Just Christmas Cards and a Bit of Rambling

Hey Friends!  So much for my blogging regularly.  It's been 3 weeks since I last posted.  Time sure do fly quickly.  Still busy with my classes.  It's been difficult to jump back into the studying mode and working on assignments, projects and papers.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get a handle on dividing my time.

I have been making cards on days when I don't have projects due.  I wish I was more discipline when it comes to working on my cards but I've managed to make a few.

The card above is literally all Stampin Up products, from the designer papers, rubber stamp and bow.  I wanted to try a different color combo this time around rather than my typically red and green for Christmas cards.

The image is by PSX.  I don't have many of them but interestingly on Ebay, they are considered collector items.  I guess it's because PSX is no longer in business?  Not sure but I'm assuming that.  I colored the image with Copic Markers and used my Prisma Color Pencils to color the background.  I added a lot of glitter to the background although you can't readily tell by the photo. 

I wonder if anyone actually read what I write . . .LOL!  But what's a blog without any writing, right?  If you want to only look or post pictures, you can go to Pinterest to do that.  With this card, I used a House Mouse stamp.  It's another brand that sells for collector prices on Ebay, primarily the wood mounted ones.  The cling on ones you can find in various stores.  I think it may be the ones that are retired that are selling for high prices.  This card size is 6.25 x 4.5"  I like this size better than the A2 size.  I used Stampin Up designer papers again, colored my image with Copic Markers and Prisma Color Pencils.  I only have one spool of baker's twine. . .the red/white  color.  I don't want to buy more of them because I don't use them very often.

The image on this card is by Verve Stamps.  I again used Stampin Up for the designer paper, as well as the ribbon.  I still have a lot of the SU stitched grosgrain ribbon left. I need to use it more often so I can use it up.

I can't remember which brand of stamp I used for this card.  I believe the sentiment is by Inkidinkado.  The ones that you can purchase at Joannes but I don't know about the snowflake.  I believe it's Stampin Up.  Speaking of Stampin Up.  Remember their rhinestone brads and Hodge Podge hardware?  Well I used them on this card.  Do they still sell them?  I haven't looked through a Stampin Up catalog in ages so I have no idea what they still sell.

I think this is the first time I used this rubber stamp.  I didn't even look at the brand.  I was considering selling it but now that I created a card with it, I think I'll use it a few more times.  The designer paper is by Stampin Up as well as the sentiment.  To create the puffy snow, I used liquid applique by heating it up until it puffs up.  You can find them in the fabric section at most craft stores.  Liquid applique is basically fabric paint that puffs up when heated.

Again, this image is by Inkidinkado.  It came from the same set as the sentiment of one of the cards above.  I used Stampin Up designer paper again.  I have a lot lace trimmings that I also need to use up.  I was into the shabby chic/vintage style cards a few years back so I had purchased a bunch of lace for my cards.  Wish I hadn't bought so much of them.. . .LOL!

Off topic. . .but I would love to eat healthier and lose weight with the New Year approaching.  I actually stopped making a list of resolutions because I never followed through on any of them but I think I'll do one for next year.  I was thinking of starting a new blog documenting a few personal things and posting about subjects that I'm interested in other than crafting but ugggh, I can't even keep up with this blog.  Maybe I'll just use this blog to do it.  I had changed my blog name a few years back so I could post other subjects besides crafting but I never followed through on it.  Maybe for the new year, it's something I can work on doing.  Anyway. . .right now it's just a thought.

Hope you all have a wonderful week.  Until next time.

Etsy Shop: Inspired & Unscripted

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The Greeting Farm, Penny Black and Thanksgiving Cards!

Hey there!  It's me again!  I actually made this card a week ago I believe.  I can't remember.  I wanted to share it because of the paper doily in the background.  I bought the doily on Etsy, 50 for about $4.00 and it has gone a long way.  I still have at least 25 left.  There are quite a few shops that sell them on Etsy!  I love using them on my card.  I usually cut them in half and use it as a layer on my cards.  I want to buy other patterns but I can't until I use up the ones I already have.

I've been very conscious about bulk purchases.  I never thought about it much in the past.  This includes food.  It appears to be cheaper to buy bulk.. . . only if you intend to use them otherwise you end up with a whole bunch of stuff you either lose interest in or just that there are too much of it that you can't use them all no matter how hard you try.   

So.  . .I stopped buying bulk all together other than the occasional purchase.  Some people sell their left over craft supplies in order to buy more but it's okay if you are willing to lose a little bit of money for the benefit of being able to buy more of something else.

