Heidi

Employee Gifts

2011-11-30T11:17:00.000-08:00

Hi! Here are a few gifts that I made for my employees. I like to give them little gifts to let them know I appreciate their hard work. I bought some Extra gum and put a ribbon around it, added a tag that says "Thanks for all your EXTRA effort!" The second picture I used a cello bag and added a topper. I printed the topper from my computer, added some punch stars and was done! These were both very easy and quick projects, and go a long way to let someone know you appreciate them. Have a great day!

ABC Wall Hanging

2011-10-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

Hello! I have been working hard on this project, and finally can share it! It was a gift for my sister-in-law at her baby shower. Each square is 6 1/2", and I used Lasting Impressions paper for each square. The back is covered with fun foam, that you can buy at JoAnn's or Michael's or your local craft store. The letters were cut using my Cricut Expression. The shapes for each object were made using Lasting Impressions brass templates. A few letters I had to get creative with, because I didn't have any templates that matched certain letters. K (Kite) is a template that I made, as well as Q (Quarter), X (Xylophone), Y (Yo-Yo) and Z (Zipper). I am very pleased with how it turned out and I know it will look great in the baby's nursery. My sister-in-law loved it! Have a great weekend!

Sweet!

2011-10-02T15:01:00.000-07:00

Hi there, Just sharing a quick card I made recently. I used Lasting Impressions paper and templates to make this card. The strawberry is an old template and so is the oval templates that I used. The paper is on sale at Lasting Impressions, it's from a 6x6 paper pack that is only $2! An amazing deal! Hope you had a great weekend and are staying warm!

Cricut Baby Banner

2011-09-20T07:22:00.001-07:00

Wow, time flies, I can't believe it's been so long since I posted! I just got home from a 3 day crop and am so exhausted! I didn't get much completed, which is always disappointing but had a lot of fun, nevertheless!

This is a baby banner that I completed at the crop. I used my Cricut with the New Arrival cartridge. I designed the banner on my Cricut Gypsy. It made the project really fast & easy. I can't wait to hang this banner at my sister-in-law's baby shower in a few weeks!

Thanks for stoping by!

Perfect Pair

2011-08-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

Hi! I have posted on my blog before about the monthly challenge on the Yahoo Embossing group I belong to. Each month one person hosts the challenge, and August is my month to host. I choose a template, (the Salt/Pepper template by Lasting Impressions), and emboss several pieces, and mail them out to the challenge participants. The participants have to make a card using the pieces I mail to them. I have no idea what to do with this template, other than what I did with my card here. I hope I get to see lots of creative ideas from the ladies that participate in the challenge. I used my favorite Lasting Impressions paper on this card, it already has a distressed look to it. Hope you have a great weekend!

More Christmas in July!

2011-07-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

Hi there, thanks for stopping by! Here a few Christmas gift tags I made for the Lasting Impressions blog. It was hard to get in the Christmas spirit when the heat index is pushing 110 but I enjoyed staying indoors and crafting to make these tags! Hope you have a great weekend! I'm heading to the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Valley Forge, PA for a long weekend. I am looking forward to getting away!

Flower Pocket Card

2011-07-21T19:33:00.001-07:00

Hi, Hope you are having a great week! I made this card for a friend. I was sending her a few little goodies so I wanted to include a pocket to hold everything. I know there are tutorials out there for making this kind of card but I just kind of winged it... and wasted a lot of paper in the meantime. Don't you just hate that!!? I love how the card turned out though, and the picture does not do it justice. The paper is by Lasting Impressions (although I think it may be retired), it has repeating gardening words on it and the flower template is by Lasting Impressions as well. Have a great weekend!

Christmas in July

2011-07-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

Hello, Thanks for stopping by! Here are a couple cards I made when I was thinking about Christmas in July. It's never too early to start making your Christmas cards! These two cards were fairly simple to make, I used Lasting Impressions templates and their line of distressed papers. They are one of my favorite lines of paper, and they all coordinate so well together.

Hope you had a great weekend, I have lots more Christmas in July projects to show you later this week!

Red, White & Blue Challenge Card

2011-07-01T14:44:00.001-07:00

Hello, Happy Independence Day! I made this card for the Woodware USA challenge. I used Woodware USA stamps for the sentiment and the mouse. I colored the mouse with Copic markers. The red, white & blue paper is from Hobby Lobby. The stripes were going diagonal on the paper and I cut it so they would be horizontal (straight), I just thought it looked better that way. Hope you have a great weekend!

Just for you

2011-06-29T08:27:00.001-07:00

Hi, Hope you are having a great week! I wanted to share this card that I made for a friend. I added stitching around the edge of this card with thread, I love how it turned out. It is time consuming but I think it's worth it. I poked holes using a Lasting Impressions stitching guide template and then sewed the thread through the holes. I used several different Lasting Impressions templates for this card, SG300, L528 and L9012. All the paper I used is from Lasting Impressions too. I have the day off from work today and am going to do a little cleaning and organizing in my craft room, and hopefully have some time to create!

Exciting News!

2011-06-27T03:12:00.000-07:00

Hi, Happy Monday! Here is another card I made using the same bee template I used on my last card. I did not like this template at all when I first saw it but it is quickly becoming one of my favorites! I used several different Lasting Impressions templates for this card, L9402, L9369, and L9640 and the bubble swirl edge on the side of the card was made with the M24 template.

Now for my exciting news... I have been named to the Lasting Impressions design team! I am so thrilled to be a part of the design team. I love Lasting Impressions brass templates. Lasting Impressions has a new website, and to introduce it they are giving away two $20 gift certificates to their store. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on their blog or Face Book page for a chance to win. Contest ends Tuesday, June 28, 2011. Be sure to check out the new website, there is a gallery where you can submit your own embossed cards. I'd love to see your creations!

Bee Happy!

2011-06-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

Hi, This card took me so much longer to make than I expected! Does that ever happen to you? You envision the card design in your head but then when you try to put it on paper, it seems to take forever!! I used a Lasting Impressions stitching template to punch holes in the cardstock, and then hand stitched floss through the punched holes. I dry embossed the bee and added it to the card, and printed the "Bee Happy" sentiment from my computer. Have a great week!

Challenge Card

2011-06-09T04:49:00.000-07:00

Hi, I made this card for a challenge on a Facebook Group I belong to. The challenge was to make a card using Orange, Pink and White. It also had to have two circles (behind my flower), a square (behind the circles), flowers, ribbon, a sentiment and two buttons. This was a tough challenge for me! It was a lot to fit onto one card! I like how it turned out though. All the paper and brass templates I used are from Lasting Impressions. I'm not sure who makes the Pink ribbon, the orange ribbon is from Lasting Impressions as well. Have a great day and stay cool!

New Stamps!

2011-06-05T16:10:00.000-07:00

Hope you had a great weekend! This is a card I made for a friend. We went shopping yesterday at the outlet mall, and she helped me pick out a lot of cute summer clothes for work. Clothes shopping is definitely not my thing and I consider my friend to be a fashionista! I couldn't have picked out the clothes that I bought without her help! These stamps are by Woodware USA, and I just love this bear set. I think it's so cute.

Nashville Vacation Scrapbook Pages

2011-06-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

Hi, I wanted to share some of my scrapbook pages from my Nashville vacation last September. I had a fabulous time there! It was my 2nd vacation by myself, and I have to say, it is the best way to vacation! (For short trips!) I do whatever I want, eat when I want and where I want! It's the best!

Starting from the top picture:

I went to Cooters Place in Nashville, I grew up watching the Dukes of Hazard so this was so neat to see!

Dukes of Hazard Museum in Nashville - wow, who knew there was so much memorabilia!!?? I was amazed. So fun to see all the Dukes of Hazard stuff they had on display. They also had TV's set up playing re-runs of the show.

Chihuly Glass Display at the Botanical Gardens - this is the same artist that did the glass display in the ceiling of the Bellagio in Las Vegas. It's blown glass art, and it is gorgeous! They had a special display in the Botanical Gardens where the glass art was lit up at night. This was so gorgeous!

