Birthday Card from Christmas Gift.

I got a few scrappy gifts for Christmas. I got the 6x6 Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm paper pad

and Fabric Bows from Maggie Holmes from my "secret Santa" at work.

I was amazed that I could get things I loved so much from someone who didn't know what I might have! 

I also got some new sets of Lawn Fawn stamps, one that was on my list and ONE that was totally just chosen for me and I love them both! ( I mean who doesn't love Lawn Fawn?)

Now that I have bragged on my own personal scrappy goodies, let me show you a project that I made with them.

I used some papers left over from the October 2014 Simon Says Stamp Card kit (They are from Basic Grey Grand Bazaar collection, including the black piece. I paper pieced elements from the Good Fortune Stamp set (the fortune is stamped on Neenah Solar White Cardstock). And that ribbon for the bow was just laying around in my stash. This is actually a birthday card that I'm sending out late (as usual). I've got more cards coming up this week so I can't wait to share them with you. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Knitting Bug

December has been a REALLY busy crafting month for me, and I did a small amount of papercrafting which involved getting Christmas Cards in the mail as quickly as I made them, I'm really sad I didn't photograph any of them in completion, but my heart was mainly in knitting gifts this year. It's the first year I've been knitting. I got a Martha Stewart Loom last year at my work Christmas party and I've been LOVING it, but at some point in November I think it was I decided to start using regular needles as well and have just, well I've kind of become a knitter. I wanted to share the hats and gloves I made as gifts this year. Each of these had a CUTE little ugly sweater Tag that I made with this set from Simon Says Stamp and colored in with my copics.

The funny thing is, these projects kind of show my skill progressing as well.

These are matching earwarmers for my friend and her daughter.

I made a very special Jayne Cobb hat. (This hat was made on a loom, AND I strayed from the pattern I was using because I thought it needed to be bigger.)

This hat is special because I didn't use a pattern, it's in school colors and I love how this turned out, these kind of hats do not look great on me, but I loved taking pics in things I made.

 The fingerless gloves here were made for the friend who gave me the knitting loom, he loves them!

 I wish I had taken better pics of these, but these are adorable fingerless gloves made from a ball of yarn that changes from pink to gray to black. I knit those bows as well. They are child size and ADORABLE if I do say so myself.

 And this slouchy hat, oh my how I love this hat, it's two colors and I made it with a small amount of difficulty. This hat gave me a lot of confidence in my abilities because it turned out pretty much like the picture and it was by far the hardest thing I had tried up to this point. I then made something for myself.

This is my own hat which converts into a cowl, it is so soft and lovely and is a blend of wool and bamboo fibers and I LOVE wearing it! It's kind of shaped like a cone and there is a long piece of lace that cinches it closed into a hat, I'll have to get more photos and get one of it as a cowl.

I've got tons of photos from a trip to New York along with all of these photos that I want to put together. I can't wait to share them with you. Thanks so much for being patient with my break from papercrafting.

2014 Hanukkah Cards

So Hanukkah ends at sundown this evening, but it has been really lovely this year and I made some cards that I was really happy with using the Clique Kits Eight Crazy Nights and some stamps I've had in my stash for a while. I love Lawn Fawn's Happy Hanukkah stamp set and Paper Smooches has two that I love using both the Kibitzing Sampler and Kibitzing Icons. I did get photos before they went out in the mail, so I hope you enjoy.

This first card is a shaker card that I loaded up with gold sequins and used the included dies in the kit as well as that BEAUTIFUL Theresa Collins paper!

This uses my new stamp and die combo from Simon Says Stamp, I love those ugly sweaters that you can customize. I stamped my sweater, then my stars and used the Washi included in the Eight Crazy Nights kit to cover an ink boo boo in the top right hand corner. I LOVE how this turned out!! The background is my favorite background stamp from Lawn Fawn and it comes with the Let it Snow set of Stamps, and I use this all the time for snow or confetti.

This was supposed to be a background for another sweater, but I love that Menorah from Kibitzing Icons and so I just used the matching sentiment stamp and made a CAS card here.

This one looks super traditional to me, I used the die from the Eight Crazy Nights kit then some navy paper (the silver glitter is Glitter tape by American Crafts just stuck on some cardstock.) That skinny Little B washi from the kit, I layered up a bunch of diecut stars to make it dimensional and called it a day. CAS.

This is my favorite! The cutout is the negative of the star above and I was going to make this a shaker card, but I forgot to put the clear acrylic in place before I put on the glittery layer which is also American Crafts Glitter Tape. I used some Glimmer Mist in the color Jack Frost that I had in my stash and made this lovely card. REALLY LOVE how this turned out.

