One Last Holiday Wish

Hi Everyone.  Happy Friday!!  If you are reading this then the world has not ended as some believed it would and we are one day closer to Christmas.  While I got some of my baking finished yesterday and picked up a few last minute gifts, I did not even try to craft.  I was having too much fun baking to even think about it.  So I thought I would share with you one of my favorite holiday cards that I made last year.

 

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care........"  While we do not have a fire place in our home (after all we are in Phoenix, Arizona where it is not that cold),  our stocking are hung and ready for a visit from St. Nick.

From my home to yours I send you warm wishes for a wonderful Christma and a joyous New Year.  I hope you get to spend lots of time with family and friends and remember to say Happy Birthday to Jesus.  Since Monday is Christmas Eve and Tuesday is Christmas, I will not be posting. If your family is like mine, you also will have a few other events going on through the new year.  So to make my life and yours a little easier, I will not be posting again until the New Year.  I will see you all on January 2nd!!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!!!!!

The Owl Punch Strikes Again

Happy Thursday to you all.  We are in the final days of preparation before Santa makes his visit and we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  I hope all of you are ready for the holiday.  I know there will be things I do not get to but that's okay.  I am trying really hard not to stress too much.  I am a true worrier and drive myself and everyone around me insane so I want to give my loved ones the gift of peace this year and just relax.  Say lots of prayers for me.  This will not be an easy task.

As we are finishing the week before Christmas, I thought I would share another holiday type card with you today.  My inspiration for this one came to me in the shower.  I was thinking about how I had not used my owl punch very much lately and wanted to use it.  So I started reflecting on every punch art piece I had made with it.  All of a sudden it just came to me what I wanted to do.  So let me show you my latest owl punch art!!

 

Ta Da!!!!!  Isn't he the cutest!!  Okay.  Let's start with the base card.  This one is a Real Red piece of card stock 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" using runner adhesive.  For my top layer, I started by taking a piece of Whisper White cut at 4" x 5 1/4" and stamping my "HO" and candy on it using Real Red and Garden Green ink.  These stamps are ones I got in a set a few years ago.  It is not a Stampin' Up! set so I do not know the name of it.  Once I had the images stamped randomly and was happy with the look, I ran this piece through my big shot using my snow flurry impression folder.  I then attached it to the black using the runner adhesive.  I added the green and red rhinestones after the greeting and Santa were attached.

 

My greeting for this one comes from the retired stamp set Four the Holidays.  I stamped the saying using Garden Green ink onto Whisper White card stock.  I brushed the edges of the white with a sponge and green ink and layered it onto a piece of Garden Green card stock using runner adhesive.  I used my corner rounder punch to round the green corners and attached it to the card using dimensionals.  

 

I took this photo close up of Santa with my flash on my camera.  I thought it looked okay enough to show but really wanted you to be able to see the details.  So I took a second photo without the flash.

 

Much better.  YOu can now see the details better as well as the colors.  I used Real Red, Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black and the retired Blushing Bride card stocks to make Santa.  Let's go through the punches now:

Owl Builder Punch - the vest of the punch is used to make the pants, jacket, sleeves (this one is cut in half; one half for each arm), face and one part of the hat (the part that sits on the head; trim down to round the top.  I used the medium circle of the owl punch for the nose.

Blossom Builder Punch - I used the short wider petal for the back piece of the hat.  

Small Heart - this makes up his boots.  

Retired Heart to Heart Punch - I used the smallest heart on this punch to make his gloves.  I trimmed one side of the heart to be the thumb.

1 1/4" Scallop Circle Punch - this makes up Santa's hair, beard, and fur trim on the bottom of the coat and the brim of the hat.  For the trim and beard, I started by punching a 1" circle and then punching the scallop circle off set from it.  

1/4" circle and 1/8" circle - these are what make up Santa's eyes

1/2" and 3/4" circles - these make up the mustache.  

I started by punching a 1/2" circle out of white and then punched the 3/4" circle ring around the hole.  I cut this in half and trimmed each half a little shorter.

Itty Bitty Punch Pack - I used the circle and scallop from this pack for the cuffs of the jacket and pants.  Start by punching out the circle.  Then off set the scallop and punch again for the ruffled cuff.

The white strip down the front of his jacket is a scrap of white that I had.  I added a little white gel pen to the black of the eyes and some Dazzling Diamond glitter to the fur trim of the outfit.  A pom pom ball finishes off the outfit on the tip of the hat.  