Dog Marley - walking down the streets in downtown Nashville, I came across a man who had two dogs sitting on his motorcycle. Both the dogs had dreadlocks, and he had their hair dyed!! They were so well behaved, not sure I would have been in their position.

Predators vs Caps game - My reason for going to Nashville! I saw the Caps play in a pre-season game against the Predators. My first time there and in that arena. So much fun, and the Caps won! I met two other Caps fans there, we had a blast hanging out after the game and I still keep in touch with both of them!

Fall Creek Falls Park, I drove 2 hours to reach this park, it was gorgeous! I crossed a suspension bridge for the first time! I spent the day hiking, it was so fun!

Jack Daniels Distillery - so interesting! I took the tour of the distillery, and I would love to go back and do it again. Beautiful town and a really cool experience!
Have a great week!

I got a lot of the sketches for my pages from Amy's 4x6 scrapbook sketch blog. I did not crop any of my photos! Quick and simple!

Have a great week!

Cute Cupcake

2011-05-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

Hope you're having a great weekend! This is a card I made for a friend. I found the cupcake template on Ebay. I'm normally strictly a Lasting Impressions brand template type of girl, but this cupcake template just called out to me. I'm a sucker for images of food with faces!! This template is by ATD. All the paper is by Lasting Impressions.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Butterfly Challenge Card

2011-05-27T03:23:00.001-07:00

Happy Friday! This is a card I made for a challenge with a Yahoo Embossing Group I belong to, called "The Bossy Group." Each month, one person hostesses a challenge, she picks a brass template, embosses the image of the template, and mails the image to each of the participants. This month, the image was these butterflies and a sentiment. Each participant has to make a card using the image they receive. I really enjoy these challenges. It is so much fun to see how creative everyone is, and how everyone's cards turn out differently! I get a lot of ideas on how to use different templates.

Have a great weekend!

Baby Shower Invites!

2011-05-21T11:13:00.001-07:00

Hi! Thanks for stopping by! I got some wonderful news last month, my brother & his wife are expecting their first baby! I am going to make their baby shower invitations so I've been busy making a few samples for them. They don't know yet if it's going to be a girl or a boy, but they will find out soon! Then I'll know if I need blue paper or pink paper!

The first pink card I made using Stampin' Up punches, following the tutorial on this post, here. I changed it a little bit, she mentioned a 1" punch for the head, that looked too tiny to me, so I used 1 1/2" circle punch for the head. I sponged all the edges of the baby's body to make it stand out a little more. I used an A Muse stamp "Your're Invited" on the bottom of the card. I still had left over paper from making their wedding invitations, so I used that same paper on this card!

I loved making the onesie card, it was so easy and fast!! I used the tutorial to make it found here, and I used a varitey of Stampin' Up punches. The duck image is from A Muse Stamps too.

Have a great weekend!

The People of Las Vegas Flip Album

2011-05-17T10:17:00.000-07:00

Hi there, I wanted to share this flip album that I made for my mom for her birthday. My mom LOVES Las Vegas, and these are pictures from one of her recent trips to Las Vegas. One of her favorite things about the city are all the street people! I put all the pictures in a flip album and titled it "The People of Las Vegas." She loved it!

I've made this type of flip album before, here is the link to a previous post where I made another one. These are so quick, fun and easy to make!

Have a great week!

Prince

2011-05-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm back! Finally done moving, and getting settled in my new home, and have unpacked my craft room! I am still hanging things on the wall but will post pictures of my craft room later this week. I am LOVING it! For now, I am sharing a dry embossed card I made for a swap. This card was designed based on a sketch. The crown looks sparkly, it's not, I made it using plain silver paper. I think my camera added the extra sparkle! I used a Lasting Impressions brass template to create the frog, crown and Prince sentiment. The paper is all from Lasting Impressions too (except the silver paper, I'm not sure who makes that). Off to check out some other blogs, I can't wait to see what everyone has been up to! Have a great rest of the weekend!

Sketch Cards

2011-04-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

Hi, I've been gone awhile! I'm packing up and getting ready for a move and have been so busy. It is hard to pack up everything after living in the same home for 10 years. I am looking forward to getting settled in my new craft room! Last month, I visited my friend Cin in Canada. We had so much fun playing in her wonderfully organized craft room! We know each other through the Yahoo Embossing group that I've mentioned here before, and we made cards to swap with each other, based ona sketch. Cin used a template that I gave her, which is 3 flowers and leaves (see pic above) and saw a bunny instead of flowers! She used the template to make a bunny card. I was amazed, I guess I am very literal and just never see things for anything other than their true intention! The chick card is the card I made for Cin based on the sketch. Happy Spring!

Monogrammed Card Sets

2010-12-27T11:31:00.002-08:00

Hi, Hope you had a wonderful holiday! Mine was wonderful. Got to visit family and friends, can't ask for any more than that!

I made some monogrammed card sets for my co-workers this year. I made the A-2 box that they're in, with the pattern from SplitcoastStampers website. The monogram stamps are from Just Rite. I love their stamps! The paper is leftover from my brother's wedding invitations! I am glad to be using it up.

Hope you have a wonderful New Year! I'm off to Pittsburgh to watch the Capitals in the Winter Classic outdoor hockey game.

Gift Card Holder

2010-12-19T09:49:00.001-08:00

Hi, Thanks for stopping by my blog. I can't believe it's been over two months since I posted something! Wow, time flies!

I wanted to share a gift card holder I made for a friend. I found the template for the gift card holder at Splitcoast Stamper's website. I dry embossed the poinsettia and added a button. The Merry Christmas stamp is by A Muse. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas holiday! I am off to check out my favorite blogs and see what I've been missing!

Thanks!

2010-10-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

Hi, Thanks for stopping by my blog. This is just a quick post to share a Thank You card I made for a friend. I used two different Lasting Impressions brass templates - one to emboss the Thank You sentiment and one to emboss the seashells. I used more of my favorite Lasting Impressions distressed paper on this card. Hope you're having a great week! I'm looking forward to going to a Capitals game tomorrow, so glad the season is in full swing again!

Fall Thank You

2010-10-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

Hi, Wow, it's been awhile since I posted anything! I've been creating, so I guess I have no excuse for not posting! Promise I'll post more soon. It's finally feeling like fall here, so I thought it was a perfect time to post this card.

Here is a card I made using two older Lasting Impressions templates. The paper is also from Lasting Impressions. It's some of my favorite paper from them, I love the distressed look. I embossed the designs and then rubbed them with sandpaper, that technique causes the white to show through the paper. Have a great weekend!

Changing a template

2010-09-23T03:40:00.000-07:00

Hi there, here is a card I made using a new Lasting Impressions template. The first picture shows how the template looks normally. I didn't like how the 'a' in the word Thanks was out of place above the rest of the words. That bothered me, so I changed the look of my card, simply by moving the template under my paper as I embossed. I'm happy with how it turned out. I'm really enjoying using this brightly colored paper, I stocked up on it when Lasting Impressions had a big sale so I'm trying to make sure I use it rather than just hoard it! Have a great weekend!

Template Challenge

2010-09-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

I belong to a yahoo embossing group and each month we have a challenge to create a card using the same template. August was my month to host the challenge and I used this happy birthday template by Lasting Impressions. The first card is the card that I created. I'm not crazy about it, I think it's plain and boring! That's why I like these challenges, I get lots of new ideas for using my templates! I wanted to share a couple of the cards that other participants made. The second card is made by Donna, and the third card is made by Cin. I love their cards, thanks for sharing them with me ladies! Hope you have a great week!

Lemon Ice Cream

2010-09-04T11:03:00.001-07:00

Here is the latest card I made for the monthly Iron Chef recipe card swap that I participate in. My category was cold dessert, and the secret ingredient was lemons! Our hostess, Jessica, sent everyone some patterned paper and challenged us to use the paper on our cards. The paper is blue, brown & white! Doesn't exactly go with yellow or a lemon theme, so it was definitely a challenge for me. I am pretty happy with how my card turned out though. I dry embossed the "Lemon Ice Cream" title, the lemon and lemon slices using a Lasting Impressions brass template. I put the recipe itself into a pocket I created with brown cardstock. Hope you're having a great holiday weekend!

