Non-holiday card

All I've posted for awhile is holiday cards, so here is a non-holiday card I got from a friend. I have always loved the monochromatic cards and I love the simpleness of this one too. :)

Last of the Dec club cards

Here is a great example of a super cute card with very non-traditional colors-how cute!?? I love it-but this one did take a bit more time...cutting out the snowmen heads, putting together each square, the scarves, etc. Not too too bad though.

:) Smiles!

I can't stop!

Wanted another try with this set...it's much prettier in person with iridescent embossing on the baroque swirls. (I was hoping to make it look like a blustery wind-what do you think? Get that effect?)

Winter Shades of Blues

Another card from club night-at first I thought, I have to cut out all of those snowflakes!!??? But how I love punches!!! Turned out to be pretty fast and easy too! I enjoy the blue colors for winter as much as the traditional reds and greens and even like the non-traditional colors so many people use now too.

More Christmas/Holiday cards

You get some bonus cards to see courtesy of our stamp night. We made four cards, or rather there were four to make. I only got three done and had to go-it was getting too late and I needed to get home and get my kids in bed. This was my favorite of the bunch and the fastest and easiest too! It is made with a used dryer sheet glued with spray adhesive over the stamped image and then a bit of glitter over that. SO easy and so pretty! Who comes up with these ideas?!! I love them and am anxious to try this with other cards.

(You can see the glitter and the dryer sheet much better when you click on the pic to enlarge it.)

On the 12th Day of Christmas Cards

Well, here we are already on the 12th day of Christmas cards-the final day. I figure at this point, I better start addressing cards and stop making them. :) (Although I will have a few bonus cards for you over the next few days (one which I especially love!!!) thanks to my stamp club night earlier this weekend. Thanks S!)

For this final day, I decided that I could definitely make another card, BUT I don't think it will top my favorite Christmas card I have made-which is one I made last year. I still love love love it! It is the stair step nativity card I made and that is posted on the sidebar. So, I just had to show it again.


How can I top that? I love this old retired set from Stampin' Up and still have not found a better way to display it on a card, rather than on a stair-step. Maybe I'll play around with it a bit more later this month...

In the meantime, thanks for checking back with me the last couple of weeks and hope it's been fun! I've enjoyed using more of my holiday stamps than I normally do and have enjoyed making time for stamping. ;)

Hasta!

(I'll post more holiday cards from our stamp night this next week!!! :)

Happy Hanukkah!

In lieu of Hanukkah beginning today, I made these two cards using some of the inspiration from some of my Christmas cards from the 12 days for some friends of mine that are Jewish and thought I would share. :)


Happy Hanukkah! And next post...is the last of the 12 Days of Christmas cards!

On the 11th Day of Christmas Cards

Yikes! Cutting it close today. Okay-here is a card-that is...very different in some ways...Kinda strange and kinda not. I don't know if I was trying to be too creative or what and I can't decide if I really like it or not???

Anyway-for better or worse (haha) here it is:

I recently got this set and have envisioned making a very different card than this, that I have yet to start, but thought, maybe I'll try something different instead first. (Maybe I should have stayed with my first creative thoughts though.) :)

I still think it's kinda fun. No, it's not blurry-but has a velum square tag in front of the stamped image. I drew more silver lines to make it look like a window. I wanted the white winter background and the effect of looking out the window and seeing a cardinal. I love seeing cardinals. They seem so out-of-the-ordinary...even when I have lived places where it IS ordinary to see them. I still love seeing them. Added some beads to symbolize icy windows.

Too different? Do you like? Anyone out there? lol

See you tomorrow! :)

On the 10th Day of Christmas Cards

Okay, this is my favorite one I think out of the bunch. This was also my husband's second fav, although definitely not my kids' fav. They don't know if they like the Santa image. They say he looks weird here???

I love it though. I love the classic colors, the snowflake brads, the circle cut-out in the middle, the argyle...everything. Your thoughts? Your favorite so far?

Only two more days...

On the 9th Day of Christmas Cards

This is another one of my favorites and another simple one. I love the simple white polka-dotted dry embossed background resembling the whiteness of winter, the sparkly white ribbon, the simple sentiment down in the corner and the simple snow scene uncolored. I stamped in in navy though to match the rest of the card.

