Thankful Sails...FS99

Here's another Thank You card I made. I want to send this one to my dad in Georgia. He loves sailboats :O) I hope it travels well... :

The inspiration came from the SCS Featured Stamper, Barb...or "Stampfilled Dreams". She has an amazing gallery and I selected her "Easter Wishes" card to CASE. This is what I came up with.

This is my second try at CASEing this card. It was tough for me :O) I finally figured out how to make the edge of each corner that's pulled back, not look pinched. I used a little dab of hot glue :O) It had just enough cushion and cooled fast enough that I didn't have to sit there for 30 minutes waiting for it to dry!

It's hard to tell from the photo, but there are three separate pieces of DSP. I cut a rectangle in the top sheet, cut an "X" on the sheet beneath it (just past the corners of the rectangle I cut), rounded the corners created from the "X", and used a fat pen to curl each corner a little bit so that it would fold back without any creases. Does that make sense?? I hope so :]

Oh, and how adorable is this anchor? I used a Martha Stewart punch I recently purchased. I love it! All supplies are listed in my SCS gallery.

Okay, off to beddy-bye for me! I have to get up before 5 :( Have a great night and a SAFE New Year celebration!!

Inspired By Thanks...

Is that even a proper title? Who knows? :O) This is my first of many thank you cards that I need to finish! I used a sketch that Taylor VanBruggen posted weeks ago (TECC45). It has been on my mind ever since I first tried it, and failed miserably :] My husband bought me some Fun Flock for Christmas that I've only envisioned on flower petals since I added it to my wishlist...so, I thought I would play with it tonight. I think I had more trouble using the glue pad than the fun flock! Don't ask...I don't read instructions sometimes :O)

Here's my attempt at a close up to show you the velvety texture. LOL...I know you can't tell the difference in this photo. If you're new to my blog, I'll just say I'm not the greatest photographer!

The ovals were cut using my Creative Memories cutting system, and I scalloped the white oval using my SU! corner rounder. I don't know what it is, but every size oval that I've scalloped this way has turned out perfectly! That doesn't always happen with circles for me...wonder why. The crushed velvet brads and the fun flock are from Doodlebug. All of my supplies are listed in my SCS gallery.

Thanks for checking in :] Hope you are getting back to normal or getting ready to (after New Years). Have a great week!

Baby Boy Joy - TECC48

Okay, so I went back to the drawing board after creating a baby girl card yesterday for my friend who gave birth to a baby boy! I got it straight today. While this card isn't all boy, it's definitely gender neutral in my book :O)

I used Taylor VanBruggen's Sketch (TECC48) for my layout. After stamping the image in SU! Wild Wasabi, I embossed it. I cut the oval window using my Creative Memories cutting system and embossed the "frame" with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. I stamped the sentiment in SU! Groovy Guava, embossed the entire tag with clear embossing powder, poured Dazzling Diamonds on while the embossing powder was still hot, and heat-set it again. I tied the buttons together using the narrow, white ribbon and used my glue gun to adhere them. The cute designer paper is from Michaels. I picked up a 6x6 stack for under $3! What a great find :O)

My supplies are listed in my SCS gallery.

So...my loooooong weekend is drawing to a close :( BUT, I have a short week ahead of me so I'm already getting excited about that! Hope you found time to relax and create this weekend.

Bundle of Joy

Okay...so here's my story. I created this card today after I saw Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketch #17. I went with a baby card because my friend back home just delivered her fourth child. The problem is that I created a primarily female card for a baby boy! What in the world was I thinking?? In my defense, my friend gave birth to three girls before finally having a boy. Maybe I was thinking of her other girls, I don't know :O) Oh well...I'm sure this will be put to good use before I know it. In the meantime, I'm going back to the drawing board to create a card for a baby boy...

Oh, and a quick note about the photo. For some reason I have the hardest time picking up Pink Pirouette in my photos. I think I'm going to start using Pretty in Pink or something even a little darker. The card is much prettier in person. I would have kept shooting photos, BUT after about 30, I figured it was me and there was no winning this game! LOL

My supplies are listed in my SCS gallery.

