Fleas Navidad!

Once again, I am posting my card for the Jingle Belles prompt "Not a Creature Was Stirring..." with about five minutes to spare. Ugh... how did life get so busy? I struggled to find the perfect animal for my card and while I was in bed last night, I remembered I had the Paper-Source lab stamp. A beloved dog stamp. Yes! Oh, and tartan plaid paper to go with! Excellent!

I know, another CAS card, but hey, that's my style. It works. I know exactly who I'm going to send it to, with a beautiful picture of my big boy, Wrigley.

A "soft" card...

Jingle Belles prompt this week is by a *lovely* guest star... she suggested that we use the term "snow is softly falling" and interpret it any way we like, making *soft* the focus. So, I used some soft felt and die cut my Christmas tree. I decorated with blue rhinestones and used a SRM sticker on the banner for my sentiment. The paper is a new fave... full of glitter! It's from My Minds Eye, lost and found collection.
Ok, off I go in a rush to link up before the deadline! I'll be back with my PTI blog hop entry! ;)

Everything but the kitchen sink...

Hello friends, I have a doozie of a Christmas card for your viewing pleasure today. First, I got started with the Jingle Belles prompt "A caroling we will go." Meaning: use music or a song somehow in your card. So, I came up with this little gem:

There is actually a method to this madness of a card. This is my *special* card for my uncle Gene. Uncle Gene is one of six children, my mom's older brother. He is sensitive, sentimental, and truly cherishes everything that has any kind of meaning. A couple of years ago, I made him a card and it was a big hit. Last year, it didn't get done in time, so this year, he's getting a good one!

This card has a ton of meaning. Each little piece of it has significance. My grandmother, my mom's mother, passed away several years ago, but because of her, it's why we have all the wonderful traditions we still carry on today during Christmastime.

The base of the card is red cardstock layered with Silent Night sheet music. On Christmas Eve every year, we would gather together, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, and sisters, and sing Silent Night together before opening any gifts. It was usually off key and wonderful, which always sent my Grandmother into a pool of tears. Thankfully, she kept Kleenex tissues strategically stuffed under her sleeve. So, I added crumpled Kleenex to the bottom of the tree. Once the crying was over and laughing began, it was time for the presents! Grandmommy always wrapped her gifts in tissue paper or newsprint and tied them up with yarn. To remember that, this tree is made of all the things she used to wrap our gifts with. Sometimes, Grandmommy even made all of our gifts- and they were always crochet. Crochet stuffed animals, toboggans, scarfs, and one year... slippers. Have you ever tried on crochet slippers and walked on hardwood or linoleum? It's not pretty and a few of us almost broke our necks. So, the bottom of the tree is adorned with some beloved crochet. Finally, we come to the tinsel. The tacky, messy silver stuff that clogs vacuums and immediately makes any room "vintage." I had to add this because Grandmommy's tree- no matter how big or small it was, it always had a load of tinsel on it. Uncle Gene always came over and helped her decorate the tree when she got older, and he never left off the tinsel. In fact, he probably saved the darn stuff from years past and just re-used it.

So, you see, this tree made with everything but the kitchen sink actually has meaning and symbolism. I know my uncle Gene will love it... especially since it's "Grandmommy's Christmas Tree."

Peace

This weeks Jingle Belles prompt is "Peace." You can use the word peace or a peace symbol. I love the Paper Smooches stamp set, "Pretty Phrases" and that's where I started.

I embossed the sentiment in white on kraft and then added my patterned paper, felt border and small stitched felt heart. I used the new Claudine Hellmuth Studio stamps for my bird. First, I stamped him with white paint, then ink chocolate ink for the outline. I added a small silver rhinestone for an eye. This card was pretty easy and could easily be mass produced.

Enjoy!

If Anna were a snowman...

