More card shares...

Just hopping on here for a quick post tonight.  As with most, I'm in still in the midst of holiday prep.  I just tucked my little ones in for the night, now I'm retiring to the basement to covertly wrap gifts and watch Love Actually!  Doesn't sound so bad, does it? ;)  However, before I get knee deep in wrapping paper, tape and tissue, I wanted to share a few more cards I've made recently.

It seems there are a number of my friends/family that are having/had new babies recently.  In order to be somewhat prepared ahead of time, I sat down to craft a few sweet greetings to welcome those precious new babes.  The cards are pretty self explanatory (I think!) and use up quite a bit of older product (does anyone recognize that OLD, OLD Making Memories paper???!?), so I won't list out all of the supplies, as I normally do.  If you have any questions about something I used though, please feel free to let me know in the comments.

Well, I said I was going to make this short and sweet, so here are the cards...

 

How cute are those little footprints?  That, along with the sentiment is a clear stamp from We R Memory Keepers.  You could easily change up the patterned paper and colors on this card to make it work for a boy.  The sentiment was stamped on vellum to make it stand out just a bit.

 

Again, switch up the color palette on this one pretty simply, to make it work for a girl. 

 

This last card features the same sentiment stamp from before, but since I was in the mood for a little coloring, I pulled out a sweet baby themed set from Lawn Fawn.

 

That's it for tonight - my movie is calling!  Hope you all are enjoying this last few magical days before Christmas!  I'm hoping mine will be a little more magical and less stressful once I can cross the task of wrapping off my list! 

 

Pebbles: Holiday Hostess Gift Set

This time of year bring about so many opportunities for giving and gifting.  With that in mind, I always attempt to have a few hostess gifts on hand, for last minute parties or gatherings.  I thought a set of handmade tags, garland and bows would make a nice little gift set, since gift wrapping is something most everyone does this time of year! 

 

For a festive approach to this project, I dug into my Pebbles stash and pulled out several of the red and green patterned papers I had, alongside some neutrals and a splash of light pink. I put my holiday punches and diecut machines to work to add 'a little Christmas' to this project, that otherwise uses not a stitch of holiday themed product. I love how all of these simple gift accessories look all packaged up in a cute reused embellishment box.  And of course, I HAD to decorate the cover too!  Gotta make it pretty!

 

Pebbles Supplies used: Walnut Grove 6x6 Paper Pad (751307) Walnut Grove Clothes Pins (747190) Walnut Grove Accent & Phrase Stickers (732119) Walnut Grove Carrie (751302) Walnut Grove Grace (751303) Walnut Grove Harriet (751294) Walnut Grove Corrugated Kraft Thickers (732122) Walnut Grove Corrugated Crimson Thickers (732123) Walnut Grove Corrugated Black Thickers (732134) Seen & Noted Checklist (751320) Seen & Noted 6x6 Paper Pad (751323) Sunnyside Sprout (751281) Sunnyside Clear Stamps (747183) Let Freedom Ring Samuel Adams (751259) Coordinating Cardstock Dark Kraft (71563) Coordinating Cardstock Leaf (71052) Coordinating Cardstock Crimson (71029), Other: Hero Arts dots, Doodlebug pink doodletwine, American Crafts buttons, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, Cricut, crochet thread, Stampin Up ink, foam adhesive, machine stitching, glitter

Here's a look at the contents of the package with the lid removed...

Paper bows seem to be showing up often in the paper crafting world.  There are several tutorials for creating your own.  I just drew up a simple pattern myself, in order to customize the size of the finished bows to fit within my box.  I added a couple simple embellishments to each one to finish them off.

 

What is a package without a tag?  There must be a place to write the 'to' and 'from'.  Again, I used some simple drawn patterns (the holly leaves), punches (snowflake) and cricut cuts (poinsettia) with pretty Pebbles paper to craft these beauties.  Add a little bit of baker's twine to the top and they are ready to add your sentiment and attach to a package or gift bag.

To make this simple but pretty paper garland, I got out my circle punch and went to town punching scraps of the different papers I had already used.  To attach them simply feed them through your sewing maching one by one.  I wrapped the whole string of them around a coordinating piece of cardstock and held it all together with one of the Walnut Grove wooden clothespins.  It makes a simple but sweet presentation, don't you think?

 

And lastly, a couple of 'for you' tags which tie all of the elements together.

