a Valentines day cards

I made this card for my BFF Wendy.  I thought it was so cute and sweet without being over the top lovie dovie.  I basicly just used paper from the berry sweet collection from K& co. and some stamps that I heat embossed on from Inkadinkado.

Swivel Clasp charm swap/ vintage Valentine

I had the opportunity to be an Angel swapper this month for Regan's (@emmoradesigns) swivel clasps swap and that means I got to have not one but two partners this month!  I enjoy this swap so much that I am happy to do the extra swivel clasp.  I made them similar but there are little differences.  I sure hope that my partners, Rosie and Leila, enjoy what I've made here for them.  Our theme for this swap was Vintage Valentine and the challenge Regan gave to us was to use lace on the charms somewhere.  I must admit at first I didn't have any idea how I would attach lace to a charm but I eventually found this heart shaped lace and thought it was perfect so I attached some jump rings to it and strung it on to the head pin with some beads.  I meant for the lace to kinda spiral around the charm but, naturally it moves around.

These are the cards I made to go along with the swivel clasp and charms.  I made each lady a valentine.  I made these with my cricut using the gypsy and the sweethearts cartridge.  I think they turned out soooo cute and they remind me of the valentines we used to exchange every year in grade school. lol.  I have to give my friend, Robin, the credit for the valentine idea.  It was hers.  "Thanks Robin." So here you go, these are my projects for the swivel clasp swap.  I hope you enjoyed them and thanks for stopping by.

A Birthday card for my Mom

I wanted to make a pretty card for my beautiful Mother for her birthday.  She's such a wonderful lady who does so much for so many people around her.  I just wanted to let her know just how special she is to me and I do that best thru my craft. So here's the card.
For the card base I used a 5x7 pre-made card from K & co, for the background I used designer paper from Websters pages from the "life's portrait" line.  I used my Martha Stewart lace (I don't know what it's called) punch for the boarder strip and the distress inks I've used for this card are scattered straw and vintage photo.  I used that on the boarder punch piece and sentiment label and vintage photo all around the patterned paper and the card base.  I was really trying to highlight the yellow color from the patterned paper.  The flowers at the top left are layered primas and I've used glimmer mist on them to get that color.  I think they turned out pretty cool. the brown flower is from Wild orchid crafts and the yellow ones are from an unknown source.  I used some of my vintage buttons for this card.  The sentiment label die cut is from the Sentimentals cricut cartridge and I made it with my gypsy.  I used a stamp from Hot off the Press and archival ink in black.  Hope you enjoy this card and don't forget to leave a comment, I love hearing from you guys.

Enjoy the Journey Birthday card

I just thought I was late mailing my birthday cards in the last year.... I am really off to a bad start for this new year. Infact, this card was supposed to be mailed last year. lol. What can I say? I have really understanding family and friends. lol.
This card is for my cousin, Ben. He's a really cool guy and I wanted to make a card for him that would kinda reflect his laid back manor. I did alot of stamping for this card using several different stamp sets. I used two different visual artistry stamp sets from Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous for the car, the bingo card, and the "enjoy...." sentiment. The "thinking of you..." stamp is from the paperwork greetings set from Inkadinkado. The journaling label in the background and the label around the sentiment are from the Basic Notes stamp set from Basic Grey. And last but not least, is the Happy birthday sentiment. It's one you've seen me use numerous times before, its from the Say it in style set by Close to My Heart. I used designer paper from My Minds Eye; Jen Wilson's LePaperie stack. I used three different green tinted Glimmer Mist on it to give it that color. I used one of those wonderful vintage printed paper bags that my good friend, Robin sent to me for the bottom portion of the card. I did a white wash over it with antique white paint and crinkled it up and then dried it out before adhearing it to the card front. I also used antique copper paint around the edges and a little copper glimmer mist in a few areas. I colored in some of the cut out stamped images with distress inks in scattered straw and barn door and peeled paint. For a finishing touch, I added a vintage piece of brown lace.
It took me a while to get this card in the mail but I think It came together well. I hope that Ben enjoys it. I've got to go get ready for the next birthday coming up later this month. I think Mom's is the next one. Thanks for stopping by, please feel free to leave me a comment as I always do enjoy hearing from you guys.

Merry Christmas and some handmade gifts

I will try and keep this post short sense there are so many pictures.  I got the bird house ornament template from A piece of Craft.  Marion issued a challenge for people to decorate the bird houses on You tube and I thought it was such a pretty ornament.  You could make this ornament in any color or theme and it would still be lovely.  I used paper from My Minds Eye for mine.  Love love love this little bird house ornament.

