1st Christmas card ever

Over at Susan's blog she has blog candy to celebrate 3500 hits! She's asking about Christmas cards and whether you make them or buy them. Go check out her blog....she has some beautiful cards and craft projects to look at. So I was thinking about Christmas cards after reading her blog. I wanted to find my card from last year. Not only was last year the first year I ever made cards, it was also the first year I ever sent Christmas cards. That's right. I'd never sent Christmas cards, not even from the dollar store. I know some people will be shocked to hear that, but it's the truth. Once I started stamping, I decided that sending Christmas cards maybe wasn't a waste of time (yes, cards used to seem like a waste of time to me)! Thanks for looking at one of my very first creations.

Wise Snowmen

My parents were here visiting for my daughter's birthday, and so my mom and I spent some time working on her Christmas cards for this year. I would cut and emboss, and she would cut and color; it was a lot of fun! She has this cute set of snowmen from The Angel Company. In the set are the wisemen, the shepherds, "Mary, Joseph, and The Baby," an angel, a star, and a few scripture stamps. This is one of the cards she will be sending this year.

Cuttlebug Challenge #7

I made this card for the challenge this week at The Cuttlebug Spot. The challenge was to cut something out, and then emboss the cut out shape. Well, this one was another challenging card for me to make. I thought and thought about it all week. Finally today I had settled on cutting out a sun shape and basically adding it to a card of flowers. Then I remembered this fun card my friend had made. I decided to do something similar, but with cut out tree shapes, instead of stamped ones. I cut out the crown shape from my Alphalicious Cricut cartridge, and then cut the crowns into the tree shapes. I embossed with my D'vine Swirls Embossing folder. After adding a little sentiment to the bottom as well as some ornaments and glitter, I am calling it complete!

Butterflies and Happiness

I saw this retired hostess set the other day on a blog, and thought that the butterfly image was beautiful! So I made my way over to Ebay, and was lucky enough to find it. So this was my "birthing day" present to myself. I tease my husband that on the kids' birthdays, I always should get presents, too! So I bought this set, and finally got real rose red paper and ink! I have a rose red marker, but I wanted the craft ink pad, and finally decided to get it! Now I'm off to work on Christmas cards with my mom.

Hostess Thank You

I had a light bulb moment this morning. Provo Craft has little eyelet packets that I love to buy. The packet has a lighter version of a color and a darker version. I love to use my crop-a-dile and I always think eyelets are a fun addition to have on hand. I have sometimes included these eyelets for the hostess of a swap that I'm in. The one problem, though, is that the eyelets come in this funny dome-shaped packaging that makes them hard to mail with my swaps. So this morning I had my moment! A-ha!!! Take the eyelets out of the packaging, put in a little bag, and stamp something on top! So this is what I came up with. A much more mail-friendly package.

Side Dish Recipe Swap

This is one of my final recipe swaps before Christmas. I have so much fun making these recipe cards. But the best part is all of the wonderful recipe cards I've received. There are so many talented people that participate. I always love a day when I get my swaps in the mail. For this card I used this cheery paper from doodlebug designs. The cardstock is Bazzill. I printed the recipe on vellum, and attached that with eyelets. Stamping was optional, and I decided to stamp a few flowers on the vellum. I used a flower from Stampin' Up Big Pieces as well as Little Flowers. Then in the center of the flowers I added a little pink sparkle. Now, I'm off to let my daughter do all the stamping today, since for her birthday she said she wants to "stamp all day long and be in charge." Great 5-year old wishes!

Soldier Bookmark

My son loves the Stampin' Up set "The Free and the Brave." So I am always looking for projects to make for him that he will like, using that stamp set. Lately he's been bringing books home from his teacher's classroom, in addition to his library books, and reading them on the bus. So I decided to make him some bookmarks. The tutorial I originally found was here. I let my son pick out the paper and ink color. I punched out some small stars, and he decided he wanted 3 white ones and 3 yellow ones. My son is very into "soldier" and "army" things right now. And while I think he's the cutest little soldier, I realize there are many real soldiers out there, working day and night. Doing whatever is asked of them to help keep our country, and other countries safe. I hope that everyone will take a moment to thank a veteran or current service-person they know, and let them know how very much we appreciate sacrifices that they make in our behalf.

