And even more craft fair projects.

I'm just about down to the wire now. It's Thursday and the craft show is on Saturday. In no way did I get to make all of the items that I was hoping to make. When I look at my pile of stuff it seems really inadequate. I shall just have to wait and see.

At this point I'm having to force myself to stop making new items so that I can put the finishing touches on the incomplete items that I already have.

So here are a couple of things I've made.
First, Snowman wrapped microwave popcorn. The free image is from Laurie Furnell . I've seen these mostly with the felt hats but I didn't have that much time.


Next I made a little something for the dogs. These are Purina Beggin' Strips, 3 per bag with Christmassy dog toppers. The images are from Trina Clark and Pollycraft Stamps.



And lastly, here are some Godiva chocolates in cute little treat holders. The holders were made on the Cricut using Make the Cut software. It's basically a long rectangle merged with the Christmas tree shape.

Bugaboo Anything Goes Challenge

I just love the stamps at Bugaboo Stamps that feature Stella and Gus. They always have something funny to say.
Today I've used Stella for the Anything Goes challenge.

The image has been colored with Promarkers. I didn't make too much of an attempt at shading and whatnot. I know I should practice more, but I'm not always up to it.
The ribbon is from my stash. I liked the implication, which I think describes Stella accurately. MS border punch and faux pearls finish off the card.

Ragga Mutt's Christmas

Here's a cute little pup I came across at Digi Doodle Shop when I went there in search of the pansies stamp.
When I saw the two images I immediately thought of putting them together for a Christmas card; one on the front and the other inside, and this is what I've come up with.
This puppy isn't really bad, he probably just wanted to help decorate, right??

The images have been colored with Promarkers and stickles.
I haven't done a challenge in a few months, so I'll take this opportunity to enter this card in the #31 Anything Goes challenge at Digi Doodle Shop's Challenge Blog.

More Craft Fair Goodies

As promised, I'm posting pictures of more of the things I've been working on for the craft fair.

These are the Hershey's Nuggets with decorative wrapper and placed 6 pieces to a slide open box. The tutorial for the box is from the SCS forums.


Ghiradelli chocolates boxes. I don't recall where I found the box template. The boxes hold 3 mini Ghiradellis. The front stays closed with velcro.


This next box is a doughnut box from Stay At Home Mom Crafts. I've made it smaller to hold Hershey Kisses. I've been using 4oz of kisses per box. My version measures about 5in L x 1.75in W x 1 3/8in H.



I'll have more goodies to show over the next few days.

Pretty Pansies

I took a break from making craft fair treats to make a few cards.
This is a boxed set that I made using the pansies digital stamp from Digi Doodle Shop.

I've colored the image in 4 different colorways plus a 5th image for the box top. I really like flower stamps, but struggle with trying to make them look realistic when coloring them. Practice, practice, practice I suppose. I think I'm fairly happy with how these turned out.

These were colored with Promarkers and a bit of colored pencil here and there.

Christmas Goodies Galore

Long time, no posts!
I have been busy making stuff, just not cards. I have my first ever craft fair on November 20th and I've been busy making crafts other than cards. I initially was hoping to just sell my cards at the craft fair, but after reading some of the stories on Splitcoast Stampers I thought it would be prudent to have some other offerings.

The ideas for all of these items come from the craft fair thread on Split Coast Stampers

Reese's Stix. The tag is from Cricut Very Merry Tags. These use the 2x8in bags


Grinch Pills. The poem is found in the thread on Splitcoast Stampers, the image is from the internets. Lime green Sixlets for the "pills" from Nutsonline.com



Reindeer Poop. Topper and poem from The Cutting Cafe. Chocolate covered raisins for the "poop".


I still have more goodies that I've been making to share, but I'll space them out a bit.

Thanks for looking. If any of this looks fun to you, I urge you to give it a try; I've had a lot of fun making them.

Hero Arts Holiday Ornaments Set

I saw this Hero Arts stamp used on My Cricut Scrapbooking and just fell in love with it. It was another must have for me, which happens all too frequently!

Inspired by that card, I have made my version. I have tried not to outright copy hers, but the use of gold and not coloring in the ornaments all the way are truly inspired by her card.

I've made mine into a set of 4 and have them up on my Etsy card shop.

Penny Black Gift Card Tags

Here are some more Penny Black cards. These little cards measure 2.75in squared and have been punched in the corner to hold a hang string for attaching to gifts.

I've been trying to go through all of my stamps and use every one at least once. Since these images are so small, mini gift cards are what game to mind. I had a couple with mice, but they got lost somewhere on my craft table... Not so surprising considering it is always so cluttered!

