~The winning Christmas card design~

Design #3 was the winner this year!  In laymen's terms, that means that it only took me THREE tries to come up with a Christmas card design that I really liked.  I added #1 and #2 to the end of the post just because, but I'll focus on the details for the WINNER!  LOL  I also need to clarify that SO far, I have not had to purchase anything except pop dots and adhesive to make these cards.  All bets are off if my husband continues to add people to the Christmas card list!

I started with a card blank of 4 x 5.5.  Just being lazy and I had a 25 count set with envelopes. 
I cut a base of 4 x 5.5 from kraft cardstock for the front of the card blank.  I layered three different pattern papers on top of that from the Ornamental Christmas stack from The Paper Studio.  The music paper was punched on one edge with a scallop and stamped in black with the sentiment.  After the pattern paper was added to the kraft, I stitched around the outside edge with off-white thread and distressed the edges with my fingernails.

Baby Jesus was cut from A Quilted Christmas at 2" using a combination of Recollection and Bazzill cardstock.  Some shading was added with Faber Castell green/gold.  Every layer on the card was inked with a coordinating color of TH Distress ink.  The inside of the card is stamped with a Merry Christmas sentiment in blue.  Thanks for stopping by!

And finally here are designs #1 and #2 that didn't make the cut.  Oh, they will be sent, just not mass produced. 

~Warm Winter Wishes~

In my quest to come up with a Christmas card design, this little fellow was born from my paper scraps.  I don't think I will use this one for Christmas, but I think it's cute to send to someone "just because".  The overall size is 5 x 6.25.

The red border of the card is Washi tape.  The snowman is cut from Quilted Christmas at 5".  The stars are from Art Philosophy at 1.5 and 3".  The background is embossed and inked with both red and blue.  I also applied diamond, silver and gold stickles to some of the embossed areas.  The small star also has diamond embossing.  I hand wrote the sentiment on the large star and attached it to Santa with red twine.  Everything is pop dotted for dimension.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Simple Thanksgiving Cards~

Here are a couple of quick Thanksgiving cards I whipped up this evening using my stash.  The first card uses a plaid background paper (don't ask me why) and the cornucopia was cut from Autumn Celebrations at 3.5 inches.  The second card was my first use of Teddy Bear Parade.  What a cute cart!!!!  This little Turkey Teddy was cut a 4 inches and has 4 layers excluding his "feathers".  I went a little overboard with the pattern paper for his feathers, but I think it turned out kinda cute.  Oh, and since I am now a bow-tying expert (lol!), I added a little yellow ribbon to finish it off.  Thanks for stopping by!

~ A Whimsical Thanksgiving Canvas ~

We probably don't give much thought about the plump little beastie that graces most of our tables on Thanksgiving day except for how hot to set the oven and how long to cook the little guy.  ;-(  
I went a little crazy with the texture on this one just BECAUSE I was in a mood to do so.  There are no cricut cuts.  The little birdie is hand cut.  There is stitching, paint and rub ons on his feathers.  There is modeling paste and cardboard and ribbon and beads on this canvas.  I hope you enjoy it.  Thanks for stopping by!
Here's my rendition of what he may say to you, given the opportunity........

  

~ Faith - A card for a friend ~

A very special lady that I recently met in Atlanta was impacted by Hurricane Sandy and needs a little cheer.  Many of her friends have been sending her cards and care packages to help brighten her day and pass the time waiting for the power to be restored.

The only Cricut cut on this card is the Faith phrase which was cut at 1" from Inspired hearts.  I cut 3 layers of this phrase to give it some depth.  The flowers were stamped on kraft paper and then adhered to a pattern paper and fussy cut.  They were lifted with foam squares The leaves and grass were also fussy cut and inked.  The stems are washi tape.  A couple of red gems finished it.  The inside sentiment says, "He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds".  I hope things start to look brighter in the NY/NJ area soon.  Those folks have been through so much.  Thanks for stopping by!

~ SnowPeople! ~

This is a re-do of a canvas I did a couple of weeks ago.  It was originally inspired by a magazine ad that I saw.  I wasn't too fond of the papers I used or the actual snowpeople, so when I finally starting perusing the Quilted Christmas cartridge and saw Mama and Pappa Snowpeople, I said Heck Yea!  This canvas is going to a dear friend who had us over for dinner a couple of weeks ago and absolutely adores decorating her house for all thing wintry/Christmasy.  I'm sure she'll love it.  Be sure to see the additional details below and thanks for stopping by!

All of the papers I used came from MMEs 6x6 paper packs with the exception of the SnowPapa's vest and hat.  That came from a Halloween pack as it was black with subtle little white circles/stars on it.  I found it perfect for my use. 

 The snow is made from Golden's Glass Bead Gel with some white and off-white acrylic paint mixed in.  I also used this gel on the moon and stars.  SnowMama has some glitter on her belt/hat and she also has a bow on her hat.

 The hearts were hand cut and run through my cuttlbug dots folder before being inked and colored and pen dot-lined.  A little string was added to create a heart garland and the sentiment added at the bottom.  I also created a little additional texture on my snowpeople using modeling paste with white paint added and then a really light blue pigment ink brushed on top.  Some pen doodling and rub-ons finished things up.

~ Cola Glass Hickey! ~

This little incident occured about a week before school started.  I'm guessing my granddaughter was bored or something, but it took us awhile to figure out why her mouth was PURPLE!  She has this little cola glass that she put to her mouth and must have sucked as hard as she could.  I don't know how long she did it (til it hurt???) but it left some nasty bruising.  I made her hold still for pictures and told her it's a good thing that Kindergarden didn't start for another week.  Kids ~ geesh!  Thanks for stopping by!

