Valentine Easel Card

I just held my January clubs and we made Valentine cards. I love Valentine cards because they're happy cards full of love. We made three, but the first one I want to feature is actually the fanciest, an easel card and the one I really love the most. It may be the most layers ever for me and for a club card, but everyone left with a great card and covered from head to toe with glitter! Now that's a good thing - so here's the card.

Items used from the new mini occasions catalog are:

Specialty DSP - Sending Love

Scalloped Heart of Hearts embosslit

Stamp from I {Heart} Hearts (polka dot heart)

Stamp from Well Scripted (love you much)

Small Heart Punch

Pinking Hearts Border Punch

Other items used are:

Paper: Real Red and Pretty in Pink

Full Heart Punch

Fine Cosmo Glitter - Red

Real Red Classic Ink

Stampin' Dimensionals

Sticky Strip

Snail

Now it's your turn!

Christmas Cards

I'm curious - did you make your own cards this year? I did and I didn't just choose one style, I chose many! We had a group of six of us that met every month to make cards with the goal of at least 10 cards each month. With that plan we would have 110 cards by November, ready to address the envelope and mail. FYI, I didn't make 10 of each of these - a few were singles and some were more, but ended up with about 115 cards!

A couple of us needed closer to 180 cards and had to work at home between meetings, some made just one or two different cards, but made some each month and then there were some like me who made different cards every month. I wish I had pictures of everyone's cards, but I only have mine - hope you enjoy!

Blog Update

I'm sure you've noticed that there was a huge gap in posts from December 6 until today - so I would like to give you a quick update. We bought a new house, closed on December 21! Traveled to North Carolina to do a half marathon raising money and awareness for Victory Junction Camp, and my mother who will be 100 the end of April has been ill since we returned from NC on December 14. Mom has been the healthiest, most active woman I've ever known, so for things to change and change suddenly has taken it's toll not only on her but me. We are learning new routines and adjusting to a different lifestyle, but she's doing ok and we're taking one day at a time.

Please know that I love stamping and am still very involved, just don't have as much time to post as I did a few months ago. I will try to keep up - but there will be gaps.

On the very exciting side of all this - the new house that we're moving into very slowly (will take several months) has a 14x25 foot craft room with built in cabinets, walk in closet and great lighting!

That's it for now - new posts will be appearing - Happy New Year to everyone and Happy Stamping.

Design Challenge

Saturday was a sunny, but very cold day so I chose to stay in and do my very first SUDSOL design challenge. This week the challenge was to make an easel card - I had never seen one, but the sample they gave us looked like fun and the directions were pretty straight forward so thinking ahead to January club, I decided to jump in and give it a try.

Of course, for January, I won't be using Delightful Decorations stamp set, but the easel will definately be in use. It's as easy as pie and looks great, so here's the one I made today. I can't wait to make more.

This card when folded closed fits inside a A2 envelope - now that makes it unique, decorative and easy to mail.

Supplies: Paper - Night of Navy, Whisper White, Bella Bleu DSP; Ink - VersaMark and Platinum Shimmer Paint; Pretties Kit for half pearls; Silver Embossing Powder; Ornament Punch; Delightful Decorations stamp set; Stampin' dimensionals and Snail adhesive.

Snow in Houston

It's officially a record - the earliest we have ever had snow in the Houston, Texas area! Accumulation around my house didn't amount to much, except on bushes and trees, but the big fluffy flakes were a joy to watch. Here are just a few pictures and now you know why I had time yesterday to take part in a Chat & Challenge and get back to posting!

Pencil cactus leaning on BBQ pit covered with snow and Papaya with fruit nearly ready to pick - had to go ahead to keep it from freezing - all of the leaves were droopy today and most of plant lost to cold temps!

Rosemary plant covered with snow - really pretty, but today it's back to normal - no damage seen!

Amazingly, the bouganvilla on the right covered with snow looks perfect today! Just never know - needless to say my tomatoes and peppers are gone! I just didn't even try to cover things - most are just too big and after all they belong to God not me - I knew some would survive and some wouldn't, but the garden will be new and fresh in the spring. A miracle of a day!

Time Flies - roaring back with Sparkly and Bright

It's been over a month since I've posted! It's been a busy time - we've been looking for a new house, I led a Beth Moore Bible Study, cooked dinner at our church for 45-50 people twice in November and planned and executed the church Thanksgiving Day Dinner with 40 in attendance and my daughter and grand-daughter were here for the Thanksgiving holidays. Now for the real reason I haven't posted - I just haven't sat down and done it! So here I am preparing to post - and watch out I've made a lot of cards so posts will be coming strong for a while!


I also hadn't done even one Chat & Challenge with one of my online groups in a long time, so today I just said I'm going to do it and I did! This is the card I made using the fun stamp set Sparkly and Bright. Look at this card as a sketch and see if you can come up with a card using the same basic design.

Supplies: Paper - Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White and Merry Moments DSP; Punches - Word Window, Square Punches 1-3/8",
1-1/4" and 1"; Stamp Set - Sparkly and Bright.


Hope you enjoyed this card and if you've been putting off some fun activity because you're just too busy, please take the time - I can't believe how much I enjoyed spending time with my ink and stamps and so tonight I can really say ....Inky Hugs,

Halloween Costume?

I found these spiders in my yard - they are almost always white, but you can see one was bright orange! I could only wonder if it had ask itself - should I dress up as a ghost, no that's what I always look like - think I'll be a jack-o-lantern this year!

Hope everyone has a sweet, but spooky holiday!

Halloween Treats

Before I get too carried away with my Christmas cards, I wanted to share this adorable little double sided box I made for Halloween treats. One one side there's a little bag of candy corn and the other a single stamp and black stampin' spot. I made this with the box #2 die (114518 - pg. 201). I cut two boxes - one basic black, one only orange and then without folding down the tops I glued them together. I punched a hole for the handle with the small oval punch(107304 pg. 186) and tied pieces of basic black and only orange 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon for added decoration. I stamped the front pieces using the candy corn and trick or treat stamps from the set Tasty Sweet. I made the filler using only orange and basic black scraps - running them through the crimper.


I really love my Big Shot (pg. 194 - IBC) the boxes and other gift items are endless! If you don't have a demonstrator and are interested in information on the Big Shot, shoot me an email and we'll get you all set up. You will wonder how you ever crafted without it!

Supplies: Paper - Basic Black, Only Orange, Whisper White; Big Shot and #2 Box Die; Small Oval Punch; Ribbon - Only Orange & Basic Black 1/4" grosgrain; Stamp Set - Tasty Sweet.