winter finally making an appearance in my neck of the woods!  Have a great rest of your day! :0)

JOYfully Announcing the Birth of a Son

                                            Wishing all of you a very blessed CHRISTmas!

Musical Reindeer

Good morning friends.  Just a quick post of one of my Christmas cards for this year, using a Tim Holtz die set (and no, Sue... no actual sheet music was destroyed to make these cards! :0)  Take a look:

These were so easy and fun to make!  Simply a kraft cs base folded the long way and stamped with SU's French Script background stamp in SU's Soft Seude ink, a 2 1/4 x 4 1/4 piece of dp (both are from Hobby Lobby), red sheer ribbon (Michael's), and then the deer cut from music dp (Hobby Lobby) and the numbers from SU's Cherry Cobbler cs.  The part that took the longest was spongeing all the edges to give the card that vintage look. 

Well lots still to do today, so must be off!  (wrapping, wrapping, and more wrapping!  We cut way back this year, so how can I still have so much wrapping to do?!!! Think it's the family size that is growing! :0)  And yes, I'm as anal about my wrapping as I am about my cards, so it does take me longer to get it all done!  Hey, I am what I am!!!)  Anyway, have a wonderful Christmas Eve day and I'll be back with a really quick post tomorrow of my all time favorite Christmas card that shows what Christmas is really all about.  Thanks for stopping by...I LOVE it when you do! :0) 

Make it Monday #96

Good morning friends.  Sorry about no post yesterday - our internet was down!  We're back up and running today though, so I'd like to share a card I made for PTI's Make it Monday #96 challenge.  Take a look:

The challenge was to use up your scraps using "Patchwork Die Cuts".  Melissa Phillips (PTI designer - "Lilybeans Paperie") made an absolutely beautiful card for Valentines Day using heart shaped dies, and while I didn't want to totally copy Melissa's card, I did really like the idea of using a heart shape to make the patchwork design.  You simply use 4 different pieces of coordinating scraps and cut out 4 hearts.  You can then cut your hearts (or whatever shape you choose) down the center and then accross, so you have 16 pieces total.  You only need 4 pieces to make the heart again, but you now have enough pieces to make 4 cards.  I backed my heart with another scalloped shaped heart (SU's Real Red cs) to make it pop against the kraft cs layer.  Melissa also stitched on her heart, but since I can't seem to sew on card stock without making a mess, I opted to use a white gel pen to make the stitching marks.  I also added a Cheery Lynn Die (Holly Flourishes) cut from kraft cs and spritzed with Irredescent Gold Glimmer Mist, a computer generated sentiment cut out with SU's Decorative Label punch, and PTI's "Holly Jolly" holly dies, to finish off the card.  It's simple, but I really like how it turned out.  This is definitely a technique I'll try again! :0)

That's all for today friends.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Thinking of You

Good morning friends.  Today I'd like to share a card with you I made using a stamp that I've had for years and never used (gasp...I know, I know...it's a sickness that's like hoarding, and I'm very guilty of it!!).  I was actually looking for something else when I found this stamp (and never did find!!) and thought I would give it a try.  It's a stamp by "Judith", and is a simple, single Pointsettia leaf, that you just keep stamping till you achieve the fullness of the flower you want.  Take a look:

I started with SU's Certainly Celery ink and stamped the four leaves on SU's Whisper White cs.  I then simply filled in the rest of the leaves with SU's Melon Mambo (LOVE this color!!!), added 3 silver nailheads (Gina K) to the center of the flower, and then stamped the sentiment (PTI's "Winter Hills") with black Stazon ink.  I trimmed this layer a little smaller than the card base (5 1/2" x 4 1/4") and then used pop dots to raise the layer up a little bit.  I made a bunch of these cards and stamped them all with a "Thank You" sentiment on them, and then had to use them already before remembering to take a picture of them!  This card is going out in the mail today to a friend who is battleing some health issues right now and could probably use a bright and cheery card!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday! :0)

A Snowman Thank You

Good morning friends.  A quick post today.  I'd like to share a card I made yesterday from a couple dollar stamps my cousin Sue gave me at our family Christmas get together this weekend.  Take a look:

