Crafty Christmas Stuff

I never got a chance to post all of the Christmas things I made. Mostly it was because I was a slacker and didn't finish everything up until the last minute.

First up is the gift basket I made for my sister. She recently moved out for her first time. And she is realizing that money is a bit hard to come by when you are on your own. So I made her a gift basket full of goodies like toothpaste and brushes, cough syrup, shampoo and conditioner, etc. I put it all in a basket and wrapped some pretty paper around each item to make the basket look a bit more festive.
For my mom, I drew a picture. Since my mom loves polar bears, a found a picture of a momma polar bear and her two cubs that reminded me of my mom, sister, and I. I then framed and matted it for her in a nice frame.


And last but not least for my dad I made a tin holder that was decoupaged with all of his favorite sports teams. This was by far the most time consuming project, but well worth it.


Those are some of the things that I gave away for the holiday season. What did you give away?

More Pictures to Share

Even though I have not been very good at posting, I have been taking pictures.

The first picture is of my BEAUTIFUL Christmas tree BEFORE the cats decided to attack it and knock it down. I had spent 2 hours perfecting everything, making sure the ribbon was laying properly and that the red and silver ornaments were evenly spaced out, only to find it laying in the middle of the floor the next morning. I was not a happy camper!


This picture was taken at Disney on Ice. It is of Alia and Nickolas being their typical goofy selfs. I had them posed just right and then Alia had to put her nacho cheese stained arm on top of Nickolas' head!


This picture turned out very good! It was taken on the night of Nickolas' Christmas program. While the other kids sung along with their class songs, Nickolas' decided to keep time by slapping on his knee. He is growing up to be such a handsome little boy!


This next picture is another one of Nickolas. It was taken on Saturday when April and I were out shopping. Before we went into Target, Nickolas had to play a bit in the red circle that is outside. I had a really good action shot of him jumping out of the circle, but unfortunately it came out blurry :(


And my last picture was from the "Dirty Santa" party last night. This is of Miss Alia and Miss Angel being the goofy girls that we all know and love. I tried to get a nice picture of them, but this is what I got instead!

!

More Photos for December

When I decided to do this challenge, I did not think I would have killer headaches during the first week. So because of that, I am 2 pictures short. I was going to just use pictures that I had taken earlier, but that doesn't fit the challenge and I don't want to cheat. I am going to try to be better at this and better at posting the pictures that I have taken!

Below are the pictures that I took on Friday, Sat

Photo-A-Day - 12.2.2008

So for the Photo-A-Day Challenge, I was inspired by the colors of cardstock that Archiver's has to offer. I love going in there and looking at the colors. It is so hard to buy just one colorwhen you have your "Free Cardstock" coupons that I often buy 5 different colors!

Photo-A-Day Challenge

As I was catching up on my blog readings, I noticed that JessicaSprague.com has posted a challenge. The challenge is to take and post a photo-a-day for the month of December. Since my cameras have not been loved the amount that they should've been this year, I decided that this would be the perfect thing for me to participate in.

So last night, as I was driving home, I got out my trusty diImage camera and took a picture of the dashboard. It's nothing spectacular but it is often the only thing giving off light on my ride home.

Trying to get us in the spirit

As a sign in Michael's said yesterday, there is less than 48 days til Christmas. Can you believe that where has the time gone???


So it try to get in a more holiday spirit, I decided to make some holiday cards and tags this weekend. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of my creations before I took them over to my mom and dad's. Oh well. Next weekend is going to be the great card-a-thon when April and I try to get all of our cards made.


I promise I was take pictures then!

Everyone loves a bit of candy...

...blog candy that is!

And even though I am away on vacation, I thought I would leave you all a few links to win some great goodies. Just click the links below and enter away!

The Inked Spot

Limelight Papercrafts

Stamping with Denise

CAN'T get enough

I was having one of my marathon video tutorial sessions a couple weeks ago when I ran across a YouTube tutorial that would forever change my crafting career! It wasn't a very long video, maybe 3 minutes at the most, but it opened up a whole new product line to me - Cuttlebug dies and embossing folders! I don't know why I thought I couldn't use them. I guess I just thought I needed too many adapters? But boy am I happy I can use the dies and embossing folders now!

I CANNOT get enough of Cuttlebug's Embossing Folders! I only have two (swiss dots & d'vine curls) but they add pop to a card that just looks like it is missing something. In fact, after I used the swiss dots embossing folder on one of my cards my husband said, "That card looks really good. I would buy that one in a store."

The card to the left is the one my husband said that he would buy. I really liked how it turned out too. I have a feeling I will be making a lot cards similar to this one in the future!

