Waste not, want not...

I recently tried my hand at tinting glimmer paper and when I was done, I had an aqua painter with some marina mist colored water. Rather than clean out the brush, I decided to experiment with a scrap piece of very vanilla cardstock that was on my table.  So not only did I tint glimmer paper, I also water colored a large scrap piece of paper.  After it dried, I was looking at the paper and snowflakes came to mind, so I grabbed my snowflake punch and punched out as many flakes as I could squeeze from the paper.  I thought they turned out pretty cool and couldn't wait to use them on a card. My card today is one of those cards that just came together.  I pulled bits and pieces of ideas from a variety of cards I have seen recently. Of course my water colored snowflakes had to be on this too!

I stamped the trees in versamark then soft suede before stamping on my cardstock.  Then I used clear embossing powder and heat embossed the trees.  A few quick spritzes of vanilla shimmer smooch spritz added the look of a light snowfall and then some stickles to the torn paper snowbanks and trees for the glistening snow.  I would have used my dazzling details, but couldn't locate it. I think it's still in one of my containers from the crop night... Luckily, I still had a little bit of icicle stickles left in a bottle.  After it dried, I noticed the 'snow' under the trees looked more gold than white.  I think it's from the soft suede ink.  We'll just pretend those are the fall leaves that didn't get raked up before the snow!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-whisper white, garden green, marina mist, watercolored paper, Ink-versamark, soft suede, Stamp Set-Lovely as a Tree, Accessories-square lattice folder, vanilla shimmer smooch spritz, clear embossing powder, heat gun, basic rhinestones, non SU snowflake punch

Tinted Glimmer Paper

A few posts back, I shared a picture of the glimmer paper ornaments I punched out and tinted.  I finally used these to make some Christmas cards. I got the information on tinting the paper and the card design from Debbie, you can see the full directions on her blog, but it's pretty basic.  I punched my ornaments first.  I took re-inkers and squeezed a little ink into a lid, then used the aqua painters and ink to paint the ornaments. You can use your heat gun to set the ink or if you do several, like I did, just put them on paper towel and let them air dry.  This was a little messy and my fingers were inky by the time I was done, but this really is a simple and fun, yet beautiful technique. I was amazed at the amount of shimmer that still came through and after sponging the edges with soft suede, they really took on an antiqued look.  Here is my card.

If you saw the card we made at the crop, this is the same layout, only I used linen thread for the 'hook' and the glimmer ornaments. Be sure to check back on my blog and see the other creative idea that came from my aqua painter and re-inkers!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-garden green, whisper white, glimmer paper, Ink- cherry cobbler & marina mist re-inkers, garden green, soft suede, Stamp Set-Lovely as a Tree, Accessories-ornament punch, linen thread, square lattice folder, top note die

Happy Thanksgiving

Just a quick post today, as I am elbow deep in the kitchen with desserts! I have made a turkey before and it was really tasty, just not very pretty... Luckily, other members of our families are more than happy to take this job, so I get to focus on one of my other loves, baking!

My Thanksgiving card once again features the artwork of the ever talented Lisa M!  When I saw her free doodle of the turducken (chicken in a duck in a turkey), I just had to laugh! Now, we are a little more traditional here and stick with the good ol' roasted turkey, but this guy(s) made me smile and I had to share them!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-kraft (ret), whisper white, hay from stash box, Ink-pastels on leaves, copics on image, Stamp-leaf from Lovely as a Tree, digi doodle from Lisa, Accessories-chocolate chip grosgrain (ret)

I also wanted to share some pics of the ornaments my girls made for the family ornament exchange we are having tonight.  Each year, my Mom, her sisters, and all of the spouses and offspring get together for Thanksgiving dinner.  We do a Sneaky Santa ornament swap.  My girls decided about 2-3 years ago to make their ornaments instead of buying some.  The aunts went crazy!  It was like watching the Black Friday crowd when there's only 1 item left!!  Here are this year's creations...

I want to wish all of my US followers (and those just peeking in) a very blessed Thanksgiving!  I can sincerely say that this year has been one of my more blessed and happy years.  Our family has remained in decent health, no serious accidents, plenty of food, steady income, and the love of many family members and friends. A special thank you to all of the wonderful friends I have met in Blogland for leaving such fabulous comments on my blog!  You have made me laugh and smile when I least expected it and I am truly blessed to have met all of you!

