Am I hard core now?

Happy New Year everyone! Tonight I went out to dinner in honor of the holiday, but I have also completed a card for my first-ever blog sketch challenge--does this make me hard core? I am not sure. This challenge comes from the Mish Mash blog by Michelle Wooderson, who called tonight's event Hip to be Square for those of us not going out and partying down into the middle of the morning.

Here is my entry for tonight's challenge. The photos were taken with my new OTT light, which was purchased at Tuesday Morning for just $24.99. I think that's a deal based on comments I have read about these lights. It helped immensely! I have never been able to take pics at night before!

The inspiration for the entire card came from the scraps of flowered scrapbook paper, which I thought were very festive for the holiday. The cardstock is the rustic white from SU! along with some Baja Breeze from last year. I believe the green checkered paper is the Wasabi designer series paper from SU! as well. Everything was put together and then I finished it off with a sentiment from the Paper Tray set from PTI. I added glitter to accent some of the flowers on the patterned paper, as well as some pearl stick-os from Memory Box and some pins behind the pumpkin SU! ribbon. Voila!

Here is another angle--I was trying to catch the glitter-action:

Happy thoughts for the New Year to everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Here is the card that I mass-produced for friends and family this year. I totally cased it from Nichole -- yes, I copy her work a lot. But there is a difference! She posts one card at a time, I made one hundred...and since I am a statistician in my full-time job, I feel completely comfortable justifying this by saying there's power in numbers. Ha!

Have you ever seen so many buttons in one place at one time? I haven't, that's for sure. The photo above is of my assembly line, just prior to completion.

This is a picture of everything before it was stuffed into envelopes and hauled to the post office. I think by now the postmen know me by name.

Here is a close-up of the actual card, with instructions to follow:

Everything on this card is from PTI. The stamps set are Giga Guide Lines (for the berry sorbet colored patterned paper in the background), Background Basics Text Style II (for the cream colored text on the kraft paper) and Holiday Button Bits (on the vanilla cardstock). The colors are Spring Moss, Kraft, Vintage Cream, Berry Sorbet, and Melon Berry, along with Dark Chocolate for the sentiment. The twine is also from PTI.

From those who have already received their cards, I have gotten some questions.... Yes, I started with blank paper. And no, I didn't rip the buttons off a J. Crew sweater (apparently some of the buttons in the mix are from J. Crew?). Yes, they took some time. :)

This year has been really wonderful. Everyone here at home is healthy and happy. Work continues to challenge me and reward me. And this craft gives me a great way to wind down, relax and escape from the computer when I need to.

Happy Holidays to everyone, and thanks for stopping by.

The nerve of some people's children

That's right folks! My friend had the nerve to be born a few days before Christmas, and this just totally wreaks havoc on my card-making schedule. Every year, the glee of finishing and mailing my Christmas cards is followed by panic upon realizing I have so little time to get a card in the mail for my friend. But she is the best and never seems to mind that my card is late. Here is the card that I made for her this year:

I had the idea of using my flower punches to punch out some flowers, but I wanted the flowers to have some OOMPH...so I stamped a sample of patterns from my PTI collection. Can you identify which images come from which sets? Here's a hint, the patterns are from Fall Elegance, Text Boxed, and Polka Dot Basics. The flourish is from Fancy Flourishes--this was stamped in Versa Mark and then I rubbed some shimmery lavender chalk over it. On everything else I used Rich Razzleberry from SU!. The paper is PTI's white cardstock, but the purple shades are pale plum and rich razzleberry from SU!. Here's a closeup of the popped-up flowers and the shimmery flourish:

So, Birthday Girl, if you are reading this, HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS to you, and please act surprised when you get this in the mail. Oh, and by the way, something else should arrive for you on Wednesday. ;)

Where has all the time gone?

Sorry to all for not updating the blog in such a long time! This has been a very busy month. It all started with a trip to New Orleans for work. What a fabulous place! The food and music are amazing, and the conference wasn't half bad, either. While I was there, some friends took me out for my birthday and we had a lovely time. It was the first time I wasn't with family for my birthday, so I had been sad about that until my friends really made me feel like I was at home.

The other reason why I have been so busy is that I had to mass-produce close to 100 Christmas cards this year. I will post that card later, but today I finally mailed them and I am so relieved! I am sitting here watching a movie now. The Christmas tree is on, and it's all very cozy. Here is our tree this year!

Here are some other holiday cards to get you in the Christmas spirit, in case you aren't already!

This first card is one that I cased from Nichole Heady's blog. I love her blog. It's one of my favorites! The sets are Giga Guidelines and Holiday Buttons Bits from PTI. The paper is from SU!, as is the ribbon.

This card was inspired by the printed paper, which was purchased at Michael's. I love the green and the blue together! All I had to do was use Martha's Stewart's double scallop punch along the bottom edge of the patterned paper, and mount it on some blue and green cardstock. I can't quite remember, but I am pretty sure the blue is Enchanted Evening from PTI and the green is Garden Green from SU!. Lastly, I finished it all off with the sheer ribbon and the snowflakes, which were punched from white cardstock using a Martha Stewart punch. The pearls are from SU! and the sentiment is from the PTI set called Snowfall Additions.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a great week!

Felt flower thank you

I have made a few versions of this card over the last few months, I think it is a great way to use the SU! felt flowers. I started with yellow and orange cardstock, to which I mounted the white cardstock covered with the felt flowers. A few of the flowers have a brad in the center, but the brad can also be replaced by a rhinestone or pearl embellishment. The ribbon separates the bottom portion of the card where I stamped the sentiment (from PTI's Everyday Button Bits) in old olive ink...I think I found this ribbon at Michael's...really fast, and really cute! Makes a lovely birthday card too.

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by to check out my work!