Sorry

Sorry there is no post today.  This cold is really keeping me down.  I spent most of the day in bed yesterday.  Hopefully I will feel better soon and be back to crafting my heart out.  See you soon I hope.  It may be next week though the way I am going.  Check back each day to see if I have finally recovered and made something productive to share with you.  Thanks for understanding.

I Give Up!

Hello to you all and happy Tuesday!  This past weekend was a very busy one for me and my family.  We had a lot of fun cooking and spending time with everyone.  But one thing that I was lacking was crafting time.  I had made my sister in law's birthday card that I shared with you yesterday before Thanksgiving day so that I would have it to share.  Well I failed to make any others. 

I was hoping to work on the Christmas cards for my husband but also ran into the lack of time problem.  Remember the card I was working on?  Let me share it again to refresh your memory.

 

Now you would think this would be an easy card to make and for the most part you would be right.  However, I had a big reservation about doing this one.  I felt rushed.

 

Remember this photo showing how many of these I had to color?  To be totally honest with you, I have maybe 1/4 of them colored.  I started to notice that I was rushing through the coloring and it was not looking as neat as it should.  I was going back over them and fixing areas I did not like.  Well as you can guess that was just doubling the amount of time I was spending on each one.  I finally decided that while this is a nice card design, I am going to save it as the card for next year.  That way I have time to color neatly.  So now I have to come up with a whole new design for this year's card. 

Since I had already ordered all the paper for this one, I knew one thing for sure:  I was sticking to the same color scheme.  I have a design in mind for this new card and will be working hard on it today.  I should have a sample to share with you tomorrow I hope.  

To top it all off, I finally got my husband over his bronchitis so he is feeling much better.  Unfortunately, when I woke up on Monday I was running a fever, coughing, sneezing, and had a sore throat.  Pretty sure it is just a cold but it has slowed me down.  Why is it that at the best time of the year I always seems to catch a cold?  There is so much to do and so much fun to have.  This cold better go away soon or I am going to be upset. 

Instead of ranting on and on, I think I will go take a nap and get some added rest.  Thanks for dropping by today and please stop by tomorrow to see the new sample.  See you then.

It's Inspector Raccoon!!!!

Hard to believe today is the last Monday of November.  We are officially moving towards Christmas now.  This is my favorite time of year.  I love the lights and decorations as well as the music and movies.  What always makes me sad is how fast it seems to go by.  I want to savor every minute of it I can.  But first things first - we have to finish November. 

I do hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I thoroughly enjoyed mine.  I did not however take part in the Black Friday shopping spree.  For those of you who did, I hope you got some really good deals.  I am not a fan of crowds and have found over the years that it is not usually holly jolly shoppers I encounter - it tends to be pushy people who really don't care about anything but themselves.  The poor workers are not always happy either but if I had people yelling at me all day I would be in a bad mood too.  So I removed myself from this scene years ago.  To me, there is no deal so great that I need to go and be pushed and shoved and treated rudely.  I hope for all of you who went shopping that your experience was a good one.

Last Friday was my sister in law, Becky's, birthday.  This year she was hired by one of the police departments in our state to be a crime scene investigator.  She has worked so hard for a long time going to school and volunteering at police departments, it is truly a dream come true for her.  I wanted to share the card I made for her with all of you today.  Now when I started this card, it was just a little idea in my mind but it came together really well.  Let's get started.

 

Meet Inspector Raccoon, crime scene specialist.  I started this card with a base card of So Saffron cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4".  I added a layer of Basic Black measuring 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" to the base using runner adhesive.  Next I used a piece of the retired color Poppy Parade card stock cut at 4" x 5 1/4".  I ran this through my big shot using a brick impression folder.   I attached it with the runner adhesive and went to work on the door.

 

Here is a close up of the brick and door.  The door is made using Soft Suede card stock cut at 2 1/2" x 3 3/4".  I put this through the big shot using the woodgrain impression folder.  I attached it to the brick layer using the runner adhesive.  I punched a 1/2" circle from a scrap of Brushed Silver card stock and attached it as a door knob using liquid glue.  The "tape" was made using scraps of So Saffron.  I tore strips for each piece and used a fine tip black marker to write "crime scene" on each piece.  I attached these to the door using runner adhesive.