Supplies used: ClearDesign: Thinking of You Messages (Hero Arts), Essential Sentiments (MFT), A2 Swiss Dots Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug)

Addicted to Creativeness

First off, let me tell you how addicted I am to the computer. I work behind it for at least 8 hours a day at my "professional" job. And then I come home and relax by getting on my laptop and surfing the web for at least another 2 hours. I just can't help it. There is soo much good stuff out there. I look at over 75 blogs on my Blog Reader - which I have no clue how I ever lived without - and then there are so many great stamp company's out there that always have new stuff that I drool over. And don't even get me started on UTube and the endless amount of great video tutorials there are.

***Side Note - If you are a Photoshop nerd, like I am, check out the "You Suck at Photoshop" videos here! You need to be a Photoshop nerd to completely get it, but even if you are just an amateur Photoshop user, you will laugh at these!

So now onto the card :) This is one of the cards that I put into my Aunt Karen's folder. I wanted to create a unisex birthday card for her to be able to send to anyone celebrating a birthday. Unforunately, I do not think I accomplished the "unisex" part. Perhaps if Iwould have used a present instead of a cupcake it would have been better???

Supplies Used: Birthday Basics Stamp Set (PTI), ClearDesign: Cupcakes Stamp Set (Hero Arts), Summer Sunrise Saddle Stitch Ribbon (PTI), D'vine Swirls Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug)

Happy 50th Aunt Karen

I love making homemade gifts for my family, my friends, and even the friends of my family! So when my mom asked me to make some homemade cards as a birthday present for my Aunt Karen, I said yes!

First Card Folder

Awhile ago I found a wonderful tutorial on SCS that showed how to make a folder that held notecards. I quickly printed it out and made a small set for myself. Unfortunately, this was back when I didn't bookmark things properly, and now I can't find it!

Individual Notecards

Anyways, I decided to make this folder and create 5 different cards for my Aunt Karen to use whenever she needed them.


Unlike the previous set, which is of very bright/summer-like colors, I decided to choose colors that were found in a piece of polkadot paper that I purchased awhile back. All of the cards (which I will show throughout this week) are based on this color scheme. I loved them all and I hope that she did too!

Aunt Karen's Folder

Mosaic of Me

I was on my Blog Reader the other day and came across a neat post from Jen...in a nutshell. What you do is answer a simple 12 question quiz, use your answers to find a picture in flickr (must be on the first page that comes up), and then create a mosaic out of your favorite pictures using Mosaic Maker.


Here are the questions with my answers:

1. What is your first name? Jenn
2. What is your favorite food? Italian
3. What high school did you attend? Fuquay-Varina High School
4. What is your favorite color? Dark Purple
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Matthew McConaughey
6. Favorite drink? Lemonade
7. Dream vacation? Anywhere with a beach
8. Favorite dessert? Ice Cream
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Happy
10. What do you love most in life? Family & Friends
11. One word to describe you? Creative
12. Your Flickr name? don’t have one

And here is my mosaic...1. Jenn's Vintage Lemon Drop Lane Action, 2. Arriving at the Italian Riviera, 3. Sunset over FVHS, 4. Dark Tulip | Second of Three, 5. Matthew McConaughey, 6. pink lemonade, 7. back to my childhood beach, 8. Ice cream, 9. Happy Valley 跑馬地快活谷, 10. FRIENDS HOME FAMILY, 11. creative reading, 12. Perspectives

Working the Weekend

For those of you who don't know, my main money making job is as a graphic designer. There are times when this job requires me to sit all day with my laptop on my lap creating tons of projects for people who are better procrastinators than I am. This just happens to be one of those times. So while I am waiting on something to appear in my e-mail, I decided that now would be a good time to write a quick blog :)

This card I made a few weekends ago was cased from a very talented Rebecca Oehlers. If you have never seen her blog, you really need to go over there. She is such a talented woman!

Well, I told you this would be quick. Now back to my "real" work. Enjoy your weekend, since I will be working through mine :p

Always, Jenn

Lazy Day :)

Don't you just LOVE a lazy weekend?!? No where to go and nothing really needing to be done?!? These days, this kind of weekend is few and far between. I usually have something on my calendar to do or something (mostly chores) that needs to be done. But not today. Today I slept in until 10 (a record for me) and then got up and read some, took a nap (I NEVER get to do that anymore), played with my new obsession (Animal Crossings: Wild World), and then sat and filtered through the 100+ blog entries that are marked as new on my blog reader. I am always at awe at how creative these women are. I just hope that some day my stuff can be half as creative as there's are.
I haven't done any card making today, although I am very tempted to pull it out now even though it is 11:30. I guess I will see how I feel when I finish blogging.

