What's Up With You?

Hi Everyone,

The design team from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff is taking the week off, but the store is always open. So, if you

 are feeling crafty, pop by and check out what's new and know that we will be back with lots of projects next week.

In the mean time, here's what's been happening with me. 

The night before my birthday last week, we went to see the Black Swan.  It was one of those psychological kind of thrillers, with a little bit of gore and smut thrown in.  It got OK reviews, so we thought we would take a gamble.  I give it a B-.  It kept my attention, the acting was good, not sure if the end really pays off for me...

.

  Then the hubby took me for dinner after at Pizzaria Cerino.  The hand tossed Primo Pesto pizza is to die for :) 

 

Yesterday there was a water main break near where the hubby works, and their building had no water.  So, closing down early meant we could go see the movie we really wanted to see last week, but wasn't out yet.

The King's Speech is getting rave reviews for good reason, it's pitch perfect in every respect.  Know that this movie is all talk, (with British accents) and no special effects (3-D glasses not required) and it rocks!  And Colin Firth is a bit of a dish, so that helps ;)  Maybe he will win the Oscar that I thought he should have won last year for his role in A Single Man.

See. It. Now.

My book club resumes back up in January.  God Never Blinks is our pick.  It's by a columnist who writes for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and it's basically a collection of her columns about life and observations.  Uplifting and heartfelt, it's one of those books that make an ideal gift.  Think graduation/ hostess gift.   

Here are a couple of my favorite gifts from this year.  Neither are lavish, but that is not what makes a gift great.

A Charlie Brown Tree complete with Linus's blanket and ornament.

And my very own Olivia!  Isn't she perfect?  She's one of my personal heroes in life.  Spunky, artistic, funny, loves to sing (even tho she's bad at it) is a fashionista and dreams big dreams for herself...I love to buy the Olivia books as gifts, and yes, I own them all myself :)

I have made her patron saint of my craft space.

We have officially decided to do what we did the last 2 years for New Year's Eve.  Stay in.  I got the Surf (lobster) and the Turf (beef tenderloin), so we will be eating well.  The question is, what movie to watch.

That's what is happening here, what's going on with you?

Get Well Soon

Hi Everyone!

Here is a simple Z Fold get well card I made late in the summer.  I never posted it back then, so I thought I would show it off now that we are all so over the whole Christmas holiday card thing.  I'm ready for anything new at this point :)  Bring on Valentine's Day...lol.

I made this for my stash of cards using the following stamps from DRS Designs:

Open Plaid

Silhouette Branch Background

Get Well Soon

Brush Cattails

Her is just a shot of it slightly opened up. The image was colored with Copic markers.

I like that it is gender neutral and can be used anytime of year.  Thanks for dropping in and sorry it's short and sweet from me.  I think I'm still trying to recover from the holiday weekend :)

Challenges this card is linked to are as follows:

Woodware USA-Anything Goes

Stamps R Us-Anything Goes

Aly's Sunday Challenge-Anything Goes

All Sorts-Anything Goes

Craft Your Days Away-Punches or Die Cuts

Crafty Emma-Anything Goes

Crafty Ann's-Anything Goes

Crafty Sentiments-Anything Goes

Mad for Markers-Anything Goes

Sugar Sweet Paper Treats-Anything Goes

Details not listed above-Paper: The Paper Company, Ink & Chalk: Stampin' Up, Markers: Copic, Nesties

Top Ten Blog Hop

Hi Everyone!

Today Suzi, aka Mrs. Weyremaster, the first BlueTorchbearer from Amber Ink, is hosting a fun blog hop. We are showcasing our Top Ten cards from the past year.  Isn't that fun idea?  Although, looking back at some of my creations has been a bit painful...lol.

If you want to join in the fun, just go here for all of the participants and to link up your own picks!

This was harder than I thought it would be.  I have been fortunate to design for some great companies this past year, and I ended up with an original list of of 19 favorites.  Sadly, nine cards had to go in order to participate :(

Here are my picks in no particular order:

1.

Image by Lindsay's Stamp Stuff.

