Christmas Inspiration

Here are a few sites to check out for Christmas inspiration:

http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/ -Kristina has a daily Holiday Card Series where she posts a cute card along with a video tutorial.

http://ellenhutson.typepad.com/the_classroom_new/ -12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminie twist.

Onlinecardclasses.com - Holiday Gift Bundle class and several Holiday Card classes.

http://ablognamedhero.blogspot.ca/?m=1 -a Christmas-travaganza with a different project each day.

Let me know if you find any sites that make your heart go pitter-patter!

Here are a few Christmas cards I've done.

Holiday Card Workshop Day 5, Card 1

I'm kind of skipping around a bit, but the great thing about Online Card Classes is you can go back and watch the videos and look at the material as long as you want after you finish the class! So I decided to just do whichever cards called to me :)

For this card I cut a tag with the Cricut from the Art Philosophy Cartridge, which I love! I then stamped an image, embossed it, and brushed on a mixture of Perfect Pearls and water, which the embossed image resisted. I layered the tag over two other cuts and then attached them to my background.

I did my background differently than the class - I embossed the wood grain stamp and then rubbed on a red and green Distress Stain along with a Pewter Stain on one card and the Bronze Stain on the other. I then spritzed with water and dried the cardstock and then blended some Distress Inks till I was happy with the look.

I really liked the way the background turned out even though I wasn't sure how the wood grain would look!

Bacon, Potato and Corn Chowder

I just made a yummy recipe which I found on Shari Carroll's blog for Shari's Tator Soup! I changed it a tiny bit, so I'll post it the way I made it, but be sure to head over to Shari's amazing blog. She is one of the designers on the Holiday Card Class at Onlinecardclasses.com.

http://shari-design.blogspot.ca/2012/10/homemade-potato-soup.html?m=1

Shari's Tator Soup: Serves 8 (guys)

Potatoes (7-8peeled and diced)
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 chopped onion
Bacon (5 slices uncooked or 10 slices pre-cooked) cut in 1/2" pieces (I actually used 1/2 c precooked crumbled bacon that you buy in a bag from Costco)
1 cup of frozen or canned corn
Smoked Paprika
Garlic seasoning mix
Milk (amount can vary) ( I use 1%)
Salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
Potato flakes or flour mixed with water to thicken
Shredded cheese and French fried onions for garnish

Crisp bacon and onions in the bottom of a stock pot. Add potatoes and chicken stock and enough water (if needed) to cover just potatoes. On medium heat, cook till corners of potatoes become slightly rounded (about 1/2 hour). Add corn (i heated it a bit first. Add spices and milk (i also added a bit of cream) to potatoes and return to heat. Once hot, sprinkle 3 tbsp. of potato flakes (or add flour/water mixture) to the soup. Salt and pepper to taste. Garnish as desired

This was amazing!

Holiday Card Workshop Day 1 Card #2

 

For the second card for Day 1 of the Holiday Card Workshop at Online Card Classes I followed the wonderful tutorial and masked a piece of white cardstock, stamping 3 different sized snowflakes above and below the mask in several different colors of ink.  I then used Evergreen Bough Distress Ink and sponged some color over the snowflakes.  After removing the mask I scored slightly inside the white area above and below, across the paper and stamped my sentiment and then added some red snowflakes for a pop of color. Of course, I added some Stickles for some sparkle!

 

The tutorial shows how this card can easily be used to make a 'cheat sheet' to make quite a few cards very quickly.  I definitely plan to go back to do that!

Holiday Card Workshop Day 1

I signed up for the amazing Holiday Card Workshop over at Online Card Classes, and it is awesome! So many fabulous ideas and wonderful video tutorials!!

On day 1 there were two cards featured- the first is a cute 3x3 card and envelope. I used green cardstock topped with a square of plaid Christmas paper, with a stamped rectangle featuring a Hero Arts Christmas owl set, which I coloured with Prismacolor markers. I used 2 small hearts and chalk ink for a little border and stamped faux red stitching across the top and bottom. Lastly I embossed a snowflake, cut it out and popped it up with foam tape.

 

I didn't have the score board to create the envelope as the instructions suggested, so I cut a piece of 5x5 paper, laid the card in the center of it, diagonally, and traced around it.  Then I scored the lines and folded the corners in, attaching 3 with washi tape and rounding the corner of the envelope flap. Perfect!

 

Hope you enjoyed these cute cards and be sure to check out this wonderful class!

Recent card making!

I just wanted to share some cards I've made recently that haven't been for any challenges. Just ones I've made while sitting down to play!

Happy Halloween!

I really can't believe Halloween is almost here! I hope it won't be too cold for the little ones... We have snow here in Calgary, and it seems to be hanging around.  I'm just not ready for winter!

