May you be Blessed

Well, where in the world did the week go... I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  Ours was nice and quiet.  Now that Thanksgiving is over, we all know what's on the mind these days - Christmas!

Here is a card that I made that is subtly Christmas, or at least in my opinion.  The paper is Jovial from Basic Grey and I used 12x12 so the scale is a bit larger than when you use the 6x6 pads, but this paper doesn't scream Christmas to me though.

I paired it with an image from Clear Dollar Stamps called  Tag Blessings.  I think this sentiment is perfect for the holidays!  I also used a die from the set Designer Labels.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Card Recipe

Stamps: Tag Blessings

Cardstock/Papers: Cottonball White, Red Velvet Cake, Ripe Olive (CDS), Basic Grey Jovial

Ink: Red Velvet Cake, Tropical Mist

Accents/Tools: Designer Label Dies (CDS), Tropical Mist Ribbon (CDs), hole punch

Merry Christmas

Hey all, hope everyone is having a great Sunday!  Here's the run down of what is literally happening right this second:

Me: Blogging
Hubby: working on organizing digital photos on the computers
Oldest: working on math problems (for fun)
One twin: playing with cars on the little table
Other twin: playing on the computer

So... here is my card.  I'm not sure if I really love birds or not or if I love birds because my MIL loves birds... especially cardinals :)

This card uses an image from JustRite Stampers and is combined with my favorite Close to my Heart holiday paper.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!  

PS... everyone is now doing something totally different by the time I was done with the post.

Waltzingmouse Stamps Challenge 22

Hi all!  Its Wednesday and I've got a couple of highlights to share for today!  The first of course is that my lovely card ladies are coming and that is always fun!  Secondly, I've got a new mattress being delivered today.  Exciting huh?

But for my card today, I'm sharing a card that I made for Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge Blog.  I must admit that I love sketch challenges but sometimes they are just plain hard for me... don't ask and sometimes it doesn't even matter if they are simple or more complicated.

Today's card is my 2nd take on it.  The first one went into the recycling tote, but I am quite satisfied with this one.   Totally different card than the first try.

I used Close to my Heart holiday paper which is probably my favorite holiday paper that I've seen in a long time.  It is just lovely!  The large brown strip is actually some very wide ribbon that I happened to have and the holly pieces are part of the designer paper that I glued onto cardstock and then cut out.  Stamps of course are Waltzingmouse.

Thanks for coming to visit and have a great Wednesday... the week's half over!

Clear Dollar Stamps September Sneak Peeks Day 4 - Card Kit

The final day is here and most of the stamps have been revealed.  I've got one last thing to show you and its the latest addition to the Clearly Coordinating Kits.  This is another great kit based on some uber cute Basic Grey paper.  Its also perfect timing to think about your holiday cards and/or holiday gift giving of cards (lol).

Lori has changed some of the dimensions of the kits so in this kit you'll be receiving larger pieces of patterned paper and cardstock.

Thus I was able to create my card box with one of the sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 that is provided in the kit.

You can find all the details about this kit on Lori's Blog
Here are the cards that I created using the cardstock, patterned paper, and embellishments from the kit.  The card bases (cottonball white) are not included in the kit.


Stamps: Holiday Nutcracker

Stamps: Lamppost Expressions and Christmas Blessings

Stamps: Old Time Christmas and Scenic Trees

Stamps: Little Snowman and Old Time Christmas

Stamps: Patchpal Reindeer

Stamps: Holiday Patterns

Stamps: Holiday Patterns

Stamps: Poinsettia

Stamps: Christmas Blessings

Thanks again for stopping by.  I hope you have a great day and I'll see you soon.

Clear Dollar Stamps September Sneak Peeks Day 2

Welcome back to the 2nd day of Clear Dollar Stamps September stamps previews.  Check out the full reveals of the stamps over on Lori's Blog.

Here is the list of today's images that are being shown and the designers that are sharing them.

Christmas Mouse and All God's Creatures

Laurie Wilson    Trudy Sjolander   Barb Gmitro Best   Shell Sampson

Winter Critters

Laurie Wilson   Angela Thomas   Tricia Traxler   Cassie Trask

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This Christmas Mouse is super cute and he was a ball to color.  I opted to go for a bright and cheery first card.  I used some TaDa Creative Studios paper that was just released at this summer's CHA show.  It is fun, fun, fun!

