Happy New Year!

There's only about eight hours left in this year and so I wanted to post my ATC for Think Monday, Think ATC before the year is out. Their theme was color -- what colors represented the new year. I have to admit that had me stumped. My thoughts were more on the passage of time. So I brought some different colors into my "time" ATC through an alcohol ink background.

This year will be a big one for me in many ways which is why the passing of time is so much on my mind. Next month I'll turn 50; in May my only child will graduate college; in July I'll celebrate my 25th wedding anniversary; and August will mark 30 years I have been at my job. 2008 is looking to be quite the year!

Happy New Year to all of you! May the year bring us all hope, joy, and peace in our hearts.

Inchies Swap

I've been participating in an inchies swap for the last couple of months that has been hosted by Joanne over at Made by Joanne. This month's theme was just posted, but as I had lots of time yesterday, I got mine done. The theme this month is love.

In lieu of sending postage Joanne asks we send her an ATC or something like that, so I tried to make a coordinating ATC. After working with the inchies, the ATC seemed like an enormous area to work on!

For my inchies and ATC I used a love text background stamp by Hampton Art. With the inchies I punched it so that the phrase "blew her a kiss" would stand out at the top. I also wanted to incorporate in part of the inchies these paper roses I've been hanging onto for years now that I found in an antique shop. Time to use them up! The female images come from Paperbag Studios.

This is a variation of a card I made for a challenge over at Stampin D'Amour. I've used a stamp by Stampland called Alice Reading. The background harlequin stamp is a Studio G stamp. The open book is from See-D's.

Winter Skates

I'm continuing in my "winter" cardmaking. Most of these will be used as Thank You cards for Christmas presents and the like.

For this card I started with strawberry cardstock and stamped some flourishes (Rhonna Farrer) in Versamark. The "vintage" is from Hampton Art. I used a vintage skating poster which I found in the Memories of a Lifetime Christmas book. I distressed that a little with some distress ink and then added a vintage skating image from Crafty Secrets. The flower at the bottom is one I found at an antique shop. The lace at top was an RAK from my friend Lyneen. Finally, I punched some Basic Grey paper with my Martha Stewart border punch to add the two side borders.

Winter Tag

Kind of a somber color scheme for this tag -- but it matches our weather perfectly. It was so dreary looking outside today! We are to get some snow tomorrow and I'm glad. It should brighten the landscape considerably.
I used a picture of the tree in front of my house for this tag. I stamped the months from Tin Can Mail (Inkadinkado) and snowflakes (Studio G) in white Brilliance ink on my black tag. I then attached my vellum winter quote across the center.

Winter Joy

I am sorry to leave the Christmas cards, but some winter cards should help the transition before I start Valentine's Day cards. I made this one recently and am posting it for Wednesday Stampers open theme.

The snowflake block is from Hero Arts. The flourish is by Rhonna Farrer. The sentiment is by Stampington. Image by Crafty Individuals.

Snowmen

I'm still loving this snowman from PSX. I used him to make a few New Year's cards (for those folks I forgot to send Christmas cards to) and for thank-you's for some of the Christmas gifts I received.
These all include Cutttlebug embossing using the snowflake folder.
I colored the snowman in with watercolor pencils and blender pen and added glitter to the snow and around the snowman.

Merry Christmas

Here's a couple cards I made yesterday. Yup, they're going towards next year's stash.


I computer generated the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke onto parchment paper to create this card. I then tore a strip of the paper and added it to my card.

The tiny stamps are from Queens Dresser Drawers. Although they may look strategically placed, they are actually there to hide a big boo-boo.

But I liked the way it looked so this is a keeper.















This Christmas Story stamp and little Christmas postage stamps are from
Artistic Outpost. Love the vintage feel to it. I also added a stitched border (Inkadinkado) and the definition stamp (Hero Arts) to the background. The buttons are from Rhonna Farrer.

I stamped the main image on parchment paper with a dye ink.













This is my attempt at using some of my Crafty Individual images to make a Christmas card.

I used a Christmas quote by Artistic Outpost against some lovely Daisyd's papers.






















I started this card by embossing the package and bow with my Cuttlebug. I then swiped some gold Brilliance ink over the embossed part. I added another one of these tiny stamped images from Queens Dresser Drawers to the middle of the package. The gold embossed Joy at the bottom is from Art Impressions.















Another vintage image from Artistic Outpost -- children playing with the nativity scene.

The December 25 postage stamp is from Stampington.

Merry Christmas to All! May your Christmas be blessed and your houses filled with joy and peace.

Merry Christmas and Pay It Forward

I wandered over to Nancy's blog today and found this wonderful heartfelt gesture. I hope you will join in the fun! I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay It Forward exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow, or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.
So basically, if you comment and you’re on, I’ll send you something crafty that I’ll make! Once you sign up, copy and paste the above paragraph on your blog, and send three other lucky recipients a piece of your handmade work. I’ll be receiving something hand-crafted by Nancy and thought it would be fun to pay it forward to you. I will check my blog daily to see who the first three sign ups are, and if they’ve joined this Pay It Forward exchange, they will be the recipients from me. Please be sure to leave your blog address with your message, so I can check your blog for the 'Pay it Forward' message

Calendar

For the past couple years my older sister and I have created a calendar together. We pick a theme and then each take turns completing six pages. In the past we've done quotes as our theme and also friends.

