Glassine Bag Gift Card Holder

  Are you still enjoying the Christmas season?  Me too.  This is my last gift to wrap :)

  I have a few glassine bags in my stash, but I had never used them.  Our daughters' Godparents are so good to our girls and they both love P.F. Chang's restaurant.  We are giving them a gift card to P.F. Chang's when we see them tomorrow, so I wanted to create a gift card holder.  This size is perfect for a gift card!

  I ran the glassine bag through my Cuttlebug "Snowflakes" embossing folder.  I cut strips of My Mind's Eye "12 Days of Christmas" papers and cut a couple of tags from the scraps too.  I ran the two paper strips through my Xyron, then placed the polka dot one on first, then the Merry Christmas strip second.  The little Christmas tree tag and brad are from the My Mind's Eye "Winter Wonderland" collection.

  My papers, tag, and brad all came from Shop Pumpkin Spice.  All of the prices at Shop Pumpkin Spice are 30% or more off retail, so it is my first stop when I am looking for a specific theme or a favorite brand.  You can also check out more inventory at the Shop Pumpkin Spice ebay store!

  For inspiration, please stop by the Pumpkin Spice blog.

Happy New Year's Eve!

Artful Delight December Kit- It's not just for Christmas!

  I have had oodles of fun working with this month's Artful Delight kit (December 2013).  All of my creations so far from this kit have been Christmas/holiday in nature, but I had not yet tried to make my self-imposed challenge: a masculine card.  I think perhaps this card could be for either a man or a woman, but I also wanted to show the versatility of the kit; it's not just for Christmas.  Especially the Paper Smooches "Group Hugs" stamp set that is included in the kit...fun fonts, terrific sentiments, and fun hearts.  Wanna see for yourself?

  Everything I needed to create this card came from the kit: kraft card stock, patterned papers, ribbon, stamp set, and a Hero Arts black ink pad!  I only added some sewing machine stitching and a smidge of adhesive (my Xyron for the ribbons and to mount the stitched layers onto the card base.)

  For more inspiration, please check out what my talented design team sisters have created with their kits on the Artful Delight blog.

Happy Sunday!

Best Wishes in 2014!

  There is a new challenge up at Cut It Up...New Year Celebration!

Create your card or project, include a die cut, and link up at Cut It Up for a chance to win the Celebrate die set from Your Next Stamp.

I was able to create two nearly identical cards because the Cricut die cut image I used cuts two champagne glasses.  This is from the Sweethearts cartridge; I cut @ 5.25".  All of my supplies are from really old stash.  I used gold moire metallic paper for the champagne and bows, heavy vellum for the glasses, and silver mirror paper for the background.  The sentiment and numbers are Class-A-Peels stickers; do any of you seasoned crafters still own those?  And the confetti stickers are equally ancient (from Creative Memories.)

Here is a card I made using some of the same supplies in 2012:

Now go create!  You know you want to win this die set:

  See you at Cut It Up!

Happy Friday!

Wish Big!

  Wish Big and perhaps Santa will bring you a subscription to Artful Delight's monthly kit club...

  It is my turn up on the Artful Delight blog.  Paper Smooches stamps one of my two current favorite stamp companies.  This month's Artful Delight card kit includes the "Group Hugs" sentiment stamp set and I love it!  The red gems and the glittery twine are also included in this month's kit, along with the grey snowflake paper and the red and green card stock.

  I hope you are enjoying the holiday season!  I am looking forward to having fun with my husband and our two sweet girls.

Happy Sunday!

Upcycled jars- Teacher gifts

  I purchased the box of one dozen mini mason jars for the teacher gifts (from this post), but I could not forget to make something for our sweet bus driver and her assistant!  Every morning and afternoon Micheline and Terry greet us with a smile and keeps my precious girls safe.

  I had exactly two jars in my craft stash; the tall one was an oyster jar; I am not sure how it came to be in my possession.  The shorter jar was from an artichoke dip that I bought from a local gourmet kitchen store.  It had a different square paper and tag attached to the elastic band; I switched them both out.

