Christmas Card Collage

I hope you had a great holiday weekend. Here are several designs of our photo Christmas card I created this year. All of the cards use the Holiday Photo Finishers from Papertrey Ink and the coordinating metal dies. The design is based on a design Dawn McVey created for the Holiday Card Boot Camp class I took last month.

The cards with the thicker embellishments were hand-delivered since mailing them would be harder and more expensive.

Christmas day was spent at my parent's house in Taos, New Mexico. It was fun and filled with lots of family, gifts, extremely delicious food, and fun.

One thing I noticed is my family is definitely an Apple family. Between us, my parents, some siblings, nieces, and cousin, here's a photo we took of the Apple devices at the festivities. Notice all the iPads, iPhones, iPods, and MacBooks. Almost every niece owns an Apple product. The photo doesn't include every Apple product there (AppleTV, and a Mac in the living room).

The only hitch in the day was I ruined the Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls recipe. I started out scalding twice the amount of milk that the recipe called for. When I added the initial 8 cups of flour I realized my mistake. I still haven't made the cinnamon rolls, but I plan to go to the grocery store today to buy more yeast.

A 3D Christmas Tree Tag

Happy Christmas Eve! I'm drinking some eggnog and eating my favorite Danish butter cookies. I wish it was snowing outside, but it's sunny and cold here in Northern New Mexico.

Here's a tag I actually made over a year ago when I was visiting Ericka last year. She had this great Martha Stewart tree paper punch. I punched out 3 trees from Basic Grey paper and scored the trees in half before adhering them to each other. I wish I more time this fall to make more tags like this. I added some ribbon and some more Basic Grey paper to a die cut tag.

I gave this tag to our dentist and her staff with a large jar of mixed nuts and cranberries I bought at Target; easy and simple!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm still not done wrapping gifts, so I better get busy.

Turkish Lentil Soup and a Tag

Reminder: I have a giveway going on. See here.

Last year when I visited my friend, Ericka, in Seattle, she served me the most delicious Turkish lentil soup. I think I ate it at 3 different meals. I loved it!

I made a batch the night before the last day of school and I got the idea to give the principal a large Mason jar full of soup as a gift. He is a vegetarian, so this recipe was perfect since you can use water or broth.

I used Papertrey Ink stamps, paper, and a doily metal die to make a quick gift tag to make the packaging. This particular doily die looks like a snow flake to me, so I thought it was perfect.

Thanks for stopping by. If you make this soup, let me know what you think.

I'm Giving Away a $25 Kiva Gift Card

Hi everyone,

To celebrate the holidays and the fact that today my family and I made our 100th loan on Kiva.org, I'd like to give away a $25 gift card to Kiva to any of my readers (US or international).

What is Kiva? It's my favorite micro-lending website. You can choose to loan $25 to entrepreneur(s) anywhere in the world.

I first heard about Kiva on Oprah's show back in June of 2007. I've been making micro-loans through Kiva ever since. Kiva has an extremely high success rate of people paying back their loans. When the money is paid back, you can reloan the money or withdraw the money from Kiva. In the 100 loans my family and I have made, only 2 entrepreneurs have only partially paid back the $25 each; that's an amazing number.

What do you have to do? Just enter a comment below before Saturday, December 31th at 11:59 PM PST.

I'll use my version of Random.org (my son, Kalino) to pick a winner on Sunday. The gift card will be emailed to the winner. Good luck!

With Sympathy

I got the sad news earlier this week that my ex-boss, Fred, passed away right before Thanksgiving from a heart attack. He was the best manager I've ever had. He gave me a lot of independence, but was there for me if I needed his help. He was great!

He and his wife moved out of the Bay Area about 10 years ago and were living in Oklahoma. I made this card for his wife, Gail. 

The card was made with a background stamp from Hero Arts that I stamped using VersaMark ink. I love this background stamp! The large sentiment stamp is also from Hero Arts. I bought the gorgeous canvas butterfly at Michael's. I can't remember who makes it.


Thanks for stopping by!

A Sweet Treats Gift Tag

Here's a gift tag I made using a tag from the office supply store, some Stampin Up scraps of patterned paper, and a Papertrey Ink stamp. I also used the Papertrey Ink metal die for the leaves and some felt finished off with some red buttons.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Happy Birthday Tag

(Edited to Add: I already posted this tag in October; sorry!)
Long time no see! Sorry for the lack of blog posts. There were none in November; oh my...that's never happened before. Nadja, this blog post is for you! Thanks for reminding me that it was Halloween since my last post.

