Merry Christmas Everyone

Just wanted to wish you a blessed Christmas as you celebrate the birth of Christ, God's gift to the world, with family and friends.  May the peace, love, joy and hope presented to us that very first Christmas night touch and fill your heart in new ways, and may 2010 be a year in which some of the desires of your heart are fulfilled. 

In addition, I want to take a moment to thank every one of you who pops by to visit my little bit of blog land.  I have had so much fun starting this blog.  I love learning new things, and it's been wonderful learning about something in cyber world.  Built in bonus: it keeps the gray matter hopping and hopefully has me somewhere near where my kids are at in their knowledge of computers LOL!  However, even more so, I have enjoyed meeting and getting to know those of you who come by to say hi :D  Thank you for all your encouraging comments, they make my day (((hugs)))!!


Not sure when I'll be able to post next as we are hosting Christmas this year and things will be busy with family around.  However, as soon as things settle down and our guest room (aka my stamping room) no longer has people residing in it, I'll be in there like a dirty shirt!!

Christmas blessings to you all!!

Spring Mojo

What a fun Mojo Sketch Julee came up with this week. Just perfect for squeezing in a card before Christmas.

With all the news and pictures on blogs of the snow that has fallen on the East Coast, plus vivid memories of the huge dump of snow we got last Christmas, I decided to think Spring!  I pulled out this cute set and my Michael's $1.50 mini  flower punch and went to work with this colour combo that just makes me happy :)    Lots of flowers plus some butterflies and I managed to bring a tiny bit of Spring into my craft room :D  Thankfully, the Apron Lace punch I ordered on line for my birthday in January (gotta take advantage of the sales while they are happening) hasn't arrived yet or you know what I'd be very tempted to do LOL!!  My Threading Water punch worked wonderfully instead.

The sentiment had to have a soft feel to it to match the rest of the card so I pulled out SU's Think Happy Thoughts.  The sentiment stamped and punched easily, but when it came to centering the flower in the sentiment circle, I couldn't do it for the life of me - ugh.  I gave up after three tries so just pretend it's nice and centered, okay?!

The white space needed a little something so I tried various scoring patterns and finally settled on two lines a quarter inch apart on the top and bottom of the white panels.  Unfortunately, my far from professional photography skills could only get the top set to show up, but I promise you they are also on the bottom :D  Something was still missing, so I added a bow at the bottom of the sentiment ribbon for a bit of "umph" and  finished things off with a few brown half pearls on the butterflies and the center of my "centered" sentiment flower LOL.  Presto, Spring had sprung!

Thanks or taking a few minutes during this very busy time of year to visit!  Hang in there, only a few more sleeps and all your business and hard work will be rewarded by big smiles and thank yous.

 What's In It?
Stamps:  Sweet Dreams (SU), Think Happy Thoughts (SU)
Paper:  Mellow Moss, Cameo Coral, So Saffron
Ink:  Mellow Moss, Cameo Coral
Accessories:  Threading Water Punck, Michael's Mini $1.50 Flower Punch, 1/8" circle punch, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, Scalloped Circle and Circle Nesties, Brown Half Pearls, 5/8" Saffron Satin Ribbon, Scor-Pal, Dimensionals

My B & Es Continue....

Amber has come up a wonderful sketch to wrap up 2009.  It's hard to believe we have had a year of Verve sketches with twists!  I must admit, it is nice not to have to worry about a twist this month because with all that is going on in December, my little brain is on overload and I'm sure I would be making four and five cards per sketch due to forgetting to add the twist LOL!

