12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 12

Welcome back to Day 12 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. I can't believe that 12 days have passed already!  And that we are only 12 days from Christmas Eve!  It seems to be coming too fast this year!  I save my favorite card this year for last.  I saw the idea for it on Pintrest and it was just too cute not to create!

First off I will apologize for the picture quality.  It is so hard to photograph an acetate card!  The base of this card is made with Close to My Heart's Acetate Cards.  They come with a protective film on them so you just remove the film and then decorate.  I love it!  Now I will warn you that you have to be careful with your adhesive as it does show through on the other side unless you cover it up with a piece of paper like I did!  To make this snowman you will need one small circle for the head, one medium circle for the center of the body and four large circles for the bottom of the body ( I will explain why you need three extra in a few minutes). Using a light blue ink edge each of your circles, this makes the white seem whiter for some reason.  Now assemble and decorate your snowman.  I placed foam dots between each of the layers to make him pop a bit more.  I used actually twigs as the arms, liquid pearls for the buttons, eyes, and smile, felt for the hat and orange cardstock for the nose.  Once he was assembled, I adhered him to the front of the card.  Now I will explain the other three large circle you cut out.  One goes on the inside of the card for you to write on.  I lined mine up so that when the card is closed the snowman covers up the circle on the inside.  I used the other two circles to cover up the flip sides of the card (I mean the back of the front and back of the back) to hide my adhesive.  Next I added bakers twine and my sentiment and then on the backside of the front of the card I place a small piece of patterned paper which I cut out using a Nestabilites Spikey Circle die and my CuttleBug to be slightly bigger than the sentiment so you see it through the acetate.  I hope my instructions are clear (hahaha pun intended).  It can be a little difficult to explain but once you play with acetate (if you haven't already) it will make sense! I hope you enjoyed this card, I know I had fun making it!

That wraps up my 12 Days of Christmas Cards!  I really hope you enjoyed it, I know I did!

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 11

Welcome back to Day 11 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. Today's card is a 5x7 card.  I decided I wanted to use this chipboard snowflake from Basic Grey but it was too big to fit my usual sized cards.  Sometimes I do make cards work for the elements I want to use instead of the other way around.

I started with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and trimmed it to 7 x 10.  I then scored it and folded it so that it was 7 x 5 and used that as my card base.  I took a piece of patterned paper and trimmed it to 6.75 x 4.75 and adhered it to my card base.  Next I decided the placement of my large snowflake so that I could determine where my twine and sentiment would go.  I did not stick it down at this point, I just marked it with a pencil.  Using Versa Mark ink, I stamped my sentiment and then covered it with White Embossing Powder.  I heated it until the powder melted and then set it aside to cool.  After it had cooled, I added my baker's twine and did my faux stitching.  Now that everything was in place, I stuck down my chipboard snowflake to finish off the card.  Yes this card is very simple but I find it dramatic with that large snowflake.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Be sure to come back tomorrow for the final card in this series.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 10

Welcome back to Day 10 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. Continuing with yesterday's idea of a simple and easy to mass produce card I bring you today's card.

I was at my local scrapbook store awhile back and found these cards done by Tim Holtz called District Market Notecards in the sale section.  I thought they were really pretty in that vintage Christmas kind of way so I decided to pick them up.  I will admit that I struggled for a bit thinking about what I could do.  I didn't want to cover them up.  So I kept it real simple by added two strips of washi tape in two different colours/patterns.  I then tied a piece of twine around the card so that it sat in the middle between the two pieces of washi tape and then added the sentiment sticker.  I finished of the card by rounding the bottom two corners and there you have it, another quick and simple card!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 9

Welcome back to Day 9 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. This was a really simple and quick card to make and if you are anything like me where I send out a lot of Christmas Cards then you will love this one!  It is so easy to mass produce!