Today, I just cleaned out my freezer.  Despite my best intentions of eating what I bought, some of them expired before I could eat them.  I've been very careful about not buying too many things at once when I go grocery shopping but I still end up with expired food.  It usually happens because I'm inspired to cook a particular dish or eat a particular food while at the grocery store (usually because I'm hungry at the moment) but when I get home, I end up forgetting about them.  Okay, starting today, I will eat what I buy and buy only what I need for the week.

 Alright enough of my rambling.  The image is by the Greeting Farm and the designer papers are by Stampin Up.

Oh. . . talk about bulk purchase.  Dew drops!  Don't even get me started.  I have enough of them to last a life time.  I kid not!  I bought every color that exist and I use them on my cards like crazy because I have so many of them.  Remember when dew drops were popular?  Well, I don't care if it's no longer the "in" embellishment.  I am going to use them on my cards until I can get my supplies down to the point where I feel like I got my money's worth!

Oh Stickles!  That's another thing!  I have Stickles galore!  I also every color that exist.  I do use them on my cards more often than not but not often enough.  Not every image looks good with glitter so can't use them on every card I make.  But from time to time, it looks good especially on a cupcake image.  Don't you agree?  The image is by Penny Black!  I love their images.  I don't think their images will ever go out of style.  

I decided to use this pumpkin patch image again.  I don't have too many Thanksgiving images so I'm left to use what I have over and over.  I again used the microbeads on the flowers.  Nothing much to say about this card.

Thank you once again for stopping by my blog.  I am getting into the blogging thing again.  Hopefully I can continue blogging regularly.
Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Etsy Shop: Inspired & Unscripted

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Thankful Thanksgiving Card

 Happy Friday Friends!!  Gosh, it's beginning to feel like fall.  I dropped my daughter off at the bus stop this morning and it was 43 degrees.  It's probably colder where you are at but 43 is chilly to me.  I worked on a Thanksgiving card yesterday.  I decided to give it a more shabby chic appearance using lace, crochet flower and a stick pin!

 I came across my Penny Black rubber stamp with the cute mouse and pumpkin and I actually had a different design in mind initially but it evolved into this shabby chic style.  I'm going to be honest with ya'. . .many times my card design is a result of whatever material I have at the top of my pile of craft goodies.  I don't like digging through containers because wow, it can be a big mess so if it's easily accessible, that ends up being the materials I use on my projects.  From time to time, I'll be motivated to look through my things and find something interesting to use.  

 

I had dyed the crochet flower a while back and decided to use.  I also had worked on a few stick pins using opal heart beads and used one of them on my card.  I rubber stamped the  image on to watercolor paper and colored the image with my Copic Markers.

I glued on the Prima flower on to the crochet flower and added lace to the card and that's basically it.  Anyway. . .that's it for today!  I hope you all have a fabulous Friday!!!

Etsy Shop: Inspired & Unscripted

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Thanksgiving card - Give Thanks

Hello Friends!!  I worked on a Thanksgiving card yesterday!  Yay!  My goal is to be more focused on finishing a card or project on a daily basis.  I've been a little ill focused the past few weeks.  It's always at the back of my mind to work and finish something but I can be quite ADHD sometimes.

Just a little detail about this card.  I rubber stamped the image on to watercolor paper and colored it with my Copic Markers.  If you've never used Copics on watercolor paper, I do recommend it!  It seems to blend easier and the funny thing is that you really don't need to be as careful when coloring for some reason.  I colored the image so fast that I was amazed how quickly I was able to finish the card. 

I did work on another card today but I'll share it tomorrow.  I'm going to cut it short. . .I have to run!  Hope you all have a wonderful Thursday!!

Etsy Shop: Inspired & Unscripted

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Thanksgiving Card

Hi there Friends!  Happy Thursday to all of you!  Do you realize that the holidays are fast approaching.  I've been trying to focus on holiday cards and I'm sort of skipping Halloween.  My daughter has grown and now in college so I really don't have the great need to create treat bags and projects any more.  I could give them out to the neighborhood kids on Halloween but I know very well that kids will tear up the fancy bags and boxes and not even look at them.  What is important to them are the treats and not necessarily the container that holds the treats.  Furthermore, not many people send out Halloween cards so I decided this year, I'll concentrate less on Halloween items and move ahead to adult themed Thanksgiving cards.

 I decided to use the same image as the card I used a few days back.  I water colored a few of them on watercolor paper, sort of assembly style, so don't be surprised to see more cards using the same image.

 I added a satin ribbon, the Prima flowers and a die cut leaves to embellish the card.