 

You have seen the basic raccoon before on a couple of other cards.  I used So Saffron, Whisper White, Basic Black, Basic Gray, Chocolate Chip and Pink Pirouette card stock for his colors.  The head is the ornament punch.  I trimmed the hanger piece off for the gray and trimmed a white one for the muzzle.  The nose and eye ball pieces as well as the jacket buttons are from the owl builder punch.  The ears and tail are made using the blossom builder punch.  The "mask" is from the bird builder punch.  The gray body and the coat are the wide oval punch.  Cut the coat one in half.  The sleeves of the coat are the retired small oval punch.  The hat brim is the large oval as is the white of the body.  The top of the hat is a 1 1/4" circle trimmed with a piece of a chocolate circle as the hat band.  The arms and feet are made using the word window punch.  Details were added using the black and chocolate Stampin' Up! markers.  All pieces are assembled using a 2 way glue pen and the finished raccoon is attached to the card using dimensionals. 

For the magnifying glass, using Basic Black card stock and Vellum Paper.  I punched a 1/2" circle from the vellum.  Next I punched a circle using the itty bitty circle punch from the itty bitty punch pack out of black.  I punched a 1/2" circle around this forming the ring of the glass.  The handle is a scrap piece of black.  The parts were assembled using my 2 way glue pen and attached to the raccoons hand with the same glue. 

This week I hope to spend lots of time putting away our Thanksgiving decorations and setting up all the Christmas stuff.  I am so excited.  I promise to find some time to craft though.  Come back tomorrow to see what I manage to come up with for you to see.  Thanks for dropping by today. 

You Need What???????

Welcome to Tuesday of Thanksgiving week.  Are you ready for turkey day?  In our family, holidays work a little different depending on my husband's work schedule.  Being a firefighter, he sometimes has to work on the holidays and this year is one of those years.  So that means I get to have 2 dinners!!!  On Thanksgiving day, I will make a side dish to take to the station and will celebrate the day with my husband and fire family.  Then on Sunday, I will be preparing a full Thanksgiving meal for our family.  I enjoy spending time with everyone and love to see our fire family.  It's the best of both worlds if you think about it.

So the other day, my husband asked me if I would make a Christmas card for his charity to send out to their sponsors.  Of course I said yes.  After all it is the giving thing to do.  After thanking me, he said very casually as he was leaving the room "I need 150 of them."  I had to sit down.  Now I really want to send these out near Dec. 1st so that meant getting to work on them.  He chose a style that I thought would be very easy.  Let me show you the card.  You have seen it before but I will show it again.

 

Remember this one?  It is really a simple design to do.  My mother in law gave me the stamp I used and I am so appreciative.  Now I am going to make a few changes.  For one, I am not going to use the holly leaf brads.  They are pretty expensive and you only get 9 in a pack.  Instead, I will color the leaves and berries and add some glitter glue.  It will look just as nice as the brads do.  I will also spray the green layer with my champagne shimmer spray.  The balls in the corner will be replaced with s snowflake punch out.  Again, the balls are a little pricey an I am not sure I could get them here in time to use them anyway.  Snowflakes will be cute though don't you think?  The part that takes the longest in making this card is the coloring.  Want to see my stack to still color?

 

Here it is.  Do you like my pink lap table?  Thank goodness I have that so I can be comfy while coloring.  As you can see from the photo, I have a few colored, one in progress and a lot to still do.  With Thanksgiving a few days away, I am feeling a little overwhelmed.  I have food to prepare for Thursday, cleaning to do at my house, and lots of food to make on Sunday.  I am tired just thinking about all of it.

So I have decided to work exclusively on the charity cards for this week.  That means I will not have anything new to share tomorrow.  I don't want to bore you with my ramblings so I am going to opt not to blog anything for tomorrow.  Since it is a holiday weekend, I will not be blogging again until Monday.  I wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving filled with friends, family, great food and wonderful memories.  I also want to wish my daughter's boyfriend Robert a very Happy Birthday on Wednesday the 21st and wish my sister in law Becky a Happy Birthday on Friday the 23rd.  

I will share with you a new card on Monday of next week.  Thanks for stopping by today!!  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and don't each too much!

New Room, New Start

Hi everyone.  Welcome to Monday.  I made it through last week and now have a room I can work in.   I apologize for not having photos for you on Friday.  I had the room set up and sat down to work on a card when it hit me that I was not happy with the set up.  So of course, I had to move a few things once again.  By the time I figured out what I wanted and was happy with the outcome, it was Saturday night.  So I took a few photos and wanted to share them with you today. 