Have a great remainder of your weekend!

Homemade Gourmet Pretzels

It's hard to believe Christmas is over and we're on the home stretch to start 2009! Normally at Christmas time, like many people I know, I like to make homemade goodies for people I hold near and dear. Especially co-workers and neighbors. Rarely do I send them home to Michigan or Ohio, but this year I decided to.

I made several desserts, but in this post I'm going to focus on the pretzels since they were the easiest to make! I basically melted Semi-Sweet Baker's chocolate, Nestle Chocolate Chips and paraffin wax in the microwave (I know...this is the lazy chef's way of melting chocolate :O). I dipped the pretzels in the chocolate and let the excess run off. I put out four small plates of crushed pecans, candy canes, Heath Bar toffee, and coconut. After the excess chocolate ran off, I rolled the pretzel in a topping - alternating with each one. When I was finished, I had a variety of homemade, gourmet pretzels!

A few weeks ago I found some really cute gift boxes on sale at Target. I picked them up knowing that I would probably find a use for them at Christmas. And wouldn't you know...I found uses for all of them! Especially the round gift box that matched the rectangle box filled with matching notecards. I decided these would go to my husband's sister and her family. I figure we can all use cute notecards in a pinch, and thought it would be nice to put homemade goodies in the round box.

I created an internal shelf of sorts for the round box to put the cookies and buckeyes on. The box would have dwarfed the goodies otherwise. Unfortunately, my homemade, gourmet pretzels didn't fit the diameter of the box, sooooo, I had to create a special box (shown above with ribbon) for them :O) Darn the luck...right? Hee hee

The box I created was very simple. I used the Papertrey Ink stamp set, Floral Frenzy to create the patterned paper for the lid. I think these flowers are almost a perfect match to the box...don't you? I stamped the daisies and centers in Soft Sky, Purely Pomegranate, and Chocolate Chip.

I used Papertrey Ink Kraft paper for the base because it's my heaviest cardstock by far! I cut both the patterned paper and the Kraft paper 7" x 11" and scored on all sides 1.5" from the edge. I cut each 1.5" score line on the left and right side of the paper (top and bottom) in order to turn the tabs in and form the box. Before I did that, I traced one of my large rectangle Nestabilities on the plain side of the white paper and cut it out to create a window.

Next, I adhered a piece of transparency to the inside of the lid. I used red adhesive tape to secure the box and lids' sides.

I placed four different pretzels on top of wax paper in the bottom of the box, topped with a piece of transparency and added another layer of four pretzels. Notice I also used a small circle punch to cut half circles on each side of the lid to make it easier to remove.

All done...after tying some satin Purely Pomegranate ribbon around the box. I think it turned out really cute :O) I hope they like it.







Hope you all had a spectacular Christmas! I hope to get my craft room organized this weekend...wish me luck :O)

Two More Awards! ...and my addictions :O)

Wow!!! Two more awards! I'm so blessed to have such great blog friends :O) I really enjoy blogging, though I don't commit enough time to it, and I especially LOVE perusing other blogs. They are totally amazing to me with the creative layouts, the verbiage, the amazing creations...the list goes on and on. That's why I'm stunned that my simple little blog would win an award...much less THREE! I know, some people have so many awards they lose track, but I have THREE and am nowhere close to losing track! So it's extra special :O) LOL

HUGE thank you to Anjas-Artefaktotum for presenting me with her "I Love Stamps Award" (yes I do LOVE stamps :O)

And another HUGE thank you to Keri Brown for presenting me with the "Your Blog Is Fabulous Award"


This award requires me to list five things I'm addicted to. Addictions? No problem :O)

1 - Quad Grande Skinny Vanilla Latte (Starbucks)

OR

Double Moose It! Northern Lite Vanilla Latte (Caribou Coffee...YUM)

2 - Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm --- seriously...it IS the best ever made :O) ...and I can't go for more than ten minutes or so without re-applying

3 - My Craft Room --- it's a complete disaster right now, but I know where everything is and I can't stay away (note there isn't a link or a picture...my husband would kill me :O)

4 - Splitcoaststampers and my blog --- I cannot get off this computer some nights

5 - Dark Chocolate with a glass of the Sixth Sense Syrah...heaven on earth :O)

Okay, now to nominate five worthy bloggers for this award...there are soooo many, but I will go with the following:

1 - Silke - Silli

2 - Heather - Heather's Heavinly Stampations

3 - Helena - Creating a Likeness

4 - Alicia - Happy Stampin!

