Big Shot Bird...

This is the first card I made with my new Big Shot. It's simple, which I think may be my new style as I have been doing it for a couple of weeks now. The base of this card is Really Rust CS, the side panel is Old Olive. The Old Olive was run through the Big Shot with a Fiskars texture plate {I was excited to discover this works!), the edges torn and inked with OO ink. The image is from Serene Spring, a SU current Level 2 Hostess Set. I ran Watercolor Paper through the Big Shot with Sizzix Scallop Circle #2 die to get the scallop. Then I stamped the bird image onto the paper with Timber Brown StazOn ink. I watercolored it using Earth Elements WaterColor Crayons, and Aquapainters. The sentiment, also stamped in StazOn because it was already on my desk, is from Love Ya Bunches, a SU set from a few years ago. Lastly, there is a piece of Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware on the side holding my ribbon. This is for a friend who is having a rough time, and I hope it will cheer her up and remind her that I love her.

SU products in BOLD print. The StazOn and Sizzix items are from SU also.

*** This is one of my first 'real' attempts at watercoloring with Aquapainters, and I am in love! It is definitely time consuming, I spent about 15 minutes coloring this image, but I love the outcome. It's not as easy as I thought it was, and need more practice, but I think it's good for a first 'real' try.

Good news (for me!)

My Big Shot is on the way!!! It is being delivered this week, and I am SO excited. So, finally I will be able to step up and do some of the great things I see on blogs all the time! This is a Christmas present to myself. I will post with something I make using it the same day I get it, I bet!!!

3 More Christmas Cards...

Greetings, blog friends! I am posting 3 more of the cards I made last night. I made no more than 4 of each design this year, and I completely finished my cards last night!!! Whoo hoo!!! My husband put them in the mail this morning, and I am SO excited to have them done. Here are the 3 I did last night. Feel free to comment, I would love to know which you like the best. I am not sure how many different designs I did this year, but each card posted on my blog went out, and some didn't get pics taken before I sealed them. Next year, I start earlier!!!


If I had to name this card, I would it Silly Snowmen! I love this one, easy and fun! The base for this card is Ballet Blue, I stamped all over it with the snowflake from Perfect Presentation, then swiped all edges of the card in my Ballet Blue inkpad. I cut a piece of Basic Black CS down to 2 1/4 x 4 3/4, and punched the two long sides with the Spiral Punch to create the 'filmstrip'. This little snowman is from a SU set, I do not know the name. I stamped and colored about 100 of these last year for a card I never got around to making and it is a friends set, but I know it is some sort of tag set. One thing to know, you really need the Square Punches for these cards, but that's the one thing I do not have, so I punched them out with the Large Tag Punch, and cut the top of freehand. Glued those to the black strip, then on the card at an angle. The word JOY is from Perfect Presentation and I used Dimensionals to pop them up a little. That's it. This one was so much fun to make, and snowmen always make me smile.

I think if I had to name this card, I would call it Cheerful Christmas! I love these bright vivid colors, and they just scream Christmas! The base of this card is Baja Breeze, with a strip of Ski Slope DSP down the side (can you tell I am in LOVE with this paper?). I tied some red grosgrain (Offray 1/8" red) over the meeting point, then stamped the little snowflake from Perfect Presentation down the blue side. I stamped the tree from Perfect Presentation on Whisper White CS in Old Olive ink and layered over a piece of Real Red CS. There is a little red blingy on the tree, that's from Hero Arts. I stamped the word JOY from Perfect Presentation on scrap Whisper White CS and cut out and adhered to bottom of card with Dimensionals. Isn't it cheerful?



This one turned out fairly elegant for how little work was involved, and that's a good thing when you are in a hurry! I love the soft hue of Baja Breeze, and the card base is that color, as well as the snowflake DSP called Ski Slope. I used the Slit Punch on the bottom of the card to hold the sentiment, which is from Heard from the Heart. I stamped the snowflake from Scandinavian Season, punched with 1 1/4 circle, layered over 1 3/8 circle, layered over Brushed Silver (love this stuff!) CS punched with the Scallop Circle punch. I put a Filigree Designer Brad in the center, and stuck it on the card with Glue Dots. I hope it's not too simple, and the recipients like it!

Hope you like them all. SU products are in BOLD print, and I always try to give the brand of whatever I use that's not SU. Merry Christmas!

Another Christmas Card & My Little Angels

So, here is another Christmas card I am sending out this year. I do not do mass production of Christmas cards anymore, it just bores me to no end. This year I am sending about 10 different styles, and I really like them all. I have used the same stamp set on all of them to keep them similar, and I have also repeated several colors. This one is a really simple one, but I love it. I used Old Olive CS, and Ski Slope DSP on the side. Chocolate Chip ribbon is tied over where the papers meet, and I layered some Chocolate Chip CS over that with the tree from Scandinavian Season stamped in Old Olive on Naturals White CS. In the center of the flower on the bottom right of the tree, I added half pearls called Crystal Stickers by Mark Richards. I am hooked on these right now. They're already sticky, you just use a tool to pick them up and stick them on! On the bottom right of the card I added a little stamped image from Perfect Presentation, which was a hostess set last year, in Chocolate Chip ink. I love the simplicity of this card.



