Masculine Birthday Matchbox

Hello! I can't believe it's only 2 weeks until Christmas! I have been so busy creating personalized gifts for my family! Can't wait to see their faces when they open them. My son-in-law has a birthday this Friday and we always give him a gift card to Dicks Sporting Goods. He's a hunter and can always find something he wants there. :)
This year, I wanted to use the All Through The House matchbox die by Papertrey Ink to package up his gift card. I wanted it to be masculine and with a hunting theme. I cut the matchbox base from Dark Chocolate cardstock, and the wrap with some wood looking patterned paper I had in my stash. I stamped a birthday sentiment from Stylish Birthday Sentiments by PTI on the lid of the wrap. I added a little drawer pull on the end to make it easy to open and close.

But the fun part is when you open it. :) I created a little snowy deer scene with the In The Meadow dies and put a little pull tab on the side for him to pull up to reveal the gift card underneath. I also put a little birthday message on the backside of the deer scene card.

 Such a fun little package! I can see using this matchbox die for all kinds of little treats during the year!

Thanks for stopping by!

Papertrey Ink November 2015 Blog Hop

Hello! I am amazed that I was able to pull off a card for the blog hop this month! Such a busy time of year with Thanksgiving only two days away! But when I looked at the blog hop picture (see below) this evening, I could see my new PTI set Confetti Toss all over it with those beautiful blue, green and silver ornaments.

I also love the white mantle, so I masked off the center of the card to hold the sentiment.
 I used the suggested colors of Hawaiian Shores, Tropical Teal, Simply Chartreuse, and silver (which I embossed). I finished it off with some silver twine to give it a bit of dimension and shine.

Hope you enjoy my card and have fun as you are hopping around! Happy Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

Advent calendars for my grandchildren

Hello! I wanted to share a project I've been working on with you. My daughter called about a week ago and asked me about making an advent calendar for my grandson (her son). She had a picture of an advent calendar that she liked, but was no longer available. It looked pretty simple, mostly made with felt. I took on the challenge to have it made by Thanksgiving. I drew up plans to make it, changing many things from the picture that I didn't like.

I used Papertrey wool felt for all the felt items - the pockets, the numbers on the pockets, the wording on the top and bottom borders and the Santa and Ho Ho Ho in the corners. All these were designed and printed out in reverse using my Silhouette software. I traced the designs onto fusible web and ironed it onto the felt. Then I cut out each item, ironed it on, and then sewed around all edges to make sure it would not lift up. The pockets are mounted on a thick muslin type fabric (called utility fabric), and then I added Christmas fabric borders on the sides. I plan on making this project into a pattern and selling it on my etsy site.

I will make tags for each pocket so my daughters can put Christmas activities on them if they wish. Now to make one for my other set of grandchildren! Hope they enjoy them!

Papertrey Make It Monday #225: Die Cut Shaped Boxes

Hello! I wanted to give Ashley's technique for making die cut shaped boxes a  try.You can see her video over on Nicole's blog here.  I decided to use the Snowglobe shaker die for my front and back pieces. I used one of the stamps in Oh Holy Night inside my shaker.
The Away in the Manger stamp was one of the main reasons I purchased this stamp set - just love that song! Once I had the box put together, I was looking it over and realized that it really looked like a cradle. Light bulb moment - my Away in the Manger stamp would be perfect for a manger scene! So I pretty much dismantled everything and started over. I impressed the end and box pieces with the Woodgrain impression plate and used Kraft cardstock. Once assembled, I sliced really thin pieces of Harvest Gold paper to make the straw for the manger. 

 Then I realized I had nothing to put in the cradle! So to suffice until I get out to Hobby Lobby to find a little plastic Baby Jesus, I quickly needle felted a little baby Jesus. I wrapped Him in a vintage cream blanket and placed Him in the manger. Not the best solution, but it will suffice for now.

I just love how it turned out! Thanks for stopping by!

Vintage Linens and Nostalgic Notions Cards

Hello! I am back again to share some of the cards I've made over the summer. Today, I'd like to share some cards I've made with two similar sets from Papertrey. I purchased the Nostalgic Notions Make It Market Kit by Betsy Veldman, and then the Vintage Linens stamp set and dies, designed by Dawn McVey. Both remind me of the vintage linens I collect at antique shows. They remind me of simpler times when aprons were worn in the kitchen and the table was set with pretty tablecloths and cloth napkins.

So here are a few of the cards I've made so far with these sets - some use the patterned paper that matches.
First up: Nostalgic Notions Make It Market Kit.

 On this card, I used The Plaid Builder set to make the stitched background. I was going for a quilted look. I used the WaltzingMouse Scalloped stitched rectangles dies to cut my focal point out of some of the Nostalgic Notions (NN) patterned paper. Sentiment is from Keep It Simple: Thinking of You.

 I created the background using stamps in the NN set. Used the WMS Stitched Rectangles and Scalloped Stitched Rectangles for the focal point. Sentiment is from the NN stamp set.

 And this one uses some of the NN patterned paper, the Plaid Builder set again for the quilted lines, and the NN dies for the flowers and the scallop.

I'm not crazy about this one. Washi tape at the top, then two of the NN scalloped borders, and some of the NN buttons. I tried and tried to stamp my own buttons on the die cuts, but just couldn't line them up. These are from the patterned paper. The dies cut them perfectly.

Next up are some cards using Vintage Linens. This set really reminds me of the NN stamp set. Love the old timey look of the flowers!

 Masked off the sentiment area and stamped the background. Used Graceful Greetings for the sentiment.

 Tried heat embossing outlines of flowers with white embossing powder, then coloring them with Zig markers like Dawn McVey did on her blog, not crazy about my results. used VL patterned paper.