Sweet Sunday has a sketch I thought I'd use this week to make a Halloween card for my sister and niece. I keep all my Halloween papers together so I can grab them when I want to do a page or card. I layered them on the card base, highlighting the middle square with the silvery Tim Holtz metallic stain. I stamped, colored, and cut out the little ghouls and layered them on top, popping up the girl in front. Then I cut out a circle digi stamp and die cut 2 banners, sponging with Distress Ink.

Hope you all have a happy Halloween!

Inside

Swinging Birgitta

My daughter, Amie, is loving Kindergarten, and is very excited to go to the first birthday party of the school year. For her little friend's birthday card I chose a digi stamp of Swinging Birgitta and the Swing from All That Scraps, which I coloured with Prismacolor markers. By the way, they have an amazing gallery of cards to get inspiration from!!  I cut the swing off the branch and used bakers twine for the rope and then popped the swing and the girl up with foam tape. I used Cosmo Cricket paper and the sketch from Sweet Sunday.

 

Easy Oven Apple French Toast

We had 1/2 a loaf of leftover cranberry white chocolate bread in the fridge and I thought it would work perfectly for a French toast dish! I used a 8" square pan and cut the bread into cubes, then I peeled and chopped up an apple and layered it over the bread. I beat 4 eggs with 1 cup of vanilla almond milk and added some cinnamon and then poured it over the bread mixture. I let it sit for the eggs to soak into the bread while the oven heated to 350*, but you could also do it the night before. Bake about 30 minutes until the apples are tender and the egg is cooked in the centre of the dish. I served it with maple syrup and whipped cream. Yum!

Coffee Break

We have been having some awesome fall weather here in Calgary, Alberta. Actually, it's really felt more like summer, but there is that bit of crispness in the air and our leaves are changing colour. Fall doesn't last long here; one week the leaves are changing and two weeks later they've fallen off the trees!

Scrapbookers Paradise challenge this week is a photo inspiration of a lovely cup of steaming coffee! Yum! I used the sketch challenge over at the CPS blog and made this cute card. The girl stamp is 'Coffee Birgitta' digi stamp from All That Scraps, and the cup and spoon are "A Sip" set from CTMH, which I embossed and cut out.

Hope you are all enjoying fall wherever you live, with pumpkins, scarecrows, beautiful leaves and of course a nice hot drink!

 

 

Paper Bag Mini Album Card

A few weeks back the lovely Dianne at Scrapbookers Paradise North did a wonderful Paper Bag card for Toonie Thursday. We used 2 small bags folded in half and stapled together with the Tim Holtz tiny attacher stapler. Then we distressed the edges with ink and added some cool papers, stamps, tickets, lace and a tag. This was a really quick project, but looks so detailed!

All Dolled Up

I was so excited to get out my new Paper Doll stamp from Crafty Secrets! It is so cute and reminds me of my Nanny, who always drew paper dolls for us :).  This is actually a Mothers' Day card for a friend, but could be birthday or thank you (or friend, etc!) The stamp comes with a doll, 3 sets of clothes, sayings and animals, and tabs if you want to make paper clothes.  I've glued the dress on top of the little undergarments.

The paper is from Cosmo Cricket.  I just love their papers and thought they went well with the vintage feel of the paper doll.

I used sketch 167 over at the Sweet Sunday blog.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend! Thanks for stopping by ;)

Playing in Paradise Guest Designer

I was so fortunate to have won the challenge over at Scrapbookers Paradise 2 weeks ago, and now I get to be the guest designer!

This week's challenge is a color challenge. These aren't colors I normally choose to use, but I decided to pull out my Distress Inks in Old Paper, Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough and create a tag. I first blended the inks on the background, distressed my edges, used a bit of Vintage Photo, and then gave a spray with blue Smooch Spritz. I used a gears Tim Holtz embossing folder In the top left corner and blended the Iced Spruce over top. Then I stamped Tim Holtz stamps on the bottom and middle and used some Crackle accents on part of the timepiece. I also sponged on ink to add color to the ribbon before tying it on.

This is one of the reasons I love doing challenges; you get to try something you normally wouldn't and then your mind starts thinking about all the other possibilities!

 

Happy Friday everyone! Have a wonderful, crafty weekend and be sure to play along at the Scrapbookers' Paradise Blog!

Toonie Thursdays

I'm finally getting back to Scrapbookers Paradise to make the Toonie Thursday card! I was going into serious craft withdrawal :-).

It is so nice to sit down for a few minutes and make a quick card. The girls put so much thought into the card and there's always something new to learn.

We used Tombow Markers blended with water for the girl's dress.

 

Embossing folders and sanding and sponging Distress Ink over glossy cardstock with a butterfly mask.

 

You are my sunshine!

 

Spellbinders Die to partially cut a card.

 

The bicycle stamp holds up the top part of the card.  We used Distress Stains to create a watercolor look.