These simple cards are a set of "One Liners" that I made last weekend. They were inspired by some cards that I saw on the C.C. Designs blog. I have a variety of stamps that makes creating this kind of card almost thoughtless.

Well, I guess I will bid you all adeau for now. Hopefully, I will have something new to post tomorrow!

Sweet Dreams All.

Daisy, Daisy...

Hello everyone! I cannot believe that the week is already half way over! I LOVE long weekends. They make the rest of the work week fly by. Only 2 more days and I can spend more time crafting. Until then, I will spend my time pars using the 50+ blogs that I look at each day and find some inspiration! (Yes, I really do have that many blogs on my Blog Reader. I am hopelessly addicted to it!)


The card I am sharing today is one that I made last weekend. It is inspired by Christine Wooden at C.C. Designs. Even though this card has such a simple layout, I absolutely love it. I think is one of the cards that I will be making this weekend! It can be a thinking of you card, a RAK card, or even a birthday card. It all depends what is written inside it.


I hope you enjoy my card today. Thanks for stopping by!

Believe...

I cannot believe that it is already Labor Day and the end of summer. People have always told me that time flies when you get older and boy, is that true. I just don't know where the summer went. All of a sudden Alia is back in school and I am seeing Halloween stuff on all of the store shelves. Even the stamping world is focusing on making Christmas crafts for the upcoming season! It is just hard to get in that fall spirit when it is still 90+ degrees outside. That's North Carolina for you!

I have really enjoyed this long weekend off. Although I have spent some of my time working, I have also had some time card making and I am very excited to show all of you what I have made.

I am going to start with my favorite card of the bunch. This card was inspired by one of Dawn McVey's "Orange on my Brain" cards. They were all so simple and beautiful. I loved the idea of using a monochromatic scheme.

Since most of my cards use at least four colors, stamping in just one color is quite different for me. I decided to use blue for my monochromatic scheme. The flowers I used are from Heidi Grace's Getting Places - Winnefred Street line. The sentiment was created using Hero Art's Small Variety Alphabet. I also used a bit of ribbon and added a some sparkle to the word "believe."

Well, since the day is only half done, I think I am going to spend some mother-daughter time with Alia.

Until next time....

Red & White

My favorite sporting time of year has just began - football and hockey season! And coincidentally my two favorite teams (the NC State Wolfpack and the Carolina Hurricanes) have the same colors. In honor of them, I crafted this card in their colors - red and white!

This card is based on a layout from the Hero Art's blog that was pasted a couple of weeks ago. Are you starting to see a pattern here? I never have time to craft my card the week the layout is posted! There is just not enough time in the week for me which I am sure you can see by my sporatic postings. It just takes such a long time to set up my "crafting space" in the middle of the living room. I use "crafting space" as a very loose term since it consists a coffee table, a big plastic bin and two bags. One of these days I will have a real "crafting space" which I can leave all of my stamps out where I can see them and can give all of my tools a place of there own to live... Ahh, to dream.

Now to the card... This card was started and restarted at least 5 times. I started out making all the small butterflies in the oval shape with the rectangle portion being red and with large butterflies Versamarked on it. That didn't work, so I tried to reverse it and use paisley print stamps Versamarked in the rectangle and the paisley printed butterfly in black on the red CS... Well, you get the idea. The only change I would make, if I could, would to change out the top red ribbon with a solid satin one. All of the stamps that I used are from Papertrey's Butterfly Kisses set. Overall, I am happy with the end result of the card.

Well, that is it for the night. Until next time...

I LOVE Ice Cream!

It is one of my favorite desserts, along with cheesecake. I eat it way too much, but I can't help it. It is one of the little indulgences I let myself have every day or so...

I made this card based on Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #29. I am a couple weeks late, but better late than never. When I saw this sketch, I knew I wanted to use my C.C. Design's Sweet Treats stamp set! At first I made the card on just light blue card stock, but after I added all of the circles, I did not care for how it looked. So, I added the yellow around it. I am still not satisfied with the look, but it is definitely better than before. The circle on the bottom right is placed inside rather than the outside and says "Life is sweet."

The monkey from this set is just too cute. He's just hanging from a tree eating ice cream...

In fact, now that I am thinking about it, I want some :)

Hope your Labor day weekend is nice, long and relaxing!

Always,
Jenn

Inspired by i{heart}2stamp

The new theme for stampers is owls. They are everywhere! Each stamping company that I love have them. I own quite a few, but there is one that I am still drooling over and that is the "Wise Owl" by Alli Miles through Papertrey Ink. I have to practice my patience since it is not back in stock yet which is not easy for me to do.

