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Papertrey Ink February Bloghop

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There was, once again, a beautiful inspiration piece for the Papertrey Blog Hop this morning, and I was glad I was around to take part in it.

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It took me awhile to think about how I might want to interpret it. I’m very happy with how it came out—pretty much as I envisioned it which doesn’t always happen. I knew I wanted a dark background, and I also wanted to use my newest Papertrey Ink set, “Gathered Garden.”

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I actually stamped and die cut more branches and flowers than I needed. Once I started arranging them on the Stitched Oval from the Noted A2 die set, I found I didn’t need as much as I thought I might. The gold, purple, and bright pink all come from the inspiration piece.

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I absolutely love the delicate bow die in this set which I die cut from some matte gold paper, as well as the sentiment which is a die cut from a favorite set, “Uncorked.”

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I tried several different colors for the card base, but once I laid the Smoky Shadow pieces on the Amethyst Allure paper, I knew that was the right one. A few muti-colored sequins and it was finished. I’m anxious to see what other folks did with this inspiration piece, and you, too, can take a peek at Nicole’s blog.

 

Celebrating with Papertrey Ink!

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Papertrey Ink is celebrating their 10th anniversary this month. They’ve been hosting a post each day highlighting some of the stamp sets released during each year, and hosting a challenge to use a set from that year. I would have loved to have participated every day, but it just wasn’t in the cards (pun intended.) Today I finally had time to play along with three of them.

First off a favorite set from 2008: “Bitty Baby Blessings.” It’s one of the first sets I go to when I need a baby card. I have an baby shower to attend next month, and was excited to see that this was one of the sets highlighted. 

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I paperpieced the little onesie with some paper from Carta Bella’s “It’s a Girl” paper pack, created a little clothesline with some twine and clipped it on with a tiny clothespin onto a Stitched Circle from Simon Says. The flowers were punched from Sweet Blush paper and highlighted with a center from a flower in the “Petite Pots” set and a tiny pearl.

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The sentiment is also from “Bitty Baby Blessings,” stamped with Raspberry Fizz on a banner die.

Next up, a card using “Take Three:  Summer,” from 2010. I’m not sure where the blue cardstock came from; it was scrap in my scrap folder. I love the contrast of the black and blue, and mounted the three images behind a Pretty Pink Posh “Stitched Film Strip” die.  I couldn’t decide where to put the sentiment so decided to leave the front of the card without a sentiment. Most likely, I’ll stamp a “Thinking of You” sentiment inside for a friend who’s having some health issues.

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Last an image from 2012: “Sentiment Signs.” I was pleased to discover that the sentiment fit perfectly on a stitched rectangle mounted on the Papertrey “Center Style: Masculine” die which I don’t use often enough. I adhered both to a piece of Ombre Striped paper (also Papertrey Ink). 

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A few gold enamel dots from Simple Stories and a cupcake sticker finished it off.

I’m linking each of these to the appropriate challenge at Nicole’s blog. I’ve enjoyed seeing some of the older sets highlighted during their celebration, but also looking through all the releases from each year. I was reminded of some favorite stamps that need to see some love!

 

 

 

Tag, You’re It: A Card for Charlie

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I’ve seen the Tag, You’re It Challenge pop up occasionally, and recently I added it to my Feedly. This week’s challenge was just perfect for a baby card I needed to make and get in the mail.

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I rearranged the elements a bit in order to get the sentiment where I wanted it, but otherwise, it’s a pretty close match to the inspiration piece.

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The little giraffe was in my stash of die cuts, and I’m not sure where it came from. I found the bright orange twine when I reorganized last month. The price tag was still on it. It only cost $1, but I have no idea where I picked it up. The patterned paper is Echo Park’s “Dots and Stripes,” which I’ve had in my stash forever. The sentiment die cut from a scrap of paper in my stash is Papertrey’s “Wet Paint II,” and the little hearts are Simon Says “Holiday Shapes” die. I guess you could say this was a “Stash Tag,” but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

I wanted to put the tag on a card so I’d have room to write a note. I ran the Aqua Mist card through a Lifetime Crafts embossing folder.

