Christmas Wrap = Kraft & Red Valentines

Happy Tuesday! I'm back with a set of Valentine cards I made. My co-worker brought me in some red & kraft gingham patterned Christmas wrapping paper she spared from the recycle bin and wanted to know if I could use it with my crafting projects. I was happy to take the paper!

As a thank you, I made her a set of Valentine note cards. I made two each of three designs. The card layouts are essentially the same, I just swapped out different doily dies cuts and switched up the focal images and outside sentiments.

Here is a picture of the boxed set. You probably recognize the box--it's a recycled PTI stamp box that I embellished with new patterned paper and a handmade label:

Here is a close up of one of the cards:

The white scallop with the heart punch-out is an embellishment I made. I saw a Martha Stewart punch in the same style at my local stamp store and passed it up. As I was at home regretting not getting the punch, I decided to scour my punch collection for an alternative and was delighted to find that I had three separate punches that when combined, could give me the identical look to the Martha punch! I punched a heart in the middle of some white paper, then took a small scalloped circle punch , centered it around the heart and punched it out. Finally, I took a teeny, tiny hole punch and punched out the middle section of each of the small scallops. I then layered my scallop punch-out over a red circle punch out, and my embellishment was complete. It took a bit of time, but it was great to use my existing supplies rather than buy yet another new tool!

Here is the second card in the set:



And finally, here is the third card:

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please come visit me tomorrow when I share my PTI blog hop projects!


Card Set Details:
Doily Details die collection, kraft paper, Tag-Its #11 stamp set, Mat Stack #2 die, Just For You stamp set, button twine and clear box from PTI; heart buttons from my stash; Marvy and EK Success punches; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; Versamagic Red Magic chalk ink; Amuse red note cards; red and kraft wrapping paper courtesy of Meaghan.

A Winter Wonderland

Hello! Western Washington received a good dose of winter this week. I've been snowed in since Tuesday night and have worked from home the last three days. I think I got between 6-8 inches of snow at my house. I'm really happy that temperatures warmed up today and the snow and ice are departing! As an ode to winter, I made this card a few nights ago:

This card is also for the current challenge at the PaperTrey Playhouse, to make a card using the negative space from a die cut. Hope it counts that I used both the negative and the positive from the die cut!

Though it's hard to see in the photo, I used two different shimmer sprays--Shine from Mr. Huey's color mists and a bluish gray color (didn't have a label on it) of Smooch Spritz that was a close match for the Aqua Mist paper.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Weekend!

Card details:
Aqua Mist and Soft Stone cardstock, Damask Snowflake die from PTI; metal snowflake charm from Impress Rubber Stamps; American Crafts glitter ribbon; clear rhinestones from my stash; Mr. Huey's color mist in Shine; Smooch Spritz spray in blue/gray.

Top Picks for 2011

I'm back with my final post for 2011, and it's only fitting to end with a re-cap of my favorite projects for the year.

Starting the year with a thank you note...


A shabby valentine...


My first Make It Monday project...


A nest at Easter time...

A card for a special friend...

Some fresh berries...


An altered tray in ode to Paris...

A place to hang your heart...



And a thank you to you for visiting my blog!


I wish you all the best for the coming year. May it be your best one yet!

'Tis the Season to Give Thanks

Happy End of 2011! Now that Christmas has ended (although my tree is still up and will remain up until the end of next week), it's time to send out those thank you notes! The last two days I have worked on crafting some holiday thank you notes. I still have a few of these left from January, but I needed a lot more than three!

So, I made six of these cards from one 12 x 12 sheet of patterned paper:

And I made two of these (I would have had three except I cut the final third piece of patterned paper the wrong size):

And I made two of these because I had two of the shimmery snowflake die cuts left in my stash:


I don't know which one is my favorite, I like all three for different reasons. I'm trying to decide if I need to make more thank you notes. My birthday is approaching on the 1st, and these cards seem a bit too Christmas-y to me, except for the last one.

I have to give a huge Thank You to Papertrey Ink for the complimentary "Sending a Big Thank You" stamp set that was included in my December order. I have lots of thank you stamps, but I think the two included in this set have quickly become my favorites!

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back before the 1st with my Year in Review post!