 

This is a display of the cards I have made that I sell to anyone interested.  I rotate them in and out as new ones are made and they serve as inspiration for new cards I will be making.  Always remember any card I post is available for sale.  I do use some of them for my own purposes but will make another if someone would like to buy one.  

 

My card display sits on top of this shelving unit.  I love this.  I have lots of storage cubbies to keep my adhesives and other goodies in and use the 2 open shelves for my containers which hold my rhinestones and sponges and colored pencils.  I can find things easily this way.

 

While I have my cool display for my cards, it does not hold all of them.  This little table holds my card tree with my cards and it holds boxes with dividers for different categories.   I always encourage my friends and family to browse whenever they are over. 

 

One addition I hope to make someday is a file cabinet to hold my card stock.  Until that happens, I used these tubs and crates to hold it.  I have a hanging file folder for each color and everything is labeled.  I can easily see when I am getting low on a color and need to order more. 

 

Here are all my stamps.  I had this unit sitting on the floor but did not like having to bend down to search for stamps (I am getting old okay!).   So I decided to set it up on the table top which makes it easy for me to find what I need.  I mark all the retired sets with a smiley sticker which lets anyone who is over visiting know which stamps they can get and which ones they will just have to use at my house only.  You can see my scoring buddy and paper cutter there too.  

 

This is the bottom half of another unit like the one my stamps are on.  This half holds my punches.  I keep them closer to me that the stamps because I tend to punch more than anything else.  You get a glimpse of my Cricut cartridges at the top of this one.

 

This is the top half of the unit.  I have a few punches that reside up there but mostly it is for my Sizzix stuff.  I have a lot of dies both from Stampin' Up! and from local craft stores where I have bought them.  My big shot sits on the table with this unit.

 

Finally we come to my favorite spot in the room:  the color center.  Now I know my colored pencils are on the other shelving unit but they are easy to get to.  I have all my ink pads and markers and crayons here at my finger tips so I can color whenever I get the urge.  I love to color and yes I do still buy crayons and coloring books for myself!!

Well that's it for today.  During all the moving, I came down with a cold.  I have had the sniffles and a fever for a few days now.  I am resting lots since this week is Thanksgiving.  I will try my best to have a new card to share with you tomorrow.  I hope you will stop by to see what I have.

I hope you enjoyed the mini tour of my room.  I am so glad it is finally finished.  Thanks for stopping by today!!

Where Did She Go?

Hi everyone.  Did you think I had fallen off the face of the earth?  Well let me assure you I did not but I have had my craft room turned upside down and it is slow going to get it back into shape.

You see I have a very understanding husband.  When I started my stamping and wanted a craft room, he gave me the addition that was added onto the house which happens to be the largest room in the house.  I have loved it.  However, a few months ago, I realized that when we have our daughters and their beaus, it gets a little crowded in out living room.  I also knew that if we had anyone else over besides them everyone would not fit.  This troubled me to the point of suggesting that we swap the craft room and the living room. 

At first, my husband was open to the idea but was concerned that there was not a wall large enough for a certain piece of furniture.  So the idea went on the back burner and I did not hear anything about it again until this past Sunday.  He brought it up and we talked once again.  I told him I did not think we would have any problems fitting things but the discussion ended at that. 

Imagine my surprise when I awoke Monday morning and he told me he wanted to move the one piece of furniture into the then craft room to try it out and see if it would fit.  So I spent and hour or so just emptying that corner, stacking everything onto my work table and moving the furniture pieces that were there to the back of the room.  Well turns out I was right.  The piece fit perfectly and looked really nice.  That was all he needed to say let's swap the rooms. 

This was a huge project for me.  Moving the furniture from the living room to the craft room was easy, but going the other way was not.  If you are like me, you have more craft stuff than you know what to do with.  I had to move all the small stuff first to be able to get to the furniture unearthed so we could move it.  We had all the living room furniture in the new living room by 2 when my husband had to leave to go to a meeting.  I was not so lucky.  I still had pieces to move, piles all over the floor and no tables set up.  I worked for 4 more hours on just getting the room to a point you could walk and then had to stop.  I was exhausted.

Tuesday was suppose to be the day I would get it all together and set up my desk and computer as well as get the internet hooked up.  Well I woke up all congested probably from inhaling dust and felt awful.  I spent most of the morning resting and then went to work on my desk.  By the time I had it all set up, it was dinner time and bedtime for me. 

