Thursday, January 14, 2016

Happy 2016 Everyone!

Hey All!  I know that it's been a while since I've been on here.  It's very tough with the hustle and the bustle of the holiday season to get on here with everything else that was going on. In addition to that I have been struggling with Strep throat as well as carpaltunnel in my hand, making it difficult to cards make from time to time.  I am not currently able to sit and make multiple cards at once, and I'm very lucky to make one entire card in one sitting, but I will continue to battle through this too...
  I hope that each and every one of you had a fantastic holiday season and that you got to spend some time with your family and friends creating the most incredible memories as well as enjoying the beautiful magic that Christmas brings with it.  I think it has to be one of the most incredible times of the year, to sit back and watch the magic in the kids eyes (my boyfriend's nieces and nephews and my godson and his brother).  The magic of the season in their eyes is so contageous and makes it such a beautiful time of year.  The decoration and lights just have me in awe.  The time spent with family either telling stories, laughing and creating memories and even baking with my mom is something that is so wonderful, and it wouldnt be the same without it.  Going for a stroll hand in hand through old town Niagara on the Lake with my man while doing a little bit of Christmas Shopping with warm drinks is something else that helps to create the season for me. 
While I know that this season is a beautiful one for me, I understand and acknowlege that it isn't the easiest and in some cases is a very difficult and painful season for so many others.  In all honesty my prayers and thoughts have been with so many who find the holiday season difficult and I pray that they can find even just a glimmer of hope throught it all, whether it be a smile or a kind gesture of a stranger or someone who goes out of their way for them to make the season just a little bit easier, I pray that they were able to find a little piece of beauty through that.
As for 2016 I hope that you all had a fantastic New Years and that 2016 holds only the most amazing things for each and every one of you.  This year was the first time in my life that I didnt set any personal Resolutions.  I have found in past years that I was setting Resolutions that were often very hard to accomplish and I would put a ton of stress on myself trying to accomplish them when the stress wasn't necessary.  This year I decided instead that I would create crafty resolutions for myself. 
I decided that this year I would start my year with a big overhaul and tidy of my scrapbooking / card making "nook".  Last year over Christmas I got a couple storage units that I started using for my supplies, but this year I decided that I was going to get myself a decent storage unit that I would have for years to come.  I am so lucky that I have a man that LOVES me as much as he does and whom is so handy to have around.  He worked very hard to build my storage unit and put it together so that I have a spot to store all my supplies (and it looks amazing too!)  I have been spending alot of time going through things, and sorting and organizing.  I am so thrilled with the way that it has come along, and wanted to share it with you guys (my crafting family).  
Check out these photos of my scrap nook project.

***THEY WILL BE POSTED SHORTLY***
I have used many organizational tools and methods of some well known Cardmakers and am thrilled with the way that their methods work for me and how much they make my life so much easier.  I use the Birthday Box method that Jennifer McGuire uses, as well as the same method for my stamp storage that she uses in addition to her ink swatches.  I love how these things make my life so much easier. 
Another crafty Resolution of mine is to make a very solid attempt of competing in a minimum of one challenge a week, and doing my best to post/blog my cards on a weekly basis to share with all of you!
I cannot wait for what 2016 has in store for me.  I look forward to playing along with challenges and getting on here more.  I love the continual feedback, and hope that you all continue to let me know what you think of the ideas and cards that I post. 
See you all soon!

Christmas Card Challenges #6 and ABC Christmas Card Challenges "A"

Hi Again!  I know that I missed posting the first week of January but I am making up for it now in posting 3 times this week as well as creating 2 cards to enter for 2 challenges.  I had said as one of my crafty resolutions that I wanted to post atleast once a week if possible.  I know that that isnt always ideal or reasonable as life sometimes gets in your way and prevents it, but Im going to do my very best.  The first week of January I have spent battling Strep Throat so I am trying to get back into the swing of things and make up for the one I missed this first week.  
 
and

ABC Christmas Challenge this week is:

'A is for Anything Goes'

(Just don't forget the Christmas theme!)

I know that you may or may not have seen my other post, but I did create a card to enter these 2 challenges already, but I was on a roll so decided that I was going to create a second card for each of these challenges and enter them.  Im really trying to build a stock of cards for this coming Christmas so I might as well get started early.

