Saturday, December 27, 2008

You are My Love Affair to Remember

I was so thrilled to get the Audrey award (along with Sam from Ryemilan's Stamping and Scrapbooking) for the card I did inspired by "The Sound of Music". Sankari and Brooke asked us to be the guest designers for the new Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge movie, "An Affair to Remember". Thanks, Brooke and Sankari!


This is one of my favorite vintage movies. I've seen it several times. I LOVE Cary Grant movies and I love Deborah Kerr. I must admit I saw "Sleepless in Seattle" in 1993 before seeing "An Affair to Remember". I loved how "Sleepless in Seattle" weaved in the story about meeting on the roof of the Empire State Building just like Nickie and Terry. The building plays such a prominent role in both movies that I had to use the image of the Empire State Building as my inspiration for this card. I got the image from this site.

A little over 9 years ago, one of my sisters and I took my parents on a Mediterranean cruise. We had an overnight stop New York (we were actually staying close to the JFK airport). My sister is pretty adventurous. My dad stayed back in the hotel. My mom, my sister, and I ventured off in the subway and made our way to Manhattan (my sister is the only one who had been to the city before while she attended Cornell University). Our destination...the Empire State Building! We had a great time. The problem was getting back to our hotel. It was almost midnight, so the subway became a little scary. At one point, we were convinced we were being followed by some young men. I though we were going to be mugged. Whew...we got back safely. Seeing NY city from the top of the Empire State Building was worth all the effort.


I first saved the photo onto my computer. Using Picasa, I cropped it slightly and added the text "Love Affair to Remember" to the bottom of the photo. The photo already had a vintage look to it. I printed it on matte cardstock a few times. I cut out the building and used foam tape to layer it on the other photo to give it some dimension. I inked the edges of the photo with Basic Black ink. The rest of the card is simple. I covered the chipboard with my favorite Riding Hood Red designer paper. Thankfully, my husband has the perfect tiny sanding tools, so I was able to get into the groove of the heart. I masked off the word "You" from a stamp in the Best Yet set. The rest are stickers, ribbon, some leftover paper from my Christmas card, and some mini rhinestones.

Card Ingredients
Stamps: Best Yet
Paper: Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red DSP, printed photo on white matte cardstock (JudiKins)
Ink: Basic Black
Other: heart chipboard (SU!), Riding Hood Red Taffeta ribbon, Making Memories Black Metro Alpha Shimmer Sticker, Martha Stewart glittery sticker, foam tape, mini rhinestones (Michael's)

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Our Annual Photo Christmas Card


Finally on Monday I finished all 70 Christmas cards and mailed them out! I could've finished them sooner, but there were games to play (Chutes and Ladders is Kalino's latest favorite), stories to read, and new robot creations to look at. I'm trying to enjoy the season without stressing out about what I haven't done. It's Christmas Eve and we haven't assembled our gingerbread house from Trader Joe's, but that's OK.

Since we don't live near 90% of our families, we send out a Christmas card with Kalino on the card each year. This year, I knew I wanted to use Kraft cardstock as the base. I love Heather Nichol's (Pine is Here) work and her use of Kraft cardstock. I usually make at least 2 versions of the Christmas card. This time, I have 5 slight variations. I needed a few cards in Spanish, so some have Feliz Navidad on them. I had a 6"x6" sheet of Baja Breeze designer paper, so I made a few using that color. I also had some variations on the Martha Stewart snowflake punch.

We went to Pebble Beach near Carmel on a Friday afternoon in November to get the photos of Kalino. He had an early day at school and got out by noon, so we headed out on our day trip. The sun was shining, but it was cold. I took Kalino's jacket off while my husband got these pictures.

Thanks for looking!

Christmas Card Ingredients
Stamps: Holiday Collection, Felicidades Siempre
Paper: Kraft, Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red DSP, Baja Breeze DSP, silver foil
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze
Other: 4mm rhinestones and larger rhinestone (Michael's), Martha Stewart snowflake punch, Felt Flurries (SU), foam tape

Christmas Gift Card Holders

Can I ever get enough of these gift card holders? I guess not. I loved Kristina's template when I saw it on Two Peas in a Bucket. I made 11 different ones in the last week. Here are 5 of them. If I get time, I'll post a photo collage of the other 6 later.

Christmas is just hours away, and my poor little one is sick! Kalino has a fever. He never takes naps anymore, but this morning he was in his room playing. Before long, I couldn't hear any noise upstairs. When I checked on him, he was in bed asleep! Amazing! He woke up a few hours later with a definite fever. He thought he had slept all night long, so he greeted me with "Merry Christmas, Mama!" He was a little confused when I told him it was only the afternoon on Christmas Eve. So, I'm off to tend to the little guy. Feliz Navidad!

Gift Card Ingredients
Stamps: Holiday Collection & Tarjetas Con Bordes Festonados (SU)
Paper: Kraft, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Holiday Treasures DSP (SU), Mistletoe & Pear (BasicGrey)
Ink: Riding Hood Red
Punches: Square Scallop, 15/16" squre, circle punch, Martha Stewart snowflake
Ribbon: Alpine, Riding Hood Red Taffeta, Whisper White (all SU)
Other: Kristina's template, Wreath sticker (Sandylion), Fabric brad (K & Company, thanks Char!), Red Felt Fusion (Queen & Co.), felt snowflakes (SU), gold rhinestones (Me & My Big Ideas), Tombo Mono Metal glue, Velcro, SU square clear button

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

A Gift Card That is Actually a Crafting Tool

I didn't think I would have time for Kristina's Color Inspiration Callenge #35 this week. It would've been the first time I missed it. I'm knee-deep in making gift card holders, our annual card, wrapping gifts, planning my son's Kindergarten holiday party, etc., so I knew I could use the colors this week to make a gift card holder for a gift card I bought at Target on Monday. The colors this week are:

This gift card can actually be used as a brass stencil for snowflakes. It feels like a real brass stencil. I paper pierced one of the snowflakes and cut it out with a 1" circle punch. That is the layer on top of the felt snowflake. Run, don't walk, to your nearest Target if you want one of these gift cards. This would make a great gift for our crafting friends.

