Monday, January 31, 2011

Crochet Flowers


Here's the card I made last Tuesday night with the crochet flowers my Aunt Shirley made.  I just love, love, love those papers.  Kind of lost the lusciousness of the colors when I took the picture but they still look cute.  And here's the same card using Stampin' Up cardstock and papers.


I think I mentioned that Marcia is having a downline meeting on Sunday and wanted us to do a card swap.  So I made 6 of these cards for the swap and given the audience needed to use all SU products. 

And just because I love the color combinations, here's the same card in the moss green and eggplant combination.  I used the twinkling H2O's to color the flowers only because I couldn't find a LePlume pen that matched the papers. 


Hope everyone had a good weekend.  Looking forward to the birthday celebration tomorrow.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Very Pretty even if it's Not Pink


I had every intention to get one more Valentines card posted to finish out the week but I've been out after work every night this week and just ran out of time.  So I found this picture and link I've been meaning to share with you for quite awhile.  I stumbled on it while surfing one morning and just fell in love with not only the project but the technique.  Stamping and embossing in white on vellum.  Click here to see the blog it came from and details on how she did it. 

I'm going to be spending Saturday in my craft room getting cards ready for the swap on Sunday.  Also need to get a couple of birthday cards ready (wonder who? :-) ) and then the cards for the weekly newsletter too.  Maybe in between I'll give this cool technique a try.

Hope you both have a good weekend. 

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Pretty in Pink


I know this is supposed to be a week of Valentines cards but I thought this card from Mona's stash is still within the theme.  Love the pink flower embellishment and the subtle colors.  Mona - maybe you can leave a comment on this blog post to tell us if the flower was one whole piece or is a combination of the felt flowers with a button/brad you added.?  (Just click on the Comments link at the bottom of the post on the blog site. ) It's a great anytime card but would also be good to send for Valentines Day to someone who wasn't too mushy, mushy, lovey, lovey :-)

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Embarassed


Here's one of the last from the old Valentines series.  Geez!  I look at this card I it looks like a toddler did it.  The heart focal piece is from the same stamp as Monday's post.  And the hearts on the corners were dry embossed from a brass stencil.  Guess the main thing that bugs me about this card is that I didn't do a very good job of matching the reds in the patterned paper and cardstock.  So it's another that will stay in my stash to remind me of better design days ahead.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Lessons Learned


When I found this old Valentines card it really struck me about how much I've learned - most of the time learned the hard way - about adhesives. 

For this card I tried to mimic something I saw in a Card Creations magazine.  I took craft wire and twisted it into hearts.  But then I couldn't figure out how to get the hearts on the card.  So I took hot glue and glued them in the center.  Now you can imagine how ugly that looked so I covered up the glue with Stickles.  Hindsight 20-20 I probably should have sewn it on the card.  (Not even sure if tiny glue dots would have worked. . . .did they even have those back then?) 

If you double-click on the picture you can get a closer view of the mess I made.  Also notice another oldie-but-goodie stash item - the mulberry paper.  Since I still have the card in my stash you can tell I was too embarassed to send it.  It's kind of a nice reminder of how much I've learned so maybe it will stay in my stash just for that reason.

I've got one more embarassing one coming up . . . so stay tuned!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Love is in the air


Hi Gal Pals,

Hope you had a good weekend.  Mine was pretty good.  Had a fun Friday Night Date which I'll tell you about Tuesday night.  Spent Saturday morning working on the Hobsons project and then the afternoon doing chores around the house.  Glad I got that out of the way because I then spent all day on Sunday in the craft room.  Yea!!  Spent half of the time just playing with techniques - tried my Twinkling H2Os, experimented with a Guidelines stamp set from Papertrey ink that has lots of potential and of course more organizing of the overflow of supplies.  Then spent the last half of the day making a pretty card for the weekly family newsletter using my Aunt Shirley's crocheted flowers.  I'll bring a sample of Tuesday night.

So we're back to "Love".  This week have a few more Valentines day cards to share with you.   This is a really cool stamp I picked up at JoAnn's years ago.  It's one solid block with 3 varieties of hearts.  I stamped it in white and then heat embossed it with white to try to make it really stand out.  I cut the hearts apart and mounted it on burgundy cardstock.  Again, you can tell how old the card is by the metal and the vellum. Kind of a recurring theme, huh?! :-)

Mona/Val - if you have any Valentines cards or projects in your stash, can you bring them Tuesday night so I can take pictures and get them on the blog?

Hope you have a good start to your week.

