Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas!


Christmas time is a special time of year. I love to bake all kinds of goodies adding that oh so important ingredient, love. While I am baking I reflect on what Christmas really means to me.

With joy I reflect on Christmas past when as a child I saw everything in a different light. And don't we see the that same glimmer of light in our own children's eyes on Christmas day? I dream that in years to come our children will look back on the memories we've made as I do now with the same joy in their hearts.

I pray for peace as I reflect on Christmas present where there is conflict in our nation. I also say a prayer of Thanksgiving that we as a nation have come together as one through our faith in God and each other. Coming together is just the beginning.

As I reflect on Christmas future, I remember its the special things in life that make it mean so much. If we let these precious things go, we lose our hope and love. I hope and pray that no person shall be without the joys, peace, and love that I have come to realize in my life throughout the years.

This Christmas I wish you all love. Love has it's place in everything. So, above all love one another. Enjoy yourselves. These are the good old days you're going to miss in the years ahead. Remember, love is not a matter of counting the years, it's making the years count.

 Hope you have had a Blessed Christmas!

P.S. Check back tomorrow for the instructions on how to make the beautiful ornament above.

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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Let it Snow!

Hello Crafters!
I wanted to make a quick post for you today then I am on to finish all my Christmas preparations.
I chose this card today as we are about to get a major dumping of the white stuff  (4"-8" maybe more) tonight and tomorrow.  Although this is not a new card, it has never before been posted and a good example of a CAS (clean and simple) card. I used SU products most of the way here and have noted the ones that aren't. Here's the supply list:

Cardstock:  going gray, night of navy, bordering blue, whisper white
Ink: bordering blue, (white ink from ?)
Stamps: Lace background (not sure the name of the circle sentiment but it is from SU)
Ribbon: Navy organdy, (& scrap string)
White gel pen (Uniball)
Piercing tool
Scallop punch
Foam tape (3M)

This card is pretty self explanatory so there's no need for explanations.
So, there you have it, a CAS card that probably only took me 10 minutes to make.  This would be a great last minute Christmas card for someone you may have missed.
Thanks for stopping by today.  I plan to have more posts this week so be sure to stop back for a visit. Leave a comment if you like, I would love to hear from you!

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Monday, December 17, 2012

Artistric Inspirations Challenge #20 - Tags

Hello Crafters!
Welcome to another inspiration for the challenge at Artistic Inspirations.  My image is from Eureka called "Snow Church".  Isn't it just beautiful?  I just love the serenity of the scene, don't you?  I started by cutting the image out leaving about 1/8" border around the frame.

I started with Night of Navy cardstock for my base and added a small doily.  There's actually 2 doilies there because the navy cardstock showed through too much with just one layer.  I used my new Spectrum Noir alcohol markers to color my tag.  I used gray(IG1) to highlight the snow following the drawing and the gray (IG4) for the church.  I added a red (CR11) door to make it a little more festive.  I added gray (IG8) for the roof and trim on the steeple.  I made the tiniest little dots of color for the stained glass windows.  I used green (DG3) for the pine needles and brown (GB10) for the trunk and branches.  I dotted the sky with gray (IG1) dots then went over that with my blue (TB9) marker.  I used the blender to lighten the sky so you could see the stars a bit better.  I decided I wanted the stars to stand out a bit more so I went over them with my white gel pen.  I mounted the image on Real Red cardstock and added a small bit of lace at the bottom.  I popped that up on top of the doily on the right side.
I went fishing in my button bin and found the buttons I needed for the bottom left of the tag (some of these are popped up a bit on one side due to the image itself being popped up.
 I threaded a length of red organdy and blue polka dot ribbon and a piece of lace through a hole I punched in the top of the tag.  I decided I needed a little "sparkle" so I also added a little bit of silver string with the ribbon then tied it off at the top with another piece of silver string and topped it with the a clear button I found on my previous fishing trip and tied that in a knot.  After that I just couldn't let the upper right hand corner be left unattended so I added some bling.  This image just spoke "Silent Night" to me so added the sentiment in my own handwriting and layered it on Real Red cardstock.
Before adding the ribbons I sprayed the whole card with Champagne Mist to give it just a little shimmer.

