Cherry Pie

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend! I spent a lot of time in my craft room on Saturday and got caught up on custom orders. Among other things, I wanted to get some non-Christmas related cards done for my Etsy shop, and here's one of them.

The cherry pie stamp is from Pink Cat Studio. I embossed and colored it on watercolor paper, cut it out and then added Diamond Glaze to the cherries to make them shine and Stickles to the whipped cream. The piece of pie is popped up on foam tape, and I added dry embossed paper and red striped brads as accents. I just love the cherry background paper too (DCWV)!

I'm not going to have a lot of time in the craft room today. I have to go pay our real estate taxes (groan) and I need to get some shopping done (double groan). I guess I'm weird because I absolutely hate shopping - except for at the craft store and unfortunately I don't need to go there today.

I hope you have a great day! Hugs!

Sue :o)

Polar Bear

Hi everyone!

Here's a card I made yesterday with one of my oldest stamp sets. It's from SU and I think it's perfect not only for Christmas but for winter cards too. All the papers are Die Cuts With a View, and I added blue and silver star brads as accents.

I'm not sure how I managed to get a whole Saturday where I don't have something going on at church or with family, so I'm taking advantage of it and playing in my craft room today. Hubby is up on the house putting up lights, so I'm laying low. :o) I don't go on the roof!

I hope you're all having a great weekend!

God bless!

Sue :o)

Twinkling Christmas Kitty

Hi everyone!

I'm taking a little break from making Christmas cards and I thought I'd post one I just put up in my shop. I just love this stamp from Stampendous! I've been challenging myself to find some different ways to embellish my cards, so today I went searching through all my little drawers and found these wonderful sparkly little rhinestones. I thought they'd be perfect for Christmas - sort of like Christmas tree lights. I also found a corner punch I forgot I had! LOL. It's amazing what one can find in their own stamp room, isn't it? I also did this card a little differently in that I didn't emboss the image on watercolor paper. I stamped it twice on regular white card stock and then cut out the kitty and the star and popped it up on foam tape. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Alright, I must get busy again. I've got an order to get in the mail, I need to get my cards and paperwork from this week in order, and someone from church ordered a bunch of sympathy cards. It'll be a busy day! I hope you're having a great one!

Hugs!

Sue :o)

Holiday Hustle and Bustle

Hi everyone!

Just a quick post today as I'm heading to bed shortly. It's been a busy week, but busy in a good way. Yesterday, we finished up all the Christmas shoeboxes at church and delivered them, and now they're on their way to children all over the world. It's hard to believe there are children who have nothing - and I love working on this project because it reminds me early in the season that Christmas is about Jesus and his love for us, rather than presents and running ourselves ragged. I also love working on this project because one of my best friends - let's call her Mz. Nastypepper - works on it with me, and we always have a great time together. :o)

Anyhow -- I thought I'd share some Christmas projects I've been working on here and there this last week. The first card is another snowman trio from Great Impressions. I told you it's my favorite stamp :o). This was a custom order for one of my customers and I have to say I may need to make a few more for msyelf - if I have enough eyelets leftover from this one. The second card was made with a High Hopes stamp. Isn't that the cutest nativity scene? I stamped that one in Memento tuxedo black ink and then colored with my watercolor pencils, and I found that beautiful gold embossed background paper at Joanne's. And finally, the last picture is a set of really simple Christmas gift tags made with nothing more than a Martha Stewart snowflake punch, scalloped edge scissors and card stock. I have some in my Etsy shop, and I made some more for myself.

Well, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow I have some shopping to do in the morning and then I plan on working in the craft room non-stop. I hope you're all staying well in your neck of the woods!

Take care and God bless!

Sue :o)

Red Velvet

Hi everyone!

I'm just squeezing in a quick post today before I get busy down in the craft room. I've used this holly stamp (Stampin' Up!) quite a bit this year, but this time I paired up the image with red velvet paper. Boy, it just screams Holly Jolly Christmas. I wanted the velvet paper and the holly stamp to really stand out, so I didn't do a lot of layering. I kept the inside of the card pretty simple too - just some Christmas plaid and green and white card stock.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend!

