Pirate Apron

Christmas brought a wonderful homemade gift to me.  I have a silly fascination with pirates.  A friend made me this apron that is actually double sided.  The other side is a reverse of the material.  I was wearing this side as I cooked on Christmas day since it had more red on it.  Along with the apron came two matching dish towels.  Let's hear it for crafty friends who know what you like!

Organizing

My craft room has needed a major rehaul for quite some time.  I have been looking at various storage items and love them, but until recently, couldn't quite figure out what all was needed or not.  But, for Christmas a friend gave me a gift certificate which I put to good use.  This time as I looked at empty containers, I could begin to imagine what could go in them.  As you can see, success!  The joy the top container is that there are two sides.  Flip it over and more of the same storage in on the other side.  So all my stickles, enamels, and liquid pearls are in one spot.   The second container has a tray in the top so all my paints and tools can be in one container.  Can't tell you how happy this makes me!  It also makes it easier to use and to take with me for classes and craft gatherings.  A start in the right direction!

Christmas craft item

Hope you all had a happy holiday.  We were the recipient of a very nice homemade gift that you see here.  Chalk paint was applied to these cups.  Then the words were added with chalk.  Hot chocolate mix and peppermint candy canes came with it.  So cute and clever! 

Sharon's Christmas card

As you can see, Christmas has not gone to the dogs at our house, it's gone to the cats.  Another friend sent this colorful card to me.  She did all the white parts with embossing folders.  Then used material cut and fused to paper.  I'm thrilled.  Hope it's a great day of love and joy for you all.

Gayle's Christmas Card

A friend of min found a stamp that looks a lot like my cat.  So, I got a very personalized Christmas card from her.  How nice that stamping enables that?

Christmas Card

Can you belive this was a hand made card?  The wreath is stamped and then the berries were stamped with a red embossing powder.  The bow and background were dies done on red mirror paper.  It's just simply stunning in the light!  This is a keeper.

Photos and Stamping

Loved this Christmas card from a friend.  Doesn't get any more simple yet affective as this.  She took a photo from one of her travels and mounted it onto kraft paper.  On the inside a Christmas message was stamped.  What a nice card.

January birthday

I have a friend who has the audacity to have a birthday early in January.  It's only taken me a decade or so to be cognizant of this fact.  After all, we are still getting over the holidays and coming to grips with the realization that it's a new year.  Happily, this year I am aware and I am prepared!  Well, at least with her card.  Now let's hope I don't lose it between now and her birthday.

Christmas Card

This card came in the mail yesterday.  How awesome is this?  Coloring was done with Copics and then vellum went over top of everything.  The message was stamped with a dye base ink.  Pigment inks never dry on vellum.  Hard to see, but a touch of red Stickles was added to each dot.  It catches the light and sparkles.  Love it!

Clean and Simple

This paper will look familiar.  I have posted several "thank you" cards using it  This time though, I've made a simple card focusing on one of the images in the paper.  Now it is a card ready for any occasion!

Hero Arts Thank You card

Was having so much fun with the penguins I did another card with even more of them.  This time I used words from a Hero Art "Thank you" set. 

Another Thank you

As you can see, I'm getting lots of use out of this Impression Obsession stamp.  More paper used from my stash, and some cute penguins cut out from printed paper as well.

IO Thank you

Here is a variation off of the card posted yesterday.  Same printed paper and words, but mounted onto a green card with white behind the printed paper.  The words show up better in person.

Impression Obsession Thank You

The paper here is from my winter stash.  Some brown was used behind it.  All of this was added to the white card.  Then the words were stamped in black.  Simple, but nice.

Button Snowman

My book club had our holiday "feasting and fun" meeting last week.  One of our members surprised us with these adorable little framed snowmen.  How cute and clever!  Had to share this great idea.

Thank you card

Had a stamping day with friends this week and I used the time to make some "Thank you" cards.  Some holiday paper helped with this card as well as some washi tape.  Then the words were stamped on the cream card.

Gelli Print Card

Received another nice card the other day.  I loved how she used the gelli prints in strips.  Then she embossed a butterfly in gold and cut it out and added it with foam mounts.  A little washi tape at the bottom, and then stamped the "thank you" on. Although it's a blue card base, this card is bright and cheerful. 

Dreamweaver Stencil

Let's finish the week with a completely different card.  This card is made with all one stencil.  Gold glitter paste was spread over the stencil.  It's hard to see in this photo, but the paste is very yellow and glittery and matches the gold metallic paper.  The red paper here is also metallic red. 

WPlus9 Deer set

Here is an alternative card to yesterday's post.  The trees were stamped with a white pigment ink.  The deer and bird were die cut in gray and white.

Deer Set

Sick of the candle?  Here is a completely different set.  The trees were stamped twice.  Two different birds were stamped in red.  The rest of the card is done in gray.  The nice thing about the white card is it makes it look like a snow scene.

Sweet N' Sassy Candle

Lots going on in the background here.  But, I think it works.  The printed paper makes a subtle addition behind the script.  The design die is by MemoryBox and one I like a lot.

Sweet N' Sassy Candle

The candle was combined with a dry embossed background.  The candle was stamped once, but die cut twice.  Once on the paper and colored in, and once on gold metallic paper which created a shadow effect.  Coloring was done with a Dove blender pen and dye inks.

Sweet N' Sassy Candle set

This week I thought we would take a look at "Christmas Past" and review some of the cards that were sent in previous years.  This set was one of my favorites becasuse  I was able to make a variety of cards from this one set.  That keeps me from getting tired of repeating a card multiple times.  Hope you enjoy the look back.

Graphic 45 Zebra card

As soon as this paper came out, I knew I had to make a birthday card out of it for a friend who likes zebras.  Sure was happy to find it today.  I am giving to my friend over a birthday lunch this afternoon.  It was made right after purchasing the paper and I tried hard to put is in an obvious place to find.  I've been known to make cards ahead and then make them again because I can't find them.  (Please tell me I'm not the only one.)  The background design is all one big stamp.

Memorybox Christmas Cards

It's the time of year again.  Time to send Christmas cards.  This is all one stamp so it made a nice easy card to do.  I stuck with pigment inks because they worked best with this large image.  Pretty much did half in blue and half in lavender.  Now back to getting them ready to be mailed.