A Get Well Card

Well, what a Christmas! We had a ton of snow and almost weren't able to get out of our neighborhood to celebrate with family on Christmas day. Fortunately, we did make it and it was a wonderful evening. I received several crafting goodies including a Cuttlebug, new trimmer, and Bic Mark-It pens! :) Along with a nice gift card to my LSS.

The day after Christmas my father-in-law had to go in for major heart surgery. The surgery went well and he is now recovering in the hospital. My husband is visiting him today and so last night I made up a get well card for him.
I had fun using my new trimmer...such clean, sharp edges! Yeah! This is my first card using my Cuttlebug and I can't wait to get my hands on some more Cuttlebug dies and embossing folders! The striped paper is from October Afternoon and the stamped leaf is from Unity's gratitude=joy set. The matted sentiment and leaf are popped up on foam squares and then I just added a few rhinestones to finish it off.

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas and are enjoying the aftermath of it all! :) I am hoping to get out of the house today (finally) and go shop all the great after Christmas sales that are supposed to be going on!

From Our Family to Yours...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

One final Christmas card to share with you all. I first made one of these cards at a Stampin' Up party. I really like the look of them and they are perfect for slipping a gift card into too. I used my Unity Bitty Christmas Tags set for this card along with Doodlebug Kisses and SU Wild Wasabi cardstock.
May your holiday be filled with many blessings, family, and close friends!

Inspired by Etsy and a Sketch from 2Sketches4You

Well, it is Christmas Eve and I still have a few gifts left to wrap and one small gift left to make. I was able to make up a set of thank you cards yesterday for my aunt, however, I will share those with you another day. Today I have a card to share that was Etsy Inspired and I used another wonderful sketch from 2Sketches4You. This week Ashley over at Heart Hugs Designs is featuring the Etsy shop Think Outside the Box for her Etsy Inspired challenge.
Here are the cute little felt snowmen I was inspired by. I knew I had the perfect snowman stamp and wanted to try using some felt on my card too...so here is what I came up with.










I turned Kazan's sketch on it's side to make it work for this tall and skinny snowman. I distressed the felt by pulling and folding it to give it some dimension. The snowflakes are actually asterisks from a set of alphabet thickers. And don't you just love this white, ruffled ribbon?! I got the last yard of it at my LSS. Finally, I colored in my image a little using my SU blender pens and added Stickles for some added sparkle. The paper is from My Mind's Eye, Be Merry collection.

Snow is falling here and since my hubby has to work tomorrow we are opening most of our gifts today...so I'm off to have fun with my family! Have a wonderful Christmas Eve! I will be posting one last Christmas card tomorrow!

From Our Home to Yours

Christmas is almost here...and I am still working on a few gifts! This year I thought it would be great to give a few friends and family a little recipe book with some of our family's favorite recipes. I know I always love a good new recipe to try. So here are some pictures of how one of the books turned out.

The patterned paper is Heidi Grace Designs, Harvest Row line. For all of the recipes and front cover I used a thinner cardstock and printed them out on my computer. To keep the pages together I just used my Crop-a-dile to punch two holes in each page and then slid a small binding ring (7 gypsises) through each set of holes. To finish it off, I tied some coordinating ribbon around the rings.



This was a pretty easy project and I am very happy with the end result. I think I will make a few extra just to keep on hand. It's always nice to have something to give to someone who unexpectedly gives you a gift or to have some on hand for a future little thank you or teacher gift.

If are interested in trying one of these recipes you can click on the Crab & artichoke dip, Italian baked pork chops, or Taco Chili page for a closer look at the ingredients and directions. And if you are really interested in the salmon or vegetables you can leave a comment and I would be happy to email you the rest of the directions for those. All of these recipes are favorites of ours from various cookbooks.

Hope you are enjoying your week!We still have a lot of snow here so I think we will be staying home again today...maybe I can get some sets of cards made up!

Limelight Papercrafts Sketch Challenge

Another day of Basic Grey...
Each week Limelight Papercrafts has a sketch and product challenge. I really enjoyed this weeks sketch and the product focus was patterned paper (of course, I had to use my new Basic Grey pad).

For those of you who visited my blog yesterday, yes this card is very similar...I really loved the look of this paper with the brown Unity leaf stamp. The thank you sentiment is from SU. Thanks for visiting today! We are expected to get a big ice, snow, and wind storm here this weekend...I am hoping it won't be as bad as they are predicting.

Happy Friday!

Well we are in winter wonderland here but I took a break from all my Christmas projects to make two cards yesterday. For both of my cards I used my new Basic Grey archaic paper pad...thanks again Amy! First up is a thank you card I created using Laura's sketch from 2sketches4you.

I love the earthy tones to this Basic Grey paper and thought this leaf stamp from Unity's gratitude=joy set would compliment the paper nicely. Then I added a little bling for some dimension.

Next up is the card I made for Jeanne's pie color challenge in the Unity forum yesterday (which I also won a $5 Unity g.c. for! :). I love pumpkin pie so I created this card using brown, orange, and cream colors.

