Candy gifts

Happy Valentines Day!

 Today I'm back to show you the presents I made for the secretaries at my office.  I found this post through Pinterest and really wanted to give it a try.  I didn't want to make a traditionally Valentiney gift for the secretaries- that might be kind of weird- so this seemed like something fun I could use.

I cut three pieces of colored cardstock down to 4x6, and three pieces of white cardstock slightly smaller.  I stamped the sentiments on each of the white cardstocks (using Elle's Studio's Cameron font for the Junior Mints and two different fonts from Lawn Fawn on the other two).  The Junior Mints were so big that I had to use the cardstock to cover the whole box, so to make up for it I traced and cut the word "Mint" with my Cameo.  Then I taped the candies on where they belonged.

To store the candies, I bought this bag from the Silhouette Store.  I used white cardstock to make the bag- be prepared, it takes a few sheets- and then used some patterned paper from the KI Memories Classic Prints paper pad to make the decorative panels.

Background stamping

One of the things I've been doing lately is stamping backgrounds onto cards, and then not putting sentiments on them until it's time to use them.  That way, I can use the cards for whatever occasion comes up to use them for.

The first one of these I made using the "Big Star" wood stamp by Hero Arts.  I stamped all over a piece of white cardstock using Distress Ink- I used Broken China and Chipped Sapphire.  Then I cut it down to fit on a piece of navy cardstock.  There's plenty of room on the bottom right corner for me to stamp a sentiment in blue when the time comes.  I'm planning to enter this card at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge- Anything Goes challenge this week.

The second card I made using the "Bokeh Builder" clear stamp set from Studio L2e.  I used a combination of all of my various yellow, orange, and reddish colored ink pads- mostly they were stamped with Hero Arts "Butter Bar," "Orange Soda," and "Pale Tomato."  I also added in a few stamps here and there with Memento inks, too, though.  Then I cut it down, matted it with a piece of orange cardstock, and put them onto a white cardstock base.  I figure that I can stamp a sentiment in black or another dark color pretty much anywhere on this page.

So there you go- a way to add a few cards to my stash that are more likely to get used and not just sit in there!

I'm still here

Whoa, I just realized it's been a MONTH and an HALF since my last post!  What happened?  Well, Christmas vacation happened- we took a fun trip to Niagara Falls for awhile in there, plus family and friend get togethers, etc.  Also, a bathroom renovation that took a wrong turn and turned into a complete redo of the plumbing for the bathroom AND laundry room (which is directly behind the bathroom)...and still isn't done.  Last, a lot of my crafting has been Project Life and scrapbook pages, which tend to be more personal and aren't things that I necessarily want to share online.

ANYWAY, as a peace offering, here are the official 2014 Christmas cards.  I found a print on Pinterest, traced it into my cameo, and cut it out.    I used some kraft cardstock for the bases, then white cardstock on top of that, and then either red or green for the top layer.  Clean and simple.  The hardest part was all of the tiny pieces inside of the letters like "a" and "e."

I've also made a few card bases with some of the stamps I got for Christmas, but they don't have any sentiments on them yet because that allows me to use them for whatever situation comes up that I want to use them for.  I'll try to get a photo of those and get them up soon.

Happy December!

Last year, I bought this Silhouette Advent Calendar when I saw it on sale (this year I bought the Advent Shadow Box...I'm still anxiously awaiting its arrival).  I've been so excited to get a chance to use it!  I decided to make a fun advent calendar full of delicious dog treats for Sophie- one treat each day of December until Christmas!

I started out with the gift bags that I used in this post without the pieces that made the heads, shrunk it down, and cut off the edges where the face would be attached.  I had a lot of fun picking out Christmas papers that would go well with each other and placing them so that there weren't two next to each other.  I made it a few weeks before Thanksgiving, and the treats aren't making grease spots on the paper like I was afraid of, so I'm very happy.  I taped on some numbers from a die cut pack I got from Michaels last year.

I'm keeping this in the craft room, so hopefully I at least stop in each day to give Sophie her treat.  Shhh...don't tell her- her Christmas present this year is the rest of the box of treats.

I made cards!

Whaaaaat?  I know, it seems like forever.  But suddenly, we had gift cards to go to our nephews (one for his birthday, the other as a Christmas present) and I was like "I need cards!"

The first card, I made for our older nephew's birthday in January.  We'll be seeing them at Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd pass it along to his mom to take home with her, taking the usps out of the equation.  He's into Monsters Inc right now, so I used these freebies from SVG Cutting Files.  The paper is all from my scraps file, believe it or not!  Way to use up those scraps of paper!  And the sentiment is from an old Pink by Design stamp set called Guess Who?  I'll be entering my Monsters, Inc card into the Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenge- Anything Goes.

The second card is for our younger nephew, who is too young to appreciate toys for presents (4 months!) and whose parents said that he already had everything he ever needed.  We figured a gift card for Christmas would help them out with anything they might need to buy him.  For his card I pulled out the Cricut and used Create a Critter 2.  Again, all of my paper was from the scraps file.  I used a sentiment from Jaded Blossom's Puppy Love stamp set.

Life is good with Sophie

I'm still here!  I've been spending a lot of my crafty time lately doing pocket page scrapbooking.  Unfortunately, due to my career, it's important for me to keep a lot of my private life private, so I can't really share those pages here.  Instead, here's a cute picture of Sophie and a scrapbook page I made using some Simple Stories cards, a flair and paw from (I think) Queen and Co, a sticker from...somewhere...and a button from BasicGrey.

I like the simplicity of this page both in the design and the colors.  It wasn't really a page about a story I wanted to tell, just a picture I liked and wanted to capture.

Kraft card

Long time, no see, right?  I've come to the conclusion that my life is in a place right now where I have to forgive myself if I sometimes go a week and a half without a blog post.  Sometimes other things have to come first, and if those things are making me feel overwhelmed, I find my time in my craft room being more like "organize and stare at your supplies" than "create something amazing."  And that's ok.

Anyway, I was able to make this card during some free time last week.  Since I've been spending more time organizing than creating, I've found a few things tucked away that I'd like to get used.  One of those was a pack of die cuts that I bought from Michaels once upon a time.

I started with a white background and a kraft mat.  I found a few pieces of washi tape (another supply that needs to start getting used more) that matched the die cut, and wrapped them onto the mat in a pattern.  Then I just adhered the die cut.  Super simple, but the detail in the die cut doesn't need a big fancy background, which was the thought process when I was buying them.

I'll be entering this card into the Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenge Blog challenge called Get Crafty and Use Kraft.