I am bowing my head in shame today as I succumbed to another pressie B & E last night....  This is so unlike me - honest!!  Let me explain.  The first thing that popped into my head when I saw this sketch was to use a heart for one of the panels.  Since I was wrapping pressies with the kids yesterday afternoon, I was reminded of what I had purchased for myself from my family (gotta love being able to buy for yourself as just about everything I got was on sale or bought with a coupon :D) and the heart Nesties were included.  When my kids had maxed out their pressie wrapping attention span, I used the Nesties for this card.  I must say, they are a lot more challenging to get into than the MS border punch was, and I'm thankful the hard, plastic packaging they come in isn't totally sealed all the way around or I wouldn't have been able to get them out.  I giggled with glee while using them as they were so perfect for the card (I'm desperately trying to justify my errant ways, aren't I :D).  However, getting them back into their packaging and arranging them back into "nested" form was much harder than I'd bargained for LOL!  Guess it serves me right!!  I'm not sure where this evil little habit is coming from (maybe it's because I enjoyed watching Russell on Survivor and was totally miffed he didn't win the million dollars!), but everything is now wrapped and under the tree so I know I won't be doing any more pressie B & Es.  At least that is my story and I'm sticking to it....at least trying to stick to it as my birthday is in January and I have a few more Nesties coming my way...just kidding LOL!

Sorry, I digressed.  A little confession does wonders for the soul LOL!  Back to the card.  I found these fun DPs in my Costco DP Pack and matched them up with some lovely cream linen card stock.  Of course, my Swiss Dots embossing folder had to come out -- I'm really falling off the band wagon on this card! -- and I used one of my all time favorite sentiments from Wordsworth in the heart.  However, there was a lot of white space left in the heart so out came this cute stamp from Verve ( I'm not sure what you call this - a filligree?  Can anyone enlighten me?) in the "corners" of the heart and added a touch of bling at the base of each one for a little pop.  Finished things off with some brads and sheer burgundy ribbon.  Happy with how this turned out and must say the B & E was worth the final product - despite the shame of it all!!

Hope your Christmas preparations are well in hand.  I can't believe how under control things are at our house this year - it's such a wonderful place to be in!!  It takes all the stress out of the Season and allows me to enjoy it all the more.  The kids and I are are thrilled to have daddy all to ourselves for the next two weeks as he is on vacation, and I must say, I'm looking forward to seeing Princess and the Frog as a family tomorrow.

Thanks for popping in for a visit and letting me know you've been here.  Your comments are always so encouraging (((hugs))).   Have a blessed day.





What's In It?
Stamps:  Wordsworth, Verve
Paper:  Costco DP Pack, Cream Linen
Ink:  Baroque Burgundy
Accessories:  Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Heart Nesties, Brads, Sheer Burgundy Ribbon, Bling, Dimensionals

River Rock and Flowers

 

How things can change in a day.  Yesterday we had four inches of snow and today, it is basically all gone as it poured rain all through the night and it is up to 7C (46F) already.  Gotta love West Coast  snowfalls: here today, gone tomorrow!

I had two ideas in mind when I first saw this sketch, one being a focal sentiment and the other a focal floral (try saying that a few times quickly LOL!).  As you can see, the focal floral won out.  This Penny Black image has been a long time favorite of mine and I never tire of using it.  I decided to go with Black, River Rock and Cream because I wanted to stamp the flower image in black, and this lovely colour combination worked like a charm.  I used my Nesties for the ovals and had to stamp my  main image a few times because it isn't easy to get a good image on linen paper due to the texture it has.  However, after really inking up my stamp, attempt number three was successful LOL!   I used Itty Bitty Backgrounds for the River Rock panels for a subtle pattern as I didn't want to take away from the main image.  Wrapped things up (no pun intended LOL) with some sheer black ribbon and a sentiment.

Hope you are closer to being ready for Christmas :D  Have a fabulous day!

What's In It?

Stamps:  Penny Black, Itty Bitty Backgrounds (SU), Warmest Regards 

Paper:  Black, River Rock, Cream Linen

Ink:  Black

Accessories:  Oval and Scalloped Oval Nesties, 5/8" Sheer Black Ribbon, Dimensionals

Snowing Mojo

I veered off the sketch a bit here as a few others beat me to the punch using a snowflake.  I still wanted to use one so I opted to go with a square to change things up a bit LOL!   I just had to use a snowflake because we got four inches of snow last night.  One of my favorite things is to wake up to a blanket of freshly fallen snow and just enjoy the beauty of it.  I just love the sight of the deciduous trees with their branches outlined in snow contrasting against the pine trees with snow on their branches.  I also enjoy the quiet a snowfall brings.  It mutes sound so nicely!! You can't even  hear the cars driving down the road :D  Needless to say the kids are bouncing off the walls and went to school fully geared up with sleds in hand so they can go sledding down the hill at recess and lunch time.  To see the joy on their faces just warms my heart :D  May have to have a few races down the hill with them after school - what can I say, I'm a kid at heart!!

