It's a work in progress...

Hey guys! I thought I would pop on here real quick and let you know what's been going on here. Well, last week my wonderful husband built me a fantastic L-shaped desk for scrapbooking downstairs in the basement. For the last two years, I've been using my kitchen table and cleaning up my mess everyday. This way I would be able to have all my supplies out all the time. I was so excited!!! I brought ALL my papers, supplies, and tools downstairs as soon as he said I could. I used my new space for about two days and then that same wonderful husband decided he wanted to finish the lighting and the trim that's been neglected for the past 5 years (not even kidding). So, the picture above is what my scrapbooking area looks like right now. All of my scrapping items are on the table in the lower left corner of the picture covered with a sheet. So far the lights are up and tomorrow my hubby will be getting some help with the trim and other touches. I hope to be back in business soon. Wish me luck!!!

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OCC - Food & Drink

Hello! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday!!! As promised, I'm back today with the last Our Creative Corner challenge of the year. This week, Jenny Gropp challenged us to make a card with the theme of food & drink. This little martini glass is literally the only food/drink stamp I own. It does lend itself very well to a Happy New Year card. The papers for this card came from a kit from Paper Maniac called Black and White with Color Pop.
I colored my martini glass with an aqua painter and some blue and green ink. It's pretty subtle and hard to see in the photo. I'm planning on putting a "Happy New Year" sentiment on the inside.

Head on over to Our Creative Corner and see what the rest of the Design Team has come up with using the theme food and drink. I hope you get a chance to play along with us! Have a great day everyone!!!

{Two Olive Martini Card}

Stamps: Martini Glass (Dog Gone Stamps)
Card Stock: Kraft (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Black and White w/ Color Pop Kit (Paper Maniac)
Ink: Jet Black (Stazon)
Accessories: Foam Dimensionals, Parakeet Brads (Bazzill), Circle Punch (Paper Shapers), Coluzzle, Green Ribbon (Offray), Edge Distresser (Heidi Swapp), Aqua Painter

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Our Holiday Card...

Hi there! I thought I would share my holiday card with you today since I think everyone has received theirs already. This card is simply a variation of this card that I made last month. I bought the Papertrey Ink set Signature Christmas specifically for this card. This card looks clean and simple, but when you are making 75 it's very time consuming. I would not recommend making a card that requires 3 die cuts per card (225 times through the cuttlebug). Not to forget the 225 snowflakes to punch and 225 cuts of floss.
I started by cutting/punching and gathering all my supplies. I made these in batches of 20 or so. This is what I did while watching football on Sundays the last 4 weeks. The ornaments are from the Labels 9 Nestie. I taped (scotch tape) the floss to the ornament and then adhered the ornament to the card with a foam dimensional. I put on the snowflakes using a dot of glue and then I applied the rhinestones.
Here's how the inside looks. I applied a line of snail adhesive then stuck the floss on the glue making sure the floss was straight on the front of the card. I then put a piece of scotch tape over everything so the card wouldn't stick together.

Blog Update: I will most likely be a little sporadic in posting over the next week. My husband will be on vacation so we'll be doing a lot of family stuff :) On another note, my "studio" moved downstairs with an actual desk where I can keep all my stuff out all the time. I asked for a bunch of organizational items for Christmas, so I may be spending some time organizing as well. I hope to have pictures of my new "studio" once we get some shelves up and the lighting figured out.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday!!! I'll definitely see you on Saturday for the next challenge from Our Creative Corner.

{Happy Holidays}

Stamps: Signature Christmas (Papertrey Ink)
Card Stock: Kraft, Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink), Cream
Ink: Vintage Cream (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Snowflake Punch (Martha Stewart), Labels 9 Nesties (Spellbinders), Red Rhinestones (Kaiser Craft), Foam Dimensionals, Red Floss, Scotch Tape

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Some cute cards we've received...

I thought I would share a couple of really cute handmade cards we've received this year. This first one was made by my talented SIL Carrie. She made these adorable snow-globe cards that have a picture of her kids (my nieces and nephew) as the main attraction. On the back she included this sentiment: "The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree; the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other". So cute and goes so well with the picture. I love all the glitter and sparkles, the picture doesn't do it justice.

This next card was sent to us from Patti Olson, the owner of Paper Maniac. I just love all the elements she used. She is very good at sewing on cards and all her lines are perfectly straight. Maybe she can give me a lesson! You can find all the details on her card by clicking here.

