Will you Be???

As some of you already know my dear granddaughter Paige is getting married in Jan 2011 (I know another year but she has to finish nursing school first), She is the light of my life and my "crafting" buddy so when she came the other evening and told me she wanted to make a personal invitation to her bridesmaid/maid of honor we came up with this idea. Her theme is going to be snowflakes and her colors are blue/lt blue or silver so this seemed perfect. She highlighted each snowflake with our sparkle pen and I think they turned out just perfect.

Tag Wreath

My angel friend (and supervisor) gave me an absolutely darling tag wreath for Christmas - I just had to share this and will probably case it too!!! She die cut tags out of our papers stamped and paper pieced a "retired" angel on them, paper pieced the angels and then stamped saying on other tags scattered around the wreath. She used a formed wreath and then bent some of the tags just a bit to make it fuller, paper flowers, some fibers and talk about a treasure - love it. If you click on the wreath to enlarge you can really see the detail. I need "photo taking 101!!!

All Wrapped Up Blog Hop

We are having a fun blog hop at Paper Wings so follow the paper trail of names and you will get some great fun gift wrap ideas.
This year I hosted the annual TAC gift bag swap and had some really cute ideas. I made 4 different bags for this swap posted above. The red handle bag and the vintage green/kraft bags were very easy to make using the Vintage Santa on the red bag and the Joy of Christmas on the vintage bag.
The bright lime bag was so easy peasy and perfect for the smaller gift - I punched snow flakes from silver cs and then embossed Winter Cheer from Ready, set, snow set.
The teal blue bag was my favorite and most fun to make - I used Ornamental snowflakes and Winter flurries for this bag - which is just a lunch bag that I can only find at Meiers in Mishawaka IN. I made some snowy rolling hills by tearing the cardstock and then tucked my little image under one of the hills. I am a stickles and glitter gal so had to use both on this bag.
Go ahead and hop on over and blog hop to see what everyone else has created for some fun useful ideas.

Laurie
Jen
Laine
Rita
Chris
Diana
Angela
Stacey

Holiday Mugs

I made these cute holiday mugs for my co-workers this afternoon and I think they turned out so... cute. I used a variety of snowpeople, penquins and snow angels for my focal image colored with Copics then mounted them on the snowman soup poem. In the mug (from Michaels) I put a pkg. of cocoa, pkg. of minature marshmallows, a few chocolate kisses, a dessert stir stick and a candy cane. Ran some curling ribbon through the poem and curled the ribbon. I am pleased with how they turned out. Thanks Pat for letting me "case" this idea. Tell me what you think.

Snowman Nativity

I mentioned in last posting that my friend Shelley was coming over to finish up her Christmas cards well here is a sample of her finished product. We used the Snowman Nativity which is one of my all time favorites as I love snowmen images. Colored with watercolor pencils (I think this is one of the easiest coloring techniques to show a "newbie"), of course some stickle on the snow and who can't live without the new stardust pen for highlights. We found this ribbon while shopping at Archivers a couple of weeks ago and it matches perfect with the green/maroon hues. I also scanned the inside of the card and it completes the story of Christmas. When we started this project a couple of weeks ago she came over and I had several of my Christmas cards out for her to view and perhaps "case" and so I have to give credit to one of my downlines Donna as this is her idea - we just changed a couple of things to make it Shelley's own.

Vintage Santa

Can you believe this is the first time I have used this stamp set - Vintage Santa - love it - minimal coloring - well in fact just his pink cheeks and a red pearl on his holly. I love this paper which was discontinued with last catalog but it has such a vintage feel that I hated to see it go. Had to play with my new toy from Tonic - a border punch system which you can interchange multiple punches for your border - this happens to be a ribbon punch and I am having a lot of fun using this system. Some polka dot ribbon goes perfect with the paper and presto a super easy card and fun to make. Tomorrow a friend Shelly is coming over to "finish" up her cards - a newbie stamper - they are so much fun to watch when they have created a "masterpiece".

Peace

This is my Christmas card I made for our monthly swap group - simple yet elegant. I used the Peace set from TAC embossed in gold and the dove is entirely glittered with prisma glitter. Gate fold card using a shimmer white and shimmer gold cs from Archivers which added richness to the card. I used my MS punch for the edging. What a wonderful swap this was. Yearly we invite the subs to participate with us and the ideas are amazing. This year was no exception.

