2010 New Year Dragons

I made some New Year cards this year, something I have never done before. I had this adorable dragon digital image from Dustin Pike and without adjustments, he will be obsolete in a few days. This was a free image that Dustin released on his blog a few weeks ago. He typically releases one free digital image each week and has other images you can buy singly or in sets. This is a great example of his style which I think is just adorable!

I used an old sketch challenge from Splitcoaststampers, number 158 to be exact. The front of the card is shorter than the back and the image panel is dropped down to make up the difference. This layout really forces you do decorate the inside of your card, something I have struggled with for years!

The images were colored with Copic markers with some glitter added to some parts. The glittery papers are from a neglected stack called All Dressed Up from DCWV. I used a computer-generated sentiment on the inside above the dp panel. It simply says "Happy New Year."

I am off to work on my stamp room this morning. Tricia is hosting a stamp/scrap yard sale down at Priceless on the 23rd of January. I have lots of "stuff" that needs to find a better home...just have to sort it out.....

Love Birds

When I saw the new Basic Gray Origins papers hanging in Priceless, I knew I had to have them! What a breath of fresh air from all the Christmas papers I had been looking at. The new Bo Bunny papers and accessories were hanging on the next rack over and the cute love bird stamps were just too adorable to resist. I could just picture paired up with the BG papers! Here is the result.

The papers are mounted on a Garden Green (SU) base. I used a Fiskars corner punch with triple hearts on the brown layer. The SU Top Note die was used for the white layer. The birds were stamped on white card stock with Sepia Versafine ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I added color using just a cople of Copic markers and cut them out. They are popped up on dimensionals and perched on a strip of green paper from the Origins pad. The yellow flowers were punched out and layered with chocolate (from the scrap pile...non SU). I stamped out the words Love Birds and shaded them with the palest green Copic makes and then cut out using random borders and mounted on Garden Green.

Kenny and I have an anniversary coming up in January. Wow! Twenty years!! I'm afraid to ask him if he'd marry me again after twenty years. Some days I'm not sure I'd get the answer I want. I have to admit that the schooling years and new job stress have caused me to be just a little bit crabby some days.

I think I will use this as his anniversary card. I still need to come up with a birthday card for him. His birthday is two days before Valentine's Day....geez....another card! At least I get to keep them in my stash if they are really good cards!

Well, I'm off for a day of play at Priceless. Got a few goodies when I went yesterday for the after Christmas sale, but my favorite thing was a double sided lace jumbo border punch by Martha Stewart!! Thanks for stopping in!!!

Ribbon Wreath

 Last night, I was checking out the gallery for the featured stamper challenge over at splitcoaststampers and I came across this lovely card by suen. I loved the ribbon wreath she had made for the card and was thrilled to see she had included the link for the video tutorial with her post. I immediately ran to the stamp room and grabbed a bobbin of ribbon and made one.....sooooooo easy!!

This morning I used my wreath on this card which is made from scraps of at least two sets of Basic Gray Christmas papers from years past. Also used some Chocolate Chip and River Rock card stock that was with these scraps. I think I had made star books are some other such project with this stack of scraps. Added lots of little blingies to it....you know how I like that bling The sketch I used was spotted on one of the blogs I read. It's from Skipping Stones Sketch Tuesday. It wasn't on the Skipping Stones blog, so I'm not even sure this is a current sketch for them, but here is the sketch I used.

 

The card measures 5 1/4" square. The wreath takes approximately two yards of ribbon to make. I used a 1/4" satin ribbon I found at Target in the wedding and party department. Well, I'm off to see what I can pick up at Priceless. Tricia is having her after Christmas sale today! If you are in the area, you should stop by and don't forget you pink Priceless bag because you get an additional 20% off of the discounted Christmas merchandise! Awesome deal!!

 

Snowy Ornaments

I first saw these ornaments a few years ago on Splitcoaststampers and wanted to make them as the annual ornament for the kids and grandkids. I finally got around to getting the supplies to make them a couple of years ago right after Christmas. Then the supplies sat in the closet until the following summer when I dug them out and made them up. I knew they weren't completed and so they did not get used last year. Over this past summer, I must have gotten them out and added the faces (rub-ons) that had been in my stash for longer than the other supplies. I ran across them the other day while looking for a piece of ribbon to make up into a giant bow for one of Kyli's big gifts from Santa. When I pulled them out to finish them off, I was surprised to see that I had already done them. Maybe I didn't...maybe it was an elf or something that found them and put on the finishing touches? Anyway, some of them actually got passed out yesterday during our Christmas celebration. Had to keep one for myself, too!
Now, what to make for next year's ornaments? Maybe I should dig out those nearly completed counted cross stitch snowman ornaments that I haven't touched in about five years? I think I'll worry about that a little later. For today, I plan to spend some time in my neglected stamp room! Happy stamping!

Had to come back and add a couple of details after reading Anne's comment below! The hats are made from infant socks. the top of the sock is glued to the ball and the toes are cut into strips and then tied with cord and ribbon to make the pom pom part. The cord for hanging is added to the hanger of the bulb before closing the "toe' of the sock with ribbon. Thanks for leaving such a sweet comment, Anne! I haven't been blogging all that long, so I'm not surprised I'm still a little incognito! Hugs, Lynnor

Merry Christmas To All!!

