Warm friends on the coldest days

Hi and welcome to my blog! Have you made a new years resolution yet? I don't usually, probably because I tend to forget them by mid-January!! This year I hope to keep my goal of spending more creative time .... documenting my family , actually making cards ahead of occasions instead of at the last minute and maybe I might even manage to dust off my sewing machine and start last years projects!!!! Here's my first card of 2015 .... it's for the current Friday Mashup challenge:

This week's Mashup Challenge is:

• Create a project with a "Winter theme". 
• Create a project  with "Snowflakes". 
• or Mash it Up! and create a "Winter project with Snowflakes".

 

 

 

 

 

I purchased this cute little digi image a few years ago ... the files came with ready to color images and this adorable pre-colored sweet girl and kitty. I uploaded her to my brand new Cricut Explore ( Xmas gift from hubby this year!!) and used the print and cut feature. I love how well it cut all the details ... with no white spaces!! This feature is probably my favorite thing about the Explore , but it will never replace my beloved Silhouette machine! The papers are from a Crate Paper 6X6 mini pad called Bundled Up. I love the pink snowflake paper , actually I love all the papers in this collection... its a perfect collection for winter themed papercrafts and the colors are so much fun to play with!

 

 

 

 

 

I pulled out my Bigshot for the hexagon shape( Spellbinders) and the pink snowflake.  I used a sentiment from CC Designs stamps called Winter Chuckles , inked in CTMH Juniper ink. A few buttons , some clear Wink of Stella glitter to the snow and my card is complete!!!

 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Wonderland card

Hi, I'm back again ! I just got my Close To My Heart order today and when I saw the Ornamental Cheer stamp set I knew I had to ink it up right away! I love that CTMH has matching stamps with Cricut cartridges ( Art Philosophy & Artiste). I still love my individual dies , but for $99 I get three stamp sets and a cartridge that has tons of images. Talk about value!!!  But anyhoo, on to my card that I made......
First of all I started with another awesome sketch from Mojo Monday :






The round or square challenges are my favorite and I normally would go for the round card but not this time.
his

 

 

I used Bermuda Bay and Early Espresso for my color combo , with a touch of red and vanilla.The embossed square was made from a Sizzix folder ( & my Bigshot!!). Really, this card came together so quickly and I think it's probably my favorite so far!!

 

I'm entering this at:

Mojo Monday : Round or Square

Jingle Belles : Dashing Through The Snow

 

 

 

Thanks for looking !

 

A few scrappges I'm working on.....

Good Monday morning! I haven't posted any scrapbooking pages in awhile , but I am working on some! I have tons and tons of photos just waiting for my creative mojo to kick and use them!!! I know that this summer is over ( **sigh**) but since I still have a stack of 2011 pics to sort through, I decided to tackle some of those pics! Here's a summer layout I finished ( I think... maybe I'll add some journalling) ...

 

The banner and surfboard border are from the same 12X12 dp from Fancy Pants called Summers  Soul. The flowers and sun are from K&Co., the twine is Doodlebug. The title word is from an old stash of Making Memories epoxy stickers.

 

 

 

Lots of elements on this layout ... most of them I've had for a long time- it feels good to put them to good use! I still need to do some journalling; I tend to leave that for last and sometimes it never gets done! My bad!!! :)

 

 

 I love these photos of my son! The theme for his school's concert was country and he looked so handsome in his cowboy hat ( a special gift from a bff!) and his plaid shirt. I knew I wanted a country them for his layout and when CTMH 's new catalogue came out , I found the perfect papers ! I love the Dakota line, which is what I used for this layout. The denim jacket,pockets and bandana are from Jolee's Boutique 3-D stickers. I made the cowboy boot with my Cricut . I cut it at 3" , using the Just Because cartridge. The corners are stamped  with CTMH's August stamp "Baroque Borders" in Barn Red.  I still need to a title... any suggestions?

Do you buy those big paper pads full of patterned paper themed for a season or occasion? I do , and I usually end up with at least a quarter of the paperpad leftover! I bought this paper at a great deal, but it sat unused for nearly two years!!! Actually, it has some pretty fall themed papers.... like the ones I used for the leaves and background! I cut the fancy shape green mat with my Elegant Edges cartridge. I pulled out my Cri -Kits gel pens and drew a line 1/4" inside the mat.... it's hard to see that in this photo, but it does show nicely in real life! The sunflower was made with a Stampin' Up! die and my Bigshot.The journalling tag is from We Are Memory Keepers.

So that's a few pages finished , well just about! Thanks for stopping by my blog today!



Christmas in July

Hello! Summer is just about half over.( ack! how did that happen???!!)... soon the stores will be advertising their back to school sales,but right now I'm thinking more about Christmas. My fav companies have started with their Christmas lines and so many blog challenges are Christmas in July, so I just had to make a card!


