MFT Stamps Christmas Card Sets

Holy. Moly. Has it really been over a year since I last posted in here?! I can't believe I haven't found the time to come back and let you all know what I've been working on!

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I no longer have a craft room. A few months ago I decided that just because I didn't have my own craft room anymore, that didn't mean I had to give up completely! I still posted projects every once in a while, but nothing big, and I mostly did it through Instagram since it is so much easier to post a project then write up an entire blog post! I realize that not everyone has instagram though, so I am hoping to share more on here now that I've got everything set back up! Now that the days are a lot cooler, it is easier to just craft here in the garage, so I've got everything out again and am happy to say that I've spent the last month or so happily crafting again!

Which brings me to what I would like to share today. I ordered the MFT Jingle All the Way and Santas Elves last year but didn't get to use them too often. I brought them out again this year because they are just too darn cute! I made 2 card sets. Each set is exactly the same, and I loved the layout of this card here and decided to give it a try.

I used different sentiments from Hero Arts and Recollections stamp sets. I stamped all the images with Versafine Onyx Black ink and clear embossed them, then cut them out with my Brother Scan and Cut. By the way, if you haven't invested in a Brother Scan and Cut yet, IT IS WORTH IT. I cannot tell you how awesome it is to not have to buy the matching, super expensive (and sometimes more expensive than the stamp set itself!) die sets. The machine scans and then cuts out all the images, even the little tiny ones! Super cool and takes no time at all!

I've made lots of others things recently, mostly to put up in my Etsy Shop, so if you're interested to see what else I've been working on, just head over to my Etsy Shop and take a peek!

If you are reading this post right now, I cannot tell you how much it means to me that you've kept me as a follower or are still following me, even though I've been a lousy blog-poster this year! I really hope to post more, thank you so much for visiting!

Papertrey Ink Make it Monday #207

Good Afternoon fellow crafters! How are you all doing? I hope you all are having a great week so far! I am amazed that tomorrow is April already, I cannot believe that I have not visited or posted to my blog since October 2014! To be honest I had a lot going on in my life this past year where I just did not have the motivation to do anything crafty. I did make a few things for the Holidays, but that was it. To be able to come into my craft room and put together a card "just because" again felt really good! I forgot how great a feeling it was to be able to just lock myself away in my room and keep to myself for a few hours. I did a bit of spring cleaning in my craft room a few weeks ago and this helped to get a little bit motivated.

Don't you just love your craft space when its all cleaned up and everything is in its place? Even though it doesn't last like this very long, I like seeing everything in its place!

This week, the Papertrey Ink Make it Monday video is from Laura Bassen. She made this tutorial look so easy, but my final card is actually my 5th attempt! I had never tried making a partial die-cut card before, let alone a DOUBLE partial die-cut! I also wanted to try making a shaker card, but I don't have any sequins, so I used a seed bead/bugle bead mix instead. I decided to use Papertrey Ink's Ballerina Beauty Stamp set along with the Mat Stack #5 Die. I die-cut my card differently than the way Laura shows in the video. I did the mat stack first, then the ballerina.

Unfortunately, I had to use foam adhesive squares to set the shaker card because I am out of foam tape. This took forever and made the side of the card look really sloppy, but I am happy with the overall look of the card.

I am hoping that I find some time within the next day or two to try this technique again, maybe this time with a word die (I tried this to begin with and it just wasn't working out!) Thanks for stopping by, have a great night!

Christmas Card Set

Good afternoon fellow crafters. Happy Friday! Hope you are all having a great start to your weekend! I go in to work in a few hours, but I did spend the entire morning finishing up the cleaning of my craft room and I am so relieved that I am finally finished! Don't you just love the look of a nice clean, organized craft space? I know I sure do, I can find everything I need faster and hopefully I won't be throwing away any more die sets! :( I didn't have any luck finding my One Liner Die set, as I mentioned previously I misplaced it and I think I may have thrown it away in the trash. Anywho, here is how my room looks now:

There are a few more areas that I would like to organize, so hopefully I will get to that next week. Yesterday night while in the middle of all the cleaning madness, I was watching some Christmas youTube tutorials by Amy over on Prairie Paper and Ink and she had made this really nice, clean simple card with my favorite Kraft cardstock, and I really wanted to make a similar card set.

Since I can't use my Big Shot right now, I really liked the simplicity of this card. I used Kraft cardstock and patterned paper from the Paper Studio's Santa and Friends 6x6 paper pack. The stamp sets I used are Hero Arts Joy to All and a Recollections Christmas Stamp set which unfortunately doesn't have a name listed on it. This was very fast and simple to put together, and I just love it.

Thanks for stopping by, I need to stop by the post office before picking up the kiddos from school and heading off to work. I hope you all enjoy your weekend!

