Joy Banner!

Happy Friday! As usual time has gotten away from me. I made this banner a couple of weeks ago but I just haven't had the chance to post about it yet. I had to make sure I posted it soon before Christmas passed us by. I originally wanted to make this banner for this cute snowman that I just got. He's about 18 inches tall and I thought it would be cute for him to hold the banner. But after I made it, I decided that it looked much better hanging on my mantle. It actually didn't take that long to make. I used 3 of the banners from the Build a Banner kit. I had some champagne shimmer paint from who knows when and I used with the polka dot stencil to make shimmery polka dots. I did mess up on the "Y" banner a little bit. My dots weren't lined up where I wanted them. But hopefully it's not too noticeable. I had planned on using the letter stencils that came in the kit but they were a little bigger than I wanted. So I went to MDS, picked a font I had and typed out JOY in green. Then I printed them and die cut them with the Deco Labels framelit dies. I then die cut 3 snowflakes on the silver glimmer paper (LOVE THIS!) with the ever favorite Festive Flurry dies. The final touch was to add a few buttons to each banner. I glued everything together on the banner with a glue gun because I thought that would help it stay together longer. Then I just used Cherry Cobbler seam binding and put it on my fireplace! It's a nice little touch to my mantle. So I'm still working on my advent calendar, ugh! I am doing the 12 days of Christmas which I'm starting today, so I'm hoping to finish up the last few things I need to this afternoon. I plan to post about that next week. I also have my Christmas cards to post about too. I'll post about those once I get them sent out.
Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: None
Ink: None
Paper: Silver glimmer
Accessories: Build a Banner kit, Champagne shimmer paint, Cherry Cobbler Seam binding, Festive Flurry Framelit dies, Deco Label dies, Brights buttons (retired), Very Vintage Designer buttons, Vintage Faceted Designer buttons

Snow Much Fun - Snowman!

Happy Friday! I have a cute snowman card for today. I still love this snowman from the retired Snow Much Fun set! I wanted to use him with the Festive Flurry snowflakes. I just stamped him on one of the snowflakes and colored him in with various markers. I sponged some silver ink around the edges of the snowflake. I added the snowflake to a piece of Winter Frost DSP. I embossed one of the sentiments from the Christmas Messages set in black. I don't know why I don't do more embossing because it gives the card such a great look! The saying just stands out so much more and it only takes seconds to do it! (Don't mind the smudge near the sentiment :( ) For the finishing touch I added Real Red 1/4" stitched grosgrain ribbon.
Please bear with me on my photos. My photo set up is out of commission for the moment until I can get my craft space set up better in the basement. So I'm left with taking photos in random places around the house. When it's nice I try to take them outside but during the week it's hard to do that since it's pretty dark before I go to work and when I come home. So in the meantime, I'm experimenting with the best places in the house. I haven't found a great spot yet.
Have a great weekend!

Stamps: Christmas Messages, Snow Much Fun (retired)
Ink: Black Stazon, Black, Silver ink
Paper: Smokey Slate, Winter Frost DSP paper stack
Accessories: Festive Flurry Framelit dies, Real Red 1/4" stitched grosgrain ribbon, Embossing powder, markers

Snowflakes!!

Hello! Another quick post for you today. Here is another card using the Festive Flurry stamp set and dies. I didn't plan on getting these from the catalog but I'm so glad I did. I really love this set!! I have a few more ideas that I want to use this set for, so please bear with me when I post a few more. I'm hoping in the next couple of weeks to share my advent calendar too. It's a work in progress right now. But on to the card. I cut out 3 different snowflakes from the Framelit dies. One I cut with some cork that I had, one is with the silver glimmer paper and one is cardstock that has a Cherry Cobbler stamped snowflake. I used the Season of Style DSP paper stack for the background (the chevron and polka dot pages). I then stamped a "2" and "5" from the Morning Post stamp set on Gumball Green cardstock. I punched them out with the 1 1/4 circle punch. The final touch was Gumball Green stitched satin ribbon and Early Espresso baker's twine. Thanks for stopping by!!