November Blog Hop

Our goal this month was to post cards/tags that can be made in under 10 minutes - now that is my kind of project!!! Both of my cards that I have posted here are very quick, easy and of course cute!!!
The first one I used gold shimmer cardstock from Archivers ran through my cuttlebug with the music embossing folder. I used the Oh Holy Night from the Good Tidings set embossed in gold, punched with scallop circle and pop dots to raise it off the music a bit. A simple gold sheer bow (using the bow easy) just made this card complete.
My second card is a fun one and can be adapted for any occasion. I used an 8 1/2 x 11 scarlet cs cut at 4 1/4 scored and folded in half. I then cut a piece of Reece DP (has such a Christmas look) to 4 1/2 x 4 and glued on the front right of the card. I used a 1 1/2 inch circle punch and punched through both the DP and red cs,leaving a viewing circle. I punched a 1 1/4 circle from white and stamped this cute little snow girl (this was a LE from several years ago) and colored her very quickly with copic markers. Again tied a red sheer ribon around the front and then for my embellishments I used the little dots at the bottom of the 12 x 12 DP punched and glued on the side with just a nailhead on top. Again an easy peasy but cute card. You can use a snowflake punched out of glitter cardstock in the opening for another quickie.
Now hop on over and see what the other girls have made for their 10 min. and under collection.
Laurie W.
Teresa
Jamie
Diane
Jen
Rita
Kim
Laurie U.
Kay
Melisa
Stacey
Thanks for stopping by!!!

Masking

At stamp club this week my friend Pat was the leader of the group and she did an old favorite (but seldom used for me at least) technique of masking. If you visit Pats blog she has some fantastic Blog Candy to give away so it is well worth the visit. Here is my take on the two cards similar to what we did at stamp club. The masked ornament was done using an ornament punch then stippled the ornament on white cs, stamped the stars with build-a-background stamp put a piece of gold cording and a gold pre-tied bow - greeting stamped at the bottom, corners punched with a cornerrounder/star punch and another easy peasy card. The blue card is done using Joyful Ornaments stamped on the square, masked then the script stamped over that - remove mask and another easy card. A blue sheer ribbon, message on the right side and card complete. Thanks Pat for revising this true favorite this week.

Easy Scallop Heart Christmas Tree

This card has no stamping on the outside but I used TAC cardstock and red stickles so... This is one of those cards that you say "I wish I had thought of that" because I saw this made up at our local scrapbook store O'Dear What a Memory located between my hometown of Farmington Mo. and Ste. Genevieve, Mo. (where I grew up). The green cs was run through the cuttlebug with the swirls embossing folder, you then punch 3 sizes of scallop hearts. Run a small scrap of brown through the cuttle bug for the trunk. Use a piece of scarlet red cs cut at 3 3/4 and punch the holly Fiskars border punch along both edges. Now to make the tree, start at the bottom with the trunk, then the largest heart (inverted), on top of that the mid size heart and then the smallest heart. Put a star brad on top of the tree, decorate with stickles mount this on white base cs and a quick easy fun Christmas card is complete.

Christmas Card

We were in CO. 2 weekends ago and DD surprised me by stating she wanted to "make her Christmas cards this year"!! DD is a very talented scrapbook designer but hmmm not so much into the card designs. So off shopping we went. She took me to this fantastic scrap/stamp store in Colorado Springs. She found this cute little Mimi trimming the Christmas Tree and it was perfect for her!!! I stamped a couple of images for myself. Colored with Copics, and the fur trim has a bit of a sparkle (IRL). I used TAC cardstock strips in white and decorated with nailhead stick on embellishments. Greeting is from Vintage Santa.

Winter Flurries

This is one of my favorite sets in the Inspiration Avenue magalog this fall. Just a bit of coloring with Copic markers for his scarf, add a little glitter and a couple of blings and you have a cute card. My friend and I took a class last week at our fav local scrapbook store and the gal had some super ideas which I adapted for this card. I will be posting a couple more in the coming days. After the class we all went to lunch and caught up on all the latest/greatest happenings in the stamping world.

