It REALLY Looks like Christmas Now!

Yes, it truly looks like Christmas outside today.  Here in Alberta we are getting to experience a winter blizzard!  Lots of snow, whiteout conditions, and the temperature is just supposed to keep dropping!

I shoveled the walk when I got home, just so there would not be as much to have to move tomorrow as there is seriously close to 24" of snow in my front yard (I live in the city, so no drifts, just straight snow).

It is very pretty:

Yes, the streaks in the picture are the snow coming down!!

My craft for today is some more cards that I made for sending out in the Christmas card swap I participated in this year.

The cards were actually part of a monthly craft subscription that Stampin Up offers called Paper Pumpkin.  To be honest, the first couple of subscriptions I got were nice, the kits were quick and easy to complete and something that you could take pride in.  Fast forward a few months and month after the month the kits get worse.  Last month's was so tacky that I went to cancel my subscription but the new one was already on it's way.

Here is a card from the kit that has redeemed itself for now:

I will see what this month brings, and if no improvement, I will be done this little adventure!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

It's Beginning to Look A lot like Christmas!

I LOVE Christmas.  Everything about it, and as soon as all Thanksgiving and Remembrance celebrations are over, I get excited!

As with other years we were planning to spend Christmas in the mountains again.  However, the flood in Canmore in June left the resort we stay at with some damage to the water supply that has still not been fixed.  On Friday we were given notice that our vacation has been cancelled : (

Oh, well, things happen, so we will be staying home for Christmas this year.

We took out the 6' artificial tree that we usually take with us and set it up in a corner of the family room, and my son decorated it this afternoon.  He thought that was pretty "Top Drawer".

I started to dig out all of the Christmas Decorations and place them around the house.

I also started to get my Christmas cards ready for mailing this week as well.

I started with this one:

It is actually a kit that I got from Stampin Up.  It's super easy and a great way to get yourself started on Christmas cards.  The kit contained 8 cards, so I am part of the way done for a card swap I agreed to be a part of!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

p.s.  Just to keep it "real" I guess I heard this song on the radio on Friday morning and cannot get it out of my head, so here's the link to it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jqmlsx-qXE  : < 0

Coffee Talk Swaps...

These are the swap cards that I made for Coffee Talk at Karina's tonight.  

This is truly a Red Eye craft!

When my husband works away I wear my Continuous Glucose Monitoring Device to alert me of low blood sugars in the night.

Last night I was woken after 0200 hours to blood glucose alarms.  After drinking juice and waiting 15 minutes, and eating candy and waiting, then eating toast and peanut butter, I stayed up to make sure my blood sugar did not drop again.

Since I was up, I made cards for Coffee Talk tonight!

Okay, so these cards are not top drawer, but neither was I at the time......

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Coffee Talk Swaps

Last night was Coffee Talk at Karina's.  It is a monthly meeting that Karina hosts for her downline and friends.  We get together and stamp, eat and catch up.  It's lots of fun.

These are my swap for last night.

 I think that they are fun now (however, putting the owls together by the end of 12 of these was exhausting)!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Millet Swaps

Yesterday some friends and I attended a Stampin Up event.

These are the swap cards I made for this event, and will also likely be one of the Christmas cards that I make with my friends later this fall.

The base is Chery Cobbler card stock, layered with Whisper White that was embossed with the Snow Burst Folder (now retired , sigh......), although no one was mean enough yesterday to remind me of this.

The banners are made from the Snow Festival Designer Series Paper of which I used the 1" square punch to make the flag ends.

Next a layer of Gumball Green card stock, and the Snow Much Fun image is stamped on Whisper White and colored with my Stampin' Write Markers.

To make this project a little more top drawer I used Crystal Effects on the boots and hat so that they would shine!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Coffee Talk Swaps

These were my swaps for Coffee Talk at Karina's last night.

The card base is Whisper White run through the Framed Tulips Embossing Folder.  The leaves are cut out of another piece of Whisper White using the Little Leaves Sizzlits die.  A piece of random green Designer Series paper is placed on the backside .

The greeting is from the You are Loved Stamp set.  I stamped the image in Lucky Limeaid and then used clear embossing powder and heat set it to raise the text.