Anyways, when I saw the cute layout that Jen had for her Trick-or-Treat card I knew that my Q.T. Hooty set by Pink Cat Studio was what I wanted to use on it. On the bottom branch of this stamp there is the sentiment "Bird of a feather HOOT together." I knew I wanted to use it, but I didn't want it there, so I ended up covering the sentiment with a piece of tape and then inking my stamp. Minus the ugly handwriting, I really like the card and I am glad that I got to use my owls!

Taylor's Cupcake Challenge 25

I am really starting to get into this challenge stuff! Unfortunately, by the time my inspiration hits for the card, the challenge is often a few weeks too late. Oh well!

This card is from another of Taylor's Cupcake Challenges. It is number 25 for those of you who want to play along. The center stamp is from C.C. Designs "It's my birthday" set and the cupcakes that are running up the center are from one of G-Studio's $1 sets from Michaels (I think).

I tried 2 or 3 different color combinations before deciding on this one which I think turned out nice!

Birthday Bag

Alia's 9th birthday was a couple of weeks ago. Boy did she get a lot of presents. She is one loved 9 year old. As I was looking at all of the wrapping paper and birthday bags get searched, one bag stood out to me. It had a bunch of presents on it with their little arms waving wildly and along the top of the bag was a pink band with "Pick Me! Pick Me! Pick Me!" all around it. Immediately the light bulb goes off in my head and I know that I need to make a card just like that bag. I love how the card turned out. The vibrant colors just make me happy. I can't remember which stamp sets the presents were from because I have all the "presents" on one page in my stamp binder. I guess I should start storing all of them in CD cases so I know who designed what!

My Crafting Buddy

I just wanted to share a picture with all of you of my crafting buddy :) My kitten Shadow loves to sit in the container, that I store all of my stamps in , while I craft me cards. It makes me smile!

Card Challenges...

I have roughly 50+ blogs that I read thanks to the Blog Reader feature on Google. I always see these women that inspire me doing challenges. I never have the guts to try one because compared to them I am an amateur. But lately, I have had this urge to experiment with some of them.

The first card I created was based off of a layout challenge that Taylor issues every Friday called "Taylor's Cupcake Challenge". You do not have to use a cupcake stamp when creating your card, but you can. This particular layout is Cupcake Challenge Number 23.

The second card I created was based on a quilt picture that Michelle had used over at her blog Mish Mash. She was inspired by the design of the quilt and I was inspired by the colors :)

So I am slowly getting into these challenges, however I think it will be awhile before I actually submit my work for any of them!

July Already????

Can you believe it? It is already July! Time is surely flying. Last night is the first time since the craft show that I got out my stamps just because and did some stamping. My stamping mojo just isn't here at the moment. Hopefully in the next couple days, I will feel a bit more motivated and get to enjoy some of my time off with some creativity. Until then though, I will share a card I made for the craft show. It is not too complicated, but it turned out quite elegantly!

Jerry's Brought My Mojo Back!

So I went to Jerry's Art-o-rama today. If you live in Raleigh and are any kind of artist at all, you MUST go there. It is an artist's haven. Almost anything you could ever need is there. I got lost in the aisles of paint, pencils, and paper. It was wonderful.


As I was wandering through the aisles, my urge to draw returned. This is a HUGE deal because I really haven't picked up a pencil much in the past 8 years. I have drawn a few tattoos, but really not much else. My inspiration just left me. So as soon as that excitement returned, I picked up a brand new sketch book. Sure I have 4 at home, but I thought with such a special occasion I deserved another one. As the night has worn on, I have been working on a hibiscus flower. It is not as nice as I would like it to be, but my drawing skills are a bit rusty. When I have it finished, I will post it.


I want to finish the basic shading before I go to bed, and since it is just past midnight now, I had better stop writing :)

Until the next time!

One Festival Down, One in the Future

I was called something this weekend, that I haven't thought of myself as in a long time... an artist.


When I was in grade school and high school that is what I always thought of myself as, but since I have graduated and moved on to other endeavors it has not crossesd my mind that I am still an artist. It brings me a sense of pride that I am looked at in that way!

Overall the festival this weekend wasn't a successful one monetarily, but it definitely was a learning experience! Next time I will be more prepared and until that time there will be a lot of people getting some cute cards!

Working Hard

Only 2 more days until the big day... My first craft fair! I can't wait. I am working hard making some paper clip bookmarks in all sort of different varieties. I wanted to make more monogram choices, but I don't know if I will get around to it. Plus, I want to make a sign and some business cards for special orders... So much to do and so little time. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day since it's the only night I will have to devote to the cards and such since I will be going out Friday night for my birthday.