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And here’s a look at the inside where I used Papertrey’s “Baby Button Bits.”

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I used a light blue Copic marker to color in just the bottoms of the open letters. It’s cold and windy here today; a good day for some more crafting.

 

 

Happy Valentine’s Day

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Happy Valentine’s Day! Tuesdays are now a little busier since I’ve started volunteering at two different agencies–one in the early afternoon, and one after school. Before that I got a needed new haircut. And a little later we’re meeting friends at a new sports bar/tavern for Valentine’s dinner. As he often does, Tracy sent me gorgeous flowers. He really outdid himself, sending cut flowers and a stunning orchid which will last well beyond Valentine’s Day.

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You can see the purple hyacinth tucked in the bouquet which smells so wonderful. We got about 6″ of snow today, so the spring flowers are really appreciated! My favorites are the freesias.

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Of course I’ve been busy making valentines for the last few days. I posted one earlier this week, but here are the rest of them.

For Matt & Betsy. . . the pick-up truck by Honey Bee reminded me of Matt’s truck for his landscape business, although his is white (not a very interesting color for a card.)

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The sentiment is from Simon Says “Sending Happy Thoughts,” their July 2014 Card Kit.

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For Sarah and Adam . . . the hedgehog is definitely for Sarah who collects them. I found this cute stamp at Paper Source when we were in Chicago in January and couldn’t resist it.

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The die cut hearts are all from Spellbinders Nested Hearts; the patterned papers are from Echo Park, Carta Bella, and Pink Fresh.

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For Caleb . . . some monster hugs from “Silly Monsters” by Your Next Stamp. I have to admit, my collection of fun stamps has definitely expanded now that I have grandchildren old enough to appreciate them.

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The fun eyes are from Doodlebug. They were out of stock for weeks on end, but Tracy managed to find some for my Christmas stocking. (Granted I didn’t get them until January when they came in, but I didn’t have to keep searching for them.) The heart die cut is from Concord and 9th. I found it in my pile of pre-cut die cuts and it worked out perfectly.

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For Baby Hannah . . . another polar bear card from My Favorite Things, “Polar Bear Pals.” The sentiment was cobbled together with a Cocoa Daisy stamp set and one from Avery Elle.

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The heart on this card was also in the pile of pre-cut dies, the paper is from Papertrey Ink. You can see the metallic heart in the close-up.

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And for the man of my heart . . . 

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The die and stamps for this card are from Simon Says’ newest release, “Love.” It’s the first die cut set I’ve bought that comes with the shadow background and the script. Love it. I don’t usually use a die cut for the inside message, but I did this time.

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I also made a couple valentines for friends.

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This is also a new die that came in my Christmas stocking. I have all kinds of ideas for it, but die cut it this time in a variety of bright colors for an inlaid heart. A few enamel dots and it was done.

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And just one more . . .

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I bought this stamp set,”Be Mine, Valentine,” last year when Papertrey Ink released it, and I’m actually surprised that this is the first time I’ve used it. There are all kinds of great images and sentiments in the set so I think it has potential for much more than just valentines. The background is an older impression plate from Papertrey called “Book Print.” The heart is from My Favorite Things.

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It’s been lots of fun getting ready for Valentine’s Day, but now I have an equally big project ahead of me. More to come about that later this month.

 

 

 

 

One Valentine: Three Challenges

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This afternoon I had time to make some valentines. Not many of them can be shared here, but I’m pretty sure my three granddaughters don’t have any opportunity to check my blog! The card fits three challenges–an unusual event for me.