Heard it from a friend, who heard it from a friend

That is basically how I found this fun blog: Clearly Delightful. I'd been on someone's blog, and their link led me to a link, that led me to another, and finally to Clearly Delightful! Where I found her cool sketch. I needed a birthday card for a party my daughter's going to today, and thought this sketch would be fun to do for a little boy card. Then I was putting everything away, and I found some pretty patterned paper I've had for a while. And I wanted to use it for this sketch. So I made a second card. I love how many people out there share their talent, and list sketches, and give crafters like me an idea of something to try!

The Cuttlebug Spot Challenge #6

Typically, I like to do the challenge over at the cuttlebug spot on Mondays. This week I wasn't able to get to it until today. The challenge was to use a Christmas embossing folder, and a border. Part of the reason I waited on the challenge, was because I don't have a border punch. And I knew on Wednesday I had to go to town, and I was thinking I might get a border punch. But, unfortunately, our scrapbook store is pretty limited with their selection. I didn't see any good punches, so instead I got this new embossing folder, and decided to make my own border with one of my cuttlebug dies. I like this embossing folder, and I plan on using it a lot for Christmas, and other wintertime events!

Another Sketch Card

I can't believe it's already Thursday! This week is flying by. On Thursday, Tamara always posts a card sketch, so I looked at her blog to see what the sketch was. I liked it a lot, and had visions of embossed snowflakes all over my card. Well, after a billion revisions, I'm still not sure what I was trying to do. And this card is not what I thought I was going for. But I had fun, and I've got a Christmas card to add to my stash. And in real life, the colors look good together (the side piece is not that red, it looks good with the snowflakes). I'm hoping to try another card later using the same sketch, because I just like it a lot. So, as my daughter would say, "Someday!"
EDIT: Okay, I went back and looked at the sketch again, and added a ribbon on the side. I do like it better now. I know sketches are to help us get creative, and following them exactly isn't what's required, but the card with the ribbon looks better to me!

Goody Bags

I love the Hero Arts Thanksgiving set I got a while back. It has some pretty leaves, a swirly leaf, a turkey, a pumpkin, and some fun sayings it it. So today I decided to get some goody bags made for Thanksgiving. And what fun would it be to make goody bags if I didn't get to emboss something!?! I like making little candy bags to give to friends and neighbors just to let them know we're thinking about them!

Bookmark

I love Fall! But when Fall gives way to Winter, and it's so chilly, and the wind blows, I just want to curl up on the couch, read a good book, and drink hot chocolate and eat Snickers. That is how today was. But I didn't have any hot chocolate or Snickers, so I had to be content with what I could do. And that was to try and stamp something cheery. I found this awesome tutorial for making bookmarks, and decided to give it a whirl. One thing I like better about "traditional" rectangular bookmarks, is that they seem easier to design and to add an image to. But I love how these seem like they'll stay on the pages of the book a little better. A lot of times my kids love to help me by getting my book for me if I'm already curled up on the couch, and more often than not the pages open and the bookmark seems to fall right out. So I'm going to play around and make some more of these, and see what else I can come up with.

Celebrate!

My baby girl is turning 5 next week! I just can't believe it. In so many ways it doesn't seem like enough time has passed that she could possibly be turning five. So I wanted to get her card ready this week, since I'm sure this week will fly as fast as all of the others have. I used Julee's Mojo Monday sketch for the card. I love this sweet little girl from Paper Pretties. Whenever I see her, I feel happy. And I hope my daughter has a wonderful, happy birthday!

So Blessed

I love November. Thanksgiving is such a great time of year. It is a perfect time to remember how blessed we all are, and how thankful we should all be. So today I decided to make a Thanksgiving card, and stop to take a moment and count all of the blessings I have. It's been a while since I distressed the edges of my card, and after looking at Laurie's card here, I decided I wanted to distress the edges of my main image. Then on the section that I ran through the cuttlebug I sanded some of the embossed image. I can't decide if I should add a fifth brad at the bottom, or leave the card as it is. I don't know if it looks off balance to anyone else. Now I'm off to hide from the thunderstorms we are having. Because they petrify me!

Cleaning Up

After a long week of continuous projects, my scrapping area is a disaster! If I was really courageous I'd take a "before" picture. But it's too embarrassing for that. So now that we are done running errands for the day, my self-inflicted torture is to get this scrapping area cleaned up. Because only then can I play and be productive.