5 - Dawn - Treasure Oiler Designz

Trust me when I tell you these blogs are fantastic! Each lady has such a unique style...it's well worth your time :O)

The weekend is almost here! Woohoo! Hope you have a long weekend like me :O)

Birthday Sails...

So, has anyone noticed the significant difference in the quality of my last two photos compared to all of the previous ones?! After all of my complaining about being a bad camera-woman, I think I found that I either don't know how to set my (brand new) camera correctly for my needs, or my camera is just not as good as my daughter's! I used her camera for the last two photos, and besides the shadow at the bottom and the glare, I think the quality is 10 times better! Finally...who knew I just needed to steal Tia's camera :O)

I stamped the sailboat on Whisper White in Black Staz-On, colored the boat with SU! markers, then used a VersaMark Marker over the sails and the boat. I poured clear embossing powder over the VersaMark ink and heat set it (note the glare in my picture :O). Once it cooled, I brayered Baja Breeze followed by Pacific Point for the background.

**Please note, that it's important to carefully wipe the embossed image after brayering to prevent smudging on the areas that are not embossed. Yes, I know from experience (gained last night :O). Look closely and you'll see what I mean...and tried to cover up! LOL

All supplies are listed in my SCS gallery.

Kreativ Bloggers...

You may have noticed that I didn't select six bloggers to pass the Kreativ Blogger award to that Heather was so sweet to award to me last week :O) It truly wasn't an oversight, I just had a busy week and semi-busy weekend.

Here are the six bloggers I selected...they are ALL truly amazing and unique in their styles, and they never fail to inspire me :O) Congratulations ladies!

Alicia Weiman - Happy Stampin!

Anjas-Artefaktotum - Anjas Artefaktotum

Chrissy - Kartentraum

Keri Brown - Got Stamps?

Silke K - Silli

Tiffany Johnson - iheartart

If you're interested in translating Anjas, Chrissy, and Silke's pages, Yahoo! Babel Fish works like a charm :O)

Stop by these talented ladies' blogs when you have a chance...you won't be sorry!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week.

TECC46 and CTD23

Yep...another birthday card :O) That being said, I should probably mentioned that I just finished yet another birthday card tonight! I can't escape them!! LOL

I used Taylor VanBruggen's sketch (TECC46) for this card and my colors are straight from The Color Throwdown Challenge (CTD23). Quick note on the colors...I stippled the background using Pink Pirouette and Old Olive on Very Vanilla paper...who knew it would end up looking yellow? Probably everyone but me :O) So...in my defense, I used the approved colors from the palette, they just didn't shine through the way I had hoped!

Hope your week is going well! Me...I think I've been suffering from food poisoning for the past 24 hours...that or I'm fighting a virus. Can't tell, but it hasn't hindered my stamping so all is good :O)

All supplies are listed in my SCS Gallery (whenever they decide to post my card :O)

mytimess15...

Okay, just a quick post tonight! I created this card for Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketch challenge (#15). I actually created a different card last night, but I didn't like it when all was said and done and the photo was not worthy of posting. So, after I uploaded to SCS and was waiting for my image to be approved, I decided to delete it. I'll share it at the bottom of this post to show you what I'm talking about.

I gave the sketch another stab today and I like this card a little better, but I have to say, my mo-jo is seriously M.I.A.... I think I lost it on my way to Texas this week :O)

The only stamping on this card are the snowflakes w/Versamark on the turquoise paper. I embossed with clear powder, added Dazzling Diamonds while the powder was still hot and reset with the heating tool. The large snowflake was cut with a Sizzix die using velvet "Tomato" colored paper (the 1" strip at the bottom is from the same paper). I used a Making Memories rub-on, glittery sentiment directly on the velvet (who knew it would take so well? :O)

Oh, and speaking of waiting for my image to be approved on SCS...I uploaded this card over six hours ago and it's still not approved. Anyone have a clue as to why? Maybe I'm not commenting enough on the site. I don't know :[ Oh well.