I used Kristina's template and instructions for this gift card. I added a tiny Velcro closure to the holder.


Gift Card Holder Ingredients
Stamps: Holiday Collection (SU)
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Baja Breeze designer paper, Very Vanilla
Ink: VersarMark, Close to Cocoa
Other: Clear embossing powder, brads (Making Memories), Kristina's template, brass stencil (Target gift card), piercing tool, 1" circle punch, yellow button (Making Memories), Tombo Mono glue, raffia thread (Studios Blackbird), Baja Breeze felt snowflake (SU)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Music is Love

Here's my entry for the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #9. The movie this week was "The Sound of Music".
Can't you just heard Julie Andrews singing in your head? My inspiration this week came from this being a musical and a love story. I've watched the movie many times through the years. The sentiment on the card says "Music is love in search of a word".
Thanks for looking!
Card Ingredients
Stamps: Music is Love (PSX), Musical Notes (JudiKins)
Paper: River Rock, designer paper (K & Company), card base is parchment paper (CA Paper Goods)
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Distress Ink - Tea Dye (Ranger)
Other: BasicGrey chipboard heart (Thanks, Ericka!), twine (Studio Blackbird), flower (Prima), mini rhinestone (Michael's), foam tape, Fiskar scallop paper punch (Thanks, Char!)

Thanks So Much!

Here's a thank you card I made using Kristina's colors for Color Inspiration #34. I'm posting almost late again!!! Why are these days flying by? Never enough time for stamping. I haven't designed our Christmas card yet! Yikes.

I love the photo Krisina used for the inspiration challenge. I'm in serious need of cardstock for these colors. The colors this week are:


I went to a cool paper crafting class at Craf'It this past weekend thanks to my friend, Rebecca! We made a pocket book (I haven't finished mine yet). The designer paper I used on this card was from paper Rebecca gave us in class. It had the perfect colors for this challenge.
Card Ingredients
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Paper: Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow, Bordering Blue, DSP (thanks, Rebecca)
Ink: VersaMark
Other: purple suede flower (We R Memory Keepers), 1 1/16" circle punch, white embossing powder, word window punch, dimensionals, Making Memories rhinestone brad

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Miracle of Christmas

Just a quick post before the deadline passes in about 5 minutes! This card is for the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #8. The movie this week was Miracle on 34th Street. I've seen the original and the latest version of this movie. I loved it when I was a kid and I still love the movie.

I used some old stamps for this card. The "miracle" sentiment is from one of my first Stampin' Up sets. It's in the 1998-1999 catalog. I didn't know the name of the stamp set because I didn't put the label on the case...duh! I had to look at the old catalog...it's Miracle of Christmas. I thought I had more Santa stamps. I only have 2...what? I wanted the sentiment to have the word "miracle" and I wanted Santa on the card.

I paper pieced Santa's suit and hat...that was a little hard! I don't think I've paper pieced something so small. I messed up the embossing of the sentiment, so I had to add the layer on top of "Christmas" to cover up my boo-boo.

Thanks for looking!

Card Ingredients
Stamps: Miracle of Christmas, Little Hellos (both SU retired)
Paper: white (JudiKins), BasicGrey Mistletoe & Pear Paper Pad
Ink: VersaMark, Basic Black
Punches: oval, word window, scallop edge
Other: Oval Mattboard (Stampendous), Crayola colored pencils, BasicGrey ribbon, brads (Bazzill), Stickles, foam tape, black embossing powder

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Happy Birthday, Moe!

Hi there! Kristina's Color Inspiration Challenge #33 was a good excuse to make a birthday card for my good friend Maureen (aka Moe). All you Kristina fans will recognize I used Kristina's template for the curved layers.

The colors for this week's challenge are:







Edited to Add: The Thickers I used are dark brown. This picture was taken at night, so they look black in this photo.

Moe left California a few years ago and moved back home to the Boston area. I believe she ignited my love of stamping about 11 years ago. A friend of Moe's gave her a PSX (Personal Stamp Exchange) catalog. We were able to order stamps at cost. Moe and I ordered about 10 stamps each. We ordered some ColorBox pigment ink pads as well. Mind you, we had no idea how to use anything! Still, I fell in love with stamping as soon as I saw the catalog. I started going to classes in the Sunnyvale and Cupertino area. Maureen never stamped a single item as far as I know, but she is a very talented quilter. I wanted to pay homage to her sewing skills with this card. That's why I pulled out the sewing machine to add some zig-zag stitching. I also used a button on the card.

Thanks for looking!

Card Ingredients
Stamps: Petals (Inque Boutique), Birthday Whimsy (SU)
Paper: Taken with Teal, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip
Ink: VersaMark
Other: Kristina's template, Brown Felt Thickers (Thanks, Char!), clear embossing powder, white embossing powder, dimensionals, Word Window punch, Felt Fusion flower, Making Memories button, American Crafts ric rac ribbon, sewing machine, Making Memories rhinestone brad