Friday, December 27, 2013

Hello

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Boxing Day!

Did you get all the presents on your wish list?  I had a happy time and received the new 2014 Close to My Heart Idea Book before Christmas, so in addition to enjoying Christmas activities I had fun making another wish list from the Idea Book.

I am getting ready for my family trip and am very happy to have completed three albums (and debating whether to make an additional calendar) so we could share the joy reading them during the trip.  Certainly we are going to take a lot of pictures so I will make another album for next year! :)

After finishing the albums, I do have some scraps hanging out on my desk.  I couldn't just dump them into trash so I started making cards.  This is the first one that I completed:

I've used one of the sketches from Make it From Your Heart Volume 2.  These patterns lend me a big hand when I needed something quick and they never fail me.  I like that you can use the patterns as shown, flip them, simplify them or embellish them to the fullest extent.  I tend to keep my cards simple and flat as I am mailing many of them, but who says a simple pattern cannot transform into a great card?

I am linking up my card to the following:
Challenges 4 everybody - Anything Goes
Creative Knockouts - Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
Crafty Girls Challenges - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Birthday cards just days before Christmas

What?  Birthday cards?

Yes, I am making birthday cards this weekend.  I did make some other cards but birthday cards were the majority. 

Because of the lost packages, many of my cards have to be re-created, or re-made.  The box of cards I sent had a lot of birthday cards and thus I had to make up for those.  The one I am sharing today was finished the first, but guess what, after completion I went back many many times and it has become this:


Quite feminine a birthday card, right?  I hope you can see it in the picture, the card base was stamped with a big background stamp.  The lines were very thin, and while inked in Soft Sky (Hero Arts) it is very subtle.  The gray border of the pennant was made with altered gray cardstock.  I didn't like that the gray was a shade too dark, so I lightened it up using Picket Fence Distress stain.  In real person I doubt that you will notice the alteration but you have to trust me that this shade of gray is a lot better than before.

I added a bit of Wink of Stella clear gel to the die cut Happy.  It is a tiny little touch that makes a big impact!  How can you not like it?

I am linking up my card to
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes
Amusing Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, December 15, 2013

A Last Minute Christmas card

We are down to just 10 days before Christmas.  Are you ready?  I am still making some last minute Christmas cards and buying presents and so forth. 

I'm sharing one of my last minute Christmas cards today.  It is based on the sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge:

I've used the Frosted paper to create this card:


I really love the soft colors and the snowflake patterns on this paper.  It seems that I can never have enough fun with it!

My card is linking up to the following challenges:
Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge
The Stampin Chef - Anything Goes
Jo's Scrap Wrap - Winter
Sister Act Challenge - Anything Goes
Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
Polkadoodle - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Fun folds

I am sharing a gatefold card today.  Not only do I like the folds of this gatefold card, I like the handmade embellishment even better!


I have made a couple of this card as it is so fun to make.  The embellishment was made of six small hexagons folded and assembled to become this larger star.  Isn't it great for a Christmas card?  I like that the shape coordinates with the background paper.

The hardest part for this blog post was taking a picture of it.  I guess the card has a natural tendency to pop open so I had to use some temporary adhesive to stick it down.  I wanted to take a picture with it upright but when it's closed it does not stand up.  Hahaha~  Just trust me on this one - the interior of the card says "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas".  Had I not stuck down both gates, you would have got a sneak peek at it. 

We are now down to just 13 days before Christmas.  The countdown, unfortunately, has not been fun.  I was reported that more packages were missing.  Arghhh..... But I won't let these things weaken the holiday spirits.  Let's enjoy it with positive thoughts!