I based my card around this wonderful ribbon from Mike's ribbon bin. I  think I got ten rolls of the stuff and just as many in the blue and brown LOL!  The snowflake is a Cuttllebug die with some bling in the middle for some zip.  I crimped the brown panel to add more dimension and used the Swiss Dots embossing folder for the main panel as well as the scalloped square panel.  My "enabling excuse"  is it looks like snow and therefore I just HAD to use it LOL!   Finished the card off by adding a sentiment tag.  It's  hard to see, but there are pink snowflakes on the tag and a bit of bling in the center of one of them.  I fiddled with how to attach the tag for a while and finally settled on just adding a brad and gluing it on :D

That's it for today.   Hope you have a wonderful day!

What's In It?

Stamps: Savvy

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Paper:  Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip

Accessories:  Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Cuttlebug Snowflake Die, Crimper, Ribbon, McGill Label Punch, SU Scalloped Border Punch, Crystal Brad, Brad, Dimensionals

Verve Thank You

It was wonderful to have another square sketch to work with.  I always enjoy making square cards and quite often find them easier to "balance" than your standard A2 size.  I had the Bethlehem image I used on my last card in mind, but realized it was too big for this sketch unless I made a 6 x 6 card.  Since I have no envelopes for that size card, it was a no go.  Instead, I opted to make a sentiment card so I could use more of my new Verve stamps :D

Back to the Costco DP pack I went and found this lovely rose paper which unfortunately gets quite covered up on the card. The DP matched up fabulously with Always Artichoke and Rose Red - score :D  I  really wanted to use some of my new Verve flourishes on either end of the sentiment, but my panel was too short to fit them in so I just layered the sentiment instead.  I finished things off with some lovely, sheer, yellow ribbon and brown half pearls on the sentiment and on the bottom left corner of the card to balance off the bow.

That's it for today.  Enjoy your weekend and hope you are getting closer to being ready for Christmas.





What's In It?
Stamps:  Verve
Paper:  Always Artichoke, Red Rose, Tan, Costco DP
Ink:  Chocolate Chip
Accessories:  Scalloped Circle Nesties, Brown Half Pearls, 5/8" Sheer Yellow Ribbon, Dimensionals

Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

Though things are crazy busy right now with all the kids' school activities and Christmas prep (thankfully I'm almost done - just need to wrap pressies and bake a few cookies), it is a joy to be able to sit down and enjoy making a card with one Mercy's wonderful sketches :D   Added bonus: a square card which would fit the image I had in mind perfectly!! 

I bought this wonderful little stamp last year on sale after Christmas and since it got accidentally "misfiled" with some non-Christmas stamps, so I just found it today!  I just love this image because it reminds me of all I hold near and dear to my heart when I celebrate Christmas.  Dawn reminded me that this card also qualifies for this week's Way To Use It Challenge - to have a card inspired by a Christmas song.  Thus, this is my Oh Little Town of Bethlehem card :D

I figured since I skipped out using DP on my last two cards I should get back to it, so I flipped through my Costco DP Pack and found this perfect DP!!  Unfortunately, the main image panel covers most of it up, but if you look in the bottom right hand corner you will see a palm tree.  I was almost giddy as it tied in wonderfully with the palm trees and on the stamp and I loved the soft colours.  The card stock I used is not SU colours but close imitations of Cool Caribbean and Blush Blossom.  Will definitely be using this combo again!