Stamps: Festive Flurry, Morning Post
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso
Paper: Early Espresso, Gumball Green, Silver Glimmer paper, Season of Style DSP paper stack
Accessories: Cork, Gumball Green Stitched satin ribbon, Early Espresso baker's twine, Festive Flurry Framelit dies, 1 1/4 circle punch, Eyelet border punch

Christmas Cheer

Hi! I have a quick post for today. I have a fairly simple mailable Christmas card to share. Excuse the blurry photo. I took it this morning with my phone and I thought it looked fine until I went to edit it. If I can get a better picture later, I will update the post. This card will look cute using some of the other papers from the Season of Style DSP paper stack. You could use the Winter Post DSP paper stack as well. This is kind of a case from one of the cards I did for my Festive Flurry card class. I got the new gold ink this week so I was dying to try it out. I don't know how I became so obsessed with gold lately! I never thought I would like it so much! Anyway, the large snowflake is stamped in gold ink and cut out with the Festive Flurry framelit dies. I used the Deco label die to cut the Winter Frost DSP which was stamped with a sentiment from the Christmas Messages stamp set. Next time I think I will emboss the sentiment so it stands out a little more. I added 2 strips of Champagne glimmer paper and some Pool Party bakers twine. I am hoping to make a few more of these cards using the other fun papers in the stack!

Stamps: Festive Flurry, Christmas Messages
Ink: Black, Gold
Paper: Season of Style DSP paper stack, Winter Frost DSP paper stack, Crumb Cake, Champagne glimmer paper
Accessories: Festive Flurry Framelit dies, Deco Label Framelit dies, Pool Party baker's twine, Pearls

Festive Flurry Card Class

Hello all! Today I am sharing the cards and ornament we will be making at my next class. We will be making 4 cards and this pretty ornament using the Festive Flurry stamp set and Framelit dies.

Date: Wednesday December 4th
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: My house
Cost: $20
RSVP: Monday November 25th

If you would like to join or have any questions, please contact me.

Thomas the Train

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Sorry for the lack of posting lately. Sometimes I get on a roll where I can post a lot and then there are times when life gets in the way and I don't have time to make cards. :( My husband is installing new windows in our house so he's been busy doing that while I try to take care of the little one, so that doesn't leave me as much free time for making cards. I was able to make a card this weekend for a birthday party we went to. It was Justin's first little friend birthday party. The theme of the party was Thomas the Train so I wanted to make a card with that theme. I was originally going to make Thomas out of punches but I thought that would be more time consuming. So I still did make him out of punches but I did it in My Digital Studio instead. It was easier for me to spend some time here and there on the computer to make Thomas. I think he came out really cute. As you can see in the second picture, I cut out some of the pieces so he had a little more dimension to him. I just printed out a couple of copies of my final Thomas picture so that I could cut out some of the pieces. For the rest of my card I embossed the Real Red cardstock with the Alphabet embossing folder and then embossed the Smokey Slate piece with the stripes folder. I added Smokey Slate chevron ribbon (LOVE!) and Pool Party baker's twine. This card is for a boy but I still added some ribbon without making it look too girly (hopefully). And the final touch was some black rhinestones. The ones in the corner are black ones that I got from somewhere but the 2 large ones on the train are Stampin' Up! ones that I colored with a black sharpie marker.
I really like being able to do these hybrid MDS cards. Sometimes you just don't have the right stamps on hand or the time to get the stamps so My Digital Studio is great for that. You can also make a full card in My Digital Studio but I don't really do that as often because I like having the other elements of a card, like the ribbon, embossing, etc. So I really hope this inspires you to try out My Digital Studio for things like this. I am loving this software more than I ever thought I would. There are so many options of things you can do with it. If any of you ever have any questions on it, please feel free to contact me. Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Party This Way (retired)
Paper: Real Red, Smokey Slate
Ink: Pacific Point
Accessories: My Digital Studio, Smokey Slate chevron ribbon, Pool Party baker's twine, Deco Labels Dies, Alphabet Press embossing folder, Stripes embossing folder, Modern Label punch, Rhinestones

Fall Card Class

Hello everyone! I have a short post today. This is a look at the cards we will be making during my Fall Card Class in October. We will be using the Wonderfall stamp set with the Autumn Accents Bigz Dies. For more details on my class, please contact me. Have a great day!

