Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

I know I have been missing for awhile and I have a lot of catching up to do and I promise to do that soon but today is one of my favorite days of the month - the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop - so let's get back into the swing of things with a crafty post, shall we?

We were challenged to use a color palette posted on Nichole's blog and create a Christmas card using those colors. This is the color theme I chose:

 

 

And this is the card I created:

I started with the Shaker Shapes: Snow Globe Die and I cut the card base. By folding the cardstock in half and offsetting the die just a little, I was able to create a top fold card that I built my snow globe on.

I then cut the rim/base of the snow globe itself from Soft Stone cardstock. Actually, I cut it 4 times. This way I was able to layer each piece on top on the next and build some dimension - and some space for the items in my snow globe to move.

A piece of transparency plastic was cut with a circle die and added to the stack right under the first of those 4 layers. The base of the globe was cut from Smokey Shadow.

Inside my snow globe I added two die cut trees (also from PTI but I can't find the name of it in the products right now). These were cut from New Leaf cardstock and inked with Fresh Snow ink along the edges.

The little Winter Penguin was die cut and stamped in black and his hat was inked up in Blueberry Sky. The sentiment (also from a set I don't know the name of at present - sorry!) was stamped on a die from the Bubble Talk set.

Finally, my sprinkles are snowflakes and dots (this die is included in the Snow Globe die set) in Blueberry Sky and something close to Hawaiian Shores, and a little iridescent glitter was added to enhance the wintery look and feel.

You can find all these products at Papertrey Ink and be sure to hop around and see what everyone else has created! Have a great weekend - and I promise, I'll be back soon!!

Peace

Before I get to the crafty part of this post, I wanted to share a little story about how my own selfishness caused me to destroy a Tupperware bowl.

I LOVE homemade tapioca pudding. I know some people are not a fan but I have loved it since I was a kid. I don't make it often because it requires a serious time commitment to cook - at least an hour of nothing but constantly stirring while the pudding is cooking. Commitment, I tell ya! So after I put in all that work, I am so glad my hubby and son don't like the end results and the entire bowl is all mine. Unless my daughter finds out. She loves it as much as I do. So I have a very bad habit of hiding any evidence that there is a bowl of it in the house. I know, shame on me. Well, this time, that little practice came back to bite me.

I knew she was coming over the other day and I had just finished the last of a bowl of thick, creamy, wonderful tapioca pudding. I didn't want to hurt her feelings that I had made some and didn't send any her way so I hid the empty bowl in the oven. Yeah, you know where this is going now, don't you? Today, I preheated the oven in order to bake some french fries when this smell of burning plastic hits my nose. Yep, a Tupperware bowl no less, melted almost beyond recognition.

That misshapen thing used to be one of my favorite bowls! Gone into the garbage now, all because I didn't share. Lesson learned - or is it?

Anyhow, here's another Christmas card I created recently:

Made with a newer set from Papertrey Ink: City Scene. I am always intrigued by little buildings and different scenes I can put together so I think this will be a really fun set to play with (matching dies too!) The letters for peace were die cut, although I think next time I would use a scribey type font and emboss it on the card - I think these letters are a bit too chunky. But overall, I love the simplicity and the cool images. Watch for another City Scene card soon!

Enjoy the end of the week and the weekend! Anyone planning on seeing Catching Fire this weekend??  Me!!

Christmas Dogs

I haven't had much time to create or blog recently as I've been redecorating my son's bedroom. Started off with a change of paint color, then some new bookcases and I finally got everything back into the room and organized! I don't have any "before" pics (imagine blue walls and a border around the top with planets) but here are a couple of "after" photos"

Of course he couldn't part with his Star Wars goodies! And I wouldn't expect him too. Once a Star Wars nerd, always a Star Wars nerd! 

I also have a card to share today, featuring one of the newer PTI sets, Come All Ye Faithful.

Ah, cracks me up! And I love the doggies and their sweaters - so cute!

That's it for me today but I have more cards to share soon!! Have a wonderful start to your week!

