A Unity Luminary

I saw a tutorial on the Authentique paper blog to make this luminary. They are quick to put together, and I may have my workshop girls do these in Jan.! It's Friday, so that means it's Friends With Flair day at the Unity blog! I used 2 stamp sets for making this, Jillibean Soup's Snowflakes Fall From Heaven, and the Roly Poly Winter Joy Itty Bitty. I paper pieced the snowman with Authentique Gathering paper. He's just too cute! I used a punch to get the shapes on each panel, and there is snowflake printed vellum covering each one. Go check out the tutorial on the Authentique blog, and also all the fabulous Unity creations! Have a Happy New Year!!

A Thank You

I saw a new card fold yesterday on Splitcoast Stampers for a  Double Dutch Fold. I've been looking for a new fold to try, and like the result. I used kraft paper and it is a bit thick. The card doesn't want to stay shut even when laying flat. So next time I'll remeber to use thinner cardstock. But I still like it! I used the Authentique Gathering pad again. Love the soft colors! This piece of dp matches almost perfectly the ippity flower stamp from the Now & Always set, which I stamped in orange and turquoise. Love it! The sentiment is from the ippity set Just a Note. The 2 labels I cut from my Cricut from the free shapes at Cricut Craft Room. I am entering this at the Unity Opportunity ippity challenge to make a Thank You.

Love

Well, back to an almost normal routine after Christmas, and time to stamp again! This card is being entered at Chick Challenges {with ippity}, where there is a sketch to follow. JenMarie is the Hot Chick this time around, and she made a gorgeous card that I played off of. She has a stamped background dp, and I did the same with my heart stamp, from the set Life's Little Moments. The heart label and sentiment are from the set A Moment in Time. I love to follow sketch challenges, because half of the thinking is already done for me!! lol  I am happy with the way this card turned out! Thank you for stopping by! Here is the sketch: Oh! I almost forgot! If you look at my sidebar, you'll notice that I'm on a design team now!! I'm just thrilled, as this is my first one!! I will be on for 6 months Jan-June!! My first assignment will be posted in a little over a week!! Check out the challenge blog as there are prizes!!!

FWF!

I found some time this morning to make a card for Unity's FWF, and also the {ippity} challenge to make a thank you. I embossed the background with my scoreboard, and stamped the ippity label from the set A Moment In Time, with Broken China DI onto Authentique paper. The small ippity label and sentiment is from the set Just Wanted To Say, and I stamped that in Gathered Twigs DI onto more Authentique paper. Added some twine to the side for something extra. I've been in the mood for CAS cards lately, but they are usually not my style. I keep wanting to add more to it! Thanks for stopping in, and Merry Christmas!

Authentique Sketch Challenge

The Authentique blog has a sketch challenge going on, and I just had to enter. For those of you who follow my blog, you have seen me use a lot of their papers, and I just love them! I've had the new Gathereing 6x6 paper pad for a few weeks now, but have just gotten around to using it. All the papers are double sided, and have a light texture. Love it! Here is the sketch we are to follow:

I used 2 different papers for the card front, and a matching die cut from the same line. The lace is from The Paper Studio, as well as the pearls. I didn't do any stamping on this card, and was refreshing! Now, I'm sure I will stamp something on the inside when I'm ready to send it! This will probably be my last post until after the holidays, so I want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas!

Moxie Fab Stripes?

I wanted to play along this week over at the Moxie Fab World blog, for the Tuesday Trigger. If you look at the trigger photo below, my card has no stripes at all! I was inspired not by the stripes but the colors. I knew I had a scrap piece of dp with the blues and tans, and wanted to use that. I love to use blue and brown for winter cards, and love how this dp looks like an argyle sweater! That's why I went with buttons down the side. I also wanted to use my Winter Fox Lawn Fawn stamp. (if you click on the link under my blog header, I have started a Lawn Fawn Stamp of the Month Club!) When I first saw this stamp, it screams color me. But I wanted to paper piece him instead, and love how he looks! I popped him up on a Spellbinders label die, after stamping the sentiment. If you'd like to play along with this challenge, click the link above! Thank you for stopping by!
Trigger Photo:

