Frosty's Last Chance!

I'm a little sad that Frosty is on the retiring list - he's a cutie! I thought I'd make some cards with him while I still can.

This year for my Christmas cards, I didn't make all of my cards the same. Since I'm sending over a hundred cards out, I thought I'd get pretty bored if I made a hundred of the same card! So I chose a few favourites and made twenty of each. Plus, I'm going to use all my sample cards as well, so there will be a big mish-mash of cards out there from me.

This is one of the cards that I made a bunch of to send out. I'm really into blues this year for my Christmas cards, so I dipped into my blog candy winnings again (see this post) for this snowflake paper.

I used Whisper White as the base since it's easier to write in than Blue Bayou, which was my other choice. I stamped the swirls in Blue Bayou all over the card base, then I adhered a strip of the designer paper across the bottom. I stamped Frosty on some Whisper White and coloured him in with my aqua painters (I used Blue Bayou and Wild Wasabi ink for this). For the nose and berry, I used my Stampin' Write markers (Apricot Appeal and Real Red). Then I adhered this to some Blue Bayou cardstock and sponged Blue Bayou ink all around the edges. I finished it off with some double-stitched ribbon, then adhered the whole thing to the card.

Stay tuned tomorrow - I made some altered notebooks as gifts for people, and since I'm giving them the notebooks tomorrow, I can post them after that!

A Wedding Card

This is a card I made for a wedding we're going to today. I started by taking some of the wrapping paper I used to wrap the gift, then I went from there!

There were some silver and pale peach tones in the paper, so I used Blush Blossom as the card base. Then I layered some Brushed Silver cardstock on top of that. I used the ticket corner punch on the silver and the wrapping paper.

I pulled out my Rubber Soul wedding stamp set for this card! I don't get to use it often, so I was excited to get to try it out! I stamped the image and the greeting on Shimmery White cardstock with VersaMark and embossed it with silver embossing powder. I sponged Blush Blossom ink on that to blend it with the cardstock. For the top image, I layered some Blush Blossom under it before adhering it to the wrapping paper. For the greeting, I layered some Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon across the bottom of the card, then punched the greeting with the ticket corner punch before adhering it over top. I put a couple of little pearl beads from my SU! Pretties kit on the sides using mini glue dots. And there you have it!

Of course, I made a bow out of the wrapping paper as well, so the gift paper, bow and card all coordinate! I'm such a nerd!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the wedding. It will be lots of fun! Congratulations, Susan and Caleb!

Stamp Club Gifts

I made these little packets of 3 x 3 cards as Christmas gifts for the ladies in my stamp clubs. Each packet has these three cards in it with envelopes. I made them all with Very Vanilla as the base.

For the one on the far left, I made a one-sheet wonder with Wild Wasabi and Purely Pomegranate ink using my Baroque Motifs set. Then I cut it into squares and matted it with Wasabi and Pomegranate.

For the centre card, I stamped the flourish from Season of Joy on the base with Night of Navy ink. Then I punched a Navy scallop circle and a Bashful Blue 1 3/8" circle. I stamped the design from In the Spotlight on the circle with Night of Navy ink.

For the far right card, I put a strip of Dashing designer series paper along the left side of the card. I stamped the snowflake from Perfect Presentation in Real Red on Very Vanilla cardstock and punched it out with the small tag punch. I layered that onto Old Olive cardstock and punched it out with the large tag punch. I adhered this to the card and stamped "from the heart" from Holidays and Wishes in Old Olive.

I had to make the cards fairly simple since I had to make 20 of each one. I packaged them in the medium cello bags, folded the bag over so it fit the cards, then tied some ribbon around the tops.

I also made a card tonight for a wedding I'm going to tomorrow, but it's too dark to take a photo, so I'll take one tomorrow and post it after the wedding! Thanks for stopping by!

*All supplies are Stampin' Up! of course!

Super Easy Gift Box

This is a little gift box that my friend, Kristine, showed me how to make. It's super easy (what else would I do?!). Here's how to make it:

1. Take a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock (Garden Green here - I would have used Old Olive to match the paper, but I didn't have any!). Score the cardstock every 4 inches horizontally and vertically, so you have nine 4-inch squares.
2. Cut out the four corner squares with your paper cutter or scissors.
3. Decorate the four outside squares as desired - leave the center square blank (I just adhered some Dashing designer paper to the outside squares).
4. Attach an eyelet to the outside corners of each square (gold ones here).
5. Fold up the sides and tie the corners together through the eyelets with cord or ribbon (I used Real Red 1/4" grosgrain).