Fall Blog Hop

Paper Wings is having a Fall Blog Hop - fun places to get lots of new fall ideas from Thanksgiving, Halloween, fall leaves. Fall Harvest uses my favorite little girl - I paper pieced her outfit and sunflower, colored her skin and hair with Copics - love the Copics - and used some fall jewels to add just a little extra touch. I scored orange CS on the diagonal - cut them apart and left a small space between them (thanks Seleise for this idea) My next card uses Sunday Afternoon - I just love the little guy with the basket of fresh apples, the saying is from Seasonal Snow Globes. I used nestabilities to cut out my ovals and label, colored with Copics, IRL the shading really shows. I paper pierced all 4 corners just for a little added zing.My last card is a very simple card using Sept. SOTM Potted Plants, double embossed with gold for the tree and silver for the pot, nestabilities oval and scallop oval as well as the label tag. The saying is from Bookoo blessings. The Willoughby DP just gives a fall fell to the card. Hop on down to see what everyone else has to show you for this Fall Blog Hop.
Laurie
Kim
Julie
Jen
Teresa
Diane
Rita W
Jamie
Suzanne
Stacey
Enjoy the Fall Blog Hop.

Thank You

This card was made for a special postal employee who surely went above her call of duty and recovered a bag of fall swaps that ended up in the dead letter pile. Through a couple of phone calls she called me and returned them to me so I could forward them on to the rightful owner. I used the acorn pattern in Inspiration Ave. and a cuttlebug leafdie and embossing folder. A scrap of old Basic Grey Paper and a bit of ribbon the card was rady to be send to her.

Fun Skulls

When I saw this set in the new Inspiration Ave. catty I knew exactly what I was going to make. A congrats for my granddaughter on her recent engagement. I know a little ghoulish but she and her groom to be got a real kick out of the idea. Colored with Copic markers, a little glitter and sakura pen and oh the flourish trees for a back drop. I am going to go ahead and enter this over at Haunted Design House. I know Barb likes more scarey but just had to use the skulls in a fun way.

Autumn Swirls

I did this card last year when this set first came out stamping on ivory CS coloring the leaves with fall colors using prisma pencils, brown strip at the bottom and Fantastic Fall in White Versa Magic Ink. I think this card has such a fall feel. We went walking at St. Joe State Park late this morning and the leaves are really starting to show their hue - it was just beautiful. There were a lot of people either jogging, walking or biking on the beautiful trail this morning.

Little Friends

Made this cute little card this week using a technique posted by Seleise. I had so much fun creating this colorful frame for this image. The image I received from my secret sis over at Paper Wings.

Purr-Fect friends - BOO

This card seemed to fit perfect with the color scheme of Macabre Monday006 over at Barb Fosters Haunted House Design blog. I have been trying to do a few "out of the box thinking" for me - and used the witches hat on several of the critters TAC has including the BeSquare Owl and our Tickled Pink flamingo. I think the cat looks a little "bewitching" in her hat - whatcha you think.

All Seasons Swirls

I used a retired set from last year to make this card for the color challange over at Paper Wings using brown, orange, kraft and green. I thought these leaves worked perfect. I stamped in palette ink and embossed each leaf with our Transcendence powder. I love this stuff and just don't use it enough, maybe if I kept it on my work table I would use it more but I have to get up to get it!!! I used the words from Bookoo Blessings again love this set and use if often. Wraped some thin twine which I got at Archivers around the leaf piece and presto the card is done.

Dual embossing is so...much fun and so...easy - I used ornamental snowflakes stamped with versamark. Using gold on 1/2 of the image, dump off the gold excess and then use silver on the remaining half, heat and the WOW factor really shows off a super card. How simple is this to do add a few gold and silver nail head embellishments and you have a quick and easy card. I used my nestabilities label 1 die for mounting. Talk about mass producting these Christmas cards fairly quickly.

Robots

Got this in the mail today from my friend Patty J - she "borrowed" my set so I have to claim at least 1/3 of the card right??? Just kidding - the deal was she could borrow the set IF she made me a card using the set - how about that for a deal. Well I love the card,the paper and the layout. Thanks Patty for the inspiration when I get my set back. Patty was BUSY working on some auction items for her DD last night so why not slip on over to her blog at Patty J Leave a comment on all her beautiful auction items.