I kept it very simple and used the round snowflake stamp (Craft smart at Michael's) for my background in SU's Bashful Blue.  I also added another small snowflake stamp from my stash to fill in some of the white space.  I sponged around the edges of the card base, and then added crystal Stickles to the centers and points of the large snowflakes.  The snowman image (Craft smart at Michael's) I stamped in black and then used a Copic marker (B21) to color in his scarf, buttons and hat trim.  I sponged around the image in SU's Bashful Blue and matted with American Crafts POW silver glitter paper.  I added a sheer white ribbon (Michael's) before adding the layered snowman image, and then finished with a little tag (PTI's "Tiny Tags") that says Thank You.  For just a couple dollar stamps, I think this card turned out really cute!!  Thanks Sue! :0)

Have a wonderful Tuesday friends and thanks for stopping by.  Remember to tell those close to you that they are loved!! :0)

Christmas Angel

Good morning friends.  I hope you all had a good weekend.  I hesitate to say "great" or "wonderful", as I think everyone, everywhere, struggled with heavy hearts this weekend.  In a world that seems to have lost it's moral compass, I guess we need to remember to take each day as the gift it was meant to be and to let those special to us know they are loved on a daily basis and not just once in a while.  Please remember to keep those 27 families in your prayers for weeks and months, as they all have such long roads ahead of them, and to not take a single day for granted!

The card I'd like to share with you today is another Lily of the Valley, and because of the amount of work that goes into these particular cards, they are not ones that I "mass" produce.  I made 4 of these cards for 4 of my good friends...take a look:

I still have a lot of little kid in me and love to color...I just use big girl crayons (Copics) now instead of Crayola's!  Don't you just love her little pixie face?!  I stamped her on SU's Whisper White cs with Momento's Tuxedo black ink, and then colored her with assorted Copics.  I added a little glitter to her wings (click on picture to enlarge and see better) and then used one of my circle Spellbinders dies to cut her out.  I mounted my circle onto a larger scalloped circle cut out in SU's Real Red cs.  I did not mount the scalloped red circle to the design paper (We R Memory Keepers "White Out") as I wanted the back side to be stamped with "Merry Christmas" and the year "2012".  My vision with this card was to be able to have the image used as a Christmas ornament that could be hung on the tree (or anywhere), so I also cut out another white circle and another red scalloped circle and mounted them back to back, stamped my sentiment and year, punched a tiny hole at the top and attached to the red ribbon at the top with a silver cord that could be untied by the recipient and tied to their own Christmas tree.  Hope that makes sense!  I just wanted to make the card "useable"! :0)  I added a couple red tulip flourishes (Provo Craft die) in the bottom corners with a red half backed pearl attached to each to finish off the card.

Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your Monday with me...I SO appreciate each and every one of you who are sharing my journey with me!  God bless!! 

Frosty Friends

Good morning friends.  I think I've mentioned before that I'm not a big fan of snow, but I can appreciate the beauty of freshly fallen snow, and I love going out at this time of year at night to look at Christmas lights.  However, the Christmas lights need a little bit of snow to make them "glow" even more, and I'm thinking that that may not happen this year in "my neck of the woods".  I know I'm being really picky here, but I would like just a little bit of the "white stuff" till Christmas, and then I don't need any more till next December!  I know, I'm asking for a LOT!  Anyway, guess I'll just have to make my snow inside with this irresistable group of friends...take a look:

This is a new single stamp this year from Stampin Up, and of course being a snowman lover, I just HAD to have it! :0)  I also made this as one of my cards for sale this year, so I knew I needed to keep it clean and simple enough to mass produce...I think I accomplished that!  I simply stamped the image on SU's Whisper White cs with SU's Midnight Muse ink, and then used my Copic marker (R29) to color in a few of the details.  I added a little bit of glitter (if you click on the image to make it larger, you'll be able to see this better) to make the card "sparkle", and then mounted this layer on a piece of navy blue cs (Stamp Therapy), and layered that to a white (Whisper White) card base.  Quick, easy, and oh so cute! :0)

Well that's all for today friends...have a busy weekend!  Have 3 of my good friends coming tonight for our 6th annual ornament exchange, baking my husbands beloved sugar cookies tomorrow (this recipe is an all day affair, and they're not even a cookie I really care for (there's NO chocolate in them!), but my hubby LOVES them, so....), and a family Christmas on Sunday!  But I'll be back on Monday with another week of inspiration to get you through till Christmas. :0)  Have a great weekend friends and thanks again for stopping by! :0)