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I’ve always loved the My Favorite Things animal stamps by Birdie Brown. Now that I have five grandchildren, I didn’t have any trouble justifying the purchase of several sets. I used one of the stamps from this set, “Polar Bear Pals,” for Caleb’s birthday card, and now I’ve used two of the images for a valentine for my three granddaughters, aged 5, 2, and 7 months. I masked the little bear in the front, and then stamped the two bears in the back sitting down. The sentiment seemed pretty perfect, too. I colored the images with my Prisma colored pencils which have been neglected for awhile. After stamping the images, I die cut them with a Simon Says “Stitched Rectangle” die; might be the most used die in my collection.

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This give you a better view of the shiny hearts I added as embellishment.

I’m posting this card at The Heart Desires . . .

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The Card Concept . . . Love and Romance challenge . . .

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And last, but not least, the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Cute!

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Tuesday’s post for the Five in Five photography meme was my 1,800th post. Somehow I missed that milestone, but I do find it incredible!

Chill Wishes

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Our grandson, Caleb, is a huge fan of penguins. While we were in Chicago, “My Favorite Things” stamps had a quick sale, and I ordered “Chill Wishes” knowing I’d be able to use most of the images over time. He’s also become a fan of Nate the Great books, and I picked up a couple for him this week at Barnes and Noble. I thought I’d send him a card and one book as a bit of happy mail this week. 

This card was lots of fun to make, and in addition to the new stamp set, I pulled out some products I hadn’t used in awhile—a stencil and embossing paste, and old Spellbinders Circle and banner dies.

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I colored this cute penguin with Copic markers and fussy cut it. I also used a die from Papertrey Inks “In the Meadow” set to create the snowy hill. The sentiment comes from the August 2014 Simon Says Card Kit, “Ice Cream Dream.” I applied some Glitter Stickles to the hill for a bit of accent. And although you can’t see it in the photo, the hat and scarf have a coat of Wink of Stella glitter.

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I’m entering this in two challenges. CASology’s theme this week is Youth. 

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And here’s another one for NBUS #10 (Never Before Used Stuff). Sad to say I’ve still got a bit of that around.

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JANUARY 2017 BLOG HOP CHALLENGE

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Today is the January Blog Hop at Papertrey Ink. I wasn’t sure I’d have time to get a card made for the hop, but I loved the inspiration piece, and finished a card for the hop on Monday night.

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What attracted me was the black background, white accents, and pretty, bright flowers. I went a slightly different way, choosing one of my favorite sets, “Lovely Layers.” It was easy to tell I’d been away from the crafting table for a few weeks, as there were a lot of pieces that ended up in the circular file before I was finished. In the end, I had a card I liked for my friend who celebrated her birthday while we were away. We celebrated yesterday at breakfast.

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I stuck with the pinks and white of the inspiration piece for the sentiment. I used a “Swoosh” dies, and the rest of the sentiment came from “Birthday Cheer, ” which was embossed in white. I used a Spectrum Noir Clear Glitter pen for the center of the main image.

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The main ink colors were Leaf Green, Summer Sunrise, and Hibiscus Burst with accents inked with Pinefeather, Orange Zest, Terracotta Tile, and Raspberry Fizz. The blog hop almost always produces lots of inspiration which you can access right here.

A Trio of Cards for CASology “Cut” Challenge

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One of the criteria for the CASology challenge is that the card should be “quick and easy to recreate.” Once the main image was fussy cut, the cards were, in fact, easy to recreate. I started with an Altenew “Persian Motifs” image that I gold embossed on watercolor paper and colored with my Zig watercolor markers.

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I used a Simon Says “Stitched Rectangle” and adhered it to a cardstock color that coordinated with the painted image, and gold embossed the sentiment below it. The card on the right is actually navy blue, though it appears almost black in the photo. The cardstock in the middle is actually more purple (much closer to the painted image) but didn’t photograph quite as accurately as I hoped.

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I’m entering these in the CASology “Cut” Challenge for this week. You can find other entries right here.