  Once again my Xyron made the tags easy to layer and the Santas circle adhere easily to the oyster jar lid.  All of my papers are from the 6x6 American Crafts "Hollyday" collection that my friend Sally gave me last year for Christmas.  The twine is "Peapod" by The Twinery and the mittens badge is Crate Paper "Bundle Up" included in this month's Artful Delight kit.

  I am entering my projects in the current challenge at Shop Pumpkin Spice:  "Anything Holiday"

Happy Saturday!

Sequins at the end of the Sequence

   The six month term for the current Little Tangles design team has come to an end.  This is our final post and challenge, but it is not goodbye!  I eagerly await the inspiration by the new design team.  Neat and Tangled remains one of my two favorite stamp companies, so I know I will continue to support them.  In fact it was Neat and Tangled that started the sequins trend, did you know that?  For my card I used a few sequins from the "Winter Wonderland" pack and the current fortnightly challenge is: 

SEQUINS!

(Winter Wonderland sequins pack)   

My sentiment is from this new fab set called

 "You + Me":

This could be my new favorite stamp set.  LOVE.

For my card I used punches and card stock by Stampin' Up!  I liked the little blue circles in the designer paper (BasicGrey "Eskimo Kisses" 6x6).  The blue card stock was a little bolder (see scalloped oval compared to the hexagon die cut piece (a PTI die).  To tone down the blue hexagon die cut piece, I also cut a scrap piece of vellum with the hexagon die and glued together with glossy accents (which I also used to adhere the sequins.)  Then I glued both hexagon die cut layers to the BasicGrey patterned paper.  The paper was a little wavy for my perfectionist taste, so I ran the entire piece through my Xyron.  This also enabled my to easily adhere my ends of the scrap ribbon I used on the sentiment oval as well as adhering the entire panel to my base card.

Please stop by Little Tangles to say goodbye, play along in the SEQUINS challenge, and welcome the new team in two weeks!

Happy Thursday!

Mini Mason Jars - teacher gifts

   What a wild ride this fall has been.  My twin girls started middle school, and they both have had a difficult transition.  This school is out in the country, and they have never had children with Autism as severe as my girls...especially Julia.  Kathryn is doing well now but the academic work load is draining; we work with Kathryn at least 4 hours each night, and more on the weekends.  Both girls are earning all A's and B's.  Julia is still training her teachers ;)

  I wish I earned frequent flyer miles for the number of times I have driven to the school so far this year, e.g. Julia needing a change of shoes, socks, and pants for jumping in mud puddles!  And I have never been so far behind preparing for Christmas.

  I don't even know if the middle school teachers appreciated my K-cup teacher gifts from Halloween, but I managed to pull these gifts together this afternoon.  I filled each mini mason jar with five peppermint patties.   I used my Cricut Imagine "Imagine More Cards" for the two circles.  I used my Xyron to layer the circles and adhere them to the lids.  I stamped the center of each circle with "North Pole...certified" from the Neat and Tangled "Santa's Notes" stamp set.  Finally I printed out and punched the to/from tags and layered on Core'dinations "Glitter Silk" card stock.  I used a little baker's twine on each tag and screwed the lid on over the ends of the twine.

  I am entering this project at My Craft Spot for the "Wrap It Up!" challenge.

Happy Wednesday!

You are awesome.

  It is my turn up on the Shop Pumpkin Spice blog.  This week's challenge is "Ribbons or Bows (Paper or Fabric)".  All of my papers are from Carta Bella's "Winter Fun" collection.  I cut a 1/2" strip and placed it horizontally as my paper ribbon.  The decorative brads are Echo Park "This and That".  My sentiment stamp is Neat and Tangled "You + Me", the hexagons are Creative Memory punches, and the tiny hexagons are a Memory Box die.

  I hope you play along in our Ribbons or Bows challenge.

Happy Tuesday!

Appreciate Everything - Artful Delight card kit

  It's Sunday and that means it is my turn up on the Artful Delight blog.  My card is using the December 2013 card kit from Artful Delight.  There is still time to play along in both sketch challenges this month too; one random winner will get the January 2014 kit:  the winner will can choose either the scrapbook or card kit as their prize.  The current sketch:

  This time I very loosely followed the sketch; I included the horizontal sentiment strip, but the three panels and three trees inspired me to use 3 green flowers and 3 large scallops (border punch).

