Christmas Album

A little Christmas album I made.

TMTA

"Together" is the theme at Think Monday, Think ATC. My "birds of a feather flock together" take on this came as a result of my sorting through my stamps last night and re-discovering these birds I like so much. ( I really need to go through all my stamps every so often -- it's amazing how many I forget I have. Which is not a reflection so much on the size of my stamp collection but the lack of my memory.) So a bit of reorganizing\spring cleaning and I've got a better take on my stamp collection.

I was also happy when I remembered this index from a book of trees to use as my background. After I stamped and colored my birds (Crafty Secrets) I attached them to the background and added a little gesso across the surface.

Black Friday

That's what we call it here in the States -- the day after Thanksgiving when retailers try to get themselves out of the red and into the black fiscally speaking. The stores are mobbed starting very early in the day.

Rather than jump on that bandwagon this year, a few of us at Vintage Veranda decided to host a crafting day instead. So if you are in the same kind of mood today, why don't you hop over to the Vintage Veranda and join in the crafting fun. Check the thread under Black Friday Craft-A-Thon to see what's going on.

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This is the card I posted at VV for today's challenge. It consists of making an inchie and using it in an ATC and then making a card out of it. Kind of fun!

It worked out well because I like this Crafty Secret image, but it had a sentiment I didn't care for on it. Turns out my inchie covers it perfectly.

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I had lots planned today with the activities over at Vintage Veranda, so when I saw the weekly challenge at Make A Moo or Two was "monkeys" I figured good enough, I have no monkeys, I'll just skip this week. Then as I was rifling through some ephemera for another project, I came across this image of Sock Monkey (very big item here in the States) and I just had to make at least one Moo!

Baby Shower

Tomorrow is a neighbor's baby shower, so I made this quick little card with a Crafty Secrets image.

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I've been remiss here in mentioning two fantastic bloggers who have recently mentioned my name for the Wylde Woman award.

Kris, from Nostalgic Collage, gave me the award. I've known Kris for a while and just love her vintage collage work. She has two blogs actually. She also has a fantastic Halloween blog called Nostalgic Halloween.

Wheezie from Wheezies World is a new blog to me, but I am so glad to have come across it. She has a lovely style as well.

Thank you both! I really appreciate it.

Make a Moo or Two

This week's theme at Make A Moo Or Two is birds. I felt like I cheated a little using the tag from Invoke Arts for the first one, but it is a perfect size for a moo!

The second one uses a stamp from Crafty Secrets.

TMTA

I love these retro women images (Crafty Secrets), but have not really used them that much since acquiring them. When I saw the theme today at Think Monday, Think ATC was "hands," I thought of this stamp right away. I love the way the one on the left seems to be thinking of a diplomatic answer to her self-confident friend on the right.

St. Patty's Day

Now seems like a good time to show this vintage St. Patty's Day card I made a while ago for submission to a magazine which didn't get picked up. The image and greeting are from Crafty Secrets. I matched it up with this paper from DCWV that had a lovely green glitter border to it.

I stamped the four leaf clover with a Michael's $1 stamp.

A Couple More Winter Cards

This card didn't photograph real well (maybe because of the sparkle in the paper), but I really like this stamp from StampinUp. The snowflake border is from Hero Arts. Again, you can't tell from the picture but I stamped the border with Brilliance inks and it adds nicely to the sparkle in the card.

I wanted to use this snowman at least once this winter -- he's from Art Impressions. He's my second favorite snowman stamp. Used to be first, but he recently got replaced by this guy. Also used my paper lace from Mary.

I made this card just to prove I can make a winter card that is not blue and white! I silver embossed the background with a snowflake stamp from Stampington. The image is from Crafty Secrets. I applied the snowflake rub-on to a metal tag. The sentiment at the bottom is a PSX stamp which I like -- actually think I can use it for any season.

Snow Much Fun

This is a winter card I made using a color combination I came to really like -- mint green and pink. These images from Crafty Secrets went quite well with this background paper I have from Memory Box.

Winter Arch

Winter, appropriately, was the theme for this week's challenge at Gothic Arches. There's nothing more comforting than being inside creating something while the snow is falling outside.

We had a nice little snowfall here.