 I am a little panicked because I don't think I photographed a single Christmas Card and I made some really detailed ones with stamps this year. :( Oh well, I'm sure I'll do some more holiday stamping before it's over). Ok, hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season. Love and Hugs to you all!

Clique Kits Pep Rally---Enchanted Meadow!

Welcome to the Pep Rally all, I know I haven't been posting a lot of papercrafting lately, but I have been crafting, just knitting away at Christmas gifts. I'll be posting pics of those in pages in the future, so I can't wait to share with you all.

Our inspiration this month was this quote:

Here is my project for today:

I used items from this amazing Enchanted kit combined with a set of stamps from the store (they are by Elle's Studio, LOVE them!) and some Navy ink and trimmings from my stash to make gift tag for my work "Secret Santa" gift. The person my gift is for has really made a big impression on me this year as we have gotten to know each other better and she really does inspire me to be better at my job. I was so excited to draw her name because I knew just what I wanted to get for her although most of my co-workers would be excited to get something from Starbucks LOL! Now to go get some lottery tickets to add to the gift. I hope you all enjoy all the amazing projects, I can't wait to see what January 2015 has in store for me, I'm working on my own ability to shine right now... Wish me luck!

Blog Roll:
Clique Kits
Gia
Jody 
Erica
Lacey
Mariah
Alisha
Stephanie
Kat
Charity...You are here
Nicole
Marcia
Tyra 
Danielle
Sophie

Ugly Sweater Tag

Happy Thanksgiving (a day early) my American friends! I haven't been papercrafting a whole lot lately, my life has been in knots knitting Christmas Gifts!!

I want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for all the awesome sweet comments you left on my last post, the Pep Rally from Clique Kits. I am ok, I want everyone to know that I AM OK! I just really feel like it's important to log it all, and it DOES help to write it out, even if you don't make the writing into any sort of scrapbook or art journalling page. I like to share in case someone is visiting for the first time and doesn't know you can do that, maybe there are people thinking there is only one way to scrapbook, there are so many!! Ok, not going to go forward on that line of talk, I just wanted to say thanks and I'm ok! 

Anyway, I've been knitting and drooling over my paper supplies that want me to play with them, I hope to get a lot of cards made over tomorrow whilst watching some good tv. I made a tag this week with the new Simon Says Stamp  Ugly Sweater Stamp Set (this set is so cute I ordered all of it!) It comes separate or in a bundle together. It has so many images, and I decided to make a non Christmas Sweater for a little goodie I was mailing out.

My coloring isn't perfect, but I'm not letting that bother me, I think it's SO CUTE!! Word of warning, be sure you have your stamp mounted flush against the block, if you don't then you will probably stamp a black smear down the center of your sweater. Don't forget for all of your own personal holiday shopping needs: I sell Pure Romance Products!

November Pep Rally Featuring : Homecoming!

The Clique Kit for this month is amazing, love the papers and trimmings, I've just started cutting in to them and stamping with my Julie Nutting doll stamps, this month I made an art journally page to get out some feelings.November has been a really hard month for me since 2011. I lost my spouse of over 15 years that November and after therapy and restarting my life, I still have trouble with feeling very down towards the big holiday season. I find that writing things down, coloring, playing with artful supplies and most recently knitting really help me deal with these. So I sat down with this beautiful kit, made a cute paper doll and wrote out the things I was feeling.

Today's pep rally lineup is supersized so HAVE FUN!!

Clique Kits
Gia
Jody
Erica
Lacey
Marcia
Mariah
Rosann
Tyra
***Charity*** You are here.
Allie
Kat 
Aliza 
Nicole
Stephanie
Sarah
Carolina
Danielle
Cassandra
Alisha 
Donna

Homecoming... My November 2014 Clique Kit

I hope you are heavily into your holiday crafting folks! I am knitting gifts this year and am really close to being finished with my gifts that need to be mailed out. You'll have to friend me on IG or Ravelry to see what I'm working on now... but here is my November Kit video, I have one art journally type layout made from this kit, I'll try to get some photos this afternoon and have it up for Saturday's post... I've been playing with some new stamps and can't wait to share with you!

Easiest Tag EVER!!!

You might even think it's too simple to post, but I wanted to as a reminder that you don't have to get wild with technique or spend a ton of money to get something quite lovely and worthy of gifting... or gift decorating:

I made this tag to go with a handmade gift. I LOVE this tag. The kraft tag is a premade tag from my stash. I used this Elle's Studio stamp set that I got from Clique Kits, they have great stuff in their store. The ribbon was from my stash. The stamp is embossed with Zing Red glitter embossing powder and it really creates a fantastic look.

