12 Cards of Christmas 2014 Card 6

Merry Christmas eve eve everyone. Do you have your stocking hung? Are your gifts wrapped and under the tree? Have you been good this year? OK I know it's a little late to ask some of these questions but who hasn't waited until the last minute to do something for the holidays? I sure there are people out there still shopping, well unless you are reading this :) 

So I am sad to say that this will be my last card for 2014. I did not make all 12 like I was hoping but with the month going by so fast I am so happy I was able to get half of them done. I now know that i have to start earlier but I have such a hard time thinking about Christmas before Thanksgiving has even started. It's right up there with school just getting out and see all the back to school stuff out just a little depressing. 

Anyways it has been a good year even with all the ups and downs. I am heading into the new year with goals that I might even make because the are a bit more reachable then they have been in the pass. So what are you goals for the up coming year? One of mine is to get more birthday card sent out to family and friends. 

I am going to go ahead a jump into this card. I still have to wrap my husbands gifts before he gets home. I used my Cricut to make this shape card. I used the snow globe image from Joys of the Season cartridge. The card measures about 4x6. I used just some plain cardstock from my stash. As I was cutting everything out I thought how can I take this up a notch? Well by turning it into a shaker card too. 

I wanted to try my hand at some texture paste that I have seen Jennifer McGuire use and thought that would be fun to play with. I had the idea to stamp snowflakes on my acetate but I did not have any stazon ink. So why not try the texture paste. Once I cut the acetate to size I used Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil then just applied the paste. I love the way it looks. I took my Spellbinder Circle Small die to cut out the opening. Then took the stamps I was going to stamp on the acetate to the inside for the look of falling snow there too using Memento Summer Sky ink. I them used the polar bear for Lawn Fawns Critter in the Snow and stamped him on so copic paper with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I colored him with my C0 & C1 and just a little R20 for his ears and nose. Then I glued the image in place. I used red line sticky tape to hold the acetate the just added some foam tape on that. I then used some Stickles Tim Holtz Rock Candy Glitter and just add to the center panel then just stuck the front right down. I added a bit much but I love that it make him look like he is climbing out of the snow. I used one of the sentiments for Lawn Fawns pa-rum-pa-pa-pum stamp set and stamped it with versafine black ink.

 I took a piece of green ribbon that taped that around the base just to give it a little bit of that Christmas feel and because the bottom was kinda plain. I then used my bow make and add a bow for just a added cute factor. 

Well that my card. What do you think? I think I am going to have a lot of fun with the texture paste. Thank you all so much for joining me. I look forward to what the new year will bring and I will Be back some time mid January (hubby is leave the day after my birthday) with more cards and other fun projects. 

Have very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Happy Crafting

12 Cards of Christmas 2014 Card 5

Hello everyone, I hope you have all your shopping done? I not only got all my shopping finished on Saturday but everything is wrapped up (with the exception of my husbands gifts (hard to wrap them while he's in the house)). This is the first year all the gifts have not been left to the last minute (aka the night before). But I guess since we are having our Christmas on Tuesday and heading up to my parents on Wednesday evening it did not make since to do it last minute. Now I am sure your saying "why not take them all with you?" my answer to that is we are taking the truck (since even though we have had no problems with the van lately it would be our luck that it would crap out on us on the way there) and we don't have the room in the front or bed of the truck for gifts from all of us plus what ever my parents get us and the kids as well as what Santa might bring them and the suitcases. So we thought (well its hubby's idea) that we open the gifts to each other and then drop Santa a line letting him know where we will be. The kids thought that was a good idea. 

So that brings us to this project. Since we are not going to be here and the month of December just flow by (I am pretty sure at warp speed this year) we did not even decorate the house or tree (even thought we put it up) we have no stocking up. So I thought I would do Soda Bottle Gifts again this year in place of the stocking. I made them last year as a fun way to send my son and his adopted siblings (not sure how to say that it always sounds off when I say is siblings even though they are family) their gift cards. I like that idea so much that same year a made my girls and my nephew ones as well just 2 liter size. I used the penguins for the girls and the reindeer for the boys all from the create a critter cartridges. 

Here are the ones i made for them last year.

I did the same thing again this year but with out the labels. I just used the tree from create a critter 2 cartridge and just hide the face. the Merry Christmas is from tags bags boxes and more 2 and I just used the cricut markers for that. The taller ones are for my son and his brother and sister and this smaller ones is for my best friends daughter (I filled hers with dress up jeweler the taped the bracelets on since the would not fit in the bottle).

These ones are for my girls and my nephew.

 So again not a Christmas card but it still falls in the Christmas category right. I would be happy to show you how I went about filling these bottles (well not these but some different ones lol) just leave me a comment letting me know. 