The sentiment paired with this cute mouse is a separate stamp and  is perfect with this image, but think about all the other cute critters and animals that this sentiment will work with.

Card Recipe

Stamps/Images: Christmas Mouse, All God's Creatures

Cardstock/Papers: Cottonball white, Tropical Mist, Strawberry Jam, Heavy Silk Watercolor Paper (CDS), TaDa Creative Studios Holly Jolly

Inks/Markers: Versacolor Black, Close to my Heart, Tombows: 373,947,098,942,847

Accents/Tools: Strawberry Jam ribbon (CDS), Spellbinders Label Nesties, Oval Nesties, Pinking Circles, clear embossing powder, heat gun, waterbrush, sponge dauber, white gel pen, eksuccess border punch

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Here is my second sample of this cute guy. 

Card Recipe

Stamps/Images: Christmas Mouse, Merry Christmas 3

Cardstock/Papers: Cottonball White, Sweet Cheeks, Silk watercolor paper (CDS), My Minds Eye

Ink/Markers: Black Stazon, Hot Cocoa (CDS), Tombows: 173,025,772,743,528

Accents/Tools: Lime Juice ribbon (CDS), Labels 9 nestabilities (spellbinders), SU! horizontal slot punch

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My last set that I'm showing today is called Winter Critters and you won't be disappointed with this one either.  For my 1st sample, I used not a critter but an object... the Christmas tree.

Card Recipe

Stamps/Images: Winter Critters

Cardstock/Papers: ripe olive, silk watercolor paper, cottonball white (cds), papertrey ink men of life

Inks/Markers: versacolor black, CTMH, ripe olive (cds), Tombows: 098,177,977,837,026,491,528,N75, spica glitter pens (gold, sky blue, red, lemon)

Accents/Tools: Labels 5 (spellbinders), crochet ribbon (offray), christmas tree embossing folder (cuttlebug), waterbrush, sponge dauber, SU! border punch

And my last sample for today is actually a critter... this cute penguin.  I stamped, colored, cut, and then stuck him on this great little scene.

Card Recipe

Stamps/Images: Winter Critters

Cardstock/Papers: Cottonball White, Pucker Up, Silk watercolor paper (CDS), Papertrey ink, Niki Sivils

Inks/Markers: Versacolor black, Pucker Up (CDS), Tombows: N75, N25, 245, 451, 845, 526, 985

Accents/Tools: PTI die, pinking circles (spellbinders), Pucker Up ribbon (CDS), hole punch, clear embossing powder, pop dots, waterbrush

Thanks for stopping by for another great day.  There's more so I'm expecting you tomorrow too!  Have a great day.

Countdown to Christmas #23

Hey there... hope you are having a great day today. I've got a club meeting with my fabulous group of ladies and am looking forward to that, but in the meantime, I've got #23 to share with you.

This came together very quickly and I'm pleased with the way it turned out... quick is good. I used some left over paper from My Minds Eye and one of my newest favorite nesties of late. I used an older but well loved Christmas set from My Sentiments Exactly and paired it with a newer stamp set from Waltzingmouse Stamps.

Hope you like :) Have a great Sunday.

Countdown to Christmas #21 and #22

Happy Tuesday! Before I get going, just a reminder that all the new releases are available at Clear Dollar Stamps plus something BRAND, BRAND new. Lori has stepped into June with a card kit for purchase. Head on over to Clearly iStamp to check it out. Its very cool and I know you'll like it.

Now for today, I had every intention of sharing my 21st Christmas card, but the first one I did I didn't like. Hubby had run to the store so I thought I would jet downstairs and create a super quick Christmas card.

I only had 2 requirements in my brain... Christmas and I wanted to use a Close to my Heart stamp since I hadn't used one in a while. So this is what I ended up with. It just didn't work for me so I started a new card later on.


So, this is my 2nd card... again... 2 requirements. I wanted to use a CTMH stamp and make it a Christmas card. I did use a CTMH stamp, but I ended up adding 2 other stamp sets to it. I used Vintage Labels 10 and Fancy Phrases (the nestie part) from Waltzingmouse Stamps.

