Gift for a friend

I made this card & scratch pad holder for a friend of mine that I thought needed some cheering up. I've had this Lasting Impressions polka dotted paper forever and never knew what to do with it. I usually use their paper to emboss on and cut the embossed pieces out. It never dawned on me to use it as a background paper until now! Duh! I embossed the flowers and put a doodlebug sugar coated brad through the centers. I adhered them to the card using foam tape, then stamped "to a sweet friend" at the bottom with an A Muse stamp.

To make the scratch pad, I bought a pack of small plain scratch pads at Staples. I then cut a piece of cardstock to fit around the scratch pad and created the topper to (somewhat) match the card. I didn't have any extra of the polka dot paper so I used some other Lasting Impressions scrap paper for the topper. I used the same A Muse stamp to stamp the sentiment at the bottom of the first page. I love how this turned out, and I hope my friend loves it too!

Hope you have a great weekend. I have a busy one planned, two Caps home games this weekend. Hoping for a 2 win weekend!

Two Different Takes on a Valentine

I made the black/white/pink Love card first, and wasn't really happy with the way the color combo looked together. I then decided to try it in a red/black/white color combo (my fav) and liked how it turned out much better. I used Lasting Impressions templates and paper for both of these cards.

Now if I could only take a good photo of these cards... I swear I think I took pics of these cards at least a dozen times each. It's terrible that I leave for work when it's still dark out and get home when it's dark out, so no chance of having daylight to help with the quality of my photos. I have two Ott lights and set them both up on either side of my cards, and still have shadows and they look dark to me. If anyone has any tips for taking better photos, I'd love to hear them. Thanks!

Fun Card Swap

From Koren (purpleladybug)
From Lidia (midweststamper)
From Emily (eddienharley)
From Janet (Jarie)
From Gayle (2for2)
From Susan (smkymtsu)

I signed up for a card swap on the Paper Crafts site recently. For the first part of the swap, I stamped an image (the retro housewife stamp from Viva Las Vegas stamps) 6 times and then mailed the images to the swap hostess, Susan. She took everyone's images, swapped them and mailed 6 different images out to each of the swap participants. We then had to color the images and make cards from the images. Everyone mails their completed cards back to the swap hostess, she swaps the cards, and then everyone receives 6 cards back made from their images. I love all the cards I received back. I had no idea what to do with this image, and now I have lots of ideas! Aren't these cards fantastic?

Iron Chef Recipe Card

Here is my latest Iron Chef Recipe Card. This month the secret ingredient was mushrooms. My category was crock pot recipes. Finding a good recipe was super easy! When I found these new Imaginisce papers at my LSS, Angela's Happy Stamper, I knew they would be perfect for my cards. Sort of has a 1970's feel to it I think. I'm loving how these turned out!

Sketch Challenge

I think I've said this before, but design is the hardest part about making cards for me. I guess that's why I love sketches. They just give me something to work from and get my creative juices flowing! I loved the sketch this month that was listed on the Embossing Yahoo group I belong to. I used Lasting Impressions papers and a "new" Lasting Impressions Valentine template (from last year that I just now opened and used for the first time). Funny how many "new" templates I have laying around. Hope you're having a great week!

Cupcake Card

This cupcake template is quickly becoming one of my favorite Lasting Impressions templates. I seem to reach for it every time I need a birthday card. It's just cute and fits perfectly in my Marvy circle & scallop punches. And I have to tell you, I made this card entirely from my scraps!! If you didn't know, I normally do not keep my scraps at all, unless they're Lasting Impressions paper. I always seem to forget to use the scraps when I make a card and then I accumulate piles and piles of scrap paper and eventually throw it out when I clean, so why keep them in the first place? So I am pretty proud of myself for using nothing but scraps to make this card!

I'm getting out of town for a few days, away from the inauguration mess around here. I went to the inauguration in 2001 and there were 400,000 people attending. It was an amazing experience and I feel so lucky to live close to DC and have the opportunity to attend an event like that. I had never seen so many people in my life, or been so cold! The estimates for attendance this year are 2-5 million. I can't imagine what that is going to be like, the only word that comes to mind is chaos! I'll be back to blogging late this week.

Embossing Challenge

There are monthly challenges on the Yahoo Embossing group I belong to. One person hosts the challenge and sends out an embossed image to all the participants. The challenge is to make a card using the embossed image. It is amazing how despite using the same image, everyone's cards turned out so differently! This month the image was this adorable snow-girl. I used Lasting Impressions paper and the sentiment is a stamp by Inky Antics. Hope you're staying warm!

Criss Cross Card

I love making these kinds of cards. I love any kind of card that doesn't open the typical way. I just wanted to make a fun and simple card to have on hand, and I think I accomplished it with this card. The frog stamp is by Imaginisce and the papers are by 3 Bugs in a Rug. I got the directions on how to make the criss cross card at Splicoast Stampers site. Hope you're having a nice week!

Iron Chef Recipe Card

December's Iron Chef Recipe Card swap surprise ingredient was cream cheese! Yum! I love cream cheese. I chose pie/cake as my category so this was an easy one. I found this recipe for a pear cake that has cream cheese in it. I dry embossed the pear and the actual recipe is tucked behind the ingredients as a pull out. I think my page needs something else, more colors or something, but I ran out of time. I had to get my pages out before Christmas, so they went out like this. I'm hoping to be more organized in the New Year and not procrastinate so much on my swaps. Any bets on how long I can keep that resolution?!

Doggie Card

I was blog surfing and found these super cute doggie images. They are by Pollycraft Designs, and they are digital images! This is my first time playing with digital images, and I think I'm hooked! They came with 3 different images on a page, one sheet had the images already colored, and the 2nd page had the same images in black & white, so you can color them. I thought I would want to color them, but using the pre-colored images took the guesswork & stress out of using my copics! The images are perfect to make a super cute, easy card.

You'll shoot your eye out!

Are you a fan of the Christmas Story movie?? I love it!! My mom lives in Northeast Ohio, not too far from where the Christmas Story movie was filmed in the 80's. The house is now restored and open for tours and we got a chance to visit it this year. I learned on the tour that only the outside shots of the house were filmed in Cleveland Ohio at this home. The inside shots of the home and school scenes were all filmed in Canada. They've restored the house to resemble the home from the movie, and they have a museum and gift shop across the street. Let me just say, this house is in a very, very bad neighborhood. I was a little scared when we pulled up the street. The tour guide told us they have plans to purchase a few houses in the neighborhood and make it a "Christmas Story wonderland" (oh how wonderful!) and turn a few of the houses into bed & breakfasts. They are in negotiations to purchase the Bumpas' house next door - remember the Bumpas family had the dogs that reigned terror on their Thanksgiving turkey dinner! A few of the original characters were at the house, the female elf from the Higbee's scene that says "Hurry up kid, the mall's closing!" to Ralphie; and the delivery guy who brings the "major award" leg lamp to their home. Did you know the Christmas Story house is the #1 most visited museum in Cleveland for the last 2 years?! Wow! There are some good museums in Cleveland. Surpassing the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Science Museum and others?! I would say I am surprised, but after visisiting there, it is so interesting and I strongly recommend it to all! Hope you enjoy these pics.

Engagement Gift

Yep, my brother got engaged!! He asked Kristen to marry him a couple weeks ago. I am so excited to gain a sister in law! (Especially one who's into making cards too!) I know they enjoy going to the Lake Erie Monsters hockey games, so I thought I would get them tickets to a game as an engagement gift. I thought this skate would be the perfect thing to hold the tickets. I think they'll like it. I got the skate template in the member section of the Stamp Shack. I found the Lake Erie Monsters image online.