Thank You for your kindness

Hello! For those of you who didn't know, this year we moved away from all our family and friends  - about 1,000 miles away! So this year was our first Christmas on our own. Until the evening of Christmas Eve, we thought we would just be home by ourselves on Christmas Day - which would have been a bit strange since we both have a rather large family and have never spent that day away from them. But when we were at our church Christmas Eve service, another family invited us over to share Christmas Dinner with them. It was such an incredible gift - and a huge blessing! So I wanted to make a thank you card for them - to let them know how blessed and thankful we were for their kindness.

I got my color inspiration from this weeks Play Date Cafe challenge:

I started by pulling out some Paper from Basic Grey that seemed to go well with the challenge colors. Then I dusted off some older sets of Craft Secret stamps that I haven't used in forever!

I cut out a circle and lacy oval with some Spellbinder's Dies, and stamped and colored the image with my Copic Markers. Added some sparkly snow with Diamond Glaze and some fine glitter. 

The sentiment banner is hand trimmed, and I stamped those beautiful sentiment stamps from My Craft Spot using PTI ink in coordinating colors. 

Added a tiny Tim Holtz paper clip and some self adhesive pearls. 

Finished off by attaching the frame a little off center, trimming the edges, and adding some jute twine tied in a pretty bow.

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you continue to have a wonderful weekend!

Window gift box...

Good Saturday morning! Today I wanted to share a little gift box that I made a little while ago. It came out so cute I think! Here it is:

I used Tags, Bags, and Boxes to make the box out of kraft paper, then covered the sides and top with Authentique Paper. 

For the window part, I stamped an image from Crafty Secrets on Vellum, then colored it with copics - LOVE the soft effect it gives! Kind of like a stained glass window too! 

Finished off with some Baker's Twine tied around the top, and a tiny jingle bell that I spray painted. 

I am also linking this up to the Shop Pumpkin Spice Blog as a project to show your style - not sure exactly what that is, but I love this project, so I guess that works!!! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Quick Retro Card...

Just wanted to quickly share a fun Retro card I made a bit ago while playing with some Crafty Secret stamps. I combined images from two sets, stamped the sentiment and beans, inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress ink, and rounded a couple of corners off. Design paper is from October Afternoon, and I also added a bit of twine from the Twinery. Not my favorite ever - but I just had to play with these cute images right away! Definately be using them more in the future I'm sure!



Shop Pumpkin Spice Design Team Call

Good morning! I have been spending lots of time thinking on what to make for this, and starting to fear that I will run out of time! Shop Pumpkin Spice is having a Design Team call, and the instructions were to make something using product carried in their store, and something that makes you smile.

I used Echo Park's Victorias Garden 6x6 paper pad. Pumpkin Spice carries such a wide variety of 6x6 pads, which I LOVE for cardmaking - and they have the best prices around! I have always been so impressed by the shipping prices, and fast shipping and delivery as well.

Not much makes me smile as much as my two daughters, and this image is just so sweet and girly, that it totally made me think of them! Here is my card for the design team call:

The image and sentiment are from a set by Crafty Secrets. I stamped them on vellum, then colored them in soft colors with my Copic markers. I then cut a frame from pattern paper using my Cricut and Elegant Edges cartridge, mounted it on that, then backed it with white cardstock.

Inked the edges with Tim Holtz distress ink in Antique Photo, then mounted it on more pattern paper from the same paper pad (also with inked edges). Finished off with some white crinkle ribbon, and some Baker's Twine (both of which I see are now carried by Pumpkin Spice!)

So, now to cross my fingers and wait! What a fun opportunity - can't wait to see who makes the team! LOVE the current team - and always enjoy the posts on the blog.

Also linking up to the Ribbon Carousel Challenge - Tangled Twine, and Fantabulous Cricut's Rolling in Ribbon Challenge.

Dance like no one's watching

Good evening! I couldn't wait until tomorrow, so I decided to post this tonight! Made this for the weekly challenge on the Cricut Circle message board - a sketch challenge. You also had to include at least 2 Cricut cuts, buttons, and incorporate stamps.

So...I cute the shape card by welding two shapes from Lacey Labels together. Then I cut another shape for the inside, and also a silhouette from Shall We Dance to embellish the inside. For the stamps, I used the cute little girl and some of her goodies from the set I got and used a while back from Crafty Secrets, and colored them in with my new Prismacolor pencils (which I LOVE by the way!). The buttons are some decorative dance ones that I used one of my husbands tools (thanks honey!) to cut the back off of so they would sit flat. The sentiment is from one of my Unity Stamp sets. Inked pretty much everything, added some doodling, pop dotted EVERYTHING on the front, and that was it. Had a lot of fun - and made something a lot different than anything I have ever made before!



Little ballerina...

Didn't plan on making a card today...it just kinda happened! I was looking at the weekly challenge on the Cricut Circle blog, and started to think about this set ofstamps by Crafty Secrets I have had in my stash for a bit that I ordered from JoAnns. Hadn't had a chance to use them, and this morning I sat down for a second, because I suddenly wondered what it would look like stamped on patterned paper. Next thing I knew I was coloring it in...just to see what it looked like...then I grabbed the blue from in front of me to mat it...before I knew it, I had my Cricut Birthday Bash cartridge out to cut the shaped card out!!! Added a little doodling, and some stick on pearls, and whether I planned it or not - I had a card!!! I am really happy with it too - double bonus!!!