Thanks so much

Hello friends.  It was time to start making a few thank you notes for some of the lovely gifts I received this Christmas, and decided to play with my new "Fair Isle Motifs" stamp set (PTI).  Am really loving this set and how easy it is to use and line everything up!  A pair of Christmas socks I own is what inspired my color combination for this card, and I really like how it turned out!  Take a look:

No sunlight here again, so my flash kind of diluted the deepness of the red, but IRL it looks much nicer!  I used SU!'s Whisper White pigment ink and Momentos Tuxedo Black ink pads to stamp my design, and then added the layer to a white card base.  I finished by adding a simple black banner that I embossed with white the sentiment from "Embroidered Blooms" (PTI) and a small white enamel dot.  Quick and easy and looks just like my socks! :0)  And even a sweater my brother had when he was much younger! :0)  Definitely a fun stamp set to use and I've already got ideas floating around in my head for Christmas cards for next year! :0)

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I hope all of you have fun celebrating the New Year tonight and tomorrow!   

Papertrey Ink December 2014 Blog Hop

Hello friends.  Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families and loved ones! 

The blog hop challenge this month at Papertrey Ink is to use silver and gold. 

So wish I was better at photographing sparkly and shimmery!  You'll just have to trust me that IRL this tag has lots of both!!  I used the "Basic Bookmark #3" die and stamped one of the trees from "O Tannenbaum" with gold metallic ink.  (oops...first stamped a French Script background stamp lightly in kraft ink)  The 2nd stamp that puts all the dots around the tree I embossed with silver.  The star and the tree base are embossed with gold.  The dots in the center of the tree I used silver stickles.  The "joy" die cut is from the "Holiday Wet Paint" dies and I used a gold mirror cardstock for that. I lightly sponged the edges with Walnut Stain Distress ink (TH) to give the tag a bit of a vintage look.  A couple gold and silver sequins, a couple sprits of iridescent gold shimmer mist, and some seam binding ribbon finished off my tag. 

You can check out all the other gold and silver creations on Nichole's blog right here .

Thanks so much for stopping by and have fun hopping!  

Make it Monday #194 - Sympathy Cards & Stamped Borders

Good morning friends.  Just a quick post today as I really should be wrapping gifts rather than stamping, but hey...I'm addicted! (not sorry about it either!)  Melissa has a beautiful card and great video on how to make a border using partial stamping this week for the Make it Monday challenge.  I had fun using the December freebie stamp set (Pretty Petals) to make my card...take a look:

I apologize that the lighting wasn't better to take my photos, but there just isn't a lot of sun in Michigan in the winter!  I used Hawaiian Shores and Aqua Mist inks, along with black for the leaves, flower centers, and sentiment.  The sentiment is from "Heart - 2 - Heart #10" and for my tag I used the "Tag Sale #5" die.  I know it's a busy week, but if you do have some time, make sure you check out Melissa's video and beautiful card here .

Besides stamping, I love to knit, and decided to make a "First Christmas" ornament for my granddaughter Addy.  I think this will be a fitting ornament for her 1st Christmas:

Wishing each and every one of you a warm and most blessed Christmas with your families and loved ones!

Make it Monday #193 - Camouflaging Die Cuts

Happy Friday everyone!  Hope your "to do" lists are getting smaller and you're finding time to enjoy this beautiful season!  Today I'm playing along with the talented Laura Bassen from Papertrey Ink and the Make it Monday challenge.  Laura has a great video on how to camouflage your die cuts that you can check out right here .  Really loved the look of Laura's card, so I changed mine up just a bit to a "thank you" card, as I'm going to be needing a few of them!  Take a look:

I really like how this turned out, but I think I should have used a little more "elbow grease" as Laura said to make my colors (Aqua Mist & Hawaiian Shores) a little bolder.  My die cut is from the "Counting My Blessings Die Collection", and the "for you" is from 2 of the sentiments from the "Wet Paint" stamp set that I cut apart.  The half snowflake that I embossed the edges with silver, is from the "Phrase Play #9" die. (All dies and stamps from PTI)  I added a few iridescent sequins to finish my card.

Here's a closer view of the stacked "thankful" die cuts:

Love, LOVE the look of those die cuts stacked like that! :0)  Lots of really great cards in the gallery this week, so make sure you check them out!

