I did it!!

Two and a half weeks later, I have created 40 cards for my girlfriend to sell for Ryan's Well! I just need to package them now and hand them off to her. Plus, I am super excited; my man got his Macbook Air early for Xmas (thanks, Black Friday) and he is returning the favor with a Cricut E2! I am so lucky to be living with such a supportive husband!

With the completion of the Ryan's Well project behind me, I am back to creating Christmas cards for friends and family. Today's inspiration is another Mojo Monday layout: MOJO217.

Once in a while I like to walk into Michaels and see what they have for my stash. As such, I chanced upon these cute little blue rhinestone stars, and I just couldn't resist. They ended up being the perfect tree topper! Strangely enough I was missing my blending pen, so I took a paintbrush and used that to paint up my little reindeer.

I can't believe that on Thursday it is already December... do you have your Christmas lights up yet?

Michaels/Dollar Store:
* Rhinestone star
* Ribbon
* Embroidery Thread
* Buttons
* Cardstock from "Primary" set

CTMH:
* Bundled Buddies
* Wonderland Level 2 Paper Pack
* Blue & Green Assortment Sparkles
* Liquid Applique
* Olive Ink
* Ponderosa Pine Ink
* Chocolate Ink
* Spring Iris Ink
* Moonstruck Ink

A simple thanks...

... I don't have any  new cards to post for you today - by Friday I had finally managed to cut all the little pieces for the four cards, 10 cards each (40 cards) and last night I had assembled 10, 30 to go. I hope these cards help out my friend's charity greatly.

Thank you to Kelley and Nancy for already ordering two sets! You rock my world! 8 left to sell...

Today is a small card that I had tacked onto a client's first order back in the fall. We had chatted about making cards over lunch one day, and then I invited her over for a playdate. (shhh... if you're a crafter you're never too old for one) and she was hooked. Plus, perhaps this will inspire her for further cards along the line.

This was inspired by one of the layouts from Jeannette Lynton's book Wishes, but I can't remember which one.

The background square is from an old set of brick stamps I bought to do my wedding thank you cards back in '08 and the rest of the stamps plus that little strip of paper at the bottom is CTMH. After all, sometimes the simplest cards can speak the largest volumes.

Michaels:
* Cardstock, my stash
* Cardstock, "Spice Market"

CTMH:
* Mistletoe Level 2 Paper Pack (retired)
* Dream Big
* Cherished Flourishes

Stay warm,

Ryan's Well - Charitable Contribution

In discussion last week a friend of mine was wondering if I could donate my time and some handmade goods. She is championing the cause of Ryan's Well, and was I interested in donating my time and some cards for her to sell towards raising funds for this? Of course.

For those of you who are not familiar with Ryan's Well, it all started with a 7 year old boy who was moved to help those who did not have access to clean water to drink. He got to work and soon had the first well built in 1999 at a school in a Ugandan village. To this day, his foundation continues to bring clean water and sanitation to those impacted by the global water and sanitation crisis. Can you imagine  not having clean water? It's one of the most basic necessities of life. To learn more, click on http://www.ryanswell.ca/

So, I will be having her over tomorrow for a day of gossiping, laughter, homemade pizza and wine along with creating 10 sets of four handmade Christmas cards for sale. They are below:

The left photo is how they will look before going into a Ziploc bag and the right is all the cards that make up a set. Thanks to the following blogs and sketches for inspiration: SplitcoastStampers.com : VLVNov2011; Random Acts of Creativity : Challenge #36; Heart 2 Heart Close To My Heart Challenge Blog : H2H76; and finally, Mojo Monday : MOJO 214

I elected to keep this one simple using the layout from  Heart 2 Heart Close To My Heart Challenge Blog. The technique featured here is paper ribbons; I fold them to get a neat accordion effect and I put a dollop of CTMH's silver sparkle gel to make it look like brads. The circles are raised up and I added a rhinestone to the middle of each. CTMH's Art Philosophy cartridge has a corresponding shape to the circles from the set December 25, but I'm hoping for a Cricut for Xmas and thus they were hand-cut.

The biggest challenge for me was to keep it to cardstock and stamps. It was a self imposed challenge to see if I could break away from the dependency on pattern cardstock. I wanted to showcase the different layers here, and the blue border was punched with a EK snowflake edger punch from Michael's. This one was from Random Acts of Creativity 's template, but instead of a big bow I opted for a tiny green tie.

I dressed up the red piece with a Merry Christmas sentiment. Using the layout from Mojo Monday - MOJO214 instead of a flower I stacked three different ornaments from the set Holiday Cheer.with mounting foam tape. It's a bit slimmer than the usual foam squares. And finally, to highlight the snow I used Liquid Applique to outline the roofs and snow in the trees, then embossed it for a poofy look.

This last one from SplitcoastStampers.com highlights one of the major perks about working with acrylic stamps: you can bend them (but be gentle!) to follow curves and other funky shapes depending on what you're stamping on. I again lifted up the three ornaments from the set December 25 and curved the love-hope-peace sentiment from Snow Flurries. The blue snowflake that was cut out again by hand is better done with the corresponding shape in the Art Philosophy Cartridge.