Wanted to wish everyone a merry Christmas! We had some of the family over for Christmas Eve. We enjoyed a simple dinner and then rode out to the Cade's (second trip for me and Kenny this year) so the some of the family who had never seen the fabulous light display could check it out. They were not disappointed!
The cards above are the gift card holders I made to be used for the kids this year. I usually get the teenagers gift cards to their favorite stores. The design for these cards was published in an issue of CardMaker magazine that I saw back in September at Scrap Pink. For mine, I used Basic Gray's Eskimo Kisses 6 x 6 pad The stamped images are by Stampin' Up!, though I don't recall which set at the moment and my stamp room has been a declared a disaster area and not fit for human habitation. I hope to take care of that situation this weekend!
I hope each of you has a joyous Christmas! I am certainly enjoying mine so far. Will have a house full again tomorrow for dinner! I'm really looking forward to it! Merry Christmas and good night!

Cute Kitty with Santa Hat and a night of lights...

I've had quite a busy and enjoyable weekend so far. It started with a Christmas party at Priceless Scrapbooks. We had a crop and covered dish dinner. The excellent company made up for my lack of productivity at the crafting table. This was the only card I made all evening and it took almost four hours to do. That's pretty sad considering the image was already colored from Thursday evening!

This cute little kitty is a Penny Black image that actually has the kitties all on one stamp. I just punched out portions of each kitty as he investigates the Santa hat he finds. The snowflakes are punched from another sheet of the same SEI papers that I used for the background. Not much more to tell about the card....it measure 5 1/4 " square.

Finally got my Christmas tree up Saturday morning. I usually do it the day after Thanksgiving, but as I was not feeling well, it didn't get done and didn't find another day to do it until yesterday. I'm so glad it's up....tuned out really pretty!

After I got the tree up, Kenny and I went to pick up Kyli. We wanted to take her to see the lights out at the Cade's in Orange Springs. This couple has been putting up their light display for at least 14 years and it's just gorgeous!

Unlike most light displays, these people ask you to park your car and invite you to walk all throught the property to enjoy the lights! Kyli loved it!! We actually had to walk back through a second time because as we started to head for the car, she livened up and wanted to see it again. So glad we did, or we would have missed the fish swimming in the fountain!! 

Kyli loves these antlers. For those of you who have seen my avatar over at Splitcoaststampers, you may recognize them as being the ones that Ice is wearing. I don't think Ice is going to get to wear them anymore. Kyli wore them all evening....poor PaPa kept getting bopped in the face when he was carrying Kyli through the lights!

The Cade's have lit up the dock out on the lake. You can walk out there and enjoy the lights from one of the benches they have sitting along the way. If you live anywhere nearby, you should definitely make plans to ride out and see this place. We go nearly every year and there is something new every time we go. The pictures I have posted here don't show half of what there is to see!

If you are still with me, thanks for reading my ramblings. I hope you have a great day and get to do something really creative!! I plan to!!

Life is a journey....

I'd really like to get back to the place where it didn't take me three days to complete a card! Hopefully I will get lots of creating done today at the all day crop down at Priceless! There is so much going on in town today....the big game....GO GATORS!!!, the Christmas parade just a few blocks from where I will be, and some other things that I won't be doing because I'll be stamping! That's kinda nice that it won't be a bunch of other things instead of stamping, for a change. You can bet that Gator game will be on at the crop though....hehehehe!!

Poor little Kyli was at the Children's Express yesterday with a 104 temp. They said it's a throat infection, gave Mommy and Daddy some scripts and got her temp down. She was lookin' pretty good again by the time we left there. I got the message about her going to the ER as I was leaving work yesterday and just went straight into town.

Anyway, enough of my rambling....I used some Halloween paper to make this card. Saw it at Priceless and it just screamed to be used with the Road Hawg set from Totally Stampalicious. They have a sketch challenge going on over there this week and I got this done with very little time to spare! It still didn't turn out like I pictured it in my head, but I guess my cards rarely do. I used a Close To My Heart set to add the zipper along the border. Glitter gel pen made all the chrome parts of the bike shimmer and a little Crystal Effects gave his paint job a lacquered look. Of course, I had to pull out the Diamond Plate embossing folder!! I am considering adding a sentiment to the bottom of the card, but haven't made up my mind which one I want to use yet. I think I will wait until I actually send the card to in order to make it appropriate.

Sue and I were talking about this card yesterday during homeroom. We kept coming up with more ideas for future cards made with this set, zippers, and leather. The kids probably all think we are crazy because we get all excited about making things out of paper! That's okay...they don't know that being a little crazy is one of the job requirements of being an ESE teacher!!

If you made it this far, thanks for hanging in with all my blah, blah, blah....

Have a great day.... I hope you get to lots of creating!!

Holly Fairy

I am so proud of myself for actually using some of this gorgeous snowflake ribbon I found at Priceless Scrapbooks. It is from May Arts. I only bought a yard, but I think I'm going to get some more when I go in this weekend. The image on this card is a digital image from one of my favorite digital image artists, Mo Manning. The snow globe the fairy is holding has some glitter added to it and then I added some Crystal Effects to make it look like glass. Of course, I added glitter to everything else in sight, too. Love that about making Christmas cards....glitter always works!! Colored my image with Copic markers. I'm starting to acquire more colors and it is a little easier to get some shading on my images, though I still have a long way to go before I could compare to some of the other wonderful artists in the blog world.

Stamps: Digital image by Mo Manning

Paper: GP white, Lovely Lilac, Wild Wasabi

Accessories: Computer, printer, Copic markers, glitter, Crystal Effects, brads, May Arts snowflake ribbon and green apple ribbon, border punch by Martha Stewart, embossing folder for background texture.