I find it hard to purge smaller pieces of paper, so I find a perfect way to use up scraps is to create gift tags. The kraft tag was cut with my Silhouette SD digital cutter. How many of you have purchased the new Silhouette Cameo? Lucky!

The papers, stamps, and button are all from Papertrey Ink. The baker's twine is from The Twinery.

Happy Halloween!

Hello there...Happy Halloween!

Here are some cards I created for PSA Essentials earlier this year. Thanks for stopping by!

Canvas Covered Chipboard - Make It Monday #34 Challenge

I'm back today to finally participate in a Papertrey Ink Make It Monday challenge. This week we were challenged to create our own chipboard accents. I LOVE creating my own chipboard. I do it all the time.

I used the Fillable Frames #4 die to cut some kraft cardstock 5 times. I also used the die to cut some canvas.

I stamped the canvas with the stamps from Fillable Frames #4 set using Chestnut Roan chalk ink. I glued the layers together and punched holes with the Crop-a-Dile. I attached the chipboard to the card front with linen thread.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Tag

Happy World Card Making Day! Hope you were able to get some crafting done. Recently,  I've been making a lot of tags because they are a perfect way to use of bits and pieces of paper.

The tag was cut with my Silhouette SD. The papers are from Papertrey Ink and the stamp is also from the Birthday Bash Sentiments.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Belated Birthday

Hi there! Here's a quick card from the same Silhouette design I used on a card a few weeks ago. My mom's birthday was a week ago, and I haven't sent her a card yet. I may send her this one if I don't finish the one I already started in my studio.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday

Hi everyone, hope you are doing well in your part of the world.

Here's a simple card I made a few weeks ago when my friend Ericka was visiting. This card was made with these Hero Arts stamps: Life of the Party Words and Hip Hip Hurray. I love the quality of Hero Arts stamps!

I added a Prima flower and colored the sentiment with Copic markers.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Birthday

Last weekend I had so much fun since one of my best friends, Ericka, was in town for the weekend. We made cards and tags for hours on end. We stayed up way past midnight. I moved a lot of the crafting stuff to the dining room table (which I added both leafs to) so we had space to work.

Here's one of the cards I made using the Little Labels stamps and die from Papertrey Ink.

I also used my Silhouette SD to cut this design. I couldn't resist adding some baker's twine too. Thanks for stopping by; have a good one!

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3/14/11

Hi there! Here's another thank you card I made a while back.

The stamp is Technique Tuesday from the A Million and One by Ali Edwards. I love her handwriting! The gorgeous papers and ribbon are all from Stampin' Up. The pearls are from Want 2 Scrap.


This card uses the same papers and stamp set.


Thanks for stopping by!

Thank You, Chau

Hi there! I've got so many cards to show you, but I've made so little time to actually post them on this blog. We'll here's a thank you card I made in June for my good friend, Chau.

I love this patterned paper from Crate Paper...love it! I cut the "thank you" with my Silhouette digital cutter. Have you heard that Silhouette is releasing a larger machine that cuts 12" paper called the Silhouette Cameo? It's set to start selling in October.

I added a button in the corner that is threaded with a tiny piece of cardstock. That's it...super simple.

Have a great day in your part of the world!

Have a Delicious Day

Thanks for stopping by today. I'm a little sad that Summer Card Camp 2011 is ending this week; it's been a great class. This week these are the colors we are working with.

For my card, I used one of Kristina's sketches. I love using geometric shapes and repetition in my designs.

I stamped various images from the Yummy Treats set by Hero Arts using VersaMark ink and I heat embossed them with white embossing powder. I used a 3/4" square punch to punch our various parts of the images. I also used a VersaMark pen to darken areas on the cakes and cupcakes.

Finally, I added some Diamond Sparkles by PSX and mounted the images with foam tape. I also added a little bling around the sentiment.

Card Ingredients

Stamps: Yummy Treats (Hero Arts)

Paper: Simply Chartreuse, white (Papertrey Ink), Taken with Teal, Tempting Turqoise, Soft Sky (Stampin' Up)

Ink: VersaMark, Taken with Teal

Tools: 3/4" square punch (EK Success)

Other: white embossing powder, VersaMark Pen, rhinestones (Michael's), Diamond Sparles (PSX)

PSA Essentials & Helmar USA

Hope you are having a great weekend. The weather this week in Northern California was nice and cool. I didn't turn on the central air conditioning the entire week; it was heavenly!

Here's a card I made for PSA Essentials using their Rosettas set of stamps (my favorite). This past week PSA Essentials partnered with Helmar USA adhesives to showcase both companies' products.

