More christmas cards...

I love using the Crafty Secret stamps. I made this card for our good friends. I just love how it turned out. Very vintage and warm. I added some distress stickles for some glitz and some half pearls for added interest. I followed the tutorial for making the accordian medallion from this site http://www.flutterbyatomicbutterfly.blogspot.com/ . These are always great embellishments to add. Thanks for stopping by.

A cocky kinda christmas...

Well, can you believe I used a rooster for a christmas card. Well, when your last name is Cox, anything goes. This goes to my mom's friend whose maiden name was just this. She laughs when she receives anything foul-related. So I couldn't resist. I heat embossed a border around the edge with versamark and clear EP. Designer paper is from basic grey and the fantastic rooster is embossed in vintage photo distress ink from Tim Holtz. The stamp is from SU! and it is just wonderful. I decided not to colour him as there was enough going on in the DP. I raised up the Merry Christmas and sent it off. Oh and make sure when you complete your homemade cards that once you are finished, don't just relish in the thought that you are tickled with the final creation, but make sure you actually write something inside. I did this!! I was so excited with the final card that in it went into the envelope, addressed and stamped (but not mailed yet!) and ready for lift-off. What a goober I am. I did this not once but twice!! Lucky thing I have alot of sticky strip around to re-stick the envelopes with. Egads!! TFL.

12 tags of christmas - tag 8

Here's tag #8. I love using Tim's masks. The edges are so sharp and so easy to sponge inside. I didn't have a metal clock so I silver embossed a compass. Close enough. I also didn't have the die for the houses so I cut out some house shapes and added some very thin silver wire for the chimney smoke. It's so small that it's really hard to see. I added some iridescent ice to the rooftops of the houses to add some sparkle. Hope you're playing along.

http://www.timholtz.typepad.com/

12 tags of christmas - tag 3 and tag 6 revisited

Well I've been backpeddling and trying to get the tags completed that I have neglected. Here is tag 3 and tag 6 re done. I gave the first tag 6 away to a friend and I wanted to make another anyways. I really love both these tags. I've used some spanish moss for the bird's nest and below the tree. For the bird, I used the birds and blooms die from SU! I don't have any of the tape that Tim uses so I just stamped a music theme on some thick board and then die cut it out. It turned out really good, so easy to sponge with fired brick distress ink. I had made some scrunchy crunchy flowers using scallop circle punch awhile ago. Luckily I had one left so I used it on tag 3 and used one of the antique brads from SU! to fit the center. I think it fits in nicely. I added some pearls around the deers neck and made a nice metal charm with DP and added crystal effects on top. I hope you're playing along. It is so much fun. TFL.

My other half....

1)Favorite board game : scrabble
2) Would you prefer to read a book or watch the movie ? watch the movie
3) Share one of your bad habits....don't be shy, we all have at least one : misplacing my phone, keys and wallet
4) How did you meet your significant other? we were neighbours and lived in the same townhome complex
5) Do you tend to prepare or procrastinate? : procrastinate
6) What pet name does your significant other have for you? Chrissy
7) Potato Chips or Corn Chips? corn chips: corn chips
8) Coffee or Tea? coffee in the morning and the afternoon and the evening and then some more
9) What's your home decorating style? craftsman
10) What color is your kitchen? creamy taupe
11) What does your go-to Chinese take out order consist of? sweet and sour and rice
12) What time do you typically go to bed? around 11pm
13) MAC or PC? neither don't use the computer
14) What is your favorite Christmas movie? Christmas vacation
15) What was your favorite class in school? P.E.
16) Do you read the newspaper? no but I do read magazines
17) Have you ever been to Africa? no
18) Are you allergic to anything? no
19) Where did you go on your honeymoon? still waiting to go somewhere

12 tags of Christmas - day 6

Hey, what happened to day 3, 4 and 5? Well I had to go to work so I couldn't play and now I have to bust my butt to get back on track. I decided to tackle tag 6 and work backwards. I love this tag. This is a true Tim Holtz tag using his dies to cut the reindeer and tree. I added some crotcheted lace on the bottom and embossed the reindeer with swirls. I love the speckled snow drops along the border. Hope you're playing along.