Happy Halloween Skulls - MDS

Hi! I have another My Digital Studio (MDS) hybrid card for you today. This one does have a little bit of stamping on it but most of it is from MDS. I love how this one came out. I think it's cute! Can skulls be cute?? :) The skulls are again from MDS. I cut out 3 of them in 2 different sizes. In MDS I put the white skulls on top of a black circle so I was able to see them once I printed them out. (Obviously I can't see white skulls on white paper). Plus I like the black portion that shows through. The background chevron paper is also from MDS (which almost looks blue in the picture but is actually black). I layered this paper on top of Midnight Muse and Lucky Limeade. The black cardstock behind the skulls is cut with the Deco Label Framelits dies and then I stamped the spider web from Wicked Cool (retired) in versamark and embossed it with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. I added a paper doily behind the skulls and my all time favorite Crushed Curry chevron ribbon. I told you, you were going to see it again! I stamped the Happy Halloween from Teeny Tiny Wishes in Midnight Muse on Lucky Limeade and added a few black rhinestones to the card. Then the final touch was googly eyes to the large skull. I had so much fun making this card. I hope this inspires you to make some fun Halloween cards!! Thanks for stopping by!!

Stamps: Wicked Cool (retired), Teeny Tiny Wishes, Halloween Hello (MDS)
Paper: Lucky Limeade, Midnight Muse, Black, Witches Brew DSP (MDS)
Ink: Midnight Muse, Versamark
Accessories: My Digital Studio, Iridescent Ice embossing powder, Modern Label punch, Deco Label Framelits dies, Crushed Curry chevron ribbon, Paper doilies, Rhinestones, googly eyes

Halloween Hello Skulls!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Our weekend was good. We just kind of laid low this weekend and didn't do too much. I actually had time to get a couple of cards done this week so that was good. I have 2 really fun Halloween cards to share this week. This card has NO stamping on it! And isn't it super cute!! I used My Digital Studio to create this card. I haven't used MDS in a while so I figured I would play with it for a bit and make a Halloween card. I didn't have any of the new Halloween stamps or paper from the Holiday catalog and since I was too impatient to wait for them, I download them instead! Cool right! I downloaded the Witches Brew DSP and the Halloween Hello Stamp set. So I just opened up an 8.5 x 11 document in MDS and added some large squares of the DSP I wanted to use, which was the chevron one and the pumpkin pie skulls. Then on another page, I added the skull in Gumball Green (the color printed a little darker)and enlarged it. Then I added the sentiment in Rich Razzleberry. I enlarged this too. Then I printed everything out. I cut out the skull. I used the Labels Collection Framelit dies for the sentiment. I used one of the Chalk Talk Framelit dies for the Pumpkin Pie skull tag. I put all of this on Black and Smokey Slate cardstock. Then I added a Crushed Curry chevron bow and some black rhinestones. I hope you don't get sick of this ribbon because I used it again on my other Halloween card this week. I can't help it, I love this ribbon and this color seems to work with EVERYTHING! I have this ribbon in Smokey Slate and don't use it nearly as much. Anyway, I hope this gets you to use My Digital Studio for your hybrid cards as well. Even though I didn't do any stamping, I still had so much fun making a card this way. Thanks for stopping by and I would love to see your creations with My Digital Studio. Stop back this week for my other MDS hybrid card!!

