Nephew's Birthday Card

My Cricut has been sitting on my desk since this summer, unloved, so I dusted her off and actually made something!  I had seen a very cute card posted by Wendy Weixler and wanted to do something similar.  I didn't want to exactly CASE her card, so I made sure I didn't look at hers while making mine.  Mine fits in one of the SU large envelopes (that I wish they still sold) - a little bit bigger than the standard greeting card.  It's funny, I ended up adding the scallop circle sentiment like Wendy did, but didn't remember that she'd done that on her card until I looked at hers after finishing mine.  I broke out my SU! cloud template and sponged in the sky using Bashful Blue ink.  Really like how the card turned out.

I made this card to give to my nephew who is turning 11.  I hope he likes it.  I think I need to invest in a sports-themed cartridge to give me more options for male cards... we'll see if Joann's has their great Black Friday deal ($27) on them again this year so I can add to my collection!

November - the LAST Batch of Christmas Cards!!

My, how fast 2011 has flown by!  It seems like only yesterday that I signed up over at the Stampin' Addicts for their 2011 Holiday Cards challenge.  Here it is, November, and the last batch of cards is finished.  Woo hoo!!  Here they are, a color variation of last month's cards.  I've gone through just about every mini rhinestone I had, but they're done!

I have far more than I need, but it's a nice feeling that I don't have to make time to make any more Christmas cards this year!

I've got one more post for you tomorrow, but this time it's a birthday card.  See you soon!

October's Set of Christmas Cards

I was a bit behind, but I finally got my October set of Christmas cards done!  Just posted them over at Stampin' Addicts, a bit late, but they're done.  One month to go and we're done with the 2011 Christmas cards, and I've got the November cards ready to share with you tomorrow!

They're based on a card made by Jan Tink for the November Control Freaks Blog Hop (and she was inspired by Darlene DeVries), although I made thank you cards several years back using the same masking technique.  My box of 2011 Christmas cards is in the background, bursting at the seams!  Tomorrow I'll share with you the last batch, the November cards.  Hope to see you then!

Another Gently Falling Card!

Hello there, how is your day going?  Good, I hope!  I'm back again with yet another post.  This one started out being inspired by another favorite stamper, Wendy Weixler.  There were two cards I'd seen on her blog - the first from a recent Control Freaks Blog Hop, and another from her blog back in 2010.  I made my version on a clouded-out night at my favorite annual stargazing event which is held each fall in Borrego Springs.  I shared it with my stampers last weekend.  This baby took not one, not two, no, not even three, but a full FOUR stamps to mail!  Mailed one to my mother-in-law, and one to my upline.  The other two I made are going to be hand-delivered to my folks and my brother.

I used Mary Brown's trick for making bows using brads, and I love how it looks!  The inside of my card is a repeat of the bottom stamped layer (my DH loves it that I design the inside of cards instead of leaving them plain card stock).

Thanks for taking some time today to visit my little blog... I'll have another post for you tomorrow!

Another CASE of a Favorite Stamper

Welcome back!  As promised, I have a few cards to share with you over the next few days.  The card I'm sharing with you today was inspired by one of my favorite stampers, Debra Currier.  I love her clean and easy style of stamping.  I wanted to duplicate her beautiful card, but I'm a layers girl, and just couldn't do it without adding more to Debra's original design.  Here's my first version of her card, which I made back in September while hanging out with my DH at our local coffee shop (little did I know, it was closing in a few short days from then).

I wanted to use a thicker ribbon, and feature the new Hand-Penned Holidays stamp on my version of Debra's beautiful card.  I cut out 12 card kits for my September stamp camp, when along comes a need for a swap card for my upline's September meeting.  We had to feature products from the Holiday Mini, so I changed the Autumn Days stamp set and used Gently Falling once again.  Here's how the card looks with the stamp change:

 

You know, when I saw Gently Falling in the Holiday Mini catalog, I thought to myself, do I REALLY need yet ANOTHER leaves stamp set?  No, not really... but, I bit the bullet and bought it anyway!  So glad I did, as I've used it a bunch of times!

Hope you can make it back tomorrow for another post - yup, I said another post!  I'm on a roll...

Halloween CASE

Well hello there!  I know, amazing... another post in the same month!! This one is a direct CASE (copy and steal everything) from the very talented Heidi Baks.  I loved her cute card, but I didn't have the stamp set she used for the wooden sign, so what's a girl to do?  Well, download the MDS version of the stamp set and print it out!!

I had hoped to share this one with my stampers last month, but it just didn't happen - never had the time to sit down and prepare the card kits, so I'll save it for next year!

Holiday Mini Swap Card

Wowza, it's been over TWO months since I've posted something...  so I'll share with you the few things I've stamped in those two months!