I started with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and cut it in have (8.5 x 5.5).  I then scored it and folded it so that it was 4.25 x 5.5 and used that as my card base.  I started with my background patterned paper and cut it to fit the front of the card (4.25 x 5.5) and adhered it to the front of the card.  Next I took a piece of white cardstock and trimmed it to 3.75 x 5.  Using a snowflake embossing folder, I ran this piece of white cardstock through my CuttleBug and then rounded all four corners and adhered it to the card.  I tied a very pretty ribbon around the front of the card and then added the sentiment sticker.  I finished of the card by rounding the two outside corners.  See I told you it was easy!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 8

Welcome back to Day 8 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. Today's card is a circle card.  I had these circle card bases in my stash from a Close To My Heart purse I made a couple of years ago.  I had stashed them away and then forgot about them until cleaning out some drawers a few weeks back.

I started with the card base and adhered the background patterned paper to the front of the card and then trimmed of the excess with my scissors.  I had a package of raw chipboard ornaments and chose one to go on the center of this card.  I misted it with a Mr. Huey mister to give it some colour and when it dried I mounted it a piece of patterned paper and trimmed off the excess with my scissors.  I then found the dimensional sentiment from one of Basic Grey's Christmas lines and stuck it in the middle.  I then adhered the whole thing onto the card and then glued a string of mini pearls around the outside.  To finish of the card I tied a small piece of ribbon around the top of the card.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 7

Welcome back to Day 7 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. I am back to the standard sized card today.  This is how I have always made my cards as it made the best use of an 8.5 x 11 sheet of card stock giving me two cards from every sheet.

I started with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and cut in half (8.5 x 5.5).  I then scored it and folded it so that it was 4.25 x 5.5 and used that as my card base.  I then took an embossing folder and ran the front of the card through the CuttleBug to give it the raised dot look.  I took a strips mitten patterned paper and edge punched the bottom and then adhered it to my card.  Using bakers twine I wrapped around the front of the card.  Cosmo Cricket makes a sheet of journalling and title cards with most of their collections so I cut one of them out of their Christmas collection and adhered it to a piece of slightly bigger coloured cardstock.  I then added some faux stitching and then adhered it to the front of the card.  I rounded the top two corners of the card to finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 6

Welcome back to Day 6 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. Hard to believe we are already half way!  Where does the time go!

I started with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and trimmed it to 8.5 x 7.5.  I then scored it and folded it so that it was 8.5 x 3.75, rounded the two outside corners and used that as my card base.  This card has a window in it that allows you to see the inside of the card.  It's great cause you can put a design element on the inside of the card that shows through.  To do this it is simple.  I cut the patterned background piece (6 x 3.5) and adhered it to my card.  Then using my CuttleBug and the scallop Nestabilities set I cut out the burgundy scallop circle a larger size and adhered it to the card.  I then took a smaller scallop circle and place it on my card and sandwiched the front of my card on my cut plates (be sure the back is folded under the bottom plate or you will end up cutting the back too).  Ran it through the CuttleBug  and tada! a window has now bin cut in your card.  I took a cute little ornament patterned paper and stuck it on the inside of the card so that when the card is closed you see the ornament through the window.  Using an edge punch I cut a small border for the top and bottom of the striped patterned paper in the same colour cardstock that I used for the window frame.  I added some faux white stitching and a ribbon and then stamped the sentiment on the card. To finish it off I traced the stamped sentiment with Glossy Accents to give it some dimension on the card and to help it stand out.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 5

Welcome back to Day 5 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. Like yesterday's card, this is another long and skinny format card, except I flipped it to be vertical.

I started with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and trimmed it to 8.5 x 7.5.  I then scored it and folded it so that it was 8.5 x 3.75 and used that as my card base.  I took three strips of different patterned paper and different sizes and covered the front of the card.  Next, using a scalloped edge punch I created a small white border to add to the bottom of the red section.  I tied on some bakers twine and added a chipboard tree.  I finished of the card by rounding the two outside corners.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 4

Welcome back to Day 4 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. Like yesterday's card, this is another long and skinny format card.