Have a great day everyone!!!

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Noel Gift Card Holders...

Hello! I have so many things I should be doing right now, but I am still in need of a few more gift card holders. I made these this morning and they have a sort of vintage feel using papers from Graphic 45, Christmas Past. These cards are just slightly larger than a gift card at 4.25" x 2.75". The card base is kraft, though you cannot see it. I love how the gold ribbon and embossing adds a touch of holiday flair. I almost forgot to mention that these card use a flipped Mojo Monday sketch.

Hope you are having a productive day. I'm crossing things off my to-do list as I type this. I just got all my Christmas cards sent out and hope to share those with you later this week. Have a great day!!!

{Noel Gift Card Holders}

Stamps: Signature Christmas (Papertrey Ink)
Card Stock: Close to Cocoa (SU), Kraft (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Christmas Past Paper Pad (Graphic 45)
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: Gold Embossing Powder (SU), Gold Ribbon (Offray), Foam Dimensionals, Curly Label Punch (SU)

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OCC Challenge - Let it Snow!!!

Good Morning! I'm here bright and early with another challenge from Our Creative Corner. This week the theme is "Let it Snow" and we incorporating snow and snowflakes into out cards. My card incorporated both, using green snowflakes to create a Christmas tree and I used white vellum to create a snowy ground. I tore the vellum to leave a jagged edge and then folded the vellum around to the underside of the card to adhere it. This way you don't see any glue through the vellum. I took some stickles and traced the jagged edges to give a more snowy effect.

The star on my tree also comes from the snowflake punch. I just tore off some of the snowflake "arms". I love how the clear rhinestones look like ornaments.
I hope you have a great weekend and get everything crossed off your to-do list. I know mine is rather daunting. Now, head on over to Our Creative Corner and check out what the rest of the design team created using snow and snowflakes. I hope you get the opportunity to play along.

{Christmas Blessings}

Stamps: Signature Christmas (Papertrey Ink)
Card Stock: Kraft, Ripe Avocado, Summer Sunrise, Dark Chocolate (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Fresh Snow (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Snowflake Punch (Martha Stewart), Yellow Pearl (Kaiser Craft), Clear Rhinestones (Bazzill), Vellum (The Paper Studio), Frosted Lace Stickles (Ranger), White Gel Pen (Sakura)

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Baby Boy Joy...

Hello! I have quite a few friends that are pregnant with boys right now, so I know I'll be needing a few little boy cards in the near future. I started off with the Stamps & Smiles Sketch Challenge and as soon as I saw the wide band across the top, I grabbed my twill tape. I love how this looks layered with the light blue ribbon. The word "joy" actually comes from Papertrey's Signature Christmas set. The word "baby" was spelled out using Papertrey's Fresh Alphabet set.

Here's a close-up of the bow and sentiment panel. Have a great day!

{Baby Boy Joy}

Stamps: Fresh Alphabet, Signature Christmas (Papertrey Ink)
Card Stock: Enchanted Evening, Spring Rain (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Not Quite Navy (SU)
Accessories: Light Blue Ribbon (Offray), Silver Pearls (Michaels), Labels 9 Nesties (Spellbinders), Natural Twill Tape (SU), Swiss Dots Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug)

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Paper Maniac Wednesday - How to display your holiday cards

Hello! It's Paper Maniac Wednesday here on my blog and I have a quick and easy project to share with you. Every year I want to display the holiday cards we receive, but I've never really found a way I liked. We used to have a wreath that held all the cards, but you could only see the cards in the front. Last year I hung a string and folded the cards over the string, but that only worked well for cards that opened from the bottom. I wanted a way to display every kind of card, especially those photo cards that are so popular. Anyway, here's what I came up with.I bought a 50 pack of wooden clothes pins at Wal-mart for about $2. I covered the clothes pin fronts with some scrap patterned paper (I used Imaginsce's Polar Expressions) using Tombow Mono Aqua Liquid Glue. Once it was dried, I used an x-acto knife to trim around the edges. I also quickly sanded the edges. (At this point, you could really make these clothes pins fancy. I knew mine would be up sorta high, so I didn't want to spend much time on details no one was really going to see). If you were going to add some details, I think these buttons and these snowflakes would look great.
I took a long piece of twine and tied it from one curtain finial to the other leaving some slack. You could really use any kind of string or even ribbon that was strong enough to hold all your cards.
Now you are ready to hang all of those holiday cards. You can space them out however you like. If I run out of room (fingers crossed I do!), I have a valance in our kitchen where I can put another line of twine.
I hope you enjoyed today's project. Make sure you check out the Paper Maniac Store for lots of holiday sales. While you're there, sign up for the newsletter to receive an additional 15% off your order.