And now we find ourselves at Wednesday.  I spent most of the day going through piles of stuff and all I seemed to accomplish was making new piles.  Has that ever happened to you?  I tried to pile everything in an organized fashion in terms of where it would be placed in the room. 

So now we have come to today, Thursday.  I do have my desk in some sort of shape but need to finish organizing it.  As for the craft room, my tables are still buried and I do not have all my stuff put up yet in order to be able to find it easily.  I plan on working hard to get it organized but will probably not get to actually craft for a few more days. 

So please check back tomorrow to see if I by some miracle finish organizing and get to craft so that I can post a project.  Maybe I will just post photos of my new room once it is set up.  If you do not see anything new from me tomorrow, I will be back on Monday.  Please don't give up on me!!!  I just have too much stuff to organize and it all takes time.  I will see you all as soon as I can.  Thanks for stopping by and for understanding.

Back to Manly Cards

If you are anything like me you know it is extremely difficult to come up with ideas for cards that are more on the masculine side.  I do pretty well and usually make a few at a time but find that I run out of those faster than anything else.  So the other day I needed a card to mail to my father in law for his birthday.  I did have one ready for him but realized that it really depleted my man stash.  Of course that means it is time to start making a few of these again.

I decided to turn to some of the punch art I have come to love for inspiration.  I went with a character straight out of Looney Toons and I really hope you can identify who it is.  I learned to make this guy from the former punch queen Ellen Kemper.  I say former only because she is no longer punching right now and is not sure if she will ever go back to it.  I was truly sad to hear this.  She has been a real inspiration to me.  Anyway let's get on to my card shall we?!

Please tell me you recognize him?  Well if not, I will reveal his identity in a few minutes.  But first we must start as always at the beginning.  The base card for this one is a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" card made from Crumb Cake card stock.  It is scored at 4 1/4". Second, I added a layer of Night of Navy card stock measuring 4 1/8" x 5 3/8".  Next I added a layer of Whisper White which was cut to be 4" x 5 1/4".  I ran it through the big shot using the stripes impression folder and then sponged a little Crumb Cake ink onto the raised stripes so the white was not so bright.  All the layers are attached to the base using runner adhesive.

 

I wanted to put something in the background of the card and a cactus just seemed perfect.   This is so easy to make.  All you need is your large oval punch.  I used Always Artichoke card stock and punched several ovals.  I ran the ovals through the big shot using the perfect polka dots impression folder and then layered them together using liquid glue.  I attached it to the card with the same liquid glue.  For a nice highlighting touch, I added Always Artichoke ink to the dots using my Stampin' Up! marker of that color.  It just helped you to be able to see them better. 

 

For the greeting, I searched and searched through my stamps and could not find one that I wanted to use.  So I decided to create my own.  I used the set of alphabet letter stamps I bought years ago and stamped the individual letters using Night of Navy ink onto Whisper White card stock.  I punched these out using the circle from the itty bitty punch pack.  I then took a scrap of Night of Navy card stock and punched out 1/2" circles.  I layered these together using liquid glue and then attached them to the card using glue dots.  

 

Finally we come to the main character, Yosemite Sam.  Did you guess right?  Of course you did.  As I said I learned to make him from Ellen Kemper.  I will try to make this as easy as possible for you to understand so that you can make him yourself if you choose.  The colors of card stock I used are Crumb Cake, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Basic Black, So Saffron, Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede, Brushed Silver,  Night of Navy and the retired Blushing Bride.

Now I am going to link you to Ellen's blog but I will also list the stamps below.  Click here to visit her blog or you can follow the list of punches to make your own:

 

Hat - 2.5 inch circle trimmed

Head - black 1 inch circle

Eyebrows - narrow Heart to Heart (retired punch)

Eye - plus sign from the itty bitty punch pack - trimmed

Moustache - part of Full Heart

Nose - word window re-trimmed to make shorter

Ears - small Heart to Heart (retire punch) cut in half

Body - Full Heart  - trimmed

Arms - Wide oval offset from a wide oval hole

Hands - 1/2 circle at ends of modern label

Legs - 1 3/8 circle near 1 inch circle hole

belt - large oval near a large oval hole - trimmed

buckle - scrap of card stock

kerchief - standard hole punch (1/4" circle), small Heart to Heart (retired punch) cut in half

boots are the smallest Heart to Heart (retired punch) - trimmed

 

I used Ellen's list but made sure to indicate anything different that I used such as for the arms as well as indicated if a punch is now retired.  To add even more to him, you could make guns for him to hold.  I did not feel that I needed them for my card.