Stylish blogger award

I've just received a Stylish blogger award from a fellow stamper named Kelly. She is so sweet and loves all things vintage. Check out her blog http://www.kelsblog.blogspot.com/ . I have to get back to making Tim's tags...I'm behind 3 tags already. Good thing I started the first and second right away. Ciao for now...

12 tags of Christmas - day 2

Here is day 2 of the 12 tags of christmas. Follow along and create your own. For my back ground I used broken china and faded jeans distress ink and sponged all around. I edged the tag with vintage photo. I stamped the pinecone in vintage photo and clear embossed it. I used the music stamp from Crafty Secrets and the Christmas sentiment stamped in fired brick and clear embossed. I added some splatter dots around the perimeter and stamped a flourish in soft suede from SU! The little birdie is from Crafty Secrets and cut out and popped up for added dimension. The ribbon is custom dyed with fired brick and peeled paint. I also added a lock and key for added interest. Another fun tag to complete. Can't wait for tomorrow.

12 tags of Christmas - Day 1

I'm playing along with Tim Holtz and his 12 tags of christmas this year. Check it out. It's guaranteed to stimulate your creativity. http://www.timholtz.typepad.com/

He says you don't need exactly all the supplies and embellishments that he uses so I collected some supplies and played with what I had. I now know I am seriously in need of chipboard shapes for christmas. I followed his directions for making the background on the tag using broken china and faded jeans distress ink. I stamped a few snowflakes in faded jeans ink. I sponged around the edge with vintage photo ink. I didn't have the house chipboard shape so I used the positive of the reindeer mask(Tim Holtz) to sponge my shape onto my tag using vintage photo ink. I then stamped some holly leaves onto a piece of cardboard in peeled paint and clear embossed it and then cut them out. I then added some peeled paint distress stickles on top to add some sparkle. The berries are pearls coloured with red lipstick copic marker. The snowflake is a chipboard piece with a white embossed pattern on top and then sponged with broken china distress ink. I also added some faded jeans distress stickles on top to add more sparkle. The fence is from the halloween fench punch from MS. I painted it with white acrylic paint and added some chunky glitter from SU!(retired). I also white embossed "Celebrate" from Crafty Secrets as my sentiment. I added a vertical date line of numbers on the right side (also Crafty Secrets). The ribbon was moistened with water and then dragged over broken china distress ink (just like Tim does in his tutorial). The little pin on the ribbon is Tim`s and it says `treasures`. I hope you want to join along and make your own tag creation. Thanks for stopping by.

New Stamps are sweet

I received some new stamps from Sugar Nellie http://www.sugarnellie.com/ and I've had so much fun colouring them in with my copic markers. Wow, I can hardly wait to create some colourful cards. The images come as grey rubber images which I mounted onto cling sheet which then gave very crisp and clean stamped images. Spend some time on the site and look around--you might see something you like. Thanks for looking.

Just some answers to some quirky questions...

Came across these questions from Julie Buhler's blog http://www.paperpleasing.typepad.com/ and thought I'd join in. Makes you think sometimes but none-the-less easy fun. Just highlight the questions and right click and click on blogger (if you have one) and it will automatically send it to your blog and then you can answer the questions for yourself. Have fun with it.

1)Favorite board game : pictionary
2) Would you prefer to read a book or watch the movie ? read a book
3) Share one of your bad habits....don't be shy, we all have at least one :I don't like touching my food.
4) How did you meet your significant other? We lived in the same townhome complex and we were neighbours.
5) Do you tend to prepare or procrastinate? I always try to prepare.
6) What pet name does your significant other have for you? Special K
7) Potato Chips or Corn Chips? corn chips
8) Coffee or Tea? coffee
9) What's your home decorating style? old antiquey, lots of wood
10) What color is your kitchen? I still have the original kitchen when the house was built in 1911. No style and totally needs re-doing
l 1) What does your go-to Chinese take out order consist of? Potstickers and rice, sweet and sour boneless chicken balls
12) What time do you typically go to bed? around 11pm
13) MAC or PC? totally PC
14) What is your favorite Christmas movie? Elf
15) What was your favorite class in school? Biology
16) Do you read the newspaper? yes at work
17) Have you ever been to Africa? No
18) Are you allergic to anything? No
19) Where did you go on your honeymoon? Come to think of it...we didn't go anywhere. Hey wait a minute...I'm going to have to discuss this!!