If you would like to see them all, you can find them in my Etsy card shop.

Sweet Thing Mimi Cards

These Penny Black Mimi stamps are so cute! I just had to have them all. Here's what I've made from the first one which is called Sweet Thing.


Two sets of 3in squared blank note cards. One pink themed, the other purple themed.
The pink set was colored with prismacolor pencils and OMS while the purple set was done with Promarkers.






Available in my Etsy card shop.

I told myself I wasn't going to do this...

But it seems I can't resist! Making a few Halloween cards, that is. I don't personally have much use for them, perhaps send one to my grandniece, other than that no need for them.

However, my plans go astray when I keep seeing all the fun Halloween images out there. For example, this set that I purchased from Rick's Goodies on Etsy. He has a whole sheet of images for only $10.00, and they are so nicely done (trying to avoid the word "cute", it's becoming overused). Some of you Swap-botters may have encountered Rick1949 in swaps, if you're into digital stamps, you should check out his shop.

These two cards are from his Simply Halloween sheet and I have kept the cards simple. That's pretty much what I'm working with this week, nice and simple. Sometimes cardmaking (and other crafting, I'm sure) can become stressful because we are trying to do too much to what we are making. At least that's the way I've been feeling.

These are available in my Etsy Card Shop.

More of the Simple Life

In keeping with my simple cards series I've made several from the Lili of the Valley stamps that I got in the mail a few weeks ago. I love these stamps, and really wanted almost all that they had, but I limited myself to only 7. Of the 7 I've used 6 in my simple Christmas cards. I'll show 1 or 2 here, but the rest will be in my Etsy card shop for viewing or purchasing.

It seems when I buy stamps I tend towards bears and snow people, so much so that sometimes I tell myself, "no, don't get another ________, get something different." But of course, what is most appealing is what I already know that I like!

So here's a bunch of bears and 1 rabbit.

Tag! You're it!

I haven't really been in a card making mood of late. I am still feeling crafty so I didn't want to take a complete break from paper, ink and stamps. I've never given too much thought to tags. At Christmas I just slap one of those sticker like tags that I buy during the after Christmas sales for .25 or so. I've seen on some of the blogs that folks really get into tag making as well as card making. I've never understood it, but I think I have a greater appreciation for it now because that's what I've been doing for the past couple of days.

I suppose in a lot of ways making a tag can be just like making a card, only smaller. I've kept it pretty basic for the ones I have started off with. No coloring, not much in the way of embellishments, but I am pleased with them and having mostly stress-free fun while I make them.


I'm not sure how long this will last, nor what will come when this detour away from cards is over, but it sure is fun while it lasts.

If anyone is interested, they are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Hello Kitty Christmas Card

Here's another card that has minimal stamping. Hello Kitty and the presents were made from the Hello Kitty Greetings Cricut cartridge. Only the sentiment has been stamped. I've used lots of stickles on the presents and as accents on the sentiment and HK's hat.

I don't think I use my Cricut enough, at least not since the advent of my obsession with stamping. I think I see more cards using my Cricut in my future.

Christmas Card Set

For the past couple of weeks I've been reorganizing my craft space and now I'm just about done. No pictures to share of this process, you'll just have to take my word on it. During this time my desk has been so covered that I could not make any cards, no cards, no posts.

Today I have a set of cards that I made without stamps. No rubber, no digis, instead I have used rub-on transfers. I purchased a bunch of these last Christmastime and didn't really use them.

These will be for sale in my Etsy card store if anyone is interested.

This set features Christmas ornaments 3 colors plus one card with mixed colors. The ornaments rub-ons are from Michael's and can still be found there for sale. The sentiments came from Target and are actually about 3 years old, so I'm sure they are no longer sold.

Delivery Boy Santa

I thought I should mix things up a little for a change. I'm always making square cards because they are so easy and I am lazy. The ornament shape that I used to make this card came from Lettering Delights Peppermint Holiday Expressions. The digi stamp is Delivery Boy Santa from Sassy Cheryl's. The stamp was colored with Promarkers and I shall be adding the stickles to his outfit that I see I have forgotten! The Ho Ho Ho stickers are from Jo-ann's and the snowflakes are from Cricut snowflake cartridge. The DP is DCWV and is polka dotted to fit in with the them for challenge #26 Polka Dots at Sassy Cheryl's challenge blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

Spooky Cute Halloween

Karen's Doodles on Facebook is having a Halloween challenge involving the free digi that she gave away. You can request the free digi as long as you promise to make and post a Halloween card using the digi by 8/31; this is my entry.
The house, fence; tree and gravestones are all from the Lettering Delights Hallowscream Things graphic set. All the sets are on sale for $1 right now, so if you're looking to experiment, now's the time. I separated the layers for the house and gravestone in Photoshop Elements; it was quite simple. For those that want to know more about converting these files, Jin at Under a Cherry Tree has a video tutorial showing how to convert files.

