12 Month Card Organizer

I was greatly inspired by Patty's Stamping Spot to create this project. It is so very easy to make and is a wonderful gift to give someone.

I used my Cricut Expressions to create the title, using the Calligraphy cartridge for the font, my DD picked out the colors and papers for the organizer so I'm giving it to her to be able to track and store the cards she makes for people's special occasions. We used the retired Bali Breeze DS and the coordinating card stock and ribbon.

The supply list is pretty short: 6 pieces 12 x 12 DS paper, the chipboard support piece from the pack of paper, BIA, large O rings (1" or larger), accent paper, embellishments.

Start by scoring your paper at 4" then turning and scoring it at 6". You want the score marks to cross on the paper. Fold at the 4" score mark first to create the pocket and then fold at the 6 " mark to create the two pages. Repeat for the remaining 5 pieces of DS paper.

This is what that stack should look like:

Next decorate your covers and punch your holes through all the pages and covers with the BIA. I chose to bind at the top and bottom of the book, but you could create the rings all the way down if you wanted.
I forgot to take a picture of the inside pages and the calender section, but you can go here and download the months from Splitcoast Stampers.

I hope everyone enjoyed my rambling first tutorial...I promise as I do more I will get better at it ;)

Blog Candy

So apparently I don't know the days of the week very well...I know I said I would offer this last weekend, but time just got away from me...

First let me show you a card I created using this wonderful stamp called Santa Collage...I first saw it a few years ago and absolutely fell in love with the design, little did I know then it was a very rare, hard to get stamp...so that made me want it all the more...

The background is by another great company that I have come to love - Peddler's Pack the backgrounds they offer are wonderfully detailed. I thought the snowflakes matched well with the Santa image.

Now on to the blog candy...I was fortunate enough to come across a couple of the Santa Collage stamps and I thought I would share my good fortune with one of you...I'm offering a brand new Santa Collage stamp, winter embellishments, Halloween acrylic embellishments and a mini book made from the Bella Rose DS paper, complete with tags and mats inside, ready to be customized.

Between now and January 2 leave me a comment to this post telling me what you want to accomplish in the new year. I will use mykids.org to pick the winner.

My goals for 2009 are to keep loosing weight (down 28 pounds since August), getting our finances under control, getting back on the FlyLady routine and being the best wife and mother I can be...I think these are do-able goals...I would love to know what other people are planning for 2009. I will post the winners name on January 2nd in the evening...Good Luck!!

How Many of Me??

Hi everyone!!

I came across this on someone's blog and I thought it was really neat!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 5 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I hope everyone has a great day!!!

Stay tuned ~ on Sat I will be posting my first ever blog candy, in honor of my and my DD's birthday which it today, Christmas and my upcoming blog-aversary...

Thanks Gift Card

Good Afternoon everyone! I have yet another card to share with you. I hope everyone is enjoying seeing all these cards! I know that everyone enjoyed getting these as gifts and are already putting in requests for more ;)

This was such a fun card to make! I got to play with one of the sets from the Spanish catalog, Flores Suaves. I love this tulip and the script! I did a gatefold card to be able to showcase the tulip. I colored this with my Koh-i-noor pencils which are woodless colored pencils and blended the pencils with odorless mineral spirtits and blending stumps. I used yellow, orange and green on my tulip to get that wonderful multi-colored look and added a shadow at the bottom to help ground the image. I wrapped some cream sheer ribbon around both panels to add some interest. I dipped into my retired colors for this card ~ the base is Wild Wasabi and it is layered with River Rock and Very Vanilla.

Sunset Gift Card

Hi everyone! I have another card to share from the gift cards I made for friends and family. I know I have said that I have a really hard time picking a favorite, but this one is in the top of my favorite cards! I catch myself just looking at it for no reason...

