Christmas card

I thought this picture that I took looked so Christmasy that I wanted to make it into a Christmas card for my DH. I think notecards are going to be a must! Happy Holidays to each and everyone of you! :)Shellie

Frosty Wonderland

I woke up this morning to a Frosty Wonderland in Hutchinson, MN. Everything is covered in a beautiful white frost and I just had to snap some quick pictures of my crab apple tree.

Plastic Purse made from box

Nicole Heady is my idol! lol. She keeps coming up with the coolest ideas every month and I don't know how she does it! If I could have half of her creativity, I'd be in heaven. Yesterday on her blog http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/2007/12/2-1.html she showed us how to make a cute little purse using the plastic gift boxes for cards that they sell at Papertrey. Well since I don't have any of those boxes, I decided to try using the plastic boxes that PaperTrey packages their stamp sets in (I knew I was saving them for a good reason!). It's so easy to make these purses. All you do is cut the box in half, and then line the inside with decorative paper. I added a flap to my purse but you wouldn't need to. Then I just used ribbon for my handle. I punched a hole on each side of the purse, threaded my ribbon through, and tied a knot. This purse will be so fun to slip a gift card into or another small gift. Here is a full view of the purse.

And here is a close up of the purse.

Daycare Christmas Ornaments

I decided to start giving my Daycare children hand-made Christmas ornaments, starting with this year. So here is this year's ornament. I stamped the snowman onto transparency sheets and colored it using pemanent markers. Then I wrote the childs name and the year. I cut it out into the right size circle, rolled it up, and slipped it into the ornament. I filled the back half of the ornament with fake snow. The snowman was a $ stamp I bought at JoAnn's.

hand made gift boxes...

Today I am sharing 2 gift boxes complete with ribbon and bows that I made using nothing more than paper and tape! Thanks to Jacki (a fellow Gingerwoodie) for sending me to this http://picasaweb.google.com/wyobart website for the instructions to make these boxes. I do not know the owner of the website other than her name is Susie. These boxes are so fun to make and absolutely stunning in my opinion! To make the 2 boxes shown, I used papers from DCWV (winter and Christmas) packs. The nice thing about using these packs is that every paper cooridinates!

Here is a lime green box, with plaid lid, and polka dot ribbon/bow.
This one is a cranberry red, with green patterened lid, and polka dot ribbon/bow.

And here is a close up of the bows. These boxes end up being 4 x 4 inches - just the perfect size for my hand made Christmas ornaments I am making for my daycare children.

Christmas tree ornament and card

Karen, an online friend of mine, told me about this http://www.tallmouse.com/projects/xmas/apricelessgift/index.htm cute little project. I loved the idea of it but wanted to make mine a bit different. So I decided to turn mine into a Christmas tree ornament for my parents, and my siblings. I like to give each of them something little for every Holiday and thought this would be nice.
The box was purchased at Target in the wedding section. You get 50 plain white boxes for around $12.00 I believe. I stamped it with snowflakes using Encore inks. I then wrapped the ribbon around it, and made the bow out of cooridinating paper. I added silver cording for the hanger.

This is the card I made to go with the ornament. Just like the box, I stamped snowflakes using the Encore inks. I will simply slip it behind the ribbon when I present the gift to my family members. They can either leave it there, or take it out before hanging it on the tree. It reads:

"We took an ordinary box as empty as can be, we filled it with a special gift, and wrapped it carefully. But please don't ever open it, just leave the ribbon tied, and hold it tightly near your heart, because our love for you's inside."

Little snowman

I had a lot of fun making this card. The snowman is a clear stamp from one of the $ sets that G studio makes. I stamped him, colored him, and then cut around him. I cuttlebugged the bottom paper to make it look like piles of snow. It was fine but I thought that it still needed something else so I stippled "snowqueen" radiant pearls over it and that did the trick. The background paper is from DCWV winter set. You can't tell from the scan but this card has dimension to it. The snowman is raised with 1 layer of foam tape, and the cuttlebugged snow is raised with 2 layers of foam tape.

Snowflake nugget tin

I LOVE making nugget tins and today I am sharing one of the 4 that I made last night. I used Encore Metallic inks and in person they are nice and shiny. I think the inks look really nice paired up with the silver of the nugget wrappers and the silver of the tin. I happened to find the perfect ribbon to match and the silver cord adds the final touch.

