Happy Day

Today I'm sharing a layout using the Close to My Heart Happy Times paper packet.  It's soooo fun!  Love it!

I documented the time I spent with my little niece R at the park.  We played sand and even though we weren't at the beach, we had great fun!

I continue to emphasize the importance of documenting the little moments/details of our daily life.  Summer vacay, travel or parties are just part of our lives.  What's more important than to enjoy all little moments when they constitute most of our lives?  Years from now, I'm sure R will appreciate this page and perhaps she will show her friends how she loved playing with her aunt Joyce when she was little.  And for now, let me show this page to my friends and tell them how I love playing with my niece R.  LOL.

I'm entering this layout to the Challenge at Heart 2 Heart, we are celebrating National Scrapbooking Month!

Thanks for stopping by!

Holiday Greetings!

I'm sharing a super quick and simple Christmas card today.  Even though I no longer mass produce cards, this will be a good one if you need some inspiration.

Some crafty friends try to avoid patterned paper because of the huge stash at home.  They'd like some ideas for making cards using cardstock only.  I didn't use any patterned paper on this one but I think it is just as nice.  :)

The images come from Miracle of Christmas Holiday, a very cute Christmas stamp set that I knew I "need" it when I first saw it.  It has some cute animal images but also some sentiments written in an elegant font.  It just has something for everyone.  You can see all the images here.  The ornament was cut from Artistry cartridge.  If I were mass producing this card, I'd load a full sheet of cardstock to my Cricut and ask it to fill the page.  I found some gold thread in my stash and use it to tie onto the ornament.  We could all use some gold on Christmas cards, right?

My card is entering the following challenges:
A Snowflake's promise - Christmas
City Crafter - Getting Ready for Christmas
Papertake - Anything Goes
Retarte - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Merry Christmas

A quick post today to share a Christmas card:

I absolutely love the Charming Cascades stamp set from Close to My Heart and have used it many times already.  This time, I kick it up a notch and used it to create an embossed background.  The results are lovely.

My favorite pattern from the White Pines paper packet is the one used here and this card, and I think I'm ready to buy another packet just for this paper!  LOL.  I have the ornament shape cut from Cricut Artistry, then I stamped the ornament shape from Holly Jollys stamp set in Fern, then put it on a tag.  The tag seemed a bit too bare,  so I added the twigs from the stamp set in White Pines Cardmaking Workshop on the Go kit.  Some twine was threaded through the tag, and it's done.

It's a simple card but I love it! :)

My card is entering the following challenges:
Heart 2 Heart challenges -  use cricut
Addicted to Stamps - Holidays
Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes
Creative Moments - Anything Goes
Fab 'n' Funky - Christmas

Thanks for stopping by!

A Circle Christmas card

I've mentioned in this post that I like it so much that there will be a sequel to it, and here it is:

This time there is only one Christmas tree, but this time the tree is decorated with sparkles and bitty sparkles.  And what makes it really fun is that it is a circle card!  I used one of the patterns from Wishes - one of the Close to My Heart How-to programs where it has a lot of classic yet fun card sketches.

The circle card based and the Christmas tree were cut from Cricut Explore; the former cut with the Art Philosophy cartridge and the latter with Artistry cartridge.  I used Cricut Design Space to remove all the patterns shown on a circle card so I had a plain card base to begin with.

I had a lot of fun making these Christmas cards but I really should start preparing Halloween cards for several kiddos.

My card is entering the following challenge:
Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
Crafting in my craftroom - favorite cutting tool
Stampleton - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Two Christmas Trees

I continued to play with the Christmas supplies on my desk and came up with this card quickly:

I didn't even reach out for the White Pines paper collection.  For this card, again I used the stamp set from White Pines Workshop on the Go Scrapbooking Kit and Cricut Artistry for the two trees.  One tree was inked in Fern and the one behind is inked in New England Ivy. To give it some dimension the front tree was lifted with some foam tape.  I then gold embossed the sentiment from Holly Jolly stamp set on a strip of Cranberry cardstock.

As for the background, I used Bamboo cardstock and stamped the falling stars from Charming Cascades in Bamboo to add some interest.  The trees were added a white enamel star on their top, and I've colored it in yellow using alcohol marker.  

I like how quick and easy this card came together.  Because I like it so much, I've created another one that's very similar.  Stay tuned for that!

My card is entering the following challenges:

The Christmas Challenge - Green and Gold

Retarte - Anything Goes

A Snowflake promise - Anything Christmas

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp surgery

I meant to make several Halloween cards this past weekend but that didn't happen.  I looked at the Halloween-themed supplies on my desk but they just didn't speak to me.  When that happens I normally walk away from my craft desk to clear my mind, then come back to see if the mojo also returns.  If that doesn't work out I'll start playing with my supplies without any pressure to complete any project.  Fun should be the main focus, right?

It turned out no Halloween cards were made.  But I cleaned up my craft desk, rearranged my finished layouts into a D-ring album, and did some organization in my craft area (decided to donate some items that have not been receiving enough attention from me).

I then started to play with my Christmas supplies.  Christmas cards remain the type of cards that I make the most and love to make the most.  For the very special person I tend to put in a lot of thoughts but more often, I just want to play with my supplies.  Sometimes it's testing out a color combo, sometimes it's trying out a new technique.  I can't explain why Christmas cards seem to be the best place for me to play.  If you find you've made far more Christmas cards than you need, look for places such as senior homes, hospitals or orphanage to send your cards to.  Your cards will definitely bring a big smile to people.

So while I was cleaning up, I wanted to see if I could use the stamp in the White Pines Workshop on the Go Scrapbooking kit differently.  The stamp says "In the air there is a feeling of Christmas."  It's nice and I wanted to use it differently only for fun, there's nothing wrong with that sentiment.  So I've cut the sentiment out from the stamp (Ouch!) and replaced it with a sentiment "Happy Holidays" from Holly Jolly Christmas.

No you don't need to do a stamp surgery if you don't want to.  You could first stamp it on a piece of post-it sticky note, then cut out the sentiment part and when you stamp it, you'll only have the frame left.  You'll then remove the mask and stamp whatever sentiment you like.

Stamp surgery does not involve that "Ouch!" and there was no pain involved.  It helps me get a lot more mileage out of my stamps.  I was hesitant when I first did it couple of years ago but I never look back.  For one, it helps me save quite a bit of post-it sticky notes, and it's less time-consuming than masking.  If you plan on mass-producing, the mask will wear out after a few uses and re-creating a mask can be quite annoying.  Stamp surgery will save you a lot of time!  If you haven't performed stamp surgery on acrylic stamps, try it out.  Still not sure?  Next time when you de-stash, pick one that you are about to donate and try that one.  Did I mention that because of the flexibility these acrylic stamps offer, you could mount the cut pieces back easily and no one will ever know of the stamp surgery (oh except you, and the stamp, because of the "wounds", LOL).

I'm entering my card to the following challenges:
Simply Papercraft - Anything Goes
Polkadoodles Craft - Use a die cut
Christmas Stampin' all year long - Lots of layers
Crafting with Friends - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes
Christmas Card Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!