2011 365 #192 - santa and reindeer - happy new year too

Happy New Years Eve everyone...hope everybody has a safe and happy celebration tonight...we are just staying in with movies and finger food and doing not much of anything (just the way we seem to like it)...normally it is go go go all the time, so it is nice to just have an evening of nothing...look forward to it every year...and with that, another project 365 comes to a close...I got lots done this year...in my opinion anyway...and it will all start again tomorrow...yippee...if you want to join in too, just leave a comment on this post and I can link you up in the sidebar...the more the merrier when it comes to participating...remember, there are no rules...just a push to get you to take your stuff out of the packages and actually use it...my goal this year is 365 different projects and hopefully completing 1000 paper projects in total...that was my goal last year too, but I only made it to the 500 mark...just too busy to get much more than that done...but not this year....starting right away and making a plan....I will get the mark this year...come on out and join in the fun, will ya?  The project above were done at our stamp club...aren't they cute? 

SOS challenge - Tie it up - 2011 365 # 190 - ICU

The challenge this week at Shopping our Stash is tie it up - the sponsor is Bugaboo...I thought that this would be the ideal tied up image and the peach paper is supposed to represent the bum cheeks being "hidden" under a hospital gown...hope the effect was reached, and it is not too gruesome too look at...why don't you come on out and play along with us this week...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas everyone!  Hope everyone had a great Christmas morning and Santa brought all kinds of goodies for everyone...we had a great day here...the weather is warm (well for here it is, still frozen outside but comfortable) and sunny....unusual for sure for this time of year....and the gifts are opened...now we just relax till dinner...have a safe and healthy merry Christmas...and don't eat too much!

SOS soft as a snowflake card- 2011 365 #189

well, we are into the final Christmas countdown now..yikes, that came up so quickly...hope all your holiday plans go well and everything is calm and peaceful for you all!  This week's Shopping our Stash project is to be soft as a snowflake...This snow flake was hard brown chipboard when I started...I covered it in sparkle fluff to give it a fuzzy texture...that little mitten is one that I bought about 10 years back...thought it was sooo cute...now I have used it..yay me!  I am using everything up this year...and next year...that is my goal...come on out and join us, won't you?

2011 365 #187 - mom's bday card

Happy birthday MOM....sixty...yikes...I made this card for my mom's birthday this week...I already gave it to her, so I can post it now...I am going to enter it in the Paper Sundaes celebrate challenge, cuz it is definitely a celebration...

2011 #186 - owl christmas card

okay, those of you who know me know and understand that I am not a fan of birds...in fact, I kind of hate them....but that doesn't mean that I will discriminate them, I will still use them in my projects, especially when the recipient loves them (beyond me how, but hey...to each their own).  I made this card for someone who is infatuated with owls....they are all paper pieced and in 3-d over the branches...but you cant really tell in the pic...her gift tag was also one of the owl ones in one of my previous posts...and who knew, but she loved it...yay me...

opus gluei - white Christmas - 2011 #188

The Poohbahs over at the Opus Gluei this week are asking us to do a white Christmas project...everyone from around here would normally roll their eyes at the fairy tale of a nice white Christmas...we are in for a treat this year, as we are having a Christmas that is not, I repeat, not going to be all that white...this is not normal and I am totally not complaining....it has been gorgeous out and can stay that way for the whole winter if it likes...hopefully this card will not jinx the way the weather has been treating us...I made this tree out of felt, but I am not sure if you can tell by the picture...I sewed all of these vintage buttons on it and added some beads...then I inked the doily and added some background paper on the tree, because it was blending in just a little too much...come on out and play with us, won't you?

SOS Challenge #30 - 2011 365 #185 - tag it krafty

This week's challenge at Shopping our Stash is called "tag it krafty", and I think I succeeded...we had lots of options to play along with...make a tag, use kraft cardstock or use an image from Dilly Beans.  I did all three plus more.  I made 45 tags this week...some for my gifts, but most I sell at work to raise money for our local cheer board.  They are a pretty good deal at .50 cents each (at least I think they are).  I have 100 for sale at work, so hopefully we can make a $50 donation of new toys by the time Christmas comes...it is so much more fun to make stuff when there is a good goal at the end of the road...so come on out and play along with us this week, won't you?  I am sure there are still lots of gifts that need tags on them anyway...

SOS challenge - white or light - 2011 365 #184

This week's challenge over at Shopping Our Stash has lots of options to get you to participate...you can use lots of white in your card...or something with lights in your project...or even a Meljens image...lots of choices out there for you...I tried to incorporate all three...I used lots of white space...light colours and Christmas lights...and 2 Meljens images printed together...look at me go...even had to reverse one so the rabbit was looking at the mail box instead of away from it...so, if I could figure out all of that for one little card, I am sure you can come up with an idea to play along with us as well....