JOY

Good morning friends.  Sorry about missing yesterday...it's just that time of year and things get crazy!  I did finish writing out my Christmas cards (going in the mail today!) though, and even got my batch of Orange Drop cookies made! :0)  Still LOTS to do, but am feeling a little more in control!  (silly me!  He tells me daily He's in charge, so why I continue to go on thinking I'm in control of anything is ridiculous...good thing He LOVES me anyway! :0)

The card I'd like to share with you today is part of a set of cards I made to try and sell this Christmas season, and this one was by far the most popular of the 6 in the set.  It is from the SU set called "The Sounding Joy".  Most of you that know me, know that the word JOY has special meaning to me as a Christian, and whenever I see a stamp set that uses the word, I get a little excited! :0)  Anyway, here is the card:

The lighting on this picture is not the greatest, although it is not from lack of trying!  I used a very light colored cream cs (from my local stamp store - Stamp Therapy) and with my background cloth being a light cream too, it just wasn't standing out the way I wanted.  Hopefully you can see it well enough though. :0)  After folding my cs the long way, I tore the one edge and then placed a strip of a light weight (almost like vellum) gold paper on the inside edge.  I then stamped the star in SU's Raspberry Ripple, and then embossed the word Joy in gold over the star. (it really "pops" IRL!)  I added a sheer ribbon (Michael's) at the side and then die cut the little star (PTI's Tiny Tags) with a gold cs, added a gold half backed dot, and tied it to the ribbon with a little piece of gold cord.  This really was an easy card to mass produce and makes a very simple but elegant card. :0)

Thanks for stopping by today and I'll be back again tomorrow with some more Christmas inspiration.  Have a terrific Thursday everyone and don't forget to find the JOY in your day today...it is there if you look! :0)
 

Merry Christmas Parker!

Good morning friends.  Two weeks from today...are you ready?  I've got a good start, but still have a long ways to go! My cards are made, but have not even started addressing them, my shopping is done (I think!), but spread all over and needs to be organized and wrapped, and only a couple baking things done and trying to figure out when I'll have time this week to finish baking since festivities start this weekend in my family...could I use a few more hours in my days?  Definitely!!  Somehow how it all gets done though, so I'm not going to panic! :0)

The card I'd like to share with you today is for my niece Jen's little guy Parker.  He's about a year and a half, and I know this will be a fun Christmas for him (and his mom, dad, & grandparents!).  I used a stamp from one of my favorite companies, Lily of the Valley - take a look:

Is this not the sweetest little teddy bear and cardinal, or what?!!  I stamped him with Momento's Tuxedo Black ink, and then colored him with my Copics (E31 & E33) and the cardinal with R24, R29, & R39.  I used just a touch of B000 for the snow and then added some glitter over that for a little sparkle.  I cut out the image with a Spellbinders oval die, and sponged the edges with SU's Soft Seude.  My background papers are from LOTV's "Krafty Christmas" pad, and I added a piece of grossgrain ribbon (Michael's) between the two papers before adding the teddy bear image.  I finished by adding a couple silver nailheads (Gina K) on the ribbon, a snowflake die cut (Spellbinders) with American Crafts POW white glitter paper, and then the sentiment from PTI's "Winter Hills" stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday! :0)

Happy Birthday Little Brother

Good morning friends.  Today is my little brother's birthday, and I'd like to share a card I made for him:

All the stamps in this set are from a "Kittie Kit" by Rubbernecker Stamps called "Cause a Scene".  I have looked at this set for a couple years now and finally broke down and decided that I NEEDED it!  Afterall, my brother's birthday was coming and I would need a stamp set that I hadn't used before, right?!!  (you can justify new stamps anyway you want...I admit it is a disease for which I hope they never find a cure!! :0)

I stamped the main cabin image first in SU's Early Expresso ink on kraft cs.  Because I wanted tree's behind the cabin, I masked the cabin, and then was able to have just the top halves of the tree's show above the cabin roofline.  This set comes with 5 different sizes of tree's, so it was easy to make it look more realistic.  I used SU's Always Artichoke ink for the tree's.  The moose I stamped on a scrap piece of SU's Soft Seude cs with SU's Early Expresso ink, and then colored the little patch on his chest with a white colored pencil.  After cutting him out, I added a couple pop dots before adhering him to the card.  I also colored the roofline and the hills with the white colored pencil, and then used a glitter gel pen on some of the tree's and the roofline (hard to see in this picture :0(  click on the picture and you can see a little bit of the glitter )  I mounted the scene on a piece of SU's Soft Seude, and then mounted that to a Whisper White card base. I admit it was hard for me not to add a ribbon at this point, but didn't think my brother would appreciate that kind of finishing touch!!