Today I'm sharing a swap card I made for a Stampin' Addicts swap a while back featuring the stamp set Gently Falling from the Holiday Mini catalog.  I stamped each maple leaf and then used a dauber to add some champagne mist shimmer paint to the rubber before stamping (first time I've used it).  I really like the effect and hope you can see it in the second picture.  The sentiment was created using My Digital Studio and printed out onto vellum.  As Jan Tink always says, lookie...

I hope you liked my card.  I have a few more to share over the next few days, so be sure to stop back by!  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Hershey Bar Wrapper CASE

It's been a while!  This happens every year when the school year begins... my poor blog sits and pouts, waiting for me to finally have time to sit down and add a post.  Well, today's the day!  I actually have quite a few things to share with you, but I haven't photographed most of them, so I'll share what I did photograph.  It's a cute candy bar wrapper, pretty much a CASE of Mary Fish's very cute one, found here.  I have a ton of designer series paper, with a good amount of it being Halloween DSP, so I thought I'd create a bunch of these using up some of the scraps.  I've made six different ones, and still have at least one more Halloween DSP I haven't used yet.  I'm going to make 12 of them for my girls to give to their teachers, and it will be a project I'll share with my stampers in just under 2 weeks.  So easy and relatively quick to make - who wouldn't love to receive one of these?  My high school daughter, upon seeing them, asked if she was going to have to pass them out, to which I replied, "YES!".  We secondary teachers rarely get goodies from our students, so it's important to me that my girls let their middle and high school teachers know that the work they do is much appreciated.

Hope you like it!  That's Cajun Craze for the box - sure looks like Tangerine in the photo.  Have a great week!

Christmas Stocking Card Specs

I've had a couple of requests for the dimensions I used on my August and September holiday card posts, so here they are:

Punch stockings first using scraps of holiday DSP; assemble with glue pen and allow to dry.  Add a loop of baker's twine to back of stocking using clear tape.

Card base:  5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches Very Vanilla, scored and folded as a standard greeting card.
DSP:  Well Worn, cut 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches; adhere to front of Very Vanilla card base.
Cut black card stock 3 7/8 x 3 inches.  Center over DSP, aligning bottom edge of black with bottom edge of DSP.
Top of card - two pieces of Early Espresso.  One cut 1 x 4 1/4 inches and sponged with Early Espresso ink along bottom and side edges only (adhere directly to DSP layer, aligning top edge).  Other is cut 5/8 x 4 1/4 inches and sponged along top, bottom and side edges.  Add silver brads at 1 3/8 and 2 7/8 from left edge of this strip.  Before pushing brads all the way through, add loop of stocking over brad.  Pop up Early Espresso with dimensionals along top edge of card.  Add dimensionals to back of stocking and adhere to card.

Bottom of card:  4 1/4 x 7/16 inches, sponged in Early Espresso along all sides.  Pop up with stampin' dimensionals.

Make the fire using the bird punch (wing) - Daffodill Delight card stock.  Two of the flames curve left with the other curving right.  Sponge with Pumpkin Pie ink.  Glue together with glue pen, allow to dry.  Make logs with word window punch and Early Espresso card stock.  Sponge edges with Early Espresso ink and glue together.  Glue flames to top edge of logs.  Pop up with stampin' dimensionals and place on card just above hearth that is popped up.

I hope that all makes sense - have fun making these super easy cards!  To save some time, you could choose to not sponge the Early Espresso except for on the fire.

September Set of Christmas Cards

As promised, here's my set of Christmas cards for September.  There are seven this time around, using scraps of Ski Slope designer series paper.  I wasn't sure about getting the stocking punch, but now I'm really glad I did.  I hope my stampers will love making this card at an upcoming stamp camp.  I got the matching stamp set, so they'll be able to just punch from DSP or stamp and then punch.

 

Have a fabulous day - I hope it involves doing something fun and creative!

August Set of Christmas Cards

Here's my batch of Christmas cards for my August quota.  I used the cute new stocking punch, word window punch, and bird punch to create my card.  I made six of these using scraps of probably my favorite holiday designer series paper, the retired Holiday Treasures.  The early espresso card stock edges were sponged with espresso ink, and the top of the mantle, hearth, fire, and stockings are all popped up.  I really like how they turned out.  I ended up doing another seven, this time with scraps of another favorite holiday paper, the retired Ski Slope.  I'll share those with you tomorrow.

I'm already above the number of cards I had hoped to make for 2011, so it will be nice to have some extras for a change!

Last Page and Cover of Maui Album

Today will be the last post of my Maui digital scrapbook album.  The first page is a shot of the crescent moon over the palm trees in front of the condo we rented in Kihei, with a little glow of the sunset left.

For my back cover, I took the image of Arianne's footprints on Kahana Beach and flipped it.  If I have an option for the color of the spine when I upload my album, I'll go with the Creamy Caramel which borders the image.