I started with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and trimmed it to 8.5 x 7.5.  I then scored it and folded it so that it was 8.5 x 3.75, rounded all four corners and used that as my card base.  I started with my background paper and trimmed it to 8 x 3.25, rounded all four corners and adhered it to my card base.  I then took a strip of striped paper and border punched each side and then adhered it to the left side of the card.  Next I took my sentiment and stuck it onto the polka dot paper and trimmed around it, rounded the corners and stuck it on top.  To finish off the card I added some washi tape, ribbon and faux stitching.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 3

Welcome back to Day 3 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cards. This card is one of my favorites! I saw Kristina Werner do this card on her ambitious 25 Days of Christmas Cards and I knew I needed to do it. If you are looking for some great inspiration and how to videos check out her blog!  I loved the long and skinny format so much in fact that you will see it repeat in several cards to come. Such a great idea and they fit perfectly into business size envelopes!

Isn't it cute! So I started with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and trimmed it to 8.5 x 7.5.  I then scored it and folded it so that it was 8.5 x 3.75 and used that as my card base.  I cut the snow flake patterned paper to 8 x 3.25 and adhered it to the card base.  Then using my scissors I cut a wavy edge out of my second patterned paper and adhered it to the bottom of the snow flake pattern.  I then added faux stitching along all the sides of the snowflake patterned paper.  I had this cute felt snowman from the Basic Grey's Jovial collection that I stuck down (he's so cute!) and then set to work on the sentiment.  I had an issue with my fonts being different colours which I did not like so I broke out my copic markers and coloured them all the same colour.  Now you can't even tell the letters used for Holiday used to silver!  I added some glossy accents to the word Cheer and I was done!  Just so cute!  Can you tell I loved this card?

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this card.  Come back tomorrow for another card.

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 2

Welcome back the 12 Days of Christmas Cards!  I am so happy to show today's card.

Like yesterday's card, I used a Creative Memories Circle card for my base and covered it with the pink patterned paper.  I took a strip of patterned paper and stamped the Happy and Days in Versa Mark Ink, added white embossing powder and then heated it up until it was melted.  I then positioned it on the card background and trimmed it to match the card base.  I used a scalloped edge punch on a strip of red cardstock and stuck it above the patterned paper and then added a small strip of red to the bottom of the patterned paper.  I added a little of faux stitching, some bakers twine, a chipboard snowflake and the 25 to finish off this card.

I hope you enjoyed this card and be sure to come back tomorrow for another card!

12 Days of Christmas Cards - Day 1

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas Cards! I have been making my own Christmas cards for many years now and I thought that I would do something a little fun this year on my blog with some of my favorites. Each day for the next 12 days I will be showing you a new card from this years creations. I was actually on the ball this year and already have the cards created and ready to be mailed which I think is a record for me!

So without further a do, here is my Day 1 card.

For this card I used a Creative Memories Circle card for my base and then using my Cuttlebug and some Nestabilities Dies I cut out the Scalloped Circle and Patterned Circle.  After adhering the two together I wrapped them in bakers twine a couple of times and then adhered it to the card.  I added a sentiment die cut and then added some faux stitching and this card complete.

I hope you enjoyed this card and be sure to come back tomorrow for another card!

The Joys of Camping in the Rain

We love camping in our tent trailer. It's out home away from home. The biggest drawback to a tent trailer though is always having to air it out after a weekend of camping in the rain. As if camping in the rain wasn't a pain enough. Steve snapped this photo of the trailer drying out in the garage after one of our rainy weekend camping trips. It's great that he captures these little things that I always seem to forget!  I'm very much the trips over and the camera goes away with the gear kind of girl!

The die cut paper was so cute with that little deer!  The way my layout was working out my photo and mats were covering the head of this little cutie and that was a problem.  So I broke out my exacto knife and carefully cut around his head so that I could slide my photo and mats underneath it.  Problem solved!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Kaiser Kraft - Tiny Woods Collection and Paper Scraps from my Stash; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Types, and Jolee Woodgrain Letters.