Card Details:

Snowman Thanks Card: PTI Shape Up Snowman die and stamp set, PTI New Leaf card stock, Reflections black paper, Basic Gray Alpine Yule patterned paper from Nordic Holiday line, My Minds Eye 12 Days of Christmas patterned paper, Memory Box note card in Poinsettia red, Memory Box Thanks die, Copic Marker in Cadmium Orange, Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

Pine and Berry Thanks Card: PTI Sending Big Thanks stamp set, PTI Mat Stack 5 die, Martha Stewart mat pad Snowflace patterned paper, Memory Box note card in Red Pepper, Tim Holtz limited edition Distress ink in Festive Berries, Versamark ink.

Snowflake Thanks Card: PTI Sending Big Thanks stamp set, Martha Stewart mat pad Snowflace patterned paper, Memory Box snowflake die, Memory Box note card in Robin's Egg, Paper Zone Shimmer White card stock, Tim Holtz limited edition Distress ink in Iced Spruce, Versamark ink.

December PTI Blog Hop: Use Your Leftovers

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a wonderful holiday! My family and I did. I'm always a wee bit sad after Christmas simply because it's over. I love all of the preparations leading up to the holiday. For me, that's the best part: decorating the house, crafting, baking, shopping, wrapping, writing Christmas cards. Once the day finally arrives, I'm a bit sad that it's all coming to an end. Oh well, there's always next year! Plus, I have the week off from work, so this should give me plenty of time to craft--including making the dozen+ thank you notes I need to send now!

PTI's December blog hop challenge is to use your leftover gift wrap, ribbon, tags, etc. My card came together fairly quickly. After my gift wrapping marathon on Friday, I had some sizable chunks of wrapping paper left, so I made this card:

I trimmed the snow man from the wrap and attached him to a PTI die cut Tag Sale #4. If I had used removable adhesive on the tag, this could have easily become a card and gift in one (a gift tag or ornament for the recipient to remove from the card base and use later). The background paper is also a section of another wrapping paper I had. The red and green stripe is a scrap of patterned paper from the PTI Christmas Prints collection. The green rick rack and red snowflake ribbon are from a package of Martha Stewart ribbons I had in my stash.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm looking forward to checking out everyone's projects!

Happy Holidays!

November PTI Blog Hop

Hello! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that your holiday season is off to a great start! I had time earlier this week to make a card for this month's PTI blog hop. I really love the inspiration photo for this month's challenge. I know I would enjoy spending my Christmas in that house!

Here is my take on the challenge:


My card has a mixture of old and new products. I found the die cut skates in my scrap bin which were left over from a previous project. I only had to embellish them with the pom poms and string. The button is from a Martha Stewart holiday embellishment set that I bought a year or two ago. I love the Love Lives Here Holiday set released a few months ago. The sentiments are charming, and the pine boughs and hearts images remind me of my mom's Scandinavian holiday dishes (appropriately named Hearts & Pines).

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to start posting with a bit more frequency. I seem to be pretty good at crafting, but fairly lousy at photo taking!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Printer Trays

Happy September! I hope you enjoyed the Labor Day weekend! I was able to complete two printer tray projects over the course of the long weekend in between craft store trips, pruning trees and bushes away from the house in anticipation of the wind that fall will bring and trimming the hedge that runs around the perimeter of my property. Unfortunately I came down with some sort of flu bug last night. I had hoped that a good night's sleep would help, but I didn't sleep very well and when my alarm went off this morning I felt just as bad if not worse than last night. Ugh. So, I stayed home from work today. I haven't felt up to doing much of anything today, but I did manage to get pictures taken of the two printer tray projects. Please click on the photos for a closer look:

This first one I made for myself. It's an ode to my love of Paris (but really I adore anything French related). I didn't do any stamping on this one. It's a collage of patterned paper and embellishments that I had in my stash.

This tray I made for my mom. She loves fall as much as I do. I remember when Basic Gray released the Indian Summer collection a few years ago. I was completely taken with it and bought 4 of the 6 x6 paper pads along with the full collection of 12 x 12 paper. I also got the three coordinating stamps sets, brads and buttons. I know that's a bit over the top, and I remember thinking at the time that maybe I would regret getting so much of the paper. Nope! I still love it and I'm glad I've got more to use. I actually did quite a bit of stamping for this tray.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a good week!