OT: Mike Green

2010-08-23T18:27:00.001-07:00

Hi, I wanted to share something a little off topic. This past Saturday, I volunteered at an elementary school in DC with Mike Green, defenseman for the Washington Capitals, and about 100 other Caps fans. The Caps donated paint, supplies for kids and teachers, plants & flowers, etc and we spent the morning sprucing up the school. This school definitely needed our help, it was in bad shape. I was on the goody bag committee. I never got a goody bag for going back to school, so I was a tad jealous. Especially because the goody bags were filled with school supplies and Caps trinkets! We also filled goody bags for the teachers, which consisted of construction paper, Lysol wipes, hand sanitizer and an electric pencil sharpener. We delivered the goody bags to the classrooms and I was amazed at the teacher's reactions. Every one of them was SO thankful for all the supplies, but especially for that pencil sharpener. One teacher said she had been asking for a pencil sharpener for 3 years and the school couldn't afford it. How sad is it that an electric pencil sharpener is so high on their list!!? I was sad and amazed at the same time. Mike Green was very nice and took the time to speak with each volunteer and sign autographs. I love this picture of me with him. When I first met him several years ago, I was so excited, I had a huge goofy smile on my face and I was blushing so badly (can you blame me, he's sort of cute) so the picture turned out horrible. At least I was able to take a better picture with him this time! Hope to be back later this week with some crafty posts!

Cards for Kids

2010-08-19T18:31:00.000-07:00

Above is a card I made for the little Ring Bearer that was in my brother's wedding. He is my brother's wife's nephew. He did such a good job as a ring bearer and as the oldest grandchild in their family, he is so helpful with the other kids. He just loves my brother's iPod Touch and always wants to play games on it. He told my brother that he decided he's saving his money to buy an iPhone. The cutest thing was that my brother asked him who he was going to call (he's in 2nd grade this year) and he said he would call his Mom. He was open about being for hire to do chores to earn money so he could buy the phone. I made this card and sent it to him with $5 and told him I hope it got him closer to his goal of buying the iPhone. I used Stampin' Up punches to make the card, and printed a picture of him & his brother and sister and put it on the front, to resemble how photos look on the iPhone. I hope he likes the card!

Above is a frog card I made with Stampin' Up punches. This is for the youngest nephew. They all looked so cute at the wedding and were so well behaved. I made these cards and put some money in each one to send to them. I made the bee/flower card out of punches too, for one of the flower girls.

And, the last group of cards for the kids. I made these from punches too. I made the watermelon card for the youngest flower girl, she loves fruit and vegetables! I made the bite mark in the watermelon with a scallop circle punch. I just used the very edge of it to make it look like someone had bit into the watermelon. The other card is supposed to look like Legos! I hope I accomplished the look!

Purses

2010-08-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

I got the pattern to make these cute little purses from this blog. Aren't they so cute? I made them to send to my brother's wife's sisters. I met them for the first time at the wedding, and they were so nice & welcoming to our family. I filled them with some mints and closed them with some velcro tape. They are pretty small, I was thinking they might be good to hold a gift card. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Embossed Card

2010-08-15T09:00:00.001-07:00

This is a card I made for a 1-on-1 embossing card swap. You could choose any theme, so I chose to use some of my new Lasting Impressions templates for this card. I love how it turned out. I just love that new tree template. Hope you're having a good weekend. It's a rainy day here, so I'm spending the day in my craft room, still trying to un-bury my table from wedding related projects. Hope to work on something new this afternoon.

It's a Zoo!

2010-08-09T17:50:00.000-07:00

Hi there, this is a door hanger that I made for an embossing swap. I had a hard time coming up with a theme for it, and I looked around my craft room and was inspired to make this! Trust me, it is a total zoo in my craft room right now!! Haven't had time to clean up after being out of town for my brother's wedding. I am in the midst of some fun projects and also trying to clean out and get rid of a lot of stuff. I used Lasting Impressions templates for the animals, their frames and the words. All of the paper is by Lasting Impressions too. I used several sheets of cardstock (4? I can't remember) to make the strong backing for the door hanger. Hope you are having a great summer!

Wedding Craftiness

2010-08-05T15:18:00.000-07:00

When you entered the reception hall, there was a table where you could stop & pick up your name place card. They had 203 guests at this wedding!! On the same table, they had two frames, one with the save the date card and this message thanking me for making the save the dates & invitations, and the frame next to it had the invitation on it for display. I got so many compliments (even from men! You know you did a good job when a man compliments your crafts!) and I thought it was so sweet of them to do that for me.

Kristen & Jeff made the centerpieces themselves, I think they turned out so good. They used mason jars, filled them with coffee beans and stuck daisies in the top. I thought they were so cute. In an effort to save money and not use so many coffee beans, they rolled up a piece of brown cardstock and stuck it in the middle of the mason jar. The coffee beans are just around the glass and the center where the flowers are is empty, inside the rolled up cardstock. I thought that was a great idea.

This was the table for gifts. My Aunt JoAnn came from TX for the wedding and brought Jeff & Kristen this quilt that she made for them. She brought a couple sharpie pens and had people sign the quilt as they came in. Everyone signed on the white part of the quilt. I had never heard of this before, and it was a huge hit. The quilt was beautiful, and done in pinks & browns, their wedding colors. You can see the black/white canvas wall hanging that I made for them in this pic as well. I posted a photo of it last week on my blog. Kristen saw it before the wedding and started crying! I am so glad she liked it.

Wedding Photos

2010-08-04T04:03:00.000-07:00

I'm back from my brother's wedding. We had so much fun, the day was just perfect and everything went smoothly. I'll post a few more photos tomorrow that have some crafty stories behind them. Whhewwww.... I am glad this wedding is over. Now I'll have more time to craft for fun!

Wedding Time

2010-07-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

It's finally time for my brother's wedding! Seems not that long ago that I was working on sample invitations and making save the date cards. Since my gift to them was the save the date cards and invitations, I am not giving them a huge gift. I made this canvas wall hanging for them. It's made from a Quick Quotes kit that I found at a Scrapbook Convention that I attended last month. Super easy and quick to put together. I ordered the picture of them from the photographer that did their engagement photos. The die cut tree and all the other pieces came with the kit. I'll be away for a few days, hope you have a great weekend!

Climie vs Neuvy

2010-07-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

One more scrapbook page from my Austin, TX trip! This is a page I made to show the goaltenders from each team. Climie is (was?) the goaltender for the Texas Stars, and Neuvirth "Neuvy" is (was? - not sure what next season will bring) the goaltender for the Hershey Bears. I found this hockey rink paper at my local AC Moore. I cut the words from my cricut, matted the 4x6 photos on some orange cardstock and that was it! Super easy page but I love how it turned out. It's one of my favorite layouts from my scrapbook. I put a little bit of journaling in the upper right hand corner. You can click on the picture to enlarge it and read the journaling. Thanks for stopping by!

Hockey Scrapbooking

2010-07-22T16:06:00.000-07:00

These are a few more pages from my TX vacation scrapbook. These pictures are from the Calder Cup Final (AHL) game that I went to see in Austin TX. I had so much journaling on my other hockey pages, explaining what the pics are from, I thought it would be redundant to add journaling to these pages. The titles pretty much describe the pictures. I got the sketch ideas for the pages from this blog. I used my Cricut to cut the titles. Thanks for stopping by my blog! I appreciate it!

Swaps

2010-07-20T15:35:00.001-07:00

Hi, These are two projects I made for swaps. The card swap had to follow a sketch (which I've since lost/deleted the image of, so I can't share it with you, oops!) and had to use the colors blue and orange. The image is from CC Designs. The recipe card is for the Iron Chef recipe card swap. We were each assigned an ingredient (mine was onion) and then we had to design a recipe card using our ingredient in a vegetarian main dish. This was pretty difficult. Who knew it was so hard to find a vegetarian main dish with onions in it?! Hope you're having a great week!