Speaking of that, I decided to post a my "Birthday Fishes" card. Not only in honor of my birthday, but also of my husband's birthday (which is today) and my best friend's husband's birthday (which is tomorrow).

Back to work for me!

A "Little One"

Since it is already midnight, I am only going to post a "little one" tonight. This cute baby card was super, duper simple. I had the patterned paper left over from a Mother's Day card that I made last year, I can't remember where I got the cute little baby feet from - but I am thinking that it was a gStudio set, and the sentiment is from Papertrey's Mixed Messages Set.

I am going to try my best to start my "recipe" is for all of the cards I make. Unfortunately, I've never done that before, so these next cards that I post will probably be guesses like this one was.

Until next time...

Mother's Day Cards

I finally got all of my card pictures off my camera! Yea! As I was looking at everything I have made over the past two weeks, I actually have a sense of pride. Even the simplest cards, actually look very pretty. I am so excited for next weekend. Now I just have about 75 more cards to make, 25 more monogram sets, and to figure out pricing. Some of the cards took a couple of hours to make and others took a manner of minutes, so do I price them all differently or keep it all a steady price... Decisions, decisions... I will still have to think about that...

So tonight I have decided to share my mother's day cards (April, if you are reading this at least you will get to see what your card looks like :p). I was going to do a different card for everyone but after I made this card I decided it was too pretty not to give to everyone. I cased it from one of the Papertrey DT members, but alast I did not write down who created it and am being too lazy to track it down.

So now I am off to do some photo restoration work and then hopefully I will fall asleep!

Sweet dreams all.

Work All Day...

That is what I have been doing NON-STOP! Since my mother-in-law has suggested that we set up a booth at a Art Show on June 7th, I have been a card making fool. I have around 78 cards and 20 sets of monogrammed cards. I want to have at least 150 more cards and 30 to 50 more sets of monogrammed cards before the show. So because of that every spare minute is pretty much spent making cards. Which is something that I love, but tomorrow I go back to work so not much "free time."

At least at work I will be able to get the pictures off my camera (since my old computer is sitting in my living room, my artwork is stuck on my camera). I promise I will have some things to share soon. And then since I will have TONS of new cards, I will work on posting more frequently.

Well, I need to work on "Run Central's" ads, so adios for now!

As I Promised...

... so here they are - the cards that I made last weekend!




And let me tell you, for the last hour, I have been looking on some of my favorite card inspiration sites and I am aching to pull all my things out to make more cards. Unfortunately, it is getting late, so I will have to wait until tomorrow.

Up too Late

Well, my crazy husband decided to clean a portion of our bedroom about an hour ago and now he has stuff all over the bed and any portion of our floor. GRRR! I am so sleepy, but if I go into the bedroom I'm going to start cleaning and then I won't be able to go to bed, so I have decided to type a little blog.

This weekend I made a few cards :) It was the first time in awhile that I have felt some inspiration! I'll put them tomorrow. My favorite one has a ladybug on it.

Well, I can barely keep my eyes open, so I think I will curl up on the couch until the bed is cleared off.

Sweet Dreams all!

Gift Cards Galore

I have ALMOST finished my first "order" of gift cards. This weekend I put the final touches on each of them, including stamping a little sentiment on each of the message cards. The last thing I have to do is write/stamp "Avon Gift Card" on them and then I get to hand them over.

This whole experience has motivated me so much. I can't wait until this weekend when I can craft some more!

I'm so excited...

... and I just can't hide it!I FINALLY got my new laptop. YEA! And my wonderful husband has just finished hooking it up to our router, and I have my safety software installed, and best of all my CS3 package is on here. It is running great and I cannot wait to start utilizing it for all that it is worth.

I am also happy to announce that I have received my first crafty order! Someone actually likes my designs! I always hear compliments from my mom and sisters and other family members, but when someone on the outside likes them too... I can't explain it. It makes me feel even more special. So now I have to get to work creating them for her. I have 25 cards to make by the 31st. I think I will end up cutting all the paper to the correct size this weekend and then begin assembling during the week! I have pictures of the cards to share, but needless to say, I do not have them on this computer yet. Don't worry I will soon though!

Today has been a great day!

I love baby gifts...

A close family friend's daughter recently had her baby. She named her Delila Grace :) I love little babies and am a bit jealous that I have yet to have my own baby girl. Maybe someday...

This gave me a chance to make my first baby memory can! I am so proud of it. It came out perfectly for a little girl! I have one more gift up my sleeve for Little Miss Delila, but I have to wait until I get her christening picture to make it.

I hope you enjoy these pictures and they give you some inspiration :)