Festive collage of the kids

I have wanted to make a framed collage of the kids for awhile now and I finally completed this one themed for Christmas. I used buttons, snowflakes, glitter, chipboard letters to spell "JINGLE", ribbon, pearls, metal heart and rhinestone brad and rub-ons to dress up each image. I had to add the cats in there too. Aren't they sweet. The white one is Phinnaeus and other other one is Miso. The kids are 16, 11, and 9. They're kinda sweet too. I picked up this frame from a second-hand store for only a few dollars so this project was quite inexpensive to make. Each year the designer papers and photos can swapped out for new updated ones (I used double sticky tape-removeable). I hope this will inspire you to try one for yourself. Thanks for looking and happy stamping.

Embossed birdies

I've been seeing alot of cards using embossed designer papers. I really liked the effect so I decided to try it myself. I think the impact adds another dimension to the card. I made this card for a mom of one of my son's teammates. She was having a few rough days so I hope this cheered her up. The DP is from K+C and all the other paper is SU!. I used the french background stamp from SU! and the line-up of birdies from Crafty Secrets. The embossing folder is the vintage folder from SU!. Hope you try out some embossing. See you next time.

Studio 313 Exclusive Creations

She's back!!! Please check out Shawne's latest store and stamp images both digital and non-digital. This store also has alot of craft supplies that I'm sure we all have, need and want.

Just click on the side image of Studio 313 and have a look around.

Pop-up Santa

Wanted to try out a pop-up card and came up with this little one. I love the DP and the santa stamp. I'm sending this one to my mom because she loves pop-ups. Pretty basic card but none-the-less OK. Nothing much else to say.

Here comes Thelma...

After showing a co-worker some of my Thelma cards, she asked if I could make a group for her to have. Well, I came up with 7 cards to give to her. The layout pretty much stayed the same for each card (which made it easy to mass produce) and I was able to use some pretty bright DP, really anything goes with Thelma. She has quite the attitude: it was easy to find sentiments to fit her mood. If you like what you see, visit http://www.dzdoodles.com/ and check out more digital images. I'm sure you'll find something you like. The detail in each image is very clear and they are so easy to colour. I used my copic markers to colour each Thelma. This was the fun part. I want more Thelmas!! I'll have to keep checking back to dzdoodles to see if Thelma pops up again. TFL.

92 and still going strong...

My mom's best friend is turning 92 years young. I was happy to make a card for her. She has such positive energy and spunk and I am very thankful for her friendship. I call them Thelma and Louise although I hope they don't drive over a cliff just yet. I used SU! cardstock paired it with K+CO DP and distressed the edges with Tim Holtz inks and distressing tool. I cut the image (a digital vintage freebie from vintage images) with my nesties and layered it on a scallop oval. I added 3 pearlized pearls (as opposed to plain pearls) and also used the vintage embossing folder with subsequent sponging on top to highlight the pattern. What a great technique. I carried the same colour scheme to the inside and added a sassy quote from Favorite Thoughts because it just suits my mom's friend so much, even at 92. Happy stamping.

Thelma getting ready to celebrate

I finally get to use this christmas image of Thelma getting ready to celebrate with her dog. Isn't she cute? Make sure you visit http://www.dzdoodles.com/ and check out all the new digital images. Don't you just love her dogs eyes. I coloured her with my copic markers and added the googly eyes for fun. I turned the oval into a sort of ornament complete with bow at the top. I used some retired DP from SU! and some crocheted lace ribbon. Thanks for looking and have a super evening.

How cute is this tag!!!

This was so easy to make. I love making these tags. Just a quick post...off to dinner. These are the new dies from Clear Dollar Stamps. You get 3 shapes that coordinate with each other and there are also 2 coordinating stamp sets to add just the right flair. Love it!!

