You make me smile

Happy almost 2010 y'all! Anyone have spectacular plans for ringing in the next decade? We'll probably keep it low key here, which is a-ok with me :-)

Here's a little card I whipped up the other night with the creative pocket I bought from Melissa Phillips. She makes the prettiest stuff I tell you ... not even close to my style of stuff, but I just love it and wish I could put things together like she does! Not quite shabby chic, but probably about as close as I can get! LOL I stitched around the paper and inked up the cream card base to age it a bit. I also inked the tag and the silk ribbon on the tag to age those as well. The sentiment and ribbon are from PTI - Signature Greetings and some pretty Sweet Blush grosgrain. Other than that I have no idea who the products are by - sorry!

Hope you are enjoying the winding down of 2009 and looking forward to 2010 and all that will may bring! :-)

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Quilled Crab Anyone?

Happy Tuesday y'all! Just popping in to share a little project that I created for my aunt and uncle who are big on shore living. My uncle is a boat captain and they have named their house "Crab Cove." When I saw this little quilled paper crab, I knew I had to make them something with it. I decided on making a little art piece using a 3.5 x 5" frame. I made some waves with some blue paper and a border punch. I did 3 layers and inked over them with a little blue ink to give it some texture. For the sand, I ripped some kraft paper and smushed my chamomile ink pad over it as well. I hand wrote "Crab Cove" with a navy marker and glued the crab down. A super easy and fast gift that I hope they will enjoy.

Thanks for stopping in! Hope you are having a great week :-)

Gift Card Set

Hi again! Thanks for all your sweet comments about my PTI Blog Hop project. Today, I am sharing another gift idea. I made a set of note cards for my best bud for Christmas. I kept the colors fun and cheery and used a variety of sentiments from PTI's Signature Greetings stamp set. I love Dawn's sentiments - they are so fun.

Here's the set all packaged up in a clear card box. This really makes it look professional! And here's the assortment of cards. To start, I stamped the polka dots and then the flourishes. I went back and added the sentiments and a strip of twill tape to separate the two spaces. In general, these were super quick and easy. I kind of wanted to add a button on the left side of the tape, but thought it best to keep them nice and flat for mailing. The set got a rave review, so I will whipping up more of these soon! :-)

Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Supplies Used (all PTI):
Stamps: Polka Dot Basics II, Signature Greetings, Fancy Flourishes
Ink: Black, Raspberry Fizz
Paper: White, True Black
Other: Raspberry Fizz twill

Papertrey December Blog Hop

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Papertrey's monthly blog hop is tonight and the challenge for December was to use some holiday decorations to inspire a project. I decided to create a framed piece of holiday art.

I love this little Santa ornament that I got last year. It's just fun and I love the classic colors. He's my inspiration piece ...I made a little ribbon tree to fit a 5 x 7 frame I picked up a craft store. I started with a New Leaf card stock triangle and roughed the edges up some. Then I cut varied lengths of New Leaf grosgrain and tied them in knots to use for the tree. I adhered the ribbon using some Zip Dry paper glue and added buttons from the Holiday Mix collection in Spring Moss (kind of yellowish), Pure Poppy and White using foam tape. To finish it off, I filled the space between the ribbons and the holes of the buttons with Star Dust Stickles. This is so cute! And I will definitely make some of these for gifts next year. The red paper in the background is from the Holiday Vintage Prints patterned paper collection.

Here's a closer view of my tree ... Thanks for stopping by to check out my project!

Supplies Used (all PTI unless noted):
Paper: Holiday Vintage Prints, New Leaf
Accessories: New Leaf grosgrain, Dark Chocolate grosgrain, Holiday Mix buttons (Spring Moss, Pure Poppy, White); Ranger Stickles (in Stardust) and foam tape

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to pop in and wish you all a very Merry Christmas! :-) Hope you enjoy the day with friends and family.

Anniversary Wishes

Hey everyone! I can hardly believe that it is almost Christmas ... I managed to get all my orders in the mail on time and make a few gifts. Need to wrap a few more things and I will be all set!

Today is my parents' 31st anniversary. Here's the card I made for them ...
I really like how this turned out. I used the Giga Guidelines and the Guidelines II set to make the background paper and the Damask Designs for the sentiment. Super easy. I distressed the edges with ink and a distresser tool as well as added some Martha Stewart adhesive pearls on the medallion images. Super easy, yet a really nice result.

Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Supplies Used (all PTI unless noted):
Stamps: Giga Guidelines, Guidelines II, Damask Designs
Ink: Ripe Avocado, Aqua Mist, Chamomile
Paper: Kraft, White
Accessories: Ripe Avocado stitched ribbon, MS adhesive pearls, foam tape

My FIRST Publication!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share that my first published card is available in the new edition of CARDS magazine - the January 2010 issue! Learn more about the magazine here - you can even order an online subscription for just $4.99 per month. My card is on page 26! So, so excited! :-)

Thanks for dropping by!