I had this vintage image that I got off the web ages ago that I really wanted to use.

 

I useda mulberry poinsetta  and some crochet ribbon to complement the vinatge image, which I spritzed with Glimmer Mist in Walnut Gold and then I accented the berries with a little red Stickles and Liquid Pearls. The green cardstock was ran through my Bigshot  (  I used a folder from Stampin' Up!) and I loved how some of the flowers looked distressed with just a wee bit of the white core peeking through.

While there are so  many Christmas themed challenges this week, I'm entering mine at :

Jingle Belles- Santa Baby challenge

and

Creative Belli Blog- Christmas in July

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!! Have a great day!!

Wedding cards

I'm back!!! I did not fall off the edge of the earth , although some days it felt like I did!!! I have been super busy with the end of school , and then sending both of my girls off to Cadet camp , plus, it's been unseasonably hot here in NL! My craft room feels like a sauna!!! Ah, but today we have rain  and it's nice and cool upstairs, finally,and I can sit and enjoy my room once again!!! I needed to make a couple of wedding cards for a friend. Here they are.....



I used a little of everything for this card! For the sentiment on the front, I dug out my Cri-Kit pens and drew the sentiment "Mr and Mrs" ( black gel pen) from Wrap it Up and then went back and added the wineglasses in gold gel pen. I love the effect! I then used my alltime fav cartridge, Art Philosophy , for the flowers- they are cut in sizes 1"-1.5" and then sprayed with a few shades of Glimmer Mist for some color. The inside greeting is from a retired Hostess set called Occasional Quotes.

Here's the second card.....

I still have lots of gorgeous SU! dsp just waiting to be used , like this lovely grey patterned paper.I kept this card simple, with just a little bling for the flowers and a Want-2-Scrap flourish on the front.The inside sentiment is from One in a Million stamp set from the new Stampin' Up! catalogue. The flourish stamp on the inside is from a Fiskars set. The outside greeting is from SU!'s Teeny Tiny Wishes, which I embossed on black cardstock.

Oh, how I've missed my craftroom!! Hopefully I can some more crafting done before the heat  returns!! ( But then sunshine = beach time!! yay!!!)

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!!

Just For You Butterfly card

Hello , thanks for joining me today. It's a bit of a wet one here in western Newfoundland, so I'm gonna hide away in my craft room and create! I'm looking forward to nicer weather coming our way- I have lots of work to do outside! But since this rain has me inside, I thought I'd make a card that reminds me that spring is actually here , even if the weatherman says otherwise!!!

This card is made mostly using leftover scraps of paper I had lying around.  I had this 6X6 paflowerper pad from Stampin' Up! called Patterns Pack II that was a hostess set and it has seen quite a bit of use , but now that SU is retiring many of these colors ( or has already done so) I really want to use as much of it as possible! The yellow polka dot paper ( Spellbinders scallop square) is new- it's from CTMH promotional paper pack called Dotty For You. The butterfly ( from SU) was diecut on Sale-A Bration Everyday Enchantment dsp. The center flower was from  last years SAB  set :Bliss.I finished it off with a vintage brad from SU for the middle.

The stamp set is the hostess set from SU's current catty called Precious Butterflies. I thought

 this would be lovely for scrapbooking , but I can see some beautiful cards can be made as well!!!
I handstitched the Sahara Sand grid paper ( from PPII set) - and to get neat stitching lines I used SU handy-dandy little Mat Pack. This lil set is a staple in my craft room- I actually own two!!! No, it's not beacuse I love them so much but for awhile I thought I lost my original so I bought another and of course then I find my first set!!!

I"m submitting this card for a couple of challenges this week:

The first is a sketch challenge over at Paper Craft Planet ( here's the sketch)

 

I loosely followed the sketch for my card.

The second challnge blog I'm entering is for Crazy 4 Challenges. The theme is gardening / great outdoors.

So that's my card... thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Pals Paper Arts color challenge : "Just For You" card

Happy Saturday! Winter was off to a late start here in NL but now it looks like the snow is here to stay , for awhile anyway! It's been snowing steady for the past few days and my little boy is sooooo excited!! He can play outside all day building snowforts and digging in the snow with his trucks. I'm taking advantage of this chilly weather to stay inside and catch up on my scrapbooking and maybe even participate in a blog challenge or two! On of my favs is the Pals Paper Arts  site where they post every second week a sketch/color challenge. This week is a color challenge...

Once again I played around with my Edgelits dies for my card....

