Notice the details

You know when you have to give a card to a guy, you've got to simplify it and not make it too fussy. Well it can be harder than you think. I love to add all the little extras, (not talking about perfume and lipstick, because that would be weird and everyone knows I'm not weird. Unique maybe.?.) I'm talk'n embellishments and texture lending ribbon or fibers. I really love the December stamp of the month from Close To My Heart. The possibilities are endless. For this card I wanted to create something masculine for my brother in law's birthday. I used the Sweet Home paper pack and the Overview pattern from Originals to jump start this card. I think it turned out really nice, and no estrogen overload. The Stamp sets used are Comments, Notice the Details, and

I know I know... long time no post

So are you thinking what I'm thinking? I've really gotta change this wallpaper.

Well I'm sure Christmas is buzzing all around you. I am so sorry to have neglected this blog. I've been working on several things to share with you. One of them is my Christmas cards. I created these homey little cards with all CTMH products. I really wanted something unique to send.

I made about 26 cards with a photo insert. Each card was a little different. I sent these to the people I think would appreciate it and not instantly gag at another photo card. ( I personally love getting the photo cards. It's so personal)
This is the cover, without the top ribbon, for last year's cookie recipe swap with Tina Sutton. I changed my up a bit, but I think it's totally fun.

I pray the Christmas spirit fills your heart today and throughout the new year. God Bless You and Yours!

Pumpking Patch Layout

For me this is my wow layout. I am tickled with how it turned out. I worked on it here and there through out the week and finsihed it up Saturday.We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch and of course I lugged the big gun out and shot everything thing in site so as not to forget a moment. It was hard just choosing a few photos for this 2 page layout. You cannot really tell in the photo but the two pages are mounted on colonial white cardstock. The patterned paper is from Twiterpated, the CTMH Stamp sets featured are Many Thanks, Homestead and Elegant Script Alphabets. You also see Barn Red cs, chocolate ribbon, journaling spots, Top Coats, and colonial buttons with chocolate embroidery floss. Everything except the round scalloped page is CTMH. It's from Bobunny. Doesn't it work great with this gingham paper?

Road Trip Layout

My daughter and I traveled to see my best friend in Myrtle Beach. We had so much fun making this a "just us" trip. Here's what my hidden journaling reads about the first part of the trip:

Kallie and I loaded up in the car on Sept. 23, 2009 for a trip to visit our very good friends Jennifer and Jon Dale in sunny Myrtle Beach, SC. Heavy flooding in and around Atlanta changed our course. Instead of spending the night in downtown Atlanta and visiting the Aquarium we traveled the back roads and stayed the night in a wonderful Holiday Inn Express right in the heart of historic Savannah, GA. Kallie was thrilled the entire trip and never complained, even when our AC went out. She loved stopping at the Lane Peach Orchard right outside of Warner Robbins, GA. We bought two peaches, toured the shop, tried out every thing on the playground. The morning in Savannah was spent touring the river walk and the shops along. We saw tug and steam boats, and pet a horse. Kallie’s two favorite things about Savannah were the clock and bell tower on top of their city hall building, and the cobble stone streets. We watched and listened for the bell chimes throughout the morning. My favorite landmark was The Lady and Son’s restaurant. Kallie only ate the bite in the photo, but trust me everything was delicious. We then moved on in a very hot car ride to our destination.

I bought this paper and coordinating accents at a cute store in Myrtle Beach. This is the Abby Road collection from My Mind's Eye. the fibers are from Adornment. the Eyelet and the two tags Scenic route and adventure are from Making Memories. All embellishments are from CTMH. The LO is based on a sketch from the June 2009 Creating Keepsakes (High School Junior by Suzy Plantamura).

The two beach pictures printed too dark and will have to be reprinted and replaced, so forgive them, I just couldn't wait to post it. Hope you like it.

New Vision

I love it when something new and original comes from something ordinary. I think this card is just that. Lisa Stenz created a beautiful Christmas card I just had to lift and share with you. She saw a beautiful Holly branch in the Stamp set that came with the Twitterpated On The Go Workshop from Close to My Heart. Here's the stamp set as is.