Christmas gift bag

Today I wanted to share a plain white gift bag that I spruced up a bit. All I did was take 3 cooridinating background papers, tear the top edge of each one, and layer them onto the bag. Then I took matching ribbon to tie the bag shut. Inside I put some fun lotions and bubble baths and had it as a door price at a candle party that I hosted.

Wanna know how I decided who got the gift? Well if you look at the post below this one, you will see a candy wrapped in a decorated christmas label. I put that, along with undecorated ones, in a candy dish and set them out at my party for the guests. The one who picked the decorated one won the gift! It was pretty fun waiting for someone to pick the decorated one...it was ALMOST the last one picked!

Nestle Treasures

As I was shopping for Hershey Nuggets last night, I came across Nestle Treasures and thought "why not?". They looked like they were the same size as the nuggets, and they come in other colored wrappers besides just gold and silver. So I bought a bag of the Peanut Butter Creme which come in red wrappers. I thought they would work well for Christmas or Valentines Day treats. Here is an example of 2 that I made.

Organized craft room - finally!

I was finally able to get my craft room organized to my liking. This actually happened a couple of weeks ago but my camera died and I wasn't able to take a picture. I now have a new camera and can share again!

This picture shows my work table (on the left) and my die cutting table (on the right). It also shows the shelving that was already there when we bought the house 1.5 years ago.
On the wall to the right of my work table is my wall of embellishments and 12x12 papers.
This picture shows the area behind my work table.
My MIL painted these birds a few years ago. There are a total of 8 and I have them hanging on my craft room walls. She was going to throw them out and thankfully I was there to rescue them! I think they are so fun and cute and really adds playfulness to my room.
In this last picture you are looking into my room through my door. The antique dresser in the left of the picture holds all of my misc. things to alter, envelopes, etc, etc, etc.

wreath card

I made this wreath using a set from PaperTrey Ink called "Take a Bough". It doesn't really show up too well in the scan but I stippled brown ink all over the white cs to tone it down a bit. The faux stitches come from a set called "Hanging by a Thread" and is made by Technique Tuesday.

sympathy cards...

I had to make a sympathy card for a funeral this week. I always have such a hard time making them - I suppose everyone does. I never want to over-do them, etc. So I just try to keep them very simple. Here are 2 examples. The top one is the one that I made today. The bottom one is one I made earlier this year.

Christmas ornament/book mark

I think this would be such a cute little Christmas gift for a sunday school teacher to give to their students! I made it to be used as a tree ornament but you could also use it as a book mark.

Celebrate Jesus' Birthday

These are 2 cards that I made for a contest. I used the papertrey ink set called "piece of cake" and made Christmas cards! The word "Jesus'" was computer generated.

$ stamp sets at JoAnn Fabrics

The above photo shows what the packaging looks like.

Here are some of the $ clear stamp sets that are available at JoAnn Fabrics. If you can not find them in your store - ASK as they had them in a box on the fabric cutting table at our store. Happy hunting!

Flower Card

Thanks to an Anne who posted this question on the PaperTrey ink forum "Anybody make a flower using Take a Bough?" I came up with this card. The petals were made using the solid tear shaped x-mas ornament from PaperTrey ink. I just stamped it in fours, and then again in fours overlapping the first set. I like how it made a darker shade of pink where the petals overlap. Then for the center of the flower, I used a round x-mas ornament, again from Papertrey ink. The stem is a stitching stamp from a set called "hanging by a thread" by Technique Tuesday. I love how you can manipulate clear stamps to curve. The stitched leaves were from a small set by Autumn Leaves. The Just Because stamps are by PaperTrey ink and the set is called "Paper Trey".

Favor box

I found plain white "favor boxes" at Target in the wedding section of the stationary isle. A box of 50 for $12.99 - that's only 25 cents each! I made this cute favor box by stamping it with a papertrey ink set called "Piece of Cake". I used SU! dye inks and added some sparkly stickers to some of the flowers centers. The green ribbon used is the same color as the leaves - it just doesn't look like it in the scan. Then I added some paper flowers to the top. I think it came out really cute.

Dying to share...

Oh, I am dying to share with you all some cards that I have recently made, but they are for a card contest and so they must wait! I do think that I came up with a pretty neat idea for making some cards that the set wasn't really intended for. I will upload the cards as soon as the winner has been chosen.