My card is linking up to the following challenges:
A Gem of a challenge - Anything Goes
Avenue 613 - Anything Goes
Challenges 4 everybody - Anything Goes
That Craft Place - Christmas
Come and Get it Challenge - Christmas
Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - past challenge and I've chosen this one:

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, December 9, 2013

Extremely simple card

I am sharing an extremely simple card today.  No image, no graphic, just letters. 
I saw that Lawn Fawn has a challenge posted last week and wanted to dive in the fun.  I do not have many stamp sets from Lawn Fawn but I do have some alphabet sets and coordinating dies.  So I am taking part in the ABCs set category.  I didn’t use any other stamps or supplies at all – just alphabet sets and dies!


I have chosen gray for the letters A,E, I and O to depict the emotions that the sender has.  Among a couple of dies and letter sets, I like to use Cole's ABCs for AEIO because they are tall and skinny capital letters that could carry out the deep and serious thought of longing for the recipient.  

As for miss u, I'd like to make it a bit more playful.  I've chosen to use quinn's ABCs and the coordinating die.  I want to emphasize "you" so I've used a solid die cut for it.  Notice that even though it is a small letter, it draws your attention because it is the only one in solid red and it has more real estate than the AEIOs.  I didn't color the word miss or the exclamation mark .  They are empty, just like the heart of the sender, because s/he misses the recipient.  

I had another design with a very similar concept except that one will use milo's ABCs set.  If time allows I'll materialize my idea and share with you.

Just a note to all of you supporting readers.  I have been driven crazy by this busy holiday season.  Spiritually I am looking forward to it but I feel that I am not ready as I am still catching up on decorations and gifts.  To top it off I was sad and disappointed to find out that one of the packages was lost so I have to make do.  I was upset for a couple days and I kept hoping that it will re-appear but it didn’t happen.  I soon realized that I could not lose my time mourning over the loss so I decided I’ll simplify everything to the extent possible.  So please understand that I miss crafting and blogging but let me take care of the other priorities. I am still making Christmas cards and Christmas gifts but to make them a surprise for the recipients I won’t be posting them on my blog.  Excuse my sporadic posts and believe me that  things will get back to normal after my yearly family trip.


Thank you!

My card is linking up to:
Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
All Sorts Challenge - anything but Christmas

Thursday, December 5, 2013

My craft area

Boy I miss my craft area!

I had some major re-organization in my craft area last weekend.  I bought some new storage units, assembled them and started to organize my stash.  I was very excited with one of the units because it fits Close to my Heart stamp sets perfectly.  I have been looking for the right unit and have been trying different ones.  The one I used previously was nice but I was sad to realize that the model was discontinued so I could not buy it anymore.  While my collection continues to grow, I really need something new to accommodate all my stamps.  I was over the moon to have found this new unit that works so nice.  I also got some new units for papers and now everything is contained and my craft area looks so much nicer.  I've also organized the living room to put up a small Christmas tree.

Perhaps I've invested energy too much in organization, I have been coughing non-stop since then.  Had I known that this cough was coming I would have let go of organization and crafted.  Had I known that....

Nevertheless I was finally able to get out of bed and played for a short while.  I've used this sketch from Seize the Sketch to make a Christmas card:


At first I wanted to use a different stamp set but after changing my mind for about a million times, I think I like this one:


My card is linking up to the following challenges:
Seize the Sketch
Hiding in My Craft Room - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes
Challenges 4 everybody - Anything Goes
Come and Get it Challenge - Christmas
My Besties Norge - Christmas

Thank you for stopping by!

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Procrastination

I'm here typing away as time is almost up to link up my card to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.  I hate to admit that I am pretty good at procrastination.  :p

The sketch is quite challenge:


Since I saw it I have been wanting to use one of those lace images from Cricut cartridges.  I'm glad I found one from Artiste cartridge (p.69 Accent 2).  I cut it out at 1" real dial size, then added the sentiment from Frosted Cardmaking workshop on the Go, added some bling and leftover twine from the workshop, this card is done.  The part that took me the most time was to locate the right image from the cartridges and to test out which size works the best.  The actual crafting part is quick and simple.



My card is linking up to
Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge
Creative Moments - Anything Goes
4 Crafty Chicks - Anything Goes
Crafty Girls - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!