I plan to be back tomorrow with one more share for this week.  I do hope you will stop by to see me.  Thanks you for taking some time out of your day to visit with me.  See you tomorrow!!!!

Ready for Santa

Hi everybody!!  It is the middle of the week and we are one day closer to Christmas.  Yesterday I shared with you some punch art elves that were inspired by Disney's Prep and Landing.  Today I have the finished card to show you so let's get started.

 

In order to accommodate both elves, I had to use a larger card.  I started this one with a base card of Cherry Cobbler cut at 7" x 10", scored at 5".  The only layer added to this card was a 4 7/8" x 6 7/8" piece of Whisper White.  I chalked on a background for the sky and attached it to the card using runner adhesive.

 

Here you can see the upper half of the card.  In the sky background, I wanted to add some snowflakes.  I punched these out of Whisper White and added Dazzling Diamond glitter to them.  They are attached to the card with liquid glue.  You can also see the poles of Santa's landing strip on the roof here.  I punched out 2 word windows from white and attached them using runner adhesive.  The stripes were added using the Cherry Cobbler marker and the balls on top are 1/2" circles.  I added Crystal Effects to the balls.

 

This is the bottom half of the card.  I used Early Espresso for my roof color.  I started with a piece cut at 3 1/4" x 4 7/8".  This would serve as my base to build the shingles on.  I then cut strips of espresso from another piece of card stock to be 3/4" wide.   I cut these into pieces 1 1/4" long to use as my shingles. I layered these and attached them down using runner adhesive.  Once all the shingles were on, I attached the finished piece using runner adhesive onto the white.  I wanted some lights on the roof so I punched circles out of Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green using the owl builder punch.  I attached them to my roof line using liquid glue and added Crystal Effects to them.

 

Now to the stars of the card.  For both of these I used the following colors of card stock:  Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, retired Blushing Bride and Basic Black.  Let's start with our shorter elf.  Here is a list of the punches I used:

Hat - blossom builder punch, large petal

Head - 1 3/8" circle

Ears - wing from bird builder

Eyes/Nose - owl builder

Body - wide oval

Arms/Legs - word window

Hands - boho blossom

Shoes - small oval punched just offset from a 3/4" circle hole

 

For elf number 2, the hat, ears, eyes, nose arms, legs and shoes are the same punches as above.   Here are the different one:

Head/Body - large oval

To make the goggles I used a scrap of artichoke for the strap and the small circle from the itty bitty punch pack for the eyes.  To make a ring around the glasses part, I punched a 1/4" circle and then punched the itty bitty circle around it.  The glass part is done with a piece of Brushed Silver.  I used 1/8" circles for the buttons and the smallest circle from the owl builder for the center of the belt buckle.  The edging at the top and bottom of the body was made by punching a large oval from the olive and then offsetting the scallop oval and punching again.  To do the ruffles at the arm/hand and leg/shoe connections, I used the itty bitty punch pack.  I punched the circle first and then offset the scallop circle from the pack and punched again.  Trim off any excess.

I used my Blushing Bride marker to draw on the mouth and outline the ears.  The eyebrows were added using the Soft Suede marker and white gel was added to the eyes.  For the tall elf, I also added a small piece of Soft Suede card stock for his hair.  Red pom pom balls finished them off on the tops of their hats.  All pieces were assembled using a liquid glue.  The finished elves were attached using dimensionals.

Well that's it for today.  I will be back tomorrow with another share for you.  I do hope you will stop by again.  Thanks for dropping by today!

More Elves

Can you believe we are one week away from Christmas?  Where did the time go?  I spent last weekend doing my grocery shopping in order to bake, picking up a few last minute gifts and wrapping presents.  It seemed as if the weekend flew by.  I also enjoyed the rain we had.  It was so nice to have a rainy day on Saturday.  We have not had one in a long time.  However there was a dark cloud that loomed over everything I did as my heart ached for the families of all the victims in Connecticut.

Yesterday, Monday December 17th I chose not to blog in order to participate in a National Day of Remembrance by bloggers.  This was a day to honor the lives that were lost in the terrible tragedy last Friday in Connecticut.  I have to admit I was completely stunned and shaken by this.  I taught elementary school for 9 years and loved every moment of it.  It broke my heart to hear the number of young lives that were lost at the hands of a very sick individual.  I know I prayed and made sure to tell my kids how much they are loved.  I think everyone across the nation has been affected by this tragedy.  My thoughts and prayers will continue to be with the families of all the victims throughout the holidays and beyond. 