On the 8th Day of Christmas Cards

I had to take a pic of this one at an angle, b/c of the sparkly paper I used as my second layer. It seems the sparkles would keep catching the light wrong or making it blurry. Anyway...this is ONE of my favs...simple and easy, but I like. I like the square cards too for some reason and wonder why I don't do more of them...I put some glitter on the edge of the carrot and the edge of his hat to resemble the glistening light of snow as well. I debated on keeping it all black and white but decided I liked the carrot colored. :)

On the 7th Day of Christmas Cards

Here we are with another. I really like this one. I don't know if it is the colors or what, and it really is quite simple. The circles were cut on a friend's Cricut, so that was easy, the snowflakes came from Target in a box of a bunch of them and I added little rhinestones to the middle of them. Then I used patterned paper and all together...very minimal work-another good one to make in bulk. :)

On the 6th Day of Christmas Cards...

I enjoyed doing the cracked glass technique on this card. I haven't done it since a stamp club mtg over a year ago I think. And my 10 year old son was quite intrigued by it as I did it as well. He commented that no two cards would be alike with this technique.

A funny side note: This card is humorous to me b/c of course it is a snow globe, but cracked. This cracked glass is most likely how a snow globe would end up in my house too. :) (I do have one that has survived the past few years...we'll see for how much longer...they are just too tempting to little hands.) :)

Favorites yet? My favorite is still to come...have a great day!

On the 5th Day of Christmas Cards...

This one may be the most simple one I made, but I still love it. It looks classy and simple; clean. And it is one that you could easily produce in bulk to send out to lots of family and friends. :)

The Vintage Pearl

Just found this "pearl" of a website! Saw it on a friend's blog and I have to say I am falling in love with their keepsake jewelry. I have always loved my mother's "mothers ring" and have always wanted something with each of my children's name or birthstone or something on it, but have wanted to wait to get it until I am done having kids (obviously if I wanted it all on the same piece that is). Well, this is the place to go! I love their stuff! And they have a great give-a-way going on right now too. Check it out! Isn't their stuff beautiful and charming?
The Vintage Pearl

On the 4th Day of Christmas Cards...

This one is one of the first that I made. I like the sparkles (glitter) on the snowflakes along with the shimmery paper and the blue and white. Makes it feel like winter. :) I actually took the layout from a previous card I made last year, pictured below.

On the 3rd Day of Christmas Cards...

I had a hard time with this one. I liked the sentiment on the velum star and liked it with the image stamped of the holy family, but then I knew I need something across the top. I tried ribbon, rafia, twine, paper and didn't like anything. Finally I thought of those cards that remind me of shop window overhangs (or whatever they are called) and thought it might remind me of a stable, so I tried it. I still am not totally satisfied with it and wonder if it would have been better had I not scalloped the edges, but it is okay, better than anything else I tried and I still like the sentiment and image together, along with the colors. Thoughts? Suggestions?

On the 2nd Day of Christmas Cards...

I like this one a lot for some reason??? Maybe all the white makes it seem simpler and I think the beads added some fun sparkle and texture. I also enjoyed choosing a different sentiment, rather than just a traditional "Merry Christmas" to go with the mistletoe to make it more fun. :) I dry embossed it with a flower stem stencil I had to make the swirls on the side and like the way that turned out too. :)

Some of these cards resemble others somewhat b/c as I made them, I would get into some mode and they started turning out with the same colors, paper, etc, but I tried to make a good variety. Hope you like!

On the 1st Day of Christmas Cards...

Yeah! We're here on December 1st!!! My first day of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards!!! (as well as my sister's bday-Happy Bday K!) :)

Here is my first card! I'm excited to start showing them to you and would love to hear your thoughts, kind criticisms, things you like, things you would change, anything! This one is actually my husband's favorite, which kind of surprised me-I thought he would like more of the classic colors. Anyhoo...I hope these inspire someone out there or that you at least enjoy checking back and looking at them each day. :)

Project Display

I told you I would post some of my recent projects that I have been working on-mainly for Christmas presents. Well, here they are!