2.

Stamps by DRS Designs

3.

Laundry Image by I Brake For Digis

4.

Images from Amber Ink

5.

Stamps by Scrolls Work

6.

Images and iPaper by Amber Ink

7.

Image by Lindsay's Stamp Stuff

8.

Image by Amber Ink

9.

Image by Lindsay's Stamp Stuff

10.

Stamps and iPaper by Amber Ink.

How I wish I could have added a few more...Thank you so much for hosting this Suzi.  What a blast it was to go back though the year!  I'm looking forward to everything that 2011 will hold and I hope you are too.

You Rock!

Hi Everyone!

Have you recovered from this past weekend?  Are you now making plans for New Year's Eve?  We are still on the fence as to what we are doing. We are in a bit of a rut, as far as marking the last day of the year. I love to stay home and watch movies, but we have done that the past 2 years :) 

My card today uses one of the" toad-ally" cute Freddie the Frog images from I Brake For Digis.  I set out to make this into a guy card, but with the colors, ribbon and scallops it ain't happenin'. I do love how cute it is though, I guess I will just have to give it to a female ;) 

I pulled out my hand held sewing whatchamacallit and did some messy stitching around the edges of my card to add some texture.  Freddie is colored with Copics and the buttons are a Martha Stewart punch.  (Easier for mailing)

Be sure to hop on over to the I Brake For Digis store and grab yourself some Freddie Frogs, and to save some cash, use code SAVE10KARIN and you will receive 10% off your purchase price.

Have a great day!

Details not listed above are as follows-Paper:The Paper Comapany, Unknown source, Nesties and ribbon from my supplies.

Christmas Cardinal

Merry Christmas!

 

I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating with family and friends!

Image courtsey of Lindsay's Stamp Stuff

Entered in the Christams challenge at My Grafico.

More Holiday Tags

Hi Everyone!

I'm back this week with some more tags.  I apologize to Lindsay and my Lindsay's Stamp Stuff  design teammates for totally messing up last week.  Everyone did the fun packaging post, and I was off a week and posted some tags.  Well, that just means more tags for you this week.

This first tag is on my jar of homemade cocoa.  I used the cocoa packet image from the set Warm Winter along with a piece digi paper from the Shabby Houndstooth Paper Pack on the tag here:

And yes, my favorite go to round label for the top :)

Here is a peek at both of the sets:

These next tags are crazy simple.  I like to have a small treat at every one's place at the dinner table, and I'm super low on time this year.  So I used a label from my favorite LSS Vintage Christmas Labels set.

I printed it out in red and then used the largest Nestie to cut it out.  It left a nice wide border around the image, so I didn't have to layer it on another piece of paper.  Then I added the HO HO HO to the center.  This was printed out separately and added on after I used a circle punch to cut it out.  A slit on the top and bottom to fit the candy can through and I was done.

Her is is at my place setting.

A wider shot of my Christmas table.

And a closer shot of the lovely arrangement that was a gift from my Aunt Inge this year.

Thanks for visiting today and be sure to see what tags Lindsay and the rest of the team have to show you this week.

Lindsay (Owner and Designer)

Cheryl (DT Coordinator)

Diane

Leanne

Micki

Jennifer

Tamara

Rhonda

Cindi

Margie

Shannon

Tracey

Laurel

Challenges these projects are linked to:

My Grafico-Christmas

Simplify Christmas

Hi Everyone!

I love the sentiment on my cards today, and keeping with the simple theme, my cards are simple. 

 These were made with stamps from DRS Designs.  Simplify Christmas is from the new releases this month, and 4 in 1 Snowflake background is such a fantastic all around winter themed stamp.  I made the red one first, thinking of a poinsettia flower when I made it.  It was so quick, I went ahead and made another one using the opposite colors. 

Thanks for visiting today and I hope you have a wonderful time celebrating the Christmas holiday this week!

Details not listed above-Paper: Georgia Pacific white, Ink: Stampin Up and unknown source, Punches: EK Success, gems from my supplies.

My Tinsel is in a Tangle

Hi Everyone!

