Feel Good FELT

I've recently fallen in LOVE with stiff felt, didn't even know there was such a thing till my friend Kelli introduced me to it. We made these little felt mittens at our November MOPS meeting (Kelli and I are the craft committee) and the ladies loved them. I did too and promised my daughter we'd make some of our own for our holiday gifts. Well, today was the day, the kids and I had fun making our mittens fancy (or just black, those were my sons) and set them aside to dry before attaching the little clothespins. You can attach these little mittens to gifts, goodies, as an ornament on the Christmas tree or even a magnet for the fridge, soooo many options, aren't they FUN?!

When I was browsing this weeks card challenges on line, I stumbled across this cozy pile of fleece at the Shabby Tea Room and knew right away what I wanted to do for my card. The theme is "warm and snuggly" and we are to use either fleece or felt and since I just purchased a plethora of felt, well...felt it is!

(week #40)

I wanted my little mitten to stand out so didn't use any red or green on my card and kept it very simple this week. Simple is good, simple is easy, simple is FABULOUS!! (if I do say so myself) I first drew a mitten on a piece of card board and then cut it out to use as my template. Tracing onto the felt, I cut just inside my marker line and viola', a cute little mitten! 

My background is Chocolate Chip, layered with Kraft, which I fancied up a bit with my new SU! textured impressions framed tulips embossing folder. I punched a bit of the Kraft out with the Word Window punch and then White Heat Embossed my Merry Christmas sentiment (from Teeny Tiny Wishes) inside. After beautifying my mitten, I popped it off the card with large Glue Dots. You could also attach a magnet to the back, so your recipient would have a nice little bit of holiday cheer to display after they open your hand made card.

Filled with LOVE promo

This Valentine's Day, give your loved ones a beautiful handmade gift using products from Stampin' Up!® December 17-January 24, get a FREE package of Bitty Buttons when you purchase a Filled with Love Bundle, including the Filled with Love Stamp Set and exclusive Love Patterns Designer Series Paper Pack-only available through this special promotion!

ITEM	DESCRIPTION	PRICE
124380	Filled with Love Bundle Includes Filled with Love Wood-Mount Set* and exclusive Love Patterns Designer Series Paper	$32.90
124381	Filled with Love Bundle Includes Filled with Love Clear-Mount Set and exclusive Love Patterns Designer Series Paper	$26.90
124156	Love Patterns Designer Series Paper Pack 12 sheets total: three 12” x 12” sheets of two double-sided designs in Real Red and Pretty in Pink	$9.95

 *The Filled with Love Stamp Set is available in the Holiday Mini Catalog through January 3, 2011, after which it will only be available through this promotion.

*You MUST use the promotional bundle item number to receive the free buttons.

*Order deadline: Monday January 24th 11:50PM (MT)  

To view the color flyer CLICK HERE or email me if you have questions!

Color Combo

 It felt soooo good to sit down and create something special for a very special lady in my life, my MIL, whose  Birthday lands just shy of Christmas day. Since her birthday and Christmas have more than likely been mixed together for years (as my brothers has), I wanted to make something that wasn't Christmasy at all and have always been fond of purple and green together. The best part is my MIL loves purple too! 

This weeks Paper Players challenge is to use your favorite color combo, with so many to choose from, it's a hard task BUT this is by far my favorite! I've declared purple to be my favorite color since I was 8, not to mention is was our accent color in our black/white wedding AND lilacs (my favorite flowers) even made it into the bouquet! Mmmm, the smell makes me long for Spring again...

I pulled out some Always Artichoke & Concord Crush and got to work...after coloring my sassy little lady, I just couldn't resist glamming up her shoes a bit with some fine glitter and purple bling for even more sas. I would love to slip my feet into a pair of these fur lined flats, just screaming for a good heal tap to take me home for the holidays! The cake looks so yummy with sparkly chocolate fluff, I almost licked it but then thought it was probably best not to have fuzz shavings on my tongue. A piece of Concord Crush DSP for a pretty wallpapered background and I used both the white oval & Concord Crush frame from my new SU! Sizzix Scallop Oval Frame die.

 A perfect sentiment from the Hostess Birthday Bakery set and a bit of Always Artichoke ink dabbed onto the Modern Label XL Punch(ed) out and popped up to separate the whites from blending together.

 almost good enough to eat

there's no place like home, there's no place like HOME!!

Birthday Bling

Made this bright little birthday card for a pretty little one year old (back in October) and am playing catch up AGAIN, the story of my life, Happy Birthday H!

Mellow Yellow

My friend Pia recently married her fiance' Chris at a lovely ceremony in Austin, TX. I was lucky enough to stand up near the bride and witness their amazing love firsthand as one of the bridesmaids. I don't think a dry eye was found as Pia walked smiling toward her groom. A few weekends before the wedding, we whipped up these table place cards & table names. Thought they turned out pretty cute!!