Well that's it for this week.  I want to wish all the veterans out there a very happy Veteran's Day.  Since Monday is a holiday, I will not be posting but I will be back on Tuesday!!  I hope you will stop by to see me then.  Have a terrific weekend everyone!!!

Playtime For Penguins

Welcome to Thursday everyone.  Can you believe we are only 2 weeks away from Thanksgiving?  That just seems crazy to me.  However, I am looking forward to my turkey dinner.

As you have probably already guessed, I survived my doctor appointment and the blood draw.  The tech who drew my blood was really awesome and I have no bruising!!  I am so happy.  Now I will not have to do that again for awhile.

Have you ever wondered hat penguins do for fun?  I can just see them sliding down the snowy hills into either a snow bank, the water or onto the ice.  I think it would be a blast.  With this thought in mind,  I started designing the card I am sharing with you today.  I really wanted to make the penguins slide on this one or at least look like they are sliding but it just did not happen this time.  I was short on time so I went with an easier design.  Are you ready to see it?  Let's get started.

 

Aren't they just so cute?  I started with a base card of Night of Navy cut at 4 1/4" x 11", scored at 5 1/2".   Next I grabbed a piece of Whisper White card stock and cut it to measure 4 1/8" x 5 3/8".  I took out my wonderful pastels and chalked a light blue background for the sky.  Once it was chalked I attached it to the base card using runner adhesive.

To make the snow for the hill and ground, I took another piece of Whisper White that was 5 3/8" wide and tore strips from it.  I layered these and adhered them using a the runner adhesive.  For the ice, I used a scrap of Bashful Blue and adhered it just behind the bottom strip of white snow.  I then used some Mod Podge glue and added light blue glitter to the ice.  I then added a layer of crystal effects on top of that to make it glossy looking and to seal in the glitter.  The white glitter snowballs were added after the greeting and the penguins were added.  I used my trusty glue dots to adhere them.  

 

My greeting comes from the retired stamp set Four the Holidays.  I stamped it directly onto the sky using Night of Navy ink.  I wanted a greeting there but did not really need it to stand out so this was the best way in my opinion to do it.

 

My adorable little non flying friends were all made the exact same way.  I used Basic Black, Whisper White and Tangerine Tango card stock for these guys.  I used the owl builder punch and the retired small star punch.  I punched out the beak with the star punch.  I simply punched one star and cut off 3 of the prongs, one for each penguin.  The body is the owl himself with the ears and feet trimmed off.  I punched another set of feet using the tangerine card stock.  The eyes are the medium and small circles from the owl builder punch and the vest is from it also.  All parts of the penguins are adhered together using liquid glue.

For each of my penguins I made a little hat to keep their heads warm.  I made these using 2 punches - the blossom builder and the small oval.  I used the short wide petal from the blossom punch for the hat for the top while the oval is the bottom.  For this little penguin, I used Cherry Cobbler card stock to make his.  I added some dazzling details glitter glue to match this color and then put a green pom pom ball on top.  The ball is attached with a glue dot while the hat is attached with liquid glue.

 

For my second penguin I chose to use Garden Green for his hat.  Again, I found a glitter glue I had that was a pretty good match to the card stock and added some details.  The pom pom ball for this one is white with gold tinsel.  

 

The last penguins hat is made using Night of Navy card stock.  I used a blue glitter glue for the details this time.  The pom pom ball for him is red.  All of the penguins are attached to the card using dimensionals. 

This was an easy card to make.   The hardest part was waiting for the crystal effects to dry.   It takes some time so I would suggest you do that part first and allow it to dry over night if possible.  

Only one more day until the weekend.  I hope your week is going well.  Please come by tomorrow to see what I will make next.  Thanks for dropping by today!!

Let's Trim the Tree Shall We

Well it's Wednesday and while most of you might be looking forward to it, I am not.  It is my day to go to the doctor for my check up and that means they draw blood.  I am not scared of the needle or anything like that, it's just the last few times I have gone, I ended up with bruising from the blood draw.  I just do not like how it makes me hurt.  Luckily my doctor is an okay guy and seeing him does not bother me but it also does not thrill me ( no offense doc ).  So believe me when I tell you the card I made for today is one that gave me something to look forward to doing - Christmas tree decorating.  Let me share with you my creation (that will make me happy too).