The flowers are made from the 13/4 scallop circle.  I will try to post instructions on this one of these days, as usually I would use my Cricut, but of course that would not be Stampin Up approved ; ).

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Coffee Talk Swaps

Once a month a bunch of Stampin' Up friends meet at Karina's for an evening of card making, and too many treats.  One of the things we always do is make cards to swap.

I really have trouble making several of the same cards, and most of these women are WAY more talented at this than I am.

What to make for this week? Well, I managed to find Glassine cookie bags at Creative Packaging here in Edmonton.  I used the Domestic Diva Designer Series Paper and coordinating stamp set for this along with left over ribbon from Sale-a-bration to decorate these bags.  They turned out alright.

As for the swaps I got back:

Clearly much better than what I made.  Lisa made the floral one on the center left (she always does a PHENOMENAL job) and Bella made the center right one (again always AWESOME), I am sorry but I cannot think of who made the other two (I was very tired that evening - worked 11 days in the past 14 - so I was mostly asleep at this Coffee Talk - first one to leave!).  Check out Karina's to find out who made what.

Tomorrow I will post what was on the inside of these packages.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Coffee Talk Swaps

These are the swaps that I have made for Coffee Talk at Karina's last night.  We usually meet the first Friday of the month to find out "what's up",  do some stampin', catch up on new gossip, and eat too many decadent treats.  It's a lot of fun, and if you want to join us contact Karina.

My cards tonight are 4 x 4 in dimension and use Pretty in Pink cardstock, along with Pear Pizazz Designer Series Paper and Whisper White Card stock.  The stamped heart image is from the Filled with Love stamp set, and the other heart image is made from DSP with the heart punch and a foam pop dot behind to elevate it.  The whisper white card stock was fun through the Polka Dot embossing folder.  Now there is not really anything special about these cards (I know), but I did try to make this a "top drawer" project by making the envelopes to coordinate with the cards!!  I will post the directions for the envelopes tomorrow.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Slider Card # 8

'

This is the last of my slider cards.  The first picture shows the dimensions at which I score the cards.  This is loosely based on a pattern template that I picked up about 5 years ago in Grand Junction Colorado at a craft store there.  The second picture shows what creates the slider (a ziplock bag because you can get a billion of these for a dollar at your local dollar store - you will have to cut about an inch off of the end and secure the pieces with sticky strip to create the tube).  When placing the tube to the cards remember that one portion of the tube is on the card front and the other is on the opposite cards back so that each card slides around the stump in the middle.  Dependent on your bags you may have to adjust the stump in the middle to create smooth sliding.  Fold the card up and decorate as you like.  Again, I used up last years paper!!  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Slider Card # 7

Almost the last.  Tomorrow I will post the instructions on how to make these beauties and the last one!!!  Knew y'all would be happy about that!  This one again uses retired Christmas 2010 Designer Series Paper, the Bells & Boughs stamp set and the Bright Hopes stamp set from this years catalogue.  The scallop punch was used to cut out the bells and the images stamped in old olive.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...




Kathy

Slider Card # 6

This is slider card six.  Again, uses the retired Christmas 2010 Designer Series Paper, and the stamp set is Bells and Boughs.  Colored with Stampin' Write markers in old olive, cherry cobbler, real red and so saffron.  Label punch was used again for the greeting.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Slider Card # 5

And now for card number 5.  This card again uses last years Christmas Designer Series Paper.  The stamp set is the Bright Hopes.  The wreath is colored with marker to get two colors into the image and the snowflakes are stamped in old olive.  The Bright Hopes greeting is stamped in old olive, punched with the label punch, and then adhered to red DSP and cut around.  I liked the striped paper border as I think from a far it looks like a ribbon.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Slider Card # 4

Meet slider card 4.  Again, this was created with last years Christmas DSP.  The holly image is from the Bells and Boughs stamp set and the snow flakes and wreath are from the Bright Hopes stamp set.  All images except for the snowflake are colored with the markers.  The greeting is also from the Bright Hopes stamp set.  The wreath is off set with an early espresso label punched piece of card stock.  The holly image edge is sponged in early espresso ink as well.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Slider Card # 3