If you would like to make your own you can order the Twitterpated WOTG or any of the current WOTG from me. This is the finished project with all of the wonderful coordinating embellishments.
For my card above I used all CTMH products, The Twiterpated WOTG exclusive stamp set, Festive Thoughts Stamp set, the Childhood stamp set for the string and bows, the New England Ivy Buttons, white embroidery floss, Chocolate, Holiday Red and New England Ivy ink.

Polar Express- I Believe

I spent the weekend's creative time creating this card to mimic the Polar Express. I started it on Friday and finished just a few minutes ago working on it here and there. I just added a final touch after this photo was taken. I took my white gel pin and added snow dots in the Juniper CS. It add another dimension and a finishing feel.

Supplies:

I used CTMH's Childhood stamp set to create the train, the tracks were created using the fence from Spellbound and I used a masking technique. The paper is from Jingle Level 2. The snow on the train and the puffs of smoke are liquid applique. The only non CTMH product is the stickles. I don't know if you can see it on the snow at the bottom of the card I used the Pearl Create a Shade paint to give it a fun shimmer and textured look. My Quickutz mini Venus dies were used to cut out the believe in the Tulip paper, then they were coated in the ultra wonderful, how did we live without it Stickles. I hope you like this card. It was fun to create and a complete original design. PS I forgot to mention the snow was created by stamping with the cloud outline stamp from the Childhood set, then cutting out, and using the reverse side.

Trick Or Treat...

...Give me something good to eat! You know how you've become a collector of Scrapbooking supplies? You know what I mean, you buy the prettiest paper, and cool new embellys and then just save and save them. Well, I bought a package of door hangers from CTMH when I joined back in 2005. I finally found something worthy of them. I actually used one as a template to create this cute treat door hanger (yes it does fit an actual door knob) I'm going to make a few up for my children and a few of their friends. I thought the new Beware stamp set and the retiring Enchanted paper pack fit perfectly together. Everything but the ribbon and candy is CTMH.

Warm Winter Wishes Quickie Gift

This could be a really fast and inexpensive gift to give. This is not a new idea but I did make up my own template for it and the finished size is 4x5.5. These papers are from my long held stash and the only things CTMH are the Snowman stamp and the New England Ivy CS. The stripe paper is from Hobby Lobby and the Damask paper is from Anna Griffin (both really old papers). I created this just for fun and I wanted to use up some of the paper I have taking up space

Tip: I finally invested in a really good craft x-acto knife. This was the way to go to cut out the Snow man so close to the edge. I used the gripster it's around $5 and really is something I can't believe I've gone this long with out.

Seniors Rule!

Today 4 wonderful ladies at the local senior center participated in my free card class. They are a great group of ladies who have never created cards. They were truly excited. What I loved most was that they had no idea what they signed up for, they thought they might have to work on the computer. It was wonderful to see them jump right in there and get inky fingers. All of the ladies had a great attitude and made this fun for me. I look forward to our next class. These are the three cards we created. All products are CTMH.

This card uses the Many Thanks stampset, Sorbet ribbon, CS & Ink, Coca Ink & CS, Desert Sand CS & Vanilla CS.

This card was their favorite. They loved the Bella Paper. Here I used Thoughtful Seasons stamp set for the Happy Birthday, Annotations ( a past SOTM) for the tag and for you, Colonial white brads, and Holly Hock Ribbon & Ink. The card they made used the olive ink. I personally like that instead of the smoky plum that I used for this card. This next card uses my favorite paper from last year. It's called Notebook. The stamp set is my newest favorite and it's called Childhood portrait. The Ink is black.

My sweet Cupake is having another birthday!

This is the birthday invitation I created for my daughter's 3rd birthday. They are really fun and very easy to create. The texture on these is surely the icing on the cupcake!

To mimic a real cupcake liner I used a dry embossing pen to create the vertical lines you see on the brown textured card stock.

And I used my quickcutz goosebumps to emboss the pink icing top. The stamp is from the Celebrate Everyday card kid and the # 3 is from the Friendship Alphabet.