And here is the My Little Angel part of the post. A wallet size of this picture is going out in all my family Christmas cards this year. Grandparents and aunts will also receive it framed as a small, extra present. Hopefully I will have time to make my own frames. I am thinking of doing the acrylic blocks for clear stamps as frames, it just depends on how much time I have in the next 13 days! But, this is Chloe age 4,and Tara age 2 in their Christmas dresses.

Merry Christmas!

***All products are SU unless specified. The pearls on this card are not, and were purchased at Archivers in Raleigh NC.

I got a BLOG AWARD!!!

I am EXTREMELY honored to have been given this Blogger Award. It was given to me by a wonderful lady named Cheryl, she gave it to me a while back, and I never got a chance to put it up and was having PC issues. So, now I have time and the PC is ok. Please take a minute to visit Cheryl at http://neverenoughstamps.blogspot.com/. She is very talented, and her obvious love for Christmas will be an inspiration to you!

Now for the rules -
1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to their blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

This is definitely hard for me to do. I visit some pretty wonderful blogs, but here is my top five...

1. Siobhan at http://the-monkey-hut.blogspot.com/
2. Louise at http://punknscrap.com/
3. Erin at http://cardsbyfishlips.blogspot.com/
4. Lin at http://sticklesmade.blogspot.com/
5. Jennifer at http://paperpiekeepsakes.typepad.com/

Hostess Club Gift...

This is what I made every member of my Hostess Club as a thank you for being with me this past year. This past Sat was our last meeting (until the new club starts in Feb), and it was also our Christmas Party so I wanted to do something special for each of them. Here's how I made them:

I made 11 of these and it took HOURS...not a quick process, but could be done quicker with some shortcuts, I however am a recovering perfectionist and couldn't skimp, so they took forever...

I punched (for each ring) one piece of cardstock for all SU! colors minus the neutrals, as I feel black is black and white is white for the most part. I did In Colors, Bold Brights, Earth Elements, Rich Regals, and Soft Subtles. I typed up each color name, family name, and the SU front label on an Avery label template in MS Word, two per label. One sheet perfectly held every title with no space left. The front of the color ring is a piece of acetate, punched with Scallop Circle, behind that is a piece of DSP, then acetate, then colors, then acetate, then colors, etc. Each color family is divided by an acetate punch holding that color families name. The color families are in ABC order, the colors follow the order on the back of our marker box and catalog. After putting all of them in order and punching holes in the top (through a template I created for perfect holes) with my Crop O Dile, I found it can punch through 12 sheets at a time about halfway through the project...LOL!!! I put them on Book Rings in order. I then printed the labels, and got to work. The labels are precisely 1" tall which made it VERY difficult to line up as I used a 1" circle punch. You punch out every single label, then place them on the CS or acetate piece it goes with. Once punched these are hard to peel apart as well. So, that's how I made them. You could always just cut the labels in half, which would save hours, literally. They look great, though. Everyone really seemed to enjoy them.

I originally made them for matching embellishments from craft stores (I am not one of those demos who will cut your head off with Craft & Rubber scissors if a customer mentions a craft store). We all need things that SU! doesn't sell from time to time. So, they can take these with them to match colors as closely as possible. However, as I was assembling these, I couldn't help but notice amazing new color combos as different colors laid against each other. So, now it also serves as a scaled down Color Coach as well. When you are struggling to come up with new colors to use together, you can flip through this and get some inspiration.

Hope you all like it!

Live With Passion...

This is the card I came up with for my Dec hostess club meeting which was this past Saturday. It's quick and easy which was the goal as we had a Christmas Party in lieu of our normal meetings. All products are SU!. Cardstock is Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, and Very Vanilla. Ink is Chocolate Chip and Old Olive. Old Olive brads, Chocolate Chip 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon. The stamp set is Inspired by Nature which I just bought last month, and this card is the first I created with it, now I am very much looking forward to using it some more! The sentiment was colored with markers, the edges of that CS were swiped on the Chocolate Chip pad. We punched one hole from the Spiral Punch in the upper right corner to hold it onto the ribbon, and used 2 Glue Dots to attach it to the card. This one is pretty self-explanatory. I really worried it would be too simple for my club, but everyone really loved it. It's clean and simple, and I am in love with this stamp set now!

MIA...

I just had to apologize for not posting lately. I have been working on things for my stamp club this coming Sat, and I cannot post the things I have been working on until after that when the girls see them. They are surprises for them! My club is doing a Secret Sister Christmas Swap, and I have been making the gifts and packaging for that, gifts for each member, and projects for the meeting. I haven't had time to work on anything else. So, I will be updating my blog hopefully on Sunday with the things I have been doing! Sorry I have been MIA!