This card started as me trying to use up some of my scraps (I have a ton of extra snowflakes in my scrap box) so this card started out with some white snowflakes and then me deciding to make my own background with some distress inks, and it came together so perfectly.
I absolutely love this card and the way that it turned out and it was so easy to put together it might end up being something I can mass produce and it could possibly become my card for next Christmas that I hand out to most people.  Only time will tell...

Here's part of my card...

Here's another look at another part of my card...

Here's a look at the side view of my card...

and last but certainly not least...

Here's the front view of my card...

Supplies Used

Paper Trimmer - Used to cut the card base and the background paper
White Paper - used for the card base
Water Colour Paper - used to create the background on
Shimmer Cardstock - used to cut all the snowflakes out of
Scissors - used to cut the string behind the snowflake
Double Sided Adhesive - Used to attach the background to the card base
Ranger Multi Medium Matte - used to adhere the snowflakes to the background
Precision tips - used for really precise placement of glue on the snowflakes
Cuttle Bug - used to die cut snowflakes
MFT Snowflake Dies - used to cut out the largest snowflake
Paper Smooches Dies - Used to cut out the little snowflakes
Heat Tool - used to dry the inks in between water droplets
Distress Inks - used to create the background
Distress Ink Blending tools - Used to blend the ink pad colours together to create background
Shimmer Mist - Used to add shimmer to the background
Silver Thread - used behind the snowflakes to add a touch of metallic to the card
Water - from your own tap and with your hand
Klennex - used to soak up the water droplets

I was unfortunately not able to find a source for the "Merry Christmas" Wording however it is a sticker, and I was also not able to find a source for the Gems that I used for the centres of the snowflakes - any gems would work fine for recreation of this card.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

ABC Christmas Challenge "A" and Christmas Card Challenges #6

Hey Everyone!  I hope that you all caught my first post for the year with my Christmas wishes as well as my New Year wishes.  If you missed that post please stop by to see that post. 
One of my crafty Resolutions is to get my stash of Christmas cards built early and so that I have lots of them to pass out to my friends and family.  I am going to be working at making 2 cards a week, and 3 - 5 cards of each design to help myself build a large stash for Christmas of 2016
So I thought that I would get to it, and hit the ground running, and wanted to share with you a card that I made for these 2 challenges. 
ABC Christmas Card Challenge is on the Letter "A" for Anything goes.
and
When I saw the challenges today I knew that I had lots of stamps that could work for this. I visited my scrap box... {which really is a box that extra die cut things get tossed into, ideas that dont make it to a completed card are in there too, stamped images that are/aren't coloured are in there too waiting to find their way to a card}... and found an image that was previously coloured in there that had a little blue bird and a snowman and I just couldnt help but ensure that it made it to a card.
Those of you who follow my blog know that I generally colour my images to match my papers, but in this case I had to do it opposite which was easier than I thought it was going to be. I had a ton of scrap pattern paper that were in the pile and I was able to use some papers that have been used previously which was fun instead of cutting into a new piece of paper. Yay for using up Scraps!

Here's the front of the card...

Here's the side view of the card...

Here's the coloured image that was used for the card...

Supplies Used
Fiskars Paper Trimmer - used to cut card base and pattern papers
Tim Holtz Scissors - used to cut 2 sided adhesive and ribbon
MFT Black Licorice Ink - used to stamp the image as well as the sentiment
2 sided Adhesive - used to attach papers to card base.
Ranger Matte Medium - used to attach the snowflakes to the card
Foam Tape - used to attach the sentiment and give it some dimension
Bakers Twine (Red and White) - used for tieing around the card and creating a ribbon with
Gelly Roll Pens - used to colour and add shimmer to the image
Sentiment Stamp - Recollection Set - Only able to locate it on Ebay (sorry!)
Snowman Stamp - Bird Snowman (Class Act Inc.) 
White Cardstock - Card Base as well as Paper that Image is stamped onto
Cuttle Bug Machine - used with dies to cut out the snowflakes for the card
Snowflake Dies - used to cut the snowflakes (white)
Snowflake Dies - used to cut the red snowflake (red)
Gems - used on the snowflakes to add some shimmer (exact source couldnt be found so I linked to something similar which would work too)

The pattern paper is from a retired Recollection Paperpack so unfortunately I wasnt able to locate a source.