Best Birthday Card Ever!!!

You know you have a wonderful husband when he takes the time to make you a birthday card, even if he was being silly! I just had to share this, because it is the best card I've ever received and it is mostly because it came from the best husband! I would like to mention that I believe that he could have done better than this (especially with everything I have) but I think he was being more silly than creative, but that's OK! I love it!

This is the front of the card. Another clue that I have that he was just being silly is that he can draw way better than this, but the whole card had me laughing so hard I was crying, so it had a good effect!


Here is the inside of the card. The Joann gift card is taped in with a lot of scotch tape! This is what it says: "Maybe this

will help you make better cards than I make" and the P.S. is "We need more tape." So funny. Then of course the back of the card:

You would have to know my husband to know just how funny this card is, but I hope you are able to get a laugh out of it and appreciate it as much as I did!

He is truly awesome!

A Simple Thank You!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We had a nice Christmas at my Mom's. Unfortunately I got sick Christmas Eve and wasn't feeling well at all on Christmas, but I was still able to enjoy the day with my family. And it was my Birthday!!! Before I got sick I managed to churn out a couple of Thank You cards. I wanted something very simple and I went to went out on Sunday to buy the Thank You embossing folder for my cuttlebug and this is what I came up with:

For this one I used Mellow Moss as a base and then River Rock on the front. Then I used my scallop circle punch on a piece of Mellow Moss and stamped the Riveting Thanks So Much in River Rock. I put the white circle on the scallop circle using a dimensional and that's it! Simple, quick and cute! I need about 20 thank you cards so I am sticking with this card and pulling out some of my scrap paper. I did some red and pink, blue and alight blue and some purple and lavender. I won't post all of them, but here is the purple one. I added a flower on this one. I bought this package of 4 flowers from Joann's for $1.00. This paper is non-SU. But I stamped the Thanks so much in lavender lace. I probably made 12 cards total in less than an hour, so I am very pleased. I only need 8 more! Hopefully I feel better tomorrow and I can get some more done!

Time Well Spent casing!

I wanted to get a Thank You card out to my secret santa this week and I didn't really have time to be creative, so I cased a card from the Red-Eye Stamper - it is the post on December 1st. I wanted to do a horizontal pocket card, because I love pocket cards and I hadn't done one like this before. I originally saw hers in the Splitcoast gallery and then took a look at her blog too. I really liked what she did with the ribbon and the scallop punch, so that is what I took from her! I wanted something pretty so I grabbed a piece of SU's Flowers for You Designer series paper and went from there. I used Regal Rose as the base, Lovely Lilac for the insert with white. I stamped the Thanks So Much on White with Tempting Turquoise and layered it on a Regal Rose circle cut out and I used my Scallop Punch and cut another piece of the Flowers For you and used the other side. The ribbon is non-SU because I didn't have any SU ribbon that matched. For the insert I used my Time Well Spent stamp and colored it in with watercolor pencils, sponged around the edges a little with Lovely Lilac and voila! I love this card, I really didn't want to give it away, but what else would I do with it? I am really starting to like the Time Well Spent set! I can't wait to do more with it. Oh by the way, I got an early Christmas present on Monday....my Spring/Summer Catalog, err collection, whatever! Yay! I was so excited and surprised to get it! I found some great stuff in there, but not so much that its going to break my bank! That's great.

I feel like the energizer bunny!

Well last week started off like any other week, then Wednesday arrived and so did a horrible cold that basically put me out for 3 days and behind schedule. I started feeling better yesterday and got my party favors done form our upcoming Holiday Party and treats done for DD daycare. But today I woke up at 5 a.m. and this is the first time I've really sat down (it is 7:45 p.m. here). I organized and cleaned up my craft area (including organizing my paper -full sheet and scraps-by color, which was one of my new year resolutions for next year!)I cleaned most of the house, did all the laundry, wrapped all our Christmas gifts, hung up all the beautiful Christmas cards we've received, put all the candy we made into the glass jars I etched weeks ago and took pictures of all the things I made yesterday. Believe it or not, I'm not tired yet. I know it will come soon, but I am getting as much done while I still have the energy.

These are all the filled candy jars, not the best picture, but I wanted to document this! Also, notice the tree in the corner. That is a Paper Tree I made last night. I found the tutorial at Splitcost here's a link. It was very easy to make and really cute!

Next up is the party favors for our party. I also found this idea from Splitcoast (I don't know what I would do without that site!). The box is the Treat Box (tutorial here). I changed the size to a 9 inch square and did not put patterned paper on each fold, just on the four sides. I got the idea to do Snowman Soup from Stampinweeza at splitcost. The poem I used is:

"Was told you've been real good this year Always glad to hear it With freezing weather drawing near You'll need to warm the spirit So here's a little Snowman Soup Complete with stirring stick Just add hot water, sip it slow It's sure to do the trick!"

I did 20 of these! Here is a closeup of one:

My next project was something for my daughter's daycare. It didn't have to be elaborate so I went with a package of hot chocolate with a reindeer candy cane attached. Sorry my picture is blurry! I made 23 of these. I learned how to make the reindeer several years ago. You just take some wiggle eyes and a little pom-pom for the nose (I used red for Rudolph!) and 1 brown pipe cleaner per reindeer. Cut the pipe cleaner in half and then take one half and wrap it tightly around the top of the candy cane and cut the other half in half again and use one on each side of the other half for the antlers. Does that make sense? I hope so.

I think I'm done with crafty things until after Christmas. Which is good, because this week is going to be hectic! If I don't make it back here before Christmas I hope everyone has a very safe and happy holiday!

I'm finally finished!