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

So it's the day after Christmas - did you survive it all? We had a lovely three days of celebrating that was almost perfect (except for one incident, it would have been 100%)!  I even had a little time to stamp Christmas evening and get an entry ready for the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop where the challenge was to create a white with white card.

Challenge is right! Here is what I came up with - and yes, I did add a little, teeny tiny bit of color:

And let me tell you, getting a good photo was just not happening! I embossed the background using the Cover Plate - Circles die and then created my snowglobe to be added to the card front. The edge and bottom of the snowglobe are embossed in silver and there is a silver mat under the main piece. The "let it snow" sentiment was stamped three times in a row on vellum (in black) and adhered to the front of the card with 2 silver brads.

I had a chance to play with one of my new PTI sets (my Dec. order was a Christmas gift from my Mom) and I will share that much more colorful card soon.

I hope you had a lovely holiday! If you'd like to see some pictures from our Christmas weekend, be sure to follow me on Facebook. The link is in the sidebar. See you soon!

Christmas time is near

Well, I don't know about you, but I am ready to put Christmas to bed. The presents are (almost all) wrapped, the cookies are baked (yes, I just quit with 2 left to go. They will be Valentine's cookies now), and the Christmas decorations are getting a little dusty so it's time to get this show on the road!

Are you getting to that point too? You're not a last minute shopper, are you?

The only thing I need to finish up is some grocery shopping because no matter how hard I try - and by try, I mean I did in fact go to three grocery stores today - I always think of something I forgot to pick up. This time it was tomatoes for my spaghetti sauce. So I know I will have to make at least one more grocery store run. Ugh. But then I AM READY!

Even made my last Christmas card the other day:

And that about wraps up my posts for a bit. I think I will be taking a tiny break through Christmas but I hope to be back posting a week from today (with the Papertrey Ink blog hop). I wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Have a wonderful holiday and spend the day telling those who are important in your life how much you love them.

See you next week!

With a heavy heart

Friday is now a few days past and I have been pondering what to say about the events. I know there is nothing I can say that hasn't already been said. And I considered saying nothing at all. But my heart is heavy - not only because of the Sandy Hook tragedy but also because of some recent episodes in my own family that have given me cause to reflect on the "whys" in life.

Why is anyone allowed access to assault rifles? I am not suggesting a ban on all guns but we need to look at legislation that will keep killing machines out of the hands of ordinary people.

Why are there so many people living with untreated mental illness - and why does it seem that mental illness is so much more prevalent in today's society?

Why are people so quick to anger and hatred and despair and hopelessness? Where is the break down that leads individuals to follow such desperate, often fatal, courses of action against themselves and others?

Why is there less respect for others, a lack of common courtesy and a no "think-before-speaking" mentality in our society?

Why do people set out to hurt others, whether by words or actions  - or maybe by the lack of words or actions?

The world is becoming an increasingly difficult place to be happy in for all sorts of reasons so why do some individuals delight in making it even more painful, for themselves and others?

I certainly don't know the answers to these questions. Maybe the answers lie in more government regulations or maybe in turning to a higher power. My personal belief is that the answers must be found at home, in what we teach our children and how we lead by positive example. By not allowing our children to grow up to be selfish, entitled adults, which seems to be today's norm. It's okay to say no. It's okay to set rules. And it's absolutely mandatory that we take time for our children: to listen to them, to play with them, to hug them and tell them every single day how much we love them. To teach them how to treat people with compassion, to be kind, to talk about what bothers them and to listen to others with an open, loving heart.

Many people find solace in their religion, some in their work, some in their friends and families. However you find peace, I wish that the Baby, born in a stable all those years ago, brings peace and light and joy to your life, this Christmas and always. And may He bring some small bit of comfort to those in unimaginable pain in Newtown, CT. My heart is with the nation and my Christmas wish is for answers, that we may never experience such tragedy again.

Snowglobe Christmas

I have been busy making Christmas cards but have neglected one of my new favorites - Winter Snow Globe from Papertrey Ink. Well, a couple of days ago I needed a card for a friend and I knew that I had to pull out this set. Here is the card I came up with:

I think the paper (from Bo Bunny) did most of the work on this card! But the snowglobe is the perfect addition, I think!  I die cut the globe from cream cardstock and from a red piece of printed paper. The red became the base and the globe is the cream. I stamped the tree inside the globe and then stamped the entire piece with the snow image, going right over the tree (which is hard to see in the photo). I then added a few crystals for ornaments and my globe was good to go.

