Kaisercraft Christmas Cards

Although I'm finished making Christmas cards, I thought I'd share a trio that I designed for the Winter issue of Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine:

I used the gorgeous St. Nicholas collection from Kaisercraft.  The wood elements and ribbons are also Kaisercraft.

This card is my favourite, but the fussy cutting was not my favourite!

Have you picked up the Winter 2013 issue of Canadian Scrapbooker yet?  There are many more Christmas cards and layouts in there to inspire you!

A Christmas Card Hop

I think I'm almost at the end of my Christmas card making, and this was a fun one! I designed this card for the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L and May Arts Ribbon blog hop:

Today is the last day of the hop, but you can still enter to win some adhesives and ribbon prizes!

Click HERE to visit the Crafty Power blog and see a photo tutorial on how I designed the card.

You can also click HERE to visit the May Arts blog to find more wonderful projects from this past week.

Hop along and win a Christmas present for yourself!

A Christmas Card for a Teacher

I am definitely on a Christmas card roll and just hope I can get them into the mail on time.  I still haven't written my annual letter but have set a deadline for this week.  We'll see what happens!

Here is a card I designed using the new Brother ScanNCut machine. 

SUPPLIES: DCWV papers;Brother ScanNCut;May Arts twine;Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L;American Crafts Galaxy marker

This card is being featured on the Canadian Scrapbooker magazine blog today along with a video tutorial I made to demonstrate how I used the ScanNCut to design the chalkboard word art, cork tree and chalkboard star. 

Click HERE to visit the Canadian Scrapbooker blog and watch the video.

Click HERE to visit the ScanNCut website and watch more video tutorials.

Put a Bow On It

I am getting into the Christmas spirit by making cards with wreaths on them.  I just love 3D elements on cards and like to create my own.  Here is a card I designed for Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L using the pretty "bow" designer shape from their new "3D Foam Christmas Mix" set.  

I have a tutorial on the Crafty Power blog where you can find out exactly how I designed this and the supplies I used.

Click HERE to visit the Crafty Power blog.

More Christmas projects to come!

Brother's New ScanNCut

It's always fun to have a new product or scrapbooking tool to play with, isn't it?

I have just started working with the new Brother ScanNCut Machine and have designed this Christmas card:

I used Core'dinations Colorcore card stock for the wreath and "Noel" and the card base with patterned papers are from Graphic 45's new Christmas Collection "Twelve Days of Christmas."

It is being featured on the Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine blog, with lots of step-by-step photos showing the ScanNCut and design details.

Click HERE to visit the Canadian Scrapbooker blog to see more.

Click HERE to visit Brother's ScanNCut website that has more information, plus video tutorials. 

Stay tuned for more ScanNCut projects!

A Little Bit of Christmas

Are you busy planning and making your Christmas cards?  To be honest, I only create a handful for a few special people and actually snail mail about 80 more store-bought ones with our family photo and annual Christmas letter.  Yes, I have a big family!

Here is one card I designed using some wonderful Sizzix products:

This is being featured on the Canadian Scrapbooker blog today, so for more details and some step-out photos of how it came together, click HERE and find out more.

A Christmas Class

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I've been having a wonderful time designing classes using Kaisercraft paper and products.  Here is my latest creation, a 12" X 12" Christmas photo display frame:

I used the beautiful vintage "St Nicholas" collection:

There are some fun techniques involved….like the 3D metallic heart, the frosted glass window and the doily tree.

If you're in the area, I hope you can join me! Click HERE to visit the Treasured Memories blog, learn more about this class and register.  

A Winter Scene

I love being on the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L Design Team.  I have the opportunity to work with a huge variety of manufacturers' product and, of course, the best adhesives around.  With the new release of 3D Foam Designer Shapes, I've been having fun creating projects and here is a card featuring three of the shapes:  a 3D Frame, Star and some Trees.

There are lots of ways to alter the foam shapes, and I used glitter and embossing powder.

There is a step-by-step photo tutorial on how I designed this card on the Crafty Power Blog, so click HERE to stop by there and check it out.

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L also has a brand new website… it looks awesome! Click HERE to head over there. Thanks for stopping by.

A Merry Christmas to All!

This is my last blog post before Christmas.  I waited until today because I wasn't sure if the world was ending or not.  Looks like we're good to go!  I guess the Mayans weren't great at making calendars after all.

I thought I would share some Christmas projects I designed for Canadian Scrapbooker.

First up....here are 3 cards I created for the Winter issue 2012 using Bo Bunny's Mistletoe collection.

Love these bright cute papers!

I added Robin's Nest Dew Drops as ornaments on this tree.