The digi stamp was colored with my Promarkers, the DP are a combo of Debbie Mumm holiday stack and Provocraft; the cardstock is Recollections, ribbon from stock; and the charm is Making Memories 2009.

This card is also entered into Karen's Doodles Challege # 25 Polka Dots.
By the Cute & Girly August Animal Antics.
Bee Crafty: Anything Goes.

It's been awhile...

I'd like to say thank you for the nice comments and welcome to all the folks that are following me from the Swap-bot swap. It feels so nice to have more than 3 followers! I hope you enjoy looking at my creations.


It's been awhile since I've posted any cards. The fact is that I've started quite a few. Sometimes I color some images, other times I work out the background, but for a different card than what I've colored an image for. Either way, I've not really completed any, except this one, which was a commission from my biggest supporter. That would be my sister. She is currently obsessed with fairies and now wants all kinds of fairy cards. I'm meant to make her a boy fairy birthday card for our newphew...the 6'2", turning 16 football player! We'll see how that goes. If I manage it, I will certainly post a photo.

I've also been very busy trying to de-stash all of my stickers and all of my Hello Kitty junk. I've been listing what I can on my Etsy and for the first time in a few years, Ebay. This is an ongoing process as I try to declutter my house.

Santa Birgitta

Here's Santa Birgitta, a Swiss Pixie from C.C. Designs. For this card I slit two of the corners to tuck my DP into. The corner flourishes are free svgs from Heather M, the Poinsettia svgs is also a free one from Little Scraps of Heaven. The sentiment is a Recollections Sticker. Birgitta was colored with Promarkers and some stickles for her wings. The DP is DCWV and Heidi Grace.

This is entered into the following challenges:

Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club #30 Poinsettia
Anyone for Anya Christmas in August

Audrey Cooking for a Birthday

With this The Stamping Boutique image I like to think that Audrey is maybe making a birthday cake or a special birthday dinner. Here, she's celebrating The Stamping Boutique's 1st Birthday!

Audrey's been colored with Promarkers. DP is DCWV, LoveU is Cricut, and the sentiment is computer made.

Bunny Cake

Here's a free image given out by Tracey of The Stamping Boutique for becoming a member of her PCP group. It's going to be The Stamping Boutique's 1st Birthday so this image ties in well with the festivities that will be going on. "Festivities?" you say? That's right, there will be a birthday party going on Saturday 8/14/10. Challenges, digis, chatting and more. Here's a link to more information.

I've colored my image with Promarkers and stickles. I was trying for a lemon coconut look cause I love lemon cake! The card background is one I've had for quite a few months and never did anything with so I tried to match my colors to it. This is being entered into The Stamping Boutique's monthly challenge for August. Check it out, you can enter as many times as you like!

Love's Healing Hands

Here's a super sweet image by Sassy Cheryl called Love's Healing Hands. This comes in both a boy and girl version and both are equally adorable. Challenge 24 at Sassy Cheryl's this week is a color combo of Black, White and Pink with embellishments. I've colored my image with Promarkers and left the bear to be white. The flourish is by Penny Duncan Creations and has been stickled and pearled. MS heart border punch, roses from Crafta.com, and the sentiment is computer generated and framed with an oval bookplate(on clearance for .50/6 at Joann's! go get some), heart shaped brads to hold it down. Ribbon is Offray and the DP is Recollections.

This card also fits the requirements of challenge #29 Bear & Me at Just Cute Bears so I shall enter it there as well.

Summer Zest Apple Girl

The theme at Karen's Doodle's this week is Summer Zest. Cards are to feature the colors of summer; yellow, orange, lime green and a touch of blue.

I chose Apple Girl because it's one of the few not Christmas/Winter images I have that would work for this challenge. The backing papers are DCWV, MS embroidered floral punch, ribbons from Joann's, flowers from AC Moore and the sentiment from Cricut. Colored with Promarkers.

Prince Lonnie Latte

Here's the other simple card I made for today. Again I've used a Stamping Boutique image, this one was a freebie. Prince Lonnie is the mate to Princess Jennifer and I think he's cooking up something special for her! He is colored with Promarkers and a bit of chalk for the background. The sentiment is one of those $1 stamps from Michael's. The papers are DCWV Summer Dream stack, which I broke down and bought since it was on clearance. A lot of the sheets will make great envelopes, so I can justify this purchase, right?? :)

This is entered into the following challenges:
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Snips, Snails & Puppy dog tails.
The Stamping Boutique Monthly - August.