This year we made baby sister join in the fun and our theme was family. Here's a couple of the pages I completed. (It's a bit of a challenge when you need to have three of everything!)

For this page I chose to use pictures of our grandfather's and grandmother's families.

This is a picture of my mom, me and my siblings on Easter Sunday. Can you spot me in the picture?This last one was taken a few years ago when my husband, son and I spent Christmas in Kentucky with my husband's parents. It was a great, great time.

More RAK's

I have to show you this card I received -- from the Judge I work with. I made him a homemade Christmas card and he returned the favor. He actually drew this picture of a courtroom scene. That's me sitting in the middle of all the drama at my court reporting machine. Love the smirk he put on my face. Believe me, it is very hard not to laugh sometimes.

I love the lace border Sarah uses on this card. The lovely heart cut-outs below are from Sarah as well. I'd love to order a zillion of those with Valentine's Day coming up. They are so delicate.

This gorgeous card is from Jacqueline. Everything she makes is gorgeous.

This one is from Nikki. I especially love the silver embossing on this.

Another card using one of my Crafty Individual images I mentioned in yesterday's post. I created the background for this using a snowflake square (Hero Arts), flourish (Rhonna Farrer) and sentiment stamp (Studio G/Hampton Arts).

I made this card using some new product I bought from the UK, a company called Crafty Individuals. I first heard of this company when Jacqueline was giving away some as blog candy. I told her if I didn't win it, I wanted to know where to get it. It looked absolutely fabulous. Now I can't pronounce this to be one of my great bargains as I had to order it internationally, but when I received my order I was absolutely thrilled and had no regrets.

On this card I've used their background paper (purple and white butterflies) and also one of their vintage images.

I also stamped the flowers (Studio G) on the purple cardstock with purple chalk ink. Then I just started layering my papers. I added three self-adhesive black brads at top and the friends acetate tag.

These are the booklets I ordered of background papers which match the lovely vintage images. The images are squares of 4.5 x 4.5. There are 90 images in the pad.

The First Noel

Well, a bad cold has me off work today.
The good news is I got an early start
on this Wednesday Stamper challenge.
(I'm not so sick I can't create a little
something :)

This tag is my
contribution for
Wednesday Stampers'
Christmas "Light" theme.


The star is by
Art Impressions.
The shepherds stamp
is by Northwoods.

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.

More PSX

This is the other PSX stamp I bought this weekend. Love this vintage going-to-church-on-Christmas scene. This one I colored in lightly with my chalk pencils and then added some distress ink over that. Once again, I added some glitter again for the snow. I use the Hero Arts glitter and apply it with the Zig two-way glue pen.

If you click on the picture you can see the sparkly specialty paper behind the card and the shimmer in the red and silver cardstock.

Update on Snowman Stamp

Is this odd or what? I was looking through my winter embellishments and found these charms I bought at Wal-Mart last year (Christmas Clearance type of thing). I looked closely at the snowman and thought, "That's my snowman." I know the PSX stamp is from 1997, but how does the company in China that makes these charms come upon this image to reproduce?

Well, at least I've got a sample for coloring now.

Snowman

It's funny to me that people always comment when I blog about my shopping experiences -- especially when I find really good deals. I know I love when people post about what they've bought or won on their blogs. Seems we all want to see what everyone else has! LOL
So consider this part two of my shopping excursion this weekend where I told you about the great deal I found on my 12 Days of Christmas stamps. I couldn't get out of there without picking up a couple of PSX stamps. (Unfortunately, those never go on sale. Only occasionally some not-so-desired ones will end up in clearance.)
Sale or not, this snowman was one I just HAD to pick up. Is he not the cutest? I stamped him directly onto white cardstock with Versafine Black Onyx ink. I then colored him in using a combination of Prismacolors and some watercolor pencils and Dove blender pen.
I created the snow at the bottom and around the snowman by adding some glue with the Zig two-way glue pen and adding Hero Arts glitter over that. I was thrilled with how he turned out and so I actually showed some patience, left it alone to completely dry and came back to it later.
Then I punched my hole on the top of the card so my snowman would show through. I stamped my snowflake from Art Impressions randomly across the front with blue Brilliance ink. I then decided I wanted to hand write this sentiment around the circle. When I had done that, however, I realized I should have done it so the writing on the bottom was not upside down. Oh, well, it's not to the snowman!
To finish it off I punched a strip of navy cardstock with my Martha Stewart border punch (I told you'd be seeing a lot of this punch) and adding a strip of Daisyd's paper on top of that. Three Rhonna Farrar Christmas buttons finish it off.