  

The Wedding Party

10-24-10

Peacocks

I've been holed up in my little corner of the house editing photos and making another batch of wedding invitations and coordinating thank you cards. Here's the last set of invitations & thank yous I made for a beautiful bride in Iowa. 

200 Thank Yous & 185 Invitations

Late Treat Post

I've been unusually busy lately (have 150 wedding invitations & two photo shoots to all finish and edit BEFORE Thanksgiving week) so, even though these cute little treat boxes were made before Halloween, for my daughter to pass out to her class, the photos and post didn't get put up till now, ha! 

 When I saw the new Candy Wrapper Bigz Die in the SU! Holiday Mini catalog, I just HAD to get it and try it out. After a bit of patience one day and FINALLY figuring out that pre folding my score lines helped DRASTICALLY, I whipped out 20 of these little puppies, stuffed them with grape tootsies, stamped a sentiment, tied the ends with some ribbon and then sticky striped a pencil on top. My little kindergartner was so excited to pass them out to her class!

Red, White & Blew?

The inspiration for my card came from this fabulous photo over at The Shabby Tea Room. Doesn't it remind you of a well worn and loved Iowa country farm kitchen? Where the bread is rising under a towel, cookies are  cooling on the counter and Grandma has flour on her cheek from wiping a wisp of hair out of her eyes. If I'm ever feeling down, I can always close my eyes and remember that very picture from my childhood.

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The RED, WHITE and BLUE (unlike my title...leave a comment if you actually GET that, haha) were fun to work with and although the first thing that comes to mind when working with those colors is an American flag, I held back on the stripes and instead veered toward gingham. 

I chose this week Sweet Sunday Sketch to work from and started adding layers, color and detail till I was happy with my birthday card. I versa marked a small flower stamp onto my Bashful Blue to add just a hint of "something" to my background. The Scallop Trim Border added a bit of girly flair, not to mention all the red bling. I had fun coloring my little birthday girl, paper pieced her skirt and tried for the very first time, some sparkly fluff. Thought her hat and sweater could use a little cozying up, since the photo just screams COZY KITCHEN!! 

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(the glue was still drying on the little sweater when I took this pic)

Elegant Monogram

A simple yet elegant chipboard monogram made with the wedding colors chosen by an AMAZING bride. 

Chris & Pia, all the best to you both!!

BIG Love

Fancy a little white dress? Or cream perhaps?? That's what came to mind when I was making this card. Not to mention I have a case of "weddings on the brain"...with the one I missed last weekend as well as one I'm in this Sunday! And speaking of weddings, I'm pretty sure the piece of cream ribbon I used was actually from one of our wedding gifts (it'll be 7 years in May), so to say this card was made with Love is an understatement. It was made with blood too...well not really but I did manage to poke my finger a few times as I was stitching up the ribbon. Ouch!

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE how this card turned out, especially when I found the PERFECT sentiment to go smack dab in the middle. I started off with this weeks Paper Players Sketch Challenge #20, as you can see I flipped the sketch a bit...I did have the embossed piece of card stock running horizontal BUT couldn't see any of the cool detail, so I placed it vertically on my card.

PP20

I then paired the sketch with the rich colors from the JUGS color challenge, Black, Cream (Very Vanilla) & Kraft (otherwise known as Crumb Cake)

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Aren't these colors yummy together?? Makes me want to run out and change my bedroom to black & cream! I started off making the card the typical size by cutting a sheet of 8-1/2 by 11" card stock in 1/2 but once I had attached my rather large scrunched up ribbon, well, the base of the card kind of got swallowed up, so I went for a 6X6" instead. I used a SU! embossing folder for the background and then just dabbed black ink over the top to really bring out the depth in the paper. I was having a hard time finding a sentiment "pretty enough" to live up to the rest of the card and pulled out the LOVE from Love You Much. I used a piece of tape to cover the itty bitty words, you much, on the stamp while inking it into Craft Basic Black Ink, then pulled off the tape, stamped my image and viola, just a great big LOVE! After adding some black embossing powder and heating it to a shine, I couldn't resist adding just a tiny touch of bling on my flower. And there ya have it, in a nutshell, or rather, a LOVE shell!!

Happy Stamping!

ABC's Holiday Promo

Amazing cards, Beautiful packaging & Cherished gifts

From October 19-December 16, choose from several different holiday bundles 
containing gorgeous Stampin' Up!® products--perfect for creating card, gift


packaging, and gifts -- and all at 20% off! (click HERE to view flyer)

Things to remember:

~ Offer available on all order types (online, customer & workshops). Additional products from current catalogs may be purchased on the same order.

~ There is NO minimum purchase required to participate in this promotion.

~ You MUST use the bundle item code provided. The 20% discount will not be applied if individual bundle item numbers are entered separately.