Well that's all for today, and I'll be back again tomorrow with another Christmas card.  Thanks for stopping by...I appreciate it when you do!! :0)

Make it Monday #94

Good morning friends.  Today I'm back with a PTI Make it Monday challenge to use glitter detail.  I have ALWAYS been a fan of glitter...the more the better!  Just LOVE a card when it's all shiny and sparkly! :0)  The challenge here though is to use glitter for just real fine detail, so you do need to use a glue tip that looks like a ball point pen...that way you have the control of getting into tiny spaces where you want just a bit of sparkly.  I'm using PTI's Christmas tree dies (again!!) and here's what I came up with:

No matter how many pictures I took, I could only get the top part of the trees to show the glitter, but trust me, IRL it's there!  I started with a kraft cs card base and stamped SU's "French Script" background (retired) in SU's Crumb Cake ink.  I then added a strip of snowflake dp and a piece of olive green ribbon (both from Michael's) to the bottom of the card.  I used PTI's Christmas tree dies to cut out 2 trees from vellum, and then embossed the larger tree with a Cuttlebug (Provo Craft) folder.  After glueing the trees down, I used a fine point glue pen to trace around the edges of both trees and then added my glitter.  It still needed something, so I added tiny gold star brads to the tops of each tree and a sentiment (PTI's "Winter Hills").  I sponged around the edges of the card and sentiment with SU's Soft Seude ink to define it a little bit more.  A pretty simple card, but it really does sparkle quite a bit in real life! :0)

That's all for today friends, and I'll be back on Monday with a card I made for my brother Marc's birthday.  Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by! :0)

Country Christmas

Good morning friends.  Today I'm sharing a card that was inspired by one of PTI's talented designers, Melissa Phillips (Lilybean's Paperie).  I have used PTI's Christmas Tree die on many cards and have always cut them out with a "green" cs.  After seeing a tree on Melissa's blog cut out with design paper, I thought "why not?".....it doesn't have to be realistic on a card!  So here's my "country" looking Christmas tree card:

I started with a card base of kraft cs and then added a layer of SU's Whisper White that I had stamped with SU's "Script" background stamp (retired) in SU's Crumb Cake ink.  I used a small strip of some scrap dotted dp on the top of the card and then cut the tree out of "Rain Check" by Pebbles, Inc. and then ran it through my Cuttlebug with a large dot embossing folder before I added that on top. (you may have to click on the picture to enlarge it to see the large dots)  I cut a snowflake (Spellbinders) out of American Crafts POW gold glitter paper and added that with a button and red embroidery floss.  (the star at the top of the tree was the center piece of the snowflake)  I added a piece of lace trim to add to the country vintage look, and then used the sentiment stamp from SU's "Two Cool Dudes" stamp set.  Not a whole lot of stamping on this card, but I still think it turned out cute! :0)

Hope you all have a wonderful Thursday!  I'm excited for my bible study this morning...we're doing Adam Hamilton's "The Journey" and it's a really awesome look at Mary's journey.  What a perfect study for this time of year!!  I hope you're all taking time to remember the real reason for this blessed season and also taking time to find the  JOY in each day! :0)  Thanks for stopping by...I love it when you do.
 