Stamps: Halloween Hello (MDS)
Paper: Black, Smokey Slate, Witches Brew DSP (MDS)
Ink: NONE
Accessories: My Digital Studio (MDS), Labels Collection Framelits dies, Chalk Talk Framelit Dies, Crushed Curry Chevron ribbon, Rhinestones

Thank You Butterflies - Color Challenge

Don't be shocked, I'm posting again! I haven't posted this much in a long time! I've been trying to do some stamping lately after the little guy goes to bed. Normally I just head into bed myself and get lazy but I figured I should get my butt in gear and do some cards. Sorry for the crappy quality of the pictures. I will try to take better pictures later when I have better lighting. Today's card uses the Papillon Poutpourri again (you know you want to get this cute set!!). I played along with the color challenge on Splitcoast. I haven't done that challenge in a long time. Yesterday's colors were Midnight Muse, Strawberry Slush and Pear Pizzazz. I really like this color combo. I stamped the Midnight Muse with the Hello Doily background stamp. Then I stamped 4 butterflies, 2 in Strawberry Slush (such a fun color!) and 2 in Pear Pizzazz. I punched out 4 scallop squares and added the flowers to them. I also added some Strawberry Slush ruffled ribbon and rhinestones to the butterflies. The sentiment is from Regarding Dahlias. Thanks for stopping by. Now go on and try out this color challenge!!

Stamps: Hello Doily, Papillon Potpourri, Regarding Dahlias
Paper: Midnight Muse, Pear Pizzazz
Ink: Midnight Muse, Pear Pizzazz, Strawberry Slush
Accessories: Scallop square punch, Rhinestones, Strawberry Slush ruffled ribbon, Modern label punch

Butterfly Birthday Wishes - Fab Friday Challenge

Hi! I have a pretty birthday card for you today. Today's card uses the Papillon Potpourri set. This set is currently part of a special this month where you receive the stamp set and the bitty butterfly punch for a 15% discount. Stop by Stampin' Up! store to the right to purchase this set and make your very own pretty cards!!! :)
Since this set was on sale I thought I would use it to make a card. I haven't used this set too much and I don't know why because the butterflies are so pretty. I also decided to play along with the Fab Friday challenge this week. This week's challenge was to use the following colors:

Instead of going with a fall card, I decided to make a fun birthday card since I need a card for my mom's birthday in a couple of weeks. The background is soft sky stamped with a circle in soft sky. The circle was a scrap from the Chalk Talk stamp set. So don't throw out your scraps since they can be used to stamp too. :) The Tangerine Tango piece was embossed with the Lattice texture embossing folder. I cut out the white cardstock with the Deco Labels framelits. Then I stamped 3 butterflies in Sahara Sand. I also colored in the centers with a blender pen and Sahara Sand ink. Then I added some dazzling diamond glitter to the edges. Next, I added Crushed Curry chevron ribbon. (I LOVE this ribbon!) Finally, I stamped the Birthday Wishes sentiment from Four You. I actually stamped this in 2 parts since it was too long for the bottom corner. I inked up the wishes part first and stamped it, then add the birthday part on top of it. I did whip out my stamp-a-ma-jig for that part, just to make sure everything was lined up. Thanks for stopping by and be sure to play along with the Fab Friday challenge!

Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, Four You
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, Tangerine Tango
Ink: Sahara Sand, Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Deco Label Framelit dies, Crushed Curry chevron ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds, Lattice Texture embossing folder

Fancy Halloween!

Happy Friday! Now we are going to switch gears from Christmas to Halloween. I'm all over the place lately. I'm just glad when I get a free moment to stamp so whatever holiday I'm in the mood for, I go with it. I had this idea for a Halloween card in my head. Although I feel like it would probably be better as a fall thank you type card but I was having trouble finding some kind of gratitude type sentiment. And I didn't want to put thank you on it since I didn't think I would have any reason to send a fall thank you. At least with Halloween on it, I'll send this to my mom, haha! So she will enjoy my fancy Halloween card. On to the card details. I stamped Pumpkin Pie cardstock with the chevron stamp from Oh, Hello and then cut out 3 small ovals to make the pumpkin. I stamped an image from Label Love in Crushed Curry which is under the pumpkin. Then I stamped the polka dot image from Four Frames in Pear Pizzazz. This was layered on Crushed Curry chevron ribbon and a deco label die cut with the Champagne glimmer paper. I also added a paper doily as well to spice it up a bit. :) The background DSP is from Afternoon Picnic. Who would have thought you could use that for Halloween. Well on a fancy Halloween card you can! At the bottom I stamped the Happy Halloween from Teeny Tiny Wishes on Baked Brown Sugar cardstock. I finished it off with a few pearls in the top left corner.

