Simple Christmas

With all the busy stuff going on in my life, I really need to maximize my time. So, I'm not able to spend excessive amounts of time making my Christmas cards this year. One simple way to make really nice looking cards, really fast, is to use patterned paper. There are lots of gorgeous patterned papers in the craft stores, and one of my favorite lines of paper is Basic Grey. I've used Basic Grey's "Fruitcake" line to make the cards shown here.

The snowman cards used Basic Grey designer paper, Stampin's Up!'s "Merry" stamp set, and Stickles glitter glue.

The ornament and tree card used Basic Grey designer paper, My Favorite Things and Stampin' Up! stamps, gel pens, colored pencils, and Stickles glitter glue.

The striped card used Basic Grey designer paper, Stampin' Up!'s Ruby Red cardstock and ink, and red and lime green Stickles glitter glue. The striped card also has a video tutorial that goes along with it. The dimensions of the paper and supplies are as follows:

White cardstock base: 5.5"x8.5"
Striped paper: 5.25"x4"
Ruby Red cardstock: 3.25"x2.25"
Holly paper: 3"x2"

Paper trimmer
Ticket corner punch
Double-sided tape
3-D round Zots (dimensional adhesive)
Gold gel pen
Red Stickles
Lime Green Stickles

Christmas card eye candy

Here are some of the Christmas cards I've been making lately. I'm trying to get a few done here and there so I'm not in a rush when the holidays come. I start back to work full time tomorrow, so I won't have as much time to make cards as I did last year! Here's hoping that by starting early, I'll have them all done with very little stress.

The wonders of summer

Every year, I'm just absolutely floored at how beautiful hydrangea bushes are. They have quickly become my favorite flower, and I have six of them in my yard now. My latest acquisition (see photos at left) is "Limelight." It is a hydrangea paniculata, which is just one of several types of hydrangeas you can buy. Paniculatas bloom on new wood, which means they can sustain a bit more pruning than some of the other types of hydrangea. They can be pruned heavily in late winter, but you can leave some of the stronger woody stems intact in order to support the large blossom clusters.










My next hydrangea purchase will be a hydrangea quercifolia, which is also known as the oak-leaf hydrangea. The flowers are generally a bit less showy on the oak-leaf hydrangeas, however the foliage is absolutely gorgeous. The leaves are large and are lobed similarly to oak leaves. Their crowning beauty is their autumn leaf color.

Blanket Flowers

Shirts and ribbons

I've been ridiculously busy lately. I can't believe it's almost been a month since I last posted here! So sorry! Here is the shirt folding tutorial I promised. I decided to try my hand at a video tutorial for this. A college friend of mine recommended that I do some video blogging, so this is my first attempt. I have the shirt tutorial and flat ribbon tutorial posted here today.

Shirt Tutorial


Ribbon Tutorial

Origami Father's Day

Last week's technique challenge at Splitcoaststampers was to make a card with a folded shirt on it. What a fun way to make a Father's Day card! Folding the shirt was a piece of cake once I read the technique challenge thread found at Splitcoast. I will update my blog with a tutorial of my own very soon!

The base of the card is Basic Black cardstock, with a brown panel on the front. The green panels, tie, and pocket are Old Olive, and the Old Olive squares are mounted on Creamy Caramel cardstock. I doodled faux stitching on the shirt and on the edges of the panels. The "DAD" was stamped with a typeset alphabet stamp set. The "loved" was from Stampin' Up!'s "So Very" stamp set. I handwrote the "is" using a silver gel pen.



Another Father's Day card I made was inspired by the Featured Stamper challenge at Splitcoaststampers. It was based on a design by Stamps4funinCA found here.

I created the striped panel down the left side of the card using the same technique I use to make grass on cards. The flowers are Primas and I added a faux brad sticker to the center of each one. The faux brads are also on the blue "Happy" and "Day" panels. The tree is from Stampin' Up!'s "Lovely as a Tree" set. It was stamped in Creamy Caramel ink, and colored with Stampin' Write makers in Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow, and Mellow Moss.

I've been a little lax in updating things here due to lots of changes going on in my life. I've recently found myself single again and am searching for a teaching job! I've already had one interview and have another one tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Squares, squares, everywhere!

I was inspired by Splitcoaststamper's color challege today. The challenge was to use Eggplant Envy, Certainly Celery, and Ruby Red in a card. I don't have the Eggplant color, so I used Perfect Plum instead.
Since Certainly Celery was one of the colors, I thought it was the perfect chance to make a graduation card for a theatre friend of mine. Her favorite color is green, and she's fond of the number four. So, I used squares in my layout (since she likes 4, I figured squares would be great). There are four squares: two in perfect plum, one in ruby red, and one in white. There are also four square brad stickers in the bottom corner and four dots of Stickles in the top corner. So, I really put some thought into this one! The stamps are all from Stampin' Up!. The background grapevine is from "Stippled Celebrations" and the main image and sentiment are from "Measure of a Life." The saying is from Eleanor Roosevelt and reads "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." I thought that was a PERFECT sentiment for a graduation card, especially when it's for a dear friend of mine who I know will do great things in her life.