The card is pretty straight forward.  I added some bling to the center of the star though it is hard to see in the picture :(   It shines so nicely in real life, but it's dark outside today and with my limited picture taking abilities, it just wouldn't shine for me -- the little stinker!  I made a tab to fill in the white space on the left side of the image, punched a hole, ran some ribbon through it and used some raffia to tie a bow.  A button just didn't work with the image so I added a brad, like the three at the top of the card, to the center of the raffia bow for a little something.  I love this simple little card and will be making a few more to send out as Christmas cards.

Thanks for taking a peek today.  Truly appreciate as I know everyone is very busy at this time of year.  Have a wonderful day and see you soon :D

What's In It?

Stamps:  Elzybells Art Stamps

Paper: Cool Caribbean, Blush Blossom, Costco DP Pack

Ink:  Close to Cocoa

Accessories:  1" and 3/4" circle punches, Slot Punch, Ribbon, Raffia, Brads, Bling, Dimensionals

Mojo Brain Burner

When my "one creative gene" first saw all the circles in this sketch, it ran for the hills and my mind went blank LOL!  However, after taking a few deep breaths and calming down a bit, I laughed when I remembered Amber's comment to Woodwinds on a Verve Sketch challenge that had circles. She told her to: "Embrace the circles. Make them your friend."   So, I took it to heart and immediately realized I had the perfect stamp for this sketch!  Nothing other than my brand new Verve wreath stamp from the release I won - score!! One part down and now on to the rest.

 Keeping in line with my desire to avoid having to make multiple DPs work together, I opted to go with solids.  Boring, I know, but with a busy day ahead one can only do so much, and battling it out with DPs just wasn't high on my to do list today LOL!  Some day, I know DPs and I will be good friends and I will wonder why I ever had "issues" with it, but today just wasn't the day to make friends :D  Can you tell DPs and I have a love/hate relationship LOL!   I love how it looks on cards, but just hate how hard it is to get more than one pattern of DP to work for me on a card.  I am getting better.... slowly....and am living the adage of  "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!"  Think an order of SU DP packs are in my near future as the papers all coordinate so nicely.  Hmm.....think I just came up with a nice birthday gift to myself, especially with Sale-A-Bration coming up and all.  Sorry, I'm rambling!!

Back to the card!  When in doubt of what to do, I tend to fall back on some tried and true colour combinations.  This time round I fell back on a favorite colour combo of mine: black, pink and white.  I succumbed to Swiss Dots yet again, but it fit the sketch so nicely I just had to use it.  Nesties were used for the circles and the D'Vine Swirls embossing folder for the pink panels as it tied in with the swirls in the wreath.  I added hot pink half pearls to the wreath and under the sentiment and then tied it all together with a matching ribbon.  I thought I was all done until I looked at the sketch again and realized the bottom portion of the card had a horizontal panel that needed to be different- ugh!!  I wanted to keep it all white so I tried a few different embossing folders but none worked.  In the end I pulled out my Scor-Pal and made my own by just scoring lines every quarter inch.  So after all my initial stressing out, it really wasn't all that bad a sketch to work with and I'm happy with how the card turned out.  Goes to show you, these sketch challenges are a great way to stretch yourself.

Thanks for "listening" to my ramblings about DP and for stopping by today.  Mercy's sketch is up next.  Have a great day :D






What's In It?
Stamps:  Verve
Paper:  Black, White, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose
Ink: Black, Pixie Pink
Accessories:  Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, D'Vine Swirls Embossing Folder, Circle and Scalloped Circle Nesties, 5/8" Pink Satin Ribbon, Pink Half Pearls, Scor-Pal, 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" circle punches, Dimensionals.

Verve Wedding

This sketch had me thinking for a while as it screamed DP.  However, my "one creative gene" was on strike this morning after a busy weekend decorating the house for Christmas and wanted nothing to do with DPs and having to get them to work together!  Consequently, I opted for white on white -- a bit of a cop out, but much easier on my brain LOL!

