Flash Back Friday

Happy Friday!  I realize it is Friday the 13th, but since 13 tends to be a good number for me (married on 13th, child born on 13th, first home had 13 in the address), I don't buy into the whole 'bad things' superstition.  Besides, isn't any Friday a good day, regardless of the date!  I am a little sad that I have less than a month of summer vacation left...

Today, I have yet another Christmas card for you!  The good news is I made 3 other cards besides this one and now my Merry Moments is all but gone!  So while I will continue to make at least one Christmas card a week (trying to stay ahead!), there will be a lot more new products and a wider variety of cards, after the last three are posted!  

Once again, I've used a Merry Monday sketch-#9 to be exact.  This seemed to be a good sketch as well (still grumbling about the complete loss of mojo on #7!) and the ornament just seemed to be the perfect thing to put on the center panel!

The pattern I punched out is probably my favorite design out of the entire package.  I'm a little sad it's all  but gone, but I am sure I will find a new favorite to replace it! My Flash Back items are the DSP (obviously!) and the now retired snow burst embossing folder (still sad about this one...), and the stamp set.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and are able to find a little time to be crafty!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-crumb cake, very vanilla, real red, Merry Moments DSP (ret), Ink-chocolate chip, Stamp Set-warm words, Accessories-snow burst folder (ret), perfect polka dots folder, ornament punch, bitty banners framelits, lucky limeade bakers twine, scallop trim border punch

A Vintage Christmas

Little by little my package of retired Christmas paper is going away, sniff...sniff... But the good news is that my pre-order items from the Holiday catalog have arrived!!  It has been so hard to resist breaking into those new goodies!  I do have a project planned for Saturday that will use some new things from the regular IB&C.  So if you're tired of seeing vacation scrapbook pages and Christmas cards, be sure to visit me on Saturday!

I used sketch #8 from Merry Monday and here's the wonderful part!  They are having a month long challenge to use their past sketches, so I can actually enter their current challenge!! Woo! Hoo!

I really loved this sketch and even managed to use up an oval scallop I had in my stash for the main image!  I also broke out the pastels for this one.  I think the soft color works so well with the vintage style.

I hope everyone is having a good week and finding some time to be crafty!  Thanks for stopping by!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-real red, very vanilla, Merry Moments DSP (ret), Ink-soft suede, black stazon, Stamp Sets- Bells and Boughs, Warm Words (ret), Accessories-Chantilly crochet trim, pastels, oval shape cut w/ cricut

Scrapbook Monday-You know you're a scrapbooker when...

It's another Scrapbook Monday and I have several digital layouts to share today!  My family is always laughing at the bizarre things I choose to photograph.  Like the food on the table at Thanksgiving, or the new backpacks on the first day of school,  or candy and coffee packaging...

They are not scrapbookers, because if they were, they would know that the dinner table picture will tell my great-great-great-grandchildren what we ate, the backpacks become a trip down memory lane for my kids "Remember when you LOVED Dora?",  and the candy and coffee shows future chocolate and caffeine addicted family members that they inherited that love from me.  My sister (who also scrapbooks) and my girls, however, understand that you know you're a scrapbooker when...

...you take pictures of signs, towel art, walls, and even the toiletries from the hotel.

...buildings, water parks, and walkways are frequent focal points in pictures.

...your hotel suite's every detail is forever preserved on a page.

...your children vividly remember exact moments, each time they look at their scrapbook.

Words can not do justice to explain how wonderfully, magical our suite was.  It was almost surreal being at the resort!  I can not imagine the time and talent that came together to make this amazing place.  The cast members were fantastic and always had a smile and an offer to help with anything.   It was so fun walking into the building after an exhausting day at a park to see someone smiling and saying "Welcome home!  What did you do today?"  It was not a 'cheap' place to stay, but was worth every penny we paid!  And since we don't go to Disney every year (this was the girls' first visit) we decided to splurge and have the full effect!

I was very naughty and did not make a list of anything that I used on these pages...  The main colors are brocade blue and real red, and I made the fish on the second layout by combining oval punches with heart punches.  The Disney script was found at Urban Fonts and was FREE!!

I like to think that 100 years from now, someone will look at my pages and think "That is so cool!" or "Look at those shoes!" or "Wow! Did you see that OLD TV?!"  At least, that's what we do when we look through all of the old family pictures.  At best, I am leaving a visual time capsule of our lives for our future generations.  At the very least, I am gossip fodder for current family members.  "Did you see her take a picture of the birthday card/grill/car/cake on the floor(true story!)/chickens... Well, she's always been a little odd..."  Little do they know, I will be the cool and crazy, crafty lady that our future family knows so much about!! So who's laughing now?  Yeah, I know... it's still them laughing...

I hope you find some time this week to be crafty!!  Don't forget to take some pictures too!

The intervention...