Have you started holiday crafting yet?

Have a Sweet Halloween.

When I began this blogpost I had a sentence like "I wish I had put some candy images on this card" and then I thought that I could just add some candy and rephotograph my card so here it is! This card features papers and sequins from the Simon Says Stamp October Card kit. I really like their card kits and this is the second one I have purchased so far. I combined it with THREE of my favorite Lawn Fawn stamp sets and came up with this card.

The unicorn is from Critters Ever After and is one of my most used sets, the witch's hat is from Hat's Off as is the halloween part of the sentiment. The have a sweet and the candy images come from Sweet Christmas.

Get Happy Card 1

I fell in love with the Gossamer Blue Get Happy Christmas line this year! I couldn't WAIT for it to ship, I even signed up for their newsletter so I could order it asap, which I did! And I even made a video to share with everyone the pieces of the collection that I got.

This is the first card that I have made with this kit and I am SO HAPPY with the way it has turned out!!

I even videoed the creation of this card in case you'd like to see it. I did go extra heavy with the embossing powder bag, sorry about that...

Happy Hanukkah Critter Shaker Tag Attempt 1

It's no secret that I love watching youtube for inspirational videos... in particular stamping videos. ONE of my favorite people to watch is Nichol Magourik and I watched this video recently and have been obsessed with trying to make a shaker tag ever since.

I don't own any lovely dies with stitching around the edge to make my tags, but I do own a silhouette and I had some unusual tag shapes already in my library and I used one of them. I cut out several tags using the Teresa Collins Urban Market papers that were included in my Clique Kits Hanukkah Kit

I sized my tags as large as I dared and cut them out both with the window and some backing shapes without the window. I also cut a few of the exact same shape out of plain white cardstock so that I could reinforce those Teresa Collins papers. I used one of the plain white pieces of the cutout space to stamp my images, I used post-its to mask off my images to build up my scene. I colored in the narwhal and the ice with copic markers, then masked those areas off again and used Chipped Sapphire, Peacock Feathers and Faded Jeans distress inks as my background for the sea and sky. Then I put the shaker card front over the back and sort of inlaid the colored images. Then I put foam tape all round the edges of my stamped shape and cut some clear packaging material for my window, dumped in some glittery snow and a star of David from the Hanukkah kit, then carefully attached my clear window to the front and placed the front of my tag over the back. Wha la--- it was ready and it worked, the stuff shakes around!!

I did feel that the top of the tag was a bit empty so I found my Paper Smooches Kibitzing Icons stamps and put eight candles with flames across the top and I thought it looked pretty good, I did see after I had put my tag together that there was some schmutz on my little narwhal and I also got some stray ink on top of the tag, but I'm begging forgiveness as this is my first attempt. I want to make some more shaker tags, they are CUTE!! LOVE IT! Thanks so much for looking!

Bootiful Girls

This kit made the most of my October kit Masquerade Ball from Clique Kits, I used a ton of the ephemera as layering pieces, some stickers, one of those awesome glittery hearts you could get as an add on and I even discovered that the Shimelle rub-ons in the store will stick to that lovely glittery heart!! I used one of the exclusive journalling cards for my journalling (weird, I know) and those stickers, I just couldn't get enough of those October afternoon stickers... I gave up on keeping them straight because that just wasn't important to me... 

These were my pets in 2008. While the kitty Sayuri doesn't look thrilled, she actually liked wearing "clothes" perhaps shirts and things rather than this jingly jester collar... but they looked so cute together. I found my inspiration for the diagonal papers on the layout here at yt, but I also saw one of the CK designers got inspired with a similar layout from IG on yesterday's blog share.

Welcome to the Masquerade Ball Blog Share!

Welcome to the Pep Rally for October! I am so glad to be here sharing with you today!!  

Our Challenge this month: Tell us or show us in a project why YOU are glad to live in a world where there are Octobers!

The kit this month is a WOW kit full of color and texture, it's amazing and I'm so happy to be working with these vibrant papers, they have really got me in the mood for fun and cutesy Halloween.