3D Ornament Card

Good morning friends.  Today I'd like to share a card with you that I wish I could take credit for, but it is definitely a CASE.  I have also seen this card on quite a few different sites, so I'm not even sure who to tell you the original creator is.  Whoever came up with this idea though..."I love it!"  Here's my version:

I love how clean and simple (CAS) this card is.  And EASY!!  While I'm not quite sure this is going to be a "mailable" card, it is still lots of fun to make and would also be fun to receive.  The ornament is made by using SU's Ornament punch and design paper of your choice (my dp is "Timeless Christmas Poinsettia" by TPC Studio).  I punched out 5 ornaments for mine (you can cut out as many as you like...the more you use, the fuller your ornament will be) and then used the scoring tool on my paper trimmer to score down the center of each of the 5 punched ornaments.  Once these are scored, they are ready to be attached together with either sticky strip or Scor tape  (my dp is more like a cardstock weight, so I thought it needed more than just glue or regular adhesive...if your paper is more like copy paper weight, you should be able to get away with glue or regular adhesive).  Once you have the ornament assembled, put adhesive on the 2 backside halves and add a piece of string, ribbon, or cord, also to the backside, and then attach to a piece of cs cut at 4" x 5 1/4".  I punched a tiny hole near the top and threaded my gold cord through and taped down on the backside of the cs.  I added 3 punched pine branches (Martha Stewart) with SU's Always Artichoke cs and then put a little bow made with more gold cord on top of the pine branches.  I added a larger half backed red pearl at the bottom of the ornament and then added my sentiment (PTI's Christmas Blessings) in SU's Cherry Cobbler ink.  I used pop dots on the back of this layer and attached it to a regular size (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") card base.  My instructions look pretty long here, but this really is a quick and easy card to make.  It would also be a great card to make using up your scraps of design papers!  You could also use a circle punch (any size) if you don't have the ornament punch...use your imagination and I know you'll come up with something beautiful, fun and unique! :0)

Thanks for stopping by and sharing part of your day with me...I LOVE it when you do!! :0)
 

Winter Hills

Good morning friends.  Today's card is made with a newer stamp set from Paper Trey Ink called "Winter Hills".  I love all the images in this set, but the one I used on this card in particular I really really like!  For such a small stamp, it is loaded with detail!  Take a look:

I stamped the image on kraft cs with SU's Soft Seude ink, and then left it very simple by only using a Copic marker (YG63) on the 3 tree's and a white colored pencil on the snowman.  I mounted the image to a piece of SU's Always Artichoke cs, and then wrapped a piece of SU's Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine around the 2 layers and added a button from my stash.  The red layer I embossed with SU's "Northern Flurry" folder and lightly sponged it with SU's Soft Seude ink to give it a bit of the distressed look and layered it on a kraft cs base.  The main image I pop dotted to make it stand out a bit from the embossed layer.  The colors are much deeper in real life and that helps to give the whole card a much more "vintage" and rustic feel to it.  I was really pleased with how this card came out and really love the old fashion feeling to it. :0)

That's all for today...have a terrific Tuesday friends! :0)

"In The Meadow" Gift Tags

Good morning friends.  Happy December!  Are we in a panic yet?  Christmas IS 3 weeks from tomorrow!  I've actually gotten better at this over the years and have learned to slow down and just enjoy the beauty of the season, rather than trying to cram every last thing into 4 weeks!  It helps that the girls are all older now (my youngest is 17), and I'm not trying to manage all their schedules too!  Anyway, I hope you're able to slow down enough to just enjoy the JOY of this blessed season, and maybe even take some time to just sit and really enjoy the lights on your Christmas tree. :0)

Today I'd like to share with you some gift tags I made using PTI's "In The Meadow Silhouette" dies.  I wish now I had bought the matching stamp set to these dies, and of course it's out of stock now, but anyway, here's what I came up with:

These were so quick and easy to make and I think they turned out really cute!  You can get 8 tags out of a 8 1/2 x 11 piece of cardstock too, so these are very economical to make! The tags with the deer and sledder, I used SU's Whisper White cs, and the snowman tag is an off white cs I purchased from Stamp Therapy (local store).  After cutting up a couple sheets of both colors, I started by using a smaller pine tree stamp (I've had it for years and there is no manufacturer printed on it...sorry!) and SU's Old Olive ink and stamped twice (using the stamp off method) on each tag.  I then simply added the die cutouts from the "In The Meadow Silhouette's" die collection, and stamped "Merry Christmas" from PTI's "Christmas Blessings" stamp set.  I added SU's Cherry Cobbler Bakers Twine for the tie on and as a little scarf on the snowman, and then rounded the corners and was finished.  Simple, quick, and SO much nicer than store bought tags! :0)

Hope you all have a terrific Monday and I'll be back tomorrow with some more Christmas inspiration!  Thanks for stopping by...I love it when you do! :0)