The stamps I used for this card were Unity's worn grid background stamp and the stars and sentiment are from the School Rock Star set.

Have a great day! Check out the Unity forum or Angela's blog for a list of other Unity customers posting fabulous projects today. Unless our power goes out I will be posting again tomorrow! :)

Candy Cane Lane

This week I have been playing with all my new stamping goodies that I received from my Unity Secret Santa, Amy. This weekend I will share some cards I have made using my Basic Grey paper, but today I have another card featuring that cute Unity candy cane stamp. When I saw Wednesday's sketch challenge on SCS it reminded me of a wrapped present and of course a present made me think of Christmas, so this is what I came up with.
I did several red and white layers of card stock to mirror the red and white stripes of a candy cane. As I was cutting the green ribbon for the card it started to fray a little and I thought I would fray it some more to give my card some texture. Then I just added a bow up top and a Doodlebug button near the bottom to give a little dimension to the card. I am planning on stamping a sentiment and another image on the inside of the card too.

Thanks for stopping by today. We have snow here and it is COLD! My son, of course, has no school and so we will be playing in the snow and putting together our gingerbread house. And my hubby is home today too, so I will be spending some time over in the Unity forum for Hip Hop Thursday! If you have some time today, pop in and say 'hello'.

Etsy Inspired Ornaments

Well, fortunately our snow melted by yesterday afternoon and we were able to get the boys to their appointment with Santa for pictures. However, my youngest wanted nothing to do with Santa and he is crying in the picture...although it is still cute and my oldest had on his very best smile!

Last night I took some time to do another of Ashley's Etsy Inspired Challenges. This weeks featured shop is Purple Toes Jewelry. I was most inspired by the shapes and colors of these two earrings.

When I saw these earrings I immediately thought of a great post I had seen on Cath's blog, Moxie Fab World, that featured paper ornaments from Kate's Paperie, because two of the ornaments had similar shapes. So, I decided to give them a try (you can download the templates from Kate's Paperie for free) using the colors in these earrings. Here is what I came up with...




I thought these would be so simple to make, especially with a template, but you really have to make sure that each piece you cut is identical and symmetrical. Needless to say, it did take me a few tries.

If you decide to try these ornaments out here are a few tips: 1. for the teardrop ornament use thicker paper, ideally two different double sided patterned paper 2. trace one shape and layer the other papers underneath when cutting in order to have them all exactly the same 3. for the figure 8 ornament I recommend using lightweight paper 4. for the figure 8 ornament I also recommend folding the paper in half before cutting out the ornament (Hope this helps! :)

Well, my little one year old had his check up and shots this morning so I am going to go give him some more good snuggles and love! Hope you are having a good day! Thanks for stopping by!

A Simple Set

Today I set out to get at least one Christmas gift completed and am happy to say I accomplished that goal with this set of cards. On Thursday I received an amazing package full of paper crafting goodies from my Unity Secret Santa, Amy (see post below for extra details), and one of the things she gave me was a 6x6 pad of 7 gypsies paper (Sushi Journey).
I thought this paper was so beautiful and couldn't wait to use it! Here are the cards I came up with using the 6 different designs from this pack.

This card is one of my favorites in the bunch. The pattern is pretty and fun and the simple addition of the chipboard gives it that handmade touch.




The next four cards were super simple...just a few straight cuts, some gold ink for the chipboard frame, a few gold eyelets, a little glue and I was done!





Now for my second favorite card in this set.
I just love the elegance of these patterns!

I am so used to stamping and usually using more embellishments on my cards so in some ways this set was actually a bit of a challenge for me. But sometimes beautiful paper just doesn't need much else, right?!

I made this faux paper ribbon and tailored bow to give a little dimension to this card. I didn't have any actual ribbon that matched this paper and am actually quite happy with how the paper ribbon turned out and it coordinates perfectly!

Thanks for visiting today! Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend! It is snowing here in WA as I type this and I am hoping it doesn't get too bad overnight because we have Santa pictures scheduled for tomorrow and I definitely do not want to miss that!

Go Check This Out!

Happy Saturday! Just a quick post to let you know that Suzy over at Paper Monkey has an amazing giveaway going on until Monday so go take a peek at all the goodies you could win!

Holiday Cheer

This past week has been filled with a lot of wonderful family time celebrating my son's birthday and getting ready for Christmas so I have not done much stamping. But I always seem to be motivated to do some stamping after Unity's Hip Hop Thursdays (one of the many reasons I love Hip Hop) and so here is what I created last night using Unity stamps and Amber's sketch.
The joy sentiment is from Bitty Christmas Tags and I just received this fun Cheer Candy Cane in the mail yesterday from my Unity Secret Santa pal Amy! What a perfect day for my package to arrive! And here are the rest of the fabulous goodies I received!

Do you see that beautiful card Amy made for me...with one of my favorite Unity images too, the Dream tree! Thanks again Amy! I think I might be stamping and scrapping all weekend!

