A Merry Little Christmas to you

I wanted to put together a little somethin'-somethin' as a stocking stuffer or even a Christmas rush stress reliever for the ladies. These little toiletry bags were fast and fun to make. The idea is not my own. Mary H. over at the Stamp Shack made these last year for her craft sale table and shared her idea. Thanks Mary! These will really come in handy for small gifts and stocking stuffers.


I just took a little trip to the dollar store and found bath scrubbies, votive candles, small tubes of body wash and nail files to fill the little bag. You could also do something like this with chocolates, tea, nuts or any type of edible treat.

The cello bags I found at Michaels in the baking/crafts section. For the topper I just used some holiday greeting stamps, bright colored inks, a piece of ribbon and of course I had to add a little Stickles to the holly berries for sparkle.

Voila! A quick and easy "thinking of you" gift.


Are you starting to get into the holiday spirit?

Until next time....

Jennifer

Holiday baking attire

Are you getting in the mood to begin a little holiday baking, entertaining and cooking? I am. And you know the old jingle that says, "nuthin' says lovin' like somethin' from the oven." Well why not dress the part too.

This is the 4th and final Sassy Apron swap apron for this year that I made for my new swap partner. I hope she'll enjoy wearing it. The photo doesn't show it well but there is a metalic gold thread throughout the forest/bird scene on the main fabric and it really shimmers. This is the same pattern I used for the autumn apron but I really liked the off angle pocket and bodice detail in the contrast fabric and big buttons and flounce at the bottom. It is also double sided with the contrast on the inside so technically you can wear this the other way too, though I prefer the front.

For this Winter Sassy Apron swap we were to make an apron with a winter or holiday theme and include for our partner a cookie cutter and cookie recipe as well.

I'm not sure if Lucy is going to do more Sassy Apron swaps in 2009. There are approximate 150 people participating in this swap and that is a lot of work for Lucy to organize and keep track of. Just imagine all of the winter themed aprons being mailed to their partners! I'm looking forward to receiving my winter/holiday themed apron from my secret partner.

We have about 6 inches of snow on the ground outside and it really is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. I think I'll go and bake some cookies now!

Cheers!

Jennifer

Warm Holiday Greetings

I'm still trying to come up with Canada Post/USPS friendly Christmas cards that won't be too bulky for a single stamp. I tend to get carried away with using ribbon, brads, multiple layers and embellishments that stick up and thus require an extra stamp for mailing. But this little card just might allow me to use my fun "toys" and still create a flat (sort of) card.

The gate with the wreath stamp is by Sunshine Designs from The Stamp Barn. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils (no solvent) and used my rectangle Nestibilities to cut it as well as the scalloped green background. For the wreath, I used Christmas Green Flower Soft. For the snow I used Ivory Flower Soft. I just love this Flower Soft product. It is so delicate and natural looking. It isn't at all like any other product I've seen.

The card base is embossed with my cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder. I used a Martha Stewart snowflake border punch for the bottom. The sentiment on the front is from All Night Media (Anna Griffin) and the inside sentiment/greeting is from Stampin' Up!

So it IS possible to make a relatively flat card and still use a lot of the fun embellishments and tools we all love to play with.

To everyone in the States I wish you a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. And if you don't mind, waft some of the delicious roasted turkey aroma up north so I can enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday too!

Cheers!
Jennifer

House Mouse and Polka Dots

Today's challenge #15 at House Mouse and Friends is to use Polka Dots. Polka dots seem to be all the rage among us crafters and cardmakers so this was a great theme to use.

This is my 2nd and last week as a guest design team member for the HOUSE MOUSE AND FRIENDS challenge site. I thank each of the regular design team members for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the team in a guest position.

Be sure to check out HOUSE MOUSE AND FRIENDS site each Monday for a new challenge. There are prizes each week as well. This week the Design Team is offering another person a 2 week opportunity to be a guest design team member. And if the prizes weren't enough, you must check out everyone's submissions each week. Such, SUCH creative cardmakers around the globe.

Until later,

Jennifer

Three more cards

Here are three more cards using Tombow markers. I never thought too much about turquoise and brown together for Christmas colors but I'm really starting to like it. I made all three of these cards at the watercoloring with Tombows class I took a few weeks ago.






Are you starting to get in the mood to make cards for the Holidays now? Or are you already finished? I'd say I'm about 2/3 of the way finished. But still a lot of sewing to do.

I'd best get busy, eh?

Until later...

Introducing PAIGE

I interrupt my usual card making and/or sewing posts to introduce you to our newest member of our family. I'd like to introduce you to PAIGE. Paige is an 8 week old Landseer Newfoundland pup. We JUST brought her home last night. Her registered name is: BEARDOG'S A PAIGE OF OUR STORY. Some of you may know that we had to let our beautiful black Newfoundland girl ('Bella) go to the Rainbow Bridge. She had been very, very ill and no longer had any quality of life. We decided to name Paige in honor of 'Bella in a sort of remembrance of 'Bella and that Paige is a new "page" of our Newfoundland dog family story. We also own Gabriel (he too is a Landseer newf) and last summer we rescued Willow. Willow is a 3 year old Black Newf who is completely blind.