A simple sentiment on the inside finishes off this card. One more done - only a few more to go. Thank goodness - Christmas is less than 2 weeks away!! 

See you again soon!

To My Deers

It's another Pretty Palette color challenge and this week the colors just said Christmas. Well, maybe they didn't really say it, but I swear I heard it!

The colors we're working with are Red, Pink and Kraft. I chose to use the new Christmas Swag digi set and create a simple tag.

I colored the deer in Photoshop (the banner at the bottom was already colored red but you could change the color in Photoshop if you wanted to). I printed out the image and then die cut and mounted it on a piece of red. To the bottom of the kraft tag, I added a strip of pink chevron printed paper, a red polka dot strip and a little torn piece of pink striped washi tape. The 25 DEC section is a combination of pieces cut from a 6x6 paper pad by My Mind's Eye (and I stamped the DEC on the piece).

A little baker's twine at the top and my tag is ready to go on a gift this holiday!

I hope you'll come join us and play along with our colors. And be sure to check out this post from Lauren - she's giving a gift to you all - a free template that is soooo cute!

Another wreath to share!

I have been seeing a lot of mesh wreath ideas on the web so decided to try my hand at creating one. My friend Kathy and I grabbed our supplies and spent one Sunday afternoon getting our craft on and here are the results:

This is a red and lime green rolled wreath - a little variation on the "normal" bunched mesh wreath. It reminds me of something Suessical! My step-by-step directions can be found at Mama on the Fly. It's a very simple project and makes a very eye-catching wreath! (Please ignore some of the rolls in the photo above - the picture was taken before I refluffed and straightened a few sections).

Here is Kathy's all red version - along with Kathy's smiling face:

Yes, these are pretty big when finished! What I would call a hard-to-miss decor item...picture this on your front door! If you make one for yourself, be sure to send me a photo - I would love to see it!

Be back again soon!

Wreath for a special guy

Tomorrow morning, my sister and I are heading to southern Ohio to visit with my cousin who is in a nursing home. He is 2 years younger than me, putting him at 50. See, he had brain cancer many years ago and as a result of past treatments, he now suffers frequent mini strokes and his wife can no longer care for him adequately at home. He falls if he attempts to walk, he forgets important things like taking medication, and so on and at the age of 50, she needs to work to support their son and the unfortunate reality is that health care will not provide round the clock care for someone in their own home. We have even been told that when it comes to our son Jacob, if he will need someone to basically be with him 24 hours, he has no choice but to live in a facility. Scary thought when he is just 24 and his brain works better than yours or mine. But I digress. I haven't seen my cousin in about 4 years so we're heading out tomorrow for a holiday visit and taking along a little decor to brighten up his room:

Sorry the bow is a little blurry. I wanted something nice and bright as his eyesight isn't what it used to be so I put together this wreath with bright colored ornaments, a mitten printed bow and a plushy reindeer ornament hanging in the center. I really love the way this turned out and I'm sure he'll get a kick out of it. That and the homemade chocolate chip cookies my sister is making for him!

By the way, speaking of Christmas, my decor is finally finished around the house - and the baking is almost done too. Wahoo!! Here are a couple of pictures from around the house:

This is the back wall of my family room with the fresh pine wreath I made at Beautiful Blooms by Jen a week ago. LOVE that smell!

My kitchen is decorated with all Santas and elves (but my elves don't move!)

If you click on the picture of the tree, you'll see a larger version...hopefully you can see just how tightly packed those ornaments are! I need to stop buying new ones - there is just no room!

 

 

The rest of the living room is primarily red, green and gold with a few angels and the nativity. The family room is all white, red, snowmen and cardinals...outdoorsy. It all came together after a week and I'm glad it's up now for awhile!

I will be back Tuesday with another wreath to share - this time one I created using deco mesh! Stay tuned!