 

This card just sparkles!!!!  I started with a base card of Garden Green cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4".  I then focused on cutting my other layers for this one.  The bottom Whisper White layer measures 3 3/4" x 4 3/4" while the top one is 2 3/4" x 3 3/4".  For the middle layer I cut a piece of the shimmer red glitter card stock to be 3 1/4" x 4 1/4".  Before I layered these together,  I added some glue using my 2 way glue pen to the edge of the bottom white layer.  I added Dazzling Diamond glitter to this.  The glue was about a 1/2" wide strip down each side.  I wanted to be sure it stood out behind the red.  The red is attached to the white using runner adhesive.  For the top white layer, I attached it to the red using runner adhesive and a glue dot in each corner after I edged it with Cherry Cobbler ink and had stamped the tree on it.  The entire layered piece is attached to the base card with runner adhesive also. 

 

Prior to adhering the layered piece to the base card, I wanted to add a little design onto it.  I knew there would be about a 1/2" exposed on each side and felt it needed a little something to enhance it.  I took out one of my retired stamp sets called Christmas Punch and used the snowflake punch from it.  I stamped this image using VersaMark ink and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  

 

Finally we get to the tree.  The stamp is a current one called Star Tree.  I started by stamping the image using VersaMark and Garden Green ink.  I inked the stamp first with the VersaMark and then with the Garden Green so I could heat emboss it.  I described this technique in detail this past Monday so you can refer to that post if you need.  I used a clear embossing powder on this and heat embossed it to enhance the color.  I then added red, green and clear rhinestones to the tree for decorations.  Finally I used the star punch from the Merry Minis punch pack and punched a star out of the shimmer champagne glitter card stock.  I attached it to the top of the tree using a dimensional.  

This is  a simple card but I had fun making it.  I sure hope it inspired you with your card making too.

Well that's all for today.  I am going to do my best to have a card for you tomorrow.  However, I must tell you my doctor runs notoriously late most of the time.  I have sat in the waiting room for an hour and a half past my appointment time waiting to be seen and then had to wait another half hour in the exam room before he came in to see me.  So while I do intend to have a card, there is a slight possibility that I will run out of time today.  After all, once I see him I have to go wait at the on sight lab to have my blood drawn and who knows how many people will be ahead of me!!  

Thanks for dropping by today and I will do my best to see you all tomorrow!!!

Back To Christmas

Hi everyone and welcome to Tuesday.  I have decided that while I will work on some Thanksgiving cards in the next few weeks, I want to also work on some Christmas cards too.  You cannot believe how excited I am that I will soon have all my Christmas decorations out.  I love love love Christmas!!

Today's card has a simple elegance about it.  I tried not to go overboard but did have to add a little dazzle to it.  So let me show you the card and we will go from there!!

 

I made a fireplace card last year that had stockings hanging from it.  I really liked it and wanted to try my hand at another one.  I started with a base card of Riding Hood Red.  I cut it to be 4 1/4" x 11", scored at 5 1/2".  Next I cut a piece of Whisper White card stock to measure 4" x 5 1/4".  I ran this piece through my big shot using the Lacy Brocade impression folder.  I attached this piece to the base card using runner adhesive.  For my fireplace, I took a piece of Riding Hood Red and ran it through the big shot using an impression folder called Bricks.  I also ran a piece of Basic Gray through using the same impression folder.  I free hand cut out the fireplace so I really do not have exact measurements for it.  I wanted the opening of the fire to have a back so I took a piece of Basic Black, cut it slightly bigger than my opening, sprayed it with Champagne Shimmer Spray and attached it using the runner adhesive.  I cut the gray piece to make a little side wall for the fireplace.  I attached the entire fireplace and the wall to the card with the runner adhesive.   I added a few green rhinestones to the background just for fun.

 

To make my fire, I started with a piece of Early Espresso and ran it through the big shot using the Woodgrain impression folder.  I then punched out 3 logs using the word window punch.  I trimmed a little off one end of each log so they would fit in the fireplace.  The flames were made using Daffodil Delight card stock and the blossom builder punch.  I punched out 3 of the long petals and 4 of the small wide ones.  I edged them with Tangerine Tango ink to add a little more color to them.  I started attaching all the pieced to the fire by placing the 3 large flames first, then the 4 small flames and the 3 logs.  All of the pieces were attached to the fireplace using a 2 way glue pen.  

