paper possibilities

Frosty & a little friend

Awwww, aren't the cute!  Do I keep repeating that or what??  I have to start be telling you that I have already had another card idea for this image. I gotta get cracking with coloring another one up, but then I need to get cracking on a lot of things craft wise. So these frosty friends are layered on some VERY cool Stampin' Up! paper, given to me by BFF Janine. The packet also contains soft sky paper and it all coordinates so well with the patterned paper I used from Basic Grey. Happy, happy happy, I love it when colors come together. I layered the image once on the deeper blue paper and I used a little chalk ink to darken the edges (Cats Eye, dark brown). I layered that on another piece of the same color and then trimmed it off with my Fiskars postal stamp scissors. (this layer I did not chalk, so you could really notice the contrast) I fiddled around with a tri-fold card, or at least my odd version of a tri-fold card, made out of soft sky. I added a little Martha approved stitching on the small flap and the larger one, covered in that Basic Grey paper. I really like the lacy snowflakes, so I used some clear embossing on the small flap, and added a swirly Basic Grey stamp. Then genius struck me when I was playing with the ribbon, and I decided to make that curly too. If you read my previous post on the pinecone ornament, I curled this ribbon with my heat gun. How much fun is this??

Tonight is our annual (and last) band banquet and Jordan is taking her driving/road test before we go. Keep your fingers crossed that she passes and my behind doesn't go numb before the night is over. It is a long night, but I am looking forward to seeing some band parent/friends, I have not seen in a few weeks.

Like Tony the Tiger would say, have a GRRRREAT!!! friday.

What are friends for...

but for sitting on top of, of course!!  LOL  What makes me the happiest about this post is that you can actually see where I used my Hero Arts Prisma Glitter!  Those snow flakes are so sparkly! and that glitter is my favorite glitter ever.  I decided it was time to let loose of some horded Basig Grey paper, the Blitzen line. The colors all go so well together, but the stitching kinda gets lost. I lazily kept the white thread in my machine, and I can hear Martha grumbling now, lazy girl, that paula... Yeah, well, isn't this a cute card! I tried to make a tag, using a stamped sentiment but it just was too big. Again, I dug through my stash and pulled out some square Making Memories vellum tags. IThe stamp I wanted to use said "cheers" and I thought it went so well with the top hat and all, so I just wrote out..."holiday cheer" Wow, I took out my glue pen and added more glitter to the rim and so far it is all sticking on pretty good. I did have to keep Jordan from touching it, just in case...  LOL.

Happy Thursday! Keep smiling & keep warm...if you are anywhere near Michigan, where we are freezing!  :)

a whipper snapper Christmas...

What to show you first!  I have been coloring some new Whipper Snapper stamps, for a couple days, and finally got them turned into some super festive cards. Well, I think they're super festive...LOL  So this little guy who got tangled in the lights looks so merry & bright, doesn't he?  I needed some bright and Christmas-y paper and grabbed a Close To My Heart pack that I bought last year. The greens were fab together with the reindeer...or is he a moose? I got real "martha" and grabbed the sewing machine and tried to channel the master of all crafts...{{{ martha }}}.  I love her!  The pretty green bow is from one of my winning gifts that I got earlier this year from the Great Pacific Northwest...courtesy of Lockhart Stamps.  I am so glad I ironed it out and saved it, it made such a great bow, it is so soft and was easy to tie.

Thanks for stopping by tonight...   :)

oh, to be that young again...

