A few Valentines for the kids

I love making cards for my niece and nephew. It helps to justify the cutesie animal stamps and QK dies I've amassed over the last year. Somehow, I don't think my 15 year old son would appreciate that love bug card. Just a guess. I did, however, think the $ stamp from JoAnn's with the elephants was less-cutesie and paired it with some BG Blush and QK(of course) to come up with a card for him. It's kinda fun giving him handmade cards now. He sees how much time and effort I put in to them and he's actually really appreciative. I never would've seen that coming from him. That's not to say that he doesn't constantly question my obsession with this hobby though.

The love bug card uses another one of those cute $ stamps from Michael's this time and the BG Bittersweet. There's a little bit of QK (be mine) and a little bit of Sizzix (hearts) on there too, some $ ribbon and an MS border punch. On the wild for you card I used a $ giraffe stamp from Imaginesce ,a couple of QK alphas, and a combination of BG Blush and Bittersweet. Do you see a trend here?? Those $ stamps ROCK.

If you do pick up the elephant stamp at J's, be forewarned--you have to color it in FAST with markers and it's not easily done. After stamping the image, I filled it in better with prismacolors.

Spreading Some Love...

One of my most anticipated moments in recent years happened on my birthday a few weeks ago and what did I do?? I forgot to blog about it. I finally entered the wonderful world of dslr's!!! I've dreamt about a camera like this for YEARS. After tons of research and paws-on handling in the stores, I decided on the Canon Rebel XS and it didn't disappoint! I can't say enough awesome things about this camera. I know it's just the beginning of my journey into real photography, and I'm so happy I went with a Canon. I have a wishlist a mile long of the new glass I want and a very cool hiking bag to protect and bring my new pal around with me on our hiking adventure this summer. I can't believe what I've been missing all these years!!

Ok, enough gushing about the new toy--time for some Valentine's cards. I'm still learning the camera but the pics I can get of projects now are already so much better. I don't, however, have a good lighting situation and I sold my ott-lite last year. Really wish I hadn't done that now. I have a pseudo-lightbox setup that's working nicely but still using halogen lights so forgive the icky color-cast. I promise it's not the XS's fault ;)

Here's a card inspired by a sketch on SCS and using a little bit of everything. I absolutely love the new BG Bittersweet line and I'm SO not a pink girlie girl. Of course, being the Quickutz freak that I am, I like to mix these two manufacturers so the ribbon heart is QK punched from velvet paper and the alphabet is the new QK Storybook (SUPER CUTE font!!!). I used the smallest Nestabilities Labels One and then for the mat, I just traced around the Nestie and cut it out with scissors. The next size Nestie up from this one just produces too big of a mat for me.

The scalloped square was made with the long scalloped rectangles Nestabilities. For whatever reason, I just haven't gotten around to buying the scalloped squares and found the rectangles can easily serve double-duty in a pinch. I added a little trim on the bottom using the Martha Stewart lace valentine border punch and finished the card with some American Crafts $ ribbon from Michael's and some rhinestones.

Oh, one last tip--if you are lucky enough to get your hands on that MS border punch, the little hearts it punches out and leaves behind are so cute to use as accents here and there. That's what I used under "love".

In Answer to a Question on 2Peas

Here are pics of our kitchen remodel. A girl on 2Peas asked for input on kitchens with white cabinets and how to deal with them and I can remember just hating these cabinets when we moved in and at a total loss as to where to go with it. I hope this inspires her to work with what she has. It can truly be beautiful and fresh looking. I'll never go back to oak.

Looking back, I'm amazed we even bought this house with the kitchen looking like this. Jeff and I completely remodeled our previous house in El Paso to our tastes and had such a good time with it, I guess we wanted to do it again. I don't recommend buying a house with ANY wallpaper. Never again.

I do love my kitchen now. It's bigger than any other we've had with tons of cabinets. My plans are to rip out the awful white laminate countertops and install a brown/black fleck granite but we have to wait and see what Jeff's retirement holds for us.

Happy New Year!

Now that the holidays are behind us and things are quieting down, I found some time to scrap again.woohoo!! It was a really good scrappy Christmas and I've been looking forward to playing with some new toys. The first was my new Cricut Storybook cart. I just LOVE this font! I cut it a few times and layered them together and then used SU! iridescent ice ep to make my own glittery thickers.