PTI Make It Monday #80

Good evening fellow crafters! It is nearly midnight here and I am just about falling asleep here in my craft room, but I wanted to go ahead and share my card for this weeks' Make it Monday challenge over at Nichole's blog.

This week the challenge is hosted by Ashley Cannon-Newell and the challenge is to incorporate die cuts into a banner. I say a banner card last month on YouTube by Kristina Werner and I just loved her card, so I decided to re-create it for this challenge.



It is a standard A2 size card made from my favorite, Kraft cardstock!







I used Papertrey Ink's Heart-2-Heart stamp sets #3, #5, and #6, as well as the coordinating heart die for set #3. I used Stampin' Up inkpads in Lovely Lilac, Pink Passion, Yoyo yellow, and Green Galore to stamp the hearts. I used Only Orange for the sun and Tempting Turquoise for the clouds. I stamped the sentiment in Soft Suede. I used some brown/white Martha Stewart twine, and added some dash lines around the card with a white gel pen. I glued the hearts to the twine the way Ashley does in the video tutorial, then propped them up onto my card base with dimensionals. I love all these colors together, they make the card bright and cheery!

The girls are back to school this week, and we are slowly getting back into our daily routines. No more sleeping in here, which is probably why I am so tired. I love back to school time because that means I can go back to regular morning work schedules, and be home more in the evening. I do still work late on Wednesdays, which means I have a good 5-6 hours to myself tomorrow morning! I have to admit, I cannot wait for some quiet, "me" time, even if I will be spending that time cleaning up this mess:



Have a great rest of the week everyone, thanks for stopping by!

PTI Stamp-a-faire 2012

Holy cow, I don't think I've ever crafted so much in one day! It's almost 3:00am and I am finally getting a chance to post up my projects for the first Papertrey Ink Stamp-a-faire Summer Camp! I definitely had a blast, and there are soooo many projects to look at, it's unbelievable! I hope you all had as much fun with these challenges as I did! I had originally thought that this event was only limited to the customers that bought the Stamp-a-faire Tote bag and supplies. When I realized that anybody could participate, I got started right away! I've decided to roll all the events into one post, so there are lots of pictures!

The first project of the day was the morning Make-n-Take with Nichole Heady. She made such a gorgeous, simple card! So for my card, I used Pretty Peonies, Movers and Shakers Sentiments, and Framed Out #3 stamp sets.





The next event was to earn the Knots Badge with the Ribbon Techniques Challenge. For this card, I used the Happy Hexagons and Pretty Peonies stamp sets, and tried to knot my ribbon like Dawn McVey did hers:









The next event was to earn the Memory Preservation Badge with the Mini Book Challenge. I mod-podged some patterned paper onto 6 chipboard cutouts, each measuring about 7" x 5". I added some ribbon and the chipboard cutouts which are from K&Company that I have had for a long time! I am going to add the pictures and journaling later.













The next event was to earn the Craft Conservation Badge with the Limited Supply Challenge. For my card I used the new Floral Foliage stamp set, along with a couple of simple buttons to match my Stampin' Up ink Soft Suede and Crumb Cake.





This next event was my favorite. I started making jewelry before I got into card making and scrapbooking. This event was for the Friendship Badge with a Beaded Friendship Bracelet using paper beads. While I have been making jewelry for over 10 years now, I've never attempted making papers beads. And since I did not buy the Stamp-a-faire tote, I did not have the supplied Nichole used in her video, I had to improvise! So I cut strips of paper to 5½ x ¾" inch each. I drew a diagonal line from corner to corner on each strip, then cut out my triangles. I used a metal rod from my polymer clay tools to wrap the beads and to allow them to dry with nail polish. Then I added some Swarovski Crystal bicone beads and some spacers, and put my bracelet together! I think I will be making lots more paper beads in my future!











I opted out of the Tye-Dye challenge, one because I couldn't find a sponge anywhere under my craft room mess, and two, I was running out of time and energy. So the next challenge was to earn the Correspondence Badge with a Camp Card Set. I wanted to make a really fast, really simple, friendship Thank you card. I simply used white cardstock along with the Floral Foliage stamp set. The inside sentiment is from TPC studios and the little squirrel is from Hero Arts.









The last event for the day was to earn the DIY Badge with some homemade Embellishments. I used some Kraft cardstock, dictionary page cutouts, and the Pretty Peonies stamp set to create these Butterfly and Peony embellishments. I layered dictionary cutouts on top of each other for the butterfly embellishments to make a flower, then topped that with a stamped butterfly die cut. I added rhinestones to each embellishment.







Whew, what a day! I really hope that Nichole and the rest of the team decide to do this again next year, it was definitely fun! So it has taken me nearly 40 minutes to complete this blog spot, and I am now falling asleep! So I leave you all with my farewell pictures, to include a now very messy craft room! Thanks for stopping by!