 

 

Variations on a Theme

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Maile Belles designed a series of stamps this past year called Splits for Papertrey Ink. They’re very small, inexpensive sets but so versatile. I’ve purchased three or four of them, but my favorite is “Best Wishes.” What’s particularly great about them is that all the sentiments from the different sets are interchangeable, but many sentiments from other sets also work. I’ve posted several cards using Splits before here, here, and here. I needed several cards recently, and “Best Wishes” worked for all three of them, and I didn’t use the sentiment that came with the set for any of them.

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The sentiment wasn’t from the Splits set, but I don’t have my notes with me in Chicago, and can’t find the set online. The cardstock is a shimmer aqua from Papertrey adhered to a silver card.

You can see the color as well as the silver embossing and gems more clearly here.

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Next up is the anniversary card I made for Matt and Betsy in December. For this card I used gold embossing on white shimmer cardstock.

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This time I added some black gems as an accent.

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Finally, a thank you card I made for the professor of my Old Testament course this fall. The design was white embossed on gray cardstock with some white pearls for accent.

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It was great to pull out just a couple of stamp sets and get all three cards made in one sitting. Now that I have a stamp collection built up over 20 years, versatility is the #1 criterion for a new purchase. (Well, to be honest, I recently purchased several new sets with grandchildren in mind! But now there are five of them, so I guess that’s justified, too.)

Two Cards and the WPSC

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I’ve been seeing a few posts for Eileen’s Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt, and knew it was time to get the few I had posted. I’m going to start with #14 Repetition. I needed a birthday card for my brother in December and one for my nephew in early January, and did a riff on the first card for the second. Both employ repetition. Here’s the card for my brother.

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I thought it would be easiest to use my MISTI to line up all these sentiments, but it turned out I did a better job eyeballing them. The sentiment comes from Papertrey Ink’s “Colorful Words.” Once I stamped the white panel I used a piece of white fun foam to create a bit of dimension.

For my nephew, I used a slightly different approach.

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This time I colored in one of the words with Copic markers, added an accompanying sentiment from the same set, and a small enamel arrow.

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Next up on the hunt is #8, a seasonal treat. First off, one of the gingerbread houses from the Eastman Museum.

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And gingerbread teddy bears. Skylar was “icing” their pants with chocolate frosting.

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Next up, winter weather, not a hard thing to find in Rochester. We had 12 inches in just one day in mid-December. 

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Number 11 was a photo taken outside at night. Driving home from dinner on Christmas Eve, we passed this house. It was the perfect subject for the hunt.

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The next two are my favorites, #15–Hands.

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Caleb’s hands with his beloved Legos.

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And Baby Hannah’s hand in Grandpa’s.

Number 20 is cold. When Baby Hannah left the hospital it was 9° with a wind chill of -3°. We had her all bundled up laying on the hospital bed, and Caleb wanted his photo taken all bundled up next to her.

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And finally, hygge, a cozy sense of well-being, and one we get in our living room in front of the fireplace. Last year, we splurged on converting our fireplace to gas, and it was one of the best decisions ever. We turn it on every morning when we sit down to read, and again in the evening while we’re watching the news.

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That’s a third of the items on the list, and I’ll have to be diligent to find the rest. Thanks to Eileen for providing the list and the link-up. I need all the motivation I can get to have my camera out during the winter. (Although I must admit, finding subjects to photograph while we’re visiting Sarah has not been an effort!)

 

Memos, Mail, Me: Monday

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Sian has had another brilliant idea for a Monday post. The idea is to incorporate a piece of happy mail (snail mail, catalog . . . something that arrived in the mail during the week that captured your interest.) Since I’m visiting Sarah, I have no mail from the last week to share, and most of my recap was posted yesterday, but I do have something to share.