Be sure to stop by the Unity forum or Angela's blog to see who else is posting projects today. And I believe Angela still has some great deals going on today...like 20% off of everything!!!

Even my son loves Unity!

Well, I didn't get around to making any cards yesterday so I thought I would share a card my son made with Unity stamps this week. (If you want to see my most recent Unity cards, just scroll down to the posts below this one.) He has been watching me use Unity's Bitty Christmas Tags set a lot lately and asked if I could stamp some of the images for him to use on a card. So I did and here is what he created all on his own.
He is almost six and I have to say I think he did a great job! He colored each image and carefully cut them out. Did you notice the little gems on the Christmas tree...I was quite impressed!

Here he is so proud of his creation!

Check out Angela's blog for a list of other great bloggers who are posting Unity today.








On another note...a year ago today I had my second son. Happy first birthday my sweet little boy!

It is hard to believe that a year has already passed! We will be celebrating all weekend and then my husband will be on vacation for awhile so I am looking forward to some great, quality family time. Wonderful wishes to all of you and your families as you celebrate this holiday season!

A Challenge and an Award

First off, I wanted to share a card I created for today's SCS sketch challenge.
I mainly let this cute My Mind's Eye (Be Merry collection) paper speak for itself. I really love the snowmen and thought it would be fun to make the center panel look like a picture hanging on a wall to give it added interest. The sentiment is from my Unity Bitty Christmas Tags set and the large silver eyelets are Making Memories.

Now, for my exciting news...my very first blog award! Today, I checked my blog to find that Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Craft Room had left me a special blog award!
Thanks Elizabeth...it made my day! I have only been blogging for a few months now but am having a lot of fun with it. Thanks to all of you who visit me regularly and leave me such sweet comments! :) So, now I need to nominate 5 other fabulous ladies for this award. And here they are...

1. Mandy at Limelight Papercrafts - She always has such cute cards and I love the products that Limelight carries. And if you have not visited her before, this is definitely the week to do it because right now she (along with her fabulous DT) has a lot of fun games, challenges, and giveaways going on for the 12 Days of Christmas.
2. Ashley at Heart Hugs Designs - Each week Ashley posts an Etsy Inspired Challenge and I have been enjoying discovering the Etsy stores that she features. Her cards are adorable and as her blog title implies she shares her heart each week too.
3. Chelsea at All Things Through Christ - This girl is just the sweetest and her cards and layouts are amazing!
4. Patter at Triple the Scraps - I found Unity stamps (which I absolutely love) through Patter's blog. Although Patter creates great cards and layouts, what I love most about her blog is her focus on God. It is truly inspiring how God is working through Patter, helping her to reach out to all of us and bring us closer to Him.
5. Maren at Zany not Crazy - Maren is a fellow Washingtonian and I just love her style! She is an extremely active blogger, often posting several beautiful cards in one day, and is super creative too. I'm always inspired by her work.

A little note for my nominees: I know you all are super busy with crafting, kiddos, and life so please don't feel obligated to pass on this award...I just wanted you to know how much I enjoy your blogs.

If you do want to pass along the award, here are the rules:
1. The winner may put the Kreativ Blogger logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person that sent the award.
3. Nominate 5 other blogs.
4. Put a link to their blog on your blog.
5. Leave a message for the people you nominate.

It is getting late, so I am going to head off to bed but hopefully I will chat with some of you over in the Unity forum tomorrow for Hip Hop Thursday. And I will definitely be posting again on Friday. Thanks for stopping by!

Etsy Inspired Challenge Card

Each week Ashley over at Heart Hugs Designs posts an Etsy Inspired Challenge where she features one of the shops on Etsy and you can look around the shop for some inspiration for your card/project. For the past month, I have been enjoying exploring the shops that Ashley posts about but this is the first week that I have actually had a chance to play along.
This week the featured Etsy shop is Morgan Street which specializes in handmade bath products. They carry some really unique delicacies like Fresh Brewed Coffee Bundt Cake Soap (I don't even like coffee but this soap looks good enough to eat!) and Black Raspberry Vanilla Fizzy Bath Bomb, which I just might have to try. There are lots of great items to give as gifts and they are having a 15% off sale this week too.
For my card, I was inspired by this Lip Balm and all the natural, handmade products. So I created this tall and slender eco chic card, on Stampin' Up's Naturals ivory cardstock, with the flourishes along the edge. I used colors similar to the Chocolate Cake, Mango Sorbet, and Peppermint Lip Balms. It felt a little plain with just the stamped images so I added the button with some gold cord tied through it in a bow.

All the stamps I used are from Unity...for the flourishes I actually used part of the dream tree (Growing in Unity set). The leaf image is from the Gratitude=Joy set and the sentiment is from the Eco Chic set. The ink I used was Brilliance archival gold, SU sage shadow, and Colorbox dark brown.

Thanks for visiting! If you get the chance, go visit Morgan Street for a little inspiration of your own (and maybe a few bath goodies too) and play along with Ashley's Etsy Inspired Challenge.