Thanksgiving place settings

Here are some place settings that I made for Thanksgiving Dinner. It will help make the table festive for the Holiday.

Halloween Tree...

When I saw the cute Halloween tree that Lexi Daly made using the "take a bough" set from papertrey, I just knew I wanted to make one too. Here is the card that I came up with and will be giving to my 2 sons.

another card....

Again, all stamps are by papertrey ink.

Halloween b-day card

I just received my "Piece of Cake" stamp set from papertrey yesterday and I'm finding that I LOVE it! My brother was born on Halloween, so I made this card for his b-day. All stamps are by papertrey. I have 4 more Halloween cake cards in the works so be sure to check back later!

Congrat's card

I made this card for a 10th grader who made his first Varsity touchdowns on our football team last Friday. The words were embossed using a cuttlebug folder and then I swiped over the embossing with a catseye pad. Simple card but gets the message across!

Clear Card

Here is a card I made for an online friend. I got the idea from a card that I saw on the "Capture the Moments" site. The base of this card is made from a transparency sheet, folded just like a normal card would be. The cut out flowers and the yellow and white mat with the flower are all on the front cover of the card. The bigger yellow and white mat is on the inside of the card and that is where my message will go. These are really fun cards to make! I wanted the "just because" to resemble the leaves of the flower.

Wedding card

Today I am sharing with you a card I made for a Wedding. I used the free digital card kit from papercrafts website for the cake. I did the "for the bride& groom" on my computer and cut it out using a cuttlebug tag die. I added fake diamonds to the center of some of the flowers. I like how it turned out but am wondering if I should have used a blue ribbon instead of the green one - what do you think?

2 cards to share

Here are 2 cards that I made this afternoon. The first one is a thank you card for the gal that took my boys's graduation pictures. Didn't turn out quite how I had envisioned it but it works.

The second card is a card I made to give to my DH for Halloween - he always calls me his "Little Pumpkin" (I know, I know...how sweet....hehe). The background is done using the cuttlebug smoosh technique.

another b-day card

I made this card for my sisters upcoming b-day. (She doesn't have a computer so I'm safe sharing it). The blue dots that I added to the flower petals actually match the color that is in the center medallion.

b-day card

I made this card over the weekend. The petal and the "happy birthday" stamps are by Stampendous, in the clear set called "Petal Plus". I stamped it in SU Ruby Red onto kraft cs and then cut each petal out. The other papers are all DCWV from their Fall stack packs.

Halloween treat tin

I made these cute Halloween tins to give my family. I plan on filling them with peanuts, candy corn, and m&m's (tastes like a snickers bar). Again, all papers are from the DCWV Fall paper pack - I just love how all of their papers go together. I added black ribbon around the edge of the cover. For the top of the cover I cut a circle out of black with orange polka dot paper (again in the same fall pack) and added an orange button. Sorry that the pictures are not of better quality, I think my camera is on it's last leg.

Thanksgiving treat tin

This is one of seven treat tins that I made to give for a Thanksgiving treat. I stamped avery labels with the label stamp from the PaperTrey Halloween set using SU inks. Then I covered Hershey Nuggets with the labels. All of the paper used on the outside of the tin is from DCWV Fall paper stack. I added the button for the finishing touch.

Never enough bottles...

Boy did I find a deal yesterday! I was able to buy 2 cases of these nice glass bottles for 2 cents a bottle! That's right - 150 bottles for only $3.00! They measure 4.5 inches tall by 1 inch wide. I am in the process of moving all of my beads from drawers into these bottles. They will look so pretty sitting on the skinny shelf that is right above my craft desk.
I have been busy cleaning and organizing my craft room and it is almost done - look for pictures of the new space this weekend.

further testing shows...

NOTE: Yesterday I sent an email to clearsnap to ask them about this issue - I will let you know what they say should they get back to me.

It was suggested that maybe the pigments in each of these colors had settled to the bottom of the pads, and to rub the pads with the back of a spoon to bring the pigments back to the pads surface. I went one step further and actually re-inked each of my pads. These are the results. The squiggly line was done by dipping a paint brush into the ink itself, and the flower was done by inking it from the freshly inked pad. I do not see any drastic change - do you?