Cricut Craft Room

Calling all Cricut Machine owners!! Have you heard or seen the new Cricut Craft Room yet? About a month ago I saw on HSN, the launch of the new Cricut Mini machine and the Cricut Craft Room software. While the machine is small, it is very space saving. But I already have a Cricut Create, and it doesn't get much use. Until now! You see, the new software is FREE!! It works just like the Cricut Studio software, but better. So if you want to expand your Cricut machine, go check it out here! It's easy to download, and works with any Cricut machine and cartridge! When you download the software and register, you get a free Craft Room exclusive virtual cartridge! I've been playing around this morning with it, and let me tell you, my machine will get much more use now! I didn't use it much before, because I always got aggrevated not getting the right size of image that I wanted. With this software, I can set the image to whatever I want, slant it, weld it, stretch it. So up my alley!! When I first started my card making adventure, I used a lot of die cuts. Then I got into stamping more. While I still love stamping, my projects are going to include more die cuts now! I just wanted to share this info with all of you, and for all Cricut owners. You really need to go download the software! Remember it's FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy die cutting!!

Unity Friends With Flair Friday

I wanted to join in today at the Unity blog for Friends With Flair. When I sat down to work on a card I was stumped. I think I am card making overload from all the Christmas cards I've made and the workshop I had. So, I switched gears and went for a very simple CAS card. The Unity stamp set I used is Snowflakes Fall From Heaven. I haven't used this sentiment yet, so I thought it would be a perfect time. I will do the inside with some kind of winter saying. I used my favorite distress ink color Broken China on the snowflakes, and Gathered Twigs for the sentiment. Have had lots to do today, but my shopping is done, and the breezeway is full of wood again. Time to sit back and blog surf before hubby gets home! :)

Time For Winter!

Well, all my Christmas cards are finished, and it's time to move on to winter projects! Over at Get Hippity with {ippity} we have a sketch to follow, and it's a very different design, and was fun to do! The flower stamp is from the ippity set The Simple Things, and I first stamped it with white pigment ink. I didn't think it was bright enough, so I went over the whole image with a white gel pen. It made it stand out much better. The sentiment and snowflakes are Unity stamps. The aqua papers are from Coordinations, and I sanded the card base a bit to distress it. I also used Walnut Stain DI on some of the edges. I love using blue and brown on winter cards! I am also linking this to the Ippity Opportunity challenge, where it is anything goes. Click on the links above if you want a chance to win some stamps! Who doesn't love that?!!
Here is the sketch to follow at Get Hippity With {ippity}

Tag Number 9!

Well, I made Tim's Tag Day 9! I just loved the look of this tag, and made time today to sqeeze this one in! All the stamps I used are Unity/Ippity except for the small candle. Not sure the maker of that one, it's a very light pink unmounted one. The Ippity 'candlestick' stamp is actually a base for a lamp, and worked great. I stamped it onto grunge, then inked it with Black soot DI, and followed Tim's steps from there. Everything else is done as Tim's except for different stamps of course! Very pleased the way this one turned out. That's all for now!

Jolly Snowman

I haven't posted anything since Monday, so I thought I better get to it! I have been busying preparing for my workshop this week, and doing errands, putting up the tree, and the list goes on! This is another workshop card that I wanted to share, and is my favorite! I die cut the winter wonder die with chipboard and painted him white. Then with Weathered Wood, Black Soot, Ripe Persimmon, and Gathered Twigs DI, I shaded him a bit. Die cut 2 mini holly leaves and stuck it to his hat with some red rhinestones. I tied on some green twine for a scarf. I also die cut a mini flourish and glued it to the bottom of him. The sentiment and mini oval are from Stampin Up!, and the small scalloped oval from Marvy. Paper is from Authentique Wonder pad. I haven't had time to make any more Tim's 12 tags of Christmas, but maybe when I catch myself up I'll work on some! Thanks for stopping by!

My Christmas Card Workshop Peak!

This post is for the girls coming to my workshop this Saturday! This is only 4 of the cards, but you'll have to wait to see the rest! And looky there, even the inside of them are decorated! You didn't think I'd leave them blank did you! ;-)  The hobby lobby girls know that I am famous for leaving the inside of my cards blank. Once in a great while I get the urge to do the inside! But since this is a special workshop, I couldn't leave them blank! Hope you like them!