  Everything you see is included in the kit:  the papers and card stock, the prima, the K&Co. glitter button and glittery gem ("twinkle goosebumps"), the Hero Arts black dye ink pad, the EK tools foam squares to pop up my sentiment, and the Paper Smooches "Group Hugs" stamp set.  Only the border punch and the flower dies are tools from my stash.

Happy Sunday!

Christmas challenge - Cut It Up (Cricut tutorial)

   This fortnight Cut It Up challenge blog has a Christmas challenge sponsored by As Cute as a Button.  You could win a $20 voucher just by creating a Christmas-themed card, layout, or project and using a die cut.  You have until noon EST December 23rd to link up.

  My trio of Christmas cards was created from scraps of papers from the We R Memory Keepers "Yuletide" collection.  The sentiment stamp is also from their "Yuletide" collection.  The gold stars are brads that I purchased a dozen years ago when a local stamp store was closing.  My die cut is from my Cricut cartridge "Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2" and the tree is cut @ 3" (p.48 "tag" button).

  I was going for a simple flat card for easy mailing, but I couldn't resist adding those gold stars.  Sometimes the image in my head of what I want to make is quite different from what actually evolves.  I think these cards are sweet!

Cricut tutorial (cutting the trees in the center of the grey tree layer):
I cut my grey tree layer, then centered it in the middle of my Cricut mat.  *Remember that the top of your cut will be at the right hand side, so my layer was placed landscape vs. portrait and the tree print was horizontal on the mat.
I moved the blade to be in the center of the mat.  Make sure the "center point" key is lit.  (For this specific tree cut, also make sure the "tag" key is also lit.)

Happy Friday!  I hope to see you at Cut It Up.

Wish Big - Artful Delight monthly card kit

  The Artful Delight December kits- both a scrapbook kit and a card kit- are available for purchase now.  I predict these will go fast.  Look what is inside the card kit:

Carta Bella So this is Christmas collection 6x6 sheets (2 each)

Christmas Dots

Authentique Joyous collection 6x6 sheets (2 each)

Diverse

Classic

Echo Park ‘tis the Season collection 6x6 sheets (2 each)

Snowflake Flurry

Snowflake Falling

Echo Park Reflections collection 6x6 sheets (2 each)

Christmas Floral

Fancy Pants merry little Christmas collection 6x6 sheets (2 each)

Santa’s Workshop

Baubles

October Afternoon Silent Night collection 6x6 sheets (2 each)

Sleigh Ride

The First Noel

My Mind’s Eye Vintage Christmas collection 6x6 sheets (2  each)

Joy

Coordinating Cardstock Bazzill Card Shoppe8 1/2x11 sheets (2 each)

Peppermint

Robins Egg

Peanut Cluster

Gumdrop

Embellishments – size and color may vary per kit

1 sheet October Afternoon Silent Night collection Sew Fun Banners

1 sheet Fancy Pants Large Red Alphas

1 package EK Tools 3D Dots 1/16”

6 Queen & Co Gumdrops Red buttons

6 Queen & Co Gumdrops Green buttons

1 package Queen & Co Red Twinkle Goosebumps

1 package Queen & Co Clear Twinkle Goosebumps

2 – Prima Gillian White flowers

4 Crate Paper Bundle Up collection Badges

10 yards Maya Road Twine Sparkle Silver

1 yard American Crafts Caramel Ribbon

1 stamp set Paper Smooches Group Hugs

1 Hero Arts Black Dye Ink pad

Everything I needed for my card was in this kit:  paper, ink pad, sentiment stamp, and even the 3D foam squares I used behind my banner!  I used a couple of tools from my stash:  an SU oval punch,  an EK Success tree punch, and my Xyron.  The trees were punched 12 times, then I used my Xyron to layer four trees together.  This technique is called "faux chipboard" and it has become a recent favorite for me.  Here is a close-up of the faux chipboard trees:

Would you like a chance to win the January kit?  One random winner will be chosen from those entering the sketch challenges at Artful Delight (link up on the right side bar).  There is a scrapbook sketch and a card sketch.  I used the card sketch designed by Suzanne:

See you at Artful Delight.

Happy Sunday!