This is slider card number 3.  This one was again made with last years paper, however, I did use a current stamp set for it.  The stamp set is the Bright Hopes set.  For the front of the card I stamped the tree in Versa Mark and then embossed with Cherry Cobbler Embossing Powder.  Rhinestones were added to the front to create sparkle on the tree (and cover up where I oopsed on the embossing powder).  The wreath I used the Stampin' Write Markers to color the stamp so that I could get different colors on the completed image.  The markers were old olive and cherry cobbler colors. The greeting is from the Bright Hopes set as well and then punched out with the label punch, adhered to old olive card stock and then cut around very carefully to add accent color.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Slider Card #2

This is my second slider card.  I will post the instructions for this later in the week.  I did use the new Simply Scored Tool, and loved it as it did make these cards so much easier.  For this card I used the Bells & Boughs stamp set and colored it with Stampin' Write Markers (old olive, cherry cobbler, real red, and so saffron).  The presents are made with the 1" punch from the new Holiday Mini and the bows on the presents are made with white bakers twine.  The greeting on the front is made from the label punch.  The paper of course is still with my theme of using up last years paper!!!!  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Look What I Found!!!!

Look what I found!!!  While in Fabricland (remember only there because could not find brown Minkee at any of the local quilt stores) I saw this as I was waiting in the check out line, and I immediately  thought of last years Christmas Designer Paper from Stampin Up.  Now, I can hear all the gasping and clutching of chests as you exclaim "she has last years' paper - oh my"!  Well, not only do I still have last years paper, over the next few days I am going to show you cards that I made with it, and sadly... there is still some left, so it might show up again!!!   I love to make slider cards, they are so much fun to make and the end result is something I would classify as "top drawer".  For this card, yes I used last years Christmas paper, the Four Frames stamp set, the  Bells & Boughs stamp set, and the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.  The majority of the coloring was with the Stampin' Write Markers, and the images were stamped with black StazOn ink.  I think that this card of the ones I made is my favorite, partly because of the fabric, and also because it just has a "classic" look to it.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

p.s. yes the fabric is going into the "stash" (fabric - not cookie), and some day it may be seen...

Coffee Talk Swaps

My friend Karina (karinaskreations.blogspot.com) hosts a get together at her house once a month where we do Stampin Up projects, and of course swaps.  As some of you know I have compliance issues with my creativity (hence, this blog) .... I use all sorts of product, and so these swaps are always a dilemma as to how I will get them done only using Stampin Up product.  Well, I am quite proud to say that this one is almost exclusively Stampin Up built except for the holes for the bakers twine being made with my sewing machine, and of course the sewing thread.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Last Minute Swaps

These are the last minute swaps for the Millet, Alberta Stampin Up event.  I will swap these with the regular group with whom I will mingle.  For these cards I used Old Olive card stock and daffodil for the back ground.  The foreground is half whisper white card stock and the rest Designer Series Paper from the Big Top package.  This candy paper is where I got the idea for yesterdays post with the candy Christmas.  I used the Bright collection buttons just because I had package of them, and I love buttons (just not sewing them), and the stamp set is Birthday Bakery (which just possibly has been discontinued -- OOOPs).  Maybe no one will notice (??).  I used the Stampin Write Markers set to color the baking in coordinating colors of the Designer Series Paper :)  The markers made the coloring fairly easy although still spent about 45 minutes to get 12 cards colored at midnight (red eye crafting).  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

In Color Swaps

I will be attending with a few of my friends the Regional Event for Stampin Up in a few weeks.  We are to make card front swaps with current product.  These are my swaps for this event (note the Red Eye).  I used the 2011 - 2013 In colors for this swap, the sewing was done with my regular sewing machine as I used a blanket stitch around the designer series paper.  The card is embossed with the Framed Tulips Embossing Folder, and the flowers are created from the Fun Flowers Die with the exception of the white middle portion coming from the Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch and then run through the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder.  Hope this inspires your creativity..... I meant to use the Early Espresso Card Stock for this project, however, was all out, so made do with what I had.

TTFN

Kathy