I have cards to share for the hop this month, because really I love thinking about Halloween in October! I haven't really participated in a lot of Halloweeny stuff the past few years but that is a story for another time, but I LOVE thinking about it!!! This year I actually got some cards made to send this month! Here are two of them:

The images here are from a Paper Smooches Stamp set called Spookalicious. I LOVE the way they look on these 4x6 cards from the kit (side note I did cut down the 4x6 cards to 4x5.25). I loved using the flair and stickers and Pinkfresh chevrons and those amazing STAR  sequins from the shop, and I LOVE that twine with the sparkly gold!!! Ok, so to stop myself gushing, I'll go ahead and share the blog hop list. but really, LOVE these cutey images that I colored with copic markers and I think they look so sweet and REALLY go with these papers!!! The card base is a red cardstock from my stash, but everything else is from the kit! I finally did some fun stuff this month but I REALLY REALLY wanted to share these cute cards... LOVE all the color in this kit!

Clique Kits
Gia
Jody
Erica
Lacey
Rosann
CassandraH.
***Charity***You Are Here
Alisha 
Regina 
Wendy
Marcia
Mariah
Tyra
Allie
Kat 
Aliza 
Nicole
Stephanie
Carolina
Danielle
Sophie

If you just popped by to check in on me today, please hop along and comment, you could win a cool prize! Start at Clique Kits and ENJOY!!

More for the Special Order Baby Book

So my first post of May was this Baby Book that a co-worker of mine commissioned. Her baby is ADORABLE and she has been very busy filling out the book and thinking up pages she wanted to add. Here are the ones she ordered from me to round out the book:

I seriously loved digging out my box of Sassafrass Lass oldies but goodies and making these pages. I hope she likes them and I can't wait to see them all filled out!

Try Again

I've been debating in my head if I should share this layout or not, but I've had it ready to post for a few weeks, I used my September Clique Kits to put it together. I haven't had a lot of sunny days for photographing when I haven't been at work lately so I'm behind taking pics, but I have some more things to post very soon, including a PRIZE WINNING LAYOUT from a crop I attended in Tennessee!

This layout is based around a copy of an email that I was sent about not quite making the cut for a design team, I've scribbled my feelings around it and the fact that I'm going to keep applying! I love how this turned out, and I have to admit I was very sad to not make it, but it's ok, it just means it isn't my time!

Everything in this layout was from the September Clique Kit except the unicorn, I stamped this unicorn from Critters Ever After by Lawnfawn and watercolored it one day when I just felt like stamping and coloring, I had made some New Year's cards from the images but this unicorn was left over so I used it on my layout. I love that unicorn!

Clique Kits September 2014 Pep Rally!

Welcome to the monthly Pep Rally!!!

Our theme for September was "Be Daring" and I gotta tell you, letting myself be photographed in a bathing suit... to me, is DARING! ;)

I got to visit the Outer Banks over an extended Labor Day holiday and as part of playing on the beach and in the water, I got some silly photos made of myself and ONE of them I LOVED! I was so excited to use the September Kit, Study Abroad to scrap this photo... this heart print was one of my favorite papers in the kit and I loved using the chalkboard paint as a backdrop for my photo.

There were so many delicious goodies to add in the way of embellies and I LOVE them all... the only thing I added was a splash of Maya Road mist and some DIY thickers... but I left the thickers white because I love how they pop off that blue tag from the kit. These sequins are the yummiest size and colors... I love how they accent all the papers in this kit. I also think the comic book origami hearts are FANTASTIC!! I have another waiting to be used... and I have an idea for it already!

Here is the lineup for the rest of the Pep Rally! So much inspiration to be had so have fun!

Clique Kits
Gia
Jody
Erica
Lacey
Stephanie
Rosann
Tyra
Danielle
***Charity***You are here
Cassandra
Sarah
Alisha
Mariah

Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge Week 3 Sept 21-27

It's working! I'm playing along with my favorite challenge sites and coming up with some creative projects!! Today I'm playing along with the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge for Week 3 Sept 21-27 and it's an:

In my trend of making New Year's Cards for the upcoming holiday (Starts Wednesday the 24th) I decided to use the Paper Smooches set Kibitzing Icons and started stamping and playing. I knew I wanted to color this image with my copic markers, and I stamped it out over and over again and tried different color combinations and decided what colors I liked best, and then decided that because it IS a holiday card, it needed some bling... and I stamped my image in veramark and GOLD embossed it. Then I colored the image with my favorite combo of colors and cut it down, I inked the edges with distress ink. I grabbed my Clique Kits September Kit for some paper, I dug around in my older stash and found this making memories frame and some twine and put it all together for this:

I just love how this image turned out! I'm not the best copic artist but I'm really, really pleased with the coloring. Thanks so much for dropping by!

