More Gift Card Holders

I told you there would be more of these gift card holders to come!  The first is for my sister's birthday tomorrow. 

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 I used a stamp by Jane's Doodles called Party Time and paper pieced the presents with paper I had in my stash.  It's from a line called Neapolitan (American Crafts, I believe).

The second gift card holder is pretty much cased from Elaine at Papercraft Button. Her work is fresh and fun and she has a great sense of humor.  Check out her blog HERE and her YouTube channel.  I fell in love with the Starbucks-esque coffee cup Christmas card she made!!  She graciously allowed me to "be inspired" by her work.

I used the SU stamp sets Gorgeous Grunge and Perfect Blend.   I actually used a cardboard cozy from Starbucks on the card, too.  I just ripped it in half and stamped right on it. It gives the card a bit more dimension.

                                       Have a good night!

Paper Smooches Design Team Blog Hop

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  
I wanted to quickly let you know of the new Design Team at Paper Smooches.  I love this company!  The customer service is awesome and the delivery time is super fast!  And, of course, the stamps are absolutely adorable and fun!  They have announced their newest design team and are celebrating with a blog hop and give away.  Check it out HERE!

Have a great day!  I'm loving being cozy at home with  my family!!!

Quick Gift Card Holder

Easy to make, great for this time of year.  I followed a  video tutorial  by Christine Miller.  It went together super fast.  I can see lots of these in my future for many different purposes! 

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Hello!
It felt so good to be inside today. It's very windy and cold out, the coldest day so far this season. Of course, all the raking we did yesterday didn't last long. If we're lucky the leaves will blow off the trees and into the field next door!  First thing this morning, I put on some holiday music, lit a piney scented candle and came up with two Christmas cards. Both use Stampin Up products, although I went a bit nontraditional on the first.  

  The SU stamp set is pretty old, called Peace to the World.  I white embossed then inked with Broken China Distress Ink on Whisper White card stock.  The paper is Jolly Holiday from Recollections.  I used the Wink of Stella glitter pen for the first time and now I see what all the fuss is about.  You could seriously go sparkle crazy with this thing.  My photos this week are pretty bad so I tried a close up so the sparkly bits can be seen.

The second card is all SU.  I'm trying whenever possible to use up my stash of DSP.  This is a Christmas paper from a few years back, I guess.  

I've made loads of cards with this stuff, a curly paper ribbon wreathe and I've still got several sheets left!  I watched a YouTube video on using the hexagon embossing folder on DSP and then cutting each shape out so it fits inside the embossed designs.  Again, the photo is pretty bad.  It was fun to make and not too time-consuming.  Not only do I need a photography lesson, I need to learn how to tie a decent bow, too!

                                       Have a great week! 

Weekend Card

Happy Sunday!
Last night I was able to get downstairs and use one of the new stamp sets I received in my last "it's time to treat myself" haul.  I would love to make a haul video, but haven't had the time to figure that all out.  Right now all my new goodies are in their mailing envelopes and I just keep getting them out, looking at them and then putting them back in.  I'm weird, I know, but I just love how new and unused they are.  I read someone's crafting blog recently about how she hates to use her new stamps and I can totally relate. I got lots of Paper Smooches stamps and dies (awesome customer service, btw), some Lawn Fawn, Jane's Doodles, The Alley Way and Avery Elle.  Love, love, love my new goodies!  Anyway, this card is from Jane's Doodles and it's for a very special little boy from a very special family.  I have his sister this year and she mentioned last week that her brother would love to have a letter from me.  Who could say no?

 I tried some Copic coloring on the owl and leaves. I am such an amateur, but I had fun and I don't think it turned out too bad.  The sentiment is from Paper Smooches and I'm not thrilled with my stamping on this.  It has some thick and some thin lines and I think it looks a little messy.  From now on I will stamp the sentiment first, not last.  That way if I mess it up I won't have put in all the work on the rest of the card!  Live and learn. 
                                            
                                                                                    

Busy Days

I was sure I was going to do some crafting this evening. That was the plan.  Life has been very busy lately. My youngest daughter is a senior and we are working on applications, etc. at a frenzied pace.  So that took precedence over any card-marking tonight. She is hoping to get into a design school so there is the added stress of portfolio reviews. Anyway, it has been very busy, but also very exciting. 
I've got all kinds of new stamps that I have not had the time/energy to play with and they are getting lonely downstairs.  Hopefully this weekend!  Here is a little card using Lawn Fawn's On the Mend.  It's going to our school nurse who had a very unexpected appendectomy this weekend.  I'll have my students make her get well cards as well and send them all together. Hopefully it will brighten her day!

Have a great night!

Thank you, Cheryl!

Thank You Card

I made this thank you card for our building secretary. She does so much for so many and always with a smile.  On busy days like today she has so much extra work to do and she is constantly being interrupted. I don't know how she stays as patient and calm as she does. She truly deserves a special thank you!

Materials
Stamps: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler,
Lawn Fawn My Silly Valentine, SU Woodgrain
and Flower Shop Paper: Echo Park For the Record

Hey, everyone.  
It was a long, busy day at school today. I was excited to come home and do something crafty.  Unfortunately, my energy level didn't quite cooperate. I was pretty beat. My daughter told me I looked about a hundred years old. Nice.  I felt like it to tell the truth.  But I was determined to do something.  I headed down to my little crafting space in our basement after dinner. I've been working on a gratitude mini album/notebook inspired by Ali Edwards' Thankful Thoughts series.  I want to record one thought for each day of November leading up to Thanksgiving.   I've been using scrap paper and post it notes to record my thankful thoughts up to now!  I have a bunch of leftover designer paper from Stampin Up and had made the pages over the weekend.  I planned on getting the cover together and binding it with my Cinch tonight.  Sticking with mostly Stampin Up products, I stamped an image from the Day of Gratitude set and was happy with it for the most part. I plan on keeping the embellishments to a minimum in this album so, after some consideration about what to do for a title, I decided to simply use the sentiment from the stamp set.  Then it was time to bind the pages.  I don't use my Cinch very often and I have to reteach myself each time!  As usual I got it wrong.  I always put the covers on wrong when binding.  After a bit of a temper trantrum and a calming and therapeutic chocolate cupcake I consulted a few youtube tutorials and gave it another try.  I am basically happy about how it turned out. 

I know it will "come alive" as I add journaling and photos, but I always second guess myself at this stage in a project.  I want everything to be perfect. I have to trust the process and focus on the intention of the album which is to pay attention to the everyday blessings of my life.  Do you find that you stress about every detail of a project or can you let things develop naturally?  Do you stick with it until you get it just right or are you a walk-away-give-it-time kind of scrapper? I guess I'm a little of both.  Now, if I can find my journaling markers which my daughter hijacked yet again, I can transfer the last few days thoughts from my post its to my pages!
Have a great day tomorrow!

Hi! It was a beautiful, chilly day in southeastern Pennsylvania.  The trees were definitely showing off today!  I spent most of the day preparing for parent-teacher conferences tomorrow and the next day.  A "time out" was definitely called for!  So here I am beginning life as a blogger.  My hope is to create a place to share my paper crafting hobby and make some friends who share my passion for color, pattern and design.  I am definitely not an expert, but I get a lot of pleasure from creating and it has been a great way for me to feed my soul, as it were.  I hope you visit often and share your thoughts as well.

Here is a picture of our front yard looking very Fall-ish last Friday evening.