I'll leave you with another picture of my adorable granddaughter Addy.  I know, I know, I'm a bit prejudiced, but I'm still new to the grandma thing, and every smile she gives me just reinforces for me how wonderful and beautiful she is! :0)

One of my daughter's dogs is just in love with Addy (he's a Puggle), and I think they're going to grow up together being best buds! :0)

Have a great weekend everyone and thanks so much for stopping by...I love it when you do! :0)

Merry Monday #139 - Winter Wonderland Theme

Good morning friends.  Haven't played along with the good people at Merry Monday's in a while, as thanks to them, I had all my cards done late in October (wellllllllll, except for some of the insides!!).  But anyway, I was inspired by some of the beautiful cards by the design team this week, and thought this would be a good opportunity to try out one of the distress ink background technique's that I learned from a Jennifer McGuire Ink video.  Take a look:

I don't know how much more winter themed you can get with a snowflake, right?!  I inlaid the snowflake ("Fancy Flakes" - PTI) into my background that I made using Stormy Sky and Dusty Concord Distress Inks (TH).  The technique that Jennifer McGuire showed in her video was adding the water spots after blending the inks, by using PearlEx mixed with water and then flicking a paintbrush in the mixture and then onto your background.  It leaves a very subtle shimmer to your background, and unfortunately, because we get no sun here in Michigan during the winter months, almost impossible to capture with the camera...grrrrrr!  IRL it is very soft and pretty!  My sentiment was embossed with white embossing powder ("Phrase Play #9" - PTI) onto a black banner, and I added a white enamel dot to finish it off.  More of a modern and graphic design than I'm used to making, but have to admit I really kinda like this card!  :0)

Make sure you check out all the other beauties and even play along, over at Merry Monday's .

Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful Thursday!  I get to babysit my granddaughter Addy this afternoon while her mommy finishes up some shopping...lucky me!! :0)

A Furry Christmas

Good morning friends.  How about a little canine and feline Christmas card today?  Fell in love with this stamp from Simon Says Stamp and had to have it!

 
I'm not particularly a cat lover, but this one's kinda cute with the 2 doggies all decked out for Christmas!  Simple coloring with my Copics, a little glitter, cut out with a stitched rectangle die by Lil Inkers, and mounted to a white card base...easy peasy and cute!

Hope all your Christmas preparations are going well.  I still have SO much to do...procrastinating too much lately!! (I'd rather sit by my lit Christmas tree and read!! :0)  However, I did finish addressing all my Christmas cards last night, and they are ready to take to the post office today!

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do! :0)

Pompom Pal Snowman

Good morning friends.  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  Celebrated Christmas with my mom's side yesterday and had a wonderful time getting caught up with a lot of my aunts, uncles, and cousins!  And my granddaughter Addy was passed around all afternoon and did just wonderful with so many new faces!  Just wished I would have remembered to take out my camera that I specifically brought to capture all those special moments...grrrrr!  Too busy talking and eating! :0)

Just a quick card to share today using PTI's "Pompom Pals" stamp set and "Fancy Flake" dies.  Take a look:

 
Isn't that the cutest little face?!  Kept my coloring very simple and just used an R29 and B000 Copic markers.  The little star he's holding is really shiny IRL and I colored that with a silver Wink of Stella pen.  My background is a new snowflake embossing folder from Darice and I also added a few diamond bling dots to the centers of some of the embossed dots.  The little star and sentiment are from PTI's "Tiny Tags" stamp and die set.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful Monday! :0)

Christmas Tree Shaker

Good morning friends.  Just a quick post today.  Here's a card I made for Calla and her roomies for Christmas using PTI's "Shaker Shapes: Tree Die".

My background is a stamp from the "Season's Greetings" (PTI) that I repeated over and over again, and the sentiment inside the tree shaker is from "Sparkle & Shine: Holiday Additions".  Fun and festive and perfect for crazy college girls! :0)

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend! :0)

Rustic Wreath

Good morning friends.  Sharing with you another easy to mail card today (as much as I love adding embellishments, I do NOT like paying extra postage!!).  This card is definitely a CASE of Debbie Olson's card (Thinking Inking), and I kept it pretty much the same as I just LOVED her card.  I do not have the Copic Airbrush System like Debbie used though, so I used TH Distress Inks instead to color my wreath.  Take a look:

Isn't that such a beautiful wreath?!!  I used the embossed resist technique on this card.  Started with a piece of glossy white cs and then embossed using Spellbinders M-Bossabilities Rustic Wreath.  Next I lightly tapped the raised areas with my Versamark pad and then embossed using clear embossing powder.  Using a TH Ink Blending tool, I used Bundled Sage, Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint, and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks over the whole wreath, and then using a Kleenex, wiped off the excess ink from the areas that had the clear embossing powder on them.  Love, love, love the look of the white that shows through using this technique!  I finished with some red Stickles for the berries, and a sheer bow and tag (PTI - "Tiny Tags"). 