Thanks so much for joining me and look for the next video.

Merry Christmas and Happy Crafting

12 Cards of Christmas 2014 Card 4

I am back with the next card in my 12 Cards of Christmas series. Time is flying by so fast that I am hoping to get all 12 of these cards done not to mention getting cookies made, gifts wrapped and shipped if they need to be shipped. my kids last day is on Friday and I am just not sure how I am going to get all this done with them in the house. Lucky my craftroom has a lock on the door so I can hide but still they will know what I am doing. I still have to finish working on the gifts for my son and his family as well as for my friend Ashley's girls. I am also getting a spa package together for my friend Kristina. So you can see why I not sure I will get all the cards done. I am trying my best. I do have the other cards planed out just have to make the time to get them done. It is going to be a very busy weekend in this house.

Anyways, for the card is was just something simple. I used mostly Lawn Fawn images and dies to make it. I think this is one of my favorite cards so far in this series. I love all the detail, these dies with the stitching on them are going to be some of my go to dies I think and I can't wait to get the rest of the rectangles and the circle ones that Lawn Fawn has come out with.

I die cut some white paper first using the stitched rectangle (the largest size) so I could get the great stitching all the way around and then I used the forest border die as well as the stitched hillside dies on that same white die cut. I took the stitched rectangle again for the blue paper.

I used Lawn Fawns critters in the snow stamp set with matching dies. I took the penguins and the igloo, stamped them with memento tuxedo black ink and used my copics to color them in. I colored the small penguin to look more like a baby penguin use my cool grays and a little y13 as well as the colorless blender for the body and y15, and YR02 for the feet and beak. For the adult penguin I used my neutral grays and Y15 for the body. I then used YR02 and Y15 for the beak and YR02 with YR07 for the feet. 

For the igloo I just took my lightest cool gray (co1) to give it a little bit of shadow and then softened that out with the colorless blender. Once everything was colored I then die cut out all my images. I laid the forest border flat to the blue background as well as one of the hills. i the took some foam strips to pop up the hill in front as well as the igloo. I then took the same foam strip and put a small piece on the back of the small penguin then attached him at an angle so it looked like he was sliding down the hill. I found some thinner foam and used that on the adult penguin so he could be popped up but behind the hill. I then took the sentiment from Amy R's Christmas Sentiments 2 and stamped it using versafine black ink. Then glues everything to the front of my card base.

For the inside I used the largest stitched die again on some white card stock (I wanted the stitched look inside as well) then I just trimmed a little off the top so the card would close nicely. I stamped my sentiment from Amy R's Christmas Verse 2 stamp set in versafine as well.

That's it for this card. Thank you all for joining me and look for my next card here soon.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Happy Crafting

12 Cards of Christmas 2014 Card 3

How is everyone doing? Have you done any of you holiday shopping yet? I have done very little so far mostly because my kids are always with me since I don't have the time to do it while they are in school. Me and hubby also have to sit down and plan out what we want to get the kids for Christmas, not to mention other family members. I a pretty sure the list of names grows every year lol. I have not ever decorated the house yet. But I guess that is what will be on our to do list this weekend. 

Anyways on to the project at hand. I wanted to try out two things that I have not yet tried, water coloring and making a shaker card. So why not do both on this time around right. I made this cute (large) shaker tag, we have a few gifts that a large tag like this would work. I started out by cutting some water color paper to match the tag size for the backing. I then taped it down to hold it down as flat as possible. I used my wide tipped water brush and Tim Holts Distress Markers.

 I used Broken China for the back ground. I wanted it to be a light blue but to stand out from the other blues I was going to be using. I then used Paper Smooches Swanky Snowdudes and the matching dies. I stamped them on a piece of left over water color paper using Rangers Archival black ink. Using a small brush I gave the snowdudes a light wash of Tumbled Glass for their bodies. I also used a little Barn Door and Festive Berries for the scarf on one of the snowdudes as well as on the hat for the other. Then went in with some Mowed Lawn for the hat and scarf. For the smaller snowdude I used a little Picket Fence on the little ball and rim of his hat. To finish them off I used some Ripe Persimmon for their noses and Black Soot for the buttons. I stamped the greeting using VersaFine Black ink once the background was dry. Here is a list of the colors I used.

 Before attaching everything I stamped this To & From stamp in VersaFine as well. These come from Paper Smooches Merry Mofits stamp set. I used a enamel dot to cover a hole I made. This is from the Doodlebug Winter Assortment enamel dots.

