Thursday, December 30, 2010

A Special Brew

 One of things I love to give as a gift for Christmas to coffee-lover friends, is a bag of holiday coffee!  I just "pretty it up" a bit by adding a tag and coordinating card.  :)  For this set, I used the From the Heart stamp set from Taylored Expressions along with the coordinating From the Heart Frame Die

The tree is paper pieced to match the background paper of the card.  I added a little rhinestone on top of the tree too! 


The last little touch was the scalloped border using the Medium Scallop Border Die and some ribbon! 

An easy gift that someone will enjoy and it didn't take you too much time to put together!  Thanks for stopping by today!  Hope you're enjoying your day!


Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Many Thanks

I created this card for the Viva la Verve Challenge last Friday.  My sweet friend and fellow Diva Teresa came up with this sketch!  For this month's Viva la Verve Challenges, the theme is Ornaments & Winter Decor.  My card was inspired by a gift bag that my husband received. (posted below)
I just LOVED this gift bag!  It so fun, bright and happy. . .AND it's not paper so I can use it as a tote if I want!  :)  In any case, it gave me great inspiration for my card!

I used an old Verve set for my card, Fancy Florals Remixed.  I also used the Vintage Oval Frame die.  I added a couple of snowflakes too!  I used the yellow and blue snowflake punches from Marvy Uchida and punched my snowflakes, then I added adhesive to the fronts and dunked them in glitter so they'd be nice and sparkly!  We'd love for you to play along in the Viva la Verve Challenges!  You could win some stamps!  ;)

Don't forget, there's a Verve SALE that's happening until December 31st!  Be sure to head on over to the store if you're interested!  There are sets up to 50% off!  Thanks for stopping by today and have a wonderful day!

Monday, December 27, 2010

Happy Birthday, Jodi!

Today, a bunch of us are celebrating a very special friend's birthday!  Happy Birthday to Jodi!  Jodi is just the sweetest, most beautiful person.  She always leaves comments that make you feel like a million bucks. . . and have you seen her creations?  Oh my, every one is just gorgeous!  So please join us in wishing Jodi a very Happy Birthday today! 

For my card, I used the Season's Sweetings set from Taylored Expressions.  I combined sentiments from Tag Treats and Sweet Celebration to come up with my wintery birthday greeting!  :)  The papers are all from the December Key Ingredients

The next stop on this birthday blog hop is my sweet friend Jessica!  If you get lost along the hop, you can always start at the beginning with Karen!  Karen will have the whole list posted on her blog.  Thanks for visiting today and joining in the fun!  Have a wonderful day!


Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas Picture

I know a lot of you ask about my kids and I haven't shared a picture of them in a while, so I thought I'd share our Christmas photo with you!  You wouldn't believe how many shots it took to get one where they were all looking and/or smiling.  Here are my two favorites from the bunch.  We ended up sending the first on our Christmas cards even though I thought a lot of people would get more of a kick out of seeing Isabelle's fingers in Isaac's hair ready to pull in the second picture!  LOL 

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!!

Wishing you all a VERY Merry Christmas!  Hope your day is spent with those you love!   As you could imagine with children ages 7, 4, 3 and 1 our house is COVERED in toys!  LOL  Our kids have been so spoiled by aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and friends.  They have been having a blast going from one thing to the next this morning. . .even playing with each other's toys!  It has been an absolute joy to watch.  Wishing you the same joy today!  Here is a card I created using the Home Sweet Home set from Taylored Expressions.  The Gingerbread house was a lot of fun to color and add Christmas Red Stickles!  Thanks for stopping by today and have a wonderful Christmas!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Warm & Cozy

Today I have another holiday card to share with you.  Remember those tags I made HERE?  Well, I decided to use one for a card.  I used the Warm Happiness Too set from Papertrey Ink along with the Warm Happiness Die, the Tag Sale 2, and the Limitless Layers Circles Collection.  The paper is from the Library Ledger Paper pack, Sweet Blush, Aqua Mist and Kraft.   I used Berry Sorbet and Ocean Tides ink.  The ribbon is the Berry Sorbet Swiss Dots.