Blog Candy

I just found this blog, thanks to my cyber buddy, Lisa and wanted to pass this info on!  There are a lot of awesome altered projects posted  at The Craft Barn and they are offering blog candy.  The deadline is November 25th, so if you want a chance to win all of this, you better hurry!

The only card I made at the crop...

If you have seen my last two posts, you are already aware that I organized a Crop night for our daycare and preschool.  While I had a wonderful time and taught two projects, I accomplished next to nothing of my own! I had colored some images about a month ago and brought them along with the hopes of getting them turned into Christmas cards by the end of the night.  I actually finished about 5 of them...  But I did enjoy checking out what everyone else was making and visiting with friends.

Here is a picture of the only project I worked on!

Card Recipe:Cardstock- whisper white, bashful blue, DP from stash, Ink- Stazon black, Early Espresso & Blush Blossom markers, copics, Stamp- Non SU, Accessories-dazzling details, snow burst folder, clear trim tinsel (ret.)

Crop Project #2

Friday night was our daycare and preschool's fundraiser Crop night.  This is the second project that I taught.

Recognize the branches of the tree?  It's the pine tree from Lovely as a Tree turned sideways and stamped twice! This card was a CASE of Debbie's card, I just changed the papers a bit.  I also did a card like this using the tinted glimmer paper and will show that picture soon.  The ladies really enjoyed this card!  Most of the people attending were scrapbookers and they loved trying something new.

Card Recipe:Cardstock-whisper white, garden green, cherry cobbler, marina mist, Stamp Sets-Lovely as a Tree, Word Play (sentiment), Ink-soft suede, garden green, cherry cobbler, Accessories- ornament punch, snowburst folder, square lattice folder, top note die, cherry cobbler bakers twine

Crop Night Project #1

Wow!  I had every intention of actually making something and posting here on Thursday, but my week has been super crazy!  Our daycare and preschool celebrated 25 years of operation this year and we held a special fundraising crop night as part of our celebration.  I was in charge of organizing this event and since it was my first time hosting a crop, it was a bit overwhelming!  But, everything went well, pages and cards were created, prizes were won and food was consumed! It was wonderful to be surrounded by ladies with various skill levels and styles.  I have to admit, I mingled a lot more than I created, but I did manage to get a few more Christmas cards finished.  At the end of the night, I was packing up my stuff and saw my camera case...DUH! I completely forgot to take any pictures...

I taught two different projects at the crop and this is my first...

While this was pretty simple, everyone seemed to enjoy it.  That may have had something to do with M&Ms being involved.  If you are looking at the picture and thinking "M&Ms?", no you're not seeing things. My sample had skittles because that is all I had in the house when I made my sample.  At the crop they used red and green M&Ms.  We used the markers to color the stamp so there could be various colors, punched, and then stapled the tag to the bag.  I will give a bit of advice; the ease of stapling is directly related to the type of stapler you use.  My itty bitty Dollar Tree stapler worked much better than my heavy duty Swingline. Be sure to check back tomorrow for part 2!

Recipe: Cardstock-whisper white, Stamp Set-From Santa, Ink (markers)-poppy parade, pear pizzazz, crumb cake, Accessories- 2 3/8 scallop circle punch, 1x8 cellophane bags

I Love Care Packages!

Normally I am not thrilled to go to the mailbox.  It's usually filled with junk mail or even worse...BILLS!!! But this month has been much nicer than usual!  I actually won blog candy from the ever fabulous, Button Junkie herself, Ms. Sherry! She has the most beautiful dyed wrinkled ribbon and we were supposed to comment and tell her our favorite color.  I just couldn't choose one and told her I loved all of them!  This is what I received in the mail...

along with this super sweet card!

Then today I checked my mailbox and there was a box of really yummy taffy from my favorite candy store in Gatlinburg!  My BFF and her DH went to Gatlinburg to celebrate their anniversary and she bought and sent  me a box! How sweet was that?!  But that's not what really made this package special.  She is VERY new to cardmaking. ( I roped her into attending one of my classes this spring and she was hooked!) The most wonderful part (not that I don't really, really love the taffy...) was this awesome card!!