Right before the holidays I got a catalog from The Company Store. It’s full of inspiration, and there are always multiple products that I’d love to have, but most are out of my price range. This time, however, I pulled out a page and saved it. As soon as I saw the add for a beautiful pillow, I had an idea for a card. While we were waiting for Sarah’s call about the baby, I got the early January birthday cards made, and a number of thank you cards that I wanted to get in the mail before we left. One of the thank you cards was inspired by the pillow in the catalog.

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You can see the page from the catalog behind the card. The “Winter Hills” stamp set from Papertrey Ink came immediately to mind when I saw the pillow. The little bird is from “Through the Trees.” The trees were embossed with white and platinum embossing powder. I had to emboss the birds on separate paper and fussy cut them since the red embossing powder didn’t show up well on the dark gray card. I embossed a few snowflakes between the trees as well.  The photo above shows the card before I added the sentiment.

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I added the simple sentiment to a vellum banner, and hid the adhesive behind a silver enamel dot.

While I had the “Winter Hills” set on my desk, I made several more thank you cards (all the same design.) These were based on a card I found on Pinterest, simple and fast when you need several cards in a hurry.

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As for me, it’ still going well with Sarah and Hannah. Adam, however, had an accident on the way home from work today, and their Yaris was totaled. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the driver who caused the accident took full responsibility for it from the start. They’ve been planning to buy a new van which will more easily accommodate two car seats, so this will most likely speed up that process. 

Thanks to Sian for another great weekly meme, and waving to the other Monday Memo posters!

 

Happy 5th Birthday, Caleb and Hannah Lise!

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Today is Caleb’s 5th birthday, and this morning his little sister was born! What are the chances of having a shared birthday?  Typically we’d be in Chicago to celebrate, but we’ll be there tomorrow! Sarah ended up having a C-section since they couldn’t get the baby turned around. Hannah was 7#, and everyone is doing well. I’m anxious to get there!

Because Caleb was so disappointed not to see the polar bears when we went to see the Lincoln Park Zoo Lights, I decided on a skating bear for his birthday card.

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The polar bear and die are from My Favorite Things, “Polar Bear Pals.” About the same time, I ordered the Tim Holtz stencil for the trees which worked out perfectly with the water colored bear and “pond.” I used some Stickles Glitter Glue to create the snowy hills. You can’t really see it, but the polar bear is attached to an Action Wobbles so that when you touch him, he bounces up and down a bit.

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The inside greeting reads, ” Have a BEARY good birthday,” a pretty appropriate pun for a five year old. I hope he likes the skating bear. There will be a birthday celebration tomorrow night with Grandma and Grandpa, and a third celebration later on as Sarah and Adam have scheduled his “friends” party for mid-January when all four of his grandparents will be in town.

Belated Christmas Crafting Post

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Due to circumstances beyond my control (a nasty cold and a lot less energy than usual) I’m posting a few Christmas crafts after the fact. First off three gift tags. Last year I purchased the Reverse Confetti Gift Card die set, and it makes one quick gift card holder. I made these for a dinner party we had mid-December. I gave calendars to all the ladies, and gift cards to the guys and one teenager.

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The die cut snowflake is from Simon Says, and the wreath from Memory Box. I added some silver twine and some tiny tags with the recipients’s names to the tags after I photographed them.

Each year I create a calendar from photos I’ve taken during the year. They seem to be appreciated, and if we’re traveling with folks, they’ll insist that some of the photos I take in that location end up in next year’s calendar. This year the first photo was from Sarasota, FL at the Ringling Museum, and there were three photos from Nantucket (requested by Betsy’s sister.) They get packaged in little bags I found at Michael’s several years ago, and were decorated with a bit of Washi tape, and a sticker from Paper Source.

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I also have a few cards to share—two get well cards for ladies from church who fell just before the holiday, one broke her hip and the other her pelvis! No way to start the holidays.

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Both cards were speedy to make as the patterned paper from the Pink Fresh “Oh Joy” paper pack was the perfect background. I stamped the sentiment from Papertrey Ink’s “Painted Petals” and added some pearls to the first card, and some rhinestone stars to the second. 