I hope these four cards are charming enough to bring in some $$ for Ryan's Well - wish my friend luck!

Michaels:
* Mounting foam tape
* Cardstock from 'Spice Market'
* Cardstock from 'Gems'
* Cardstock from 'Primary"
* Rhinestones

CTMH:
* Snowflakes
* You and Me
* A Sip
* Pair A Phrase
* Festive Thoughts
* Holiday Cheer
* Snow Days
* December 25th
* Snow Flurries
* Silver Glitter Gel
* Liquid Applique
* Chocolate Ink
* Cranberry Ink
* Moonstruck Ink
* Ponderosa Pine Ink
* Olive Ink

You and Me Themed 2012 Calendar

This was a unique challenge for me. I wanted to stay solely with the colors that were in the You and Me Kit: Creme Brulee, Olive, Smoothie, Garden Green, and Chocolate which meant that I did not have free reign with colors like I normally have. However, I didn't mind; it was actually less stressful to work with four colors (I did not end up purchasing the Creme Brulee ink) and it came out looking fantastic.

As you can see I ended up using You and Me patterned cardstock for the front and back only. The rest of the inside pages were the brownish/cream colored cardstock from Michael's Spice Market cardstock and the quote pages were white cardstock that I distressed with chocolate ink.

Each of the stamped corners on both sides were done with the curly stamp from You and Me, three times per corner and then all squares were distressed with chocolate ink. I thought it would be lovely to have a little quotation on the back of each square. Each quotation is matched with some "pictures" of course, all second generation stamping. In the case of September and December, the months actually span over six weeks so I needed to do some masking in order to stretch the weeks.

I wish I could keep this calendar for myself as it came out looking so gorgeous but it is a present that I'm sure my Mom will love this year for Christmas. I am glad that this project is done - I can finally put all my stuff away properly :) but no shortage of stamp sets were used.

All in all this being my first time, I will definetly use the My Creations chipboard items again. Next time I will be using their triangle banner.

Michaels:
* Cardstock from 'Spice Market' set

CTMH:
* You and Me Kit
* Creme Brulee, Smoothie, Olive, Garden Green cardstock from Autumn set
* Bohemian Alphabet
* Classmate Alphabet
* Month By Month
* Enjoy Life
* Find Your Style - Jan 2011 Stamp of the Month
* Horizons
* Chairs To You - April 2011 Stamp of the Month
* Pair-A-Phrase - August Constant Campaign
* Angel Sent
* Sensational Season - March 2011 Stamp of the Month
* Wings Workshop kit stamp - retired
* Dreams Come True
* Baby Love
* Snowflakes
* Wonderful Friend - retired
* Olive Ink
* Chocolate Ink
* Garden Green Ink
* Sorbet Ink

Stitching on cards

In one of my previous orders I had purchased the awesome new ruler from CTMH. It has holes in it so first you pierce where the holes are, then you sew through them! How cool is that? So I thought I'd do that for this card.

The inspiration comes from Mojo Monday: MOJO 212.

Not only did I use the same floss for stitching, I also used it for the ribbon on the front. However, the threading is two strands and the cross ribbon is all six. The snowflake is from a set of Xmas buttons that I found at Michaels' while walking through. All their Xmas stuff is now out for sale.

The inside of the card was stamped with two shades of green and using the second generation stamping technique. After inking, stamp a good image on scrap paper, then without reinking stamp on your project again. Between that and the different shades of green, my second snowflake stood out really well.

Michaels:
* Cardstock from "Gems" set
* Cardstock from "Spice Market" set

CTMH:
* Snow Flurries
* Snow Flakes
* A Timber
* Holiday Cheer
* Bitty Rhinestones
* Olive Ink
* Cranberry Ink
* Honey Ink
* Piercing Kit
* Ruler

Happy Stamping,

Come drink my rum... and Cherish the Day Nov SOTM

The housewarming invitation read something along the lines of 'come help me drink my rum...' We helped a friend move back in January when the wind was whipping around us with cold flurries. And although it's almost close to winter again, her new little home is ready for a party, and she apparently has some rum to share.

I thought she deserved a card and a little present. After all, what is a housewarming without a bit of celebration? This card actually (for once) did not follow any templates at all!

I used Lucky Level 2 embellishments and canvas buttons to help me embellish this lovely card! Strangely enough this became a SOTM card. If you look closely, can you identify the three months featured on this card? If you guessed March, September, and more importantly November you are correct! The stamp of the month for November is called Cherish the Day.

With every purchase over $55 CAD this can be yours for $5.50; which would also qualify you for the Holiday Wishes campaign.

Michaels:
* Cardstock from "Spice Market" set
* Cardstock from "Primary" set

CTMH:
* Grace Level 2 Paper Pack (retired)
* Chairs To You (March SOTM)
* Limited Edition (September SOTM)
* Cherish The Day (November SOTM)
* Cherished Flourishes
* Chocolate Ink
* Cranberry Ink
* Tulip Ink
* Juniper Ink
* Canvas Badge Buttons