{Clothes Line Card Display}

Patterned Paper: Polar Expressions (Imaginisce)
Accessories: Mono Aqua Liquid Glue (Tombow), Clothes Pins, Twine

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Thanks card...

Hi there! I had such a hard time fitting in some creative time today. We have so much going on between now and the new year. Anyway, I'm glad I was a able to play around a little. I made this card for Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Challenge #20. The colors were kraft, chocolate, cream, aqua, and rust. I love making these little flowers when I need to use a bunch of colors on a card, although most of the colors are neutrals.
This card is a tad bit smaller than an A2 card. After I adhered the kraft top note panel, I trimmed the edges so there was not a lot of border. Make sense? Thanks so much for stopping by today. I have a fun little post for you tomorrow that I'm really excited to share. See you then!

{Thanks}

Stamps: Thank You Kindly (SU), Text Style (Papertrey Ink)
Card Stock: Chocolate Chip, Really Rust (SU), Kraft, Aqua Mist (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Chocolate Chip (SU)
Accessories: Foam Dimensionals, Glue Dots, Top Note Sizzix Die (SU), Birds & Blooms Sizzix Dies (SU), Natural Twill Tape (SU), Geneva Brads (Bazzill)

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Season's Greetings Holiday Card

Hello! I made this cute little card this morning. It is a CASE of a card I saw somewhere, and can't seem to find this morning to link it. So sorry about that. Anyway, I made this card to fit a gift card, since I am in need of a bunch of gift card holders this year. I used this tutorial and the finished dimensions are 4" x 4" with the eight 1.25" squares.
Here's the inside and then a close-up of the front.
Have a great day everyone! I have some fun stuff planned for this week!!!

{Season's Greetings Gift Card Holder}

Stamps: Signature Christmas (Papertrey Ink)
Card Stock: Kraft, Pure Poppy, Ripe Avocado (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Vintage Cream (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Edge Distresser (Heidi Swapp), Circle Punch (Paper Shapers), Rhinestones (Michaels), Red Buttons, New Leaf Buttons (Papertrey Ink), Glue Dots, Foam Dimensionals

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OCC Challenge - Holiday Cards

Welcome to another Saturday challenge from Our Creative Corner. This week, Jenny Gropp challenged us to make a holiday card (any holiday you want). I've seen a lot of cards lately using buttons as ornaments and thought I would try it out for myself. I love the end result, but I would not want to make 10 (or more) of these. There's a lot of intricate work involved like tying those little bows, measuring out the spacing, and threading the buttons. I cheated and glued my bows into place. So much easier that way with the same effect.
I hope you are all enjoying your weekend and can squeeze in some crafty time. Head on over to Our Creative Corner and check out all the holiday cards from the design team. I hope you can play along with us!

{We Wish You a Merry Christmas}

Stamps: Signature Christmas (Papertrey Ink)
Card Stock: Kraft (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Fresh Snow (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Floss (DMC), Tombow Mono Aqua Glue, Christmas Buttons, Christmas Striped Ribbon, Glue Dots

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From me to you...

Hello & Happy Friday!!! I have a super simple card for you today. I was browsing Nichole Heady's blog this morning and saw this card. So cute and Nichole provided the dimensions. I couldn't pass this up. This is such a great way to use coordinating patterned paper. I think I'll have to try this layout again for Christmas tags. This card is on the small side, 4" x 4".
If you think this card looks a little familiar, I used the same papers as this card.

Thanks for stopping by today. I'll be back bright and early tomorrow with another challenge from Our Creative Corner. Have a great weekend!

{From me to you}

Stamps: Everyday Button Bits (Papertrey Ink), Pocket Silhouettes (SU)
Card Stock: Kraft (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Nook & Pantry (Basic Grey)
Ink: Garden Green, Close to Cocoa (SU)
Accessories: Foam Dimensionals, Circle Punch (Paper Shapers), Corner Rounder Punch (EK Success), Edge Distresser (Heidi Swapp)

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