Half Moon Santa!

Good afternoon,,,,,,,Hope you all are looking forward to a nice weekend. I'm going to have half my house torn apart,,,,,,we're putting in a new bathroom. Currently, I have a vanity, sink, toilet etc sitting in my living room in boxes. Good thing I have a huge living room. And good thing they are bringing the tub/shower when the workmen actually come to do it LOL.

Seeing as how I'm not sure how much I'll be able to scrap this weekend, I decided to go ahead and do my challenge entries this week.

And this week, over at Sassy Cheryl's challenge blog, the theme is SANTA. And boy does Cheryl have some darling santa's to use!

Isn't this one just DARLING? I loved it the minute I set eyes on it, and I had to have it. I tried various paper, and it just didn't seem to go right with the colors I chose,,,so I ended up falling back on plain white cs. I love love LOVE red and lacy white together, so I border punched the three layers each with a different border,,,,,then I die cut some spellbinders lacy motifs which I arranged around Santa to simulate snow flakes. I stamped a Just Rite stamp in the middle of one of the flakes, tied on a bow, a bit of bling, and it's finished! Of course, Santa is colored in copics.

Santa is called "Half Moon Santa" and you can find him HERE at Sassy Cheryl's digi shop!

And he's being entered into the challenge HERE!

Hope you enjoyed, and if you need to finish those last Christmas cards, hop on over to Sassy Cheryl's and enter the challenge,,,,,,you might just win a free digi to help finish off all those cards!

I love challenges!!!!

But I mean, really,,,,,,,,,,WHO doesn't love a chance to win a prize? I know that challenges bring out the best in me, I love having a theme, or a color or a sketch to get my creativity flowing,,,,,,so exactly WHO doesn't like challenges? LOL.

So today, I have a very vintage card with a GORGEOUS Victorian santa that I just could NOT pass up,,,,,I got him at The Graphics Fairy (button to the right), and I just HAD to make a card with him. I loved the turquoise blue in his outfit, so I paired him with some Recollections paper that was turqoise/Aqua, and some that had some gold shimmers. I cut out the key, key hole and flourish on my cricut out of brown paper, then I heat embossed this gorgeous sparkly gold glitter embossing powder, purposely missing some spots so that it would look even more vintage and old. I cut the poinsettia out with my Maryanne die (of course!), and I stamped a Tim Holtz Believe stamp and a crafty Secrets post mark with sepia ink. I then inked EVERYTHING with the archival sepia ink, to really antique it (I love this stuff! I think it does a better job antiquing than even Tim Holtz distress inks!) Finally, I wound some thin strips of paper around a pencil to create the curly q's, and added a gold corner embellishment, and I called him done,,,,,,,not even a RIBBON! So easy, really!

I love him,,,,,,and I'm entering him into the Sugar Creek Hollow challenge this week, which has the theme of "Non-traditional Colors". It's my second entry to that challenge, and needless to say, it's a fantastic challenge that I find myself going back to week after week!!! You can find that challenge HERE!

I'll also be entering him into a challenge I've never tried before! I'm always on the look out for new challenges, sometimes I try them once, and sometimes I'm hooked! But this one sounds like a ton of fun,,,,,It's the Mami Doodles challenge and you can find this challenge HERE!

And finally, one more challenge for this santa! I'd like to enter him into the Simon says stamp challenge HERE! There's a gorgeous photo montage this week for inspiration, so pop on over!

I hope you all have a lovely week,,,,,,,,,it's ALMOST OVER!!!! And stop by and try a few challenges,,,,,you might just get hooked!

Good Morning!!

Who wants a chance to win a free Sassy Cheryl digi, just for doing,,,,,,,what you are doing!

It's not like it's a ton of work,,,,,,,all you have to do is post what you're doing,,,,it doesn't have to be crafty!!!!

and today, mine is NOT crafty,,,,,,I wish it was,,


well, it sort of is,,,,,,,

THIS is my desk at the moment. Yeah,,,,,,,,,what a disaster! Believe it or not, I actually CREATE here LOL. I usually clean when I'm forced to,,,,,,,,like when I can't find a thing I'm looking for,,,,,,,which is where we are this morning LOL. And so my job today,,,,,,,,is to clean this disaster.

soo wish me luck, and if you don't hear from me by Christmas,,,,,,,please send in the National Guard!!!!!!!!!!!!