I wrapped this gift with some red tissue paper. It's a perfect little gift box for jams, antipasto, etc. This one has some Victorian Epicure Cheese, Chives and Bacon dip mix in it! Yummy!

Random Acts of Kindness

My husband volunteers with our church's Youth Group, and last week, they had a Random Acts of Kindness evening. Before they began, the youth pastor gave the kids some books of Tim Horton's gift certificates. Then, my husband drove a group of kids around town while they did RAKs for people. I almost cried when my husband told me what some of the kids came up with to do for strangers. They went to Tim Horton's, stood at the till, and paid for people's coffee or donuts. They brought donuts to a needy family from our church. They did so much more, and my husband said they thought of all the things; he just drove them there. In this age when a lot of adults have such a negative opinion of teenagers, I thought it was so great that they were doing a positive thing. DH said that people were so thrilled and moved to have the teenagers help them.

So on that note, here is a list of RAKs that you can do for people (our youth pastor, Dade, gave us this list). I'm challenging myself to do some of them in the coming weeks. I challenge you to do the same! (By the way, our church is not sponsored by Tim Horton's, as you may think from this list! LOL! A lot of people at our church just like the coffee there!)

1. Collect non-perishable foods from your house and drop them off at the food bank bin at Safeway (or other grocery store).
2. Sing a Christmas carol at one of the seniors' centres in your area.
3. Give a stranger a Tim Horton's (or coffee) gift certificate.
4. Buy a cup of coffee for someone in line at Tim Horton's.
5. Pay for someone in the drive thru at Tim Horton's (or another restaurant).
6. Shovel a stranger's driveway.
7. Bring coffee and donuts to someone you know.
8. Give someone you know a phone call and give him/her a word of encouragement.
9. Go to someone in the church you know that needs prayer and pray for him/her right there together.
10. Write a thank you card to someone you know telling him/her something you appreciate.
11. Find a homeless person or someone in need and buy him/her a meal - sit down with him/her.
12. Help someone load her groceries into her car at the supermarket.
13. Offer to pump someone's gas.
14. Buy coffee and donuts for the police/fire department.
15. Find an area, parking log, fast food place, gas station, etc. and pick up the garbage on the ground.
    
16. Phone a teacher and thank him/her for doing such a great job with your children.
    
17. Tape a quarter to a pay phone with a note welcoming anyone who needs it to use it.
18. Leave some quarters in the pay shopping carts at Safeway (or other grocery store).
19. Offer to babysit for a busy mom and give her some time to herself.
    
20. Offer to do some housework for a busy mom.

These are just a few ideas. If you think of some more, please post them in the comments!
God bless!

"Peace"-ful Snowman

I love sketch challenges because I probably wouldn't make any cards just for fun without them! Maria (Stampin' Inspirations and Card Inspired) always has lots of great sketches on her blog. This one is for day two of her blog candy challenge.

I used the designer paper I just won from Jenny (Stamping Moments) with some Blue Bayou as the base. I made it a 4 1/4" square card. After I adhered the snowflake paper across the bottom, I sponged Blue Bayou ink around it to blend it with the cardstock. I then layered some Whisper White and Blue Bayou on top (sponged with ink as well) with some double-stitched Blue Bayou ribbon. This was a different card for me because usually I stamp the focal image. But the snowmen on the designer paper were so cute, I cute one out and used him as the main image. I finished off by stamping "peace" from Everyday Flexible Phrases (at least there's some stamping on it!) on Whisper White and punching it out with my small oval punch. I sponged more ink on that before adhering it to the ribbon with a mini glue dot.

Here's a copy of Maria's sketch:

Thank You, Jenny!

Allison (Stampin' When I Can) posted awhile back saying she's never sure whether or not to post her blog candy winnings. I totally agree - I don't want to seem like I'm bragging about winning because that's not the case. On the other hand, I think it's important to acknowledge the person who sent the blog candy and thank her publicly since she went to the trouble of buying it, posting it on her blog and mailing it. That being said, I did win some blog candy (I'm not bragging!), so I want to thank Jenny for sending it!