 

I wanted to put something on the mantel of the fireplace and decided a nice holly spray with a candle would look good.  I apologize that the photo is a little blurry.  The leaves of the holly spray are made from Garden Green card stock and punched using the bird builder punch.  Just punch the top of the branch several times and layer them to make the spray.  I used a 2 way glue pen to attach my leaves to the card.  I then took a small piece of silver shimmer glitter card stock and used it for my candle.  I attached a very slim piece of Basic Black for the wick and used my cupcake builder punch to punch out the Daffodil Delight flame.  The wick, flame and candle were adhered together with the glue pen and then attached to the card using the same adhesive.   I added some red rhinestones to the spray to represent holly berries. 

 

For me, the fireplace still looked a little bare and I wanted to have a greeting on the card so I decided to make a garland using circles and have it spell out my greeting.  I started by stamping the letters onto Whisper White card stock using VersaMark ink.  The stamp set I used is an alphabet set I picked up several years ago at a craft store.  Next I heat embossed the letters using silver embossing powder.  Now I will admit, I think I would use a different color of card stock or embossing powder next time.  I feel the garland blends in with the background a little.  Oh well.  Once the letters were embossed, I punched them out using the circle from the itty bitty punch pack.  I attached them to the fireplace using glue dots.  I made sure to have a blank one between the words so you could see them easily.  Of course it could not just be blank so I added a red rhinestone to the blank one. 

I am so ready for the holiday season to be here.  I just love all the traditions we have and look forward to being with my family.  Well that is all I have for you today.  I will be back tomorrow with another card to share with you.  Thanks for dropping by today and I will see you all tomorrow.   

A New Tip For You

Welcome to Monday and a new week everyone.  I thought that I would start this week off by giving you a heat embossing technique.  This tip should come in quite handy if you love to emboss like I do. 

Have you ever been creating a card or scrapbook page and wanted to emboss an item on it?  Did you ever need a specific color of embossing powder only to find you do not have it and cannot get it from anywhere?  Well that has happened to me on more than one occasion.  So when I learned this technique I was thrilled.  Let me show you how you can emboss a stamped image with any color you want.

 

To get us started, you will need an image you want to stamp, a VersaMark ink pad, a colored ink stamp pad, clear embossing powder and your heat gun.  I decided to stamp the gingerbread man from the Scentsational Season stamp set.  As you can see I have the clear mount set so I also had to get my clear block out for it.  I have a Whisper White piece of card stock all ready to stamp on so let's get going!!

 

Step 1:  Ink your stamp completely using the VersaMark ink pad.  Be sure to cover the entire stamp image with this ink.  

 

Step 2:  Once you have applied the VersaMark ink, apply your colored ink to the stamp.  Yes you are adding it on top of the VersaMark but it will be okay I promise.  Be sure to cover the entire image with the colored ink too.  For my gingerbread man I used Chocolate Chip ink.

 

Step 3:  Now that you have both the VersaMark ink and the color ink to the entire image, stamp your image onto your card stock.

 

Step 4:  Now that your image is stamped, cover it completely with your clear embossing powder.  By using clear, we are allowing the natural color of the ink to come through, just in an enhanced way.

 

Here you can see the gingerbread man after he is heat embossed.  The color looks nice and rich which is what I wanted for him.

 

I took this second photo of him so you could see the shine you get from the embossing.

 

Here you can see another image I embossed with clear powder, this time using Garden Green as my colored ink.

 

Again this photo is just to show you the shine of the embossed image.  

Once you try this you will be hooked.  It is so nice to know I can emboss in any color I would like to emboss with.  It allows you a much broader range for making your cards and scrapbook pages look unique.  I do hope you will give this a try and will love it as much as I do.

That's it for today.  I hope this tip is helpful.  I will be back tomorrow with another share for you to see.  Until then, thanks for stopping by to spend a little time with me. 

A Cute Little Turkey

Happy Friday!!!  Well November is off and running.  I hope your first day was great.  I know that I shared a fish card with you yesterday but for today I am going to share a more appropriate themed card for this month.  I made one similar to this last year but have since made a few changes.  I think it is a much better version.  Let me share the card with you and see what you think.

