I got the idea for this card from this card in the splitcoast gallery. I’ve had the Stampin’ Up chalk set for quite a while now but never used it because I was too scared to! And after using it - wow, I love them! All I did was stamp the image (the leaves) in versamark and then use a qtip to brush the chalk over. The instructions do say to use a cotton ball but I couldn’t find them the day I did this card. The qtips worked well I thought, and when I did find the cotton ball I thought too much chalk got onto the card - though maybe that was the point? I’ve been playing around with my chalks here and there and like the effect the qtip gives much better.

I made a few of these cards for a swap group I am in and kept a couple for myself. I haven’t sent them to anyone yet, just adding to my growing card collection.

All paper, inks, stamps, etc copyright Stampin’ Up

Technorati Tags: handmade cards, stamping, Stampin’ Up

I made this card for a swap I did earlier this month. I wanted to do a holiday card - and then I got all the other swaps back the other day and they all used new stamp sets! Ah well that’s okay, it’s a cute design.

It is missing something though, color filled in the little border maybe? I do like the card and think if I made more I would just line the tags up straight. On some cards they staggered nicely and on others it seemed like it didn’t work out - all the measurements were the same but it was still kind of odd.

I’m actually going to go through the holiday cards I have now and see how many I have. I know I have quite a few but maybe I’ll make a few more of these anyway. They were fast and easy - the coloring and punching the tags out took the longest - and I like them not being all Christmas colored - you know, not *all* green and red.

(all images, paper, ink copyright Stampin’ Up)

Technorati Tags: Stampin’ Up, handmade cards, stamping

My Mom sent us a sock puppet kit for Christmas last year and we made one and then never got around to making the other. It wasn’t too hard to figure out though I remember it taking a little while. So here is Fluffy! You can’t see but he also has a belly button because, duh, everyone has a belly button! He has mismatched eyes too but they are the same size, which I guess was more important to Alice then them matching colors! You were supposed to cut a tie and put that coming out of the top of his head but the only ties we have are ones that Chris just bought and there was no way we were cutting them up - so it is a ribbon. The ribbon kind of hangs in Fluffy’s face, but he doesn’t mind. It distracts from him not smiling I think.

Most of the time Alice or Jake sleeps with him, or he has a special place on Alice’s bookcase. Now there is a gift that she still loves too, Fluffy. She wants to make more but we just haven’t. Maybe we’ll do that this weekend, Fluffy does need a friend.

Well, kind of altered. Maybe more like covered. A few weeks ago one of my girlfriends started looking for wedding things - ideas for centerpieces, dresses, etc. - and she mentioned wanting a notebook to keep notes in. I’ve had a few moleskine (love them!) notebooks for a little while and wanted to cover one so I said I would and send it to her. Her colors were going to be a teal and chocolate brown. I wasn’t sure I could get the teal right, but I tried!

I used a few different Stampin’ Up stamps and paper, and sparkly rhinestone things from A Muse. From the picture it looks like a lot of teal - but really it all blended very well. I used a few quotes (my favorite stamps are quotes) as well as the Doodle Alphabet stamp set for spelling out “Julie”. The two eyelets hold vellum onto the paper under them and can swing out so you can read the quote. Of course you can see it a lot better in person as well.

The chocolate brown paper was a lot of fun to do - I just used versamark ink for the stamp and didn’t put any embossing powder or such on it. I just stamped and then dried with with my heat gun. It just makes the mark stand out and looks so good!

The space in the middle is for a date - I’m not sure for 2007 or the full date or what. They have a tentative date right now, I think.

When I talked to her last she said the notebook was too nice to use and she hadn’t written in it yet! That made me laugh although I know how she feels. I just love how this came out - it took a couple to a few hours and after I was done stamping, figuring the layout took quite a bit! I’m happy with how it looks and so is Julie and her Mom so I figure it’s a good job.

I’ve done quite a few cards lately too - it feels really good to be back into crafting!

Technorati Tags: Stampin’ Up, moleskine notebook, altered items

A couple of weeks ago we stopped by the craft store and grabbed a couple of Klutz kits. I waver between thinking they are a great deal because they have everything you will need to complete the project and thinking they are expensive. And yes, that’s the coupon loving, clearance shopping part of me talking!

Anyway, we bought the potholder kit and finally opened it up. Alice loves it!

Starting out….

Five rows of weaving and she’s got it!

And this one is done.

She loves it so much she wanted to do more. There is a project in the book that had you make two potholders and then stitch them together to make a purse.

Moving right along…

And in other kid accomplishments - Alice learned how to tie her shoes by herself! This was the first day she did it.

Here are a few more cards made with the Happy Everything stamp set by SU. I really like this set! And I found a few more things to add to the cards - flowers and rhinestone stickers. We gave one of the Happy Birthday cards to a little girl in the kids’ gymnastics class.

I made these a while back but we are getting out the supplies to make a few more cards and I found these pictures! I forgot to post them here and just wanted to share.

I finished my nephews car seat blanket a couple of weeks ago. It was right before we all got sick so I didn’t get around to taking a picture of it until yesterday. I love the pattern! It was very easy to follow and I ended up getting the blanket done in less then a week or so. I still need to make the other blanket for my other nephew, I’m going to start on it soon.

I really need to buy better yarn. My craft store has a bad selection and it seems that noone there knows how to help. I ended up talking to another yarn browser who helped me find something.