I think I'm finally done with my Christmas Cards, yay! I am so happy to be finished. So today you get to see the rest of my cards. I stayed up until Midnight last night getting these done. The first one I call my Soft Snowman, I used Sage Shadow, Soft Sky, Wintergreen Designer Series Paper and White paper. I stamped the snowman in Sage Shadow and colored him in with my watercolor pencils (non-SU). I stamped the snowflakes in Soft Sky and put some stickles in the middle. I just love these colors together! I wish I had more Sage Shadow paper, but I ran out, so I could only make two of these. It so pretty, I want to keep it for myself (but what would I do with it?) Next is an idea I got from my SBS2 sister, The Lucky Clucker (check her site out...amazing!). It's a simple design, easy to do and just cute as can be. So for some reason my scanner cut off the right of the card, but the white piece is centered. I used Always Artichoke and White. I used the Cuttlebug Snowflake Embossing folder for have the white and tied Always Artichoke ribbon around the middle. Used Real Red to stamp Merry Christmas and the holly is Always Artichoke and Real Red. I didn't feel like adding any layers, so I left it at this, and I am very pleased. I also did a couple red ones. Thanks Lucky Clucker for the idea!!!! And lastly, I needed a Christmas Card for my niece who is coming for Christmas (yay!). She's a teenager and loves pink, so, this is what I came up with:

I did a 5x5 square card using Pixie Pink (I think) and Wild Wasabi (I saw a similar color combo on Rhonda's Design Haven (link here) and really liked it together, and I also liked how she did the ribbon). I stamped the snowflakes using Pink Passion, layered another Pixie Pink and Wild Wasabi and then used White. I stamped the snowman using Wild Wasabi and colored in the hat and scarf using Pixie Pink. You can't tell, but on the top of the hat and the buttons, I used some pink rhinestones and I also used stickles on the snow around and under the snowman. I added more rhinestones at the bottom. I am really happy how this turned out. I think she will really like it.

Place Cards

So Tuesday, my boss asked me if I wanted to make some place cards for a party he is having for one of our clients (because I'm so crafty and all =-) and I said sure!! Who doesn't want an opportunity to do something they love for someone who signs their check (so they can buy more stuff!) and at the same time show off their work!!! I immediately knew that I wanted it to be classy and I was going to have to use my Season of Joy stamp set and the Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon! It didn't take me long to come up with this. I used Always Artichoke as the base and white as the name part. I stamped the swirly in Purely Pomegranate. I did print off the names and information (I had to put what each person's dinner selection so that the wait staff can look at the place cards and know what everyone had!), but I used pretty fonts. I used my favorite ticket corner punch (it's actually my only ticket corner punch, but I'm just weird with words). I had to do 20 and the first couple I spent a long, long time on the ribbon. I finally broke down last week and bought a double rectangle punch, but that satin ribbon is so thick when your doing this technique (where you put the ribbon down each hole and then pull through each end of the ribbon through the opposite hole) anyway after 20 minutes and I broken slot, I finally thought of an ingenious idea (that I am sure no one has ever thought of, yeah right!), but I took my single rectangle punch and punched over each hole to make it just a bit bigger. I know I am a genius. ..please there is no need to bow...(seriously, I know how obvious this should have been at the beginning to me, but I'm slow OK?!) That saved me soo much time! I finished all 20 in an hour and a half! And if I do say so myself, they are marvelous!

Bubblebella!

I got my first Stamping Bella in the mail a few days ago, yay! These stamps are a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e! I went with the Bubblebella because I wanted something to use for a "take care" card. It was so hard to choose! I also got the saying "take care of yourself". I made this card for my best friend because I think she's kinda stressed right now. I was in a hurry, so I'm not completely satisfied, but I do think its cute. I used some black textured paper that I found and I rounded the corners on the bottom (sorry, cut that off when I scanned) then I used Pretty in Pink (SU) and I distressed the edges and Whisper White (SU). I ticket corner punched the Whisper White and sponged around the edges with Pink Passion (SU) (I grabbed it and started sponging before I realized it was probably too dark for this, but it's not too bad). I colored Miss Bell in with my SU watercolor crayons and used a blender pen to blend a bit. The ribbon at the bottom is just some misc. ribbon I had laying around. I stamped "Take Care of Yourself" on a little piece of Pretty in Pink and glued it inside. I tried to find a place on the outside, but I couldn't come up with anything at the time. For the most part I am pleased with this card. I used a white marker to write a note and it looks kinda funky on the inside, but that's a good funky! I think my friend will really enjoy it! If you have not checked out the Stamping Bella site, please go there and look around! I'd also like to mention that I received my stamp in just over a week and they are located in Canada! I was so surprised to get it so quickly!

On a non-stamping note, we got our first snow of the season here in central Indiana last night! It almost covered the ground, but you can still see the grass popping through. The trees are nice and covered and I love that look.

My elf name is not politically correct!

Your Elf Name Is...

Happy Ho-Ho-Ho

What's" Your Elf Name?

Acetate Christmas!

I'm so close to getting my Christmas cards done! So very close! I finally bought some white Staz On so I could do an Acetate Card and I liked it so much I did 6! They turned out so cute. You can fine the tutorial here at Splitcoast. I did 2 different sizes and used various stamps and colors. Here is a picture of all of them:

I embossed the ones that used the Purely Pomegranate paper; the other two trees are using white craft ink.

Here is a close up picture of the one in the middle, sorry its a little blurry. I used Night of Navy paper and ink on this one. The ribbon is silver and sating that I found in my stash. I just love these cards. My DH said he thought they were the coolest cards I've made so far! I will definitely be using this technique a lot more!