Christmas Cookies

Happy Friday folks!

Let's be clear about one thing ... peanut butter and chocolate are a winning combination! Case in point: peanut butter cookies with Hershey's kisses. These are the beauties that I made for my cookie exchange party last Friday night. And I so love the big fat polka dot ribbon and the tag tied on with baker's twine.

What's your favorite Christmas cookie recipe? Got any cute and easy packaging ideas?

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:
Stamps: PTI Believe, Faux Ribbon
Ink: PTI Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate
Paper: PTI White, Pure Poppy, New Leaf
Accessories: ribbon from Wal-Mart; bakers twine from Shabby Green Door

Secret Santa Gift

Well Christmas is getting closer by the minute! Are you ready yet? I still have a long list of things to do!

This year I participate in a Secret Santa exchange at work. I happened to draw the teacher who is the testing coordinator and who has an office across from my room, so I had some ideas along with her list. For the first day, I included a dozen pencils and a post-it note pad. Any good teacher always has both of these items handy! I made a little wrapper and tag to dress it up using some patterned paper and the Stocking Prints stamp set. Love how cute it turned out. Sometimes a little something special in the wrapping can make a simple gift seem so much better!That's all for now ... keeping it short and sweet! Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Supplies Used:
Stamps: PTI Stocking Prints
Ink: Ripe Avocado, Black
Paper: PTI Bitty Dots Pure Poppy, Holiday Vintage Prints, White & Pure Poppy card stock
Other: PTI Pure Poppy stitched grosgrain, Ripe Avocado button; bakers twine (Shabby Green Door)

Ornaments!

Hiya! Been awhile, but I finally got to make a few cards tonight. I had really better get on the ball if I want to send at least some handmade cards for Christmas. (Admittedly, I did get a box after Christmas at Target last year just in case! LOL)

Anyway, I tried out my All that Glitters set from Flourishes. LOVE it. LOVE it. LOVE it some more. I am way into vintage-y ornaments this year and so disappointed that the ones I saw in the Crate & Barrel catalog were sold out online and in the store. Dern it! Oh well. I found a few alternates, but not the ones I had hoped. On to my ornament cards ...


These are 3.5 x 5" cards. Love this little size. Note to self ... order more A1 envelopes! I used a Kraft base with Vintage Cream and Ripe Avocado layers. I stamped the leaves in Ripe Avocado and the bow and sentiment in Memento Rich Cocoa. I colored the ornaments with Copics and added some glue with a 2-Way Glue Pen before dunking them in glitter! The ornaments are on foam tape to add a little dimension. Here's a purple one ... And a close up of the mauve-y colored one with the sparkly glitter!This one is my favorite and was my prototype for the others. I have 4 more to assemle (one of each of these plus a blue-grey ornament one. But I had to work on some more orders for my customers. Hope to get all those out this weekend so that I can relax and not worry about overnighting a bunch of stuff this year!

Well, off to bed. Only 2 more days left of school before break. And me and my students definitely need a break from each other! LOL Thanks for stopping by! I have some fun gifts that I made recently for a party and secret santa at work, so I will be posting those over the next couple of days.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: All that Glitters - Flourishes; Stocking Prints (sentiment) - PTI
Ink: PTI Ripe Avocado; Memento Rich Cocoa; Copics
Paper: PTI Kraft, Vintage Cream, Ripe Avocado
Accessories: Taylored Expressions glitter; PTI Dark Chocolate twill

You're a Blessing

Hi - hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are enjoying the holiday season so far. I did get my trees up and the house decorated the day after Thanksgiving and have been busy finishing some orders for Christmas and then some.

I did have time to play with some stamps before Thanksgiving and broke out some new PTI sets from the November release. This card uses the Background Basics: Diamonds, Turning a New Leaf and Signature Greetings. Love them all!I stamped the diamonds on the bottom of the card front in Versamark ink and added the sentiment on top. The leaves were cut out and stuck down with some distressed paper circles and buttons for flowers. So much cuter in person! :-)

Well, its back to work ... I have a really big week at work and am hosting my sorority alumnae Christmas party on Friday night! Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Supplies Used (all PTI unless noted):
Stamps: Turning a New Leaf, Signature Greetings, Background Basics: Diamonds
Ink: Chai, New Leaf, Chamomile; Versamark; SU! Chocolate Chip
Paper: White, Kraft, Lavender Moon
Other: Lavender Moon grosgrain, Lemon Tart buttons