Scrapbook Pages

2010-07-14T15:06:00.000-07:00

Hi, These are a couple more scrapbook pages that I made of my trip to Austin, TX in June. For the first page, I cut the title with my Cricut and used one 4x6 photo. On the left & right sides of the page, I dry embossed a wavy pattern. I thought the page looked too plain without it. The journaling says "New haircut & highlights - Frenchy's Salon, Austin TX." The second page shows a single 4x6 photo with me and a few friends I met while in Austin. I talked to these ladies on the Texas Stars facebook page prior to my trip to Austin, and then we met up during the hockey game. Everyone is so nice in TX, it's easy to make friends there! I dry embossed a tag and journaled on the tag. I cut out the title on my Cricut. Hope you are having a great week!

Cedar Park Center

2010-07-08T17:43:00.003-07:00

Hi, Thanks for stopping by my blog! I've been working on some scrapbook pages to highlight photos from my trip to Austin, TX in June. This is a 2 page 12x12 layout I did on the hockey arena, Cedar Park Center. I don't consider myself a scrapbooker, but I am really happy with how this came out! This layout was really quick & easy to put together. I used two pages of patterned paper, some tan cardstock that I inked the edges with brown ink on, and a few embossed elements. I used a Lasting Impressions brass template and embossed a few stars and the Cedar Park Arena title. All the photos on this pages are 4x6, so no cropping involved there. I got the idea for the sketch at this blog. She has some great sketches that are wonderful for making quick pages using 4x6 photos.

The journaling says "Cedar Park Arena is the home of the Texas Stars. 2009-2010 was the Stars 1st season. They have a great fan base already. I saw the Hershey Bears face the Stars for Games 4 & 5 of the Calder Cup finals. The Bears won both games! Austin TX June 2010." It is really hard to photograph 2 page layouts! I hope you are able to see my layout okay! I feel like the picture doesn't do it justice!

Pergamano Coaster

2010-06-27T07:40:00.001-07:00

I said in my last post that I would post some of my original Pergamano projects that I made years ago. This is one of my first Pergamano projects. I made this small Pergamano project and put it in a coaster that I bought at Michaels. I made a lot of mistakes on this one, but I still think it looks pretty nice. It's so delicate and different that I don't think people notice all the mistakes I made! Pergamano is a technique that involves embossing on parchment paper. Hope you're having a great weekend and are staying cool!

Back from Texas....

2010-06-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun in Texas! The people there are so friendly, and I loved the city. Definitely different from East Coast life! Here are a few pics from my trip. I got my hair done while I was there. I went back to being blonde! I had a lot of fun at the hockey games and the Hershey Bears won both games I attended. It was worth the 3030 miles round trip! I went to San Antonio and saw the Alamo and also went to Waco and visited the Branch Davidian/Waco massacre site. That was very moving, and extremely sad. I didn't realize so many young people died during that stand off. The hockey picture is when my team won Game 5 in Overtime!! They came over and celebrated next to the glass almost right in front of me. How thoughtful of them, I got some good pictures!

On a crafting note, I've been taking lessons on Pergamano. I love this technique! I took a few lessons on Pergamano several years ago, then got sidetracked on other things, and decided I wanted to try it again. I found a teacher nearby and have really enjoyed learning about Pergamano again. Pergamano is dry embossing on Parchment paper. I mostly like the look of white on white Pergamano, so most of the cards and projects I make using the Pergamano technique won't have much color. I think it looks so elegant and is just beautiful. I made this card as a wedding card for my brother & his fiance. This technique is time consuming, it took me over 3 hours to make this card. I am so pleased with how it turned out. I think it's my best pergamano project that I've made! I'll post some of my original creations from years ago later, but they are not as good as this one. Hope you have a great week!

Monkey Business

2010-06-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

Hi there, I just love this monkey template. He's a new one by Lasting Impressions. On the template, he's not hanging upside down. He's hanging from his arms. You can see it here. I then saw a card on Laura's blog that I thought was so cute, with a monkey hanging by it's legs. So I thought, I can change this monkey to hang by it's legs too! I embossed each part of his body separately and then put him together to look like he's hanging from his legs. Then I used another template for the birthday gift and then tried to make it look like he was holding the gift.

Hope you are having a great weekend. You all know I am a big hockey fan. Well, my team the Capitals didn't make it very far in the playoffs this year, so now I am obsessing over the Capitals minor league team. I am off to Hershey, PA for a day trip today to watch the Hershey Bears play in Game 2 of 7 of the Calder Cup finals. Then in a few days, I am traveling to TX to watch the Hershey Bears take on their opponent the TX Stars for Games 4 and 5. I am looking forward to getting away, even if it's for a short time!

Card Swap

2010-05-27T18:14:00.000-07:00

Hi, Thanks for stopping by. I wanted to share some cards I made for a card swap. I'm not happy with how my pictures turned out. It was dark when I took the pics. I tried to lighten them with photoshop but then the colors turned weird. Trust me, these cards are a lot cuter in person! I used purple and green patterned paper from Lasting Impressions and dry embossed the word "Thanks" on each card. Hope you have a fantastic holiday weekend!

Iron Chef Recipe Card

2010-05-23T12:33:00.000-07:00

After about an 8 month hiatus, I am swapping with the Iron Chef gals again! I am so excited to have the time to commit to swapping again. I had to take a break from swapping with them because I was just too busy trying to finish my brother's wedding invites and save the date cards. Now that I have those projects behind me, I can devote some time to swapping. I love the Iron Chef recipe swap. It's a swap for 6x6 recipe cards. Our hostess, Jess, is wonderful! I couldn't ask for a better hostess. She's organized and always provides us with great sketches and challenges. She provided the patterned paper to all the swappers and our challenge was to use the patterned paper and this sketch. The theme was salads. I chose a broccoli salad recipe. The tag has the recipe for the dressing on it. I wish I had taken a picture of the tag before I sent my pages off to the hostess, oh well. We're always looking for more people to join our little group of recipe page swappers, so if you're interested please let me know!

Perpetual Birthday Calendar

2010-05-22T04:42:00.000-07:00

I made this perpetual birthday calendar a LONG time ago. Probably 2 years ago. I just found it in my stash of cards and gifts that I've made, and decided I guess I can part with it. I gave it to a friend of mine last week. She loved it. It's the perfect size to keep in your purse. The dates were printed on my computer and just layered with cardstock to make it a little rigid. Everything else (flowers, words) are die cut. I hand wrote the word calendar on the front. Hope you have a great weekend!

Spring Flowers

2010-05-18T04:01:00.000-07:00

Hi, Just a quick post to share another dry embossed card. I used a Lasting Impressions template to emboss the flowers and the scalloped edge on this card. All the paper I used is from Lasting Impressions. Hope you're having a great week!

Zentangle

2010-05-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

Last week, I took a class at Angela's Happy Stamper taught by Laura, on how to Zentangle. It was so much fun. I love this technique. You can find out more about what Zentangle is here on their website, www.zentangle.com (sorry, can't get blogger to post the link correctly). Everyone in the class was commenting on how relaxing making Zentangles is. I'm not sure I agree with that. Even though I enjoyed it, the perfectionist in me was struggling with all the free hand drawing. I left the class with stiff fingers and a tense neck. I will do it again, for sure, as I love, love, love the look of this. For the top card, Laura stamped the flower stamp and we drew our Zentangles inside the petals of the flowers. OH! Wedding invitations are DONE!!! I am so pleased with how they turned out. So glad to be done with that project!

Mother's Day

2010-05-08T04:39:00.001-07:00

This is the gift I sent to my Mom for Mother's Day this year. I found the pattern for the wheelbarrow at this blog. The wheelbarrow is bigger than I thought it would be. I was planning to put a gift card in it, but it just looked silly with all the empty space. I found some large flower seed packets at Home Depot and put them in the wheelbarrow instead. I made a card to go along with it that looks like flowers in a flower pot. I put the gift card in that instead. There are lots of blogs that have directions to make the flower pot card, but I can't remember which blog I got the directions from. The flowers are dry embossed using a Lasting Impressions template. Hope you have a great Mother's Day weekend!