It's Tuesday and I have a post today at the DRS Designs blog using one of their funny Christmas stamps!

See you over at the DRS Designs blog!

Just Hangin Around

Happy Monday!

I thought I would take a quick brake from the holiday cards and show off a card made with this cute Laundry digi stamp from I Brake for Digis.

I colored it with Copic markers to match this sweet girly paper I had in my stash.  The flowers were pre made stickers that I've had forever (no clue where they came from) so a big HOO-RAY for using up some of my much accumulated stuff ;)

Here is a close up of the mini clothes pin I added to the sentiment which is on a pop dot.

When shopping at I Brake for Digis be sure to use code SAVE10KARIN and you will save 10% on your entire purchase!

Thanks for visiting today!

Details not listed above- Paper: The Paper Company, K&Company, Ink:Versafine, Stamps: Stampendous, Nesties, Punches: EK Success, ribbon and gems from my supplies.

Bits and pieces from my life and a couple of projects too

Hi Everyone,

How are you doing?  I hope you are feeling less behind in everything this holiday season than I am.  Whenever I think I'm almost done with some project, I realize I need to make just a couple more and before you know it, two hours have gone by.  I swear my little craft corner is a black hole.  Time disappears when I'm sitting there, I have lost chunks of my life in that spot. 

My luncheon that I planned for my Bible study friends got postponed due to the blizzard conditions we had this past week, so now we are going to get together after the holidays in January.  That's fine, but my favors have a Christmas theme.  Oh well.  I made these holders for those little anti bacterial gels from Bath and Body works, and I got the idea from my LSS teammate Tamara.

See...

Sorry this next photo is crap.

I showed off my trees last year in this post, and this post and this post.  And this year when I mentioned my trees, a few people mentioned wanting to see them again, so here are some photos.

I can't believe I'm showing you my out of date mauve carpet. I'm so used to ignoring it, that I hardly even notice it.  We so need a makeover.  If anyone wants to nominate me for one of those TV shows, go right ahead.  My room would be perfect for those designers to sink their decorating genius into.  I don't have a sad human interest story to go along with it though.  Well, maybe just posting a photo for the world to see will be enough to shame me into forcing the redo.

The star fish is from the Cayman Islands and the pretty pine cone cluster is a gift from my Aunt Inge.  My favorite is the popcorn garland. I love this one home spun element on a mostly formal tree. 

This ornament was given to my mom from her sister, my Aunt Erika.  Both are now passed away, so it is that much more special to me.  I like that it matches the popcorn garland....Looking at it now, I can picture a Christmas card with gold embossed trees and little red birds.  Hhmmm, an idea for stamping...lol.

These next ornaments are from the tree in my family room. It's fake, so it pretty much looks like it did last year, so here are just the ornaments.

This one I made a few years back. Cross stitch is cute, but it takes too long.

I usually buy an ornament when we go on vacation as our souvenir.  I like the memories they invoke every year when I unwrap them and hang them on the tree.  This is the one I got from our cruise this past September.  Unfortunately I was sick as a dog this day, and I remember being in the gift shop just grabbing anything I saw for the people I hadn't purchased anything for yet. Hopefully as time goes by, this isn't the first thing I think of when I see this ornament. lol

This is my Alaskan Spirit Frog from our trip there.  It's not really an ornament, but it was actually carved in Alaska (Not China!) and the tag says something about it being good luck.  It's right at home with the rest of my weird ornaments.



My blogging friend Karin ( Another Karin with an i,  who is originally from Germany) posted a picture of her Chimney sweep ornament, so I thought I would post mine.  They are a lucky symbol for the new year in Germany. 

And last I thought I would show off my German wooden Nativity carousel, just because it's a unique item . The heat from the candles makes the windmill up top spin and the center part then turns.

Wow, if you have made it this far congrats, I was beginning to bore even myself.  I guess if you made it to the end, I should reward you with another crafy tidbit. 

I made 3 of these cards for my personal use.  It's a Z Fold card and it uses an image from the You're the Perfect Package set of digi stamps from Amber Ink. 