So without further ado, I just wanted to introduce our little PAIGE to the world.

Watercoloring with Tombows

This is another card I made during the watercoloring class taught by Krista Schneider. The lighting in this photo doesn't do the card justice. The contrast between the dark night sky and the snowy ground is really stunning in real life. One of the things we worked on during class was do not be afraid of using black! Actually, for my background I covered the area with dark blue and then blended black on top. It gives a really cool midnight effect. The snow beneath this shopper's feet has just a hint of blue in it.

The red background paper is a velvet paper. I've thoroughly enjoyed using the velvet papers. While this particular card isn't embossed, I do frequently run the velvet paper through my Cuttlebug folders and it gives a wonderful, rich appearance to the card.

I just came in from doing some Christmas shopping. Snowflakes are blowing around here today. Brrrrr...too soon and too cold for me but I have lots of packages that must be sent International so I have to get things packaged up.

Hope you had a lovely day.

Until later...

Cuttlebug stack recipe

I really had one of those "DUH!" moments when I posted about using the Dreamweaver stencil in my Cuttlebug. I fully intended to include the stacking recipe.

Thank you loyal readers for emailing me to gently say, "HEY JENNIFER! So what IS the recipe?"

This is the order I made my stack in my cuttlebug. Starting with the A plate on the bottom and building up this is the order:

A PLATE

B PLATE

DREAMWEAVER TEMPLATE/STENCIL

THE GREEN SHIMMERY CARDSTOCK

TAN MAT

FABRIC/CORRIGATED CHIPBOARD

C PLATE

The secret to this is to put the tan mat and either fabric or a piece of thin corrigated chipboard or some scrap cardstock on TOP of the cardstock you are embossing, not under it.

I hope this is clearer than mud. I'm as good at giving instructions as I am driving directions...and that isn't good! YIKES!

All About Christmas

The theme for challenge #14 at HOUSE MOUSE AND FRIENDS this week is All About Christmas. I used one of my favorite House Mouse stamps, titled "Comfort and Joy." My card is pretty simple but I did used a couple of tools for subtle embellishments.

The green background cardstock is a shimmery, almost metalic dark green so it does glisten a bit like shiney pine needles. I cut the cardstock to size and if you look closely you'll see a subtle holly embossment. I used my Dreamweaver stencil and used it in my Cuttlebug just like you'd use your Cuttlebug folders to emboss. It works! I was tickled finally find the correct stacking sandwich recipe to allow me to use my brass and metal stencils in my cuttlebug for dry embossing.

You can see another example of this dreamweaver stencil a few posts down using the Glittler Glitz in the background.

The sentiment I used was computer generated. I printed "Not a creature was stirring" on my cardstock from the computer and then stamped my House Mouse image beneath it, colored it with Prismacolor pencils and added a bit of Stickles for sparkle.

Now scamper on over to HOUSE MOUSE AND FRIENDS and join in this week's Challenge to create anything Christmas. I know you'll have fun!

Two snowmen cards

Recently, I took more watercoloring with Tombow Markers classes from Krista Schneider. Krista is amazing. She creates the most vibrant colors and has the most unique approach to combining colors for a visual WOW-PUNCH-IN-THE-EYES artwork. I can only hope to gleen a bit of information for her technique with each class I take.

We made many cards at the classes but today I wanted to share two snowmen cards.

Both of these are painted using Tombow Markers and a paintbrush and pot of water. In Krista's classes she teaches her technique of covering first with the lightest coloring and with the right amount of water on your wet brush to pull in the darker colors for shading and shadowing.

Both cards are made with stamps designed by Heather's Stamping Haven.

These were a lot of fun to make, and while I have a long, LONG way to go in my painting to even come close to Krista's vibrant colors, I do enjoy her classes and had a great time learning from her.

Until later....

Kreativ Blogger Award for YOU!

This past week I was touched to receive this award by two wonderful crafters and friends, SHIRLEY and TRACI. The accompanying rules state that I should pass it on to 5 people.

DEBBIE - The Shoe Closet
ERIN - Erin K Creations
KIM - Running on Ink
KIM - Creative Diversions
LEANNE - Wee Inklings

It is so hard to limit myself to only 5 bloggers because I visit so many each day and they are all truly deserving. In addition, there are some really creative people who do not have blogs but with whom I've become acquainted and we've actually exchanged cards, aprons and such through snail mail. You ALL deserve this award if you are out there creating, crafting, sewing, painting, photographing, sculpting....creating art!

So to everyone who reads this post, I am sharing this award with YOU and hope that you'll accept it and post it on your blog, or if you do not have a blog, print the photo and hang it near your computer. I appreciate your creativity!

Junk! Yes, use your JUNK! That is Challenge #13

Ha ha! This is challenge #13 this week on the HOUSE MOUSE AND FRIENDS challenge site: to use your darling House Mouse, Gruffies or Happy Hopper stamps but you must incorporate something you consider to be "junk" or something you normally would throw away and use it on your card.