Happy Spring!

2010-05-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I sat down and made any cards. I've been slaving away at the wedding invitations and haven't had time. Spring's kind of passing me by but I guess it's not too late for this card. I used Lasting Impressions brass templates for the embossing, and all the paper I used is by Lasting Impressions too. Thanks for stopping by!

Wedding Shower Gift

2010-05-01T04:36:00.000-07:00

I made this recipe card spinner for my brother's fiance for her wedding shower gift. I made it using a Seven Gypsies Spinner. I love the look of this and hated to give it up! I guess I'll have to make one for myself now. I can't take credit for this idea. I took a class at Angela's Happy Stamper on how to make it and added some more to it after the class. I used the Seven Gypsies ATC punch to punch the pockets so they attached to the spinner. Then I used various recipe themed papers and ribbons to decorate the pockets and tags. The Recipe topper is a separate piece that attaches to the spinner, it's sold by Seven Gypsies too. I really think it completes it. I hope my brother's finace likes this!

Wedding Invitation Progress

2010-04-26T07:49:00.000-07:00

I have two boxes of invitations...

150 Accommodations Insert Cards done...

150 Reply Insert Cards done...

150 Directions Insert Cards done...

150 Reply Envelopes Printed...

Bag of 150 Belly Bands...

I have been working on my brother's wedding invitations like crazy! I am trying to get the completed invites mailed out to them by the middle of May so they have time to address the envelopes and mail them out. In case you missed it, here is the completed version of the invite. I am making 150 invitations for them. This has been a lot more work than I anticipated. I wish I had counted the hours I put into making them. The hardest part was making the pockets on the inside of the invitation. All that scoring and fighting with the card stock to get it to stay in place was very tedious. I worked this past week on tying the brown ribbons onto the actual invitation, and that alone took me 4 hours, and I ended up with very sore fingers from trying to work with that tiny ribbon! I've gone through 5 ATG gun adhesive refills and 2 toner refills in my printer. But it's all worth it in the end, I think they are going to turn out great and I know that my brother & his fiance appreciate it. All I have left to do is stuff the inserts into the invites and finish cutting the daisies. One daisy goes on the inside and one on the belly band on the outside of the invitation. I need 300 daisies to complete the invitations and as of today, I have 60. I already have them embossed, just need to cut them out. I am feeling pretty good about that, I can cut out about 25-30 in an evening just sitting and cutting while I watch (listen) to TV. Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a great week! Oh... I updated my dog photos on the right -------> Aren't they cute!?

Monogrammed Card Set

2010-04-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

This is a card set that I made for my friend Barbara. I used Lasting Impressions paper that really isn't my style (too bright) but it's one of her favorite lines of Lasting Impressions paper. For the box, I used the Keeping Tabs Timeless Template from Papertrey Ink. I am pretty sure I put the box together incorrectly, I don't think the tabs are supposed to wrap around the box like mine does, but oh well. I still think it turned out okay. The inside of the box has two pockets. I made several monogrammed cards and a little box of chocolates. The box holds Hershey nuggets chocolates.

I've been working on my brother's wedding invitations, thus the lack of recent posts. I am working on a post to show you my progress on those. I hope to post it this weekend.

Happy Spring!

2010-04-11T04:33:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late sharing this card since it's really more Easter themed, but i guess it could be a Spring card too. I made this card for an embossing challenge on the Yahoo embossing group that I belong to. We all had to use the bunny template by Lasting Impressions when making our card. I used two additional templates, the wagon template and the flower template when making my card. I stippled the background with blue ink to create the look of sky. I tore some green paper for the grass and then doodled around the edge. This was actually a pretty easy card to make! Hope you're having a great weekend!

Recipe Book

2010-04-05T03:57:00.000-07:00

Hi, Hope you had a great Easter weekend. I had a great time visiting family. This is a recipe book that I made at a class at Angela's Happy Stamper. If you're in the DC area, definitely check this store out, it is fabulous! I love all the fun bright colors in this book, and I think it turned out so cute. Have a great week!

New Member of the Family

2010-03-31T18:54:00.000-07:00

About 2 weeks ago, we added another member to the family! We rescued another dog. She's 12 years old and she's a toy poodle. When I got back from my Las Vegas trip with my mom, I had an email from a co-worker that had been forwarded, and forwarded on and on. The email said that this woman's sister-in-law had recently died from cancer and they were looking for a home for her poodle. This woman wasn't married, had no kids and no one in the family wanted the dog. The family had dropped the dog off at a kennel until they could find a home for it. My heart just breaks for dogs like that! We thought 4 dogs is a bit much and we weren't sure how she would fit in, but the thought of her sitting in the kennel was too much. We agreed to initially foster her, to see how things would work out. The woman brought her to us and we instantly fell in love with her, and the other 3 dogs are all very tolerant of her. So we decided to keep her! She broke her foot while in the kennel so now she has this cute little pink cast on her leg. She's getting around fine and adjusting to life with us just perfectly. Her name was Missy, but I think her owner probably had a nickname for her that we don't know of, because she won't respond to Missy at all. We didn't really care for that name anyway and we've renamed her Senna. Isn't she the cutest?

I'm leaving to go away for Easter weekend, but I'll be back and post some more craft projects on Monday! Have a great rest of the week and thanks for stopping by!

Desk Organizer Gift

2010-03-29T03:48:00.000-07:00

This is a gift set that I made for my friend Donna that I met in Las Vegas last month. I got the template to make it here. It was quick and easy to make! I made it using Bazzill cardstock and the rest of the paper is by Lasting Impressions. I included a memo pad, a little gift box that holds Hershey Nuggets chocolates, 4 cards and envelopes and a pen. I dry embossed all the daisies. I got the template to make the Hershey Nugget holder on the Splitcoast Stampers site. I added a little loop of paper inside the organizer to hold the pen. Hope you have a great week!

Got your sunglasses?

2010-03-20T03:32:00.000-07:00

I made this card for an embossing swap. The theme was Mardi Gras. We didn't have to actually use anything related to Mardi Gras on the card, but one requirement was that you had to use bright colors. I think I succeeded with this! I used some new paper from Lasing Impressions and some bright green brads. The Happy Birthday sentiment was printed from my computer. This was a simple and quick card to make. Hope you have a great weekend!

New House

2010-03-17T03:49:00.000-07:00

So I have big news.... We are closing on a new house today! I never would have imagined we would buy a new house this year. We've always wanted to buy some property around Lake Anna (near Richmond/Charlottesville, VA) and we always watch the real estate listings for property for sale there. About 18 months ago, Greg found this house for sale, and it really is the perfect place for us. The home is the style we like (cozy with a big front porch and ceiling fans on the front porch), the property is 18 acres and is wooded and secluded and there is a huge 2500 sq ft detached building where Greg can work on his race car projects. The sellers are also leaving their pontoon boat with the house, and we will have a boat dock deeded with the property. We both did a lot of boating and fishing growing up, and are looking forward to getting back on the water. When he first showed me the listing, I saw the huge price tag and thought it's a nice house but we can never afford it. Well, the economy here took a down turn and the price kept dropping, the interest rates kept dropping, and we can qualify for some of the homebuyer tax credits, so we thought now was the perfect time. We love the area, it's a perfect retreat from the city life we're used to. For now, we'll use it as a second/vacation home and hope in the next several years, we can find jobs in the area and move down there permanently. It's about an hour and a half from where we live now.

I made two sets of these house cards, one for the sellers and one for our real estate agent. I used the sale-a-bration stamp set from Stampin' Up and made an A4 box to hold the cards. I colored the images with my Copic markers. The paper I used is from Basic Grey.

Bee Happy!

