Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year!


I hope you all have a wonderful new year! I don't have a new year's card, but here's a birthday card for the new year
As you can see, I'm getting more use out of my Cuttlebug embossing folders. This paper is actually a shimmery Mother of Pearl paper from Couture Cardstock. IT's just beautiful in real life and embosses perfectly. Make sure you check them out, they've got the best specialty papers and cardstocks!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Snow snow snow

Well, we sure had a white Christmas this year! It was so cold on Christmas that pretty much everyone stayed indoors and traffic was a no go due to icy roads and white outs. Good thing we had planned to stay here anyway :) Now that the weather has calmed down, it's nice. Everything is white and yesterday we had freezing fog all day so the trees were all heavily frosted. It looked like a winter wonderland! Since I don't go back to classes until Jan 11, I hope to get some good scrapping and card making in. The kids are with my parents for the next few days, so the odds are with me so far!
I recently got my hands on some new Cuttlebug folders and I am loving the fleur de lis folder. So versatile and elegant! Here is a baby/wedding shower card I whipped up a couple days ago. Love how the embossing looks on the black paper, I should emboss on black more often.

I used my Silhouette to cut out the shapes and used a Melissa Frances rub-on in the center of the umbrella. Pretty easy!
I hope you are all enjoying the holidays, thanks for taking a peek.
~amy

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Winter Break!

That's right! Finals are over and I don't have classes until January 11th. It feels so good to be done for a few weeks. The kids have 2 more days of school and then they're on break as well. I can't believe that it's only a few days until Christmas, I need to get presents wrapped!
In the mean time, here is a poinsettia card I made last week. It started out being an Anniversary card for my parents - they got married on Christmas Eve - but I did another card for them instead. I love this color combo and I'm pretty sure I've never used it before, especially on a Christmas card.

The stamp is one of my new Flourishes stamps, "Poinsettia & Boxwood." I stamped it and embossed with Copper embossing powder onto light pink paper. Then I used Copics to shade the flower tips and blend them into the paper. I used a Gold Leafing pen to go around the sentiment and patterned paper (G45 "Christmas Past"). Gives the effect of being layered over gold foil paper, but not! I used Prima Marketing pearls on the poinsettia for some dimension as well.
That's about it, thanks for taking a peek!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Snow Day!

That's right, the kids and I have a snow day from school today, woo hoo! Unfortunately it's FREEZING out so the kids won't get a lot of outside play time. Here's another card with my new Flourishes set All That Glitters. I colored the stamp with Copics and then used Glossy Accents over the top to give it a glassy look. I cut it out and layered it over the pink papers. I really like non traditional color schemes for Christmas cards.

Thanks for taking a peek! We're supposed to get more snow today, so *maybe* we'll have another snow day tomorrow...probably not...but I can dream! :)

Paper: Couture Cardstock
Stamps: Flourishes "All That Glitters"
Ink: Memento, Clearsnap
Markers: Copic
Tools: EK Success "Diamond Scallop" border punch, Spellbinders Standard & Scalloped Ovals, Cuttlebug "Textile" Embossing Folder, Ranger Glossy Accents
Ribbon: Decorative Ribbon - Hobby Lobby

Monday, December 7, 2009

Flourishes "All That Glitters"

I have been a long time admirer of Flourishes stamps. One of my blogging "heroes" Becca Feeken uses them frequently and she got me hooked before I even had any Flourishes stamps! On Friday I got my very first sets, one of those sets is All That Glitters. It's an absolutely GORGEOUS set of vintage ornaments and other trimmings. My favorite element is the frosted pinecone, because I remember having these colored ornaments on our tree when I was a kid, and I loved them so much. On this card, I stamped the pinecone in Memento "Rose Bud" ink and used Memento "Bamboo Leaves" ink on the pine needles stamp. I love that the set comes with an ornament string stamp, it's so cute :) I used a Hero Arts sentiment for the card with Memento "Tuxedo Black" ink. I used Glossy Accents on the froted part of the pinecone and sprinkled ultra fine glitter over the top.
I used Spellbinders Labels Five and the Fleur De Lis Pendant die along with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. I accented it with some Offray ribbon and Prima Marketing gems. All of the cardstock is from Couture Cardstock, love the bright colors!
Thanks for taking a peek, hope you're staying warm. I know I'm not, my fingers feel like frozen hotdogs as I'm typing this, eeek! Sounds like we're in for blizzard like conditions later on tonight and tomorrow as well. ick.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Oh my word it's COLD!