When I started this project I had no idea what direction I was going.  Sometimes you just have to fiddle along and hope for the best.  I'm happy with the result this time.
Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget to stop by Artistic Inspirations to join up in the challenge we have over there!

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Sunday, December 16, 2012

Eclectic Ellapu challenge #10 - Anything Goes

Hello Crafters!
It's time for another challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu.  We have both teams serving up this week for your viewing pleasure.  We sure hope you will join in the challenge as well.

For my project, I wanted to show you something that was quick and easy.  If you are like me then the days are going by much to quickly to work on lengthy projects, or at least not too many of them.

I started with a chipboard coaster and glued (wet glue) blue cardstock to both sides.  I tore two layers of white cardstock to represent snow & glued them in place.  While waiting for the glue to dry, I punched the shapes for the penguin and glued them down. The body is a 1-3/4" circle with a small bit cut off the bottom, the wings are the smallest SU oval punch tucked under the body and the white chest (ink the edges) is the largest oval punch cut to match the body.  The eyes are the 1/2" and 1/4" circle punches.  The beak is from a piece of orange scrap. I tied a knot in 1/4" ribbon for the bow tie and punched 1/8" circles for buttons.  I used SU Boho flower punch (smallest) for the feet (tuck up under the body so only 3 petals show).  Rinse and repeat if you want a bunch of these for gifts/ornaments/tags. When the glue is dry ink the edges.  I punched holes in the top of the coaster for ribbon, threaded the ribbon through and tied a knot to the front.  I wanted to do this before I added the Ranger crackle glue on top so I could seal the knots. Let dry for a few hours.  I just love the shimmer this glue adds to this project.  I also added a little crackle glue to the sides of the coaster to seal the edges.
Thanks for stopping by today and joining our challenge at Eclectic Ellapu.

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Saturday, December 15, 2012

SYS Saturday

Hello Crafters!
I have another Stir Your Stash Saturday for you.  First here's the sketch.
I can't seem to stop using the doilies I found in my stash a little while back.
I started with a swirl background in Going Gray ink on Whisper White cardstock trimmed to 4-1/8" x 5-3/8".  The edges are inked in Going Gray also.  I found this beautiful shimmery charcoal gray cardstock from Core'dinations to use for the backing of the card and ran a small piece through the Big Shot with a dotted folder.  I sanded the raised dots to distress it a bit.  The bow is some organdy ribbon I had in my humungous stash of ribbon (some day I'll have to show it to you!) which I wrapped around the whole card front.  The doily was a white one I inked with Baroque Burgandy using my brayer.  Isn't it cool how you still see a little white?  This was just glued down to the card on the left over the bow.  I punched a 2" circle, inked the edges in going gray and stamped the ornament (from SU's new ornament set).  This is popped up in the center of the doily.  I added a little stickles to the top & middle of the ornament, around the the doily and 3 dots on the upper right portion of the Core'dinations cardstock.  Quickly I added some Martha Stewart glitter to make it show up a little better.  Pretty simple card really and it went pretty fast.
Thanks for visiting today.  Be sure to stop back for my challenge posts for Eclectic Ellapu and Artistic Inspirations this week.  Have a great weekend!

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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Artistic Inspirations Challenge #19 - Christmas Colors