Stamps: Oh, Hello, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Label Love, Four Frames
Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Pumpkin Pie, Pear Pizzazz, Champagne Glimmer Paper, Afternoon Picnic DSP
Ink: Crushed Curry, Pear Pizzazz, Pumpkin Pie, Black
Accessories: Paper Doilies, Deco Label Framelit dies, Pearls, Crushed Curry chevron ribbon, Artisan punch, Modern Label punch, Decorative Label punch

Christmas in August!

Hello! In my last post, I said I couldn't believe how it was the middle of August, now we are here at the end of August. This summer just went by in a flash. I feel like I didn't get to do anything this summer. I hope the warmer weather continues a little longer, I'm not just ready for fall and winter yet. Even though I have a Christmas card for you today. I had a workshop last week where the hostess wanted to do a Christmas card with the Ornament Keepsakes stamp set and dies. So this is the card and tag (see below) that we made. It was a pretty quick and simple card but I think it came out so cute. Using the dies to cut the ornaments make this process super easy. And I think the paper doily adds a nice touch to the card. I used the new Season of Style DSP paper stack along with Gumball Green and Crumb Cake card stock. The ornaments were stamped in Cherry Cobbler, Gumball Green and Baked Brown Sugar. The sentiment is from More Merry Messages (which is on the Holiday Carryover list along with the Ornament Keepsakes stamp set and framelet dies). For the finishing touch I added Early Espresso baker's twine. We also make a cute little tag for the Tag a Bag gift bags. I cut out one of the Deco Framelit dies in Gumball Green, then we stamped and die cut an ornament. On the back of the tag (not shown) I stamped a saying from the Christmas Messages stamp set. I hope this gives you some inspiration to start on a couple of holiday cards!

Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, More Merry Messages
Paper: Season of Style DSP Paper Stack, Gumball Green, Crumb Cake, Baked Brown Sugar
Ink: Gumball Green, Cherry Cobbler, Baked Brown Sugar, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Paper Doilies, Early Espresso Baker's Twine, Ornament Framelit Dies, Deco Label Dies, Tag a Bag gift bags

A Smokey Hello!

Hello everyone! I cannot believe it is the middle of August already. Where has the summer gone??? And when I woke up this morning I did not feel summer at all! It was freezing! Ok well maybe it wasn't that cold but it was definitely way too cold for my liking on an August morning. I'm just not ready for fall yet. I still want some warm summer days. We were at the beach last week and had some nice days but even those were the hot summer days I was expecting. Oh well, I shouldn't complain. This is all better than rain.

For today's card, I used the sketch from the Fab Friday challenge about 2 weeks ago. I had started it before I went on vacation but never got the chance to finish it. I had just received some items from the catalog and wanted to play with a couple of things. I used the Season of Style paper stack as the background paper. The red stripes don't need to be used just for Christmas. Then I layered a Deco Label framelit on top of that. It was embossed with the chevron embossing folder. I then punched some black cardstock with the decorative label punch. I also stamped Hello on the black cardstock but you can't really see it in the picture. Then I used the artisan label punch to punch soft sky cardstock. And finally I used the modern label punch to punch out the hello. Lots of punches used!! I finished the card off with Smokey Slate chevron ribbon and rhinestones. I used lots of dimensionals to layer all of the punches. So that's it for me today. I'll leave you with a couple of beach pictures from our vacation last week.

