Snowy-Blowy Thanks

Here's the other Thank You I made for my friend...I love the color combo of Baja Breeze and Soft Suede...

Holiday Thank You...

My friend asked me to make her some Christmas Thank You cards...here's the first of 2 that I made...this is a simple one layer card...I used the 'Peaceful Wishes' set...

I stamped the leaf in Old Olive and then kept stamping several times without re-inking...added some red glitter berries and the sentiment...and done...easy-peasy!

Merry Christmas to all!

Purple Hippo?

...well, actually she's Orchid Oppulance!

My friend's daughter had a baby girl and when I had seen them a few months ago when they were planning the shower, the mom wanted purple and brown as the shower colors...we were tossing around a few ideas, but, honestly, none of them worked....


So when her baby arrived, I decided to revisit the color combo and I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out!  I used a layout I have used before, so this card came together quickly...the rhinestones in the centers o the flowers are a light lavender so they really add a nice touch!

Early Espresso, Orchid Oppulance, Confetti Cream

Gift Certificate....

My friend, Mary, wanted to give her friend a SU! gift certificate for Christmas, so I decided to make a holder for it...I don't have the measurements (as I gave it to her right away) but I used a full sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 and just folded it around the gift certificate and decorated...

Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla

I finally made it...

I've been wanting to make this card FOREVER, and when my mom came down for a visit, I thought it was the perfect opportunity...it is from "A Slice of Life"...the vase is watercolored--it's hard to tell in the photo..

Concord Crush, Baja Breeze, Pear Pizzaz, Whisper White

Tree of love...

Personalized card

Here's the 2nd personalized card I made...I used the Gifts of Christmas set...the dove it cut out and popped up with dimensionals...I also painted the dove with Lumiere paint to add some sheen...

Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede, Whisper White

Circle Christmas

A friend of mine asked me to make 2 very special, personalized cards for her mom and her in-laws...this first one is for her in-laws....when I saw this design I know it would look great with some personalization...I was even thinking of using it as my Holiday card with my kids' names on it (or what about photos???)

Cheery Cobbler, Baja Breeze, Silver and Red Glitter paper, Whisper White

I used these punches...1inch, 3/4 inch, 1/2 inch, the tiny circle from the 3 pack punches, and a standard hole punch

Not my style...

...but I tried it anyway....I saw this card on DarleneDesigns (check out her blog under my blog list on the left) and I fell in love with it...she had done that background differently and used slightly different colors, but the overall look is the same...

I used some teeny tiny metal beads (that I've had forever) that I dyed with some Staz-on ink refill to be black (as they were originally silver) for the center of the flower...

The center flower is from Fifth Avenue Floral and the background flowers are from A Slice of Life...

This would make a great card to have on hand for any occasion...

Not Quite Navy, River Rock, Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink (for watercoloring the flower)

Changed it up....

Here's another version of the birthday card I made originally in a square (jumbo) card...same vision...just changed up the measurements to reflect a rectangular card....

Makin' the cut...

Here's the elf that didn't make the cut for the elf poop topper...still cute but Maggie thought that he looked too much like the elf Herman from Land of Misfit Toys...plus he would have been a lot more punching!

Same concept as before...head and hat from the ornament punch, ears from the bird wing...hat trim is an oval...

Elf poop?!?

Here is the treat that I'm making for my oldest to bring into school...it's elf poop (mini m & m's) and has the cutest poem...


The elf face an oval punch...the hat is the ornament punch and the ears are the wings from the bird punch...

They better eat it!

I've been busy making treats for my kids to give out for Christmas...I was going to make the old stand-by (a chocolate bar wrapped with a piece of paper and topped with a cute holiday stamp) but I was not too enthused about making 100 of them, so I came up with a better idea....Magic Reindeer food!

I googled the recipe and the poem and got to punching....the reindeer's head is the owl punch with the feet removed...the antlers are a non-SU! leaf punch...and of course the nose is a circle of glittered paper!  I'm still in the process of assembling 64 of these cuties...wait till you see the other treats I'm making for my oldest to bring to school...

Taking credit...

On our stocking making day, I suggested to my oldest to make a jumbo version of a card she liked that had a pair of ice skates on it, using the stocking punch...she started out but then gave up, so it became my job to finish the skates...she helped along the way with suggestions, but then in the end, wanted to take a picture with the skates, as if she made them....gotta love Maggie!

I free-hand cut out the blades...the heel of the skate is a Soft Suede stocking trimmed into a heel...I laced some ribbon through some holes I punched along the edge...

Works of art...

We had Halloween-themed stockings and, of course, girly glitter ones....

Our Stocking-making day!

My kids and I sat down for some crafting a few weekends ago and decided to make some stockings to decorate the house for the holidays...they each got to make some stockings and they all got really creative!

Here's mine...it's done all in Very Vanilla with some sponging of Sahara Sand...it's hard to see in the photo, but it's really stunning in person...

Sorry...Mom.....

I made this card for my Mom's birthday in January...but then a customer called and needed a female birthday card so I sold it....oops....

Hey, when you can sell a card.....

So anyway, that means I get to make another special one for her!

I used the porcelain technique on the Vanilla background piece...inking up the embossing folder with Sahara Sand with a sponge and then running the card stock through the Big Shot...it adds a really subtle color...there are also tiny pearls in the centers of the flowers...


Pretty in Pink, Sahara Sand Very Vanilla, Basic Black


Wait till you see how I changed this card into an A2 card size....

Another mature card?