Aside from some lace and pom pom ribbon, I didn't do much else except cut the papers.  Their adorable Christmas images are perfect for simple cards.

On December 11, I had a blog post over at Canadian Scrapbooker about a Christmas card I made with Stampin' Up! products.  

Here is the card....

The tree is made with folded doilies cut with a Stampin Up Sizzix die.

Click HERE to visit the Canadian Scrapbooker blog post with the details and photos of  how I made my card.

Right now there is a HUGE contest over at Canadian Scrapbooker called "12 Days of Giving".  Every day you can enter to win a prize package from a different sponsor!  Click HERE to check it out.

I designed two Christmas projects for this contest, using Fancy Pants "Home for Christmas" and My Little Shoebox "Winter Wonderland".

I made Christmas crackers with the Fancy Pants papers for Day 3 of the contest....

They are super simple to make....

Cut an empty paper towel roll in half.  Measure and cut your patterned paper to fit around it.

Put SookWang double sided adhesive tape (1/4") at top and bottom edges of the paper.  Put a second strip of adhesive tape under the top strip (this will hold the tissue paper in place).

Remove the backing from the second piece of tape along the top.Cut a wider piece of tissue paper that extends about 4 inches past each side of the paper/roll.

 Centre the tissue paper edge on that exposed adhesive strip.

Now remove the remaining top and bottom adhesive strips and wrap paper with tissue around your empty roll.

Almost done....just tie one end with twine, fill with prizes and goodies, tie the other end and decorate the top!

For my second project on Day 4 of 12 Days of Giving, I designed an Advent Garland using My Little Shoebox "Winter Wonderland" collection. 

I bought the pretty iridescent silver garland at Canadian Tire, and I found the clothespins in Hobby Lobby in the States.

Each pocket is basically a rectangular piece of patterned paper, folded in two places for the body and the top envelope part. 

One of the pieces of MLS papers had all of the numbers 1 - 25, which I cut out and adhered to the front of the pocket envelopes.  I added stickers from their sticker sheet to decorate them a bit more.

On the back side of the pocket envelopes, I put small doilies (cut with the same Stampin' Up doily die I used for the tree "Joy" card).  In the centre of each doily I put an alphabet letter sticker, so the entire banner in reverse spells "Have a Merry Christmas!"

In the pockets I put chocolate gold coins....but I think my teenagers would prefer the real thing! 

It's not too late to win a prize package over at Canadian Scrapbooker!  Stop by there and check out all the fabulous projects made by the rest of the Design Team using all of the papers and products from contest sponsors!  Click HERE and enter to win yourself a Christmas present.

I'd like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! May you be blessed with a peaceful and joyous holiday season :)

Christmas with Carta Bella

Our monthly staff challenge and December kit at The Urban Scrapbook features wonderful papers from Carta Bella's "Merry and Bright" collection.

I love the non-traditional colour palette that has pink and pale turquoise!  So cute!

Here is Lynette's sketch and my layout...

"Made with Love"

There is a story behind these photos of BoyGenius at Age 2, his second Christmas.

While I was pregnant, I knit that sweater for my baby's first Christmas.  Well, it turned out a little on the BIG side, so it ended up fitting him for his second Christmas.

I was SO excited about my baby boy wearing something that I had knit.  I'm actually not much of a knitter, and when I look at these photos, I think, "Huh?  How the heck did I ever knit that?" 

Christmas day arrived and I gave BoyGenius his precious sweater, with camera in hand.  Of course, there was NO WAY he was going to wear it.  He refused to put it on.  [To say that BG is a strong-willed spirited child is an understatement]  

Did I mention I was 9 months pregnant with his sister at the time...and she was due on Christmas Day?  I gave up trying to convince him and left the room in tears.

Moments later, Daddy and BG came to find me and he was wearing the sweater!  Ok, so it was only for 15 minutes, and a few snapshots later he pulled it off, never to be worn again.  It wasn't the Hallmark moment I was imagining, but at least I have a scrapbook page now. ha ha!

Now back to the page design and this kit...

These raw chipboard letters were cut with a  Sizzix alphabet die.  I painted them red and covered them with Glossy Accents.

I used the Prima Metal Trinket Typo Bulb as a template and traced more bulbs for my banner on American Crafts glitter paper.  The silver tops of the bulbs are cut from silver glitter ribbon.

There were 2 large flowers in the kit. I cut the petals off my green flower to make my Christmas tree.  I simply adhered the petals to a triangular piece of green card stock.

I used the petals from my red flower to make the 3 hearts.  The border is a Martha Stewart edge/corner punch set.

I tucked a journaling tag under the photo, with the story of this Christmas Sweater

This sweater pretty much ended my knitting career, and I haven't knit anything since.  