NOT!  Don't I look cute?  Yeah, that is me on the left side, with my flowing blond hair and snappy red gingham dress. I know, it doesn't look red you're thinkin', but it was. I wore it for pictures in the fifth grade I think, and it kinda pooched out at the scoop neck, and the nun smacked it against me, like she thought I was maybe gonna do a spread for Playgirl or something... Funny, huh? well what the picture doesn't show is that it was a long dress, made by my mom. Yeah, I was stylin'.  Cindy, the little girl next to me, AKA...my sister, her dress...well, lets just say I am so happy I wore the red one! Ok, why am I showing you this photo of us twice?? Just so you know what the package looks like, and who makes it. EK Sucess, $2.00. Here is another secret, I bought the Tim Holtz alcohol inks and all the stuff that goes with it, over time, using 40% off coupons & I had never used it. So that is how I colored these ornaments, fun and easy, layering the color on, tamp, tamp tamp with the little felt pad and handle. I only have one set of three colors, the Tuscan Garden trio, and I like it...mushroom, cranberry and some kinda green. So now I am on the lookout for anything shiney or slick, that needs a bit of tuscan color added to it. LOL This year for the holidays, my tree {and my sisters}, will have our smiling faces looking out from its green branches, wondering if Santa might stop by with a Barbie or two...Have a great tuesday!

A whipper snapper Christmas

First I would like to thank this evening, a dear bff who lead me to this company called Whipper Snapper Designs!  Can you say C-U-T-E?? I can!  And, if you want to wander around there, have plenty of time and either a hefty charge card ready or a piece of paper to write a list {to narrow down later}...LOL  My work bff, Dana and I ordered a few stamps, the friday before Thanksgiving, and the UPS man was handing them to me the day before Thangsgiving as Jordan and I were gettin' home from Target. {my favorite store to shop} WOW, talk about snappy delivery. I so {{{love}}} my colored pencils, I know I mentioned that on here! haha So, where was I...oh yeah, I inked the stamps up on Thanksgiving night and these lucky guys were the first to get my coloring attention. So, so cute and I had picked up this silver/meshlike ribbon on friday night at Michaels, it worked perfectly with the paper. The recipe for this card follows something like this...the stamp is whipper snapper, in case you missed that, and the patterned paper is Die Cuts With A View. If it looks like there might me glitter running through the argyle, there is! Some basic silver brads, to compliment the silvery ribbon and the circle stamp is from Stampin' Up! A whole bunch of different sentiment circle stamps and I love them too! Uh, the little snowflake was a toss up on my part, did I like it?? Did Jordan like it?? She didn't help, she was like me, it looked good both ways. I opted to stick the snowflake on, it's from Making Memories. I don't know why, but just to add a tiny bit of something else, and I bought this package of them and still hadn't used them on anything.

So the main reason I bought the silvery ribbon is coming tomorrow...stay tuned!!

Merry & Bright Elzybell

Have you ever challenged yourself to work out of your comfort zone?  I do sometimes and when I looked at this striped paper, bought last year, I wonder what I was thinking. It's cute, but not something I would normally buy. I can't remember buying it at all, and decided to pull it out and use it on a card. Wow! then talk about giving Elzy a new wardrobe. She is the funky little girl that I don't have, because mine is now almost 18 years old. So I put Elzy in an outfit that I might buy if I went shopping today. I love stripes...have I ever said that on here?  Here I worked in another sentiment that I had to write out on a SU tab punch. So, do we like Elzy in bright colors or does she need to be in light pink? I think this little girl can carry off bright! look, she can handle carrying a tree! LOL

If you saw the post about my paper covered frame {{{ striped!}}} then YES< you can pick those frames up at Michaels for $1.00...what a bargain. I got 5 more to gussy up for some lucky friends.

Elzybell in blue...

This week I colored my little Elzy in blue. It seems that everyone else is putting her in pink, and that would have been my first instinct too...I went blue. This first card was done one evening this past week, and right away I knew there would be things I would change. I do a lot of tweeking when I make a second or third card, but there is no reason to waste that first one. I know someone will love it and not be as critical as me! LOL  This is the third time I have taken photos of these cards. They still look funny colored, but I don't want to scan anymore and keep playing with the lighting. The card base is made with SU's soft sky and the other blues are just scraps in have hangin' around. My first idea was just to use shades of blues, then I started sewing and added some sheer white ribbon. Elzy is stamped on SU's very vanilla and she is standing on glittery snow. The swirls are from my cuttlebug machine, and so many people use this embossing folder and I am a huge fan of it too! I brushed a little white craft in on the swirls with a sponge and even worked a little pearl-ex onto it. Now, I don't always put a sentiment on the front of my cards, but I decided to add a small one with my Karen Foster snap stamps, and I added a little crystal.  So then I started thinking of how I would  change this when I did it again...