Fabric Stamping

I watched Micheles video re stamping on fabric - found some muslin I had - (from my stuffed bunny making days) what fun this was coloring with prismacolor watercolor pencils and blending with the blending pen. I added some glitter pen to both and colored the cherry on the ice cream with a red glitter pen. I went on a massive search for my OLD pinking shears from my long ago sewing days - found them and pinked the edges of the ice cream cone, stapled it on to the pink. Used the scor-bug to make a diagonal background and a bright pink ribbon. The owl I fringed the edges and adhered with glue runner and mounted on one of my NEW cuttlebug embossing stencils - love the owl. I could not scan the owl card for some reason and my picture taking skills need picture taking 101. I think I have a friend that might be able to help me on this. Help Pat!!! If you click on the owl card to enlarge you can really see the glitter pen highlights.

Follow Me.

There was a challange over at Barb Fosters Haunted Design for a spooky Halloween Design with winged image - flamingos have wings--right??? I plopped the witches hat on her head, computer generated the words and punched out some velvet spiders in hopes they will follw her. I colored her hat with a glitter pen and added some glitter pen edges with purple around her fur wrap. Hope this meets the criteria for Barbs challange.

Boo to You

My first Halloween card this year - well no not really as I posted one for the last Paper Wings Blog Hop so this is my second. I "cased" this from a fall swap I was in last year so thanks to Susan Maxwell, I changed it up slightly. The unique thing about this card and you can't really see it in a scan is the little mummy is X-Ray film!!! I saved the films from my DH's x-rays 2 years ago when he had dislocated cervical vertabrae, - well I ran across it in my closet and the wheels started turning. I had to emboss as the white ink would not dry on the film. Then lets go ahead and punch my spiders out of x-ray film too using my Tonic spider punch. I think this will go to my granddaughter who is 7.

Watercolor Plants

This is one of my favorite sets in our new catalog it is Watercolor Plants and I love how you can color it, spritz it and get a water color effect. I colored this direct to rubber with markers, stamped once, spritzed with a fine water mist and stamped 2 more times. I loved how the More Mimi designer papers went so well with this card and I added just a little extra accent with our new tool the scor-bug. On the outside I stamped encouraging words from Little Things and on the inside I stamped stometimes it's the little things that bless our lives the most. This card is for my cancer patient that I send weekly words of encouragement, I thought it was just the perfect saying for her.

August Blog Hop

These are the cards I came up with for the August blog hop. The Spunky Sprite Girls are one of my favorites and fun to color. I used Mias Cottage to paper piece her dress andCopic markers to color her face and hair. We received the Square Owl set at Seminar and I just drew a blank so I challanged myself to come up with something using this set. I have to give credit to Ellie for the Be Square idea, I changed it around a bit but I think it turned out cute. The witches hat fit perfect on the next owl and I used my Stamp-aligner to place the hat on the owl. Green and orange are Halloween colors that went well with her, as well as the label lingo saying. Now for the fun - hop on over to see the rest of the creative angels in this blog hop.
Kim
Diane
Rita
Jen
Heather
Laurie U
Christina
Suzanne
Teresa
Melisa
Ginger
Julie
Laurie
Stacey



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Nuts about You

Today is our 18th anniversary and I fell in love with this little squirrel, I made it a girl squirrel with pink cheeks and blue eyes (like me). Wayne loves to watch the squirrels play outside our window in our family room. We live "in the woods" so there is an abundance of these little critters. We are going to go see Time Travelers Wife this afternoon and then bar-b-que after we get home. He says he always looks forward to my homemade cards to him, how sweet. Remember tonight is our August blog hop with new sets from the TAC catalog.

Birthday Card

Yesterday I received a BEAUTIFUL birthday card from one of my BFFs Donna T. whom I have know for 25+ years. We met when we worked at DePaul Hospital in St. Louis, we were both "new" nurses and we just clicked. The friendship has grown through out the years separated by a little distance as I moved 80 miles south of St. Louis but we still keep in touch and manage to see each other as often as possible. She is my first downline angel so we have seen a lot in the lst 7-8 years with changes in TAC. Anyway isn't her birthday card to me - beautiful - she double embossed with cuttlebug and inked with 2 different shades of blue. I think the brown and blue go together very well. I just had to share with everyone who visits my blog.