The first is a Family Home Evening Kit I mentioned. Actually I made three of them. (all pictured) They all have the same thing inside of them...items to pull out to help trigger a lesson idea, such as: a rock, angel, fish, dime, white piece of cloth, etc. Then there is also a "book" that lists each item and what you can do a

lesson on with it (ex: rock: Brother of Jared (Ether Ch 2 & 3), Easter (The Tomb) (Mark 15 & 16 Crucifiction and Resurrection), Samuel the Lamanite (Helaman Ch 15 and 16), David and Goliath (Samuel). I tried to include scripture references as well, to make the Family Home Evening lessons easier to do last minute even. You can use this kit a few ways-you can have each perosn pick something out and have them come up with a story that goes along with it, you can pick one thing out and do 1 lesson from it, or you can even have your child (or anyone) pick something out ahead of time to prepare a lesson on. Anyway, I think they turned out fun and hopefully useful! :) You can make them out of almost anything-even a Swiss Miss container like I did the one above. :)(If anyone wants my list of items and lessons that are in the kits, leave me a comment and email and I will send them to you.)


And the next item/project is a mirror I etched the glass and painted the frame for my parents and for my husband's for Christmas. I love it!

Sneak Peak at 12 Days

Here is part of a card (a corner I cropped) that I have ready for the 12 Days of Christmas Cards. I'm excited to start sharing them soon!!! Some are definitely more traditional than others. This one happens to be my husband's favorite out of the ones I have made so far. The colors I used are definitely NOT traditional on this one. Soon...

:) Robyn

A Thankful Turkey

I sent this to a friend for an idea to make with her kids and thought I would post it on here as well. I made it a few years ago-five maybe? and we use it every year to write what we are thankful for as a family (on the feathers). I laminated it, so that we can write with dry erase markers and erase them each year as well. Anyway-just thought someone might want to make one as well, so I will also include the pattern I made up for it with dimensions. (It really does come with two legs...one of ours just seems to have walked off right now. :) My daughter says he is "boinking" like his and shows us as she hops around the house on one foot.) :) (another note: Last year I made it for a family of ours that we know here and did the feathers on patterned paper and it turned out soooo cute!)

I've also used it for children's games where they pull off a feather OR put on a feather one at a time that has a song on it or something to do on each feather.

Anyway...hope you can use the idea sometime. Happy Thanksgiving!

Busy Busy

I've been working on a few projects this past week that I am getting really excited about.

1-I will be posting the Twelve Days of Christmas Cards starting December 1st. I have never made a lot of Christmas or holiday cards, b/c I usually send out way too many where I don't want to make them all, by the time I get the fam pics done, the Christmas letter done, etc. And I am not one to love reproducing cards in bulk. It's just not fun that way. But for some reason, I have wanted to make SOME (not all) this year, so...the other night, I thought of this idea and it has already been fun working on them and has gotten my creative juices flowing and more of my mojo back. (How's that for a run-on sentence?) I definitely like some better than others and am excited to see which are your favorites. Again, I will start posting one a day starting on December 1st.

2-Another project that I have been working on is a Christmas gift for someone. It is a box full of Family Home Evening lesson ideas-meant to be done quick and easy and last minute if needed. In our church, we are encouraged to hold Family Home Evening once a week with our families. It is a night set aside where we as family members spend time together learning and playing. Most of the time a gospel message is shared, along with an activity and dessert. (To learn more about it, you can go here.) So, I thought it would be fun to make something for this family along these lines. Of course, I am making one for our family as well and my kids are anxious to try it out already, starting tomorrow. :) So far, I have the contents of the box mostly completed (two more items to still get...), but still need to decorate the box. I'll be posting it later this week. (And I am just banking on the fact that this person who the gift is for does not check my blog.) :)

3-I also am about to start another project (tomorrow) that I will share later this week as well. It is also a Christmas gift for another. I'll tell you more about that one when I post it.

In the meantime, Happy Turkey week!!!

Trust in the Lord

Made this for a fellow-stampin' friend who had surgery today. My thoughts and prayers are with her. (I recently found a stamp I knew she would like that says "It the shoe fits, buy it" and gave it to her, so this time I added a shoe stamp for her as well.) :) I love altered notebooks-don't know why?? :)

MOOOO-OOMMMMM!!!