Hello, my name is Margaret and I have a problem.  I started making Christmas cards about a month ago to use up my old Christmas DSP.  I thought I could handle it, just make a few cards, use up some old paper, and then I would stop.  I was in control... or so I thought.  I have recently come to realize that I have an addiction to creating Christmas cards.  I've even started looking at other old packages of  Christmas DSP, just to see what was there...  I knew I hit rock bottom when I became frustrated that I had to make a birthday card. "That won't use up my Christmas paper... I have to use up my Christmas paper!!"  So that's my story.  I am a Christmas card addict.  The saddest part of this is I will have to find a way to control my behavior.  After all, Christmas is an annual holiday, and there will always be new DSP to buy, therefore making my current DSP old.  It's a vicious cycle...  But I can change... if I have to...I guess...

All silliness aside, I am really enjoying making my cards early (gasp!) and I was so excited when I realized I only had two full sheets and some little scraps left of my Merry Moments paper.  Bring on the new paper!!  

I once again used a Merry Monday sketch for my cards.  I'm just obsessive enough to feel that I need to do the sketches in order, but really would have liked to skip this one.  It was a wonderful sketch and I had this brilliant card pictured in my head, but when I attempted to put my vision to paper, I did not love it.  So I decided to try the sketch again with a different idea.  Not overly crazy with that one either...  But I finished the sketch and the next few are very basic and I think they will be a lot easier for me to use.  So here are both of my cards using sketch #7 from Merry Monday.  

   

My initial plan was for the cardinal to be resting on the branch, but it just didn't look right.  I also thought the background would be less bare and more 'forest-like' with the pine tree images.  I just feel like the whole vision fell short of what I wanted...

First of all... apologies for the washed out image... grr...

I decided to go a completely different route with this one.  I wanted to use the shaker frame, but didn't want to actually have a shaker card (confusing, I know).  So I stamped my image twice, added dazzling details to the bottom image and then layered the second image on top.  I think I would have been happier with this one if I had embossed the red background.

So do you ever have this problem?  Finishing a card and then really not liking it?  

Hope everyone has a fabulous rest of the weekend! Happy crafting!

Card Recipe #1-Cardstock-old olive, very vanilla, real red, Merry Memories DSP(ret), Ink-chocolate chip, old olive, Stamp Sets- Lovely as a Tree, Bells and Boughs, Language of Friendship, Punches-scallop oval, scallop circle, bird builder

Card Recipe #2-Cardstock-real red, very vanilla, garden green, Merry Memories DSP, Ink-real red, asst. markers, Stamp Sets- Sweet Snowglobe (ret), Warm Words (ret), Punches-1 3/4" circle, large oval, scallop oval, Accessories-dazzling details, shaker frame

Flashback Friday and another Merry Monday Sketch

I am cruising right through the older Merry Monday sketches.  Today I used sketch #6 and actually used a different older DSP! Yay!!!  I have moved on to Ski Slope (not sure how long I've had this paper...) and since this was a favorite when it was new, I only had about 1/2 of a pack to begin with.  Woo! Hoo!  I also used one of the first Christmas stamps I ever bought.  I stopped using this one after DD#2 was born because there were only 3 snow people, but today I threw that thinking out the window and inked this baby up!  I didn't even mind coloring the images since there were only two cards being made.  I tried to keep the colors neutral so they didn't clash with the dsp.

After putting the whole thing together and photographing it, I really think I should have matted the image on a piece of riding hood red paper to make it stand out a little more... hmmm...

This card definitely fit the original purpose of my Flashback Fridays.  I used retired DSP, a very old stamp, and the snowflake brad was also from my older stash!  After putting a little glitter on the snow drifts, I decided to glitter up the brad as well.  It looked much better with a little bling!

I hope all of my fellow Americans enjoyed some fireworks and festivities over the holiday!  Our day was pretty low key- a family cookout and then a trip in town to watch the fireworks display.

Card Recipe: Cardstock-baja breeze, whisper white, Ink-stazon black, various markers, Accessories-dazzling details, 1" circle punch, Flashback items-Ski Slope DSP, snowflake brad, snow family stamp (non SU)

Scrapbook Monday- Still at the beach...

It's Monday once again and I have a few more pages from our Panama City Beach portion of our vacation.  Again, very little journaling, letting the pictures tell their own stories...

I really wish we would have planned at least another day for the beach.  One evening was not nearly enough time to properly enjoy the sand and water.  I think our next trip to the ocean will have more relaxing and resting time and less regimented schedules.

The second page is views of the ocean from the car as we were leaving Panama City Beach, and one of the orange groves we passed on our way to Lake Buena Vista.  You can't really tell in the picture, but we could see oranges growing on the trees as we passed.  It was raining as we arrived at Disney -typical of Florida this time of year, I'm told...  But it did not diminish our excitement as we arrived at the most magical place on earth!  

I still have a lot of beach pictures that I did not scrapbook.  These will probably go into divided page protectors (photo album style) and be placed with the scrapbook pages.  To be perfectly honest, this will probably happen to a lot of pictures!  I love to scrapbook, but my attention span for one project does not last long!  Probably why I always do Christmas and vacation pictures last!!