...what's come over me?!!

Pulled out my Color Coach (Cajun Craze, Old Olive, Early Espresso), my layout stash, and my Mom's Classic Cars set to whip up this card....

...now that I'm looking at it, I should have moved the car image to the left a bit, right?  And I switched up the circle (#4) for a sentiment lined up with the main image....

Classic layout

I love layouts, as you know...and I love to see what other people do with them...

I've been saving this layout from Dawn Olchefske for the longest time, waiting for the perfect stamp...

The card with the bicycle is her version of the layout...mine took a manly turn with the classic car...the color combo is from the Color Coach...I only colored the flames part of the car to highlight the colors in the card...

Early Expresso, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Sahara Sand

Another big boy card....

I've used this layout before from Krista Fenton, and I loved it, so I decided to use it again in my series of more mature work...god, I hate how that sounds!


I added the sentiment on an oval punch to change it up a bit...

Bravo Burgandy, Night of Navy, Basic Grey, Confetti Cream

Happy #6!

Yesterday was my little Timmy's 6th birthday...

These are the little treats I made for his kindergarten class...it is just 2 Kit Kat bars wrapped in a strip of Gable Green, with a little alien space ship with a circle of Green Galore and a scallop circle of Pacific Point....

...they were a big hit!

Here it is...

....a mature card!  I borrowed a few of my mom's stamp sets to make some mature birthday cards...so here it is with the sketch I used...I've been holding on to this card sample for a long time now and am so excited that I got a chance to use it!


Crumb Cake, Bravo Burgandy, Night of Navy

Tiny Turkey Baskets

Last Thanksgiving, I made the kids their own little turkey baskets from the Two Tags Die...they were like a place setting and were a big hit as they were filled with chocolates...this year, since Gram and Aunt Mary were coming for dinner, I decided to make one for them and one for me and my hubby...

I opted for the owl punch turkey with the 5 petal flower feathers (since it was a bit quicker than last year's oval punch turkey...I just trimmed off the little ears of the owl and added 3 different colored 'feathers'...the little waddle is the heart from the owl punch, punched 2x and cut in half, layering half of the yellow heart over the red as a beak...

Super simple, but time consuming...

Does, this look like tiles?

These are 1 inch squares, each embossed with a different embossing folder (hence the time consuming part)...the little stamped square is actually a tag stamp...this could really be an any occasion card--just change up the last square...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have no pictures of stamping related stuff to post, since I haven't really been stamping much lately....I'm in a bit of a funk....

But I thought I'd post 2 cute photos of my kids in our backyard...

Hope you have a wonderful Turkey Day!

Did somebody say ballet?

Would you believe this is from the stocking punch???  I saw the idea on Jackie Topa's blog--she's so creative!  Who woulda thunk?

I punched the legs in Pink Piroheutte and again in white and trimmed the white to make a ballet slipper (hint: I made one as a template and used it over and over...the body/shirt is a scallop circle (the larger one) with a little tulle skirt made from 2 large scallop Big Shot dies folded in half and scrunched and sewed together...a little pink bow tops it off....


I think I am going to make these for our Ballet Brunch at my kids' dance school as pins, but they would easily fit on a card  (maybe one with a dance bar, wood floor and a mirror???) Hhhhmmmmm.....

Quick Thanksgiving card

Needed a Thanksgiving card real fast, so I went back to my layouts and came up with this card...there are some very subtle leaves stamped on the bottom half of the card...


Pumpkin Pie, Crumb Cake, Early Expresso, Confetti Cream

Baja Breeze engagement

My friend, Kim, also asked me for an engagement card....since I made this one already and loved it, I thought I'd pull it out again...this time, however, I made it in a square size instead of a regular A2 size...

It is really so simple and stunning (and easy!)

Fishing birthday

My friend, Kim, asked me to make  card for her husband's birthday, who likes to fish...I do not own any mature stamp sets--gotta get some!...so here's what I came up with (and he liked it!)


I painted the fish scales with some Crystal Effects...the sentiment is actually printed from the computer since I don't own a stamp that was simple and would fit into a circle punch...the background is stamped with the Fishy Friends matching wheel...don't you just love the layout, too?



Lucky Limeade, Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point

That' usin' your noggin'!

I've been helping out my kids' dance studio get ready for their upcoming Holiday Show-cutting felt 'candlestick wax drips', hot gluing hats, etc... the director asked me to burn the edges of some tulle ballet skirts to prevent further fraying....I started out with one of those BBQ lighters and soon realized that tulle is extremely flamable!

After trying a hair dryer and a curling iron, and then almost moving onto a hair flat iron, I realized that I could use my embossing heat gun!  It worked like a charm!!!! And no flames!  See...all that stuff I have for stamping does come in handy....I'll have to remember that excuse when my hubby sees my next order come for the UPS guy!

I knew I forgot to post this one!

Sorry so blurry!

I had a request for a Monsters High girly birthday card...I barely knew what these dolls looked like!  So I just Googled some images, printed them up and put a card together!  The eyes and bow of the skeleton are actually popped up for dimension....luckily Melon Mambo is the color of the one doll that the birthday girl was getting....

Love and Layout

I wanted to make a card for my wonderful hubby...and couldn't resist this layout...it was a Splitcoaststampers weekly layout challenge...


You can hardly see it, but I stamped some hearts on the bottom half of the card in River Rock ink...don't you just love rounded corners?

Bravo Burgandy, Baja Breeze, River Rock (combo taken from Color Coach)