I won this blog candy from Jenny (Stamping Moments), whose blog I have been stalking lately! She is a very talented paper crafter who just signed up with Stampin' Up! since the company recently arrived in the U.K. She's very excited about it, and she's been making tons of stuff with her SU! supplies, so I've been checking her blog daily to be inspired! Go have a look for yourself - you won't be disappointed!

It took awhile to get here from England, so I'm very excited that it's here! Thank you so much, Jenny - I just love it! It's a package of 12 x 12 paper (all Christmasy! It matches Blue Bayou perfectly!) and some matching stickers! Now my dilemma is whether to use it for cards or save it for some scrapbooking! I'm such a hoarder of supplies, and I always want to make sure I use my things for just the perfect project, so I end up not using my nice stuff! I think I'll make a few Christmas cards with this, then save some for scrapbooking. Okay, problem solved!

Decorating the Tree

One of Maria's challenges today was to show a picture of our Christmas trees or a Christmas decoration in our house. I thought I'd show a close-up view of the boys decorating the tree (this is from last weekend). Adam found a spot on the tree and went to town! It took every bit of strength I had not to rearrange the ornaments once he went to bed! I knew he would be heartbroken if they weren't in the same spot, so I left them (oh, the sacrifices we make for our children! LOL). This was Noah's first year getting to put ornaments on the tree, so he was really excited! He actually did pretty well. He spread them out nicely, though a lot of them ended up on the floor! We had lots of fun.

If you haven't checked out Maria's blogs yet, make sure you do (Card Inspired and Stampin' Inspirations). She's giving us lots of chances to enter her blog candy draw! Plus, her work is beautiful - lots of tutorials, cards, techniques, sketches, and funny stories. Take a look!

Here's a look at the finished tree. I must admit that my trees looked a lot more "finished" in our B.C. days (before children)! You'll notice the huge concentration of ornaments at the bottom of the tree, leaving the top portion a bit sparse! Oh well!

My Work Space (for Maria!)

Maria asked us to show a photo of our work stations in their present state as one of her challenges in her blogging birthday blog candy giveaway. (See here for this challenge.) By the way, you should definitely check out her blogs (Card Inspired and Stampin' Inspirations) Her work is fantastic, and I love that she includes a sketch for all the cards she posts. Very helpful! She's also got some great blog candy this week!

Anyway, you can see that I'm in the middle of tons of projects, but never finishing any of them! I'm a little embarrassed to show the current condition! (I have a previous post here where it is actually cleaned up if you'd like to see.) I actually do my work on the white table at the front, and store all my stuff on the back table. I'm in desperate need of a storage unit! That's on my wish list for when we come into some money! We were also asked to add a "calming" piece to our work area so that we can experience some serenity when we look at it. I guess I need that in my work space! It's hard to see, but I added a vase of pot-pourri to the far left of my white table. I love the smell of it (it's a citrus scent), and I love the vase as well, so it will be nice to have it there. (I just hope I don't knock it over with all my mess!).

Christmas Gift Bag

This has to be the easiest project ever! I found these bags at Deserres (but I’ve seen them at Michael’s too). They have all different colours and sizes, and they’re very reasonably priced. I think these medium-sized ones were $0.85. So, you just have to stamp all over it and decorate it as you’d like.

For this one, I used my Mistletoe wheel with Bravo Burgundy ink and rolled it along the top and bottom edges on both sides of the bag. Then I used the Peaceful Wishes stamp set to create the design for the center of the bag. I stamped the main image on Whisper White cardstock with Always Artichoke and Bravo Burgundy (I used my Stampin’ Write markers to get the two colours on the stamp). Then I matted that on Bravo Burgundy and Always Artichoke. I made a scalloped edge on the Artichoke paper with my corner rounder punch. Before adhering this to the bag, I stamped the pine branch, pine cone and berries underneath in Artichoke, Close to Cocoa and Burgundy.

I made a coordinating gift tag for the bag by making a 3 x 3 card in white, then layering the Artichoke and Burgundy squares. Finally, I stamped images all over a 2 x 2 square of white cardstock before adhering it to the card. I punched a hole in the corner and used some burgundy ribbon to tie the card to the bag’s handle.

I'm going to make a bunch of these!