Caroling Snowmen

Today I have some rather simple cards as I'm trying to up my quantity a bit. I have made these A2 size as they are being added to my stack of cards to send to Operation Write Home. As soon as I reach my personal goal of 20 cards I'll be able to send my package to them.

This card features Caroling Snowmen by The Stamping Boutique. Tracey has a lot of fun images besides her Audrey line(my fav) and this is one of them. I love it when snow people have some clothes on because it gives us a little bit more to color than just having snow. I've used one of my new Sizzix Holiday embossing folders (actually did it backwards), these are designed by Basic Grey. There are quite a few nice ones, but I limited myself to four. The papers Bazzill Swiss Dots and DCWV Metallic Silver. MS Lattice arch lattice punch, Recollections snowflake brads, Michael's ribbon, Sentiment is Studio G. Colored with Promarkers.

Challenges this card is entered in:
The Stamping Boutique's Monthly - August
Die Cut Dreams #29 Snowmen

Some Day My Prince will Come...

At least that's the song that goes through my head when I need to associate this card with a song for the Simon Says Stamp Sing It Baby! challenge.

The card shape is the castle from Cricut's Once Upon a Princess cartridge. I used two castles with a little rectangle to weld them for the card shape.
The bears, Kiki and Cuthbert are from Pollycraft. Their challenge right now is Fit for a Princess, so this should fit right in with that.
The dragon is from Dustin Pike. He had a fabulous sale about a month ago, 233 images for $10! This dragon was one of the 233.

The images are colored with Promarkers with a little bit of stickles. The paper is Core'dinations and Fresh Paint glitter paper.

I'm also entering this card in:
Creative Card Crew: Get Cute and Girly.
By the Cute & Girly's August challenge, which is Animals.

Love is Sweet

Here's another card made with several challenges in mind. This card features a freebie from Meljen's Designs; such a sweet bear. Challenge #19 at Meljen's is Clean and Simple. Clean and simple can be so relaxing when you are overwhelmed by your embellishment choices.

The next challenge is for 7 Kids College Fund's inaugural challenge: Pink & Dots.

And finally, I Heart Promarkers #26 a sketch plus use only 3 colors.

The stamp was colored with Promarkers. The pink DP is Recollections, the green DP is a free printable from Kara Henry. MS border punch.

Shadowbox Christmas Card

The other day I saw a beautiful The Nutcracker themed shadowbox card done by a member of Mo's Digital Pencil DT team and wanted to make one just like it. Since copying is a no-no, and I want to enter challenges, I had to come up with my own idea.

I've never made one of these before, but they are similar to the recessed window cards that I like, so it wasn't hard to do. You actually have much more room to work with in the shadowbox card than with the window cards. The only drawback for me is that I don't like how the top and bottom are just left open. Unfortunately if you want it to be flat for mailing you can't really cover it with a box top type of doohickey.


Anyway, on to the details. I made this with a few challenges in mind, one being Karen's Doodles #22 Anything Goes.
I've used two images by Karen's Doodles, Santa Waving and Bigsby Cookies.

The next challenge is Digital Tuesday Challenge #70, 2 Companies, 1 card.
For this you mixed more than one company's digital images. That would be the Karen's Doodles as company 1 and the fireplace and little girl on the sofa from Stitchy Bear Stamps as Company 2.
The couch is paper pieced, while everything else has been colored with Promarkers, Copic Spica Atyous and stickles.

The third challenge is at OSAAT and is a sketch OR use pink somewhere on the project. I chose to use pink for the pajamas and the pink snowflake embellie.

The last challenge is at Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #70 Out of this World. I'm counting on Santa as being something "Out of this World" to qualify for this challenge.

I should mention that the tree is a rubber stamp (Rubber Hedgehog) that I stamped and scanned so that I could re-size it. I've been doing this quite a bit lately with some of my rubber stamps. The convenience of sizing digital stamps has spoiled me, so I stamp and scan some rubber stamps for the same advantage. Of course, I do not try to profit from stamps I use in this method, so I hope it's not too big of a no-no.

Bigsby's table is from Cricut French Manor cartridge, the nestie svg shape is from Penny Duncan Creations. DP is DCWV and the sentiment and snowflakes are from K&Co.

This was a lot of fun to make, and I can see myself making a few more of these in the near future.