Hello Crafters!
I am happy to announce to you that I have been excepted as a Design Team Member for Artistic Inspirations Challenge Blog.  We will be doing a lot of "anything goes" challenges and there will be plenty of themes to follow.  Our challenges will run weekly with Team A & Team B alternating.  This is a sister blog to ATC's with Attitude and Fat Pages with Attitude.  They are all great blogs.  ATC's are artistic trading cards and Fat Pages are 4x4 cards (just in case you didn't know).  I've been playing with this 4x4 size card and they can really be fun.  I hope you will check these blogs out and leave a comment for the DT.
 Anyway, here's my first project.
 The first thing I did was paint my paper mache box with the acrylic paint, outside, bottom and lid only.  Once dry I used Ranger 1 step crackle finish (clear).  After letting that dry for a few hours I heated it slightly to increase the cracking a bit (be really careful with that part or the glue will bubble up).  To age the box I went over all the cracks with brown ink then wiped off the excess.  The ink stays in the cracks and creates this subtle aged look.  I wanted to highlight the raised border on the sides so I brushed lightly with a gold leaf paint and it actually made the cracks stand out even more.  Unexpected joy.
The image I used for the box lid is "Beautiful Bow" from Robyn's Fetish, one of our sponsors this week at AI.  I haven't gotten my Spectrum Noir markers yet (Christmas from my hubby) so I used my good colored pencils and a blender pencil to color in the image.  I colored 2 of them for the layers but just did a flat coloring job on the underneath image since you don't see much of it anyway.  I sponged lightly with the brown ink to age this also and disguise my not so perfect cutting job (top image only).  I added the doily to the lid with Tombow liquid glue and smoothed it out with my fingers gluing down any loose edges I found.  I recommend you don't over do it with the glue in this stage as the doily is thin and the paint may show through.  Sponging the doily with a little brown ink toned down the bright white and helped camouflage the glued areas.  The shimmer you see is from my favorite Stampin' Up Champagne Mist paint.  I actually brushed it on this time because I wanted a little more color.  That took a few minutes to dry then I popped up both of the images and added clear lacquer from Hobby Craft.  Quickly I then added the red bling dots for the berries so the lacquer would hold them in place.  Use a pin to pop any bubbles.  Let dry overnight. Note: don't get anxious and touch the surface of the lacquer too soon!  I had to re-lacquer a couple spots twice because of my impatience.  God was giving me a lesson here!
 I just didn't have enough bling to satisfy myself so I put some large red bling dots around the perimeter of the lid and on the top corners with some very sticky glue dots.  I suppose, given more time, I could add some more lacquer just to make sure but they are holding on very well for now just the way they are.
 Well, there you go.  Be sure to stop over at Artistic Inspirations and check out the rest of the DT's projects and enter our challenge.  We would love to have you join us.

Challenges I entered:
No Matter Which Challenges-#5 ends 12/16


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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Christmas Card #3

Hello Crafers!
Well, here's my card I told you about yesterday.
Although I don't usually do simple cards, I do like the way this one turned out. I found this dove in the ornament section of Wal-mart last year.  I thought I only had one package but feel fortunate to have found another one.  So I will be making 24 of these.  I didn't get a close up of the sparkly paper yet but I will soon.  I popped up the dove to give the card a little more dimension and added a bow and a bling dot for the eye.  The background stamp is from the Keepsakes Ornament set from Stampin Up.  The little snowflake is from another acrylic set (don't remember which one at the moment).  I didn't add my Champagne Mist spray to this card because I wanted the dove to stand on it's own.  That's it.
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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Christmas card #2

Hello Crafers!
I made this card using my newest set from Stampin Up.  This is such a beautiful set.  My previous post was made with the die-cuts that match this set.  There are so many possibilities!  I am still undecided which card will be my main Christmas card this year.  Although this is a nice card I've rejected it for mass production because there's just too many layers.
I really want to make something that has fewer layers and has a focal point that pops.  Unfortunately,  this monochromatic card just isn't doing it for me.  I probably should have used red ribbon. I think I have it figured out with the card that I will post tomorrow.  I'm short on the embellishment so I can only make 10 of them.  Kind of a bummer.  So, I'll fiddle around a little more and see what else I can come up with.  I will be using the same great charcoal glitter card stock from Core'dinations though.  I wish you could see how beautiful the glittery card stock is.  I'll try to get a close-up with tomorrow's post.