Well, here it is! I put a little more vanilla on it and made it square. I changed out the ribbon and just did little tweeks. I already have other ideas for the next one, but will she be blue??  Stay tuned.

And happy friday to me!! I got my Paper Trey order today and I can not wait to play with that. First I gotta get my tree up...

Have a wonderful weekend and don't spend all your money on holiday shopping...spend a little on stamps too!!  :)

Deck the halls and trim the tree

How about trimming your tree with these baby's! This project is not my idea, at all. I saw these back this spring, when I first started reading blogs. I never knew about all the stamping blogs out there until one of my BFF's sent me a picture of a card made by Debbie Olson. I found this pinecone ornament on her blog when I was going through her archives. I don't know where this originated, but I knew I had to make some. I prefer the patterned paper that looks like material, and with so many out there, it's hard to miss them. I read a tip from one of the blogs about using a heat gun to curl the ribbon up and I did that here. Awesome tip and helps me because I am NOT a good bow maker.

Well, I am trimming my tree today and I will leave a spot for one of these ornaments. I can't put one  on my tree until I have made them for my friends!  Thanks for looking in, and hope you got some great deals if you braved the lines today.  :)

I am so ashamed to admit that I have not figured out how to put links in here. Debbie Olson sent you to a tutorial in her Nov. 25th, 06' posts, and she sends you to INKSPIRATIONS a blog by Amanda Sewell. Seems Amanda already had great instructions, and that is where I learned how to do it. I am so sorry about not knowing how to link these articles yet. I promise this will all change soon. There are so many great blogs out there!

Crafting & cooking

Which one do I enjoy more?? hahaha  Here is a hint, it doesn't have anything to do with pot ands pans! So today, before I got down to the bird, I got down with some Figgy paper. Yum...I was not really crazy about this at first, but I changed my mind. I also picked up a set of their acrylic stamps at Archivers. So I played with their wreath stamp and stamped it with a dew Drop, in Java. I added the red berries with my red glaze pen, and also used a green prismapencil to bring out green in the tiny leaves. I first thought about stamping the wreath in green and cutting those little leaves out, but then I decided I might need my sight to work in the kitchen! LOL  For my tri-fold card I used two Figgy sizes. I had bought the pad of 6x6 papers and a few of their 12x12 sheets. I added so deep red Bazzill cardstock, that I scalloped with a corner rounder and a little black for accents. Here is a close up on the wreath, I was so happy with the outcome I almost wasn't unhappy to start making dinner. haha

Hope everyone is having a great day and for all those gearing up to shop...have fun! I gave up that activity a few years ago, and I don't miss it.

So simple...

I was looking for some wooden stuff to glue paper to, when I ran across this frame. Hmmm, I thought, how about some stripe-ed paper. I think I still have a good size piece of that My Mind's Eye Christmas paper, I LOVE! Oh, I did and I even had some ribbon I picked up at a LSS on a trip, not so long ago...ahh, it all goes together! Does this frame want to be tucked away when the tree goes down, or do I wanna give the person who is getting it, the choice to leave it out? YES, lets dig through our stash and see what we have and finally decide that the Making Memories silver "wish" would keep the piece from screaming Christmas. Yes, it is perfect! I love it, I want to keep it for myself...but I can't. It has to travel and find a new home and make others happy too. So here it is...It is hard to tell, but I also added a small acrylic stone to the "i" and all the dots on the frame are raised with my clear glaze pen.  Now I want more frames and I think I saw them at Micheals for $1.00! Might have to check that out this weekend!