A Simple Thank You

My sister needed a Thank You card and commissioned me to make one for her. I chose to use the Mo's Digital Soaking up the Sun as this girl just looks sooo happy. It's possible that no one would ever guess my love for gingham and polka dots because I rarely use them in my cards. I truly love them, so I hoard them, using sparingly. I'm working on that, as you can see by this card.
She's been colored with Promarkers and some stickles.

Thanks for looking!

Mudzie Plays Christmas Tree

It looks like Mudzie by Crissy Armstrong was trying to decorate the tree and ended up decorating himself instead! This cute image came from Squigglefly.com where there are bunches of great images to choose from.

I've colored Mudzie with Promarkers and glittered him up with some stickles. Some Christmas brads for the corners and a computer generated sentiment. Fiskars snowflake punch along the border to finish him off.

This card is entered into the following challenges:

Squigglefly Challenge #60 Use ribbon.
By the Cute and Girly Animal Antics.
Creative Inspirations #39 Anything Goes
Sparkle Creations Weekly Christmas Card Challenge#35

Karen's Doodles CDAC3 - Sketch Challenge

Here's a card I created for the Crafter's Digital Arts Center sketch challenge hosted by Karen's Doodles. Karen has also provided the free digital stamp of this cute kitty to use in the challenge. I wanted to make my card tall, so all the elements are kind of cramped, but they're in there! I think when it comes to coloring animals I prefer to use my pencils; for whatever reason I just do better with them. However, I tried to color this cat with my markers and he just came out bland. Ah well, a learning experience. The papers are K&C and DCWV, and the sentiment is computer generated.

CSAYL59

I have a card made with a Stampin' Up! stamp that I had been coveting for a year. I finally found one on Ebay a couple of weeks ago. The snowman and the sentiment are from the Stitched Snowman set from 1995. I've colored him with Promarkers, embossed the sentiment and embellished with buttons, mini bells stickles.
This card follows the sketch at Christmas Stamping All Year Long and is also entered into the challenge for the week.

Meljens Challenge #18 a Sketch

I've taken a break from Christmas cards to make this Sweets card for Meljens Challenge #18. This was a freebie from Meljen some time ago and I'm not sure if these are cupcakes or ice creams, either way they are cute and sweet!

For this card I did not do any coloring. I decided to to paper piece all the treats and then pop them up with foam dots. The printed papers are from the same pack of $1 papers I found at Target. I've just about used these all up, yay! The glittery blue paper is DCWV and the border punched strips are Core'dinations. The sentiment, which I'm not quite happy with, is Studio G. Buttons, heart pearls and twine from stash.

Mo's Digital Pencil #42 Christmas in July

I'm loving all of the Christmas themed challenges that are going on right now and this one's no exception. The latest challenge at Mo's Digital Pencil is Christmas in July and I'm hoping that my entry of Bella and Bronte skating will qualify as Christmassy. I've made this as a recessed window card featuring the pond background digi by The Stamping Boutique.

I've used some dimensional glue on the trees and snow, some stickles for the hats, skates, scarves and snow flurries, colored with Promarkers and chalk. Papers are by DCWV and the pearl border is from Jo-ann Fabrics(only .10/yd!).

Other challenges this is entered in:

Stamp Something: Christmas in July

Sassy Cheryl's Challenge #22

As soon as I saw this image I knew I had to have it. I think it is just so sweet and appealing. I actually got this Sassy Cheryl digi image from Squigglefly. I think there are several on that site that may not be at the regular Sassy Cheryl's, but don't quote me on that!

The challenge this week was to make a "Thinking About You" type of card. I've been wanting to use this image, and she and the bunnies certainly look like they're thinkin' and talkin' about something, so it might as well be you!
This was a challenge for me in a second way as I decided to give zigzag stitching on a card a try. I've been seeing it pop up a lot lately, and looks fab when other people do it. I've got some more practicing to do lol!

The papers that I have used are actually some old Target $1 bin 5x7 sheets from last year. The sentiment is computer generated and the image is colored with Promarkers.

And, since my card is pretty flat, I decided to scan it in rather than take a photo. I think this has worked nicely since it looks brighter. No matter where I try to take a picture in my house, the pictures come out too dark. :(

Thanks for looking!

Pollycraft Challenge #54 Love & Marriage

This cute couple, Cuthbert and Kiki is a free digital stamp from Pollycraft. The challenge this week at Pollycraft challenge blog is Love & Marriage, so this freebie fits right in! I have colored the stamp with the Promarkers and went a little crazy with my white ink pen. The gate fold card template that I cut with my Cricut is from Monica's Creative Room. There are a lot of useful svg files for free on her site. The inside sentiment is from Cricut Tie the Knot. DP is from Sandylion.