Get Well Soon card with CTMH Springtime, True Happiness, Say It in Style

I needed a "feel better" kind of card the other day for a friend who is under the weather.  Weather, weather...hmmmm....I know!  I'll use my new umbrella stamp!  (Yes, that really is how I think.)  I've mailed off the one for my friend but I whipped up a couple of copies to have in my stash of cards.  I try to make two or three of each card when I come up with a design that I like.  That way I can put them in my personal stash for use or give them away as prizes at parties.

The clouds are from the set True Happiness mixed with the rain drops and umbrella from Springtime.  I really like that Springtime comes with three different patterns for the umbrella so you can make a more masculine card easily by using the plaid or dotted pattern.  The rain drops were given a little dollop of liquid glass to give them shine and the umbrella got the same treatment for some added dimension.  I was trying to keep it fairly flat for mailing so the only big bump is the button on this card and they usually go through the mail pretty good.

For those of you who do mail out handmade cards, one of the tips I've used is to take a paper towel or paper napkin and place it over the "bumpy" parts to help keep the envelope from ripping.  I send cards across country to my family back east and they've all come without damage so far using that technique. 

Here is a close up of the liquid glass on the rain and umbrella.  I've picked out the pattern in the umbrella with some gel pens to give it some more dimension and the button above has a rub on placed on top.

Here is a more masculine version using the dotted umbrella pattern.

Materials Used:

Paper:  Heavenly Blue B&T (retired) but Caboodle would be a good subsitute, Gray Wool CS, White Daisy CS

Stamps:  Springtime, True Happiness, Say it in Style

Inks:  Gray Wool, Heavenly Blue, Black, Topiary (green umbrella), Sunflower (yellow umbrella)

Other:  Liquid Glass, Summer Craft Button, Autumn Flowers (retired), Metal Brad, Connection Club Rub Ons, Gel Pens (from Costco)

Elegant Thinking of You card with CTMH You're Adored and Noted Backgrounds

I have my lovely playgroup ladies coming over for a crop night tomorrow night and have to do all my cleaning today as I volunteer in my youngest kiddo's class room tomorrow morning and have physical therapy with him right after school.  So while I should be doing all my cleaning and a bit of baking I'm up here playing around on my computer instead.  Ah well, I guess I'll just have to speed clean later...

This is a lovely card I lifted from my copy of Card Creations: Start to Finish, Volume 2 that I won (yipee!) from the Paper Crafts Connections blog along with a Technique Tuesday stamp set!  I was so excited to win this prize as I love Paper Crafts magazine and their books are always full of fun ideas.  I pulled this card from one of pages as I needed a "thinking of you" card for a friend whose mother is ill.

The second shot shows what the inside card looks like (I made another one as I wrote on the inside of this card before I took a picture!).  I really like the simple elegance of this card and am looking forward to including it in my "friendship" cards workshop coming up next month.

Materials Used:
Paper:  Brown Bag and White Daisy Cardstock
Stamps:  Noted Backgrounds, You're Adored, Thinking of You (retired) but Say it in Style would be good too
Ink:  Black, Brown Bag (stamped image under the clear buttons)
Other:  Clear Buttons, Liquid Glass, Ribbon (from Michael's Crafts), Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch

Took a break for Mid-winter Break

Hi everyone!  As you can see I took a break for mid-winter break with my kids.  We had so much fun this week hanging out, making homemade pizza for my hubby's birthday, playing video games, cleaning up the garden beds for spring, playing at the park and in general enjoying eachother's company.  My daughter and I were also able to do martial arts classes together this past week - one of our favorite things to do together!  It was a very busy but relaxing week of fun for us all but now they are back at school (boo-hoo - those who know my family know I LOVE vacation time with my kiddos and am always sad to send them back to school).

I've also been doing a bit of picking up, organizing and re-arranging in my craft room.  It was a complete and total disaster.  So much so that I earned the "pick up your room" doorhanger from my kids!  I made this one during a class well over a year ago and I hang it on the messiest bedroom as a gentle tongue-in-cheek reminder that its time to pick up.  Daughter is usually very tidy in her room and most of the time winds up helping her brothers pick up theirs (yep, you read that right - she actually HELPS them pick up their rooms - man, I love that kid!).