M & MMM

Another camping season has come and gone and that means another round of camping layouts for your viewing pleasure.

I thought I was being quite sneaky with my title!  Both of my friend's cute kiddos names start with M, so M & M seemed appropriate but by adding a couple more Ms on the second one it made the appropriate S'mores noise MMMMM!  Pretty sneaky no?!  I added Glossy Accents to the letters to make them pop better.

Like my border strip?  EK Success makes these border punches that make 3D flowers that are really cool.  When I was looking for a border punch to use on this layout I looked at this punch and thought it would look cool as flames!  Sometimes you just have to look at something in a different light to see a different use.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Bo Bunny - Camp-A-Lot Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: Basic Grey - Alphs; Embellishments: Bo Bunny - Camp-A-Lot Charms, GCD Studios - Camping, 7 Gypsies 97% Complete; Tools: EK Success 3D Flower Punch.

Now That's One Sweet Birthday Gift

This is the best series of birthday photos I have ever seen!  My brother bought his wife a new Jeep for her birthday and we got to be there when he surprised her with it!  It was the best reaction I have ever seen!  I won't lie, there was colourful language and maybe some tears but all in all she was so excited!

Coordinating die cuts make pulling a completed look together super easy!  Simply layering them in clusters gives it a finished look.  Plus it saves me from hunting through my stash of mismatched stuff to find items to embellish with.  Although I will admit that I still do that ... case in point the Happy Life, Happy Wife sticker ... it was just too perfect for this layout not to use!

I couldn't resist adding Steph's most popular saying of the day to the layout too!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Basic Grey - What's Up Collection; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers and October Afternoon Mini Market Alphas; Embellishments: Basic Grey - What's Up Die Cuts, My Minds Eye Journalling Spot, Jillibean Sayings, and Washi Tape.

A Pintrest Vacation

This year I had planned a week off in July but then Steve got a new job so he couldn't join me.  So instead of cancelling my vacation, I decided to spend my week doing some Pintrest projects I had planned on doing for some time!  I was so excited!  I visited a local thrift shop and picked up some goodies to help me out and then hit up Home Depot to buy loads of spray paint (caution:  buying spray paint may lead to finding items all over the house you can paint!).

My first project was a rusty old rake that I removed the handle off of, spray painted, and hung upside down in my closet to act as a necklace/scarf/belt rack. Cost = $2 for the rake and the medallion was from my scrapbook stash. Next project was my cake stand which was a candle stick, platter, and string of beads all glued together and then spray painted ... cute non? Cost = $4 for the patter, candle stick and beads. After that was my key rack! An old frame I spray painted with scrapbook paper behind it and some hooks screwed in and it now hangs in my laundry room. Cost = $1.50 for frame and hooks, the paper I already had in my stash.

And as I cautioned above, once I started spray painting I couldn't stop.  My scrapbook room had a tiered basket system that was black and an old gum ball machine that was green that now co-ordinate beautifully!  These two projects cost me nothing as I already had the spray paint.

And finally, the piece de resistance ... my gallery wall.  I have wanted to do this for years and finally found the time needed to do it.  I bought a whole bunch of mix and matched frames at the thrift store and then spray painted one of three colours (off white, blue, and yellow).  I backed some of the frames with a favorite scrapbook paper collection from Echo Park.  It was so much fun picking which photos I wanted to use and where to place them (I still have one frame to fill cause they printed the photo in the wrong orientation).  You will notice a couple of frames have different items it.  One has our family initial, another our first house key, and another with our lucky number.  I also used two frames to try and disguise the thermostat and doorbell!  So far everyone who has seen it loves it and I can't wait to start switching out photos when some new ones come along.  This project cost me about $74 for all the frames, scrapbook paper, and photos. Not bad if I do say so myself.