From now until the holiday is over, I have a funny feeling it is going to be a busy time.  This is also a special week as my husband an his charity will be having Santa deliver gifts to children in the hospital.  I had to wash the "sleigh" to transport Santa around town yesterday.  Let's just say I am not a person who likes washing a "sleigh".  I usually leave that to my hubby or go to the "sleigh" wash.  Well between that and doing laundry and helping make a salad for a potluck, I was limited in my crafting time.  I did get a start on a card.  I thought I would share the punch art pieces I made with you today and will show you the finished card tomorrow.  Ready to see what I made?  Here we go!!

 

As you can see I made a couple of cute elves.  But these are special elves that were inspired by a Christmas special put out by Disney.  Do you have any idea who these elves were patterned after?  Well let me help you.  The special was called Prep and Landing and these two represent the 2 main characters: Wayne and Lanny.  Now they do not look exactly like the characters but they were inspired by them not made to be exactly like them.  I have a few final touches to add to them and then they will be ready to go on a card.  

To see the finished card they will be on, you will have to come back tomorrow.  I will go through how to make them as well as the instructions for the card at that time.  

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you are ready for the holidays since they seem to be coming quickly.  Take time to enjoy the things you are doing and spend time with the ones you love.  Time goes by so fast and all we have is right now so make the most of every moment. 

Please stop back by tomorrow.  I will see you all then!!!!

One of Santa's Helpers

Happy Friday everyone.  Now I bet you are wondering what happened to me yesterday.  Well I have been holidaying it up!!  Wednesday I spent the day with my husband putting up all the outside lights on our house.  We had not had time to do this before now and it was definitely time to get it done.  This took up most of the day and I only had time to make the little character that is on today's card.  I did not want to just blog about him so I chose to wait.  Luckily I had Thursday morning to work on the card because the rest of the day was devoted to Christmas shopping.  I am pleased to say we are finally finished!!!  Now if I can just get the wrapping and baking done I will be good. 

On to today's card.  This one is a very simple card.  I think I will just show it to you and get started. 

 

I started my card with a base card of Garden Green.  It is cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4".  I added a layer of Whisper White measuring 4 1/8" x 5 3/8".  I attached it using runner adhesive.  For the final layer of my card, I chose to go with Real Red.  I cut a piece to be 4" x 5 1/4".  I ran this through my big shot using the Petals-a-Plenty impression folder.  I then took my white gel pen and colored the center of the flowers.  Once that was finished, I attached it using the runner adhesive.

 

To start my elf, I selected the colors Garden Green, Whisper White, Basic Black and the retired color Blushing Bride for my card stock.  I started with the face by using the ornament punch.  The ears are the bird wings from the bird builder punch.  The nose and the black of the eyes are the medium circle from the owl builder punch.  The white of the eyes also comes from the owl builder.  It is the largest circle.  The green of the hat is the largest petal from the blossom builder punch.  The brim of the hat is a large oval and the elf's collar is a scallop oval.  I added dazzling diamond glitter to both the brim and the collar.  I added a smile with a fine tip black marker as well as white gel pen to the eyes.  For the final touch, I added a red pom pom ball to the tip of the hat. 

 

For the body I used the wide oval punch.  The arms are made using the word window punch as well as the legs.  The cuffs for the sleeves and shoes are from the boho blossom punch.   So are the hands.  I added dazzling diamond glitter to the cuffs.  I added the smallest circle from the owl builder punch for buttons.  I used the small oval punch for the shoes.  I trimmed them to be the shape they are.  To make the buttons and shoes shiny, I added crystal effects to these.  For the final touch, I added some jingle bells to the toes of the shoes.

Well, I have baking plans with my daughter for today and grocery shopping too.  As I said I am hoping to wrap some presents this weekend too.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will see you all back here on Monday!!  Thanks for stopping by today.

Help! I Can't Find My Tables

Hi everyone and welcome to Wednesday!!  Yesterday I shared picture of 2 boxes that a friend of mine had sent over for me.  She was downsizing her craft area to make room for her mother - in - law to move into their home.  I showed you what was in one of the boxes and said I would open the other one as soon as I could.  Well I did.  Now if you remember correctly, one box was on the floor making it difficult to get to my work table and the other was on the work table itself taking up all the space.  Well let me show you what happened once I opened the other box and took everything out of both.