I have wanted to put these two stamps together on a card for awhile now. The mom in this pic looks so happy to have her kids hanging on her as she goes somewhere and I have to admit I do NOT always feel the same way, but I DO truly consider my children some of my greatest blessings. I just need loud reminders of that somedays. :)

Ballerina Birthdays

I needed a quick simple card for a 5 year old's birthday, so I threw this card together the other night as one of the 5 I made. I have always loved orange and pink together...who knows why? And it was way too pink without the orange, so...I think it works, do you?

Shabby Chic?

This card started out from Beate's weekend sketch challenge, although it is not exactly like her sketch (sizes of panels). "My Eternal Family" is the theme in our church's children's organization this year and I have thought a lot about it the past few weeks, since the children just put on a program/presentation all about what they have learned this past year for the congregation. Yesterday, as the children were singing the closing song in church/primary, I looked out at all the children and was impressed with how much they all mean to me...personally, but mostly how precious they all are to our Father in Heaven. We were singing "We'll Bring the World His Truth" and the words of the song really touched me as I looked at all of the children. I have truly enjoyed and felt privileged to serve the children in our church the past two and a half or so years. I have loved teaching them and serving them with all of my heart. I pray that they will be strong servants in our Heavenly Father's work as they continue to grow and gain knowledge.

Anyway...about this card now...this is not how I really envisioned it. It is a different look for me, almost a shabby chic kind of look? But I also think it's kinda fun. I stamped two corners and used Dp paper for the other two. I love this "frayed yarn" and could use it much more than I do. :)

Thanks for the help Beate! :)

One more use

I have made this card for Father's day, missionaries, bishops in our church and now I have found another use for it. Baptisms! I wanted a white simple shirt for this use, to represent the baptism. Sooo very simple and fun that I could add the "It's Great to be Eight" stamp to the tie I thought.

I love her!

I had wanted to make another card with her, but with more fall colors, and so I set to work on it last night and ended up stamping for almost 3 hours! Needless to say, I am tired this am.

As I was stamping this card, my youngest (4 yr old daughter) got back up out of bed (thanks to her nap today!) and saw me stamping and of course, she wanted to stamp too. She loved this little girl I was coloring and said, as I was coloring her "She looks warm Mom." and later as I finished "She's beautiful!" I stamped her one of this girl,s o she could also color it. She was ecstatic that I let her use my pastels and FOUR brads! This is hers:
Then she happily took it with her back to bed. :)

Dreaming of needing warmth

I soooo soooo love this stamp! Doesn't she look so comfy?!! I was excited to get to use it again, although it was in the mid-70's here today. I can pretend that it feels crisp enough to sit and have some hot chocolate though, right?

I embossed all the white circles in the background...had thought of doing snowflakes, but that was pushing it for me with this weather. LOL Decided on these spots instead. :) Popped up the image with dimensionals too.

October-Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I know it's November now, but I kept thinking I would post this last week and never did, so here I am now. I made this last year for a friend of mine that was going through breast cancer. This past month, another friend of mine found out that she had it as well, although her's has already spread and is in stage 4 now. I think it is too soon to make something like this for her, she is still in somewhat of shock, so for now...My heart and prayers go out to her and to all others that are going through this or have in the past.

Just for fun: Gingerbread Mummy Cookies

Just thought I would share our fun creations this am...we made these for a Homeschool Halloween party we had this am. :) Happy Halloween!

Loads of Love for Letters of Love

Made this for a family member that we are collecting letters of love to put inside. It was fun to make for her.

Halloween and Fall Inspired Favorites

Well, I have been swamped...with life...and this week is going to be busy busy! I haven't started sewing my kids' Halloween costumes yet for this year and my husband and I told them that we would also dress up with them this year as well, so that means I need five costumes done...and in the next three days!!! (Our church is holding their Trunk or Treat on Wed this week.)

So, that means no stamping pretty much this week.

So I thought I would go through some of the past projects I have done in the fall and around Halloween and post some of my favs.

Hope you enjoy and have a great week!
Two other things I have done, that I have gotten from the Family Fun website, are the Paper bag trees (pic is from their website) which you can find here and "Mr Bones" (a skeleton you can print out and put together) here. (or go to the address below if that link doesn't work for some reason...)
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=10232

Have a great Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!