Tag Number 4 and Ornament from Tag 5

So, I'm a day late with Tim's tag #4, but I did finish it yesterday! My snowman's crackle affect is not that great, as I used a crackle medium, not the rock candy crackle. But there is some crackle in him none the less! My background came out pretty good, I used faded jeans distress stain, and white acrylic paint. The Unity snowflakes were stamped with weathered wood DI on the background. My clear snowflakes were cut out with a Spellbinders die, and let me tell you, I was disappointed that the dies will not cut all the way through the clear packaging. So I had to use my scissors to cut around them. And some buttons, sheer ribbon, and pearls to finish it off. Now my next project was fun, and amazing! I made an ornament with Tim's day 5 tag. I just happen to have bought some of the foil tape last week! I was amazed his technique worked! And what a pretty ornament it is! I used cranberry alcohol ink on mine, and an ippity dot background stamp. So cool! I don't have time right now to do the whole tag, as I have loads to do today, but maybe later I'll get to play some more!! Have fun!

Tag Number 3!

Another improvised version of Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas, but I am quite pleased with my result! I do not have cut-n-dry foam, and have never tried his technique. But I have achieved a similar look with this technique. I used the post card texture fade folder, and embossed my tag in two different directions. That way the words fit on this smaller sized tag. Then with a very light hand, I used the distress tool and foam, and lightly went over the embossed words with various colors of DI. Makeup sponges work great for this also. The colors I used are Festive Berries, Evergreen Bough, Iced Spruce, Black Soot, and Wild Honey. Now, I did get a bit of ink on the non-embossed part of the tag, but once I sprayed it with Spun Sugar Smooch Spritz, it blended in! Very happy at this point! I then die cut my greenery items, and glued them in place, and added my already red rhinestones. Some sheer ribbon and twine, that I did curl up, and done! I did forget to put a bell on it, I do have some small ones. Having fun with these tags so far! Thank you for stopping by!.........................Pam

Tag Number 2!

Well, I'm on a roll! Got my 2nd Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas done! So here's how this one went, as I do not have anything he calls for! I started with plain kraft paper, stamped the music score with black stazon, stamped the words Joy, and embossed with clear. I painted my tag with watered down white acrylic paint. I stamped a Scrolls Works stamp with Evergreen Bough and Gathered Twigs DI, and added some berries with my fantastix and Festive berries DI. So far so good! My Spellbinders bird was cut out with chipboard, and white sticky back canvas that I colored with Antique Linen DI. Attached some twine around it's neck, a bead, and a chenille stem for the wreath. Not bad. The border at the bottom was punched out of kraft paper, and distressed with Gathered Twigs DI. My brads were distressed with a mini ball pien hammer. Colored my ribbon with Vintage Photo Distress Stain, and tied on green burlap. I am pleased with my interpretation of Tim's tag! Hope you are all having a good time with yours!!

An Owl Flashback

This month at Flashback Friday Challenges, guest designer, Merry, has chosen to show your first owl project. These little matchbooks are my first owl projects posted from Sept. 2010. And also it was my 5th blog post. Don't think I had any followers yet, as I recieved no comments! But I did post the directions for making these, so if you'd like to read about, click here! I didn't get to play along last month at Flashback Friday, so I'm excited to have a project to show this time around! Thank you for taking the time to look in!

My First 12 Tags of Christmas!

This is my second year following Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas, but my first tag I actually made! I've used the techniques he has shown in the past for other projects, but this year I wanted to actually join in, and makes some of his tags. And he also put a linky tool in his posts so you can link your tag to his blog. How cool is that?! My tag follows along pretty close. The EF is a Sizzix one by Basic Grey, sentiment was cut from my Cricut, I already had the pinecone die, and the mini holly leaf die. My pinecones turned out pretty good this time around, and look much better with a little paint and stickles on them. My paper is Coordinations and DCWV. Some beads from my stash, and true seam binding for the ribbon. I used the 2 new seasonal DI inks, Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough. I had fun making this tag, although it took almost 2 hours! My husband asks me sometimes what I do all day, and if I get bored. He has no idea how long it takes to paper craft, and probably will never get it, but that's fine. I am more than happy to be in my craft room passing the hours by! It's a fantastic 'job' to have!!! Thank you for looking in!.......................................................Pam