2010-03-10T03:24:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share one more project I made while in Las Vegas. My friend Donna designed this card and it was part of the class that she gave to Barbara & I. It's a flat card, the base is made from a scalloped piece of square chipboard. She said she found the scalloped chipboard at Michaels. She painted it white for us, and I doodled around the edges with a black pen. Added paper, ribbon, two of her shrinky dink bees, buttons and a sentiment and we were done. The purple background is embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder.

Spring Bunny!

2010-03-08T03:54:00.000-08:00

We have had beautiful weather here the past couple days. I hope you've had nice weather too. For the most part, all of our snow has melted! I wanted to share another card that Donna designed for Barbara & I in the mini-class she gave us in Las Vegas. I think this card is so cute. The best part is, I have this template but I've never used it before. Now I'm inspired to use it and make some cards with it! This card opens sort of like a tri-fold card. Hope you have a great week!

Back from Vacation!

2010-03-04T15:46:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful time in Las Vegas, vacationing there with my mom. While I was there, I had planned to meet up with two of my embossing friends from the Yahoo group I belong to. We've all been exchanging/swapping cards for several years but had never met in person. We planned to have a crafting day and it turned out to be so much fun! Donna (Furthest left in the picture) drove with her husband from CA to spend a few days in Vegas. She put together a class for us and we made 4 embossed cards and a tag. I loved being able to get my crafting fix on vacation!! Donna put together some really cute cards and I posted one that we made above. The little bee is a shrinky dink! She printed the bee from the Lasting Impressions Colored Impressions software, (the image is from a Lasting Impressions template), cut him out, and baked it to shrink it. Super cute, and fun springy colors. Barbara is in the middle in the picture, and she is from Las Vegas. At one point we took a break and walked down the strip to get lunch and Barbara mentioned that she thought it was the first time in 30 years that she had walked down the strip! I had to laugh, it's sort of like people who live near DC but never go to museums or monuments (me). I had so much fun crafting with them, they were both very sweet and I enjoyed getting to know them!

I must admit, 8 days on the strip is a long time for someone who doesn't enjoy gambling much. By the last day, I was itching to get away from the strip and see or do something new. I saw an ad for a gun store where you could come and try to shoot guns. I've never done it before and thought why not? We had a rental car and we drove to the shooting range. It was an experience. I shot a handgun and a rifle. Just as I was getting ready to shoot the gun for the first time, the person next to me shot a fully automatic machine gun which put me on edge! I jumped and yelled, not expecting that. I learned that Nevada is one of the few states that allows you to shoot fully automatic weapons, which made this a popular shooting range for tourists. So I shot the guns.... They gave me my target papers to take home as a souvenir. I didn't love shooting but I didn't hate it either. But I am glad I tried something new. And I'd be willing to try it again.

Vacation!!

2010-02-23T02:42:00.000-08:00

I am leaving today for a week long vacation to Las Vegas! I am meeting my mom in Las Vegas and we have lots of plans to sight see, gamble, see shows and eat! I also made plans to squeeze in some crafting time. I am going to meet two ladies from my Yahoo embossing group. I am so excited, we have a crafting day planned complete with card making and shopping to area craft stores.

I wanted to share one more Valentine's Card. I love this little Robot stamp and the robot paper. I think it's so cute. I colored the robot with my Copic markers. I printed a sentiment on my computer that says "I'm nuts and bolts about you" and put it on the inside of my card. I'll post some pics from my vacation & crafting day when I get back late next week.

Cupcake Take Along

2010-02-19T03:19:00.001-08:00

My brother's fiancee had a birthday this week, and I made this cupcake take along for her. I got the idea to make this on Nichole Heady's blog here. She loves carrot cake so I put a carrot cake boxed cake mix in it, along with cream cheese frosting. I think this is just the cutest gift. I got the test tubes to hold the sprinkles in Papertrey ink's store. I dry embossed the "Happy Birthday" above the test tubes, and also the "For You" on the outside. I made a matching card and put it inside the pocket on the outside. Hope you like it!

More Valentines

2010-02-17T03:43:00.001-08:00

I'm late posting these since it's now after Valentine's Day but I figure better late rather than never. I can't remember who makes the paper that I used on these. I used Lasting Impressions Templates to emboss the Love You and cupcake on the first card, and on the second card the 3 hearts are all embossed using a Lasting Impressions template. The Happy Valentine's Day stamp is by Paper Inspirations. Hope you're having a great week!

Stinkin' Cute! (and snow pics)

2010-02-13T08:17:00.000-08:00

I made the skunk on this card using various Stampin' Up punches. I got the idea from one of Heather's online punch classes.

I also wanted to share some more snow pictures that I took the other day. These were all taken 4 days after the snow storm. So that tells you how much snow we got here! I had put Zubie & Bunny in doggy day care for boarding prior to the snowstorm. I thought they would have more fun playing and being indoors out of the snow. I wasn't sure I would be able to keep up with shoveling them a path to go to the bathroom with 4 feet of snow on the ground! The federal government shut down for 4 days so I didn't have to work and wasn't going to venture out to pick them up. They ended up being at the daycare for 7 days! They have so much fun there. For anyone local, the doggy day care is called Your Dog's Best Friends. They have the best employees working there, I just can't recommend them enough. It's all cageless boarding and they have someone stay the night with the dogs, and all the dogs sleep in the same room, or they can even sleep in the bed with the employee! Rusty stayed at home with us (doggy day care would stress her out). She loved being an only dog for those 7 days! Hope you have a great weekend!

Bee Mine

2010-02-10T18:55:00.000-08:00

This is a card I made for another embossing challenge for the Yahoo embossing group I belong to. This month's hostess, Donna, embossed the pieces (the heart & bee happy saying) and she also sent a small bee embellishment made from shrink plastic. This is a very simple card and I'm not wow'd by my creation at all, but with all this snow we've had and all the shoveling I've had to do, my brain & body are just mush at this point! We got an additional 10" of snow today on top of the 30" we already have on the ground. So, this is all the creativity I could muster! I'll post more creative things later this week. Thanks for stopping by!

Nuts about you & Snow!

2010-02-08T12:55:00.000-08:00

Well, we have really been hit hard with snow in the DC area. We have about 30" of snow on the ground where I live. I have a 4 wheel drive vehicle and we tried to go out to the Capitals game yesterday, but didn't make it. I learned a valuable lesson about 4 wheel drive. If the snow is up to the bumper of the truck, and the wheels don't have traction, you're not going anywhere. We ended up getting my Durango stuck in the snow on the street. Greg ran back home to get his F-350 dually truck and tried to pull the Durango out of the snow but ended up getting the F-350 stuck in the snow as well. We then waived our white flag to the snow and walked back home! After a couple hours of shoveling, we got both of the trucks out of the snow today and are parking them at home until plows come down the street! Now I hear we are supposed to get an additional 10"-20" of snow tomorrow.

The good thing about being cooped up at home is I am getting a lot of crafting time. I have a lot of Valentine's cards and projects to share over the next week or two. I made this squirrel with Stampin' Up Punches. I got the idea from one of Heather's online punch classes. I think he's super cute. I printed the sentiment from my computer.

The next photo is a picture of my poor little Smart car covered with snow. I think it's going to be a long time before all the snow melts and I can drive it again!

Embossing Group Challenge

2010-02-02T16:25:00.001-08:00

This is a card I made for a challenge on the Yahoo embossing group that I belong to. Each month, a hostess chooses a template, and embosses the image and sends the embossed pieces to each participant. Then the participants have to make a card using the pieces. I really enjoy the challenges, and getting to use templates that I might not already own. It's so fun to see everyone's creations, all the cards turn out so differently, it's amazing! This month the challenge was hosted by Cin. Hope you're having a nice week!.