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Monday, December 3, 2012

Snowflake (?) Ornament, Ecelctic Challenge #8

Hello Crafters!
Again, I could not decide on my project for the challenge at Eclectic Ellapu so I made two projects.  Yesterday I posted the Christmas Cracker treat holder.  Today I have the snowflake ornament.  Or, at least it was supposed to look like a snowflake.  Not sure I accomplished that.  However, I am happy with the way the "ornament" turned out.  Take a peek:
I used the new ornament die-cut set and some Christmas DSP from Stampin' Up to make this project along with some tulle and ribbon  from the fabric store.  I also used a Christmas embellishment from K & Company for the center.  I didn't care much for the starburst in the middle of the embellishment so I added a snowflake bead.  I then sprayed with Champagne Mist.  I'm not sure if there are any "official" instructions out there to make this ornament but, I did get some from my demonstrator.  So, I fumbled through it and learned a few things along the way.  I have now made 3 of these ornaments in different colors/prints, etc. and have plans to make a few more.

The ornament I made in class is below.  I actually made it at home after the class and added several of my own elements to fluff it up a bit.
I'm not sure I like the lace in the back now that I'm looking at it but I know the person that receives this will.  I added glitter glue on the blue & the white ornament pieces, a doily behind the snowflake (which I turned glitter side out), a paper flower to the center, glitter paper behind the button and some glittery string through the button.  Of course I had to spray with my favoritest Champagne Mist spray form Stampin' Up too.  Big thanks to Suzie Wood for the class and the instructions!  I have one more that I'm still fiddling with that I will most likely post later this week.

Well, I hope you will play along with our challenge at Eclectic Ellapu.  We would love to have you join us.



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Sunday, December 2, 2012

Eclectic Ellapu Week #8 - Santa Paws & Snowflakes

Wow!  Can you believe it's December already?!  The weeks have gone by so fast. The Eclectic's have been going strong for 8 weeks now.  Whoo!  Hoo! The Purple Team is on again this week and there are some really great project inspirations over there for you from the DT.  Stop by the Eclectic Ellapu blog to check them out then get your groove on and upload your project there using Ms. Linky.  As usual, the challenge is one week.  You better get started.

Here's my first project this week.

I saw the idea for this project on another blog (I can't find it again but, will keep looking) and had to make one for myself.  I had to change up a few things though.
Instead of using tissue paper (the kind for wrapping gifts) I found this cute kleenex tissue package in the dollar isle at Target.  It was so perfect for this project. Anyway, I started by using score tape on each end of the tube about 3/4' down.  Then I took the tissue (using one on each end) and folded it in half gluing the bottom raw edges together.  Before taking the backing off of the score tape, measure around the tube with the tissue and trim so it overlaps at least 1/4".  Glue tissue to tube; gather and tie with coordinating string (cut the fringe longer if needed before completing the knot).  Don't forget to fill with treats before you tie the second end.  Gently fluff the fringed ends.
Cut a piece of coordinating card stock or designer paper large enough to go around the tube with a 1/4" overlap and wide enough to come within 3/4" of each end of the wrapped tube.  Roll the card stock/designer paper in your hands so it will wrap around the tube easier then glue into place making sure all seams are at the back.
I was fortunate enough to have this coordinating polka-dot ribbon in my stash so I used it to cover the ends of the card stock just like the original designer.  This works also to help even up the ends of the printed tissue that are showing.  Again the ends are at the back.  Next I added the sticky foam snowflake I had in my stash from Hobby Lobby to the front and a few bling dots.  I punched one more little blue snowflake and added one more bling to the center of  the snowflake for good measure.
After all that, I added some Champagne Mist spray for a little sparkle being careful not to get the tissue too wet.  You could also add some ribbon where the tissue is tied off with the string but it doesn't really need it.  A cute tag would look nice though to identify who you intend to give it to.
The best thing is that these are so fast to make (& cute too) you could fill a basket with these in a weekend.  Wouldn't this be a great gift for those on your Christmas list that you just want to give a "little something" to.  Go ahead, give it a try.  Warning: this project is additctive!



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