Critters Galore Lawnscaping Challenge ... Take 2

Wow, ok so I have watercolored SEVERAL images this week of critters and today I have put together 2 cards... ok the first one I put together last night... but this one I put together just now and I loves it! This is another entry for Lawnscaping Challenge 90

It's another New Year's Card...

This card is made using Say Cheese, Critters in the Forest, Smitty's ABCs and Hello Sunshine.

I used distress inks for coloring the polaroid image and the background as well as stamping the sun. My cloud is actually some card surgery that I think turned out rather well, I created it with Perfect Pearls Mist. The fox image is watercolored with regular watercolors. 

PLEASE let me know what you think... I like it! (OH the scripty part of the polaroid is an io stamp I picked up from SSS and I think it adds a little oomph to the polaroid, I think the Say Cheese set is my most used LF set!)

Critters Galore Lawnscaping Challenge #90... take 1

I love Lawn Fawn and I've been in a bit of a creative slump... I have a BIG project that I've started but I got stuck and haven't gotten to share it with you (if you follow me on IG then you have seen some sneakiness of this beachy project). But I've been sitting around staring at supplies, I did get an AWESOME layout finished that I'll be sharing on Wednesday the 24th for the monthly Pep Rally with Clique Kits but for today... I'm playing along with the current LAWNSCAPING CHALLENGE!
This week's challenge is all about critters, or images that work as critters!

Rosh Hashanah is almost upon us and I wanted to make a cute card to send to some friends... and what is better for a New Year's card than a yeti?... NOTHING

I stamped out my Yeti image Yeti, Set Go and colored my images with just a cheapie set of watercolors that I picked up at Michaels months ago. I have been watching tons of videos by Jen McGuire making lovely starry interstellar backgrounds lately and wanted to try making one with these same watercolors, I think it turned out great. The stars are both splatters of white watercolor and splatters of Perfect Pearl mist. The banner is from Home Sweet Home and I had to creatively mask and extend the banner from the set to fit my sentiment. The pink watercolor makes the greeting a little tiny bit dull looking, but I think it looks ok. I could always go over the greeting again... or I could have stamped it after painting the paper. I used the same pink watercolor to color the paper I punched for my border. The sentiment is stamped with Smitty's ABC's which is my favorite all time alpha from Lawn Fawn!

Communication BREAKDOWN!

I went on a little vacay over Labor Day, down to the Outer Banks in NC. It was amazing, and relaxing... I reached a state of relaxation that I wasn't sure I could reach without wine. It was awesome, and hot. The ocean was beautiful and the beach was uncrowded. I walked around Manteo, Duck, Kitty Hawk etc... and there was a scrapbook store!

It's called Beach Memories if you want anything to scrap your beach vacation, she has it! If you want a selection of stuff that maybe you haven't seen before... she has it. She carries the stuff you don't see at the box stores, and she carries things she loves and uses!

AWESOME. And I picked up some stuff for myself of course. Here is a quick peek:

I got two of those Tim Holtz folios (one of each size). Some crinkle ribbon which I have had in the past but have been out of forever. I got some Kaisercraft Sparklets in clear and I got the 8x8 pad of By the Sea (by Graphic 45) and some Scor Tape which I hear is AWESOME! Can't wait to get started on my beach book! I have TONS of pics of birds on the beach!

OH and as soon as I got home, my computer crashed and it took me almost 24 hours to get it back up and running, I wanted this post up first thing this morning, but life doesn't always turn out the way you plan. And I'm happy to still be in some of that relaxed vacation haze so that I can just roll with it.

It's the best way to be!

Critters Ever After Congrats

I have what is now an empty box where I keep cards partially made up in case I need one in kind of a hurry for someone. I take the card out, then finish it off. These usually start out as images I want to play with... in this card, I had gotten my first gelatos and wanted to play with coloring some ADORABLE Lawn Fawn Images. Critters Ever After is a stamp set that I reach or over and over again for all sorts of cards.

This card started out as a scrap of Cosmo Cricket paper, on a kraft card base with the dragon and crown from the stamp set in place. 

Then I added some Washi from Pinkfresh Studio that I won from participating with Clique Kits. Those letters, They are Cosmo Cricket as well... Tiny Type. Those gold stars are from Pretty Little Studio and came in my August Clique Kit.

This just wasn't enough, I knew as soon as I started looking at the photo... so I didn't get a better one, I just started adding some more stuff. Actually I just added Three stickers from the Highline collection by Basic Grey. And then, I thought it was Perfect!

I JUST LOVE how this turned out! Let me know what you think! Thanks so much for stopping by.