Used some of the Vintage Linens patterned paper here.

Thanks for sticking with me to the end. Just a few miscellaneous cards left to post in a couple days. Hope you are having a great day!

Papertrey August 2015 Blog Hop

Hello! I am having fun looking at all the Papertrey Blog Hop entries this month! I decided to play along and try out my new "Quilted: Autumn" stamp set and dies. Nicole gave us a yummy photograph to get our inspiration from.

 I just love all the fall colors in this picture! And the textures are yummy too! I used many of the colors in my quilt block, and used a piece of burlap to represent the fibers. The chalkboard sentiment is from "Nuts for You". Love, love the fall grouping of leaves and acorns in the Quilted:Autumn set!

 

Hope you are enjoying the Hop! Thanks for stopping by my corner of the web - have a lovely day!

Guiding Light and Good Times cards

Hello! I am going to try to do some catch up the next few days to post most of the cards I've been working on over the summer. Hope you can check in every couple days and check them out. :)

First up is Papertrey's "Guiding Light" and "Light of Life" sets. I just LOVE these sets! I find I can use them for encouragement, for masculine cards, for sympathy cards and more. I just love the color scheme of blue, red, black and white. One of the groups of people I sell cards to is some of the ladies at church. Scripture on cards always is great for them (and me too!).
So here are a few I've made with these sets:

 Love using the PTI coverplate: Waves. The Light beams are from the Blue Skies set.

 Smooshed watercolor background, coverplate: Waves using vellum.

Coverplate: Waves again. Love this card for a sympathy card.

Second up are a couple cards made using the PTI set "Good Times". I stamped it in two different colorways.

I embossed the confetti and sentiments on this one using WOW embossing powder, and then stamped again using Spring Moss and Limeade inks to create shadows.

I stamped the confetti in Berry Sorbet and Harvest Gold inks and then cut out the diecut a few times and stacked them together for the "Celebrate" portion of the sentiment. I love this set and how easy it is to put together a birthday card!

Be back tomorrow with more cards! Enjoy your day!

Chloe's Fourth Birthday Gifts

Wow! Has it really been since June that I've put up a blog post??? It's been a busy summer, what with grandchildren sleeping over, vacations, and purchasing some land in southern VA. I've been making a lot of cards - just not had the chance to photograph them and post them.

One of the things I like to do for each grandchild's birthday is to give them something I have made. All my grandchildren have TONS and TONS of toys, so one more toy isn't going to mean much to them. From what I have seen, the things they really like are the things I have made them - the quilts, the books, the stuffed animals and other things. So this year our first granddaughter, Chloe, will be 4 years old - hard to believe!! Whenever Chloe and her sister Sophie come out to spend the night, I like to tell them stories about us, them, and other things. Most of the stories begin with "Once upon a Time", and end with "And they lived Happily Ever After". They are both really into princesses right now, so the fairy tale theme is big.

So this year's main present was a storybook about two beautiful Princesses. :) Here are some pictures of the pages. Lots of glitter paper and bling!

Cover: - I Mod-Podged the cover front and back to protect the tiny little glitter words from little hands. :)

Pages 1&2 - facing each other

Pages 3&4 - facing each other

Pages 5&6 - facing each other

Pages 7&8 - facing each other

 When you open the carriage door, it says "I love you". :)

 Whenever we drive out to our house with the girls, which is an hour drive, we usually sing this song.

Pages 9-10 facing each other

Pages 11&12 - facing each other

Last page and back cover (also Mod-Podged)

Most of the embellishments were cut with my Silhouette from glitter paper. The journaling was done by Print and Cut on my Silhouette. I used a 12 x 12 paper pad I picked up at Michaels. It is called Embellish by Dena.

I also made up a stamping kit for Chloe. I found these neat "Child's First Stamping pads" at Hobby Lobby. They are supposed to be washable and non-toxic. I put them in a box along with some of my cutesy rubber stamps and some scrap paper. Here is a picture of the box:
I used some of the stamps in the box to stamp the top.

 The contents of the box

 A close up of the stamping pads

 And of course I had to make her a Princess card! Complete with glitter paper. I used a stamp set by Darcie.

Thanks for hanging in until the end! I hope she likes all of these gifts! I know a lot of love went into them. :)

Borders and Corners Oval set

Waltzingmouse Pajama Party June 2015

Hello! Claire over at Waltzingmouse Stamps is hosting a Pajama Party today and tomorrow and I decided to come join in the fun! Claire put up 4 challenges for us to participate in while we are "at" the party. :)

The first challenge is to Can It/Pickle It. We were supposed to use some sort of jar on our card.

I decided to pull out my Candy Jar Christmas WMS set and make a little Wish List spiral notebook for this challenge. It's a Christmas wish list of course -  never too early to start dreaming! I recently bought a spiral binding machine and have had alot of fun making little notebooks for friends and family. Here is the one I made for this challenge:

The second challenge is the Coffee Colour challenge. We were to use the following coffee color palette:
 
I made a tag for some Christmas Ghirardelli candies for my entry for this challenge. I used the Oven Fresh Gingerbread Joy set from WMS.

 The third challenge was to use an older WMS set. I decided to use Free Spirit and Free Spirit Sentiments. I stamped the large circle image and used my new Zigg Clean Color markers to add color. I spritzed the whole thing with water to spread the color.

The fourth challenge was to use the following sketch for our card. It needed to include some sort of banner.

I decided to use the WMS USA 1776 set for this card as well as Playful Pinwheels. I used the pinwheels to stamp banner elements and then the USA set to stamp and emboss (with glitter embossing powder) the fireworks, sentiment and stars. It's VERY sparkly in real life! LOL

I sure had fun creating these cards and pulling out these older WMS sets! Hope you enjoy the party too!