Don't you just love that little present?  It really is perfect :)

Here it is opened up.

This fancy schmancy fold is super simple.  After you have made you regular A2 card, just fold the front part of the card in half and decorate :)

Well, I hope your Christmas and New Year holidays are shaping up to be good ones...Thanks for dropping by the blog today.  If I haven't mentioned it lately, I really do appreciate you. 

Music Saves My Soul Saturday

Happy Saturday Everyone!

I'm linking up again this week at Marcea's Blog for a fun, Saturday Linky Party...Choose a song and play along with us.

My pick this week is Madeleine Peyroux doing a cover of a Leonard Cohen song called Dance Me to the End of Love.  I can never find a decent video to post for you, so this is concert footage from a couple of years ago.

Love her version of this song. The blues-y, quirky quality of her voice suits it so well...

Hope you enjoy!

Christmas Cards

Hi Everyone!

Crazy, short and sweet blog post from me today. I'm scrambling to get last minute stuff done, and I'm sure you can relate ;)

These two cards showcase the beautiful sentiments and background stamps that DRS Designs offers in their catalog.

The stamps used here are:

Holly Background

Blessed Christmas

The stamps used here are:

Joys of Christmas

4 in 1 Snowflakes

Large Filigree Snowflake

Thanks for taking time out of your holiday preparations to drop by today...And if you want more holiday stamping ideas, stop by the DRS Designs blog . We have a new post there everyday!  

Details not listed above- Paper: The Paper Company, Ink: Stampin' Up, Twine: Martha Stewart, Punches: Martha Stewart, EK Success, Dies: Nesties, PTI

Christmas Tags

Hi Everyone!

There is a big sale going on for the next couple of days at Lindsay's Stamp Stuff. Everything is 25% off just in time for getting your last minute Christmas projects done!

My project for today are some easy decorated tags for Christmas made with some of Lindsay's Stamp Stuff.  They were made using scraps from my craft table.  Seriously, no new stuff, just bits I had on my craft table. I had no choice, this is what my little craft area has looked like for more than a week.  Since I love you all, I will bare my ugly crafting soul before you.

Humiliating and shameful, but proof positive that you can make the cute tags below even if your space looks like this too.

I used bits of green polka dot paper from this set named Homemade Holiday Paper Pack.

And the Joy tag image from my go to Lindsay's Stamp Stuff set this Christmas, Vintage Christmas Labels.

Cute, eh?

The felt poinsettias I used came in a six pack from the store, so they were a pre-made item ;)  You can always say you made them, but I always own up to what I buy.  As I like to say, "There is no shame in knowing where to shop."

I know I don't have to say that I love little round labels. They are constantly on my projects because the are so user friendly! The best thing about these is the digital aspect, because they can be sized to fit your specific punch.  No one will know how simple they are and you will get all the compliments.

Please visit Lindsay and the rest of the design team for more holiday projects and a freebie too!

Lindsay (Owner & Designer)

Cheryl (DT Coordinator)

Diane

Micki

Leanne

Laurel

Margie

Jennifer

Rhonda

Tamara

Shannon

Tracey

Cindi

Thanks for visiting me and if you live in the north, stay warm. If you don't, keep it to yourself.  I'm jealous enough :)

Challenges this project is linked to are as follows:

My Grafico-Christmas

Creative Card Crew-Anything Goes

Easy Craft Projects-Christmas

For Fun Challenges-Christmas

Scrap Creations-Make a Tag

Lollipop Crafts-Christmas Tag

One Stitch at a Time-Anything Goes

Pear Tree Designs-Christmas

Penny's Paper Crafts-Merry Christmas

Pile it On-Wrappings and Tags

Stamp with Fun-Christmas

Stampotique-Punches and Die cuts

Sugar Sweet Paper Treats-Anything Goes

Tiffany Doodles-Christmas

Details not listed above-Paper: The Paper Company, Paper Pizzaz, Felt Flowers: KI Memories, Punch: Martha Stewart, Ribbon from my supplies, Ink: Tim Holtz