Christmas Cards

I am almost done with my Christmas cards and they will be heading to a mailbox soon. At least one Christmas chore is about finished because the tree? Well, the lights are on anyhow. And the baking? I bought some ingredients today, does that count?

And don't even ask about the shopping.

So how about a sneak peek at this year's Christmas card?

I kept it fairly simple as mass producing a complicated card isn't much fun. To create this card, I started by die-cutting the snowflake from a piece of kraft cardstock. This sections was then layered onto white cardstock, then onto a shiny gold piece of paper and finally onto the front of the white card base. I stamped the matching snowflake image into the negative space with kraft ink and added the sentiment with white ink. (All products, except the gold paper, is from Papertrey Ink). The remaining die cut snowflake was then turned into a simple ornament. I stamped the snowflake, this time with the white ink onto the kraft, and over stamped "Peace on Earth" in red. A little baker's twine created the ornament hanger and on the back I wrote "from: The Vogel Family 2012"

Simple and flat - great for mailing.

That's it for me tonight - morning comes too early. You know what I mean! Have a good Thursday and I'll be back again soon!

Igloo for Two

I had a little time to create another Christmas card this evening  - Igloo for Two:

The image is from Lili of the Valley (UK) - one of my favorite companies! I stamped and colored with Copics and then foam tape mounted the image onto a background paper from Echo Park (Wintertime). The snowflake strip is also from the same line of papers. I added a few pearls to the snowflakes with white centers and a swirl of pearls on the background, just following a printed swirl already there.

My stack of holiday cards is growing! Yippee!!

Be back soon with more goodies, including a Paper Bag Gratitude Album posting late Tuesday! See you then!

Light the Way from LOTV

I recently won a few Lili of the Valley stamps and couldn't wait to ink them up. Here's the first - Light the Way:

I colored the image with Copics and used the colorless blender to draw lines on the coat, adding a little texture. The background was made with tree die cuts randomly spaced behind and even overlapping the image a bit.

If you haven't checked out Lili of the Valley before, their stamps are adorable! I don't order often as the shipping is a teensy bit high (coming from the UK) but every once in awhile, I splurge. And have never regretted the purchase. Thanks for stopping by - I'll be back soon with more to share! Meanwhile, be sure to check out a new-to-me pumpkin cookie recipe posted at Are You on the Fence and a new CTMH challenge at Heart 2 Heart Challenges!

Santa Snowglobe

When Papertrey Ink released a snowglobe set I just had to add it to my cart! I have always loved snowglobes and have a collection of Disney snowglobes in a curio cabinet in my living room. There's just something magical about them! Anyhow, I made this card the other evening and I am smitten with this Santa:

I know - how darn cute is he?  I die cut the snowglobe and Santa and then stamped the outline of the globe, the base of the globe and Santa himself. I then colored Santa and adhered him to the globe. Using a glue pad (instead of an ink pad), I stamped the "snow" image and sprinkled prisma glitter on top to finish the effect. Yes, the snow falls right over Santa as well, just like in a real snowglobe. Here's a close-up:

The entire snowglobe was then added to a Mat Stack 3 die cut. The sentiment, from the Happiest of Holidays set, fit perfectly in my Nestibilities cut base. And there you have it - one card added to my Christmas card stash.

Have a great day and I'll see you again soon!

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

It's that time of the month again - no, not that time! Time for Papertrey Ink's monthly blog hop!

The theme this month was to use more untraditional color combos and create something for the holidays. I took my cue from this color comnbo and the image:

 

And here's my card:

(Sorry - the lighting is awful on this photo!) I used the Soft Stone cardstock and impressed it with the new Striped Sweater impression plate. I also used the Striped Sweater stamp set to add the lines of Aqua Mist "knit" to the background (yes, I cut my stamps so I have a single row. I am fearless with acrylic stamps! LOL) The sentiment is from the Happiest of Holidays set and the mittens are from the Winter Swirls set and they are hanging from some white shimmery thread I wrapped around the card. The whole thing is mounted to an Ocean Tides base and then on to a white card.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy hopping!