One of the BIG things on my to-do list has been to organize all my embellishments.  Wow, you can REALLY stock up on a whole lot of embellishments in a couple of years!  I've been thinking that a COLOR system would be much better for the way I craft so I spent several evenings sorting ALL of my bits and bobs into several clear shoe-box bins.  I now have a bin for:
Whites, Pinks, Reds, Blues, Greens, Yellow/Orange, Purple, Brown/Black, Sparkles and Pearls and Metallics along with bins for adhesives, small alterables and tools.  What a difference this is going to make for me!  I always think of my cardstocks by color names but when it comes to embellishing I often just know I want a purple something here or a pink ribbon there.  Here is a quick picture of what my bins look like now.

I'd love to hear stories of how YOU organize your crafting stuff!  Do you have one big bin?  Storage drawers? Do you go by color?  Brand?  Leave a comment and share with me what you do to control your crafting chaos - I still need lots of help!  Seriously - the "clean your room" is STILL on my door!

Happy Valentine's Day!

For my final Valentine's Day project I'm showing the 4 personailzed chocolate boxes I made for each of my family members.  How fun are these?!?  The Hershey Nuggets fit just perfectly in the box and I was able to crank these out pretty quickly last night. 

I think the best part about being a crafty mom is how much my family appreciates that little bit of extra love that goes into their homemade gifts.  I appreciate the fact that once again I was able to do a holiday on a shoestring budget!  Thanks so much for joining me on my Valentine's Day Countdown!  I hope you had fun and were inspired to make something with the heart for your loved ones this year!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! 

Valentine's Day Countdown Day #11 - Folded Frame BOY Card with CTMH You Rock and So Lucky

My youngest was lamenting (okay, complaining) about the "girly-ness" of Valentine's Day.  He was downright offended that there weren't more BOY Valentines out there.  In honor of my 8 year-old-everything-must-be-fair child I bring you this BOY Valentine.  Not mushy, not flowery, heavily ORANGE (his favorite color) and just right for one of my favorite people in the whole wide world.  The sentiment is so very, very true - we are so lucky to have him in our lives.

Materials Used:

Paper:  You Rock (my all-time favorite!)

Stamps:  So Lucky

Inks:  Indian Corn Blue, Goldrush

Other:  Outdoor Denim Twill Ribbon

Valentine's Day Countdown Day #10 Card with CTMH So Lucky, Delight in Everything, Togetherness, Treasures, February Word Puzzle, April Word Puzzle

This card has a whole heck of a lot of stamps on it - probably not my record for a project but a whole bunch for one little 8x3.5" card!  I just LOVE textured cardstock (I used it for both the Bubblegum front and the White Daisy stamping area on the front of this card).  When you stamp on it, there is an almost woven quality to the image, if you sand it the white core pops through beautifully, it has a nice rich hand and the back is a lighter shade so you get two colors on each sheet just perfect for tone-on-tone!  On the pink background I stamped the string of hearts first and then used some sandpaper to bring out the white edge and a little peek of white texture through.

If you like to get FREE stuff and support a GREAT cause, then hop over to my website!  For every package of Textured Cardstock you purchase you'll get ONE FREE AND $2 will be give to Operation Smile's emergency work in Haiti!  Click here to check it out!  Its good from now until the end of February and $2 will do a whole lot of good work in Haiti and there is NO LIMIT on the number of packages of textured cardstock you can buy to get one free!

Materials Used:
Paper:  Bubblegum Textured Cardstock, White Daisy Textured Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock
Stamps:  So Lucky, Delight in Everything, Togetherness, Treasures (retired), February Word Puzzle (retired) April Word Puzzle (retired)
Inks:  Watermelon, Hydrangea, Dutch Blue, Ocean, Topiary, Sunflower
Other:  Topiary marker, Watercolor Pencils (slight color to the inside of the leaves and stems), wee bit of Orange ribbon from the craft store

Valentine's Day Countdown Day #9 Card with CTMH Soul Mates, Priceless Word Puzzle and That's Amore

Sorry for missing a couple of days on our Valentine's Countdown - I've had some very sick kiddos for the last couple of days.  We just got caught up on school work and grades from when they were down with different viruses as couple of weeks ago.  They were all three back in school today (YEA!) so I was able to do a bit of crafting. 

Its possible that I am addicted to this type of display card.  These are so fun to make and so impressive to view!  I love that I can set this on a shelf for display through Valentine's Day or I can save it to give to my hubby.  The sentiment inside says it all - truly, madly, deeply.  Pretty much sums up how I feel about him after 20 years of marriage.  He really is just an all around great guy, my best friend and a terrific Dad. 