We finally received some much needed rain yesterday evening.  We went out to eat for our niece's birthday in a neighboring town and it starting pouring rain!  I was never so happy to be soaked! It stormed enough that the power went out and we ate our meal with only the light from the windows and the emergency lights.  Great mood lighting and a memorable evening for my niece!  We were just glad that the kitchen was still able to make our food!  It was quite disappointing to arrive back at home to realize that it had only sprinkled there.  But shortly after settling in, it did rain a little more.  We are still far below what we need and the fire hazards have not been lifted, but at least some of the dust was washed back where it belongs!

Hope you have a fabulous week and happy crafting!

CAS and CASE

Today's card is the last of my stampin' club cards.  I already had a design in mind and then I saw Tiffany's card.  I loved the clean design and how simple it was to put together. I swapped the butterfly for a flower and changed the sentiment stamp, and colors, but other than that, it's pretty much a CASE.  This is also a great card for using up scraps and I'm sure I will be using this layout a lot!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-whisper white, pink pirouette DSP from subtles stack, certainly celery, Baja breeze, Ink-soft suede, Stamp Set- Curly Cute, Accessories-corner punch, little leaves sizzlit, Boho blossom punch, silver brad from metallics collection

Umm... Another Christmas Card...

No, it's not Flashback Friday, but in my desperate attempt to use up my older Christmas DSP, I have another card to share this week!  I had to get a little creative with this one.  I used the sketch #5 from Merry Monday and knew I wanted to use the snowman circle from Tags Til Christmas, but there wasn't any blue in the DSP... So I grabbed the color coach and found that marina mist was suggested with real red and old olive, which were colors in the DSP! BINGO! Of  course, the snowy image just begged for some dazzling details as well!  Who am I to argue with a snowman stamp?!

I colored the image with markers and also did a little 'splitting' of the sentiment using the marina mist marker.  I love being able to color only what I want to stamp.  Makes fitting things into a punched shape much easier!!

I think there's just enough DSP left to make that mini album and possibly a few scrappy cards or a page or two.  As happy as that makes me, I am even more amazed that I have 10 Christmas cards made already!  I just won't know what to do when December arrives...  Maybe I'll get some more scrapbook pages finished!  Hope you are finding time to enjoy your weekend! Happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-very vanilla, real red, Merry Moments DSP (ret), Ink-marina mist, real red, pumpkin pie, basic black (markers), Stamp Set-Tags Til Christmas, Star Studded Season, Punches-large oval, scallop oval, 1 3/4 circle, 2 3/8 scallop circle, Accessories- dazzling details

Flashback Friday-Merry Monday #4

I am on quite the roll with the Christmas cards!! I hate to admit, but I'm actually enjoying this!  I thought being limited to two packs of DSP would drive me batty, but it has actually made things easier.  Of course, there is still the temptation to dig into one of the newer packs...must be strong...

Today's card is based on sketch #4 from Merry Monday.  Sorry for the shadowy pictures... I waited a bit to long to try and take pictures outside...

and I even decorated the inside!!

My next project is making a 6x6 Christmas album.  I'm thinking that will just about finish off my Merry Moments paper (sniff...).  Only a few more days before my July preorder for the Holiday goodies!!!!

Well, that's it for me today! Another busy weekend with little time for craftiness... good thing there's still over a month of summer vacation left!  Have a wonderful weekend and happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-real red, very vanilla, Merry Moments DSP (ret), Ink-real red, chocolate chip, soft suede, Stamp Sets- Snow Swirled, Tags Til Christmas, Accessories- petals a plenty folder, ornament punch, photo corner punch (ret), decorative label punch

I will not procrastinate... I will not procrastinate...

At our last SU team meeting, Tiffany gave us two different types of challenge.  One was to read the article in the latest Stampin' Success about changing habits that hold you back, then pick something to change.  While I'm sure there are several things I could change to make myself more organized and a better prepared demonstrator, I picked the most obvious one for me...procrastinating.  How nice would it be for me to have everything ready for club and classes ahead of time, instead of finishing and packing at the last minute...  So challenge number one was completed.  On to the second challenge- the color combo sketch challenge and since I'm not procrastinating, I have my card finished and there's still over two weeks until our meeting! Woo! Hoo!

So here is my 'not last minute' card using the colors island indigo, baja breeze, and rich razzleberry.  I have to say these colors really made me think.  I'm still not sure I'm thrilled with the finished product, but I don't hate it either...

Just a little fussy cutting on the balloons, sponging for the sky, and a little twine to dress it up.  I stamped the party arrow in versamark to add a little interest to the baja breeze panel.  Well, wish me luck with my newest endeavor!  Hope you have a great day and happy crafting!

Card Recipe:  Cardstock-island indigo, baja breeze, rich razzleberry, whisper white, Ink-island indigo, rich razzleberry, baja breeze, versamark, Stamp Set-Party This Way, Accessories- island indigo twine, bitty banner framelit