This is what she would look like:

The Jingle Belles prompt this week was "Suzy Snowflake," a song by Rosemary Clooney that I have never heard. We could interpret it any way we would like. So, I made a snow lady decked out in her finest jewels, hat and scarf. You can't tell from the photo, but the snowman is made from silver cardstock that I covered in crystal, coarse glitter. Her eyes and mouth are black rhinestones and her hat has a bit of felt on it too! Like I said, if Anna were a snowman, this is what she would look like! ;)

Challenges? I've got it covered...

I made my rounds to my fave blog challenge sites on Sunday and found so much inspiration! I decided to do my Christmas card this week based on the following 3 challenges:  

Jingle Belles- Hybrid Holidays (using a digital images with embellishments, papers, etc.)
Shopping Our Stash- No Coloring! No Coopics or Prismacolors!

Card Patterns- this sketch, but I rotated it once, clockwise:

My card:

I loved working with the Card Patterns sketch! I got this vintage image of Santa from an Etsy seller and printed it on ivory cardstock. No coloring! I just inked the edges of my papers and added some Hero Arts felt pointsettias and placed a vintage button on top for a little added "oompf!" Easy and fun, not to mention how crafty I felt to combine 3 challenges! I never do that!

A day late...

And a dollar short. I am so behind that I thought today was Wednesday. If  I were in school, and blogging was a subject, I would get an "F" with comments from the teacher that said, "unorganized, unfocused, tardy and missing assignments." Sheesh... I have been taking week long breaks between posts and that is just unacceptable! I'm going to have to do some extra credit work to make it up to you. Read on...

This is my Jingle Belles card for the week. The challenge was "Deck the Halls" and to use a ATC (artist trading card) or playing card on your handmade card. I printed my own ATC's- vintage kids decorating a snowman. I added it to a shipping tag and embellished with fabric leaves and a button tied with twine.

I mounted the tag to some Basic Grey Jovial paper, added a strip of red and tied some blue seam binding ribbon around it. I added a punched star and a decorative stick pin and it was done.

And now, to try and win your hearts over again (I am not above bribery), let's do a little giveaway. I have made several of these tags and they are for sale in my Etsy shop. You can add them to gifts, scrapbook pages, or like I did above, to a card. I am GIVING AWAY one set of 3 tags.

All you have to do is leave a comment telling me what you will do with the tags and I will choose a winner on Saturday afternoon. I'll be back here tomorrow... I am pre-posting now so I don't get side tracked! :)

JB- Labor Lost

This week, over at Jingle Belles, they are cutting the "labor" out of card making. They want us to CASE a card that another friendly card maker has already done. No problemo... loads of inspiration at the JB blog! I chose the previous challenge "Shape Up" and used Leslie Hannah's cute card of a shaped beanie.

How cute is this?!! Leslie makes loads of cute cards and you can check them out on her blog "The Crooked Stamper." She is hilarious! So, this is the card I ended up making...

So, her beanie creation totally inspired me to not only CASE her card, but also make some cute felt embellies to add to my Etsy shop:

And, since you guys totally got jipped out of seeing crafts last week due to my blog abandonment, I made another holiday to share...

This card took me like 5 minutes to make. Easy.

Now, go check out Leslie's blog, The Crooked Stamper. Gotta RUN!

Clean and Simple = Love

Those cute Jingle Belles are teaming up with the Clean and Simple Stamping gals this week! I don't care what it is, I love clean and simple- it's my style... it's just how I roll, k? So, imagine my excitement when I was handed not only a sketch, (love!) but also the instructions to keep it clean and simple! Holy awesome, Batman! I'm on it!

Here's what I came up with:

A close up of all those delicious Basic Grey chipboard embellishments... I only have 3 left from the pack!!! I also used October Afternoon paper and stickers and added a few tiny clear rhinestones.

And last, but not least, the sketch:

I hope you'll play along! You have until Wednesday at 6 pm to add your link. AND, the Jingle Belles have a swell prize up for grabs to one lucky, random participant! Woo-hoo!

Late... again!