The colors for this week's challenge are Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy and Very Vanilla , which got me thinking of a vintage style card.  I used the stamp set , Fresh Vintage from SAB for the background and the border on the outside edge as well as for the inside . For the sentiment, a greeting from Tagtastic inked in Not Quite Navy( mounted on Very Vanilla on designer frames folder).  The embossed border ( left side) was made with a non-SU embossing folder.A strip of crochet trim and Baja Breeze seam binding gives this card soft texture and a pearl stick pin  through the bow completes this vintage look.
 The card measures 5 1/4 by 5 1/4 inches, just the right size for a SU medium square envelope.

Thanks for stopping by my blog..... have a great rest of your day!

Candy

Jingle Belles: No time Like the Present(s)

Hello! We may be only just in the first week of January but the belles  over at Jingle Belles are making sure we don't get behind on on our Christmas cards with a great prompt " No Time Like the Present(s)". We are invited to incorporate old giftwrap as a background, accent or motif or use an image of presents for youor card. We even get nearly two full weeks to finish and upload our project! Yup, that will work for me!!!
Here's mine.....

I have this lovely stash of tissue paper I've been saving and I found this beautiful holly leaf pattern and decided it would be better used for my cards! I used my Edgelits label  die and then glued SU glass glitter in Champagne around the edge. A precut holly leaf from Making Memories finishes this up nicely. The sentiment is from Curly Cute. I used my Simply Scored Scoring Tool to make the embossed square outline.

So there's my first Christmas card of 2012! yay!!!

Thanks for stopping by.... until next time , happy crafting!

Candy

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year !! I'm back after a longer break than I intended! Things got a little crazy around here in December ( I visited family in Edmonton ) and before I knew it , Christmas was here!!! My computer decided to crash three dyas before Christmas and I lost all my program files!!! I was so upset but there's not much I can do about it , so  now I'm using hubby's laptop until mine is fixed. I will have to reinstall my programs and I won't be able to recover a bunch of files , so for now  my projects will be posted withoout any editing :(
But... I did get a chance to play with some of my new goodies from Stampin' Up!  I still don't have my cardmaking mojo back so I kept these cards simple.

I love the new Edgelits dies from the new Stampin' Up! mini.... what a fun way to jazz up a simple card! There is even these awesome little border embossing folders that give that extra touch, oh, I just love 'em so much already!!!This card is a little bit of old , well, actually a lot of old ! and  a little bit of new! I have lots of gorgeous ribbon and dsp that I just have to use!!! So I paired them with a sentiment from the upcoming Sale- A- Bration  called Outlined Occasions.

 

Another quick and easy card , using the Edgelits die and coordinating embossing folder. The card base is Pear Pizzaz which is so beautiful with Rich Razzleberry, and the flower is  from the new mini's  Mixed Bunch stamp set.  The birthday greeting and the fancy background stamp are another SAB set , Elementary Elegance.

Anyhoo.... those are my cards  . Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time..... happy crafting!

Candy

Mojo Monday 210 : The Sounding Joy

Hi again! I'm back with another post! This was  from a sketch from Mojo Monday ...

One of my favorite sets from Stampin' Up!'s mini is The Sounding Joy . There are so many possibilities with this set, don't you think?

I used some old retired dsp for this card .... I really likethe colors Soft Suede and Riding Hood Red together. I cut the star shape and lightly inked the edges and then stamped Joy over it. For my sentiment I used one from Season Of Simple Grace  ( I can't recall if this is retired or not) since it goes nicely with the whole card theme.

So that's my Mojo card... thaks for stopping by!

Hope you have a great day!!!

Halloween cards

Hello!  Happy Thanksgiving Day to all my Canadian friends... hope you had a great long weekend!!! It was busy at our household this weekend... the kids threw a suprise birthday party for me on Saturday! There was lots of balloons and decorations everywhere!!  Then we enjoyed a yummy Turkey supper with all the fixings .Mmmmm, so good!!!

This window was created from the Advent calender die . The stamps are both from the dollar bin at Michaels and the dp is retired SU!

A quickie card made with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and a label from Spellbinders The sentiment is from  a SU set ( retired) , Scary Skeleton.

I just adore this set from Stampin' Up! Out On a Limb. Lots of masking used for this card, but I think it's was all worth it!

Oh, how easy was this card!! Just cut some strips of scrap cardstock, inked the edges and then "wrapped" the front of the card and a few googly eyes and it's done!!  

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Mojo Monday 209 :Sketch Challenge

Hello! I haven't particiapted in a  Mojo Monday sketch in a long time, although I do love to visit the blog r frequently... so much inspiration from the Mojo DT and from  all the  fab entries,too! I used this sketch to make a Christmas card.................