Punched Window

It is a HOT day in Missouri - our thermometer says it is 95 so the coolest place in the house is my woman cave - hence the card making frenzy. I also have been working on some cards for our August Paper Wings "blog hop" scheduled for August 19, but can't share those just yet. Although this is not a new technique to me - (I first learned about it at Madison Mingle in 2008) Technique Junkie featured it as one of the techniques for Aug/Sept. Newsletter. I used "retired" DP Gentle Beginnings, and a much loved retired set Paisley Rocks both from The Angel Company. I had to add a little bling in my flower centers as I love bling. Fun technique and we have some new sets in the new Inspiration Book that I want to try with this technique.

New Set Swap

We had a "Favorite New Set from our 2009-2010 Inspiration book over at Paper Wings and I choose to do 2 of my favs from the new catalog - Oceans of Love and Hit the Beach. On the Oceans of Love I used chalk dragging for the ocean and then some clouds - using a templateand a sponge. I paper pieced the boat, and outfits on the bears using Sands of Time DP. On Hit the Beach I colored with Copic markers, then used torn sandpaper for the "sand" and I had some glitter blue paper that I used on top. Don't you just love the orange-yellow satin ribbon I used??? It just seemed to set the whole card off. I am sure both of these sets will have a lot of miles put on them.

Skinny Cup

This was a quick card I did this afternoon to send to my patient- from Chemo Angels -I know she likes flavored coffees so while shopping in Kimmswick MO. last week I picked up a few individual pkgs of the flavored coffee to send to her. Thought this cup was perfect to go with the coffees. I so enjoy Chemo Angels - you commit to send at least 1 card a week which is no problem for me. I love being a part of someones journey with a horrible disease. I feel like hopefully my card and letter will cheer them up at least for a little while. This set Skinny Birds has so many options to use - I know it will be well loved.

Another Birthday

I just had to post this birthday card I made for a friend that I went to high school with (many many many years ago!!), The stamp is by Sparkle and Sprinkle but all other product is from TAC, cardstock, prism pencils, glitter, and embellishments. I hope my friend enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making this fun birthday card.

July Blog Hop Card Stash

We are having a blog hop over at Paper Wings so click on the other angels names and see their creations for this blog hop, this will get ideas for you to replenish you card stash. Just a note re my creations: the "beach" under beachy keen is sandpaper - and I know I am guilty of forgetting some of my fav tools such as the crimper which I used in the crab card. All stamps by The Angel Company.
Laurie
Carol
Maria
Jamie
Rita
Jen
Christina
Sheryl
Melisa
KellyRae
Betty
Michelle
Stacy
Diane

Note Card

This is a little 3 x 3 note card which is so easy peasy to make. I made several of these for my extra trade at seminar this past June. Kraft card stock for the base, swirls stamped in Burnt umber palette ink, then I ran our red cs through the cuttle bug, punched Extra Jumbo flower and 2 Super Jumbo flowers, layered then on top of each other, curled up the edges a bit, button with red scrappers floss (love that stuff) for the center, 2 green leaves punched from edges of a 1 1/2 in. circle scored down the middle for the vein and you have a cute card. I stamped for you dear friend from Dear Friend by mabelle, in the corner. Why don't you try a cute little note card yourself???

Altered Cigar Box

Here are 2 pictures of my "altered cigar box" that I gave away at Seminar 2009 as my Prop Swap at Club Med. Rita Kegg received my swap and I was sooo happy. (will post a picture of her with the box soon). I had so much fun putting this together using about 85% TAC product, I did use 3 small charms, a spray bottle lid for the trash can and my DH designed the table and stool. I used Miss moxie as my theme paper to cover the inside and out and as some of the embellishments. I have promised myself that I will make myself one soon. The smoke shop here in town is saving me a couple of cigar boxes so as soon as I get them I can start on mine.

The "Lunker"

Alright this has nothing to do with stamping or TAC but this is an 8 1/2 pound rainbow trout caught at Montauk State Park in Missouri and let me tell you my DH was one proud man as you can tell from the picture. In error I called it his Klunker and was immediately corrected to Lunker.This "prize" is in the process of being mounted so he can hang it in his "man cave". Do you have any idea how much it costs to mount a fish - how about $300. I said that it has nothing to do with stamping well indirectly it does...as long as the man is happy so am I and while the man is away the girl will play - that is stamping, shopping, eating popcorn for supper, going to bed at 8:30 and reading. Next week is TAC seminar and guess who is going fishing again???