The flowers are Dasiy Doodles, Basic Grey Brown Cardstock, Hobby Lobby ribbon, Hobby Lobby Pink CS, Pink brad from JoAnns.

NIce List

I am a maker of lists. I have list for everything and I LOVE having a cute notebook to keep them in. I saw the makings of a great Christmas Shopping List notebook with this wooden notebook I found in a $1 section at Michael's. I used all CTMH products with the exception of the stickles to create this project. The stamp sets featured are No Peeking, Celebrate, Christmas Greetings, Sans & Classroom Alphabets. The ribbon is Creme Brulee, the paper is Jingle level 2, the colors are Tulip, Juniper, Creme Brulee, and Black. Liquid Applique is what makes Santa's beard, hat and eyebrow so life like. It's super easy to use. You simply squeeze it to apply where you want it. Let it dry overnight, then use a heat gun to puff it up. (Make sure not to cut out the item before heating so that you have something to grip.) I did add glitter on top of it for the hat. Also, add brads to the ribbon and the paper before gluing the paper down. I didn't know I wanted to add them until after I glued the paper so that's where the ripples come from. If you like it let me know. Thanks for looking.

Let it Snow....

I knew I wanted to make this card when I bought this snowman set last year. But I just got around to doing it. I can see so much potential. You could easily make this a snow globe card.

You can easily re-create this card. I used acetate bought from Kinkos/Fedex, all other materials are CTMH. This is a 6x6 card. I used vellum tape to adhere the acetate to the inside of the card. I painted the snowflakes and stamped them with Create-a-Shade paint.
For the snowman I cut first stamped the bottom circle and flurry image in Juniper on the Juniper card stock. Then I stamped the same circle and flurry image along with the other images shown on white cardstock. I cut out each. (Color before cutting out to make sure you like it and don't waist your time). The snowman is then stacked and glued down. I used stickles to glitter the flurry.

All Sorts Mini Album Workshop

This is a workshop I created (partially inspired by Jayma Malme) using the new Jingle Paper and the 6x6 All Sorts Mini Chipboard Album. The new twinkle brads are adorable and so cool with the matching glitter. I love how they set off the crocheted flowers. As a gift to anyone who reads my blog I would be happy to email you a copy of the instructions to make your own with a complete list of supplies used here. Just send me an email or leave a comment.

On the left page below I used Photoshop Elements to create a bracket that I used as a template to make this page. You can have it, just email me or leave a comment and I'll email it to you.

Here's a creative way to use the little chip board pieces you punch out of the holes. On the left page below, I colored them with markers and used liquid glass to make them look like brads. I

Scrapbooker's Extravagana

And the Winner is.....

Bonnie Faulk

Here is the Grand Prize she won at yesterday's Extravaganza with Heart.

Inside is the following:

1- Party Stamp set ($6.95 value)
1- 1x1 block ($3.95 value)
1- Pewter Designer Brads ($3.95 value)
1- Chipboard Flower Album
My Accent Assortment: Brads, Edge Anchors, Photo clips, Crochet flowers, and buttons

Here are some of the items that were on display.

I created this fun gift with the tube from my children's bath crayons. (yes I did wash it out first) The candy was more full until I spilled it before taking this photo. I bought the colored candy corn at Wally world. It's Apple Cider flavored, not bad, but odd as a candy. However, don't you love the colors, sorbet, brown and white?

This is what I used to show my upcoming available dates for workshops and gatherings. I remember seeing something like this at convention last year and thought it would be perfect for a booking tree. This is an acrylic clipboard I picked up for under two bucks at walmart. What you see is the paper on the backside of the board. I love this because, I'm a wedding planner and can use this pretty clipboard at my events. The back side is also pretty, and that's what everyone sees so I love using this. It's practical and useful. I used CTMH's liquid glass to adhere the paper to the board and then I used ModPodge to seal it on the back side.

Here is my display board for the Grace Workshop on the Go. You can see more photos of the cards and the accompanying layout by scrolling down a bit. I'll have to get a better photo of this card later. I cropped it as an afterthought. I love how it turned out. I'll post the work shop photos later. I'm off to clean. I'd love to know what you think about what you've seen here. Please drop a comment in the box. ;-)