Hope you all had a fantastic week and even better weekend! I'm off to look for my mo-jo.

My First Award...

I didn't have any time to create this weekend due to my daughter's demanding schedule and my role as Mom-Taxi :O) When I got home this evening, I went to my stamp room and started fumbling through my stuff only to find that I was not inspired in the least. I think I'm just tired...I need to get back in the groove :]

So, in lieu of a card, I am delighted to share this blogging award that my friend, Heather honored me with. She is the sweetest blogger I know through posts and e-mails :O) LOL. She's a faithful visitor to my blog which I appreciate so much. She's also very creative and isn't afraid to experiment with colors which I admire. Her spunky, informative posts always manage to inspire me :O) Thank you, Heather!

I'm off to San Antonio Wednesday through Friday, so I likely won't have time to do much this week :( Hopefully after Tia's gymnastics meet on Saturday, I'll find some time. Have a great week!

Memorable Thanks...

Yep...another thank you card :O) I wish I were this determined to finish my Christmas cards. Still have no idea what my mass production will be. Maybe I'll just give all of the individual cards I've made to my family and friends. I probably have enough! LOL

So, this card is my take on the Color Throwdown challenge. I was inspired two-fold. The layout is from Taylor VanBruggens Friday sketch last week (I'm not eligible for the challenge, so I basically just stole the layout :O)...but the inspiration came straight from Dawn Easton's card that she made for the challenge. She's super talented and a HUGE inspiration for me. The second inspiration came from this card that Silli made recently. She is my papercrafting-idol :O) LOL. Seriously, I hit her blog first and foremost every time I'm on the computer. I love EVERYTHING she makes! She's fabulous!!

I almost ruined the entire card trying to add the eyelet. I think I need a much bigger setting tool : I smushed it down far enough to tape that layer to my card, but I crinkled the paper in the process (oops!). Oh, and for the sparkle, I just pressed my squares to the VersaMark pad, poured clear embossing powder over them, heat set it, and added Dazzling Diamonds while the powder was still hot and reheat it.

All supplies are listed in my SCS Gallery. Everything is Stampin' Up! except for the brad in the middle.

Ahh, the weekend is almost here...then we're off to Pennsylvania on Saturday for Tia's gymnastics meet. Hope you had a wonderful week and enjoy a nice, relaxing weekend.

My Other Craft...

Some of you know that card-making is a primary, yet not a sole hobby of mine. One of my other passions is making jewelry. I've gotten away from it over the past few months with this paper-crafting spree I've been on, but the itch is coming back. Probably due to the holiday season.

I can whip up a pair of cute earrings in ten minutes, so they make quick, easy gifts. Add a necklace and tack on another 20 minutes or so...depending on how ornate it is. This necklace took longer than 20 minutes to make because of all the different beads and the length, but I love the end result. I actually made this a while ago for one of my sisters. I never sent it (shame on me) so I thought I would share before shipping it off this year! I'm planning to make some more jewelry in the very near future for Christmas gifts...so stay tuned! Hopefully by then I'll have a better method of photographing my creations :] ...and possibly some cute, handmade boxes to store them in!

...and Another Quick Birthday Card

What's with the birthdays?? :O) LOL...there have been a ton recently! This card is for a young lady who worked for me at the job I just left (I moved to a different position).

I colored some of the flowers on the Upsy Daisy stamp with markers, huffed and stamped. I cut the image and background accent with my Spellbinders Scalloped and Rectangle Nestabilities. The pink background was embossed using my Cuttlebug Swirls Folder. I used markers to color the sentiment, cut the image using my Word Window Punch, and tied it to the satin ribbon with hemp twine.

My apologies for the horrible picture! I really need lessons :] For some reason I could NOT evade that shadow!!

A complete list of supplies can be found in my SCS Gallery. Hope your week started off on a positive note :]