 Here's what I used to make this card:

I used the Frostwood Lodge stamp set from Stampin' Up!'s Holiday mini and the papers are from Echo Park. The border was made with  a Martha Stewart  borderpunch and the ink, cardstock, embossing folder and crochet trim are SU!. The eyelet circle mat was cut from a Spellbinders die.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles 40 : PEACE on Earth snowangel card

Good day everyone! It is such a gorgeous fall day here, lots of sun and very warm outside. This lovely weather makes it  hard to think about snow and even Christmas , but we are just a few short months away from this festive season. Thankfully, the belles at Jingle Belles  have another great prompt to get us in the festive cardmaking spirit. This week's prompt is called PEACE on Earth and we are invited to incorporate the word Peace , or a symbol or an image that invokes the image of peace for our cards.  Right away I pulled out my cute little angel snowman ( really, what says peace more than a snowangel??? ) stamp from Whipper Snapper Designs , but then I was stuck!! UGH!  You see , this little guy is just a small stamp and doesn't really coordinate with my other stamps I have and even most of my papers!Ah, but  my Cricut Imagine rescued me! I can now make my own patterned paper ( how cool is that!!!!) , so now I just needed to find the right combo..... here's what I used.....

Wild Card... an oldie but still awesome, paired with..........

My lovely new Snow Angel Imagine cartridge!

And  the end result  is my Jingle Belles card......

I used the card feature ( the circle is cut out)  on Wild Card and then "colored" it with this beautiful snowflake pattern from Snow Angels and then cut the whole thing out! Pretty easy,huh! I added a red circle to the front for a touch of color . The sentiment is from Hero Arts and is stamped on a Fancy Tag from Spellbinders. The ink is Riding Hood Red (SU) and the shading on the tag was done in Baja Breeze ( SU) , the mini pearls are a $-store find.

 

  You can see how I popped up the little snowangel on a piece of transparency, and i added glitter to the snnowflakes on the card front, as well as to the wings. the angel wings, nose and star were colored using my chaulks and a blending pen. the sentiment I originally intended to use ( Peace on Earth) wouldn't fit on this tag, so I went with Joy To The World  instead.
 So that's another card to add to my stack of Christmas cards !  Have you seen the other entries over at Jingle Belles....they're worth taking a look at!!! 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today...... have a great one!!!!

Cricut Imagine : Witchy Card

 Hello all! I received an early birthday present for  my DH .... a Cricut Imagine! I've been wanting this machine for so long , so you can imagine ( no pun intended!!! lol)  how excited I was when the FedEx guy delivered it right to my door!!!  Oh it is sooooo fabulous!!! It prints and cuts , AND , it uses all my exsisting cartridges!! I can now select an image form one my "regular" cartridges , and through the magic of this glorious machine , I can add some color / pattern and print and cut it!!!  How amazing is that! The combos are endless!!!! I LOVE it!!!!
I've already made some custom diecuts/ journalling tags for  my scrapping but with Halloween right around the corner , I really wanted to try a Halloween card. Here's what I came up with......

I found this cute little witch on It's A Child's Year cartridge and then I "colored " her , using this cool black script from my Imagine cart, Audrey.  She's got this vintage look happening , so I added a little bling and inked the edges of just about everything! The sentiment is from Stampin' Up! 's Grateful Greetings. The paper is  from an older collection from  Little Yellow Bicycle ( Frightful Collection). The cardstock base is  Kiwi Kiss ( SU) and the bling is from an unknown source ( I think it's a leftover bit from a larger flourish ).

The Imagine makes these cuts so beautifully and the color is awesome! I did find that it prints best on American Crafts  cardstock... the colors seem more vibrant and it cuts smooother, too. I loved  my Cricut Expression but the Imagine absolutely ROCKS!!!!

So this is my first Cricut Imagine card .... I'm sure there willbe many more in my future! Thanks for stopping by my lil blog and until next time.... happy crafting!!

More Halloween decor

Happy Friday! I've been taking a wee bit of a break from scrapbooking and cardmaking this past week or so , but I couldn't go a whole week without crafting!!! **gasp!!** Instead , I've played around with my Cricut  and Bigshot  and made a few more decorations for Halloween. Here they are:

An altered candy jar.  Just a rubon, some old ribbon and a scalloped flower ( top of jar)  and it's done!!!

More Cricut vinyl wall art. I found this saying on the web and then used my SCAL to make it. The little treat holder is made with a Stampin' Up! BigXL die form last year's holiday mini.

More wall art... this is a purchased cutfile from the web. I added the little pumpkin for  a little extra touch. The altered tin in the background is from last year ( I made these for my son's class).

My Cricut is  sure coming in handy this year for my all decorating needs!!!  Gotta love that!!!

Thanks for stopping by... have a great weekend!