Another Christmas Card

This card follows along with the simplicity theme I've been enjoying lately.  The card was designed with Make-the-Cut and Lettering Delights Nordic Christmas svg files.  It was printed out then layered on top of the card with a red layer.  I added some Want2Scrap bling in the corners for some shine.

I'm entering this card in two challenges.  The Jingle Belles Scandinavian Challenge's criteria was to make a card using the color red. I also stuck to their Scandinavian inspiration.

Alway's Playing With Paper's Merry Monday challenge is to use birds in your Christmas card. 

Valentine's Card

In these cold and wintery months, I'm finding myself wanting to spend most of my time home curled up under an electric blanket on my couch.  Not very conducive to crafting with paper, stamps, adhesives and so on.  I stumbled on the CAS(E) this Sketch! blog and had one of those "omg this is perfect" moments.  I like simple cards.  Whenever I try to create something with lots of layers and paper piecing, I'm never happy with it.  My love of simple cards and lack of motivation has led me to start using the print and cut function in my Make-the-Cut software. I can design the card on my laptop...under my blankets of course.  Then move to the office to print and cut it.  Just a few quick embellishments later and voila!  A nice, simple card with that touch of homemade flair. 

For this card, I just used a basic heart shape in the software and a standard font found on my computer.  I cutout the love heart so it could be popped out of the card. It adds that special something.  I think this card will be sent to a dear friend of mine.

The Sketch:

 

Challenge #11

Beer Soap

For Christmas, I made two batches of beer soap.  My brother has been home brewing for a while now and I thought it might be nice to make some soap with some extra beer he had.  There were two types I made. The one pictured below is one I consider more girly. It has some extra oils in it and the scent is stronger.

I made the label using Make-The-Cut and a Lettering Delights font and doodlebat.  Each woman I gave a Christmas present to got a bar of this soap.

I forgot to take a picture of what I called The Man Soap.  It had a lighter fragrance called Oatmeal Stout.  It was mostly made of olive oil, but also had some coconut and a little palm oil as well. I also fixed the label to include my brother's name instead of writing it on all of them.  All the men got a bar of this soap. The extra's went to my brother and his wife to use or hand out as gifts.

Christmas Tree Topper

2012 was our first year having a tall Christmas tree in the house.  We had gotten the tree from my mother-in-law and I had very few ornaments and no tree topper.  A trip to Hobby Lobby solved this.  I didn't like any of the pre-made toppers they had so I decided to make my own on the fly.  I pretty much just grabbed some Christmas floral type decorations and hoped for the best.  I think it turned out well.

Jingle Belles Christmas Card Challenge

So last year I didn't get a chance at all to participate in any of the Jingle Belles challenges. This year I'm hoping to participate more, and so far so good.  The challenge is to use something new that you may have gotten for Christmas.  As one of my gifts, my husband got me a set of Tim Holtz's Distress Inks. I have never used them before but have been having a lot of fun with them.  I also used the Mojo Monday sketch of the week, but didn't get it linked up in time. 

I tried the resist technique where you emboss using clear ink and clear powder, then inked over the embossing.  The poinsettia is a Lettering Delights SVG file. I inked the leaves and the top layer, and covered the middle layer with the glitter Mod Podge. 

Art Journal Calendar - January 2013

It's been a while.  My crafting has really gotten pushed to the side lately mostly because of work and classes.  My one New Year's resolution this year is to craft a little more.   To start off, I decided to participate in a monthly art journal calendar over at ...the kathryn wheel.  I wanted to participate last year when I finally heard about it, but never got around to joining in.  Her journaling is amazing.

At the end of the year, I plan on using my Bind-It-All to bind all the pages. On the left side, you can see that the January page is glued to another. That is the cover and is still a work in progress.

For this page I mostly used my new distress inks I received for Christmas from my wonderful husband. I've never used them before and so far they're awesome.  I also used a little bit of Glimmer Mist and the sparkly Mod Podge (down at the bottom of the pages).

So far so good...now I just have to start filling in the circles.

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday.

Chicken Wire Picture Frame

On June 9th, we held our wedding reception/housewarming party.  It ended up being a success, but I was also disappointed that there were many people who RSVPed but didn't show up.  The weather was perfect, our hog was roasted on time, and the people who did come seemed to have a good time.

As a thank you gift for coming, I had set up a homemade photo booth.  I used SparkBooth software, which I love. There are so many ways to customize how the photos will turn out.  I made a simple backdrop from some pvc pipe and sheets I found at GoodWill, and a decent web camera.  There were also several props I picked up from the Dollar Tree, Hobby Lobby (40% off), and Good Will.  One of the props was a frame people could hold up. I found it at Good Will, discarded the ugly picture, then painted the frame.

After the party, I stapled some extra chicken wire to the back and hung it up on the wall.  I added some of my favorite photo strips from the photobooth using mini clothes pins I found at Walmart.  It turned out really well.  One of the nice things about the Sparkbooth software is that it will automatically save both the individual photos and the photo layout in folders on the computer. So I was able to go back and print strips if the guests took both copies. And if there are any great photos, I can print those out too.

Not everyone used the photobooth though. Actually, most people didn't. It was mostly kids, those few people we could get down there, and a few people from my side of the family who knew what it was about. We did get some great pictures in the end though.  I'm not sure if it wasn't successful because of the location, or people just didn't care.  I do have plans to use the software in the future (goofy Christmas cards perhaps).

*note* this is not a sponsored post for SparkBooth.I enjoy talking about products I love.  I really do love the software and all the different options you have.  It was also easy to set up.  I was able to add my own logo at the bottom too, though that was a little fiddly to get right.

Guest Designer - Scrapbook and Photobook

Hello!  Long time no post.  It's been a crazy year so far.  I finished up another semester as a grad student and then had our reception/housewarming party this past weekend. That was crazy!

Today I am a guest designer over at Getting Cricky with K Andrew.  Be sure to check out her store here.  She has lots of fun stamps as well as huge rolls of bakers twine for just $5 each.  Check out all the colors. I used the green in one of my projects below.

For my guest design, I used her Of Mice and Lil' Men stamp set.

 I thought up lots of ideas using this set.  My husband's family has had horses since before he was born.  They did a lot of fun local shows when he was a kid.  He got to dress up and play cowboy on a real horse.  Young me is green with envy.

For my next project, I added some fun Disney themed stamps to a Disney photo album I have been working on.  They make the perfect embellishments for anything Disney related.  

The cover:

Inside pages:

Back cover:

Recycled Christmas

This week's prompt over at the Jingle Belles blog is Peace on Earth(Day) where we are to recycle materials to make the cards. I chose to use a piece of cardboard for the front and some scraps for the rest. Most of the paper on the cardboard came off, but not all. I like the look. I slapped on some gesso then spritzed with some glimmer mist. The snowman stamp is a $1 one from JoAnn's and the words are from a stamp set by K Andrew. They're all embossed except for the snowflakes. I did follow the Merry Monday sketch from last week, but wasn't able to download the image until today, so it wasn't linked up.




 In other news...my semester is almost over! I have one crazy take home exam and possibly another. It's been a busy semester with working full time and taking two grad level courses. I'll be happy to have my evenings back for the summer and be able to make more crafty things.

The chicks are doing well. I'll be able to move them into their new coop hopefully tonight. We just have to get some hinges and latches on. I don't think I can call them chicks anymore though. They're getting so big. Pictures will come very soon of the coop and the girls.

Simply Birthday Card

This is a very quick and simple birthday card I made for a guy friend. I always find it difficult to make things for guys that meet my manly criteria.