And finally, one last Christmas card.

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The card base and Joy die were cut from silver metallic cardstock. The die is one of Papertrey’s Wonderful Words sets, and the holly is also a die cut from Papertrey Ink. The lovely plaid has a metallic stripe that doesn’t show up in the photograph and comes from MME “Comfort and Joy” paper pack.

We packed up Christmas tonight. I’d rather leave it all up for a few more days, but since we don’t know how much longer we’ll be here, we decide it was time. Now I’ve wrapped up the Christmas craft posts as well, although I certainly hope you’ll see some Christmas Journal pages eventually. I think it will be the end of January, however, before that project is wrapped up. I’ve been babying the my cold this week so lots of reading has been done, but not much crafting.

Christmas Cards

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I have several posts I need to write to share some Christmas crafting. The crafting is done, but the writing of posts seems to fall at the bottom of the to-do list. But I’m now “officially done,” two days earlier than usual, I might add. The cookies are baked, and the cookie plate is ready to be delivered this morning. The presents are wrapped, and most are under the tree. We’ll celebrate Christmas tonight with Matt, Betsy, and the girls. They’ll join us for the first hour or so of our Walker family Christmas gathering on Sunday, but dinner and the festivities are too late for the three little girls. Tomorrow is a super-quiet day. Tracy was given a very generous gift card to a lovely restaurant in a hotel at the 50th Retirement Party in September, so we’re going to use that to treat ourselves to dinner, and then if we can stay awake (we always manage), we’ll attend the 11:00 Christmas carols and readings service at our church. I’m looking forward to getting some scrapbooking done during the day.

Here are the three variations of Christmas cards that I sent to most folks. There were a few others that I made for a variety of reasons, some got photographed, others did not. I’ll share some of those in the next post. I saw this stamp set by Hero Arts on Jennifer McGuire’s blog early in the fall, and ordered it right away. I don’t usually choose a design that requires coloring and die-cutting, but since I got an early start it worked out fine.

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The cards from Jo-Ann Fabrics were already embossed and very inexpensive with coupons, so that saved me a step. The stamp is called “Happy Holly Days,” and included three different images so I could die cut and stamp three at a time. The red die cut is from Papertrey’s “Photo Finishers,” and the sentiment from their “Love Lives Here: Holiday” set.

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All the images were colored with Copic markers and then coated with Spectrum Noir’s clear glitter pen.

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I’ll be back tomorrow with some more Christmas craftiness. Off to visit some friends, and one last trip to the grocery store for eggs and lettuce. (Thought I was done, but not so much.)

Card Challenges

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I have a couple cards for current challenges to share. My last Christmas cards went in the mail today. Most of them were a variation on a theme, and I’ll share those later, but I needed a few more, and decided to look through some die cuts I had created earlier and see if I could use some of them for the new cards. The first card is for a new-to-me challenge, The Heart Desires. Their inspiration board includes so many wonderful images, it’s hard to know where to start. 

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For this card, I chose the upper right-hand image for the non-traditional colors.

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I had already stamped and colored the wreath from Papertrey Ink’s “Rustic Branches.” I’m not sure where the sentiment came from. To create the card I pulled out some of Papertrey’s Shimmer cardstock in pink and ivory. The card came together very quickly. Here’s a closer look at the sparkly gems.

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The second card is for the Wednesday Challenge at Simon Says. They have another wonderful inspiration photo titled “Ice Inspiration.” 

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In my stash was a stamped and die cut snowflake. I chose the blue from the inspiration photo for my shimmer cardstock and mounted the snowflake on a Simon Says Stitched Circle cut from Silver Shimmer cardstock. A blue gem finished it off.

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Today is the first day in a long, long time that I haven’t left the house (except to walk to the mailbox.) It’s been a pleasure to have time to read and create!