Hi friends... I'm late posting my Jingle Belles card... again. *Sigh* I'm not too good with time. But late is better than never, right? This week those Belles wanted to see some *bling*! Let me first start off by saying that I don't use much bling on my cards. In fact, when I showed Anna this card, she wanted to know who made it. Exactly! It's not my style. I'm more of a CAS gal.

So, this is my bling-ed out card:

Yowza, that's a lot of rhinestone cowgirl goodness, huh?

Well, this is my kind of bling:

Clean and simple, and jazzed up with a few pearls. Pearls are always in style and they are so classy! I added some vellum that I used one of my punches on too.

Even though I tend to stay CAS in my style, it was fun to totally cover a card with rhinestones, and step outside of my comfort zone. :)

Lastly, yesterday was the first day of school for all of my kiddos. They had a great first day and were ready to go back this morning. Finally, I feel more organized and my house is staying clean a bit longer!  

Mac, 3rd grade, Anna, 1st grade, and Elan, 4 year old Preschool. Here's to another great year at St. Albert the Great!

Jingle Belles- Shape Up!

Shape up! The Jingle Belles challenge this week is to make a shaped card! Okay, I think I made a shaped card back in the 90's, but haven't since, so this was actually a challenge for me! Once I got an idea in my head, I got excited and eager to start.

So, here's my not so Clark Griswald decorated home for the holidays:

AND, I even made the house shape attach to a card that actually opens! Squeal! I was so impressed with myself!

If you look close, really close, you can see the coarse glitter I used on the chimney, trees and window edges. Those trees are cut from a Papertrey Ink die and the snow drifts? Those are die cut clouds from felt, cut in half. My wreath was assembled with Hero Arts poinsettia flowers and leaves, all attached with a vivid green brad. The Christmas lights are from Michael's and they have glitter on them too! ;) Whew!

Now, shape up, or ship out! That's what I always say to my kiddos... get yourself going on a shaped card- it was fun!

Jingle Belles- Blue Christmas

This week, the Jingle Belles are blue... the prompt is "Blue Christmas" and every time I say it, the Elvis song pops into my head and my kids are wondering why the heck I'm belting out Christmas songs in August! I tell them I'm trying to stay cool... they think I'm crazy. :p Well, I am. It's 100 degrees and the kids aren't in school yet. That's enough to make anyone a little whacked out!
So, here's my blue Christmas card:

Don't you love the October Afternoon paper? Those houses are so cute! Here's to staying cool...

Oh Deer!

Hi friends! I whipped up a quick card this morning for the Jingle Belles weekly prompt. This week... "reindeer games!" At first, I was like, "great. I don't have any reindeer in my stash." Then, I found the Basic Grey paper pad! The tag and the patterned paper are both from the Jovial collection... are you sick of seeing me use the same 'ole stuff?

In addition to the BG Jovial papers and tag embellishment, I also used a couple rub-ons, a "love" stamp, some cranberry seam binding tape (my mom gave me loads of spools!!) to make a bow and added some hand cut felt leaves all bound together with button and twine. I actually love this card... and so does Elan. He thinks it's a hunting card. :)

Jingle Belles- Stars OR Stripes!

Hi there! Have you all recovered from the long July 4th weekend? We are slowly catching up on our rest. ;) Before I hop off to bed, I wanted to share my Jingle Belles card for this week. The challenge was to use stars OR stripes in your Christmas card creation. Here's mine:

The snowflake paper from Basic Grey reminded me of stars and my chipboard "JOY" has striped letters. Yes, I used PINK on another Christmas card. That's what happens when you make a holiday card in the summer. Come fall, my Christmas cards might be ORANGE! ;)
Enjoy your evening...

Jingle Belles- "Tagging Along"

This week, the Jingle Belles are playing "tag team" with the chics over at The Order of the Opus Gluei. So, our crafty instructions were to make a holiday card and something to go along with it... like a box, bag, tag, etc. I'm always in need of a tag, so that's what I chose as my second project.