Stamps: Label Love, Four You
Paper: Smokey Slate, Soft Sky, Black, Season of Style Paper Stack
Ink: Soft Sky, Costal Cabana, Black
Accessories: Chevron embossing folder, Deco Label Framelit dies, Modern Label punch, Artisan punch, Decorative Label punch, rhinestones, Smokey Slate chevron ribbon

Dahlia Love

Hello! Surprise surprise, I actually have a card to share today!! It's been so long since I've been able to just make a card for fun and I miss it! My stamp room has recently been moved to the basement so I was getting things organized yesterday and while the little one napped, I snuck down there for a few minutes to make a card. I was actually able to get this card done fairly quickly. I used some new goodies on this card. I stamped the dahlia in Crisp Cantaloupe and then colored in the petals with the aqua painter and ink. The sentiment is stamped in Coastal Cabana (which I think is my new favorite color) and then I added some ruffled ribbon to the top and bottom edges. I also added this fantastic ribbon :) to the side as well. The white piece was embossed with the Chevron embossing folder. This was all added to a Pistachio Pudding card base and finished off with some rhinestones. Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Regarding Dahlias, Label Love
Paper: Pistachio Pudding
Ink: Crisp Cantaloupe, Coastal Cabana
Accessories: Coastal Cabana ruffle trim, rhinestones, Chevron embossing folder, Artisan label punch, Aqua Painter

Birthday Party Details

Hello all! To make up for my absence here, I will post lots of pictures today! I am recapping my son's first birthday party. Some of it is paper crafty and some of it is just plain old crafty. I have been waiting for the day to plan his first birthday and put to use some of those "pins" on my pinterest board! But first things first, I cannot believe a year has gone by. He is quite the little dare devil these days but he is just oh so cute! Here is a shot of Mommy and the birthday boy at his party. (He just woke up from his nap so he wasn't all together just yet, haha!) And unfortunately that was the only picture I got of us from his party.

The birthday boy's shirt has one of the monsters (click on the picture for a better view) from his invitation on it. I printed out a monster onto iron on transfer paper and ironed it on his shirt. On the back I added a 1 (you can't see that in the picture).

So let's get started on the details.

First up: The invitation.

I designed the invitation in My Digital Studio, printed it out and then used dimensionals to add it to colored cardstock. I did an invite with Lucky Limeade chevron striped and then one with Tempting Turquoise chevron stripes. {Note, all of the elements on the invitation are from Stampin' Up! with the exception of the monster clip art (which is from Etsy) and various fonts from dafont.com}.

Next up: Happy Birthday banner.

I used the Perfect Pennants die to cut out Lucky Limeade, Tempting Turquoise and Pumpkin Pie cardstock. I printed the letters from Word and then punched them out with the 1 3/4 inch scallop punch. The monsters were punched with the 2 3/8 inch scallop punch. I then used mini clothes pins to attach them to Soft Suede polka dot ribbon.

Goodie bag tags.

I designed these in MDS and then cut them out using one of the Chalk Talk framelits dies. Again, I used mini clothes pins to attach them to the bags.

Monthly photo board.

Every month I took a picture of J on a different fabric background and I would add the month in MDS. I had planned on doing something crafty with the fabric from each month, but I had too many crafty things to do and in the end that project got cut! But I knew that I wanted to display all of the photos from the first year. And the green and black board was the perfect spot for them. This was actually a door to a piece of old furniture in our basement that I spray painted green and then with chalkboard paint in the middle. I had planned on using this as a chalkboard in our kitchen but never got around to hanging it so it became the perfect backdrop for all of his photos. Again, I just hung them up with mini clothes pins on some Soft Suede polka dot ribbon.

Balloon Wreath

I think this was one of my favorite projects. I had seen this on Pinterest and knew that I HAD to do this. Most of the tutorials I saw used the variety pack of balloon colors but I knew that wouldn't go with my "color theme". So I went to Party City and got green, turquoise and orange balloons that went better with my theme. Of course that makes it a little difficult to reuse every year but oh well. I plan on putting it out every year for birthdays! I love how it came out. I also added a cut out of the monster and a number 1. Those are just pinned into the wreath so they can be removed. This project was a little costly but I had so much fun making it.

Final Pictures of the table.

This is certainly my longest post to date! Sorry for the not so great photo quality but I had limited time to get these pictures taken before the party started!! But I hope you enjoyed all the crafty details from my son's party!!