Materials Used:

Paper:  That's Amore Level 2

Stamps:  Priceless Love, Soul Mates Word Puzzle, True Friends (January Stamp of the month)

Inks:  Tulip, Chocolate

Other:  Liquid Glass (dots on the frame) and Sakura Stardust Jelly (tracing over the words)

Valentine's Day Countdown Day #6 Card with CTMH Love Always, Noted Backgrounds and Key to my Heart

Today's card uses the same paper set and basic elements (a heart and a big flower) as yesterday's card.  I wanted to show how easy it is to take a couple of the same elements but make different cards.  The sentiment has been stamped in Chocolate and then I went over the letters with Liquid Glass - the needle point tip allows you to follow writing or make very small details - love it!  I again stamped the heart with our Noted Backgrounds set but this time in Chocolate.

Materials Used:
Paper:  Key to my Heart (retired)
Stamps:  Love Always, Noted Backgrounds
Inks:  Chocolate
Other:  Colonial White Ribbon, Liquid Glass, Pearls (Connection Club reward)

Valentine's Day Countdown Day #5 - Card with CTMH Struck by Love, Noted Backgrounds and Key to my Heart

This card uses a paper pack called Key to my Heart which is now retired but I love that Tulip, Sorbet and Creme Brulee color mix!  Very romantic when you add some lacy ribbon and pearls...  The large heart was traced onto Tulip cardstock using the negative space from our Hearts Dimensional elements.  After I cut it out I stamped it in Tulip using the word block in our Noted Backgrounds stamp set - a new one I'm really enjoying!  The paper rose was hand made and the leaves simply freehand cut.  I think my favorite thing on this card is that lovely sentiment stamped in Tulip on Creme Brulee - it looks so old fashioned!

Materials Used:
Paper:  Key to my Heart (retired)
Stamps:  Struck by Love, Noted Backgrounds
Ink:  Tulip
Other:  Colonial White Ribbon, Pearls (former Connection Club reward)

Valentine's Day Countdown Day #4 Card with CTMH Daydream, Happy Endings, Solo K

Day #4

Just 10 more days left!  Now is the perfect time to get your cards ready for the mail!

This is a sweet little card I lifted from another talented CTMH consultant who posted last year on our consultant bulletin board (if this is your design please post here for credit!).  I just LOVE that little froggie!  The mushroom and frog are embossed with Black embossing powder and then colored in with our Watercolor Pencils.

Materials Used:
Paper:  Daydream Level 2
Stamps:  Happy Endings, Solo K
Inks:  Versamark, Black
Other:  Black Embossing Powder, Watercolor Pencils, Blending Pen

Valentine's Day Countdown Day #3 Card with CTMH That's Amore and You're Adored

Day #3

A simple, sweet Valentine for Day #3!  The ruffle is a paper strip that is folded back and forth on a line of strong adhesive.

Materials Used:
Paper:  That's Amore Level 2
Stamps:  You're Adored
Inks:  Chocolate
Other:  Sparkles

Valentine's Day Countdown Day #2 Card with CTMH That's Amore and Bee Mine

Day #2

Are you getting excited for Valentine's Day?  I'm sure the next two weeks will fly by so I hope you'll find lots of inspiration for some quick and easy Valentines in my posts over the next several days!  I'm looking forward to working with my youngest (last one in Elementary School) on the Valentine's for his class.  He kind of wants to do the same valentine as last year but we'll see what he comes up with when we sit down to play! 

This card features the Petite Perks Bee Mine set from Close to my Heart.  What's sweeter than honey?  Getting that set for FREE!  If you want to get a set for your very own then schedule a party with me now through April 30th and I'll give you a set for FREE!  If you aren't local but would still like to get your hands on a FREE set, just send me an e-mail at paigedolecki (at) yahoo.com and I'll let you know how YOU can a FREE set too!

 

Materials Used:

Paper:  That's Amore Level 2

Stamps:  Bee Mine Petite Perks, Love is in the Air (from Topstitch Basic Workshop Kit - dotted swirl)

Other:  Chocolate Grosgrain Ribbon

Valentine's Day Countdown Day #1 with CTMH Whoo Loves You and Magic Moments

This is a cheery and non-traditional Valentine to start off our countdown to Valentine's Day!  I'll be posting Valentine's Day projects up through the 14th to get us all in the mood for the festivities! 

Sorry for the slanted picture on this one.  A light box is on my list of things I need for my craft room!

Materials Used:
Paper:  Magic Moments Level 2
Stamp:  Whooo Loves You, Simple Stitches
Ink:  Hollyhock, Cocoa
Other:  Hollyhock Ric Rac