Another busy, busy day, so off I go!  Have a wonderful day and remember to enJOY  every bit of this amazing and beautiful season...the coming of our LORD and SAVIOR!!     

JOY

Good morning friends.  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  Felt like an elf this weekend being busy, busy, busy!  Yes I've known for months the projects I wanted to have made for Christmas, but it always takes till that first week in December to realize that I'm running out of time!  I did make quite a bit of progress the last 2 days though, so hopefully everything gets done on time. 

Have just a quick card to share with you today, and one that is quick and simple to make and easily mailable!  I'm using PTI's "Phrase Play #8" and DSP from Kaisercraft.  Take a look:

The die really does all the work for you...all you need to do is pick out a couple of coordinating designer papers!  Have to love something that's this quick and easy at this time of year!! :0)  I finished by simply adding a piece of cream colored bakers twine, and that's really all it needed.  If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you'll also get a better view of how the word "joy" is inlaid into the script DSP.

Lots to do today, so back to being busy, busy, busy!  Never too busy to remember what time of year this really is though, and to take time to PREPARE my heart for Christmas Day when LOVE came down.  Have a blessed day everyone and remember to seek out the JOY!

Make it Monday #191 - Glittered Frames

Good morning friends.  Playing along with the Papertrey Ink Make it Monday challenge where Dawn McVey shows how making a simple glittered frame can really showcase your card.  I thought this would be a great time to break out my new "PomPom Pals" stamp set, and this is what I came up with:

I used Copic R29 and B000 markers to color the image and a silver Wink of Stella pen to color the stars.  I used the largest "Fancy Flakes" die behind the circle to add a little more depth to an almost all white card.  Now I know the name of the stamp set (PomPom Pals) suggests that I should be using pompoms on my image, and that clearly is not a pompom on Rudy's nose!  I thought I had planned so well ahead and had bought a pkg. of red, white, & green pompoms (and also a pkg. of pink ones to make Addy some gift tags) before my stamp set even arrived in the mail!  However, the ones I picked up were tooooooo big!  I tried trimming it down, but then it looked like crap!  So next I tried a red sequin, but it was too small....grrrrr!! After going through my stash, I found a pkg of red glittered circle shapes that actually matched my glittered frame and fit the space for his nose perfectly...was meant to be! :0)  I added a sentiment at the bottom using a die cut from "Fabulous Frames Die Collection" and "Tag-its #9" stamp set.

Got to babysit my granddaughter Addy yesterday, and thought I would leave you with a picture showing how big she's getting.

She's 13 weeks old now, and loves to smile and jabber ALL the time...just like her momma!! :0)

Thanks so much for stopping by today...love it when you do!

Let it Snow

Good morning friends.  I seem to be on a roll this week with the word "snow", and that's crazy as I don't even like the stuff!!  Anyway, my card today is a total CASE of one done by Kay Miller of My Joyful Moments .  It uses the stamp sets "City Scene" and "Wonderful Words: Snow" (both PTI), and it was SO perfect just the way it was, I hardly changed anything on my copy of it!  Take a look:

Isn't that just the prettiest little scene?!!  I put my snow hill on the outside of the clear window (as opposed to the inside like Kay did), and changed my sentiment up a little, but otherwise I kept my card the same as Kay's as hers was so perfect!  And who doesn't like a shaker card?!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!! :0) 

Bring on the Snow

Good morning friends.  Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!  I'm in full on Christmas spirit now, and yes, that means snow!  On my cards that is...can do without the white stuff outside!!  Have another screen panel card to share with you today, using SU!'s  "Frosty Friends" stamp.  Take a look:

Don't you just love this frosty little family?!!  I stamped my panels with Night of Navy ink and used an R29 Copic marker to fill in scarves, hats, birds, etc.  And LOTS of glitter of course!  The screen cardstock is a navy blue with white speckles that I get from my local SS.  I used a Martha Stewart punch on the top for the snowflakes and all the sentiments are from PTI (Wonderful Words: Snow and Season's Greetings).

Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful Monday! :0)