I know some of you might ask "why would you scrap pics of your dirty laundry and washer??" And I say--why not?? It was a really stressful time for us(well, primarily me) when our old one crapped out and we(again, me)had to research new washers and make a choice and then await the glorious delivery day. Everything went as planned, until the machine was unloaded from the truck and unboxed with a HUGE dent in the front. Yikes. I just couldn't accept it. I'm a perfectionist and let's face it--the new front loaders are BIG cash. So, they loaded my old one on the truck and the new dented washer along with it, and I was left with nothing. No washer for 2 weeks. I think I actually shed a tear when my I saw my old one sitting up there staring down at me asking "what did I do wrong? why do I have to go?". Crazy, I know. I was attached. We had that washer since day one of our marriage and it's made at least 7 military moves with us. It's been like family.

Well, I got over it. The new one is truly a thing of beauty (when it finally arrived dent-free). But I knew the LO I did of this really had to be about my feelings about saying goodbye to the old one.

Hope everyone had a relaxing and wonderful holiday and you get back to scrapping again too!

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Twelve

Woohoo!! It's finally over! I finished it with a card that just replaced the reindeer cards as my favorite for this year. I'll have to cram them in on the mantel now. This little cottage scene was made again with the Cricut Noel cartridge. I have had so much fun with this cart, it's totally renewed my respect for this machine. In fact, I think I'm running out in a few to buy another cartridge I've had my eye on!

The background is the SU! Top Note die using some BG Figgy Pudding(also used behind the scene with some SU! dsp) and I stamped the Santa postage with SU! Winter Post stamp set in versamark and then rubbed some Pearl ex over top. It worked FABULOUS! I'm so slow, I never thought of doing that before for a subtle image. Then I embossed a PTI sentiment in gold and added MS coarse glitter and some light accenting with Prismacolors on the cottage and trees. A little bit of SU! Alpine Originals ribbon finishes it off.

Hope you enjoyed the cards this year. It's been a challenge for sure. I'll be checking in soon with some birthday cards to share!

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Eleven

Today's card uses the MS branch punch again and this idea was one I borrowed from Mandy (mmferg) on SCS. I scored a piece of white cs along the outside and sadly, did this using my Fiskars paper trimmer. I'm really, really hoping Santa brings me a Scor-Pal this year :) It works in a pinch though. The little ornament is from the Quickutz Jolly holiday set this year and I embossed it through the Cuttlebug and added some MS glitter and gold cording as a hook. The alpha is Quickutz Rollerskate. Sweet, simple, with a little bit of bling.

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Ten

With only 2 cards left to make in my little self-imposed challenge--I've found my favorite. I just love this card. I tried out the coolest thing today making this one. I bought a stamp and stick gluepad back in February and finally figured out what to do with it. It works amazing with glitter!

This little reindeer is one of the to-die-for reindeer on the Cricut Noel cart I was talking about a few posts ago. He's the whole reason I caved and bought a Cricut cartridge. I think he's gorgeous and maybe I'll have to make this card for myself and place it on my fireplace mantel with the rest of my cards! I guess I'll skip mailing it to myself :)

Here's the supplies used:
Cricut Noel cart
MS glitter
Palette stamp and stick gluepad
BG Figgy Pudding paper
American Crafts ribbon
PTI stamps
SU! Baroque motifs stamps
Powder Keg embossing powder
SU! Top Note die

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Nine

Here's a card using an idea that's been showing up on SCS and blogs lately. This MS branch punch has got to be one of the best punches out there. There's so many things you can do with this one.



Supplies used:
MS branch punch
Cuttlebug snowflakes embossing folder
silver trim from M's
PTI stamps
MS glitter
red ribbon from M's

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Eight

I did the unthinkable last weekend and bought another Cricut cartridge. It's not that I hate this machine--it just doesn't fit my style most of the time. I did find this really cool Christmas cartridge with reindeer to-die-for and this flourish tree I used on today's card. Sometimes the Cricut does serve a purpose in my crafting. If you pick this one up, be forewarned--they don't cut very well under 2 1/2 inches and your speed needsto be on the lowest setting.

Here's the supplies I used:
Cricut noel cartridge
MS glitter
PTI stamps(sentiment)
Cuttlebug swiss dots folder
Michaels ribbon

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Seven

So my great idea of posting a card a day for 12 days hasn't exactly worked out and I'm a little stressed as mailing day approaches. I've also taken on a few going away gifts that I do for soldiers leaving my hubby's unit and that's going to slow down my card making too. Yikes!

So, to save some time, I'm not going to post all the little details on these. I'll just give a list of supplies that I used. If you have any questions about anything just leave me a comment :)

stamps~Wal-Mart
paper~BG Figgy Pudding, SU! Wintergreen dsp
ribbon~SU! Alpine Originals
other materials used~ Quickutz Moxie, MS snowflake punch, piercing tool,Prismacolors,SU! scalloped border punch, brads, MS glitter