All the papers and chipboard are from Crate Paper- I love the colors! The ice skates stamp and die (which I have used over and over and over again...) are from Papertrey Ink. If I could only choose one stamp set for the winter, this "On Ice" set from PTI would be it!

I had fun tagging along... Can't wait to see what everyone else makes! :) 

Jingle Belles- All Bundled Up!

This week, the Jingle Belles have challenged us to get "all bundled up," or rather... lots of layers! I love to layer, so I think I'm covered on this card! I used the Basic Grey Jovial collection and added 3 layers to my card base, then topped it off with ribbon, twine, a hand cut felt heart, decorative tape, and some blue half pearls. I used chipboard letters to spell out the "you" in my greeting- also Basic Grey. I love this card... it warms me right up... just like a good friend would. Enjoy!

P.S. Sorry I have been MIA... got started on another big home project- stripping wallpaper hung in 1972 in my foyer. It's been a serious job, but I am almost completely done! Yahoo! Next up... paint colors! :)

Jingle Belles Sketch!

Hello there! I have a Jingle Belles card for you today! Brace yourself... it's busy... and shiny...

 

 The cards this week have to be based on this sketch:

Let me tell you, I love to work off a sketch, and I really liked this sketch- looked easy and clean. However, the more I added to the card, the tackier it got! I mean, first the tree. Then the buttons- they looked "blah" so I added coarse glitter and some twine for garland. Loved the star (of course, it's plain!), but my sentiment lacked the tacky theme, so I added some half pearls. I should have used the sentiment "Merry & Bright"!

Jingle Belles- "We Three Kings"

This week, the Jingle Belles are challenging us to use three different types of patterned papers on our cards! Fun! I love mixing it up and my Christmas paper and embellie collection is put together using basically three different manufacturers: Crate Paper, Basic Grey and October Afternoon. I chose to work with Crate Paper and created this fun card:

I used 3 patterns from Crate Paper, a red loopy border, and an October Afternoon sticker strip that says "Let it Snow." I made the tag and stamped snowflakes and added the snowman chipboard. Easy peasy, bright and cheesy! :)

JB- Sugar Plums!

Today, I am the Guest Designer over at Jingle Belles! I came across this inspiration board on the Paper Doll Romance blog and it was titled "Visions of Sugar Plums." I thought it would be a great prompt for a holiday card! It reminds me of the Nutcracker, and all that purple, glittery goodness reminds me of how sweet the holidays actually are!This is the card I came up with: I was inspired by the bottom right corner of the photo. I loved the garland and the ballet shoes, and how soft it all looked. So, I pulled out some sugar plum colors, coarse glitter, white ink and some scissors and went to town!

As I was crafting, 2 of my 3 shadows were close. So close, they wanted to make a skate card too. Ugh... I agreed and then they went to town with glitter, the Cuttlebug, ink and rhinestones. I love that they want to create, but they get everything out and make a huge mess. I still have coarse glitter on my desk... 3 days later!

Here is Anna's card. She is 6 and I believe she is adopting my "clean and simple" style. But the girl does love glitter, and more is, well, more! Her favorite tools- stamps and markers!

Here is Elan's card. He is 4. Anna was a bit perturbed that he kind of "copied" off of her card, but actually, he copied my card. How about those orange socks? He's quite the stamper! His favorite tools- the Cuttlebug and Glue Dots.I hope you will join the Jingle Belles blog this week and make a Sugar Plum card! With all this purplicious inspiration, I don't see how you could pass up the challenge! ;)

Can't wait to see all the creations!

JB- Jolly Old St. Nicholas!

The Jingle Belles are at it again! This week the prompt is to use "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" on your card.
Seriously, this was my one and only Santa in my stash and it was on a journaling card. I used my Basic Grey "jovial" paper pad and the sticker is from October Afternoon. I inked up all the edges to make it look a little more vintage. Simple, yes, but that's just my style... roll with it, k?

Until next time, friends, happy crafting.