I also ended up using Tim Holtz distress inks for this card as well. While I was creating this card I really liked it and then in the end... I'm not sure.


So in the end, I'm sharing them both and will be giving them both away at Christmas time. You be the judge... yay, nay, or none :)

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!

Countdown to Christmas #20

Happy Monday folks... I hope you are having a great day. Things here are good for the most part, you know the drill. There is always something out of your control that is annoying in one way or another.

But, on the card front, I've got my 20th Christmas card done. I kept this one relatively traditional with red and green, but my green ink is of the non traditional color. I inked up my embossed cardstock with Tim Holtz's crushed olive distress ink. Its a bit on the limey side.

The stamp is from Stampin Up!

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day!

Countdown to Christmas #18 and #19

Hey everyone! Happy Sunday, although for many of you its gone and for me its almost gone! The weather has been beautiful here and its so nice to see the sun out.

I needed to catch up a bit and get my Christmas cards posted today and I will be caught up for next week and back on track.

This first card uses a stamp set that I got a couple of years ago I believe on clearance. It is a Martha Stewart set and to be honest they don't ink up with dye inks at all well. I used Memento inks this time and they worked pretty well. I paired the images up with some Cosmo Cricket and kept to my minimal layering (easy mailing) and used stickles to jazz it up a bit.

My second Christmas cards uses a Stampin Up! holiday set that is very cute. A lovely friend of mine gifted this to me. I don't have the name right in front of me but I know its popular because I've seen it in the past quite often.

I paired this stamp with some tried and true favorite Basic Gray paper. I still have this stuff hanging around. Its a good thing I still like it. I used Labels 10 and the Petite Ovals to cut everything out and added some great silk ribbon to finish it off.

That's it for me today, but I am hoping to be back tomorrow with a card for the Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Waltz tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting.

Countdown to Christmas #16 and Clearly Inspired Challenge

Happy Sunday friends! I am off on another road trip with the hubby and the rest of the "motorcycle gang"... once again, I'm torn about the whole motorcycle thing, but off I go. We are meeting a couple of other couples and doing the ride to Orcas Island and my lovely friend is coming over to watch the children.

But, in the mean time, I wanted to share my 16th Countdown to Christmas card. I must say that I am very pleased with the way this turned out. I love the look, the simplicity, the colors, and the embellishments.

I also wanted to let you know about the challenge that I host over on Lori's blog - Clearly iStamp. These occur every other Friday and the challenge changes every time.

This week's challenge (posted this past Friday) is all about ribbon. I didn't use a lot on my card, but I feel that it provides a big punch to the overall look of my card. I used the new Cherry Go Round ribbon that is part of the new Clearly Coordinating Collection that has been introduced at the store.

Head on over to the challenge and not only have fun, but get a chance to win a FREE stamp set of your choice just for joining in.

I also wanted to high light the stamped tree image. I stamped this in a pigment white ink and then added clear embossing powder to it and while I was heating the powder I covered it in these new Ultra Fine clear Micro Beads that you can find at Clear Dollar Stamps now. This stuff is so cool and it gave my tree such a neat look too.

I tried to get a good picture of it, but it adds a lot of interest to the card in real life.

Ok, that's it for me... thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day.

Recipe:

Stamps: Scenic Trees, Christmas Blessings (Clear Dollar Stamps)

Cardstock/Designer Paper: Everlasting Level 2 (Close to my Heart)

Ink: Pigment white, Ponderosa Pine (Close to my Heart), Victorian Velvet Distress Ink (Tim Holtz)

Other: Red Ribbon, Clear Micro Beads (Clear Dollar Stamps), Long Scallop Nestability (Spellbinders), Distress Sponge Tool (Tim Holtz), Embossing Powder, Heat Gun

Countdown to Christmas #15

Good morning and happy Sunday. I get to go meet with my club today and have some fun crafty time, but in the meantime, I've got Christmas Card #15. This is a different look and I used some bright cheery colors and what could be called non-traditional, but in all honestly during the holidays we see a lot of pink and green.