Bird House Card Holder

2010-01-25T03:30:00.000-08:00

Hi, Happy Monday!! I saw this cute bird holder on Gretchen's blog. The tutorial for it was inexpensive. Hers was made using all Stampin' Up supplies but I thought I could make one using some of my new bird embossing templates. My mom loves bird houses and she recently had a birthday, so I thought this would be the perfect gift for her. The paper I used is from Lasting Impressions and I used Lasting Impressions templates to make the birds, flowers and dragonfly. I hand cut the paper to make it look like grass. The bottom is cut from a Stampin' Up top note die. The circle in the middle is cut out with a circle cutter. Then I used circle punches to frame around the circle. The cards were all bird themed, and when I designed them, I made sure they all lined up so that the bird on the card would show through the window. I was in a hurry to get this done and get it to my mom so I didn't take pictures of the cards. They were all the size that can fit in a business sized envelope.

Two Scoops Rice Designs Challenge

2010-01-21T04:24:00.000-08:00

The Two Scoops Rice Designs blog has a sketch challenge. You just have to create a card based on the sketch by January 29th and you can have the chance to win 2 free images. My sketch isn't exactly like theirs but I tried to put some flowers or hearts on the card like their sketch shows but it did not look right! I already had the polka dot paper and Happy Birthday stamp sitting on my craft table from a card I posted earlier this week, and thought it would be cute with this image. I colored the image with my copic markers and cut the circle with a nestabilities die.

Taylored Expressions Challenge #98

2010-01-18T10:45:00.001-08:00

I love Taylor's sketch challenges but I rarely have a chance to participate in them. With a day off today, I got the chance to make a card! This image is by Two Scoops Rice Designs. I colored it with my copic markers. The yellow polka dot paper is by American Crafts. The Happy Birthday sentiment is a stamp by Art Gone Wild. Hope you're having a Happy Monday!

Calendar in a Frame

2010-01-08T15:42:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to work on a calendar project for awhile now, and when I saw this calendar frame project, I was inspired! I went to Target to look for some frames so I could make one of my own. Target didn't have the type of frames I was looking for, for what I wanted to spend (under $5 per frame). So I was walking out of the store and happened to walk past the $1 spot, and saw these cute little flip frames. Yes, for only $1!! I bought one and brought it home, and got to work on my own calendar. The dimensions of the inserts for the frame are 3"x3". I typed and printed the calendar pages in Excel. I went to work embossing 12 little images for each month. The best part of this project is, I made it entirely with my Lasting Impressions scraps!! No new sheets of paper were harmed in making this project! You don't know what a big deal that is for me, I have issues with keeping scraps around. I put January & February pages back to back, so once January is over, I can flip the calendar and display the February pages. I will say I had to keep the paper I used to 1-2 layers in order to get them to fit in the photo frames. I love how this project turned out. Afterwards, I went back to Target and bought the rest of the frames that they had for sale. I am thinking they would make nice affordable Christmas gifts next year. Hope you have a great weekend!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I know I said I was going to take a break from blogging but I guess I just couldn't stay away. I made these gift card holders before Christmas and never had a chance to post them. I had a friend who requested a hoodie gift card holder. I found the image of the hoodie online, adjusted the size to fit my card and printed it. I cut it out and added the floss for the hood. I printed it twice and added the pocket with foam tape for some dimension. Inside I added a pocket for the gift card. I made the second shirt gift card holder as a back up in case she wasn't happy with the hoodie card. I found the instructions for making the shirt card here.

Christmas Tag Tote

2009-12-27T11:55:00.000-08:00

Hope you had a wonderful holiday! I had a great one, and must have been really nice this year because I got everything I wanted, including a new camera! I am so excited, I hope it helps with the quality of the photos I post here. (I didn't use it to take these pics). This is another project that I got the pattern for from UStamp. I think this tag tote was part of the Fall edition of UStamp. It is so easy to make and makes a great gift. I gave these to my Aunts and they loved them. I dry embossed the tags and decorated the tags with dry embossed images. I added a "To:/From:" stamp on the tags and they were done.

I am taking a couple weeks off from blogging now that the Christmas rush is through. I need a little vacation, and I am behind on the save the date cards and wedding invitations. After dry embossing all those daisies, I haven't done any more work towards putting the cards or invitations together. Hope you have a wonderful new year!

Gift Card/Money Holders

2009-12-23T03:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Wednesday! Wanted to share another gift card holder I made, and a money holder. I found the pattern for the stocking gift card holder on U Stamp With Dawn & Friends Year End Blow Out. U Stamp is a site (you have to pay, I think it's $20-$25) and you get a new project every day for 1 month. All the projects use Stampin' Up products. I got the idea for the money holder from Splitcoast Stampers. I just tried to find the original picture and wasn't able to. I used punches for the ornament and then just cut the paper for the gift so it fit around the ornament. Both of these projects were quick & easy.

3x3 card & nugget box

2009-12-21T04:35:00.000-08:00

I made a bunch of these 3x3 notecard & Hershey nugget gift boxes for Christmas gifts this year. I found the template to make the box here. For these 3x3 cards, I used the free digital Mumford Christmas image from Two Scoops Rice Designs. The digi image is available already colored or plain for you to color. I chose the blank one and colored the image with my Copic markers. I love her digital images because you can resize them. I made the image really tiny for these 3x3 cards. I wanted to be able to use a small circle punch to punch the image. Hope you're having a happy & safe Holiday week.

Snow!

2009-12-20T17:50:00.000-08:00

Here is a card that I made for Lisa. I made it using Stampin' Up punches. The fence posts are made using an arrow punch. The snowmen were made using the wide oval punch, the scarves are made using the word window punch, and the hats, eyes and earmuffs were made using various circle and oval punches. Their noses are part of the small star punch. I had so much fun making this card! It's the perfect time to post this card, we got a lot of snow over the weekend, as predicted! It is the most snow I have ever seen, we got over 2 feet of snow, and I spent the majority of the day shoveling. They haven't been able to keep up with treating the roads so I get a bonus day off from work tomorrow! I'm excited to have an extra day to do some holiday baking, wrap gifts and do a little more crafting before Christmas.

Sled Gift Card Holder

2009-12-18T04:40:00.000-08:00

I have so many Christmas projects to post here and not enough days before Christmas to post them all! I guess some will have to be posted after Christmas. This is a sled gift card holder that I made for two wonderful friends of mine, Janice & Suzanne. They both helped me find extra paper for my brother's wedding invitations earlier this year, and I just wanted to send them a little something to let them know I appreciate them. I found the template for this sled gift card holder here. For the "legs" (What do you call that part!?) of the sled, I doubled up the paper to give it a little more reinforcement and to help it stand up. The poinsettia is dry embossed using a Lasting Impressions template. Hope you have a great weekend. Looks like we are going to be snowed in! We're getting our second snowfall of the month, very rare for the DC area. Usually we don't even get two snowfalls during an entire season! Tomorrow we're expecting 12-20 inches of snow!

More Inspiration

2009-12-14T04:35:00.001-08:00

Here are the two other gift bags that came with the penguin bag I posted yesterday. After making the penguin tag and loving how it turned out, I tried recreating these two. I'm not as happy with them, I think the 2nd one is supposed to be a polar bear but I think he looks like a snowman on my card. It would be okay except I drew claws on his hands! I made both characters using various Stampin Up punches. The background of the reindeer card was made using the snowflake cuttlebug embossing template. Have a great week!

Finding Inspiration...

2009-12-11T19:50:00.000-08:00

I was at the dollar store the other day and this little gift bag caught my eye. I thought the penguin was so cute. I thought he would make the perfect little punch character on a tag. So I bought the gift bag (turns out it was a set of 3 little bags... so more punch characters to come!) and here is the tag I made. To make the penguin, I used the Stampin Up wide oval punch and layered a white punch onto the black punch for the body. I used the Stampin Up small oval punch for his arm. His nose was made with a piece of the small star punch by Stampin Up. And the eyes are the larger hole punch from the cropodile. I used a white pen to make the highlight on his eyes. The tree was cut with my paper trimmer and the trimmings on the tree are 1/2" circles. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Lil' Gingerbread

2009-12-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

I posted a card made with this same template a few days ago. I just love this template for making really fast, cute cards. This card was based on a sketch, it used a business sized card and envelope. The paper is American Crafts merrimint line. The red piece along the middle is just the reverse of the patterned paper. I used my Marvy circle punches for the circles behind the gingerbread man. Hope you're having a great week!

