Christmas bells are ringing...

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Dec 272008

I hope everyone has been having fun and enjoying the holiday season!

In Wednesday’s post, I mentioned the Splitcoaststampers Holiday Challenge Extravaganza.  Here’s a little something I created for the challenge that was offered on Monday, Dec. 22. 

church-scrapling.jpg

It’s a “Scrap-ling.”  It’s only 4.25″ tall x 1.25″ wide.  These originated from people taking 4.25″ x 5.5″ cards and cutting off a 1.25″ strip to make a 4.25″ square card.  Anyway, the challenge was to create a Christmas themed Scrap-ling.  I chose to keep the color scheme really simple, and use Liquid Applique as the only embellishment. I had to break up the sentiment so it would fit better, and the Stamp-a-ma-jig made realigning it really easy.

Stamps: Holiday Lane (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Kraft (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Close to Cocoa (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: Liquid Applique, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Posted by PH in VA at 12:15 am Lizzie Anne Designs, Splitcoast challenges

Happy holidays, everyone!

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Dec 242008

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, the solstice, Kwanzaa, or something else, I hope you have a very wonderful holiday season filled with all the things that make you happy.

If you’re in a creative mood, you should check out the Splitcoaststampers Holiday Challenge Extravaganza. A new challenge is being posted every day from December 20 through January 3.  So have some fun and get those creative juices flowing!

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I combined the first two Holiday Challenges for this gift card holder.  I scored a piece of 4.25″ x 11″ cardstock along the 11″ side at 4.25″ and 9″, which allowed me to fold the cardstock into a 4.25″ square card with a 2″ deep pocket inside to hold the gift card.  You know how when you use dimensional adhesive, there’s usually a thin border strip of adhesive left over from the way they are cut and packaged? I used a thin strip of that to adhere the pocket, to accommodate the thickness of the gift card.

I hope my niece likes this as much as we love her! 

Stamps: Riveting (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Blue Bayou textured, Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, Spring Showers designer paper (Stampin’ Up!); Jack Frost (Basic Grey)
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Other: sponge, Cuttlebug “Harmony” alphabet for scalloped circle, corner rounder punch (for straight scalloped border), Soft Sky ribbon, pearl brad, 1/2″ circle punch

Posted by PH in VA at 4:15 pm Basic Grey, Other projects, Splitcoast challenges, Stampin' Up!

Another week gone by...

Comments Off on Another week gone by…
Dec 202008

It’s been really busy around here.  In the past week I’ve managed to make and mail about 55 Christmas cards, send about 20 more cards, do some Christmas shopping and wrap some presents, attend my older son’s band concert, attend my younger son’s choir concert, deal with dental and haircut appointments, set up the Christmas tree (but it still needs to be decorated – I’m planning to do that tomorrow), and put out the Nativity set… all along with the usual everyday stuff.

As a result, the only stamping I’ve done this week is Christmas cards, which are identical to (except for the sentiment) or a close one-layer adaptation of the tree card I posted last month.  So I decided for this post I’d share a card I made a while ago that remains one of my all-time favorite cards.  The sentiment on it, “Each day provides its own gifts”, makes me stop and remember that often the little things in life are the some of the most special gifts I can receive – such as a compliment from a friend, or when my kids want to snuggle up with me, or when my husband offers to do the dishes that need to be handwashed.

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Stamps: Artfully Asian (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Purely Pomegranate, Always Artichoke, River Rock (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Always Artichoke (Stampin’ Up!)
Other:  Rose Red and Mellow Moss markers, Purely Pomegranate ribbon, corner rounder punch (Stampin’ Up!)

butterfly_blog_award.pngSpeaking of compliments… my sweet friend Taylor at Musings of an Addict awarded me the Butterfly blog award.  Isn’t it pretty?  Taylor is one of the most talented stampers I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, and I’m very flattered that she thought I was worthy of this.

Now, there are rules that come along with this, and I’m not very good with rules.  (heh heh)  I’m supposed to pass this along to 10 other bloggers.  Instead, I’m going to keep this simple.  If you’re listed in my blogroll, consider yourself being given this award.  I think all of you are fantastic stampers and definitely worthy of this award.

The card I posted, plus the mention of my friend Taylor, lead me to the last thing I want to say tonight.  Splitcoaststampers is offering additional cardmaking challenges now through January 3, and Taylor asked me if I’d be willing to host one.  Of course, I was both honored and delighted to do so.  So, look for tonight’s card to be featured in a challenge on Sunday, December 21.

Posted by PH in VA at 10:03 pm Cards, Stampin' Up!