          I took a pic of the offending glass next to a glimmer mist  (for scale) and tucked this behind the main photo.

I repurposed some chipboard flowers with patterned paper, added some doodling and a little button.

~Boo Kitty~

I've recently unofficially became involved in a "use your stash" challenge that worked out great for me because I am sooooo far behind in my granddaughter's scrapbook, that I thought the challenge may also motivate me to at least ATTEMPT to get caught up.  I've decided that scrapbooking chronologically is a lesson in futility, but here is a layout using pics from last year's Halloween and some FREE goodies I received as a door prize at Mania.  The only cricut cut here is for the CTMH stamp (Trick or Treat).  I hand cut a shadow for the owl and inked it.  Both are pop dotted from the page.  Thanks for stopping by!

~Two Sweet Little Girls ~

I made these sweet little girls for a couple of BFFs who both have MS and who are a wonderful inspiration to me.  I hope they like them.  I learned how to do these canvases by taking Christy Tomlinson's SheArt Workshops.  If you haven't seen her work, you should stop by her blog.  Thanks for stopping by!

Simple Halloween Card!

I won this CTMH paper and Halloween stamp at Circle Mania!  My mother-in-law loves cards for EVERY occasion and I figured I'd use up some of my freebies and create a Halloween card for her.  Hope she likes it!  Thanks for stopping by!

S'now place like home!

I saw an advertisement in a magazine that inspired this piece.   I love snowmen and hearts and this one has both!  There aren't any cricut cuts in this.  Everything was hand cut and/or hand painted.  I was really trying for a folk-artsy look, but I didn't have the right papers to pull off what I really envisioned.  I still like the way it came out, but will definitely being creating another one with the "right" paper.  Thanks for stopping by!

Cricut makes it all so easy!

Holiday decorating is a snap with a Cricut.  My granddaughter asked for some ghouls and goblins to decorate with and a couple of hours later, here's what she got.  Easy peasy!  Thanks for stopping by!

Tacoah's Treasure Box!

A month or so ago I had picked up 3 of these chipboard boxes at Ms fairly cheaply.  Don't remember exactly how much, but they were on sale and I think I had a 25% off everything coupon as well.  Needless to say, the first box was a disaster, so I tossed the lid and keep some odds and ends in the box.  The second one became Paulette's gift for Circle Mania and the third one has been eyeballed by my granddaughter Tacoah for the past several weeks.  Since she's away right now, I thought it would be cool to decorate the box and have it waiting for her in her room as a surprise when she returns.

I picked some lovely little papers from the MME cowboy ministack to cover the box and for the letters and turtle. (who knew a cowboy pack would be good for little girls???)   The letters were cut at .75 on my E1 from Pooh Font.  The turtle was cut at 1.5 from Create a Critter.  I inked them all with Ranger Bundled Sage.   Once attached, the letters were also shaded with a Faber Castell india ink pitt pen Chromium Green Opaque.  The turtle was attached with an Action Wobble.  A few Sew easy doodle stamps and a little pink acrylic paint were added for visual interest.

Tacoah likes to collect little odds and ends and she really wanted the box to stash her stuff.  I hope she likes the way Nana decorated it for her.  Thanks for stopping box.

Scaredy Kat!

I'm just having so much fun working on these Halloween canvases.   There is no shortage of ideas when it comes to Halloween.  This one was inpired by one of the kitties on Happy Hauntings.  Some cheesecloth spider web and a little spider and some bling completes the scene.  Thanks for stopping buy!

My Little Scarecrow

I did not feel like cleaning or doing laundry today, so I went into my craft room and pondered what to play with.  I have a big stack of various size canvases that I got on sale at Michael's a few weeks ago and they were sitting there staring at me, so I decided to make a little Halloween canvas for one of my g'friends.

I used my Cricut and cut two pumpkins from Autumn Celebrations for the project.  One at 1.5 inches and the other at 2 inches.  The layers were then painted in 2 different colors of acrylic orange paint and the stems/leaves were colored using Faber Castell india ink pens.  I also added some Glossy Accents to the pumpkins.  Mr. Scarecrow and his little buddy Crow were both handcut.  They were inspired by several non-paper projects that I found on the internet.  The crow was painted with a mixture of black paint and tar gel to give him some shine.

The canvas is 5 x 7 and I used several colors of acrylic paint in the background.  Orange, Lime Green, Perfect Purple and Turners Yellow over scraps of Fall MME pattern paper.   Rub ons and a little metal butterfly in the corner complete the project.  This was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon and I sure hope my g'friend likes this.  Thanks for stopping by!

I survived Circle Mania!

Last weekend was a whirlwind of activity as I traveled to Atlanta, GA for the first ever Circle Mania.  Even though I was a bit under the weather, I enjoyed the socializing, the (little bit) of crafting, the Make n' takes, the food and the shopping.  Sure am glad to be home though!  The weather was really bad on Sunday and I think I was able to fly out by the skin of my teeth.  Later tornado alerts grounded all flights in and out.

Below is a pic of my calling card and a little gift (charm/stick pin) I made for each of the 50 Maniacs.  All of the attendees made a personal calling card and many had little gifts.  The cards were all so unique and different.  I don't think I got all 50, but I got most of them. They are pretty awesome and I'm still debating how I will store them.

Finally, I made this beautiful Autumn Altered Box for our wonderful hostess Scrapalette.  I tucked a few little scrappy surprises inside for her.  I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it. 

Thanks for stopping by!