I call this one Sunset Flowers. I did this with my brayer and sponges. First I punched a 1.25" circle from a piece of post it note and brayered So Saffron onto a piece of Glossy card stock then I put the circle that I punched out over the sun I just created and sponged Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red and Night of Navy all around layering the colors a little to get a nice blend going. Then I lifted the post it note sun off and really like how I got the white shadow at the bottom of the sun. I stamped the flowers from Upsy Daisy in StazOn Black across the bottom of the paper, making sure to get the tall flower somewhere in the sun. I so love how this card turned out! It has such a peaceful look to it. The base of the card is Taken with Teal and it has a piece of Windsor Knot along the bottom 1/3 of the card. The main image is layered with So Saffron and Old Olive and I added a small piece of Tempting Turquoise ribbon to the side.

The inside turned out just as neat as the front I think. I used the same flowers as on the front except I stamped them in So Saffron and did my sentiment in Taken with Teal.

This is a card I can't wait to teach at one of my next classes ~ I'm sure my ladies will love creating this card as much as I did!!

Merry Christmas Gift Card

I have another Christmas card gift to share with everyone. I totally cased this card from Beate ~ here is her card. I didn't change much on mine, mostly just the color of the sentiment. I did change the placement of the of the grommet up just a little. This was such a fun and easy card to make. The colors are a little more vibrant IRL. My DH says it looks like a very masculine Christmas card. I was surprised that I had someone order 10 of these from me while I was showing them to a group. That is the first card order I have ever had and I had a smile that just wouldn't stop!!

I hope everyone had a great day!!

Merci Gift Card

Good Morning!! I have another gift card to share with everyone! I had so much fun making all these. I hope everyone is enjoying these as well.

This card is geared more towards Valentine's day, although it would work for an anniversary as well. I really like how this came out. The colors work really well together and the image is just too cute!! I painted the image using my twinkling H2O's so it really shimmers IRL.

The base of the card is Close to Cocoa, on top of that is Pretty in Pink that has been paper pierced in the corners. I also used Ballet Blue, Gable Green, Berry Bliss DS (retired) and Whisper White.

Fall Gift Card

Good afternoon everyone! I have more cards to share from the gifts we are giving. I am really hoping that everyone will like the cards I made for them and share them with others.

It is so hard for me to pick a favorite ~ I really like them all!! This is my favorite fall card...it uses the Joseph's Coat Technique kinda...I am calling this Faux Soot Stamping. I love to soot stamp, the only problem with it is that I tend to catch the paper on fire trying to get a good cover of soot so I thought this would give the same effect without all the singe marks. I brayered ink onto the background of the full sheet of glossy cardstock starting with More Mustard, then Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust and finishing with Ruby Red. I did overlap the colors and go in a random pattern. Once the 8.5 X 11 piece was brayered I cut it into smaller sections and embossed the leaves in clear in a random pattern. Then I brayered Basic Black over the entire piece of paper. I let the black dry a little before I buffed the ink off the embossing and let my fall image shine.

The inside of the card is just as festive as the outside I think. I stamped off once before stamping the inside of the card. I used Ruby Red as the base of the card and More Mustard, Really Rust and Whisper White as accent colors. I used the same ink colors and Chocolate Chip. I think this is a good Fall / Thanksgiving card to share with everyone.

Always Gift Card

This year we decided to make gifts for people ~ not only to help the pocketbook but to also share in the joy of giving hand crafted gifts to our friends and family. The kids are also getting in the handmade spirit by painting candle holders and making ornaments for everyone.

This is the first of the 10 card set I made for everyone. I know it seems weird to post all the details before Christmas ~ rest assured that the friends and family that are recieving these gifts will be getting them before this actually posts so all is safe ;)

I designed this card to be a birthday card. This is the first card I made using the set Always. I made a pocket card and used Close to Cocoa as my base and layered Gable Green and Pink Pirouette as my accent colors. I also pulled in Banbury DS. I used Certain Celery 5/8" ribbon to accent the card. The bird and saying are stamped in StazOn Black.

Here is the card with the tag pulled out. I tried to keep the stamping on the inside soft so it could be written over. I'm really liking how this card turned out.