Friday, January 21, 2011

More Valentines


This is one of my favorite Valentines cards from one of Jen's classes.  Again the metal is a nice touch.  And I loved that big heart punch.  Haven't seen it around.  Val do you happen to have it? 

Another cool thing about this card. . . .I remember Jen telling us that you can find inspiration for cards in lot of places.  She told us that this design was from a scrapbook page she saw in a magazine.  It was actually a corner embellishment on the page.  I remember when she told us that tip I was scouring my scrapbooking magazines for other unique ideas.  But of course now there's so many card magazines and blogs I don't seem to have a hard time finding inspiration - now it's just a matter of getting the time in the craft room to bring those inspirations to life.

Hope you all have a wonderful - and inspiring! - weekend.  Be on the lookout for a few more Valentines cards on the blog next week.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

GPS#3 - The Big Reveal


Here they all are!  The results of the Gal Pal Sketch Challenge # 3. (Click here to see the sketch).  Mona really went all out for this sketch.  In fact 7 of the 8 cards are hers and they were all fantastic.  So here's some closeups.. . .



I LOVED! this one.  She stamped the butterflies, colored them with chalk, glazed them with Crystal Effects and then cut them out.  For the antennae (?sp?) she used heavy duty thread which she waxed for additional stiffness.  So beautiful!

This next one was Stacy's favorite - she really loves the black, white and red color combo. I loved the embossing folder on this one. And I'm thinking about CASE'ing this card, replacing the buttons with red hearts for my valentines card to my sweetie.



This soft and subtle card used a technique we saw on the sketch site where you used a larger image and then just stamped a portion of it for the 3 embellishments. I loved how she twisted the 3 embellishments for another flavor of the design.



Next to the butterflies, these 2 were my favorites. LOVE! Love! the stamped tickets. Mona was telling us it was part of a kit and then she substituted different small stamps from her stash to make for the 3 birthday themed sentiments. Also love that cupcake stamp. She's used that on other cards and it never fails to impress.



These next 2 were really fun. Clever use the natural fiber paper and wood embossing folder. Matches perfectly with the paper and the buttons from a set she said she picked up long ago.





And bringing up the rear of this show-and-tell is my one lonely contribution.


I had a good excuse I think as to why I didn't have a few more variations. . . .Saturday afternoon I got a call from Marcia about becoming a Stampin' Up demonstrator.  I was cautiously excited as this is something I've considered before but have always been fearful of the pressure and committment.  I spent Saturday evening and a good part of Sunday looking over all the material before making my final decision.  Once I did then I spent  part of Monday meeting with Marcia to go over all the details.  So it was Monday evening before I found some time to give to the challenge.  Just one more example of why I shouldn't procrastinate in the first place. But since these challenges are just for fun it doesn't mean Val and I can't submit a few after the deadline.  Val was under the weather and wasn't able to participate in this challenge but I know she's going to be on the mend soon and feeling a litttle more energy for playing with the paper.

So THANK YOU Mona for single-handedly making GPS#3 a BIG success!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Valentines Brown Bag


Wow!  This seems like a long time ago when we gathered in the North Conference Room for our brown bag.  Mona was the host that day and it seemed like just planned the card kit just for me - the jumbo
ric-rac sent me into a fit of excitement.  (What a geek I am, huh?!) 

She also gave us a little something extra that day. . .a really sweet stamp with a sentiment I just love. . .

"Friend to Friend, Heart to Heart"

Have a good day today.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Valentines Week


OK Gal Pals - this week is Valentines week.  Here's the 1st card to kick it off.  It's another oldie but goodie from one of Jen's card classes.  This was back in the day when metal was big.  Kind of funny to see the eyelets holding the sentiment.  Is anyone using eyelets anymore?  Maybe we just all needed some piece and quiet in our lives and grew tired of the punching and setting.  I know there were a couple of supposed silent setting tools but I could never get them to work.  Could you?

Also love the little metal hearts.  They were nice and flat and stuck easy with a glue dot.  The simplicity of this card really appeals to me.  And the design principle of doing things in "three's" is really apparent here.

Tomorrow's the Big Reveal for  GPS #3.  Can't wait!  See ya' then.

P.S.  I did get it in my DayTimer but thought you might want to make note too. . . .
No crafting February 1st. as Memory Lane will be closed while Debbie and Stacy are at the big Craft & Hobby Association show in L.A.

But I vote for going out for a quick bite and some Gal Pal talk after work to
celebrate Mona's birthday

Whadda' Ya' Think?

Friday, January 14, 2011

Thankful Friends


Well Gals, it's the final day of Thank You card week.  What a great way to top it off.  Here's Mona's cute Thank You note to Val.  Love, love, love that bubble border punch.  And the sentiment stamp is a cutie.