I thought it was a fitting end to my album.  It was a wonderful vacation.  We've been to Maui so many times now it almost feels like coming home in a sense.  When we retire, I hope to make that a true statement, as my DH and I would like to live there for a year before trying out some other areas of our country, a year at a time.  He's lived in our hometown all but one year of his life, so he wants to see what other regions of our country are like.  Can't say I blame him.

Thanks again for visiting my blog - I hope to have some Christmas cards and swaps to share with you soon!

Views from the Kihei Surfside

Being isolated on a rocky bluff, the Kihei Surfside provided some interesting landscapes to check out.  The resort is located adjacent to the Kihei Boat Ramp, so we saw several small boats, rafts, and kayaks launched from the ramp.  The curved breakwater there made for a nice backdrop to some of the photographs my husband shot.  Every day we'd see someone fishing from the rocks out in front of the condo or from the breakwater when we'd trek over there.  There was so much to look at, with the island of Kaho'olawe to the left of the resort (and Molokini Crater in front of it), the island of Lana'i straight out in front of our unit, and the West Maui mountains to the right.  Spectacular views there, all around.

I thank you for letting me share my Maui vacation with you.  I have one last post from our trip scheduled for tomorrow where I'll share our final sunset on Maui and the back cover of my album.  I'll return to card making after this for a bit as I've got some swaps to make as well as my August allotment of Christmas cards.  See you soon!

Kihei Sunsets

Although I love the Kahana area of West Maui, I have to admit that I really liked the sunsets from the condo in Kihei better.  The grounds of the Kihei Surfside provide many different photo opportunities for sunset pictures.  Today I'm sharing with you a four page spread of the gorgeous sunsets we viewed from Kihei.  The sun sets behind the island of Lana'i from our vantage point, with West Maui to the right.  Over to the left of Lana'i is the island of Kaho'olawe and in the foreground, Molokini Crater, which can be seen in a smaller image at the bottom left of the third page of this spread.

One more regular spread to go, then I'll share with you the last page and back cover of my album.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Maui Rainbows

We were treated to a few rainbows during our stay on Maui, so I put together a page to share them.

 

Not as many rainbows as we've seen in previous years, but they were beautiful!  The top left and bottom images were shot by our youngest.

Views from the Royal Kahana

One thing I love about the Royal Kahana is the view of the neighboring property and out across the ocean towards the islands of Lana'i and Moloka'i.  If I ever win the lottery (yeah, right), I'd consider buying one of the oceanfront units at the RK.  I love the location - it's typically a few degrees cooler there than if you head down into Lahaina.

I finished my album on August 7, so now it's just a matter of looking back over it a few more times to see what needs to be tweaked before I uploaded to the Stampin' Up! print services.  I'm so excited - I can't remember the last time I did so much scrapbooking!

Big Beach

We made it home safely but only to find out that our favorite coffee shop, Jazz 'n Java, closed it's doors while we were gone.  Word has it that the property recently got a new landlord, who stupidly decided to increase the rent (In this economy?  Hello... especially with two of the four units of the property having been empty for more than a year before finally getting new tennants this spring and summer).  The owner of Jazz 'n Java also owns three other coffee shops (Sips), and even though this one was more successful than the others, he decided to close it instead of pay the higher rent.  Pretty sad!  The double blow in all this is that with Borders closing, my DH has lost his two favorite coffee places in the same month - he really liked the Seattle's Best coffee inside the bookstore as their coffee was consistently good.  Not sure what we're going to do - we can go up the street to the Sips coffee there, but the ambiance just isn't the same.

Ok, time for today's scrapbook pages.  One of my favorite places to go on Maui is to Big Beach just south of Makena in South Maui.  I just love this huge, golden sand beach!  The surf can be rough here so not many are brave enough to venture out for a swim.  The main attraction are the body surfers and boogie boarders, and this visit to Big Beach found about a dozen boogie boarders trying to catch some air.  This set of pages came together quickly as I can now use my desktop system and boy, is it MUCH faster than my netbook!

Thanks for stopping by today - I still have more pictures to scrapbook, so I should have more pages soon!

Tide Pools

We've had a fantastic view from the condo we rented in Kihei.  The Kihei Surfside is up on a small bluff above a rocky ledge.  There are many tide pools created by the surf, and the girls enjoyed checking them out.

While I was working on the title for this spread, I had originally planned to just extend the Island Indigo tasteful trim punch across to the right panel with 'tide' on the left panel of the spread and 'pools' on the right.  I created the entire title on the left panel and was about to move the right half part over when our oldest suggested that I leave the 'sqwiggly lines' where they were and put a picture in between them.  I liked her idea, so I duplicated the page, popped in two similar pictures, and just moved 'pools' to the right panel.  Does that make any sense at all?  I love the image on the right with my girls in there - I couldn't have planned that one better than if I'd tried!