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

2009-12-07T04:38:00.000-08:00

I just love this reindeer stamp by Memory Box. I just think it's so funny. The stamp has the reindeer on the rocking chair and the sentiment. It's a perfect stamp for quick easy cards. I used my nestabilities to cut the shape around the stamp. That paper is some Christmas paper I've had for a long time! I was glad to use it. I probably should have added a tree so the reindeer really could have been rockin' around the Christmas tree, but I wanted him to be the main focus of the card. Hope you have a great week!

Gingerbread Joy

2009-12-04T15:18:00.000-08:00

This is a card I made for a sketch challenge on the Yahoo Embossing Group I belong to. I love this little gingerbread template. This was a quick card to make, I am pretty sure it took less than 10 minutes to make! The paper and template are from Lasting Impressions. The Gingerbread Joy sentiment was stamped on the Lasting Impressions paper.

Santa's List

2009-12-01T03:44:00.000-08:00

This is a card I made for a 1 on 1 swap in the Yahoo Embossing Group I belong to. This is one of the new Lasting Impressions templates. I gave a little bit of dimension to the list by embossing the top and bottom curly part of the list a second time. I cut them out and adhered them to the original list using foam tape. The paper is from Lasting Impressions too.

Elf Top Note Box

2009-11-29T05:47:00.000-08:00

Isn't he the cutest??! He's my favorite of the top note boxes that I saw on Gretchen's blog. He's made with the Stampin Up Top note die and several Stampin Up punches. Hope you're having a great weekend!

Top Note Treat Boxes

2009-11-27T06:40:00.000-08:00

Hi, Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. I saw these cute little top note Santa & Mrs. Claus boxes at Gretchen's blog. She is selling the kits to make them, or just the PDF tutorial. I have almost all the supplies so I bought the tutorial for how to make them. They were pretty quick to make and I love how they look. I added some eyelets to the sides of the boxes and added ribbon for handles. I plan to put little tags or treats in the boxes and give as gifts to neighbors and friends this year.

Santa at his Workshop

2009-11-23T08:12:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across Ellen's blog and saw her super cute Santas made from punches. I just had to try to make one of my own. This Santa at his workshop that she made was my favorite. Isn't he just the cutest? Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Faux Alligator Wristlet

2009-11-15T19:31:00.000-08:00

I have been looking online for gift card holder ideas. I came across this adorable wristlet on Gretchen's blog. I bought a few of her other tutorials but felt I could figure out the instructions for the wristlet on my own. I found the tutorial for how to do the faux alligator technique here. Gretchen posted on her blog that she used the Stampin Up top note die and the #2 Box die. I have the top note die but I don't have the #2 box die. I didn't want to buy the instructions only for it to tell me to use the #2 Box die that I don't have, so I figured I could come up with an alternative of my own. I wanted it to be able to hold a gift card. Mine turned out a little smaller than what her wristlets look like, but I'm still pleased with the final product. It doesn't even look like it's made from paper! This technique is easy and looks impressive. I'm thinking about giving these to co-workers with a gift card to Starbucks in them, or just putting some candy, or maybe a little kleenex package and some mints... the possibilities are endless!

The box that I made is 6"x 5"; I scored 1/2" along both 6" sides, and at 2 3/4" in from both edges on the 5" side. Cut the tabs and fold it to form the box. I also did the faux alligator technique on the edges of the box that the recipient will see. I added an eyelet to the side of the box and threaded a ribbon through. I also added a brad to the front and velcro to keep the front part of the wristlet closed. Hope you like it!

Hero Arts Challenge

2009-11-13T03:42:00.000-08:00

I participated in the Hero Arts Challenge last week. The challenge was to create a holiday card using non-traditional colors. I got this stamp set as a gift from my friend Chrisi but had never used it until I made this card. I don't know what I was waiting for. I love this little owl. I colored the images with copic markers and the sentiment was printed on my computer. The paper is from My Mind's Eye. Hope you have a great weekend!

Free Digi Image!

2009-11-09T19:16:00.000-08:00

This was a simple 10 minute card but I love how it turned out. All the paper was scraps that I had on my craft table. The cute mouse and pie image is a free digi image from Two Scoops Rice Designs blog. I love her stamps, they are so cute. The best part about this image is she is giving it to you both colored and black/white in case you want to color it differently. I used the pre-colored version for my card. The Happy Thanksgiving stamp I used is from A Muse.

Autumn

2009-11-06T02:57:00.000-08:00

I better post this card before it's winter! We've had great weather here this week, sunny and not too cold but you never know how it will change fromd day to day! This was the 3rd card from the embossing class I taught at Angela's Happy Stamper. I used new Lasting Impressions paper. The bird is a new Lasting Impressions template, and the tree is an older template. The word Autumn was stamped. Happy Friday!

375 Daisies...

2009-11-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

This is what 375 Daisies looks like!! I made these for my brother's save the date cards (see the pic to the right). It doesn't look that many in the picture, but trust me there are 375 there. It's actually quite a tall pile! I dry embossed them (not by hand like I normally do my embossing), but I used my cuttlebug. Then I hand cut them and then punched the pink centers with a circle punch. I am glad to be done with these! Although it really wasn't that bad. I did most of them while sitting on the couch "watching" (listening, really) to TV. Next project is the invitations. I have the final draft done and all the pieces cut. Need to print the wording for the invitation, and then dry emboss & cut out 300 daisies for the invitations.

Also, wanted to share a pic of my dog Rusty on Halloween. Bunny was too scared to get dressed up, she thought she was in trouble. And Zubie was trying to rip the costume out of my hand faster than I could get it on him. We decided he was going to dress as a good dog for Halloween this year, but he turned out to be not too convincing!

Happy Halloween! (a day late)

2009-11-01T05:35:00.000-08:00

I meant to post this yesterday and I just forgot. I got lots of trick or treaters and gave away all 80 of my treat bags within 1 hour! There were some great costumes. One family came up and the little boy was dressed as a fried egg and the girl was dressed as a banana. I think they were my favorite costumes of the night. Hope you had a great Halloween and got lots of trick or treaters too! I made this card using punches, and I got the idea from Heather's online Holiday Punch class.

Another Halloween Card

2009-10-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

I am getting so excited for Trick-Or-Treat. I love seeing the kids dressed up and passing out candy. I usually put together little treat bags (not handmade) and put a few pieces of candy in each bag. I put together 80 bags this year. In the past I think the most I've put together is 75 bags, and I'm usually running out within an hour. My house is a popular house for Trick-Or-Treating!

Here is another Halloween card I made using some of the new Lasting Impressions templates and paper. Hope you are having a great week!

Trick or Treat

2009-10-26T02:52:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday! This is another one of the cards I'm going to be teaching this weekend at my LSS, Angela's Happy Stamper. I used one of the new Lasting Impressions templates to make the pumpkins (love this one!), and I added some faux stitching around the outisde of the card. The trick or treat is an old Lasting Impressions template.

Halloween Cupcake

2009-10-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

I found the directions to make this gatefold card on You Tube. I love cards that open some way other than the normal traditional fold. It was a quick and easy card. I used one of the new Lasting Impressions templates. Hope you're having a good weekend!

Dry Embossed Fall Card

2009-10-20T02:52:00.002-07:00

I'm teaching a class at my LSS, Angela's Happy Stamper at the end of this month. This is one of the cards that we're making in the class. I used a new Lasting Impressions template and some of their new paper too. I just love all their new templates, they are all so cute. It's starting to warm up here again and I am so glad! I like the cool weather, but 40 degrees in October is just too cold for Virginia! Hope you're having nice weather where you are too!

Happy Fall!

2009-10-17T19:29:00.000-07:00

Well it's definitely starting to feel like fall here! It's been cold and rainy for the past several days. I dry embossed this card using an old Lasting Impressions template and some of the new Lasting Impressions papers. For the blue paper, I distressed the edges of the paper using the blade of my scissors. Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!