You can't see it too well in the picture, but the Sweet Blush cardstock is embossed using the Linen & Canvas Impression Plate.    A different color combo for a holiday card, but I like it!  Hope you do too!  Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a wonderful day!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Packaging Gifts

I think I have mentioned here before that one of things I like to do for gifts (holiday or not) is to package up cards that I have made that haven't yet made their way into the mail.  :)  Here, I made four packages of all occasion cards for Arwen's Pre-K teachers.  You can find a video for how to make the top and bottom part of the box HERE.  I just LOVED how Taylor dressed up a clear card box, so I had to do that for these boxes! 

Each box contains 6 cards and envelopes and I finished the boxes off with a tag.  For the tag, I used the Glad Tidings set from Verve along with the coordinating Sweet Scallop Die.  I love to have a bunch of these on hand for those little gifts you sometimes forget!  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Happy Holidays

As I was briefly looking through my Google Reader the other day, I saw this sketch on the Clean & Simple Stamping blog and loved it so I thought I'd play along!  Normally I would have left the card all white and just added the strip of cardstock and the circle as in the sketch, but I decided to add a bit more color and use some patterned paper for the base of the card. 

I used the Penguin Pals stamp set from Taylored Expressions along with the Snow Day Project Pantry kit.  I colored the penguin using Copic markers and added some Stardust Stickles to his Santa hat.  I also used the Scalloped Eyelet Border Die for the edge of the cardstock strip.  As a finished touch, I faux stitched around the edge of card with a brown marker.

Thanks for stopping by today and have a wonderful Sunday! 

Friday, December 17, 2010

Viva La Verve Ornament

This card uses today's Viva La Verve Sketch.  I used the Ornamental Christmas set from Verve.  I also used some papers from the Colorful Christmas Collection from My Mind's Eye.  Such fun, happy, bright colors!  I hope you'll play along with the Verve challenge!  It really is fun and if you love sketches, then this challenge is perfect for you!  :) 

Thanks for stopping by today and have a wonderful day!  SUPPLIES USED:  Stamps- Ornamental Christmas (Verve Stamps); Ink- Ocean Depth (VersaMagic), Onxy Black (Versafine); Paper- Colorful Christmas Collection (My Mind's Eye);  Accessories- ribbon (Darice), brad (Making Memories), silver cording (SU);  Finished card measures 5.5"x4.25"

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Celebrate the Season

It's that time to put finishing touches on teacher gifts and create cards that will accompany those gifts.  I like using the "heavy" embellishments for cards that won't be mailed, but rather hand delivered.  When I say "heavy", I just mean things that have a lot of dimension or that won't travel well through the mail.  These pearls are one of those things.  I LOVE using them, but when I saw a card I sent someone with some pearls that were split in half when they arrived, it made me rethink using them.  :)  I don't always use a lot of embellishments to begin with, so to have the ones I do use end up demolished kind of defeats the purpose!  So when I can hand deliver a card, I load it up with embellishments like this!  :)

For this card, I used the Sparkle & Cheer set from Taylored Expressions.  I added some Kaisercraft Pearls in red and pearl for the bulbs on the tree.  I die cut the image using the Plain Oval Nestabilities and sponged around the edges of the die.  I used the Take Note Die 3 for behind the focal piece. 

I tied some ribbon and added a Christmas Tree Trinket stick pin and finally, the sentiment tag tied with some Baker's Twine

Thanks for stopping by today and have a wonderful day!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Black & White Thanks

Today I have another card for you using some of the latest Verve that was released.  This card uses the Wild Flower Plain Jane along with a sentiment from the Amazing Wishes set.  I stamped the flower on black cardstock in white craft ink.  I added some rhinestones to the centers of the flowers.  I attached the black panel to the card base and then used my Scor-Pal and Scor-Bug to add the embossed stitching on either side of the black panel.  Finally, I tied some black ribbon around the card and added the sentiment.  Simple card, but elegant! 