I created the sentiment on my computer rather than rubber stamping it.   My rubber stamps are so unorganized right now and for me to look for a sentiment to fit my card only results in my turning my room upside down so I decided to save myself from having to clean up my craft room after I've torn it up,  I thought printing the sentiment was an smarter alternative.  I really do need to re-organize my room again.  Each year I will organize it and towards the end of the year, nothing is where they belong and I spend half my time looking for something.  I need to be smarter and put things back where they belong so I don't have to re-organize my room so often.  Just to let you know, I don't know the brand of the rubber stamp.  I had unmounted the stamp from its wood mount a while ago and I no longer can remember who made it.  The designer paper is by Me & My Big Ideas and the card stock by Stampin Up.

Anyway. . .that's it for today.  I'll work on more Thanksgiving card today and maybe do a Christmas card as well.  Hope you all have a wonderful Thursday!

Etsy Shop: Inspired & Unscripted

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Give Thanks - Unity Stamps September KOM and Halloween Stuff

Hello My Friends!! It's November. . .Yipee! It's a month of gratitude, did you know that? Well, it is!! It's a month when we look at our lives and find gratitude in what is. . .there are so many things to be grateful for. . .for one thing, just being alive is a reason to be grateful. LOL!

I'll work on my "Reflections Album/Journal" today. . .I think I'm going to focus on creating "gratitude" layouts this month. I'll post it later when I'm done.

I worked on this card yesterday. The images are from the Unity Stamps September KOM. I finally found time to actually use my Unity stamps. I've been terrible with stamping for the past months. . .I call it burn out. I've reflected and reassessed my life and wonder what direction I should head for the upcoming year. Change is difficult sometimes but well, it's inevitable. . .it happens and we do have to accept it when it does happen. I'll figure it out before the new year starts.

How the heck did my finally using my Unity Stamps turned into a discussion of change! LOL! It's funny. . .that's how my brain works apparently. Only "I" can understand it most times. Actually, when I talk about change. . .it's about my blog and stamping, card making, and paper crafting. . .because I finally used my stamps which I haven't used since buying them, it made me think about what I want to do in the next coming months or year. It made me think about how to make blogging feel new and exciting again and what I should do about it. I've been blogging for close to 4 years and basically, been doing the same thing day in and day out and maybe I need to do something different with it. I don't know. . .I'm still mulling over it. . .:) I'll figure it out!

All I did with my card is stamp the images on card stock and cut the leaves out and layered them. There really isn't much to talk about. . .other than the stamping, I added lace and epoxy sticker to dress the card up a little. That's about it

Photos of the Day

Before I go, I wanted to share a few Halloween pictures from yesterday! Did you all have a wonderful Halloween? Well, we did. . .unfortunately, there weren't too many trick or treaters last night and now I have a ton of left over candies.

I did decorate our house a little bit. . .not too much. . .just enough to be festive

I like this "Boo" sign because it lights up at night

My daughter at the very last minute decided to dress up in a costume. . .she is actually wearing her high school "homecoming dance" dress, threw on a cape that she wore for Halloween in the 8th grade, and my step-son's old Halloween Wizard hat. LOL! Whala. . .this is what she came up with. . .it a actually turned out pretty good.

Here is her costume in full form. She is actually wearing my knee-high boots. . .you can't see it in the picture.


Anyway. . .that's it. . .sorry for the super long post. Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween and that your November will be a fabulous one!! Remember. . .be thankful and find gratitude in your every day life. . .:)

Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C61 - Sketch Challenge

Hello Friends!! Hey we have a fun challenge for you this week at Crazy 4 Challenges! Silke came up with a great sketch for us to follow. . .come join us and play along with us this week. Be sure to stop by Crazy 4 Challenges and check out all the fabulous cards the design team created or stop by their individual blogs. . .:) You will surely be inspired!

* Barbara Anders

* Cindy Haffner
* Frances Byrne
* Jessie Rone
* Joanne Grzelak
* Joycelyn Pelkey
Lynda Benden
* Angela Wood
*Silke Ledlow
* Silke Kittmann
* Tammy Hershberger

Because Thanksgiving is right around the corner, I decided to work on a Thanksgiving card. The image is by Unity Stamps, the designer paper and ribbon are by Stampin Up, and the various embellishments are by K&CO.

I stamped the image on to a beige colored card stock and colored it with my Copic Markers. . I then smudged a bit of blue pastel around the image. That's basically it. The rest of the card is basically following the sketch!

Another short post today. . .I actually don't have anything to talk about. . .LOL! Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday!

