Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Happy holidays as we count down 2011, what a fun year!  Here are some special Christmas cards I created for my kids.  I could not post them until after Christmas so it wouldn't ruin the surprise, and there is one more to be posted.  We had a nice Christmas brunch and time together, I hope yours was warm and friendly as well.

Sweet little seal

Card to Mom & Pops

My version of Chilly Willy

May Your Lights be Untangled (hard to see, lights in his antlers)

An embellished gift card envelope

Thursday, December 15, 2011

TAG, you're it!   Finished a few, and I do mean a few, tags.  Sure seems I should've gotten more done with the time I invested!  Fun to do, got to play with my Big Bite and grommets, the super-huge punch, and lots of different techniques.  Once laid out though it's painfully obvious I'll need many more.  At some point I'll have to quit creating the accessories and start buying the gifts!  Merry Me   :o)


Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Christmas cards, yay!  Got my first batch of cards done.  I tried a new method, and they went very quickly.  I pretty much stuck to 1 pattern, same size A2.  Couple of different cardstock bases, and actually all my papers were in the clearance section @Hobby Lobby (6pp/$1).  Lg snowflakes are MS punch, small flakes are The Paper Studio, and I think all ribbons are Paper Studio as well.   Unlike my fall cards, I did these assembly line style, cut/punched all my elements first.  Then I ran most things through the Xyron.  Tada, stick, embellish, finished!  See the My Cards section for up close and personals.  These are part of my mass mailings, my immediate family personal cards will be more greatly embellished, as they will not be mailed.  Merry Christmas!


     Several months ago I saw some home decorations I thought I could adapt to my own color scheme at home, here is my first tree.  Blue cardstock background with silver inking around edges, a selection of coordinated printed papers, embellished with a little glitter and silver inking.  I cut them on my Silhouette SD, added some punched snowflakes on tiny foam dots, and glued a small brass piece up the back I had found in the "Clearance" aisle 4/$0.39.  I believe next I may try mounting on some chipboard and trying to shape them a little.  I'll have to make some sort of base, maybe styrofoam, covered with some faux snow or fabric?  I like how it turned out  :o)

Mine, trial run
Theirs

Monday, December 12, 2011

Hi ya'll,  it's after midnight and I've finished with my work weekend.  My goal for this week is to get Christmas cards done & mailed!  Although, I got these cute little froggy stamps in a while back from The Stamps of Life (see link), and I've been dying to do something with them.  I have a friend who collects frogs, so I combined the 2 and came up with a few options. I need to add googly eyes to my shopping list... Hoppy Holidays!


Paper collection: I believe in Santa (The Paper Studio); sentiment and frog/lily pad (The Stamps of Life).  The snowflake pattern is already glossy, but I decided it needed a touch more bling and glittered a few.  5x5 white cardstock base.  Frog actually moves on an Action Wobble attachment, sweet!

From our family to yours: 
Paper collection:  I believe in Santa (The Paper Studio); sentiment and frog/lily pad (The Stamps of Life).  (Martha Stewart) snowflake punch (lg) and xsmall snowflakes (The Paper Studio).  I freehanded the pond from cardstock.  Hard to see, but I used a new Snow Marker on the both hat trims & pompoms, use heat gun and it "fluffs" up.  Hard to see here.


Sunday, December 11, 2011

Catching up on YouTubes, not a lot going on.  Plans to get Christmas cards out this week.  Anyone know of a good site to estimate postage for odd sized and bulky mail?  I learned recently weight isn't the only thing USPS charges extra for! Trying to streamline my cardmaking...

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Clearing my desk off today so I can get down to Christmas cards, I feel so behind already.  I'm going to break in my new punch, the one I'll use for the majority of our gift tags.  Just a quick shot to let you know how really huge this thing is!  It's going to need it's own shelf, lol.  Plan to post some cards later.......stay warm.  (Marvy Extra-Giga from Michael's)
New tag punch

3" at its longest, x2" wide
As big as my hand for comparison! Hope to use in tag albums as well.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Hey ya'll, whew, look how far behind I am.  I just worked 4 12-hr shifts, so pretty much all I do is work and sleep.  I know I've said I just started a new job, and my schedule is not quite back to the norm I'm used to, so it's kept me thrown off of sleep, household, and everything else.  On top of that I work nights, so I'm really screwy.  I know I said I was posting a video, and I've been trying, but it hasn't been working out.  Haven't had the time to get tech-y about it, so I have a couple days off and I intend to address it.  It's cold here tonight (Houston, TX) in the 30's!  My daughter is in VA and says it's 70's there, go figure.  Got a little Christmas shopping done today, woohoo!  Now, the wrapping....not as fun.  I have bought the supplies to do all my own tags this year, so I am looking forward to that.  Even though I do practically all my cutting with the Silhouette SD, I did buy a humongous tag-shaped punch @Michael's, on sale of course, AND with a coupon.  Is there any other way to shop, really?!  Hobby Lobby is my #1 store, and much closer, but the deal just worked out that way.  Shout out to TracysTreasures24, tried for her mini album but didn't get picked  :o(, but it started the wheels turning for me.  Stay tuned, who knows what I'll come up with.  I bought candy (Lindt's truffles and Ghiradelli holiday chocolate..mmm) for the advent calendar I have, so I'll look forward even more to the Christmas countdown.  2 parties this week, so I've got to keep on top of things.  TTYL  <yawn>