Isn't the Design Team creative in their challenges each week for the House Mouse and Friends cards? I think they are and that is one reason I look forward to working on a new card for their weekly challenges. For my piece of "junk" I pulled the pop top off my can of diet Coke and used it as a ribbon slide at the top of this card. It seemed to fit right in with my silver and blue color scheme.

Another small item I used on my card that normally I throw away are the three tiny punch out snowflakes that are surrounding the bears. These were the punch centers from the bottom snowflake border. So I gathered those up as well, added a tiny blue crystal and added it to the pop top ribbon slide for my environmentally friendly Gruffies card.

And one more thing. Will you allow me to toot my own horn? I am honored that the House Mouse and Friends design team chose me as a guest design team member for the next two weeks! Remember last week when I posted my felt marshmallow card that I mentioned that the prize was a two week gig as a guest design team member for the group? You can imagine how my jaw literally fell to the floor when I received word that I'd won and will begin for the next two weeks with challenges #14 and #15. I'm tickled pink!

So if you love the House Mouse and Friends rubber stamps and want a really great group of papercrafters to share the fun with, then head on over to the House Mouse and Friends challenge site. Each Monday a new challenge is presented.

Cheers!

A Very Merry Christmas

I'm still having a lot of fun using Glitter Glitz art glitter on cards. Recently I purchased some new Dreamweaver stencils and I could hardly wait to try out this particular holly and berry background stencil using Glitter Glitz.

I wanted to create some quick Christmas cards that had a lot of pizzazz and sparkle but didn't take ours and hours to create individually. The sentiment stamp is one of the new Stampin' Up! hostess sets called "Best Yet" and it has 6 different sentiment stamps. I know this will be a well used SU set in my collection.

If you haven't used a lot of metal stencils before but would like to try them, I encourage you to check out the huge variety there are on the market. I particularly like Dreamweaver stencils but there are many companys with wonderful designs. You can use stencils if a variety of ways from dry embossing, embossing paste, of course as I've used here with art glitter and you can also use stencils for embossing in your Cuttlebug too using the correct stack of mats and plates.


On this particular card I ran my tape runner along the outside edges and covered with bright red glitter for a sparkle-y edge. I thought it set off the center image well. One nice thing too is that this card isn't thick and while it looks like it has layers to it, they are thin enough for this card to go through the postal system easily enough.

It is a gorgeous day outside here in the Ottawa, Ontario area and I think I will go out of doors and enjoy this lovely weather while we still have it. I hope you are enjoying a lovely day too.

Christmas Magic

One of my favorite Sunshine Designs stamps is the Christmas Harliquin Stocking stamp. When I saw Julee's Mojo Monday layout sketch for this week on her blog, POETIC ARTISTRY, I decided to use this stamp and a lot of bling for this card.


The background paper is actually a velvet paper and raspberry colored. I added some tiny bells on the harliquin cuff at the top of the stocking. In front of the sentiment, as well as the "nail" holding up the stocking, I used amber colored crystals. I colored the stocking with Tombow markers and added stickles for sparkle.

This is Julee's layout sketch for this week:

I think I'll go back to using my prismacolor pencils to color. I wasn't too thrilled with my application of Tombows on this particular image, but I do enjoy participating in Julee's layout challenges each week.

Until next time...

House Mouse Challenge #12 - A recipe

This week's challenge for HOUSE MOUSE AND FRIENDS CHALLENGE BLOGSPOT is "a recipe"! But this isn't your typical how to bake a cake kind of recipe. This card making recipe challenge was to use the following ingredients on your House Mouse card: 2 buttons, ribbon, a scalloped edge and FELT! Yes, I said felt. Not velvet, not flocking but felt.

This was fun! At first I thought of several ways I could use felt on my card but then, when I remembered this House Mouse stamp, called Mouse Bounce, I knew immediately that Marshmallows would be perfect for the card making recipe requiring felt. The prize for this week's challenge is a two week stint as a guest design team member!

For the scallop I used a Martha Stewart border punch. The ribbons and buttons are from my stash of supplies. I colored the mice with prismacolor pencils.

Who used to watch The Waltons on t.v.? I loved that show and when I saw the requirements for this card to use "the recipe" I chuckled to myself as I pictured the Baldwin sisters and their "recipe." Do you remember Miss Emily and Miss Mamie Baldwin and how Grandpa used to love to visit them for a little sip of their "recipe"?

Hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful week!

Happy Hopper Apple Harvest

This week's challenge opportunity on OUR CREATIVE CORNER challenge site is to show your colors by way of displaying your favorite coloring method on your stamped image. While I do love to use a variety of coloring methods from watercoloring, chalk, twinkling H2O's and even markers, by far my favorite method of coloring is with my Prismacolor pencils. I do love using them!

I colored this Happy Hopper image with prismacolor pencils. I do not use any type of blending solution, but rather I color with the pencils adding layer upon layer of pencil color and work my shading directly with the pencil.

Be sure to check out the challenge site OUR CREATIVE CORNER for more fun challenges and lots and lots of beautiful cards from the hostesses and participants.


Thanks for stopping by!