But whatever you do,,,,,,,,go post what you're doing and maybe you'll win a free digi!!!!!!! Here's the link!

Just ADORABLE little gift cards!

I don't know about you, but if you're anything like me,,,,you give a ton of gift cards at the holidays. Frankly, my kids and grands (especially the boys) love video games,,,,but I never buy them because unless they tell me specifically which ones they want, I'm at a loss,,,,,,,not to mention they have so many game systems, I never know WHICH game system to buy for! And the girls? who KNOWS what style shirt they want??? So I give either American Express gift cards,,,,or Game Stop gift cards,,,or one of a million clothing store gift cards coming out the wahoo.

So I'm ALWAYS looking for new, creative, EASY ways to present them that's a bit more personal than just a gift card. And I tell you what,,this one's a keeper!

I totally STOLE this idea from my friend Melissa. You can find her gorgeous creations HERE! She used this tutorial over at Two Peas here!

And they're ADORABLEEEEE. But I quickly found out that although they're EASY,,they are time consuming. Unless you can get an SVG file and your cutter will cut it, you're pretty much cutting them by HAND because of the curves on them. If I'm making one or two,,,,no problem,,,,,,,,but I need DOZENS of gift card holders for the holidays,,,,,,,

so I put on my thinking cap,,,,and I adjusted this little recipe to my own needs.

I just made square cards,,,,,,,

I used my trimmer to cut a piece of 8.5x11 kraft cs down to a 7 and 1/4 by 41/2 rectangle for my base (this is the same size the cards in the Two Peas tutorial are,,,,i just didn't bother with the curves on the flaps.) I got two out of each piece of paper. Then I cut 2 flaps, 1 at at 2 1/2 X 4 1/4 and the second at 1 1/2 X 4 1/4 out of patterned paper. Again with my trimmer, and simple rectangles.

I scored the Kraft base at 2 1/2 and 5 1/2 (the same place the two peas tut scores), folded on the score lines, ommitted the brads (I HATE brads!), and secured the smaller flap with ATG on the sides only. I glued the smaller patterned paper pieces to the flaps, and I was done,,,,,,,


almost.

I sat looking at the gift card holders thinking that a corner book mark would sit nicely on that corner,,,,,and so I made some! Really, there are tutorials all over split coast stampers and youtube for these, they are ridiculously easy to make.

And so I made some corner book marks and sat them on the corners of the gift card holder,,,,it serves to hold them closed as well, so no closure needed! A nice poinsettia,,,,,or a diecut or a bow on the bookmark, and it's decorated too! The recipient can remove the book mark, then open the gift card,,,,and they will have a decorated book mark to keep as well as the gift card. Easy Peasy, I tell you,,,,,

So in my pics today, you'll see 3 photos,,,,,one is the gift cards I totally CASE'd from Melissa,,,,,one is the square ones I adjusted from her recipe to make them faster and easier to make,,,,,and the other shows the book mark removed so you can see it.

Quick, fast, easy and fun!!!!! Hope you enjoyed, and thanks to Melissa for the awesome ideas!!!!!

Oh,,,,,and for the record,,,,,,my daughter told me all the JUNK in my photos made it look more like Mardi Gras than Christmas,,,,,,,


hmmmmmmmmmm she may be right LOL.

Non-traditional Christmas Colors!

Good morning, everyone! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Mine was full of shopping for a new vanity, medicine cabinet/mirror and toilet for our guest bath that we are re-doing next weekend. Everyone OOOOOOOOOO. Everyone Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. See how jealous you are? LOL, actually, we got a trip to Disney in but it was really crowded so we came home early. I also got a bit of scrappy shopping in to replenish some supplies, and a bit of card making in, so I shouldn't complain!

I have two cards to share today for a challenge.I got this image on The Graphics Fairy (button to the right) and I just love it! Well, the challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow this week is "Non traditional Christmas colors,,,,,,and the challenge at Stamptacular Sunday is blue, brown or black, tan/beige and very limited on the white. You can use any shade of those colors, just limit on the white please. So I whipped up the brown and blue card to enter into these challenges. I then whipped up the blue and tan card because it's just as easy to make two cards as one with the same supplies. I wasn't in love with the blue, but this morning, I am wavering LOL. Who knows what will strike our fancy?