I used some acetate for the front and just used some glue to hold that in place. I then took some foam strips I had in my drawer that was the right width as well as the right thickness I wanted. I took some of the white sequences from Doodlebug and out them in the middle of the images so I could line up my front panel with out making a mess. I then thought the top needed something so I used one of the big snowflakes that I had and was going to use a brad to hold it it place (hence the hole on the back) and decided that i liked the snowflake but not the brad so I just took a blue enamel dot to cover up the center once I glued the snowflake down.  

I just love the way this came out. For it being my first time water coloring and making a shaker i could not be happier. I do wish however I added more of the sequences. 

Thanks so much for joining me. I hope everyone is enjoying the series. 

Happy Holidays and Happy Crafting

12 Cards of Christmas 2014 Card 2

Welcome back to my 12 Cards of Christmas 2014 card series. For this card I wanted it to be something that could easily be mass produced. I wanted to make a one layer/inlay card. I got the idea to try this from watching Jennifer McGuire videos. She always has some great ideas and techniques. 

 I took just some red card stock and cut it down to 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 to make a top folding card.  I started out by taking the second to smallest die from Spellbinders Standard Circles Small as well as the next two up from that to cut out my circles on just some plain white card stock. I then used those same dies to cut out tree different circles from Doodlebugs Home for the Holidays 6x6 paper pad. I then took the Simon Says Stamp Merry Christmas die and cut that out on the same white card stock. I then used my R46 copic marker to color it red. I used my We are Memory Keepers 1/4 Corner Chopper to round all the corners. Once that was done I used some Tombow Mono multi to glue down the white card stock. I used the same glue for the pattern paper as well as the Merry Christmas die cut. I used my 0.03 copic multi liner for the string.  once all that was in place I thought that it needed something so I used a little bow stamp from Lawn Fawns pa rum pa pum pum stamp set. I stamped it with Memento Rhubarb Stalk ink on to some red strap paper from the doodlebug paper pad and hand cut it out.

 For the inside of my card used the same kind of white paper and thought that it needed just a bit of something. I die cut out one of Lawn Fawns Stitched Snowflakes and then covered it with lots of Wink of Stella Clear glitter. I think this really help make it stand out. I also rounded the corners.

I just glued the in place and that finished off the card. I think it looks really cute and would be something you can easily reproduce. 

Look for card 3 coming soon 

Have a safe & Happy Holiday season.

Happy Crafting

12 Cards of Christmas 2014 Card 1

Hi guys! How was every one's thanksgiving? We had a great time at my parents house. We left late Monday night (the kids had parent/teacher conferences and happy to report my kids are doing great) to head up there, and I have to say that was the longest 3 hour drive ever. The kids got to pick out a few books at a book fair that was at the Montessori school my mom works at, on the way there my youngest asked if she could ride some rides at the fair and when I told her it was not that kind of fair she then said "then why do they call in a fair if there are no rides that's silly." I just love that kid. we picked up my husband on Wednesday at the airport in Seatac then we got the pumpkin pie cheesecake from Claim Jumper he wanted. We had a great Thanksgiving with the family, my sister did have to work which was unfortunate but other wise good time. We had a family fun day that Friday but it was really rainy out. We took the kids to an indoor trampoline place then went to my Aunt's house for some pizza. Saturday we took the kids to so skating and got to see our friends too (I got a great video of our youngest trying to shoot the duck it was hilarious). Then it was home on Sunday with a stop at Artco first of course.

OK so now on to the project at hand. I have started my 12 Cards of Christmas series. I was going to try to have the cards go like the song you know 8 maids of milking but using crafty items like 8 dies used, 7 stamps colored and so on but I was having a hard time coming up with a card that used 12 of something that did not over whelm the card. Since I was not going to be starting this until Dec. I figured I would put that on the back burner for now and work on it for next years card series. So for this on I thought it would be cute to use Lawn Fawn's Goody Bag die to hold some of the goodies we will be making this year (it has become a tradition for us to make homemade Butterfingers bits and i will share that with you when we make them). So I know that this is not a card but I figure we might use these to hand out our goodies to our neighbors and figured that made them a Christmas project. This was fun to make, I had everything ready to go (I was talking to hubby while I colored the images and die cut the bags). 

 Unfortunately I cleaned up when I was finished before doing the video and for got to write down the colors of copics that I used. As well as the goodies bag die I also used Lawn Fawn's Milk and Cookies stamp with matching dies for the images..

 I die cut the straw out first so that I could extend that to make it also hold the banner. I cut little slits in both the banner and the glass, two at the top and one in milk so it looked more like the straw was in it. I die cut the bag from just some snowflake paper I had in my stash as well as the green paper to give the images something to sit on.

I love the way this came out so cute and the bag was easy to out together. This would be something you can easily mass produce to had out to friends. I am thinking about using this to put gift cards in as well.

Thanks so much for joining me and look for card number 2 here soon. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Crafting