Stampin' Up! Retired Stamp List

Good Morning! I hope everyone is off to a wonderful start to this great day. I just got the info from Stampin' Up! regarding the retiring list and I think this is a first for them...SU! is offering 10% discount off all retiring sets from today, 12/9/08 thru Tue 12/23/08 and any order that is $70.00 or higher will also get free shipping, retiring sets or not...

Retiring List by Page Number
Retiring List Showing 10% Discount

Sunflower Wreath

Hi everyone! I finally decided to re-do my fall wreath. Not that there was anything wrong with the wreath I made last year but I was just ready for a change...most of my friends know that I LOVE sunflowers so it should not be surprising that I went from fall flowers to fall sunflowers. To me there is nothing better than adding some great color to my door. Unfortunately this wreath is much too thick to put on the outside of my door ~ so we get to enjoy all this great fall color in the living room instead! Which is fine with me ;)

Goofy me forgot to take a picture of the before but it was similar to this wreath (which was our fall wreath from 3 years ago) Yes I change the design of our wreaths almost yearly, what else would I do with all the flowers I have in my room?? I also make floral arrangements and wreaths and give them as gifts to friends and family. Nothing like putting my floral schooling to good use and making my house look a little more seasonal at the same time.

I will be re-doing our Christmas wreath shortly and will post pictures of that as well, only this time I will remember to take a before picture as well as an after picture.

More Mini's

I have been on a book making craze lately...it started with a MOPS group that had asked me to come and show them how to make my mini-books so I prep-ed about 25 books and then decided to go through my retired DS papers and make some extras in case anyone was interested in buying another little book...Unfortunately the MOPS night was canceled due to a Cub Scout Pack meeting and can't be rescheduled until late spring or early fall next year, so I have lots and lots of mini-books left - half completed I might add that I am slowly finishing and either going to give as gifts or sell...

Here is the book we were going to make for the MOPS night:And here is the basket full of "extras" I have...if anyone wants a book just let me know... :)

Camp Cards

Hi there everyone!! I have some new cards to share with you today. I had a stamp camp a couple of weeks ago and just realized that I forgot to share the cards with everyone...

This first card is another gift card holder, I'm so loving making these things!! Be on the lookout for my first tutorial...I will show everyone how to make this cute little holder...

I finally used my level 2 set Deer Friends. Yeah!! Another new set finally inked up!!! The snowflakes come from the set Short & Sweet and the Merry Christmas is from Holiday's & Wishes. The base of the card is Glorious Green and it is accented with Ballet Blue, Riding Hood Red and Whisper White. I'm so loving this DS paper Frosty Day. I thought those little trees would match the theme perfectly and a little Riding Hood Red Taffeta ribbon finishes it off nicely!

The next card is one I cased from SandiMac - you can see her card here. I just loved the color combination she used and the simple yet elegant layout she had for the Holy Triptych set - which is beautiful but a little intimidating to me. I think the ladies had a really good time with this card. I opted to add a few more swirls to the bottom instead of putting a sentiment. I used Whisper White, Brushed Gold and Shimmery White Cardstock and Encore Gold ink. Very simple to put together and very elegant to give.

The next card is one that seemed to be a fan favorite - not just at the camp but to most people I have shown these cards to...it is another case card, this time from BarbaraJackson - here is her card. I did change a few things from the original. I didn't watercolor the image and instead of using Square Fire Brads I used half-back pearls from the Pretties Kit to accent the flower. I love how simple and uncluttered this card it. I used Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White cardstock and Always Artichoke ink for the tree.

The final Christmas card we made used the Snow Swirled stamp set and we got to play with the ink resist emossing technique which looks just awesome for this tree...I am such a fan on blue and silver for Christmas, to me it looks very elegant. We also got to play with the silver elastic cord, which is just too fun!! I used Ballet Blue as my base and accented with Night of Navy and Whisper White. All ink is Ballet Blue. I used a sponge dauber to color the tree. I have been asked to come to my DD art class and help the kids make Christmas cards for their families and this is the card my DD picked, so hopefully all the 8th graders will have a blast playing with this technique as well.