The altered charger plates was also an idea that I got from the lovely ladies on You tube.  I got the idea from "Lovemyella".  I used paper from Basic Grey and some floral picks I got from Michael's and a photo of Brian and I from a couple of years ago.  I didn't have a more recent pic of the two of us as I am always behind the camera. I made two of these plates just like I did the bird houses, one for each of our Mothers for Christmas.  I hope they like them.

I made these charms for my mother.  She saw one of mine in the car the other day and mentioned that she would like to have some of her own.  I made each of these charms on lobster clasp so that she could easily add them to her key chain or to her purse.  Just where ever she would like to add them.  Okay, that's all for now, I've got gifts to wrap and desserts to make.  I hope you and yours have  a very Merry Christmas this Holiday season as you spend time with family and friends. Keep in mind the real reason for this season and keep the Savior in your heart.

More Christmas Cards

Here are a few more of the Christmas cards I made this year.  I was going for more of a vintage Christmas theme this year.  I love these images that I got off the Internet.  I love going to graphic sites like "The Graphics Fairy" and "Magic Moonlight free Images" to find these kind of images and they are free!  Gotta love that!  The first card at the top was especially made for my good friend, Robin, and her family.  I used the flowers I got from Wild Orchid Crafts for that card.  I made almost 50 cards this year, and some handmade gifts for family members so I have been very busy every sense Thanksgiving.  I'm ready for the new year to get started so that I can possibly get some rest! lol. I hope you enjoy these and thanks for stopping by.

Que Sera Sera birthday card

I made this card for my lovely Sis in law, Jennifer. Her birthday was a few days ago and true to form, I was late with mailing her card. lol. I wanted to do something special for her card anyway because she loves art too and I thought that she might really enjoy it. First of all, it's a huge card. It measures 8.25 x 5.5 inches.  I put some really dimensional embellies on this card with all the flowers.  I figured I could go all out sense I was going to send it to her in a padded envelope anyway.  The large flower and the lighter colored small one are some made by me.  That's a button in the center of the large one.  I just cut off the shank on the back and addhere it to the center.  I also used some Primas and Recollections flowers for this one.  I used some of that new yummy flower ribbon too.  Loving it! The paper and die cut is from K & Co., the sentiment is a stamp from Inkadinkado.  Hope you enjoy it=> 

Christmas time decorated bag

My family hosted an ornament exchange this past weekend and I decorated this bag to go along with mine. I used a plain bag from Michael's and an older Basic Grey paper line, Mistletoe & Pear, that I've had in my stash for a couple of years now. I just love the paper too much to throw out for something new. I'm working on slowly using it up and enjoying every minute that I get to play with it. I used the Lacy Labels cartridge for the cricut to make the top note die shape on the background. I used the Winter Woodland cartridge for the snowman and the sentiment. I added some bling and some white lace to finish it off. Hope it gives you some ideas for decorating your own. I'm off to get back to work, got lots more of these type bags to decorate. Thanks for stopping by.

My swivel clasp for the swap hosted by emoradesigns

This picture shows all the charms laying out flat so you can better see each one of them. We were supposed to make at least 10 charms for the swivel clasp but as you can see, I used a lot more. In fact the swap was for the Tim Holtz swivel clasp to be completed with charms but I wanted my swivel clasp to be bright shiny silver and so I made my own. I also made mine to be a bit longer than the ones from Tim H. I hope my swap partner doesn't mind.

This picture shows the charms as they hang on the swivel clasp as a whole. I am sorry that the photos didn't turn out to be of the best quality but hopefully you can get a good idea of what it looked like. I really liked it and found it hard to stop adding charms to it.lol. I just wanted to keep adding more and more but it looks pretty full to me so I think maybe I picked the right time to stop. I liked the little Christmas light charms. I found them at wal mart. I tried to make the swivel clasp to have a combination of big and small charms on it. I like the long beaded charms but too many of them on one swivel clasp kinda looks off balance to me anyway. I tried to do a mixture of both. My swap partner said she liked the classic Christmas theme and I hope I was able to give her what she was looking for. I really hope she likes it. Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to leave me a comment. I love to hear from you guys.

Happy Anniversary card

This card is for a couple of folks who really make me feel like they enjoy my cards. I mean, everyone that I send my cards to are always very thankful for them and they all tell me  how much they enjoy them.  It's just that a few people really seem to appreciate them and enjoy getting one of my cards more than others. I like to do special cards for these people. I hope this one falls into that category.
 I used the Paris Nights paper line from g.c.d. studios, and the "love... " stamp is from Autumn leaves. I used black embossing powder to emboss it. I made the flower out of Bazzill Basics Paper.  For the flower center I used a button,  removed the shank from the back and glued on a brad in it's place. The trim is from an unknown source, the sentiment is a rub on from making memories and its on a die cut from tags, bags, boxes and more for the cricut. I added some bling to match the button. I hope you enjoyed this card today.