I created this arch using an image from Crafty Secrets. The red snowflake stamps is from Art Impressions and the "winter" stamp from Art By Moonlight. The paper and other embellishments I just found in my "winter" stash. The lace around my image is another RAK from Sarah, bless her heart!

Here's another one of those very simple, came-together-easily Christmas cards that I like quite a bit. This snowman from Crafty Secrets is soooo sweet. I just noticed now as I'm posting this how well the background paper with the holly on it goes with the holly around the snowman. I'd like to say I planned that, but I didn't. I outlined the image with a gold leaf pen and added a rub-on sentiment. I then added a piece of gold paper which my friend Sarah sent me behind the image. I cut the holly paper with scalloped scissors for some added interest. With the strip of ribbon beside that I did try to pick up the gold and red of the card.

Christmas Card Challenge Day 3

This Christmas Card-inal stamp is from Northwoods. It's one more stamp I had for a while and have not used and so am glad this challenge got me to dust the cobwebs off it.

I'll admit my coloring is less than inspired here (just watercolor pencils and Dove blender pen) but I made a ton of Christmas cards today and just did not take the time it required to color all my cardinals brilliantly.

For this one I placed it on some yummy Christmas paper by K&Co. and then added a vellum sentiment attached with vellum tape.

I cut the bottom edge of the paper with scalloped scissors and then added a few dots along the edge. Also added a small edge of paper lace.

I used my Prismacolors on this cardinal and, once, again, was only mildly pleased with the results of my coloring. However, I liked the rest of the card, so decided to overlook that aspect (besides I was on a mission today to really crank out some Christmas cards.)

I made a foldover tab on one end and highlighted it with a gold pen. I then stamped "be merry" from SU at the bottom.

Background paper is from Daisyd's. I love their Christmas papers!

Arch Card

The theme over at Gothic Arch Challenge was friends this week which inspired this winter arch card. I created the background by silver embossing some branches (Stamps by Judith) and then stamping a crackle pattern (PSX) in Brilliance white over that. The birds are from Crafty Secrets. The sentiment is part of a stamp from Queens Dresser Drawers.

Vintage Christmas Inchies

Made these vintage inchies this morning for a swap I'm in. Theme, of course, is Christmas. The background paper is from Daisyd's. All images are from Crafty Secrets.

Happy Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving card using an image from Crafty Secrets and background paper from Daisyd's. I added a tag envelope and made small circular closures for them with my matching Daisyd's paper. I waned to add three self-adhesive brads in each corner but only had them in silver, so I colored them with a brown Sharpie marker.

One Of My Favorites Cards

I'm off for a long weekend, so I'll leave you with one of my favorite cards EVER! This is a revised edition of a card I made last fall. The reason I'm so fond of it is because I used one of my mother's recipes in the background. Just seeing her handwriting brings back so many memories. This is one of those cards I'll never send. I just like looking at it. The image is from Daisyd's. The flowers are from Prima (actually, they are an RAK from Jacki, but I think she got them from Prima). I honestly forget who makes the paper, except for the strip at the bottom which is from Daisyd's.

Have a great weekend!

Chipboard Composition Book

Wanted to share this "Inspiration Project" I completed for Stampin D'Amour this month. I created this "organizer" from a 7 Gypsies chipboard composition book. Most of the background papers are from 7 Gypsies as well. All the office stickers are from Crafty Secrets.

TMTA - Mask

Here is my ATC for the "Mask" theme from Think Monday, Think ATC.

Didn't have a lot to choose from in my craft supplies, so fortunately Halloween is around the corner and I was able to find this vintage cut from Crafty Secrets.

The black and orange harlequin paper in the background is also from Crafty Secrets. It's my absolute favorite Halloween paper.

Halloween ATC Album

I wish I could show this in one picture, but it just would not work. This is two halves of one long ATC album I made. Each page features a Halloween ATC and then a letter to spell out S-P-O-O-K-Y. Click on it to get a much better picture.

I made this as an inspiration project for Stampin D'Amour.

I used a lot of Crafty Secrets paper and images here.

Sweetest Day Card

This is somewhat of a companion to yesterday's card. I think this paper came in the same pack as yesterday's pink coffee bean paper (maker unknown). I also used the Crafty Secrets retro Coffee and Tea set here, including the "sweetie" up at top. Makes the perfect Sweetest Day card!