First for the challenge entry card,,,,,,,You can find the Sugar Creek Hollow challenge HERE! It's so much fun,,,,I love vintage! Come on over and give it a try!

You can find the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge HERE! you must use a stamp on the Stamptacular Sunday challenge, and I've used Justrite nested Christmas sentiments on this one. Isn't that such a lovely sentiment? and the fonts are always delicious on Just Rite stamps! I've cut them out with nesties,,,,,,lacy ovals for the blue card and labels 4 for the blue and brown card.

I used my poor neglected cricut quite a bit for these two cards,,,,which really makes me happy since I spent so much money over the years,,,,I found a gorgeous corner embellishement on my gypsy that I have spent good money BUYING in sticker form when I can just CUT ONE, for goodness sake,,,,,I did NOT tell my husband this! LOL.

On the challenge card (brown, blue and cream/tan card) I've printed the image on Kraft paper for a really vintage look, cut fancy corner embellishments and a fancy christmas ornament out of brown, some flourishes out of kraft,,,,,,and then I used my Big Shot to cut two poinsettias with my Maryanne Designs die which I LOVE,,,,,,did you guess?? LOL. My snowflake is a combo of brown, kraft and tan papers and cut with both the cricut and the big shot.

Again, I'm entering this card into both challenges.

Now onto the blue card,,,,,I cut a fancy square doily and the flourishes out of cream paper, and again the poinsettias out of the maryanne die and the snowflake is a combo of cricut cuts and big shot cuts (sizzlet snowflakes).

In both cases, I really think the sentiment just is so elegant, and I think I really love them both!

I do love taking the same stamp and/or the same image and making them very different,,,,,,it's kind of a challenge to myself!

I hope you enjoyed, and thanks for looking! I hope to be back later today with a short post and an easy, adorable gift card holder!

Clean and Simple,,,,,,,,,,,ME???

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you can be pretty sure of one thing,,,,,


Holly does not do clean and simple.


Until now.

You may never see this again,,,,,,,,but here it is,,,,a clean and simple card.

And no one is more surprised than I am,,,,,,,no one.

And I love it. Shock though that may be LOL.

I used my new Marianne Creatables poinsettia die to make three poinsettias, some gorgeous MME paper and a JustRite nature's nested sentiments stamp, and she's done.

I almost feel like I cheated. LOL.

I'd like to enter this into the addicted to stamps challenge,,,,theme of CHRISTMAS CARD. You can find this fun, twice a month challenge HERE!

Thanks for looking, and I hope you enjoyed!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas,,,,,

Good afternooon! It's THURSDAY and it's almost over! One more day til the weekend! I have been having so much fun this week making cards, my mojo has really been in high gear,,,I feel badly dumping all these on you, but the more I make, the better I get, so on to the blog they go :)

I have today a card made with the absolutely DARLING image "Snow Day" by Mo Manning,,,,she had it up for 24 hours as a freebie, and I managed to snag it! (then I bought another one LOL, go figure! Oh well, 2 for the price of one, right??)

She's now three dollars (still a bargain) and you can get her HERE!

I colored her with copics, and used a TON of bling and glitter paper,,,,,,,she's really pretty!!!! I also used my nesties AND my new Marianne Creatables straight edge poinsettias that I had to order all the way from Great Britain,,,,fortunately, they didn't take 3 weeks to get here, but that was the LONGEST 12 days of my LIFE LOL. I wanted them badly!

I stamped some snowflakes in silver, because I wanted them to be very subtle, and I think they are,,,,i wonder if you can even SEE them LOL. The sentiment is a JustRite Christmas nested sentiments,,,,I love them, the fonts are always SO gorgeous!

I'm going to enter her in Mo's Thursday challenge, the theme of which is THE GREAT OUTDOORS, and you can find that HERE! She certainly LOOKS like she's having fun in the great outdoors!

I'm also going to enter her in the Stamtacular Sunday challenge. The theme is ANYTHING CHRISTMAS, and she's certainly very christmassy with her gorgeous sparkly poinsettia. It reminds me of how us children would rush outside on Christmas morning if there was fresh snow,,,,,then we'd run back in to open our stockings by the fire place! Who doesn't think Christmas when they see snow?

You can find the Stamptacular Sunday challenge HERE!

so come on over to one or both challenges, and finish up those holiday cards!!!!!

Have a great day, and thanks for looking!!!!!!!!!!