I decided to make a medallion to add some zip to the card.  I punched  the first medallion out of white and then added 1/4" on to the  silver layer and punched it out.  Just love the multiple layer effect.  Since I was going for a wedding card, I pulled out SU's Elegant Greetings because I just love the script.  I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark and embossed it with ultra fine embossing powder.   As you can tell, I'm miserably failing my Swiss Dots Anonymous class LOL!  I tried other embossing folders, honest, but this one won out.  The embossed paper was matted on white so it had a "border" and  was then arranged according to the sketch.  The medallion went in the middle and I ran some sheer silver ribbon through it to finish things off.

The best news of the weekend was the return of my camera - yeah!! Canon fixed it for free as it was an issue some of the PowerShots were having.  Gotta love great service!!  Now all I have to do is find a spot in the house where I can take decent pictures at this time of year!  As you can tell, I still haven't found it..  All the more reason to build a photo box over the Christmas break!

That's it for today.  Back tomorrow with the Mojo Monday sketch.  Thanks for stopping in!

What's In It?
Stamps:  Elegant Greetings
Paper:  White, Silver
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories:  Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, SU Scalloped Border Punch, 5/8" sheer silver ribbon, Dimensionals

Cheep Talking Mercy

Another wonderful sketch by Mercy.  Believe it or not the first thing that came to mind was not a butterfly LOL!  The Butterflies Anonymous meetings must be working :D

I decided to use Cheep Talk for this card in celebration of the glorious sunshine outside today!  My card was influenced by Vicki's wonderful card seen here.  I loved the striped paper she used and the white panel.  My DP is from Making Memories and the green stripe in it matched Wild Wasabi perfectly - score!  I succumbed to the Swiss Dots folder for a bit of dimension on the white panel.and added a tiny strip of scalloped Certainly Celery on the left side to tie in with the branch colour.  Some celery ribbon and two brads finished things off.  I forgot to add the sentiment to the image before I matted it (I usually do this because that way if you goof up you only have to redo part of it) and in my haste to get the card done I smudged it - ugh!!  I really didn't want a redo so I rescued it by using my white gel pen to "cover up" some of the smudge.  It's not perfect, but it will do for now LOL!

Have a fabulous day and thanks for sharing a part of your day with me.  I greatly appreciate it :D




What's In It?
Stamps:  Cheap Talk
Paper:  Making Memories, Wild Wasabi, Rose Romance, Certainly Celery
Ink:  Certainly Celery, Pixie Pink, Apricot Appeal
Accessories:  Circle and Scalloped Circle Nesties, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, SU Scalloped Border Punch, 1/4" Celery Grossgrain Ribbon, Brads, Dimensionals

Butterflies and Swiss Dots Anonymous Here I Come...

 

I just love the Mojo sketch this week.  Square cards are so much fun to make I really should make more.  The first thing that popped into my mind was to use a butterfly or several butterflies in the circle.  I apologize in advance as I have been overdoing it on the butterfly front lately!!  I'm blaming it on the torrential downpours we've had over the past three weeks (though today is gloriously sunny - finally!) for my desire to use butterflies as they remind me of sping.  I promise to sign up for a Butterflies Anonymous meeting along with a Swiss Dots Anonymous meeting LOL!  

When I think of butterflies I think of soft colours or bright colours.  In this case, I went to one of my "go to" colour combinations: Rose Romance, So Saffron and Certainly Celery.  Out flew (no pun intended LOL) my Verve Fluttering By set (may have to get a second one as a back up because I'm going to wear this one out!) as well as my Swiss Dots embossing folder (backup folder needed here too LOL!).  I used my scalloped circle and circle nesties and added the butterfly.  The butterfly is actually stamped in Apricot Appeal as the Saffron wasn't quite the right colour.  Some Swiss Dots to pick up the polka dot theme of the butterfly, some bling for the butterfly trail and bows on the sentiment called it a card.

Thanks for keeping me company today :D  Up next, Mercy's sketch..




What's In It?
Stamps:  Fluttering By (Verve), Savvy (Sentiment)
Paper:  So Saffron, Rose Romance, Certainly Celery
Ink:  Apricot Appeal, Chocolate Chip
Accessories:  Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Circle and Scalloped Circle Nesties, Bling, 1/8" Pink Satin Ribbon, Dimensionals