Thanks for stopping by today!  Hope you're having a wonderful day!  SUPPLIES USED:   Stamps- Wild Flower Plain Jane, Amazing Wishes (Verve Stamps); Ink- Fresh Snow (PTI), Onyx Black (Versafine); Paper- True Black (PTI);  Accessories- ribbon (Darice), rhinestones (Zva Creative), ScorPal, ScorBug (ScorPal);  Finished card measures 4.25" square

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Sweet Sunday Cheerful Friend

It's a great Sunday morning when I have time to stamp a little. :)  It's a rainy day here right now, soon to turn into snow, so I thought I'd stamp a little sunshine using my sweet friend Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch!  I used the Text Objects set from Verve.  I used some dies from Taylored Expressions as well.  The Take Note Die 2 and the Medium Scallop Border die

Thanks for stopping by today!  Hope your Sunday is wonderful!  SUPPLIES USED: Stamps- Text Objects (Verve Stamps); Ink- Espresso, Crushed Curry (SU); Paper- Kitchen Spice Collection (Bo Bunny Press);  Accessories- rhinestones (Zva Creative), Take Note Die 2, Medium Scallop Border die (Taylored Expressions);  Finished card measures 4.25"x5.5"

Friday, December 10, 2010

Grow An Old Friend

Even though the weather here is cold and snowy, I still love to create cards that make me think warm and sunny.  :)  They may not keep my toes warm, but they help keep the smile on my face!  For this card I used the Friendship Blooms set from Taylored Expressions along with the coordinating dies, Friendship Blooms Dies and the Leafy Branch Die

I stamped the flowers in Rhubarb Stalk ink, die cut them and mounted them with foam adhesive over the Leafy Branch die cut.  The background piece was embossed using the new Scallops & Circles Impression Plate.  I tied some Double Edges Olive Polka Dot ribbon into a bow and attached it to the corner.  Finally, I added some white dots around the card with a white gel pen. 



Thanks for stopping by today and have a wonderful weekend!  SUPPLIES USED:  Stamps- Friendship Blooms (Taylored Expressions); Ink- Tuxedo Black, Rhubarb Stalk (Memento); Accessories- Scallops & Circles Impression Plate, Friendship Blooms Die, Leafy Branch Die, ribbon (TE);  Finished card measures 4.25" square 

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Manly Thank You

My husband has been asking me for quite a while to make him more thank you cards.  He uses thank you cards regularly in his field.  I don't know why, but every time he asks, it takes me a couple of weeks to create something.  It's not that the cards take that long to mass produce, I guess it's a challenge for me to come up with something masculine that's a little more on the formal side.  Masculine cute comes pretty easy for me, but that's not what my husband wants.  :) 

So, I put my mind to the task of coming up with something last night.  Once I decided on the design, the mass production didn't take too long at all.  I decided Kraft was a good start.  It can look formal without looking "frilly".  Next I decided that I wanted to use the Framed set from Papertrey Ink.  I stamped the box on the card fronts in Burnt Umber ink.  The next thing I decided on was the focal piece.  I used the frame and image from Places Please to create the sentiment panel along with the coordinating Placecard die.  The sentiment is from the Mat Stack 1 Collection.  I thought using the placecard as a layer on a card added more use to that set for me since I don't often create placecards.  I also thought it worked very well with the Framed set.  

The last thing I did was cut pieces of Kraft cardstock that would fit inside the Framed box and embossed it using the Picnic Plaid Impression Plate.  This went pretty quickly because I could send two pieces through my Cuttlebug at a time on the impression plate.  The last little touch was sponging the edges before adhering it inside the box.  The sentiment was stamped in Walnut Stain Distress ink because I needed a deeper brown.  The image on the placecard was stamped in New Leaf

So, there's my latest mass production.  The important thing is they are DONE and my husband loves them!  Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a wonderful day!  SUPPLIES USED:  Stamps- Places Please, Framed, Mat Stack 1 Collection (PTI); Ink- Burnt Umber (Palette), Walnut Stain Distress (Ranger), New Leaf (PTI);  Paper- Kraft (PTI);  Accessories- Picnic Plaid Impression Plate, Placecard Die (PTI);  Finished cards measures 4.25"x5.5"

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