Opus Gluei Challenge - gingerbread - 2011 365 #183

This week's challenge over at the Opus Gluei is gingerbread...well...it appears that the other poohbahs (except Rosemary)...are gingerbreadman humbugs - none of them like to eat those delicious little people, but not me....they are one of my favorite all time treats...love the spicy-ness about it or something cuz once I start, I can't stop...there is not a gingerbread person who is safe around me...but unlike the other evil gingerbread eaters in my house (who all start with the head for a quick and painless death), I like to start with the extremities and torture those poor little cookies...then I can see their smiling faces when I take the last bite! I must warn those faint of heart that the inside of this card says "Oh Bite Me...another Christmas Card"...so why not come on out and join in on this sweet challenge with us this week?

2011 365 #182 - birthday card

I made this card for a friend at work's birthday...I was looking for a bit of a different colour combo...I am entering it in the Creative Inspirations colour challenge because the colours that I happened to pick are their challenge this week...who knew?

SOS Bugaboo or digital- 2011 365 #181 -santa says

This week over at Shopping our Stash, the challenge is to use a digi image or an image from Bugaboo...If you don't have those you can recycle something off of an old card that you had received in the past....my image is one of my favorite Stella images from Bugaboo, however, I cheated this week and did not use a digi image...you can buy their images in clear stamps and that is exactly what I did...love these!  I used all papers from my stash and all of the little bling and add ons were from a matchbox swap that I participated in way back...thanks Electra and Rosemary for the fun bling...I have slowly been incorporating little bits and pieces into my projects....come out and give us a try this week, won't you?

2011 365 #180 - banner

I made this rather gawdy banner to hang on my wall at work between our cubicles..I sit on an aisle so I have a 5 foot by 4 foot ugly felt wall baffle behind me...it is very drab where I work so my desk partner and I decided to bling it up in a tacky non-traditional (non-denominational, non-Christmasy, non- anything) sort of way...imagine this with bright blue tinsel and bright blue Christmas tree balls hanging from it...fun stuff...
this is a picture (which I did NOT take) of what it looked like almost finished:

Soooo tacky...might get in trouble for having some fun....anyhooo...

SOS - Christmas card - 2011 365 #179

well...it is only a few weeks till Christmas and I still feel so behind in everything...it is coming on fast and I don't have any of my shopping done, my cards and tags aren't finished and we don't even have our Christmas pictures printed...yikes....I need a pause button so I can put life on hold and get a few things done...to top it all off, hubby is out of town for a couple of weeks and parent viewing week is upon us for dance....just not enough time in the day...anyway, Shopping our Stash is doing a Christmas card challenge this week, so at least I have one more card done and it was made completely with stash...bonus...why don't you play along with us this week and see if you can knock one more card off of your list?

Opus Gluei - thankful challenge- 2011 365 178

This is the card I came up with for the Opus Gluei challenge this week...the Poohbahs are asking to make something to thank you for being you...I loved these felt trees the moment I set my eyes on them in the store...and then I waited and waited and waited...and they finally went on clearance so I snapped them up...I made the grass out of the Tim Holtz coordinations paper...that stuff is soo much fun...love sanding it...there is so much texture and dimension on this card...loving every bit of it in real life...come on out and join the Poohbahs this week by showing us what you are thankful for....

SOS Dilly Beans neutral Challenge - 2011 365 #175 - snowmen

This week's challenge at Shopping our Stash is to use an "uninked" stamp or an "unprinted" digital image and make a project with neutral colours...I would normally have had a hay day going through my stamps looking for an uninked one and used that, but this week we were sponsored by Dilly Beans Stamps and we got an image of theirs to use, so I tried it out...still not a huge fan of the digital scrap/stamp world, but I am trying...I also used my 3 little stamps from an unused set that I had from Close to my heart, as I just couldn't convert to total digi on this card...so I blended a bit of all the challenge together...I coloured the little guys with copic markers and glittered them up with some dazzling diamonds...I tried to stay as neutral as possible, but these snowmen called for some colour...kept the birdhouse and birdseed neutral though!  Come on out and play along with us this week...so many possibilities!

2011 365 #177 - snow angel

I made this card using the sketch from Cardabilities...love their sketches...I used the red felt that was left over from our Halloween Gnome hats (see here for that fun loving stuff)...glad to repurpose some of the leftovers...and i love that I figured out how to use my nestabilities on the felt....that adds such great dimension on the cards...I put a bit of liquid applique on her hat cuz that stuff is so much fun...I am also entering this card in the ABC Christmas Challenge for winter sports...not really sure if snow angels count as a sport, but depending on how deep the snow is, it can be quite a workout to get out of your angel without wrecking her with boot prints and extra body parts, so I hope it is winter sport enough for the challenge.

2011 365 #176 - holiday hugs to you

okay...so this was one of those stamps that I just had to have about 4 years ago, and then forget about everytime it comes to making Christmas cards...well, not this year!  She has finally been inked and colored...and I still like the image as much as I did when I got her! I use the sketch from Christmas Card Challenge and would like to enter it in the Christmas Stampin all year long challenge for never been inked.