Last but not least....and all 4!!

Here is the last card for my xmas class. I used the Sizzix Bigz snowflake die and added dazzling diamonds on top to add some shimmer. It's a pretty basic card and it will be perfect for my class. Phinneaeus decided that the card needed a cute kitty to pose with it so up he jumped. Isn't he cute!! So here is all four cards that we will be making: 3 of each design for a total of 12 cards. It should be a fun night. Thanks for looking and happy stamping.

More cards for Xmas class

Some more designs for a card class I will be offering. I actually revisited my first card and sponged over the embossed area. It just seemed to be missing something. The second card has a vintage look. I used the stamp set called Greeting Card Kids and Itty Bitty Backgrounds. Cardstock is very vanilla, cherry cobbler, DP. Accessories are SU! retired ribbon, vintage brad, glitter. I decided to make this one 4 1/4" square (so it will still fit inside a standard envelope). My next card used the stamp set Holiday Line-up. These characters are so funny. The other stamps are with elves and snowpeople. I used whisper white, pear pizzazz, chocolate chip and various DP. I coloured the reindeer with copic markers and added some googly eyes on rudy. I will be making one more card to complete the set (class will be make 3 of each design for a total of 12 cards). As a bonus or for those who finish quickly, a set of vintage tags can be completed. Thanks for looking and happy stamping.

Xmas card class - First design

Well, I'm putting together an xmas card class for work and so I've been scouring all the beautiful blogs in hopes of new and wonderful ideas. In the end, I actually just put one together myself. I love all the details in this one. Embossing folder, punches, buttons, ribbon, + sponging are just some of the accessories to be used for card #1. Card stock is very vanilla, baja breeze, early espresso and retired xmas DP all adhered to very vanilla card base. Stay tuned for card #2 coming soon. The class will consist of 12 cards and a set of 4 tags.

Pumpkin box or that's what it said!!

I came across this template for purchase while visiting My Favorite Things website http://www.mftstamps.com/. It is labelled as a pumpkin box but I think you can turn it into whatever your needs are. I thought this would make a very nice baby box for a ceramic ornament. I distressed the edges with broken china distress ink from Tim Holtz and put a velum scalloped flower on the top. Otherwise, I left it quite simple. Imagine if you wheeled over the cardstock with stamped images or used heavy designer paper. This was very simple to put together. I printed the template directly onto baja breeze cardstock from SU! Then all you do is cut and score and tape. And if you have a nifty template cutting machine, it would be extremely easy. Hope you like it and thanks for visiting.

SSNOTIME 158 Butterfly kisses

Isn't this just the most beautiful wedding dress ever!! Here is the challenge...be inspired by this and make something of your own. Here is my take.

Just bought a pad of designer paper by K + Company...OMG!!! I love all the papers. I made this card in vintage-style. I used distress ink vintage photo from Tim Holtz on all the edges. It really makes the colours look so rich. I used Clear Dollar Stamps "Beautiful Butterflies" for both the image and sentiment. All the non-DP is SU! The antique brad is also from SU! Love it!! The crotchet lace is actually my surprise find at the dollar store. I coloured very vanilla satin ribbon from SU! with my copic marker to get the right turquoise colour (B05). Hope you like it. TFL.

A cute moment...

Well, here is Phinnaeus being a big goofball. I love this picture of him. My daughter was taking pictures of him one day and caught this while he was lounging around. Hope this gives you a chuckle...it sure did for me and my daughter. :)

Karen

Another vintage card in pink...

I made this for birthday wishes for a very good friend. I love vintage everything. I got to use the new vintage brads from SU!. Love them!! Also made some scrunchy crunchy flowers out of vellum and sponged the edges to add some colour. I used some vintage lace and little pearls on her nightdress for accents. I sponged all the edges to deepen the colour. Inside I used one of the pewter hardware pieces from SU! to hold the sentiment. Hope you like it and thanks for looking.

Edit: I found the FREE vintage image here on this site. It is just one of many sites to visit for wonderful images.

http://www.vintagestampers-freebees.blogspot.com/