This card started with this card design I cut out using black cardstock and my Silhouette digital cutter.

I stamped the Rosettas designs on white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored them in with Copic markers. I glued the white cardstock inside the cutout panels of the black card. I finished the design by adding gems to the flowers with Helmar 450 Quick Dry glue. I finished the card with some faux stitching.

PSA Essentials YouTube Video Contest

During the month of July, PSA Essentials is having a YouTube video contest that is open to USA and Canadian residents 17 years and older. You could win $200 worth of PSA Essentials products. See details here.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

You Make Me Smile!

Hi there! It's already week 3 of the Summer Card Camp 2011. These are the colors I used this week.

My card design started when I saw new Amy Tangerine American Crafts designs in the Silhouette Studio Store. I love this camera. I decided to make a camera-shaped card.

My inspiration was a woodgrain camera like this one. All the cardstock and patterned paper is from Stampin' Up. I used a piece of vellum where the flash is located.

I stamped a Papertrey Ink woodgrain stamp on the lens and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. The red heart is a Stampin' Up stamp that I also heat embossed.

The sentiment comes from Lawn Fawn and I stamped it with Chocolate Chip ink.

I added some American Crafts brads and some baker's twine.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday

Hi there! Today I'm posting a card for week 2 of Summer Card Camp. Here are the colors this week that I'm working with.

For my card I used this large Hero Arts background stamp and I heat embossed it on kraft cardstock with white embossing powder. (This stamp happens to be the Stamp of the Week on the Hero Arts website.)

I then stamped the same background stamp on the colored cardstock and also heat embossed them with white embossing powder. I cut out different words and added them to the card base with dimensional tape.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 4th of July and More PSA Essentials Info

It's the tail-end of our long holiday weekend here in the states. It's been a little too warm for me. Thank goodness for central air conditioning and a cooler evening today!

Here's a card I made for PSA Essentials. It uses patriotic colors, but it is a masculine card to welcome a baby boy. The stamps come from the Country Home and Carriage stamp sets.

This card was published on page 49 of the July 2011 issue of CardMaker Magazine. I just downloaded the online version of the magazine, since I hadn't seen the published card.

PSA Essentials Design Team

PSA Essentials is taking applications for the new design team. Are you interested? Find out all the information you need here.

PSA Essentials YouTube Video Contest

PSA Essentials is also having a YouTube video contest that is open to USA and Canadian residents 17 years and older. You could win $200 worth of PSA Essentials products. See details here.

Have a good one!

 

Card for Jessica

Hi there! I'm participating in Kristina and Jennifer's  

Summer Card Camp 2011. This is the color combo for this first week.

My Sweetie asked me to make a card for Jessica, his former manager and mentor, who is leaving the company. Since a group of engineers are going to sign the card, I made it larger than a standard A2 card size.

The stamps are from Lawn Fawn (Jessie's ABCs and Lunar Lights) and Papertrey Ink (Polka Dot Basics).

The lanterns are paper pieced with papers from Stampin' Up and Papertrey Ink. I added Diamond Glaze to each lantern to give it shine before adding them to the card with mounting tape. I also added baker's twine.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Lucia - June Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

Hi there! I wanted to join the Papertrey Ink June Blog Hop today. I was in such a rush earlier that I had to photograph my card on the dashboard of the card while we drove to drop off the Little Guy at a party and meet up with Lucia. The card was inspired by this beautiful image. I loved the stripes of color and choose to use that as my main inspiration.

I made this card for Lucia, one of my favorite people. Her birthday is today. She is my husband's first cousin, but I love her like a sister. Such a sweetie!

I used the Birthday Bash Sentiments stamp set for the sentiment and the butterfly image comes from the Butterfly Wishes 
stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great one.

Anthonette

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

I hope your day is going well. You're going to see a lot of thank you cards on my site. I made 18 of them a few weeks ago to thank the wonderful parents and staff who made my birthday celebration very special. Here is one of them.

The stamp is Technique Tuesday from the A Million and One by Ali Edwards. I love her handwriting! The gorgeous papers and ribbon are all from Stampin' Up. The pearls are from Want 2 Scrap.

The Little Guy is waiting for me. We are going to watch a movie before bedtime. I love Netflix! We are going to watch Free Willy. Good night!

Happy Father's Day

Hi everyone. This is the Father's Day card I made for my sweet dad in New Mexico.