 

I plan to pair this sweet little gift set with a roll of kraft wrapping paper to make the gift complete.

 

Thanks for stopping by today!  Hope your holiday season is and continues to be very merry!

 

December Daily cover and foundation pages

I have been promising pictures of my December Daily for awhile now.  So, wait no more - I am finally sharing!!!  I actually had these all set to go at the end of last week, BEFORE December AND even posted them to the gallery at Two Peas (where I was the 'featured project'(!!!) on Friday - come here to check me out).  However, I didn't make it back to the blog before we headed out of town for a busy weekend.

 

But enough with the excuses...  Here is the fun stuff!  In an effort to actually get these pictures posted and this entry out of 'draft' form, I won't bore you with lots of text, but if you do have any questions about something I used or did, be sure to leave me a note in the comments.

 

Here is my pretty little tray that I've set up to leave out on my desk during the month of December.  I've filled it with all sorts of bits and baubles, tags and tapes and lots of other miscellaneous holiday items that may come in handy during the month.

 

And here is a look at the cover of the album.  I'm using an October Afternoon Here and Now chipboard album for the base.  I believe this particular one was part of the 9 to 5 collection, but I can't find it on their website.  As you look through the album you'll see that I'm planning to use the lined notebook style pages that came with it, but mixing in patterned papers (mostly from October Afternoon's Holiday Style collection from winter 2011) here and there, as well.

Here is the inside cover.  I plan to add some text to the right hand side describing the idea and theme of the album. 

The following images show some of the decorative details I've added as a starting point. 

To label the days throughout the month, I've pre-stamped these sweet little Martha Stewart scalloped tags.  I used an Ali Edwards Technique Tuesday stamp set (I believe it's the December Daily one from 2011), to stamp the numbers, month and circular label.  These tags will get sewn into the album, as I go.

 

I am happy to report, that as of this morning, I have officially updated my album through day 4!  Don't know that I always be this caught up, but I'll enjoy the fleeting feeling of accomplishment, while it lasts!  When I get a chance, I'll be back to show what the completed pages in my album look like.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

December Inspiration: Bella Blvd Layout

Have you stopped over at the Bella Blvd blog today?  If not, then you should definitely hop on over and take a peek.  Myself, along with two other designers have created scrapbook pages inspired by this lovely holiday image:

 

 

 

 

So many elements from the inspiration image inspired me while putting together my layout. Most notably, of course, is the similarity in color scheme. I rummaged through my stash of Bella pulling items that were primarily green, brown and red, later adding in touches of sparkle and glitter.   I should also note, that while the Christmas Wishes line tops my list of Bella favorites, there is not one stitch of it on this page. That just goes to show you, that you don't always have to turn to holiday themed products to create a very holiday look and feel to your page!

 

Bella Blvd supplies used: Thankful: Burlap, Bountiful; Birthday Girl, Party Dress; Sophisticates: Petite Pieces, Tall Tags; Green High Five Alphabets, Brown-Cream High Five Alphabets; Ciao Chip: Trees, Stars & Hearts; Designer Tapes: Pony Dot; Button Market: Red Flowers, Stars, Checkers, Blues; Stick Pin Flags, Home Sweet Home; Miniatures Stickers, Family; Other supplies used: Martha Stewart snowflake punch, American Crafts cardstock (white) and foam adhesive, Queen & Co adhesive pearls, Bazzill cardstock (brown), Stampendous glittery embossing powder, crochet thread, machine stitching, computer font - Veteran Typewriter.

I adore this Martha Stewart snowflake punch.  It has been showing up on LOTS of my crafty projects lately.  It's hard to tell in the photo, but I glittered the edges of the snowflakes for a little extra fun. I love how they look topped with a big, chunky button, too!

The Designer Tape 'fringe' I created along the right edge of the page, was my attempt at referencing the texture and dimension of the pretty pine cones.

The shiny, round Christmas bulbs encouraged me to incorporate a circular design element onto the page, which in turn, provided a great spot to highlight many of the page embellishments.

 

I should also note, that while the Christmas Wishes line tops my list of Bella favorites, there is not one stitch of it on this page. That just goes to show you, that you don't always have to turn to holiday themed products to create a very holiday look and feel to your page!

 

That's it for tonight!  I'm off to get a jump start on designing my family's Christmas card.  Yeah, I'm getting started a little late, but I'm planning to keep it super simple!  Thanks for stopping by!