It's so cold today, I do believe that December is here with a vengeance! So maybe by posting this "warmest wishes" I can trick myself into thinking I'm warm. It would be nice!
I used a Stampabilities tree stamp for this card, it was so easy. I just stamped two trees in light green Memento ink and then the center one in darker green Memento ink. I used a glue pen on the unstamped parts of the tree and sprinkled glitter over the top for some snow. Then I just stamped with a Stampendous! sentiment stamp (Holiday Sayings) and cut it out with a Spellbinders Label Five. I just love that labels set, it's so versatile and elegant. I tied a ribbon around the front and glued the label to the bow with Beacon Adhesive's Fabri-Tac and I was done!
This is a really simple card that you could make a lot of at a time, I think it took me about 4 minutes to make. Well, I hope YOU are all staying warm. If not, just know that I understand your pain!
TFL :)

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Snow Globe

I was looking through my drawer of older stamps this week and found this snowman stamp. I think I got it at Hobby Lobby in a holiday set several years ago, but if I remember correctly I bought the set for the snowflake stamps and sentiment that came with it - not for the snowman. Not that I don't like the snowman, but it's a little plain I guess. When I looked at it this week I pictured a snowglobe, so that's what the inspiration for this card was.

I used Spellbinders Standard Circles to cut out the "globe" that I had stamped on and then I cut out a transparent piece of packaging and layered it over the globe when it was finished. You can't really see it in the photo, but it's there. I also used Spellbinders Labels Eight and Create a Flake 1. I'm glad I kept this stamp, I forsee more snowglobes in my future!


And now we're off to Hobby Lobby - I got a call that my Spellbinders Ovals came in. The kids are also picking out their annual ornament to put on the tree and we will be putting that up tonight as well. We also have a houseguest, our friend Wade Jagmin. Things are getting busy!
Hope you all have a great Thursday, and thanks for taking a peek :)

Paper: October Afternoon "Cherry Hill"
Cardstock: Couture Cardstock "Macintosh"
Tools: Spellbinders "Labels Eight, Create a Flake 1, Standard Circles", EK Success Border punch
Stamps: The Paper Studio
Markers: Copic
Glitter: Martha Stewart
Ribbon: Decorative Ribbon (HL)
Misc: gems, button, thread, pearls

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Spellbinders 50% off at HL?!

I couldn't believe it when I went to Hobby Lobby a few days ago and saw that they were having a 50% off sale on their Spellbinders products! The highest they've ever gone before is 40% and that wasn't very often. So I got Labels 4 and got a rain check for the large ovals, 2 sets that I've really wanted for a while. I used Labels 4 on this card along with Scalloped Ovals. I used a Gold Leafing pen to outline the embossed part of the die cuts. TFL!

Paper: DCWV cardstock
Stamps: Papertrey Ink "Demask Designs, Mega Mixed Messages" and misc. Angel stamp
Ink: Ranger Distress Ink "Fired Brick" and Memento "Tuxedo Black"
Markers: Copic
Misc: pearls, ribbon, gold leafing pen

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Winner!

Winner is comment #6, which is:

Gina L said...
First off, that was super sweet of you to change the settings. I appreciate that you did that! I am thankful for the huge support system that I have in my friends and family, who have helped me through a really terrible time in my life. I don't know where I'd be without them. - Gina L (siameseplease)

Congrats Gina!