Tags, tags, tags! Pumpkin Spice hop

  This month my sweet and talented Pumpkin Spice design team sisters are inspiring you with a TAGS themed hop.  Interpret the challenge however you like!  Create tags in any theme, use a tag on a card, or even use paper with a tag pattern.  I am the first stop on the hop.

  I cut various rectangles from coordinating Carta Bella "Traditions" papers, cut the corners off, and inked the edges with black hybrid ink.  I took a scrap of kraft card stock and punched four small holes and then I used a circle punch to create the tag reinforcers.  Finally I stamped the happy birthday sentiment in the black hybrid ink.  Quick and easy!  I was inspired by this card a saw on Pinterest by Tamytha Jenkins.  Her card is beautiful.  I needed a flat card for easy mailing for my husband's b-i-l.

  Check out the deals at the Shop Pumpkin Spice online store if you are inspired by my card or my talented design team sisters.

Hop along with us, then link your card to the TAGS challenge on the Pumpkin Spice blog; your next stop is Saundra!

Hop list:  
June (you are here!)
Saundra 
Heather
Missy
Denine

Happy hopping!

Little Tangles Color Challenge- Gold and white

  I am super sad that my six month term with Little Tangles is nearing the end.  I love the challenges at Little Tangles.  This has been one of the nicest design teams I have ever been on; sweet and talented design team sisters, great product to work with, and no drama :)

  

  And there is still fun to be had!  Check out our current fortnightly challenge:

  My favorite challenges are sketch challenges and color challenges that only require two or three colors.  Easy peasy.

  And a nice sentiment is fun.  I used Neat and Tangled's 

"Sparkle and Shine" stamp set:

Please join in the gold and white challenge at Little Tangles.  A great combo for a holiday card or thank you, anniversary or wedding; so many elegant possibilities.

  I am also entering my card at My Craft Spot's challenge:

Sparkle and Shine

  My gold moire trees shine IRL, and the metallic ribbon sparkles and shines too.  There are lots of great entries and inspiration there already.  I hope to see you there!

Supplies:
stamp:  Neat and Tangled "Sparkle and Shine"
paper:  white card stock and gold moire paper
Cuttlebug embossing folders:  "Candy Cane" and "Snowflakes"
adhesive:  Xyron
tree punch:  EK Success
Stickles:  Frosted Lace
ribbon:  Sopp America "Diamonds"

Happy Thursday!

Unity Stamp Jars of Love - Indie Chic Style: SCRAPS challenge

  Happy December!  It's my turn up on the Shop Pumpkin Spice blog today.  This weekend I did a little reorganizing of my 6x6 pads in my craft room (which has doubled in number since I started shopping at the Pumpkin Spice online store; where 6x6 pads are always $4.20 or less!)

  Sometimes I find inspiration just by looking through each collection.  When I get too many scraps in a collection, I store what is left of the pad and the coordinating paper bits in a Ziploc quart-size bags.  They fit perfectly!  While re-organizing my pads (partially by season, mostly by manufacturer), I noticed this Indie Chic pad was the thinnest of them all.  In fact there are only 3 sheets out of the original 24 that have not been cut into!  I thought this would be the perfect collection to use for this week's challenge at Shop Pumpkin Spice: SCRAPS.

  No full sheet of 6x6 was harmed in the creation of this card.  Even my yellow card base and the chocolate chip card stock layers were from scraps of 8 1/2 x 11 sheets.

  I stamped the jar, then used my Xyron to adhere it to two scraps of the brown card stock, then I fussy cut the jar.  I find that my Xyron gives good coverage when I apply a heavy layer of glossy accents and my papers do not warp.  I also used my Xyron for the two panels where I used my grandma's sewing machine; the adhesive holds those pesky loose threads neatly behind.

Supplies:  (links embedded)
stamps:  Unity Stamp Company "Jars of Love" (mason jar); My Pink Stamper "Love-alicious" (sentiment)
ink:  Texas Chocolate hybrid ink
paper:  My Mind's Eye "Indie Chic: Nutmeg"; Stampin' Up! Barely Banana and Chocolate Chip card stock
buttons:  My Mind's Eye Indie Chic: Saffron "Dreams"
glossy accents

I hope you can use up some SCRAPS and play along in our scraps challenge this week on the Shop Pumpkin Spice blog.

