Christmas Trees!

When I saw this stamp set, I HAD to have it!!!
I am crazy for Christmas trees.....  we have a 9 footer for the living room, I have a ceramic tree from my grandmother that my mother made on our sideboard (which stays out all year), and I have a collection of them that either stay out year-round, or come out after Thanksgiving until near Valentine's Day.

This stamp set is called Festival of Trees - it's also a clear stamp set, and so easy to use and line up the images!!!  This also comes as a bundle with the tree punch.  So easy to make beautiful cards quickly and easily!

After stamping the trees in Garden Green, I used the dots accent in Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, and Pacific Point for the lights on the trees.

The snow is a Cuttlebug folder, inked with Soft Sky and the entire card is sprayed with Tattered Angels glitter mist. 

Christmas Cards 2014

No, I haven't forgotten about making Christmas Cards!

As I said, this teaching full time really cuts into my crafting time!  I finally feel like I'm getting my head above water... so I've taken some time to get back to it (a little).  I still don't like it one little bit.

 This wreath was the first WOW I saw in the fall/Christmas Holiday catalog.  It's right at the beginning when you open up the catalog (p. 9), and I could see lots of possibilities with this. 

The wreath stamp set is bundled with the die cuts  (don't skip that!) and is a clear stamp set so you can see very clearly where to place the stamps.  I used Pear Pizzazz for the base,  Garden Green for the darker leaves, and Real Red for the berries.  I added Christmas Red Stickles to give the card a little sparkle on the berries.  Cherry Cobbler Seam binding bow, and the Decorative label punch for the Merry Christmas.
The wood grain background is stamped in Crumb Cake.

This card has some of my very favorite things...  the Merry Christmas stamp, and the double seam binding bow.  Yes, I've come around to the seam binding side!  :) 

Baby Card in a Box

My aunt and uncle were coming to visit one night on their way to visit my cousin (review the baby shower invitations)...

I'd seen lots of examples of the "new" stamp set Something for Baby, and wanted to make a card I could send along with them instead of sending it in the mail.  I also sent along some things my husband and I got from our local Babies R Us store.  We don't have children, but I LOVE going there!  So much fun just filling the cart with baby stuff you know the new baby and mommy and daddy will need!

 When I got this stamp set, I took a picture of the stack-able toy when we saw it at WM so I'd have a color reference, and I'm glad I did!    Instead of stamping the onsie and duckie, I just used some patterned paper and the die to cut out the shapes.

 

 I love the look of layered punches!  For the front piece, I layered 4!  From back to front, you have the Decorative Label, the Artisan Label, the Modern Label, and 'bundle of boy' is stamped and cut with the Word Window punch.  Whew! 

 Two of the other stamps come from the stamp set "Bundled Baby".  I water-colored and hand-cut those to add as accents.

I love the bear image at the right panel - it's one of the retired Build-a-Bear stamps I use on baby cards.  He's also water-colored.

The main cardstock color I used is Pacific Point from Stampin' Up.  The patterned paper is from a DCWV stack called All Boy.

New Baby!

So I've decided that working full time teaching severely cuts into my crafting time, and I don't like it one bit!
That said,  I was asked to make 70 invitations to a baby shower for my cousin.

I was so thrilled to hear that they are expecting!  The new baby will be a wonderful addition to the family. :)

My cousin and his wife wanted green and yellow as the main colors, with a brown accent.  After some thought on this,  I went back to a design I've used before for 1 page shower invitations.

I cut the background invitation piece on my Cricut from the New Arrival cartridge, and inked it in a light brown ink to give it some definition.  The top piece is vellum, embossed with the Cuttlebug "baby" folder.
I ran out of time, so just a few of the vellum overlays had some inking to bring up the details on the embossing.

I used the retired Stampin' Up slot punch on the edges to thread the ribbon.  A little adhesive under the ribbon to keep everything together, and a trick I learned;  tie bows upside down.
I turned the cards away from me so I was looking at them upside down, and the bows all turned out right-side up!  Go figure. 

After assembling them, it took me just a few days to write out all the information needed for the shower.

Thank You Card

Mom requested a Thank You card for a friend...


After two reminders (It's been VERY busy here...) I made a card, but hated it.  It's been a long time since I've done any crafting it seems.


So, I dug out my favorite fall stamp set "Gently Falling", and my new favorite  "Work of Art', and merged the two. 

 I like the watercolor look from the Work of Art stamp set.

I used Cajun Craze,  Garden Green, and Smoky Slate as the main colors with a touch of copper Stickles to add some sparkle.