It started with a sentiment design from the Silhouette Studio store. I love welded-type words. The papers are from Love Letter Designer Series Paper by Stampin' Up. I used a white gel pen to add faux stitching to the sentiment. The heart and the sentiment are popped up on dimensional tape. I also added faux stitching around the heart with a black Copic pen.

Thanks for stopping by!

Welcome to the Want 2 Scrap & PSA Essentials Blog Hop

Hi there! Welcome to my site. Today, PSA Essentials and Want 2 Scrap have teamed up for a blog hop. To start off, go to the Want2Scrap blog. There is a giveway, so continue reading.

 

If you are following the blog hop, you arrived from Elise Durenberger's blog (Mama Cow Creations; cute blog name).

Here's the card I made using pink pearls from Want 2 Scrap and a cupcake stamp from PSA Essentials. Pearls are a perfect way to add a great detail to a simple card. This card is an early birthday card for Lauren who will turn 8 next month. She along with her parents are visiting us from Texas right now.

A few days ago, I introduced her to stamping. We were using some Hello Kitty designs from PSA Essentials. What 7 year old girl doesn't love Hello Kitty? I told her I also had cupcake stamps, so this card will be an early surprise for her.

You can purchase products from Want 2 Scrap here.  Want2Scrap is giving 30% OFF your entire purchase 6/13 – 6/23. I discovered them last year when I attended the CHA Supershow. I bought several packs of their embellishments.

To purchase PSA Essentials, go here. The Paper Clique is giving 30% off all PSA Essentials products from 6/13 – 6/23. The coupon code at check out is SAVE ONPSA.  

The Big Giveaway:

• PSA Essentials is giving away:  1 stamper, 1 Peel & Stick packs of winners choice
• Want2Scrap is giving away a $35 gift certificate to their store!
• Dates of entry for the giveaway are 6/13 -  6/15
• Be a follower of PSA Stamp Camp Blog & Comment – 1 entry
• Be a follower of Want2Scrap Blog & comment  - 1 entry
• Winner will be chosen on 6/16 and announced on Facebook

You next stop of the blog hop is Jeanne Streiff's blog (Inky Paws). Have a great day!

Best Wishes Pennie!

I'm hoping you're having a great day in your part of the world. Yesterday we had a little party at school for a teacher that is transfering to a different school.

This card started with some beautiful Crate Paper. I just added coordinating buttons from Papertrey Ink and stamped the sentiment using Jessie's ABCs from Lawn Fawn.


We have friends visiting from Texas and are off to the Monterey area for a day of fun. Adios!

The Twinery and PSA Essentials Blog Hop Continues

Good morning dearies! Today we start a week-long blog hop to showcase The Twinery and PSA Essentials products. 

If you following our blog hop, your hopping over from Monika Wright's blog (I Love it All). My goodness, that girl is super talented! If you didn't come from Monika's blog, start your blog hopping at The Twinery here. 

There are giveaways and several chances to win this week, so you don't want to miss a thing.

Those of you frequent visitors to my blog know that I LOVE baker's twine. I can't get enough of it.

On the first card I used Lemondrop twine from The Twinery and the Love stamp from the Love Birds set by PSA Essentials. I cut a design from the Silhouette Studio and added baker's twine to the rays.

On the second card, I used Pink Sorbet twine and the Love sentiment from the Love Birds set.

Buy The Twinery's twine and PSA Essentials Peel & Stick products at a discount this week during the blog hop. Here are the details:

• The Twinery: Purchase here and enter the coupon code  PSAHOP15 for 15% off any order from June 6 through June 10th.

• PSA Essentials: Purchase at The Letter Tree here and get 30% off all PSA Essentials products from June 6 through June 10th. No coupon code needed; products are already marked down 30%. 

The Big Giveaway:

• Dates of entry are 6/6 at 12:01 AM EST to SUNDAY 6/12 at 11:59 EST. 
• PSA Essentials is giving away:  1 stamper, 3 Peel & Stick packs of winner's choice 
• The Letter Tree is giving away 1 monogrammed tote bag - image is attached
• The Twinery is giving away Six spools of twine of winner's choice ($84 value)
• Conditions to enter the giveaway:Follow the PSA Stamp Camp Blog – 1 entry
  Follow The Twinery Blog – 1 entry
  Like PSA Essentials on Facebook – 1 entry
  Like The Twinery on Facebook – 1 entry
• Winner will be chosen on 6/13 and announced on Facebook on both Twinery & PSA Essentials pages

Today, my blog is the last stop on the blog hop. The blog hopping will start again tomorrow morning at 8AM EST at Jen Carter's blog. See you then!