Playing in Paradise #54 & some other fun stuff!

It's been so long since I did a challenge I was worried I'd forgotten how!! But, like my card, it's just like riding a bike..... (lol)

The challenge this week was to add stitching, either faux or real to a project.  It is my hubby's birthday on Friday so I decided to make a guy card and used my CTMH stitching stamps - which I LOVE- to the card.  First I actually used CTMH paper for the background, then I layered on a free vintage bicycle graphic from Graphics Fairy that I printed onto white cardstock from my printer.  I embossed the bike paper with a writing Cuttlebug folder and then added some Distress Ink on top to highlight it.  After mounting it onto cardstock I popped it up with foam dots.  I used the stitching stamps to add black zigzag 'stitching' to the sides of the front, and inside I added a dotted 'stitch' around 3 sides.  I then added a white embossed 'embroidered' flower stamp to the front and inside of the card and "I'm sew happy" to the inside as well.

I have another free vintage bicycle link on Pinterest.  Check it out at http://pinterest.com/karlayungwirth/ on the Card and Scrapbooking Ideas board!

Clearsnap had a link today on Facebook to a video showing a how to for a cute card and thought I'd pass it along:

I also had a very proud moment with my 5 year old said she wanted to do some scrapbooking after we were watching some You Tube videos! I brought her some pics I wasn't using and some supplies and she set to work doing her own thing - mental note to buy more Tombow adhesive! Anyway, she cut fringes on one of the pieces of paper she put on the page and added some Distress Ink and actually tore the edge of a smaller L shaped piece of paper and crumpled it and added Distress Ink to it.  She also stamped some flowers and bugs and added some stamps that came on an envelope in the mail. Very cute!

Well, I've got to head to bed before baby wakes, but I just wanted to say Thank You for reading my blog.  Someone actually came up to me today at Scrapbooker's Paradise and said "I follow your blog!" and it really made my day.  Thanks Angela ; ) It's been a crazy 2 months and I've missed scrapbooking and card making and posting more often, so it meant a lot to hear that!

Toonie Thursday Thank You

I finally got out with baby Erica and Amie to make it to Scrapbookers Paradise for their Toonie Thursday card and, as always, it was a very nice card.

They used the Spellbinders Dies to cut the 3 labels on the front and made cute tissue flowers by cutting 6 layers of tissue each into a flower shape with a punch and adding a brad to the center before scrunching each layer. The tissue is by Tm Holtz and was first spritzed with a color.

Cards for kids

I was just over at Michelle Kovak's blog, Http:/chelemom.blogspot.com, and she has a great post from January 24th for a call to make cards which will be donated to a children's hospital.

Whenever I hear about sick kids it makes me so thankful my own are healthy.

Check out her blog- and her beautiful cards, and see if you can spend a couple minutes to create a card to bring a smile to a sick child. She also has a fabulous giveaway to check out!

New Baby!

Well, we've definitely been busy here in our house! New baby sister, Erica Jann arrived December 20th.  She's so adorable! Needless to say, it's been a bit hectic with Christmas and a new baby :) but very fun!

My friend, Carol Markusse - CM PhotoArt - took some lovely newborn shots of Erica when she was 8 days old.

Christmas Baking!

I had a spurt of energy this week and decided to do some Christmas baking!

 Melt in Your Mouth Shortbreads

from Allrecipes.com

Donut Muffins

from Allrecipes.com

 Peanut Butter cookies from Epicure

 Chocolate Chip Cookies

 Epicure's Almond cookie bars

Banana choc/butterscotch chip muffins

 

Peppermint Snowballs from Epicure, Butterscotch chip sandies from Taste of Home, which I substituted butterscotch chips for the pecans (since I forgot to pick them up!) & Cookie Jar Gingersnaps from Taste of Home.



I packaged up one of each cookie into a cute container from Dollarama for Amie's sports class teachers as a little Thank You for the last day.

Linked to Friday Link Party at Creation Corner, Simply Link Party at Simply Designing, & Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home.

Baby Room on a Budget

The baby room is ready, counting down to less than 2 1/2 weeks now!  Since we had gotten rid of all of our baby stuff after Amie we started from scratch for baby Erica.  Of course we made some thrifty spending choices, and were fortunate enough to know some friends getting rid of baby stuff too!

Curtains from Walmart, recycled rocker and side table from other parts of the house, toys donated from big sis Amie, Martha Stewart shelf and pink fabric drawers from Rona.

 3 drawer Ikea dresser from Kijiji, which we attached a change pad to, decals from Dollarama!, change pad cover from second hand children's shop.

 Crib given to us by friends, mobile  bought from a friend who was done with it, bedding from Toys R Us as a shower gift :)

 Bear from big sis Stephanie, wooden box from Michaels painted by Amie & mom.

 Love this cute pic - it was a vintage picture from a CD/book I got from Chapters a while ago, but you can get lots of vintage images from Graphics Fairy too.  I printed it at Black's photo and popped it into a Dollarama frame!

This beautiful wall hanging was given as a shower gift! It it a growth chart on one side and on the other has spots to write in all kinds of 'firsts'.  A fabric pen was included with the gift. So thoughtful :)

Hope you enjoyed the tour of the new baby room.  Now it's just a waiting game!

Linked to Tip Me Tuesday, Made for you Monday & Too Cute Tuesday, 

Christmas Creations

Yesterday I did an awesome tag class at Scrapbooker's Paradise.  In the spirit of Tim Holtz tags they are doing tag Tuesdays and once again did two beautiful tags!

For the first tag we embossed a Santa image onto a tag, then sponged on some red and green distress inks.  We added die cut, sanded holly leaves, a die cut flourish, a flower and a couple other embellishments, then some mica flakes (so cool) around the edges.

For the second tag we embossed the greenery (Inkadinkadoo) with a puffy embossing powder then used the Tim Holtz distress stains to blot on red and green over the tag.  We then added die cut trees and fence (colored with the stain as well) and sprayed the trees with Goosebumps spray, which is a clear texture spray.  We added some glitter and threaded some leather cord through the edge and added a metal embellishment and then tied with some twine through the top.  I think this one is my fav; I love how the embossed image resisted the stain!

I also made a few more cards and for this one used the Tim Holtz seasonal paper pad and added a snowman cut from the Cricut with the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge.  His scarf is covered with green crackle paint and popped up with foam dots, his arms have brown crackle paint, which actually looks woody, and I painted him and his hat with a shiny paint to add sparkle.  I sponged some brown Distress Ink over the ribbon to add to the vintage look.

I had colored in the scarf with markers, but wasn't happy with it, so added the crackle paint over and you can actually see a bit of the polkadots underneath!

 I embossed these cards with a Sizzix Christmas embossing folder and added a popped up Christmas door cut from a 12x12 page and Stickles to add some bling!

 I bought this plain pressed wood tree last year and didn't get around to doing anything with it (I think it is Making Memories) so I pulled it out and covered it with Christmas scrapbooking paper.  I painted the ornaments, but felt the colors were too bright, so I covered them with decoupage glue and microfine glitter to create a 'sugared' look and then attached them with Glue Dots at the base.  The cards slip in between the ornaments and the tree.

Hope you're having a Merry Christmas!

Linked up to Get Your Craft on Tuesday, Tip Me Tuesday, Too Cute Tuesday, and Hoo's Got Talent.