She even decorated the inside!!! Unfortunately, she mentioned the fact that it would be really nice of me to share the taffy with my DH and two girls... Hmmm....one piece each is still sharing right?!  Actually the box is rather large and I'm sure I will not have a problem with them taking more than a few  pieces!

Hope you have a wonderful evening and I hope to be able to post some of my creations before the weekend!

Happy Veterans Day!

Happy Veterans Day and a very special 'Thank You' to all veterans for your service to our country! Veterans Day has always been one of those special days for me.  While I'm not a 'military brat', my Dad served in the Army during the Korean War.  This was well before I was even a 'glint in his eye', but he taught all of us to show honor and  respect for our country, the flag, and all military who protected us.  There are several members of our family who are veterans and many who are actively serving, so this continues to be important to our family.  My Dad always looks forward to his phone call from my girls wishing him a "Happy Veterans Day!" Today a friend shared on Facebook that there was a free digi of Army Bear in honor of Veterans Day here.  So of course I had to get it and made a card for my favorite veteran!

This is the second attempt at coloring the image.  I really didn't like the way the browns blended, or should I say DIDN'T blend,  on the first one. I also felt like the ribbon needed a bow or something, but thought that might be to 'pretty' for this card.

And here is a picture of my most favorite veteran in the world!  That's my DD with him.  This was taken about 2 years ago at her 1st Communion.

Card Recipe: Cardstock-brilliant blue (ret), real red, whisper white, Inks-early espresso, crumb cake, pear pizzazz, lucky limeade, blush blossom, poppy parade (all markers) and a few copics, Accessories-whisper white grosgrain ribbon, stars (non su)

Return of the mojo, sort of...

For the past week, I have felt a little 'blah' about creating.  I would see all of these inspiring creations from others and then sit at my table and think 'hmmm.....' I have created a few things for some upcoming projects that I didn't want to post yet, but other than the things I HAD to make, there hasn't been much creativity flowing.  So tonight I decided, no matter what, I was going to make something!  I pulled out my silver glimmer paper, punched a few ornaments, and got everything ready to color them.  If you have yet to be exposed to this technique, I saw this for the first time at Debbie's Designs.  She is so nice, super talented and always has the best tutorials! Anyway, as I sat there playing with my aqua painter (first time!) and the ink, things just sort of clicked.  I was having fun, not worrying about the end product (which was AWESOME!) and just experimented with the ink and paper.  So as my ornaments were drying, I starting thinking about this super cute image my super talented, always funny, friend, Lisa at You Made Me Ink, had posted a looong time ago that I had printed and colored.  I was waiting for just the right inspiration to strike so I could use this and I came up with this...

It's a little hard to appreciate from the picture, but the image of the 'not so perfect' snow family has been given a few little touches after the coloring.  I used dazzling details on the ground and accented the hat, Mother's scarf, and the instigator's earmuffs with crystal effects.  I really love this image and had to remember the many, 'not so perfect,' family pictures I have been a part of over the years.  It also seemed so fitting since there are four in our family (five if you count the dog).  Maybe I'll have to talk Lisa into commissioning a special image with Shadow knocking both of the kids down.  He is notorious for this!

 Because of the coloring, and added touches to this card, not to mention the glimmer snowflakes that I punched (glitter everywhere!) I decided this qualified for the challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  They are looking for 'over the top' cards.  You know, the ones that you make and love, but say "Never again..."  Not saying I won't ever do this again, but I sure wouldn't want to make 20 or 30 of these!

 

Just in case you wanted to see my tinted ornaments...

I'm hoping to be able to do something with these over the weekend. Wish me luck!

Card Recipe: Cardstock- pear pizzazz, whisper white, poppy parade DSP (in colors stack), glimmer paper, Ink- assorted SU markers, Stamp Set-image from Lisa M, Accessories-pear pizzazz seam binding, dazzling details, crystal effects, non SU snowflake punch

Ornaments: Silver Glimmer paper, cherry cobbler  and marina mist reinkers, aqua painter, ornament punch

Fall Theme Swaps

As promised, here are a few more swaps that I received.  Although many of the swappers had Christmas as their theme, some, like me, created fall cards.  I thought I would share the fall cards today.