~ Deadlines: December 16th (by phone, 6:50 pm)(online, 11:50 pm) (MT)

 CONTACT ME TODAY TO GET STARTED CREATING YOUR PERFECT HANDMADE HOLIDAY. 

"Fall" In Love

This weeks Play Date Cafe' photo inspiration reminded me of a crisp fall, Tahoe day, where the air is fresh and the leaves are crunchy beneath the boots that you slipped on to keep your toes warm during your morning walk in the woods...and what comes after the crispness, well none other than the clean beauty of snow and ice! I pulled out my color coach and matched Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery & River Rock to the photo and then I sat...literally...and started creating in my mind. I know everyone has their own way of putting things together, some sketch, others pull out a variety of items that might work and of course there are also those that just start stamping. Me, well, I always start cutting (and hope for the best!).

PDCC51

I started off by using a snowflake embossing folder directly on the front of my Baja Breeze, sponged a wee bit of RETIRED Frost White shimmer paint over the entire front and then got the snazzy idea to somehow create a window with a stamped image behind it. Using the 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, my idea started coming to life (or rather to paper, hehe). I heat embossed Gold embossing powder onto my skating couple from Winter Post, which pairs very nicely with the River Rock, if I do say so myself. I wanted to create more of a matted look so instead of doing it with paper, I did it with shadows, by popping back my image on the inside of the card. After punching out an oval from my scrap of scallop circle, I layered a smaller oval in River Rock with a saying from RETIRED Sale-A-Brations Vintage Labels. A bit of Certainly Celery Ribbon and RETIRED gold cord and viola, simple, sweet & starting to get in the mood!! (for Christmas that is!)

Happy Stamping!!

Mojo Wedding

Today a beautiful bride is getting married in the corn fields of Iowa. (Well, not REALLY in the corn fields but in a beautiful park) I made Kathryn's wedding invitations to coordinate with her peacock theme and after glittering up the feathers of 200 peacocks and 370 feathers, I didn't think I'd be touching another peacock stamp for quite some time. Don't get me wrong, I'm a total fan of peacocks and their beautiful coloring, I was just a little over-done (so to speak) with feathers, peacocks and blue glitter (which is on my face as I'm typing this).

MOJO160

This weeks Mojo Monday was the perfect sketch to compliment the RETIRED peacock from Very Thankful. I took the brides color scheme of Chocolate Chip, Brilliant Blue, Taken With Teal & Very Vanilla. This fancy looking squished up ribbon has recently caught my eye and after watching a wonderful tutorial on Ann Schach's blog, I just had to give it a go! I heat embossed the peacock with clear embossing powder after stamping in Craft Chocolate Chip. The little flowers are the ONLY thing that isn't SU! on this card BUT they were the perfect shade of blue and we all know what every bride needs on her wedding day, something BLUE!!

Wish you both the best on your special day and always, Kathryn & Chris! 

Black, White & Red All Over

I feel like I've been playing catch up since I was out of the loop the last week or so but no, just got the kids to bed a little earlier than normal last night and was able to have some very sweet quiet Mommy time, sigh! I have so much DVR to catch up on but my craft room was calling my name, so up I went to my quiet little haven instead! Thank goodness for all of these wonderful online challenges, cause they really help give me something to focus on, so that I'm not just sitting in lala land twiddling my thumbs waiting for inspiration to pop out of my tired brain. (although that's not a bad thing either) I'll take it anyway I can!

I started off with this weeks Sweet Sunday Sketch

SSSC88

and then paired it with a color challenge, cause every card HAS to have color, right?! Taken from The Paper Players inspirational photo.

PP19

Using Whisper White as my base, I then added a layer of Basic Black with just a hint of Real Red along the side with the scallop border punch. Using a onesie stamp, I made a background for my "It's A Boy" phrase to sit on. I stamped the BOY in Real Red and then Versa Marked over the top with Clear Embossing Powder. I also finally broke into my new SU! glitter brads (and of course used all the RED ones) since I ended up making 3 of these cards at once.

Big Huge Hugs

There's nothing nicer than opening the mail box to find a hand addressed envelope for YOU and as you grin sloppily while pouring over your hand made card, you also get a BIG HUGE HUUUUUUG!!! (did you feel that?)

Today I started out with the color scheme from ColourQ. Typical horrible Halloween colors that don't go well together any other time of the year but somehow just DO during the holidays. Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Concord Crush & White.

CQC54

and I paired these colors with one of the sketches over at Hand Stamped Sentiments. 

HSSSC37

I used Pumpkin Pie as my base, stamped and colored in my cute little lady, while paper piecing her pants to match the RETIRED Old Olive background. Then on to the sentiment, which was inked up in Craft White and heat embossed with White Embossing Powder and finally a piece of 1/8" Basic Black Taffeta Ribbon to finish up the sketch. I'm not quite sure if I can get away with this actually qualifying for a fall or Halloween theme (maybe if I switched my flowers to pumpkins) BUT the colors sure are!