As you can see I found paper and lots of it in the second box.  Most if not all of it is from Stampin' Up!.  It is just some of the older, retired colors as well as a few that are still current.  You can tell it was ordered years ago by the packaging.  

Here is more paper from the box.  Some of it is designer paper which is really nice.  Now when I unloaded this box of paper (and there were some envelopes in it too , I had to stack it onto another one of my tables in the craft room making it impossible to use my big shot.  So I started to work at emptying the box of stamps.

Look at all the stamp pads!!!!  The 2 stacks at the back are from Stampin' Up!.  This was their design prior to the ones that flip the pad to be stored upside down.  I was amazed at how many pads I pulled out of the box.  I was trying so hare to stack them on just one area hoping to keep the spot where the box was open to work on a project.

As this photo shows, I was not successful.  Look at how many stacks of the retired Stampin' Up! stamp sets there were.  I feel so blessed that she chose to pass all this along to me.  The loose stamps in the front have been separated from their sets so I will try to get them back to where they belong.  There was also a retired corner punch which I did not have so I was thrilled to find it.  A regular stamping wheel handle and two retired wheels were there as well as a couple of smaller ones from other companies.  What you cannot see are the individual stamps that were from other companies which are piled on the other side of the sets.  Needless to say, I was unsuccessful at keeping any part of my table open to work on.  So apparently my project for today was unloading the boxes.  Now I just have to find a place to store all of this and I can get back to work on my cards.  My goal is to have one for tomorrow.  Hope I make it.

Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to give your friends a hug.  You never know when they will bless you with such a nice gift like mine did.  See you all tomorrow.

Where's Your Card?????

Happy Tuesday to you all!!  I know you come by each day wondering what I have in store to share with you.  Most days, I have a fairly cute card to show and hopefully inspire you with but not today.  I spent my day yesterday with a very handsome gentleman.  Want to know who it is??????  Well his name is Jackson and he is 3 months old.  He is also my nephew!!  I had the wonderful opportunity to keep him yesterday while his mommy and daddy were both at work.  I had a blast.  He is just too cute for words!  This meant that I did not take time to craft because, well to be honest, I was just having way too much fun.  There is also one other reason I think I will show you it.

This box is taking up a bit of floor space in my craft room right at my work table.  This makes it difficult to sit and work at it.

This is the other reason it is hard to work at my work table.  This box is sitting on top of it.  Now you might wonder what are in these boxes and I have to admit I have only opened the one on the table to find out.

And here is what I found - stamps, stamps, stamps!!!  Even stamps from Stampin' Up!.  A very good friend of mine is going through what I went through a few years ago with my mom.  Only for her it is her mother in law.  The time has come for the mother in law to move in with my friend and her husband so unfortunately changes had to be made.  One of the changes was downsizing her craft room.  When she told me she was going to pack up some stamps and other crafting stuff, she was gracious enough to ask if I would like to have it.  Of course I said yes.  It is always exciting to work with new items but I also wanted her to be able to access her things if she ever needed them again.  I was very touched when she asked and hope that she will come over and use the items as often as she would like to.  This is only the box on the table.  I am going to inventory it and then open the one that is on the floor.  I will be sure to let you know what I find once I get into it.  

Well that's it for today!  I am going to do my best to have a card ready for tomorrow.  Please come back to see if I am successful.  Thanks for stopping by today!!!

Is Your Tree Decorated?

Hi everyone and welcome to a brand new week!!  This is a really busy time of the year.  It seems there is so much to do and so little time.  It is always busy busy busy.  It is easy to get overwhelmed so be sure to prioritize your seasonal projects and enjoy the holiday.

As you all know, I have had my tree up and decorated since right after Thanksgiving.  I love to put it up because it brings back so many good memories for me.  I spend time reminiscing  about when my girls were little and even about when I was little.  The ornaments will bring thought of loved ones no longer here to the forefront.  I miss my mom and brother every day and think about them all the time.  Yet at this time of the year, it seems to be a loss that feels greater than I think I can bear.  I have wonderful memories from Christmas past that I spend time thinking about and even though it makes the missing them harder, it always brings a smile to my face.

Today's card is a tree that I made to share with you.  I have seen cards similar to this one from other demonstrators and wanted to give it a try.  For some reason, my tree seems wider that it should be but oh well, it has character.  So let me show you the photos and let's get started.