But I have it carefully stored away, and when BoyGenius has his first child, you can bet Grandma is going to be wrapping up a very special sweater for Christmas! 

To see what the rest of the Urban Design Team has created with this kit, please click HERE.

Christmas Classes

This time of year is a busy one for classes at The Urban Scrapbook.  I'll be posting my Graphic 45 Happy Haunting Halloween mini album later this week, but today I thought I'd share what I've designed for Christmas classes coming up soon.

First, here is a set of 5 cards I created using the gorgeous Graphic 45 Nutcracker Sweet collection.

After this class runs on November 22, I will share the techniques and details on these cards here on my blog.

The next class is a Holiday Recipe Mini Album, perfect for a gift or family keepsake.  My friend Sandra and I collaborated to design this mini album  using Simple Stories.

Once again, after the class date of December 15, I will post photos and techniques used in this album.

Click HERE to check out the classes at the Urban website and register!

And now....to prepare for Halloween!  Look out candy, here I come!

Dear Santa....Graphic 45 Christmas Emporium

The Christmas Emporium collection by Graphic 45 has really inspired me to create!

Here is a layout I designed for the Winter 2011 issue of Canadian Scrapbooker magazine using this amazing collection of papers...

I haven't scrapped many photos from my childhood and knew it was time to use this precious pic of my brother and I on Santa's knee when I saw the gorgeous G45 papers.

I dearly love this photo...it captures that innocence of the Christmas season, the belief in Santa Claus and all the magic of waking up Christmas morning to find presents under the tree.

I remember that blue jacket and fuzzy white hood trim, and especially those white galoshes.  Do those kind of winter boots exist anymore?  You know the ones...you wear your shoes INSIDE of them! And there is a rubber buckle at the top to tighten? Ahhhhh...memories of simpler times....

But I want to make clear that I am NOT labelling this design as a heritage page or vintage layout...ha ha!  I'm not that old, am I??

The edges are punched by Martha Stewart, the cream ribbon running along the bottom is Harmonie, the fabric stars are  KI Memories, the sticker alpha is Fancy Pants, the chipboard scroll corners and tree are Dusty Attic, and the chipboard ticket border is Graphic 45.

Here are some close ups....

I created a quilted background by stitching squares of patterned paper.

This Dusty Attic tree is painted with Gold Metallic Adirondack paint and backed onto black Bazzill cardstock.

I "pounced" the gold paint dabber onto the chipboard to give it a more metallic appearance.

This scroll corner is also backed onto black Bazzill cardstock.  The square bling is Recollections (from Michaels).

The base of the wreath is made from 2 Tim Holtz medium rosette strips (Sizzix die).

The holly leaves are fussy cut from the Graphic 45 patterned paper and covered with Ranger Clear Rock Candy Distress Stickles.  After they were dry, I layered them onto the rosette wreath base, using Fabri-Tac as my adhesive (fast-drying liquid glue).....an essential for me!  To finish off, I added Stickles in "Xmas Red" to the holly berries and a red bow.  I coloured white seam binding ribbon with Fired Brick Distress Stain, crumpled and let dry. 

Here is a closer look....

The leaves curl as the Rock Candy Stickles dries.

My wonderful Christmas Emporium paper pack from Graphic 45 is almost empty...boo hoo!  But I will enjoy looking at them on this layout for many years to come :)

Wishing you all a joyous Christmas and wonderful holiday season!

December Sketchy Challenge

Is it mid-December?  Really?

And I haven't posted my Canadian Scrapbooker December Sketchy Challenge layout yet...oops! 

Here is Jill Sarginson's wonderful December sketch...

And here is my layout, using the TaDa Creative Studios "Frozen Tozen" collection...

The photos are BoyGenius skating for the first time on an outdoor lake at Jasper Park Lodge.

Those wonderful large white snowflakes are Ezee Pzee chipboard elements that I painted white....love their chipboard designs!

 I added Harmonie tile mosaics to the top and bottom borders for some dimension.

This collection comes with a super cute sticker sheet and journaling spots....

I did some paper piercing along the journalling spot and the round tag to coordinate with my Martha Stewart round the page border punch....

Even though I'm not a big fan of winter weather, I do love creating winter and Christmas pages!  As long as I'm indoors :)

If you have a moment, check out all the amazing offers and Giveaways over at Canadian Scrapbooker.  They are doing a daily Giveaway "16 Days of Sharing" AND a "Webisode 24" prize of a Sony Digital Frame/Printer!  PLUS...there are weekly prizes offered for "Why Not Win Wednesdays"!!

Yep, Canadian Scrapbooker has the Christmas Spirit!  Find them on Facebook too!