Hope you all have a good long weekend and enjoy the Monday holiday.  I'm sure you know what I'll be doing on Sunday evening :-). . . .scrambling to meet our GPS#3 deadline :-)  Actually I'm hoping to get a little alone time in the craft room for a full day.  If I can keep my scrapbooking sweetie out of my hair!  It will take me at least a couple of hours to clean up the mess from the last project and put away all the memorabilia Allan and I sorted through for our travel album.  But unlike cleaning other rooms, it's a joyful chore.

Happy Friday.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

We interrupt this broadcast. . .

. . .to bring you this special bulletin. . . . .

I was catching up on e-mail this morning and reading my Circut Newsletter.  I almost deleted it without reading but now I'm so glad I didn't.  Down in the Q&A section they had this wonderful link to a cheat sheet for all the "sandwich" formulas you'd ever need for the Cuttlebug.  Here's the link:  Sandwich Stack

I guess for our "Queen of Everything" it might not be valuable as she has most of the die cutting and embossing machines :-).  But for the paupers of the kingdom who only have the Cuttlebug I thought this was a really nice, all inclusive reference guide.

We'll return you to our regular scheduled programming tomorrow.  Have a great day.

P.S.  Mona - stumbled on this ladie's blog who apparently is the Queen of sponging and masking.  Since we were talking about your beautiful Peace-Hope-Joy card, i thought you might be interested in her blog her blog.  here's a sample of one her cards.  And she's got a video on how she did this.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Warm Winter (Thank You) Wishes



This is a card a did for the family newsletter a couple of weeks ago.  I know it's technically not a Thank You sentiment but I think you could use it as a thank you.  The snowflakes are from a jumbo SU stamping wheel.  I think I might have mentioned that I've been taking them off the wheels and just using them on acrylic blocks.  So, So much easier!!!

This card reminds me too of one of the things I love about Stampin Up . . . .the coordinating colors.  I just love this Soft Sky color.  I have the big stamp pad and lots of the matching cardstock.  I typed out the sentiment on the computer and made a font color that coordinated.  Cut it out with a Nestabilities die and then sponged it with the color from the stamp pad.  Thought it gave it a more ethereal look.  Then finished it off with some stickles. 

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

An Oldie But Goodie Thank You Note


Here's a blast from the past.  Val, you might remember this one.  We made it in one of Jen's classes back when Angie's store was open - maybe 2002 or 2003.  I always loved Jen's clean linear style.  Wonder where she's at these days, how she's doing and whether she's still into cardmaking.

The other really cool thing that Jen always did was some how embellish or enhance the patterned paper she was working with.  In this case she used Stickles on the lines in  the pattered paper (double-click on the image to get it to enlarge).  Also kind of neat to see vellum again.  It used to be so big but you just don't see it used as much anymore in the magazines.  I've got a ton of it in my stash - maybe I should start a vellum revival?!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Thank You Notes



This week's blog posts will feature some thank you notes we've made.  I made a pledge to myself to get my thank you notes for holiday gifts out the door this week.  Running a week later than I wanted but just trying to tell myself.. . ."better late than never".

Mona made these cards.  I thought they were great so I CASE'd them to use for the thank you's I needed to send to family.  Love the label die cut she used and the way the paper is torn around the sentiment. Great "go to" card!


And I always love the way Mona uses patterned paper as a focal on the card.  Speaking of patterned paper, I guess Val did an inventory and sorting of her patterned paper as she was loading up some new paper storage carts she bought and she's decided she's extending her New Year's Resolution from last year another year. . . ."No  More Patterned Paper!"  (Secretly I'm thinking . . ."That's No Fun!!").  Val - I know you're strapped for time but maybe Mona's technique of starting every card with a big piece of patterned paper is the way to go.  Maybe our next Gal Pal Sketch will focus on patterned paper.  Whatever we can do to help a Gal Pal in need!!!  :-) :-)
 
P.S.  Speaking of Gal Pal Sketches, we've decided our Show & Tell for GPS#3 is Tuesday, January 18th.  Here's the link to the sketch for those of us (i.e. ME!) who haven't started yet.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Gift Card Holders - Part 2

As I mentioned in the last post, Allan gives his neices and nephew a Visa gift card each Christmas.  I wasn't quite sure what kind of gift holder I was going to make for them this year. 

One Sunday morning while we were having breakfast at Cracker Barrell I found these little fidget toys that I thought might make a nice stocking stuffer for the kids and that it might be cute to incorporate them on a gift card holder. 