Happy Tuesday!

EAD Designs Enthusiasts Holiday blog hop

Happy Monday!  Today is a special sort of blog hop.  This hop is a group of ladies who still love their EAD Designs goodies, even though these awesome vinyl stickers and rub-ons are no longer available since the company closed last year.  All of our projects are created using EAD product with a holiday flair.

My sentiment is an EAD sticker from the "Treasures" collection. from an Artful Delight kit (March 2012).  The strips are washi tape (trees from My Mind's Eye "Winter Wonderland"; the solid and stripes from Target.)

Would you like a chance to win some EAD Designs (and other goodies)?  Leave a comment for each of the ladies listed below.  Three random people will be chosen; please claim your prize within 1 week of the blog hop (Sunday December 8th on Amy's blog.)

Amy
Jessica
Julie Smith
Julie Tucker-Wolek
June (that's me!)
Kathe
Lauren Bergold
Rose
Stephanie
Wendi

Happy hopping!

Cut It Up Challenge #33 - Thank You card

  It's time for another Cut It Up challenge:  thank you card or gift.  Remember to use a die cut somewhere on your creation!  I used my hexagon die from PTI on scraps of paper, inked up the edges for a little dimension, and layered on coordinating card stock and papers.  

  Our challenge this week is sponsored by Digital Delights.  You can win a $5 gift card!

  This is a perfect stash card.  I actually needed four thank you notes.  I pulled out my really old DCWV card bases.  I have purchased quite a few of these years ago from Michael's and JoAnn's.  I don't recall how many boxes I have gone through, and I only had 6 glitter green, 2 yellow, and 4 of these kelly green.  I grabbed the kelly green, since there were four; exactly what I needed.  I perused my gazillion 6x6 pads and found that this paper by BasicGrey matched pretty well.  I also pulled out my huge storage containers of rub-ons.  I found exactly four thank you/thanks sentiments in my Creative Imaginations swatch book in this brown color.  How cool is that?

  Tip:  Did you know that rub-ons can get old and not work as well as they did when you first purchased them?  After I burnished my sentiments, they started to bubble up.  I re-burnished, carefully covering with the heavy transparent paper the sentiment were originally stuck on.  They kept slowly coming loose.  In fact this card lost its "!" after the "thanks".  Glossy accents to the rescue!  I very carefully added glossy accents on top of the rub-ons (the rub-ons really wanted to come up at the first touch of glossy accents.  I let dry for an hour, and my set of four cards were saved from sentiment disaster.

Supplies:
hexagon die:  PTI
paper:  green and dark brown card stock by DCWV;  pink by Bazzill; BasicGrey "Nook and Pantry" patterned paper.
rub-on sentiments:  Creative Imaginations
glossy accents

Happy Friday!

Seize the Sketch - Challenge #9

  I have had so much fun with this month's Artful Delight card kit.  I still have lots of paper in it that is still uncut, but I have tried to use different items from the kit every time I sit down to make a card.  I actually used scraps from the previous five cards to create the three paper strips, but I had not yet used any of the Petaloo Penny Lane mixed blooms nor a stamp from the Kaiser Craft clear stamp set "Friendship Sentiments."  I also love the heavy weight card stock that comes in the kits; these cards are sturdy!  The only item from my stash is the doily die (Stampin' Up) and my grandma's sewing machine to stitch (thanks, Gram!)

Of course I needed a great sketch for inspiration:

Head on over to Seize the Sketch to see the fab cards the design team gals have made.  I hope you join in the fun too :)

Happy Wednesday!  If you are traveling today, be safe.

November 2013 Artful Delight Kit Inspiration - masculine card

So many of my smiles begin with you.

   Have you ever played with a card kit or a scrapbook kit?  There are quite a few great kit clubs available on the internet, but my personal favorite are those by Artful Delight.  In my opinion they are more versatile and less style-specific allowing me to create cards for almost any occasion or for either gender.  Each and every month there are two sketch challenges for a chance to win the next month's kit too.  The November sketch challenges closed last night, but you can still use them for personal inspiration.