Hugs!

Sue :o)

Snowmen Christmas Tags

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share some cute snowman tags I made the other day. I'm as crazy about snowmen in the winter as I am about pumpkins in the fall. I actually used snowmen faces like this a few years ago when I was asked to come up with a quick kids craft at church. The kids loved the googly eyes! I cut the face out with my Nestabilities scalloped circle dies, added the eyes and glitter, handcut the carrot noses and then used a marker to make the mouth. Then of course I had to use the MS snowflake punch on the one tag. The holly on the other tag was handcut by me.

I hope you're all having a great week!

Hugs!

Sue :o)

Snow Buddies

Hi everyone!

Boy I've been neglecting this little blog all week, haven't I? Busy, busy, busy! Ah, it's all good though. I'm getting my house cleaned up, my paperwork in order, and shopping for the Christmas shoebox project which I'm in charge of at church. This weekend we have our big Thanksgiving dinner at church and next week I have to wrap up and deliver all the Christmas shoeboxes to a church in Illinois. Whew! I may have to start drinking some energy drinks or something.

Any-whoo, I did get some stamping done this week and I'm finishing up a lot of projects for myself and for my Etsy shop. I always swear I'm going to start Christmas stamping in July so I'm ready by December, but --- I never do. LOL.

I think this card turned out so cute! The stamp is from Great Impressions and it's one of those I seem to reach for all the time. It's stamped and colored on watercolor paper, and I sponged the edges with both both turquoise and navy blue ink. I found a few scraps of heavy duty foil card, so I punched some stars and added them around the snowmen.

I hope you're all having a great week, and please - if you haven't already done so, take a moment today to remember our veterans. We are so blessed to live in this country where we are free to worship God without fear of persecution, and I'm grateful to the men and women who fight to protect that freedom. May God bless you all too, Friends! Have a beautiful day!

Hugs!

Sue :o)

One of Those Nights...

Oh my goodness - please tell me you've had one of these stamping nights too. I got this stamp (High Hopes) a few weeks ago and I've been dying to use it because it's so darn cute. So I finally sit down to play. I emboss the image and then get almost all the way done coloring it in, and then I see something. The base board on the floor behind the moose is lopsided. I didn't emboss it straight. No, problem right. I'll just turn the paper a little - straighten it out and cut it again. Wrong-o! I chopped the image too close and shaved off part of the wall socket. Sigh and move onto plan B - and mind you, I don't want to color everything again - I want to make a card. So I embossed it again, this time straight - sort of anyway. Then I cut out the colored moose and layered it on top of the new one. It looks like I meant to give it dimension but really it's just a flub-up. LOL.

So I'm excited! I got one cute moose card done. Let's make another. I ruined two sheets (front and back) of watercolor paper trying to emboss it again but never quite got a good clean image. So I think - I'll just stamp it with Memento ink, let it dry and then color with watercolor pencils. Stamp it two more times without getting a clean image and I'm getting really close to cussing. LOL. Finally I got it and sat down to color. I used my handy-dandy watercolor pencils and then moved onto blending with my aqua painter only to discover that on the bow I accidentally grabbed a regular old colored pencil and not a watercolor pencils. I'm getting to the point I don't like this moose anymore but I persist anyway. I will have moose cards for Christmas darn it! I ended up using my markers to color over the wrong kind of pencil and finally --- finally I have 2 moose cards.

Ah I guess we all have those kinds of stamping sessions, huh? LOL. On the blue card I used a chipboard snowflake with a button and glitter as an accent, and on the red one I used Diamond Glaze on the Christmas lights to make them look glassy. Both Christmas sentiments are from Stampin' Up!, and as I mentioned before, the moose stamp is from High Hopes. I bought it at
7 Kids College Fund - one of my FAVORITE places to buy stamping stuff. Go check them out - especially their Nestabilities dies!

I hope you have a great weekend!

Hugs!

Sue :o)