But then as time got tight and the deadline for getting things in the mail was upon me, I had to think of a Plan B.  Remembered these gift bags I made earlier in the year.  It was from this pattern for a "2-5-7-10 Box" on the Splitcoaststampers Resource page.

So I used a couple of sheets of embossed, glittered Christmas paper from a Debbie Mumm pack I bought at JoAnn's years ago and made a few more.  I tucked the fidget toy down inside with the gift card and a couple of pieces of candy.  In this picture the ribbon is still kind of long as I took the picture before I trimmed it up.  I think they turned out pretty cute. 

I have to say this pattern is really nice to have.  It takes about 5 minutes to make and is a nice little project for those times when you want just a little papercrafted something for someone special.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Gift Card Holders - Part 1



Allan always gives his neices and nephew a Visa gift card for Christmas.  So the last few years I've been making a gift card holder of some sort.  Just so much cuter than an envelope - they are kids after all.  This is a wallet style I made for them last year.  It has a magnet closer on the front flap.  Not sure if you can see in the second picture but I used my Stampin' Up slot punch on the inside to hold the card.  Can't remember where I got the inspiration/pattern for this but here's a link from  Splitcoast with some other ideas for paper wallets.  May have to try those next year.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Peace*Hope*Joy



Was looking for one-layer cards to send this month for our weekly family newsletters.  Found this one Mona made.  I think it's just perfect.  The cool colors match the mood of the season.  The masked moon is reminiscent of the full moon we just had during the Winter Solstice.  And most importantly the sentiment is a beautiful wish for the new year.  Thanks for the inspiration Mona.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Gal Pal Christmas 2010

Just a shot of the Christmas cards we exchanged this year on the Tuesday before Christmas.  I know each of us has said this multiple times but this time together on Tuesday nights is so wonderful.  I feel so close to you both.  And looking back on the 52 Tuesdays of 2010 I really feel we've walked quite a journey together this year.  As always. . .so glad to have both of you in my life.

Love the little bag on the left-hand side of this picture that Val did with her Cricut Expressions.  I swear! - we are going to get a date on the calendar this year to talk Val into hosting a cutting party at her house.  Mona and I will bring the treats and paper if Val will share her machine and this cute, cute Tags, Bags and Boxes cartridge.  Would love to have a little stash of these bags on hand to give as thank you's or a quick gift.  Also love, love, love the embosing folder on the card in the center of the picture.  Val did that one.  And the gorgeous patterned paper on the reindeer card Mona made was just to die for.

It's kind of hard to see in this picture but the little battery operated candle with the Tim Holtz die cut around it was too cute for words.  Stacy made one of those for each of us.  We'll have to think of a little something nice we can do for her and Debbie as maybe a belated New Year gift and a thank you for keeping the shop open an extra half hour for us each week.

And then here was my "card"/gift holder.  It was a Sara Surface jumbo matchbook that I covered with some KandCompany papers I got at Michaels.  So proud of how much our papercrafting talents have grown this year.

Outside view of the matchbooks:

View of how the matchbook opened:

Monday, January 3, 2011

A Look Back at Christmas Crafting

Hi Gal Pals,

Took an extra day off from work to make a long New Years holiday.  Had good intentions of getting a bunch of things caught up but was feeling a little puney.  So I spent some time sitting quiet and doing a little reflection about the year and turning thoughts to the New Year.  I have to say I'm pretty pleased at what a busy place my craft room was these last 2-3 months.  Will be posting a few things that came out of there for Christmas. 

I guess the first one and the one I'm most proud of is the Countdown to Christmas frames I made for my mother and Aunt Hazel.  I was really happy with the way they turned out.  It was one of those projects where selfishly I wanted to keep one for myself .  I think I've got enough paper left to do that so maybe that will be my first Christmas project of 2011 !!!

This first picture is one of the frames and the 12 days of envelopes that contained daily Christmas quotes, a piece of chocolate and a bottlecap magnet with a number of the countdown day.  I'm not sure if you can telll from this picture but there are magnets all around the outside of the frame and one in the center of the ornament inside that frame as placeholders for where each day's magnet goes.

I smashed bottle caps which I got at a local brewery supply store and filled them with Christmas papers and a die cut number.  Then filled them with Crystal Effects.  I don't have a picture of it but I also made a bottle cap with a picture of me and Allan inside it.  The thought was that on Christmas Day, they would open the last envelope, replace the "generic" bottle cap that was in the center of the frame with the one of me and Allan and it would be a Merry Christmas wish from the 2 of us.


Here's a picture of what's inside each envelope.


And here's a close up of the frame with all 12 days worth of magnets attached.  Thanks for letting me share this with you.