And guess what? I didn't even use a Christmas stamp except for the sentiment of course. The tree stamp is from a Hero Arts set called Tree, Bird, and Messages and the sentiment is from a holiday set from My Sentiments Exactly.

I did add some stickles to the little flowers on my tree and I'm just venting here, but I've had the worst problem with this one color clogging. I think I've wasted more than I've used, but for some reason its just this one color. Its a "whatever" moment or moments when in use.

Card base is Neenah and the rest of the cardstock is from Papertrey ink as is the ribbon. EK Success border punch and image colored with Copics. Nestability die to cut out image and I think that does it!

Hope you have a great Sunday and I'll catch you later!

Countdown to Christmas #15

Hey friends! Its time for my 15th Christmas card... I paired an older Hero Arts stamp with one of my Close to my Heart sets and dug around for the perfect sized sentiment which happened to be from an old Martha Stewart set that I found on Clearance a couple of Christmases ago. Talk about mix and match!

I also embossed everything in gold, added some rhinestones and then used another fave Martha Stewart border punch.

Mix of inks and cardstock as well.

Thanks for coming to visit and have a very happy Sunday.

Countdown to Christmas #14 along with Limelight Papercrafts Sketch and product Challenge

Hi everyone! I'm a tad bit early with my next Christmas card, but I thought I would combine a couple of things together. Its time for another Limelight Papercrafts sketch and product challenge. Head on over to see this great sketch and get your rhinestones on!

I combined two Papertrey ink stamp sets (Dot Spot and Winter Swirls) for my holiday look.

I'm headed down south to visit family for the weekend and we are all looking forward to the visit. The boys have been counting down the days.

Thanks for visiting and have a great Easter weekend.

Countdown to Christmas #13

Hey all, hope you are having a great week and a happy Thursday. Yikes, the week just passing me by. Don't forget that all those great sneak peeks that you saw the past days are now available at Clear Dollar Stamps. Plus, the new and FIRST Season of Clearly Coordinating Cardstock Summer Fun is in stock and ready to purchase. Don't forget there are also matching tombow markers and Copic markers all picked out for you.



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And now, the reason for my post today is to share my 13th Christmas card of the year. I gathered some new goodies that I just received and got to work. They happen to be some Papertrey ink things, but I did add a different set for my sentiment from one of my all time favorite holiday sets from My Sentiments Exactly. I have no idea what its called, but it was literally one of my first set of clear stamps that I ever purchased.


Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Countdown to Christmas #12

Happy Monday... Nothing new here just another "manic Monday"... nah... not really manic at all, but I do remember that song fondly.

I've got Christmas Card #12 for you today and I have yet to get behind so far. I was the lucky recipient of this very pretty stamp set called Singing Birds from Pink Persimmon. I love this stamp set... but I wanted it to fit my needs to make a Christmas card and the end result is the card below.

The set doesn't come with the Merry Christmas sentiment so I added my own from THIS set at Clear Dollar Stamps. It fit perfectly.

I colored my image with my Copics , added some Christmas red stickles, and used some Judikins diamond glaze to the leaves. I know its hard to see in the photo but it adds a great touch to the card since there aren't a lot of other embellishments.

And of course, I had to use my left over Basic Grey Wassail paper. Finally, I got to play with some Tim Holtz ink and the sponges and they are indeed very cool.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day. Its early release today so the oldest will be home right after lunch!

Countdown to Christmas #11

Hey all... here is number 10 in my quest for Christmas Cards. I am a huge fan of blues and whites for Christmas and I went with that for today's card. Its another pretty simple design with lots of embossing on this one. I used two different cuttlebug embossing folders as well as two different Clear Dollar Stamps - Damask Designer (swirls) and Holiday Patterns (snowman).

This could substitute for a winter themed card too if needed.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

-Katie

Countdown to Christmas #10

Happy Monday everyone! I've got my next Christmas card for you and really the only thing that makes a Christmas card are the colors and the sentiment. The stamp for the design is from Papertrey ink (Guidelines) and the sentiment is from a past Stamp of the Month from Clear Dollar Stamps.

Quickie post today and I will have a few pictures to share with you from our quick little overnight trip this past weekend tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting and have a great day.