 

This card started with a piece of Cherry Cobbler card stock measuring 5 1/2" x 8 1/2".  It is scored at6 4 1/4".  I added a 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" layer of Garden Green with my runner adhesive.  I then took a piece of Whisper White and cut it to be 4" x 5 1/4".  I ran this through my big shot using the Petals A Plenty impression folder.  I sponged the edges with Cherry Cobbler ink and attached it to the green with the runner adhesive.

 

Let me now share with you how to make this little tree.  All you need is the small star punch and the small heart punch.  I punched the star out of Champagne Glimmer card stock so it would shine.  Next I punched out a stack of hearts from Garden Green card stock.  Attach the star to the top center of the card.  Next place a heart under it.  Now you will continue to make rows of hearts, increasing each row by one until your tree is finished (or you run out of room like me!)  I attached the star and the hearts using dimensionals.  I then added small rhinestones to some of the flower centers on the card.  I took larger red and regular rhinestones and added them to the hearts, alternating the color row by row.  

 

The trunk of my tree is a piece of Soft Suede card stock which is embossed using the woodgrain impression folder and my big shot.  I attached it to the card with a liquid glue.  Then I wanted to add a simple greeting.  I turned to my Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.  I stamped the greeting onto Whisper White card stock using Cherry Cobbler ink.  It was then punched out with the word window punch.  I layered this onto a Cherry Cobbler modern label.  I attached the greeting to the card using dimensionals.  

Well we're off to another great start for the week.  I hope your Monday is a good one.  Please come back tomorrow to visit and to see what I have to share with you.  Thanks for dropping by today!!

Don't Be A Grinch

It's Fabulous Friday!!!  I hope all of you have had a great week and are looking forward to a good weekend.  I hope to finish decorating the outside of our house this weekend.  Then I have to do my monthly tax reports to send off (not fun but not too hard).

I wanted to end the week with a fun card.  I may as well tell you I will be posting more Christmas cards from now til Christmas.  After all it is my favorite holiday.  Today's card is no exception.  It features a character that is well known at this time of year - The Grinch.  I have made cards before with just his face on it but this time I went for the whole body.  Ready to see it?  Let's get started.

 

Okay so the head is a little big for the body but I think it looks cute.  I started with a base card of Real Red card stock cut at 7" x 10", scored at 5".  I needed to do a larger card to accommodate the size of the Grinch.  Anyway, next I added a layer of Basic Black measuring 4 7/8" x 6 7/8".  I attached it to the card using runner adhesive.  Next I cut a piece of Whisper White to be 4 3/4" x 6 3/4".  Now I wanted to emboss it with the snowflakes but the folder was not big enough to do the entire piece.  This is what led me to design the front of the card to be what you see here.  I put the piece of white into the snowflake impression folder sideways so that just a little over half would be embossed.  I then attached it to the card using the runner adhesive.  I cut a piece of Basic Gray to measure 3 3/4" x 5".  I ran this piece through the big shot using the brick impression folder.  I brushed the front of the impressed piece with gray ink to add definition.  I attached it to the white using runner adhesive.  I used a 2 way glue pen to add glue to the exposed snowflakes in order to add Dazzling Diamond glitter to them.  I added green rhinestones to the upper part and white glitter balls to the bottom.

 

 Here is the body of the Grinch.  The card stock used was Real Red, Whisper White, Basic Black, Lucky Limeade and Champagne Glimmer.  I used the following punches to make it:

Body - wide oval punch

Arms/Legs - word window punch (you can't see the legs but will attach the pants and boots to them)

Hands - scallop flower from the itty bitty punch pack

Pants - retired small oval punch

Boots - retired heart to heart punch

Fur Trim - scallop oval punch

The belt and buckle were cut free hand.  I attached all these pieces together using a liquid glue.

 

Since I have made the face before, I will not bore you with the details.  Instead, if you click here it will take you to the original post telling how to make him.

That is all for this week.  I wish you all a wonderful weekend.  Find some time to do something you really enjoy.  I will be back on Monday so please come visit me then.  Thanks for stopping by today!!

Dapper Dog Returns

Happy Thursday everyone!!  Did you know today is Santa Claus' birthday?  Well it is so Happy Birthday Santa!!!!  I do hope the elves give Santa some time out of the toy factory today. 