Isn't he cute?!  Once again, the owl punch brings us another cute design.  I started this one with a base card of Soft Suede.  It was cut to be 4 1/4" x 11" and scored at 5 1/2".  I chose to add a layer of Very Vanilla cut at 4" x 5 1/4".  I love how the vanilla looks next to the suede.  I knew I wanted some sort of background on the vanilla but really did not want to use another impression folder.  So I pulled out this little stamp set I bought at a stamp convention a few years ago.  It is autumn themed and had the 2 leaf shapes as part of it.  I stamped the leaves using VersaMark ink and heat embossed them with a copper embossing powder.  I attached the layer to the suede using runner adhesive.  The rhinestones were added to the card once the turkey and greeting had been placed.

For my greeting, I used a stamp from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.  I stamped it onto vanilla card stock using the VersaMark ink and again heat embossed it using the copper embossing powder.  I punched it out using the word window punch and layered it onto a suede modern label with runner adhesive.  I added a rhinestone to each end and attached it to the card using dimensionals.

Finally we reach the turkey!!!  I used only 2 punches to make him - the owl builder and the blossom builder. For the owl, I punched the body out of Early Espresso card stock.  The eyes were made using Whisper White and Basic Black card stock.  I added white gel pen to the eyes.  The beak is Pumpkin Pie and is made using the heart from the owl punch and the gobbler (I hope that's what it is called) is a Cherry Cobbler heart from the owl punch cut in half.  

For the feathers, I used the large, thin petal from the blossom builder punch.  I chose to use Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Cobbler and Cajun Craze card stock for the colors of the feathers.  I punched all of the pieces out and then brushed the edges of each feather using a sponge and the matching ink.  Then I used the matching Stampin' Up! marker to draw on the lines on the feathers to make them look more realistic.  Finally, I used my scissors and snipped each feather on the lines down each side.  This way I could flair the feathers again making them a little more realistic.  All pieces of the owl and feathers were attached using a liquid glue.  Once the owl turkey was made, I attached him to the card using dimensionals.  

Well once again we are at the end of the week.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  I will return on Monday with another share for you.  Thanks for dropping by today and I will see you all on Monday!!!!!

One Fish Two Fish

Welcome to November everyone!  I cannot believe it is here.  I am a big fan of the Thanksgiving season and love the family get togethers and meals that we always share.  It is also a time of reflection for all we have to be thankful for in our lives.

Now you would think I would share a Thanksgiving card with all of you on this Nov. 1st.  However, I am not going to do that today.  I have a really cute card with some fish on it that I want to share instead.  So let's get started.

I started with a base card of Night of Navy card stock cut at 4 1/4" x 11", scored at 5 1/2".  I then took a piece of Whisper White cut at 4" x 5 1/4" and chalked a background on it using my pastels.  I just wanted a light blue effect for the sky. It was then added to the white using runner adhesive.  Next I took a piece of Marina Mist cut at the same dimensions as the white and tore it into strips.  I layered these onto the sky to form the water using runner adhesive.  Once attached, I took out a light blue glitter glue that was similar in color to the marina card stock.  I added it to the top of the waves and then spread it out using a paint brush. You will need to let this dry completely ( I did it over night) before going to the next step.

The greeting for this card is from the stamp set called Curly Cute.  I stamped it directly onto the card stock in the sky area using Night of Navy ink.  Don't ask me why I like this set so much but I do!!!

Finally it was time to add some creatures to the water.  I was going to make a dolphin for this card using punches but was having the hardest time getting his head to look right.  So instead of frustrating myself, I went with fish instead.  I started to get out punches when my Cricut cartridge called Life's A Beach caught my eye.  I pulled it out and looked through the sea life it has on it.  When I found these cute little fish, I knew I wanted to add them to the card.

I pulled out Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango and Gumball Green card stock.  I used the Life's A Beach cartridge and my Cricut machine to cut out the fish in each of the colors.  I also cut out the layers that could go onto the fish in each color.  I attached the layers to the fish and then attached them to the card using runner adhesive.  I tucked them underneath the waves just a touch so they kind of look like they are jumping.  Once they were securely on, I added a blue glitter glue to the eyes and some orange, yellow and green glitter glues to the fish.  After all they need to sparkle just like the water.  

For my inside greeting I used a stamp set I got during Sale-A-Bration 2012.  It is called Outlined Occasions.  I stamped the main word "celebrate" and the smaller phrase onto Whisper White card stock using StazOn ink.  I then chose colored pencils that matched the colors of my fish and colored in the letters.  Once completed, I cut it out free hand and attached it inside the card with runner adhesive.

Well, I am finished for today.  I hope you enjoyed my little fish.  I will return tomorrow with another card to share with you.  I do hope you will stop by to see it.  Thanks for spending a little time with me today!!