The card on the left is by Alicia Tomicich-Wiley and the one on the right is from Sue Erickson.

The top card is from Debbie Payne and the bottom card was made by Maureen Evers.

Nothing says fall like beautiful leaves and all four of these ladies used them beautifully on their cards!  it is amazing how much more lovely these are when you can hold them in your hands!

Regional Swaps

I was so impressed with all of the inspiration at the SU Regional Event.  The swap boards were just amazing and I took tons of pictures to help me remember what I want to try! We created two make and take cards and I also swapped with 31 incredibly talented ladies and wanted to share a few of my favorites.  The first picture is my make and take cards.  My mojo was not with me and I made a few goofs on them (punching in the wrong spot for one). At home, I could have found a way to cover it, but by the time I got home, I was too wiped out to want to worry about it.  I will fix it before sending it to someone!

The next picture shows the swaps that some of the ladies from our team shared.  Tiffany, and Chas created these sparkly Christmas cards. I love the glittery snowflake Chas used on her card and Tiffany's Santa card is just so much fun!

These were created by Denise and Shelly, who are also members of our team.  I am so fortunate to be with these ladies on a monthly basis!

A start on Christmas cards

Hello, my name is Margaret and I am a procrastinator...but I can change, if I have to, I guess...
They say that the first step to overcoming a bad habit is to admit that you have one. While I know that my procrastinating can sometimes cause added stress and the occasional 'dropping the ball', I have to be honest and say that some of my best work comes when under pressure. While working my way through college, I loved my job at Big Lots (an eclectic discount retail chain).  Each day when I came in, it was a different area of the store, a special task, or customer service that awaited me.  I loved the challenge of adjusting to my new duties and although most of my coworkers thought I was crazy, I loved difficult customers. Not nasty, hateful customers, but people that came in the door knowing that they probably weren't going to be pleased. I loved the look of pure shock and awe when I would help them with their concerns and offer suggestions they hadn't considered.  This was not a job I could plan for; it was fly by the seat of my pants and I LOVED it.

If you're still with me, you are probably wondering just what this has to do with paper crafting. My point, and I do have one, is that while I do have to keep my procrastinating in check in most areas, there are other times that the impulsive response is the best.  This is how I create my Christmas cards.  I will look through idea books, surf online, and browse the craft stores, but in the end some of my best cards come at the last minute trying to get just a few more greetings in the mail before the big day.  I like to think that at these times I'm not nitpicking my creativity and it thanks me by giving it's best efforts.

I wasn't planning on making a Christmas card this week, but then I saw the sketch at Sketches By Carly and thought about the stamp set Gift Givers, which hasn't seen much ink yet, a card began to form.  It is not at all like most Christmas cards I create, but I really love how it turned out! I even managed to use some Spice Cake DSP on this!!

I really love that SU started carrying Dazzling Details.  I love this stuff for snow! I also have recently started an addiction to Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz. Almost all of my 'girly' cards get a few shots of this awesome stuff!

Card Recipe: Cardstock- very vanilla, pool party, Spice Cake DSP, Ink-basic gray, pool party, island indigo, blush blossom, Stamp Sets-Gift Givers, Snow Swirled, Tags So Much (ret.-colored only sentiment), Accessories-vanilla shimmer smooch spritz, dazzling details, very vanilla seam binding, scallop circle punch, 2 3/8 scallop circle punch

I also wanted to share a picture from the Louisville Regional Event.  Several ladies from our team, The Crafty SisTAHs, went together.  This is such a wonderful group of ladies and we had a great day together. I'm in the back row wearing pink!

I'll share some pics of swaps in my next post!!

Just a Note

This is the last of my four cards from my scraps box. Over the summer,  I made a set of note cards for a good friend of mine from church, who is also the organist, for her birthday.  I had just one little square left of the DP and thought this would be enough to make a card for my oldest DD's choir teacher.  We started a tradition years ago of giving their teachers a thank you note on Thanksgiving and she wanted me to use this paper for her card.

The card base is a very old one that I received as a thank you gift for hosting a Stampin' UP party years ago... Who knew?!  

Card Recipe: Cardstock-naturals ivory, soft suede, non SU DP, Ink-Black Stazon, Stamp Set- non SU sentiment, Accessories-chocolate chip satin ribbon