  I took some liberties with the card sketch to create a masculine card.  Whenever I use a kit I tend to gravitate to polka dots and flowers, so every month I challenge myself to try to make a masculine card from the kit.

My husband's birthday is coming up on Dec. 2nd, and he will be 47 years young, just like me.  (Yep I'm a cougar....my husband is a whole 8 weeks younger than I!)

Happy Sunday!

My Craft Spot - sketch challenge

  I used my birthday money last month to purchase this Artful Delight kit from May 2013.  It is on sale for only $23.50 and it includes a Hero Arts stamp set, the papers and card stock pictured, and so much more!  I added the two black snaps from my stash, the black ink, the die for the tag, the chevron dry embossing, and the scalloped border (My Craft Spot "Tiny Banners and Toppers".)  My inspiration came from the current sketch challenge at My Craft Spot:

  Most of the time these kits sell out quickly; I snatched up the June 2013 kit the day it came out and it was sold out in just a few days.  There is still one or two May kits available...it is a great value in my opinion.  Check it out:

  I love all the different "thank you" sentiments in this set!  Autumn is my favorite season and the warm colors make me feel content and cozy.  I just wanted a break from those colors so I chose these happy bright colors this afternoon.

Happy Friday!

Seize the Sketch, seize the Artful Delight Kit!

  This week I needed to get a sympathy card made for my husband's cousin's wife, who lost her father; grandfather to their children (who are my daughters' second cousins.)  Fortunately I still have this month's Artful Delight card kit spread out on my desk.  This card is from the kit:  110lb. black card stock, May Arts chevron ribbon, KaiserCraft mini paper blooms, and My Mind's Eye Cut and Paste Flair papers.  I used my Xyron machine for the layers and the ribbon.  My sentiment is from Savvy stamps.

  For inspiration, I chose the current sketch at Seize the Sketch #8.

Happy Friday!

Giving Thanks - Little Tangles challenge

  It's time for another Little Tangles challenge.  Ink up your stamps or use the free digital stamps available from Neat and Tangled to create a "giving thanks" card.  You have until December 1st to enter!

  I used two Neat and Tangled stamp sets and some fun sequins also found in the Neat and Tangled shop:

Everyday Circles

 Little Tangles

Supplies:

stamp sets:  Neat and Tangled "Little Tangles" and "Everyday Circles"

sequins:  Neat and Tangled "Pumpkin Satin" and "Summer Fun"

paper:  BasicGrey "Ambrosia"

circle punch:  1 3/8"

ink:  Texas Chocolate hybrid ink

glossy accents

Happy Thursday!

Pumpkin Spice Blog - Food challenge

  It's my turn up on the Shop Pumpkin Spice blog and our challenge this week is FOOD.  This was the perfect opportunity for me to play with my Carta Bella "Winter Fun" papers and glossy accents from the Shop Pumpkin Spice store.

  The FOOD challenge is perfect timing for me because every November for the past ten years our realtor, Beth, sends us a gift certificate to a local pie shop.  Beth does this for all of her customers.  We have referred quite a few people and they have all made "the pie list."  Beth laughs when people meet with her and ask if they have made the pie list rather than the amount of her commission.  People are more interested in receiving an annual Mom's pie?!

  This is my fun and silly thank you that I will send to Beth this year.  My bear is from Cricut "Campin' Critters" p.25.  I also used my Cuttlebug "Swiss Dots" embossing folder, a black mini brad, googly eyes, and a black sequin.

Happy Tuesday!

Thinking of You - Artful Delight kit

  Have I ever mentioned how much I like kit clubs?  It is an economical way to acquire hot new product from a variety of vendors.  The current Artful Delight kit has newly released papers from Pebbles Inc., My Mind's Eye, Lawn Fawn, and Teresa Collins with four colors of heavy wight Bazzill card stock.  And this luscious chevron ribbon from May Arts *drool*.  Everything you see here came from this month's Artful Delight card kit except for the button and bit of red twine, which came from previous (sold out) kits.

  Want a chance to win the December Artful Delight kit?   Just enter one (or both) sketch challenges...there is a sketch for scrapbookers and another for card makers.  There is still time to enter!

Happy Sunday!