Snowflake Medley

One of the things I enjoy most about buying new stamps is trying them out for the first time. In my last Papertrey Ink order, I purchased the Snowflake Medley set and created this simple, easily mailable card:

I used the Fine Linen cardstock and stamped the snowflakes in Kraft ink. Two bands of Scor-Tape were added to the bottom and then sprinkled with Prisma Glitter (love doing this - it's so easy!) Then I stamped the sentiment from Vintage Ornaments with a CTMH ink (Vineyard Berry) and mounted everything on a deep red cardstock scrap I had.

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Tree from Sunshine

Happy August! Today is my son's 24th Birthday and we're celebrating at Red Robin and then with some cake at home. We combine a few birthdays together in the summer so the larger family party is coming in a couple of weeks. But since today is his real birthday, a shout out to my favorite guy, Jacob! Happy Birthday bud!!

On to a quick card I made last night while watching the women's gymnastic team capture GOLD for the USA - YAY! I'm not a huge sports fan but I love gymnastics (and figure skating in the winter).

I just got an order from my favoritest stamp company in the world, Papertrey Ink, and one of the sets I purchased was Hello Sunshine. Well, I had an idea to turn one of the sun ray images into a Christmas tree and I am pretty darn geeked with the results! I kept it super simple, using Happy Spots and Ripe Avocado cardstock for my background and a little twine as an embellishment. The star is from the Banner Builders set and the Happy Holidays is from Winter Swirls.

Thanks for stopping by - and be sure to check out the Petite-Party Planners where we will be posting a new party tip, idea, photo or whatnot every Wednesday!

Merry Christmas!

Well, it's that time and I guess, ready or not, Christmas is here! Luckily I am ready - there's only a few minor things to finish up and then I can sit back and enjoy. We will be going to Mass this afternoon and then my daughter and son-in-law's for Christmas Eve dinner; tomorrow we will have a relaxing morning at home followed by dinner at my Mom's. And no work on Monday - woohoo!

I have one last Christmas card to share with you - this one was just finished yesterday evening for my beautiful daughter and her hubby.

Is that not the cutest image? (Hero Arts). I've had it for awhile now but this is the 1st time I inked it up - love! I kept the coloring simple to match the paper colors - somehow, the colors look a little "off" in this photo but they really do match up very well. Inside the card says "Warm Winter Wishes" - my phrase of choice this season.

To all of you who stop by and see what I'm up to from time to time, I thank you. I hope to find more time in the coming year to share crafty things, stories and a whole lot more so I hope you'll keep coming back. Merry Christmas and may you and your family have the best New Year ever!

Christmas Snowmen

This year, I had good intentions to get all of my Christmas cards made early and mailed promptly. Yeah, that didn't happen. I finished the last few tonight that will be mailed tomorrow. Procrastinate much?

Anyways, this is one of the cards I made - these went to my co-workers and a few friends. The others? Well, I never got a photo of them so we'll just pretend they were the most intricate and fabulous cards ever and now you're sorry you didn't see them, right? Actually, they were fairly simple and featured a computer generated image so not a lot of craftiness to share there anyhow. But enough about what you can't see - let me show you what I did think to save -

I used the snowman die cut from Papertrey Ink to cut my snowman and his hat. The scarf is a piece of yarn that I separated so it looked fluffy and warm. Background paper is a chevron design (source unknown) and red PTI cardstock. Of course I colored his carrot nose orange and gave him a couple of twig arms. The inside of the card is simply stamped "Warm winter wishes" from the stocking set, also from PTI.

I will have one more card to share with you before the "big day" so stop back and visit me again soon! You can also check out the story of Jacobmas at Ridiculous Lab and tomorrow I will have a post up on Are You on the Fence about A Klingon Christmas Carol. You won't want to miss it!

Last Creative Vision post

Today is my last post for Creative Vision as my term is now ending :(  I made a quick, fun little gift project and have it posted at the CV blog - here's a sneak peek:

I hope you'll stop by to see the whole project!! It's been fun playing along with the CV team these past months - thanks Laura and team! And Happy Holidays!!