Christmas Arch Card

Children at Christmas is the theme for this week's challenge at Gothic Arches.

Christmas Shopping

I set out to do a little Christmas shopping today and somehow ended up at my favorite little hobby shop. I love this shop, but I have to admit it's the most bizarre store I've ever been into. They have a fabulous stamp selection -- a lot of old PSX which appeals to me. But the place is the biggest mess you've ever seen. And I actually like it like that. You can barely walk through the aisles with all the boxes of unpacked and unorganized merchandise. New stock waiting to be stocked next to boxes of discounted, sale merchandise. I know that doesn't appeal to everyone, but I love scrounging around in there because there's usually a bargain to be found. somewhere in that mess. I had been looking for a small postage size stamp to add to my Christmas collage cards, and sure enough down in the corner behind some boxes I found an old stamp set by Rubber Stampede which had postage-like images of all the 12 days of Christmas. Best part? Only $5!



As soon as I got home I set out to make some cards (these are for next year as this year's cards already went out). I was quite happy with the silver one as I embossed the background with a flourish stamp from Stampington which I had previously had difficulties with. It embossed very well and was a great background for this card. My partridge is colored with glitter pen, but it doesn't show up well.





I knew there was no way I'd fit all 12 stamps on one card, but I debated whether to just stick to one image or add a couple at a time.

I decided to try three and I liked the look.
The papers here are by K&Co., Basic Grey and Foof-a-la.

A Few More of My Favorite Things -- Crafting Related

My absolooootely favoritest (sorry, couldn't resist!) new crafting toy is this border punch by Martha Stewart. I really am very easy to please. I own very few, if any, expensive crafting tools. Ever since I ran out of my dollar store adhesive paper lace I've been going through major withdrawal. So when I saw this punch I thought I could make the lace myself. It also embosses which leaves a nice border to it so you can highlight it with distress inks, etc. And when punched through self-adhesive paper (such as the flowered paper in the picture), I've got my paper lace back! I've used it on the Valentine's Day car below, but it is a little hard to see in the picture.
Don't worry, you'll be seeing lots of it.......


My all time favorite heart stamp is this one from Stampington. When I like a stamp as much as I like this one, I want it wood mounted. A lot of my other stamps are unmounted. But this one is just gorgeous -- the card will literally make itself.

These vintage Daisyd papers that came out last year and the new ones from this year just thrill me. Some of the patterns on the paper are so fabulous, you really need nothing else to go with them.

I showed some ornaments previously that I made with this paper that were triangular in shape, but I also made these circular ones. Once again, the paper just speaks for itself, I just added some rub-ons and ribbons.

These stamps are probably my all-time favorites. They are PSX, dating back to the late '90's. I just love PSX stamps, but these vintage Christmas ones are some of my favorites.

I created this card with the vintage carolers from PSX. I used a crackle stamp from Inkadinkado and used distress inks around the image to give it an aged feel. I also used some rub-ons from Creative Imaginations.

Take Ten

I got a complementary issue of the Winter Take Ten in yesterday's mail as I had five cards published in this issue. Here's one of them. I love this card. I just think it's pretty. The image is from Stampsmith. They have amazing photo stamps.

Wednesday Stamper

I made this tag for the "Umbrella Challenge" put out by Wednesday Stamper this week. Amazingly, this stamp from Inkadinkado was not the only umbrella I had to choose from.
Other stamps are Stampington, Hero Arts, StampinUp.

A Few of My Favorite Things.

I've been seeing so many great pictures of Christmas trees, decorations and ornaments on my favorite blogs, I thought I'd share some of my favorite Christmas things. I'll show five today and the next post may even include something crafting related!

I'll start with my favorite. The two cookie cutters above belonged to my Mom. Her Christmas cookies were the highlight of a lot of our Christmases growing up. When she passed away, I wondered what to do with her cookie cutters as I don't bake, so need to use them the way they were intended. So I made an ornament for each of my siblings and her grandchildren. I punched a hole in top to attach a string. Then I took one of her recipes (of course, everyone got the one with their favorite cookie on it). I shrunk the actual recipe, had it laminated, and then attached it to the cutter. It makes the cutest ornament and the memories are priceless.

This hand painted gourd hanging from the tree in front of our house is a joy to look at and is actually inhabited.

I mentioned this sled before. A now rusty childhood treasure. I decided to hang my childhood skates onto it. I added a little greenery and strung some lights on it. Makes a great outdoor decoration. (If you're thinking the skates look a little big for a kid, I admit I don't remember ever wearing anything smaller than a 10!!)

Thrift shop finds that really don't need an explanation except to say I just LOVE this kitschy, retro kind of stuff.

No, it's not presents!! Although I do like those too. But one of my favorite things about giving presents is gift bags and gift boxes!!!! I can spend an hour happily making a card, but I HATE wrapping presents. My family now knows if it comes from me, it's going to go into a gift bag or gift box. And there is no guilt in feeling I have to wrap a Christmas box -- what a waste of time!