2011 365 #174 - Movember Thank you card

one of our LSS (Scrapbooking by Design) here is having a little card challenge for the month of November (or should I say Movember?) to raise awareness for prostate cancer.  It looked like a fun challenge, and I am always up for a challenge, so I decided to give it a whirl...there were quite a few rules, which made it all the more fun for me...the project needed to have a mustache...check...it needed to have purple on it...check...and you needed to use at least three different patterned papers, with at least one of them having a girly pattern of flowers or butterflies etc...check...I think I hit all of the categories pretty easily with what I came up with...I am also entering it in the Card Makin Mamas be thankful challenge and the If the Shoe fits try something new challenge...on top of using the feminine papers and gems for my masculine card (which is new to me), I also experimented with the nestabilities peek through window on this card...I had seen a lot of videos using this technique and thought I would give it a whirl... I like the way it turned out...

2011 365 #173 - card making night - yippee

tonight is our annual Christmas card making swap...everyone makes 11 kits and a sample and the people attending make everyone else's cards...it's tons of fun and a great night out with the girls...potluck snacks to boot...can't beat some good old snacks...anyway here is my project for the evening...nothing too complex as we only have a couple of hours to get everything assembled (and to eat)...
I am going to enter this in the Bah Humbug snowman Challenge and a Gem of a Challenge cold and frosty challenge

SOS challenge #25 - 2011 365 #171 - deepest sympathy

This week's challenge at Shopping our Stash is to use chipboard or rubons or stickers - you know the ones you have been hoarding and afraid to use cuz you can't get more...but guess what people?  Rubons don't work once they get old...they just stop sticking...so pull em out and use them up.  I made these cards for my best peep Lorie and for her cousin Cheryl.  One of the members of our stamp club that we have been in over the years (Raquel) passed away on Friday.  She was 35 and had a loving husband and 3 year old twins - she was also Lorie's cousin and Cheryl's sister in law...a very sad week...thank goodness for having a stash of stuff to whip out some cards for this horrendous occasion...stash is not always a bad thing...but use some of it...unfortunately this is a huge joke amongst our stamp club which brings me back to the sadness of this post.... come and join us in this challenge and use up some of your stuff, won't you?
I also followed the sketch for this week from Let's Capture These Sketches...they have some wonderful sketches to follow...check them out!

Opus Gluei Challenge - what's on your head? 2011 365 #172

This week's challenge set by Poohbah Gini at the Opus Gluei is What's on your Head...challenging us to use some sort of animal or item with a hat on or anything else that tickles your fancy...well, I just bought this Penny Black stamp from one of my local scrap shops with the $10 certificate I won in a card contest (not quite the cost of the stamp, but it sure made it a much more reasonable price of $4.95 after the certificate)...it is a really large stamp...this is a card that is 7.5 x 5.5 inches...but I think it is lots of fun...easy to colour and I am now addicted to using the liquid applique....why I didn't bring myself to using it earlier is beyond me...LOVE that stuff...so why don't you join us to show us what is on your head this week....

SOS challenge - Cowboy Christmas - 2011 365 #167

Ridem' cowboy...this week's theme at Shopping our Stash is western or cowboy or sports team colours or sports in general...lots of options to play along this week, so no excuses from anyone!  I made this card into a Christmas card because I am running out of time to get them done (it just doesn't ring Christmas to me, even though the images are sooo Christmas morning in someone's house, I am sure)...not normally this far behind in that department, but for some reason this year I just feel so busy outside of the craft room that I just haven't dedicated a whole day to it in a long while...plus fall colds never help in that respect either and I am finally feeling better after a bit of a doozie the last couple of weeks...I am going to try and whip up a few tags with the leftovers, cuz I think they might turn out really cute on a little boy's gift...stay tuned for the results ;) ...so get your cowboy on and yeehaw over to SOS to play along with us!

Halloween with my Gnomies

Happy Halloween everyone!  This is the end result of my garden gnome costume idea...it was a hit on my street for sure and according to the girls, everyone stopped them to compliment them on their costumes...Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!  There is a good use for those "Snuggie" blankets with sleeves after all!  And can't beat a super cool, multi-layered, gold embossed, cricut cut belt buckle!

2011 365 #170 - plaid Christmas

I used the sketch from Twisted sketches for this card...the twist was black...I am entering it in the Basic Grey anything goes challenge as all the paper in the card is from the Christmas line from last year...and in the Bunny Zoe's lace challenge

2011 365 #169 - penguin Christmas x2

I made these cards in duplicate because I thought they were just soo darn cute when I was done with the first one.  I used the sketch from CPS Card Sketches.  I made the snowflakes with my nestabilities and some felt that I just happened to pick up at a dollar store while we were searching for some cheap velcro for our halloween costumes (which turned out that they should be the best garden gnome costumes on the street)...I am also entering it in the following challenges:
Bah! Humbug! - die cuts
Card Makin Mamas - die cuts
Daring Cardmakers - felt