Hey... it's Saturday already!

5 Responses »
Dec 132008

It seems like this week really flew by.  I’ve been trying, not too successfully yet, to get my Christmas cards made.  I’m hoping to get at least most of them finished up this weekend so they can be mailed on Monday. 

So, why aren’t the Christmas cards done already?  Because I am too easily distracted, apparently.  Between chatting with my friends on Splitcoast, and having a couple birthdays sneak up on me, and the other stuff in daily life that keeps me busy, I haven’t done much work on them this week.

I must confess that one of the things that sidetracked me was this week’s Ways to Use It challenge at Splitcoaststampers.  The challenge was to use only half of an image or embellishment in your creation.  I got a little carried away with the number of images I used, LOL, and I realize they aren’t all exactly half.  But this is how I interpreted the challenge.

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Stamps: Wild Rose, Sincere Salutations (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Cameo Coral, Blush Blossom (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Cameo Coral, Blush Blossom (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: sponge, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Posted by PH in VA at 12:45 am Cards, Splitcoast challenges, Stampin' Up!

Never a good time...

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Dec 082008

It seems like there’s never really a “good time” to send a sympathy card.  KWIM? 

I’ve mentioned before that I make and send cards to the faculty and staff of my son’s elementary school on behalf of the PTA Executive Board.  Today I had to mail a card to a teacher whose mother recently passed away. 

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For some reason, I often use purple when I make a sympathy card.  It seems soothing to me, I guess.  Today I decided to use one of my Hero Arts floral stamps that hasn’t seen ink in a long time.  I spritzed the stamp with water from a spray bottle after I inked it. It’s probably hard to see, but the card base is stamped with the Stampin’ Up! Linen background stamp.  I reached back into the Splitcoaststampers Challenge archives and used Sketch Challenge #50 for the layout.

The details:
Stamps: A Real Candytuft (Hero Arts); Linen background and Always In My Thoughts (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac, Whisper White, Almost Amethyst Prints designer paper (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac, Barely Banana, and Garden Green markers (Stampin’ Up!); spray bottle of water

Posted by PH in VA at 5:45 pm Cards, Hero Arts, Splitcoast challenges, Stampin' Up!

Blush

4 Responses »
Dec 062008

Yes, that’s the name of one of the really cool Basic Grey paper collections that I like a whole lot.  But it’s also what I’ve been doing since my friend Joyclynn at paper… scissors… ROCK! nominated me for the Kreativ Blogger award.  Thank you, J!  I’m very flattered.

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The “official rules” of the award are:

1. put the logo on your blog (if you choose)
2. put a link to the person that sent you the award
3. nominate 5 blogs
4. put links to their blogs
5. leave messages for your nominees

I’ll be honest.  I know some of my friends who have been blogging for a while have already received some blogger awards, but I’m not sure whether or not it was this one.  So, if you’re listed in my blogroll, please consider yourself one of my nominees.  I love all of you and your work!

I do want to give special attention to two of my blogroll peeps.  They both started blogging about the same time I did.  Nadine at Stampin’ in a Tropical Paradise does a fabulous job of coloring images, whether she’s using her Prismacolor pencils with odorless mineral spirits or her Copic markers.  Lois at My Stampin’ Place is just an all-around terrific crafter and I wish I had her talent for tying bows.  I am lucky enough to have received cards from both of these women, so I can base my opinions of their actual work and not just photographs.  They both are awesome!

Be sure to check out Joyclynn’s blog, too.  She has some really cute cards on there!

Posted by PH in VA at 12:30 pm Miscellaneous

No more single digit midgits...

5 Responses »
Dec 012008

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

I’m feeling some bittersweet emotions today.  My younger son… my “baby”… turns 10 years old today.  It’s so much fun watching him grow and mature, but at the same time, I miss some of the cute little things he used to do when he was younger.  Sigh.

Here’s his birthday card.  I used the layout from the Splitcoaststampers World Cardmaking Day 2008 sketch challenge.  The sentiment sums up my son’s always-active, on-the-go personality:  “Born to be wild!”  I hope he continues to have that zest for life as he grows. 

mnh-2008.jpg 

Stamps: Born to be Wild (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Really Rust, Marigold Morning, Very Vanilla, Fall Flowers designer series paper (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Going Gray, Marigold Morning (Stampin’ Up!); VersaFine Onyx Black
Other: Really Rust marker (Stampin’ Up!); Stamp-a-ma-jig

Posted by PH in VA at 3:15 pm Cards, Lizzie Anne Designs, Splitcoast challenges
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