So all in all I spent $108.57 on all my projects and the spray paint to do them.  Not bad really!  Originally I priced out the gallery wall using all Ikea frames it was going to cast almost $300!  So I figured I saved myself almost $200, got to do several more projects because of my thriftiness and also got to have a lot of fun!  I am already trying find a way to take another week off work so that I can do some more projects!

Sold

This layout is made using an 8x8 paper pad from October Afternoon.  I love October Afternoon and wish they made their paper pads in 12x12 size because I find the 8x8 size difficult to work with!  I guess I am so used to have the flexibility a 12x12 sheet gives.  I always seem to like to do a strip of patterned paper all the way across (side to side or top to bottom) on almost all my layouts and doing that with an 8x8 piece of paper was a challenge.  Lucky for me I figured out that if I piece two smaller piece together on this layout and hide the seam behind the other patterned paper,   no one would know that it isn't one continuous piece!  I love it when I have a light bulb moment like that!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: October Afternoon - Road Map Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: Jillibean Die Cut, washi Tape, October Afternoon - Road Map Journalling Spot; Tools: Creative Memories Corner Rounder and Dymo Label Maker.

Eleven Years

Last year was our Eleventh Wedding Anniversary and my darling honey always gets me the sweetest, heartfelt cards.  I love his cards.  He obviously spends some time reading each to find the perfect one and I always hate throwing them out.  I think I still have the very first card he gave me when we started dating sixteen years ago somewhere.  Normally they sit in a postcard box I have in our spare room closet but then it dawned on me that these little gems that peak a look into my honey's heart are just as deserving as any photo in my scrapbook.  So I think from this point on my cards (and I might even go back and pull out some older ones too) will have a place in my scrap books.  How awesome will it to be when we are old an grey to look back on these or for our future kids to see?

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Authentique - Journey Collection; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts Thickers; Embellishments: Authentique - Journey Die Cuts; Tools: Fiskars Circle Squeeze Punch.

Tech Support

We all get jokes emails from people we know.  Most of them make me chuckle but this one had me laughing so hard I just had to print it to hang in my office.  It is so fitting when it comes to the perceptions about my job that I thought I should scrapbook it!  And seeing as today is Programmer Appreciation Day, I thought it would be fitting to post it today!

When I saw this line by October Afternoon I thought it was perfect for the rand pics I take at work so I bought the whole collection.  I know it was silly but it just spoke to me, do you ever find a line does that?  I just loved all of the little bits and pieces that came with it, like the tabs with the days of the week and the die cut rotary telephone!  It sure made pulling this layout together super easy.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: October Afternoon - 9 to 5 Collection; Cardstock: Bazzills; Alphabet Stickers: October Afternoon - Alpha Stickers; Embellishments: October Afternoon - 9 to 5 Die Cut Stickers.

This is the Life

When I saw this background paper by Pink Paislee I fell in love!  I love the whimsy of it and the colour was perfect for water pictures!  I did a lot of fussy cutting on this layout.  It starts out as something as simple as cutting out the bunting at the bottom and then it moved to would a pretty  flower from another paper pattern look nice.  Next thing I knew I had spent 20 minutes fussy cutting!  I don't think it was a waste though cause it really works for this layout.

I love how manufacturers give you die cut border stickers that coordinate with their lines but sometimes I really wish they gave you two of each pattern.  Most of my layouts are horizontal in nature so unless I buy two sets, I find them difficult to use.  For this layout, I decided to step out of my usual use border strips as border strips mentality and just used them to jazz up the title area.  I think it turned out ok, just next time I think I will stagger them more.

Supplies: Patterned Paper: Pink Paislee - Hometown Summer Collection and Cosmo Cricket - Clementine Collection; Alphabet Stickers: Making Memories - Felt Stickers and American Crafts - Thickers; Embellishments: Cosmo Cricket - Clementine Die Cut Stickers, Smashbook Tabs, Baker's Twine, and Pink Paislee Journalling Spot.