Crazy 4 Challenges C4C59 - Fall/Autumn Card

Happy Saturday, Friends! This is going to be a long post so I'll get down to business. . .:) It's Saturday so that means. . .what? Crazy 4 Challenges time again and Silke came up with another fun challenge again! This week it's all about Autumn/Fall! Yup, this week's challenge is to create a card or project with an Autumn/Fall theme. Stop by Crazy 4 Challenges and check out all the beautiful cards the design team created. You will surely be inspired. . .or if you want, stop by the individual designers' blogs:

* Barbara Anders

* Cindy Haffner
* Frances Byrne
* Jessie Rone
* Joanne Grzelak
* Joycelyn Pelkey
Lynda Benden
* Angela Wood
*Silke Ledlow
* Silke Kittmann
* Tammy Hershberger

I actually colored this image a long, long time again. . .I believe sometime last year! I'm going to be honest, I have a lot of already colored images just waiting to be used. There was a time when I watched TV with my family, I would color images. . .now, I spend that time crocheting. . :)

I actually stamped the image on drawing paper. . .a bit thinner than card stock. Copic Markers actually works best on drawing paper. . the blending process is much easier and Copic seem to go on smoother. . .you end up using less ink. By itself, the paper is rather thin but if you mat it over card stock, it works out great. Just to let you know the designer papers are by Stampin Up, the embellishments are by K&CO. The stamped image is by Stampin Up as well!

That's it for today. . .hope you all have a fabulous weekend!!

Doodle Bug Designs Thanksgiving Cards

Hello Friends! Hey it's almost Thanksgiving. . .gosh, I need to start working on my Thanksgiving cards. I decided to use my Doodle Bug Designs "Pumpkin Family" image. It's such a cute image!! Stop by Doodle Bug Designs and check out all of Melissa's cute images.


It's going to be short post. . .it seems my post are getting shorter and shorter nowadays. I just don't have much to say! LOL!! Just a quick info on my card. The designer paper and card stock are by Stampin Up, the sentiment is by K&Co, the border punch, I believe is Martha Stewart and I colored my image with my Copic Markers. That's about it.

Anyway. . .hopefully, I'll be back to my chatty self . . .:)

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!!!

Thanksgiving Acetate Window Pocket w/Recipe Insert

Happy Thanksgiving Friends!! What are you all doing for Thanksgiving? Well, we're heading off to the winery for Thanksgiving. No family dinner at home. We actually don't have any family near where I live. In previous years since moving to California 4 1/2 years ago, we spent it with my husband's family, once in Las Vegas and on another year in Orange County about a 2 hours drive from where we live. Last year we decided to stay at home and cook Thanksgiving dinner and I think less than one third was eaten. I recently found a vacuum sealed bag of last year's Prime rib. LOL! We decided that a no fuss Thanksgiving will be better for us! So the winery it is!

Before I discuss my project, I want to say that I am so extremely blessed. . .beyond what I could ever imagine for myself. Growing up as a child was a difficult period for me for various reasons. Quite frankly, most were of my creation and how I viewed life. It's funny how your perspective of your life can really make a difference. You can live in the same condition and with the right attitude and optimism, your life can be seen as beautiful. I am so glad that I've realized that many times happiness is a result of how you perceive your life rather than your actually life condition.

I'm blessed with a wonderful husband and daughter. I live in a comfortable home and am able to pursue the things I love to do like crafting, blogging, and many other things. I have friends and family that care for me. I may not have all the materialistic things that many others do but what I have is beautiful and I really don't care to have more. . . .well, except for craft stuff. LOL! Too funny, I did have to add that. I'm healthy, I'm becoming more physically fit, I have more energy, and gosh, life is darn good.

I want to wish you all a blessed day filled with love, happiness, and lots of food!

Okay. . .now to my project. I created a tutorial for this project yesterday if you want to try it out. It was such an easy project to create, I had to try it out again. If you want to try it out:

Click Here.

Yesterday I created the pocket with insert in a Christmas theme. Today, I decided on making one with a Thanksgiving theme. Rather than just a card insert, I decided to create a recipe card as the insert.

I heat embossed the image onto acetate and printed the recipe on to vellum. I attached the vellum on to card stock that was stamped with the leaf design. To top the project off, I added a satin ribbon and a floral embellishment.

Anyway. .I hope you all have a wonderful day and happy Black Friday shopping tomorrow. I wish I had more money to shop but well, that's okay. . .I may shop a few places but I have to stick to a small budget. Are you going to do any major shopping tomorrow? I'm just going to shop online and not deal with the craziness at the shopping mall. Ugggh! I can't deal with the zoo. . .besides, I usually end up shopping for stuff I normally wouldn't buy just because it's on sale and that. . .is not a good thing.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!

Project Details:

Stamps: Autumn Splendor
Paper: SU Real Rust, More Mustard, acetate, vellum
Ink: Versamark ink, Real Rust, Close to Cocoa, Buckaroo Blue
Accessories: SU Chocolate Chip satin ribbon, Floral stems, Nestabilities