Today's card features an old friend of ours, Dapper Dog.  Remember him?  I have made him with a top hat and cane, as a grilling chef, and as a pirate.  He is an easy punch art animal to make and it is fun to dress him up.  So I bet you know who I made him as for Christmas!!  Here is the card for you to see.

 

Doesn't he make a nice Santa?  I started this card with a base of Cherry Cobbler cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4".  Next I added a layer of Whisper White card stock measuring 4 1/8" x 5 3/8".  It is attached with runner adhesive.  For the top layer, I chose to use a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Always Artichoke.  I ran this piece through my big shot using the holly impression folder and then sprayed it with my champagne shimmer spray.  Once it was dry, I attached it to the card using runner adhesive.  

 

 

I will run quickly through the dog since I have made him before and do not want to bore you.  I started by selecting my card stock colors to use.  They are:  Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Basic Black and Champaign Glimmer.  The punches I used to make him are as follows:

Hat - blossom builder punch

Ears - large oval punch

Head - 1 3/4" circle punch

Muzzle - full heart punch

Arms/Nose - retired heart to heart punch

Body - wide oval punch

Feet - 3/4" circle punch (flatten on bottom)

Fur Trim - scallop oval; I punched this along the edge of card stock and cut it to fit

Eyes - 1/2" circle and the circle from the itty bitty punch pack

Eyebrows - retired horizontal slot punch

The belt and strip down the center of his coat are scraps of card stock and the buckle was cut free hand.  I used the Early Espresso to add features to his muzzle and feet, and white gel pen for the eyes and hat.  Dazzling Diamond glitter was added to all fur.  All pieces are attached together using liquid glue.  I attached the head and body to the card using glue dots and added the muzzle with dimensionals.

 

I wanted to give him a sack so I made one on my own.  I used Cherry Cobbler card stock for this.  The body of the bag is a 1 3/4" circle trimmed to the shape I wanted.  The top of the bag is from the stocking builder punch and is attached to the bag using liquid glue.  I added a piece of elastic silver cord to the bag because Santa's bag has to stay closed while he travels.  I wrote by hand the greeting using a gold marker and added some pretty red rhinestones to the background to complete my look.

Once one more day of the week and we will reach another weekend.  I am so happy you chose to spend some time with me today.  Please come back tomorrow to see what I have.  Thanks for dropping by today!!  

A More Religious Christmas Card

Welcome to Wednesday!!!!!  I thought I would share another Christmas card with you today.  I received a request for a religious card from a friend.  She wanted me to design and make a total of 15 for her.  I was more than happy to do that.  So let me show you the card and we will get started.

 

I started with a base card of Always Artichoke card stock cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4".  I then cut a piece of Crumb Cake card stock at 4 1/4" x 5 1/4".  I ran this piece through my big shot using the top note die.  I set the top note aside and kept the frame to attach to my card.  I stamped a star on it from the retired stamp set Holy Family using VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  Once embossed, I attached it to the base card using runner adhesive.

 

Here is a close up of the embossed Crumb Cake card stock.  It adds a little design to the edges of the card but is not so overpowering that it detracts from the main image.  Let's move on to the main piece now.

 

 To begin the main piece of my card front, I took a piece of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" Very Vanilla card stock and ran it through my big shot using the top note die.  This time I kept the top note and set the frame aside for future use.  I trimmed the top note along the perforated line to make it a little smaller so it would fit into the top note hole cut from the Crumb Cake.  For the center piece of my card front, I used the image from the retired set Holy Family and stamped it onto the vanilla top note using VersaMark ink.  I also stamped the star onto this top note using the VersaMark ink.  I then heat embossed the image using gold embossing powder.  This gold is called Gold Ice because it shines with glitter when embossed.  Love it!!!  I then took a gold brad and placed it into the center of the star and brushed the edges with Always Artichoke ink.  The image was attached to the card in the top note opening using dimensionals.

I was really happy with how this turned out.  You never know when you emboss an image how it will look until you do it.  I took a chance on this one and it paid off.  Now I just need to get the others finished!

Thanks for stopping by today and please come back tomorrow to see what I can make to share.  See you then!!

Edible Houses!!!!!

Hi everybody and happy Tuesday.  I do so hope your December is off to a better start than mine.  On Sunday evening, I had my girls over to make gingerbread houses.  I asked their beaus to come to as well as my oldest daughter's best friend who is like a daughter to me.  I was so looking forward to the night but alas it was not to be all rosy.

The first thing that went wrong was we had a very good friend whose wife and 6 month old baby were in a car accident.  Mom is doing fine but baby has a head injury and is in ICU.  We are praying for the best and trying to help them as much as possible.  Next, my youngest daughter called to say her boyfriend could not come.  It was his mom's birthday and he was to celebrate with her.  Well that didn't happen.  Unfortunately, she was not feeling well and ended up in the hospital.  Last I heard they are still not sure exactly what is wrong.  My daughter did make it home in time to do houses with us but of course her mind was elsewhere.   Last, my husband just did not seem right.  He finally said he did not feel well and went to lay down.  Well that turned into either a bought with food poisoning or a stomach virus.  He was sick most of the night.  Needless to say I got no sleep which made my cold get worse instead of getting better. 

With all of this going on, you would think our houses were total disasters.  However, I am happy to report they turned out well.  Since I have been busy being a mom, nurse, and trying to sleep, I thought I would share photos of the houses with you today.  Any card I worked on Monday during the day just did not look good so this will be much better.

 

This is my oldest daughter Heather and her boyfriend Matt's creation.  They added a cut little foam fence to their house and had these really cute blue snowflakes to go on it too.

 

This is the roof of her house.  I wanted to show it to you because they chose an interesting way to do theirs.  They used pretzels for it and added the snow (frosting and coconut) and snowflakes to it too.  

 

 

This house is the model made by my youngest, Kaitlyn.  Her boyfriend Robert was at the hospital with his mom so she worked on her house solo.  I love the fact she colored her door green.  I did not even think of doing this.  

 

 

I also wanted to share her roof with you.  She used a generic cereal kind of like Crispix to tile her roof.  The dots added in between bring out the design.  Finally, she edged the roof with mini marshmallows.   Funny thing was I started with the bag of these next to me and gave them to her to use.  Once they were out of my sight, they were out of my mind.  I did not use them at all.

 

 

The builders of this home are my sister Mary and Heather's best friend, Marissa.  I really like the pretzel fence they created.  Oh and I am sure you have noticed all the trees to the side of the houses.  These were also make by each team.  I love what they did with their star.  

 

 

Last but not least is the house I made with my husband Dave.  He worked on the tree and finished it before going to lay down.  I worked on the house pretty much on my own.  That's why mine is a little plain.

I did not share photos of my roof of team Mary/Marissa roof.  Compared to Kaitlyn's and team Heather/Matt, ours were fairly simple.

I have never tried to be the champion builder because there is just too much creativity flowing when we make these houses.  But I can tell you the competition is great between the teams.  

Hopefully, my husband will be feeling better by the time you read this and I will have gotten a little sleep.  I am planning on having a card to share with you tomorrow so please come by to see it.  Thanks for dropping by today and whatever you do, stay healthy!!!

Snowflakes

Hi everybody and happy Monday to you.  Also welcome to December.  Can you believe Christmas is almost here?  I can't.  And yet I am so excited to have my beautiful Christmas tree up with its twinkling lights and all the ornaments.  I just love the decorations and celebrating Jesus' birthday!!

I thought I would share the card I made for my husband's charity to send out this Christmas.  Remember I had to change it from my original design because the coloring was taking way too long.  So without further ado, let's get started.

 

I started with a base card of Real Red card stock cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4".  I added only one layer to this one.  I started with a piece of Garden Green card stock cut at 4" x 5 1/4".   I stamped the greeting " Season's Greetings" which is from the retired stamp set called Four the Holidays using VersaMark ink at the bottom of the piece.  I then used silver embossing powder and heat embossed it.  Once it had cooled, I ran it through my big shot using a snowflake impression folder.  I know it is hard to see the greeting in this photo but I promise it is there.  The piece was attached using runner adhesive.

 

The centerpiece of my card is this beautiful snowflake.  It is a Bigz die for the big shot called Snow Flurry.  It is available in the holiday mini catalog.  I cut snowflakes out of Whisper White and Real Red to make these.  They are simply layered one on top of the other to make this guy.  I added a circle punched with the itty bitty punch pack circle to the top of the small white snowflake and put a pearl in the center.  If I had more time to work on these I would have added either glitter or more pearls to the snowflake just to jazz it up some more.  But this will have to do for now.  

Well that's all for today.  I am getting ready to make gingerbread houses and must get set up.  I will try to have pictures of them for you tomorrow.  Thanks for dropping by today and please come back tomorrow.