My 2011 favorites

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite projects of 2011.

Some of them are cards, some are altered projects, some are layouts, but for whatever reason they are ones that I really love.

So here they are.  Hope you enjoy seeing them.  I'm not sure that all of them have been posted on the blog before.

Stamping and coloring on dryer sheets.

These next 3 are my "pear series" I love this stamp and made several different cards with it.

Sorry about this picture, not the best clarity, but I love the card.

2 altered jeans pockets.

These were made for my nieces friend.

"House" mini book I made for a Mother's Day exchange with my scrapping friends.

These are the covers of the scrapbooks that I made for my nephew and new niece of their wedding.  I love the entire scrapbook, but I couldn't share all the pages, just too many.  LOL, that's why I had to put them into 2 books.

I decided that I want to make a layout of each of my nieces and nephews. This is the first one of my nephew Joel.

Finally am working on layouts of my kids when they were little.

I made these 2 from pictures from one photo session of them.

Love this layout of my Grandparents.  That little wallet sized picture is my Mom.  The picture doesn't do this layout justice, it really turned our beautiful.

I made this for a scrapping cyber friend who had a baby just before Christmas.  A group of us made layouts and sent her a 'starter' scrapbook for little William.

These are hats I made for a couple of my greats. (That's what I call my great nieces and nephews)

Love this gift card holder that I made.  That penguin is so darn cute.  I made a few with this little guy.

Well, those are my faves, hope you like them too.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

More Gift Card Holders

Merry Christmas to everyone!

I just found that I had started this post and never put it up on the blog.

So I'm showing you a couple gift card holders that I made and have given to people already.

This first one was for my nephew Joel.  I used "Ice Skating" (#7902) from QKR Stampede.

I stamped Ice Skating onto watercolor paper and colored it with water color crayons. The white card stock was embossed with the snowflake folder and my Cuttlebug.  The 'baker's twine' around the top is some that I made, a very simple process. If you are interested in making your own baker's twine here is a tutorial.

This second gift card holder I used "Joy" (#15703) from QKR Stampede.  I stamped onto red card stock and then used various colors of Stickles to "bling" it up.  Again I used the snowflake embossing folder.

Of course these gift card holders can be adapted for any occasion.

QKR Stampede has many different stamps for all occasions, so pop on over to their shop and check them out.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you had a fabulous Christmas and wish you a happy and healthy 2012!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

 

This is what it's about!

Today's post isn't about crafting, it's about what Christmas is all about.

These past few days have been an absolute nightmare.

It all started on Saturday. 
We started out the day with plans to drive out and cut down a Christmas tree.  This is our family tradition.  We go out past Franklinville, which is over an hour drive away, to a wonderful tree farm called Johnson's Tree Farm.  We have been going there since Kelsie was a baby and we love the family that runs the farm.

Anyway, that was our plan, but that all went awry when Dave told me that he needed me to come right away to his Aunt Bea's house.

When I got there he handed a dog through the car window and said it needed to go to the SPCA as one of his cousins dogs, of which she has 10, had bit it and she didn't want it harmed anymore. 
So off I went to surrender the dog, it was a stray and she had only had it about 2 weeks.  My hope is that the owners came to claim it.

In the mean time, Dave was taking his cousin to the hospital. I won't go into all the details, but she was very, very ill and was admitted right into the ICU.

 Aunt Bea is in her 80s and has pretty bad dementia and Deb was caring for her at home.  So now Aunt Bea is alone at home and needs to be cared for. 

Dave ended up moving in and sleeping on the sofa and caring for Aunt Bea and all the animals, 10 dogs, 2 pigs, 2 chinchilla and a parrot.

Needless to say we didn't get out to cut the tree.  With caring for Aunt Bea, all the animals, being with Deb etc. etc. etc we figured we wouldn't be able to get a tree. 

As it turns out, Deb is a lot sicker than we originally realized.  She has masses in both lungs, her liver and lymph nodes.  She is having some kind of GI bleeding that caused her hemoglobin to be 6. 
It should be between 12 -16.

Right now we are not sure what is going to happen.  But it sure wasn't going to be going out to buy a tree.

On Tuesday evening, Jaryd was out with his best buddy, Brian, and Dave came home for about an hour.  Kelsie called Jaryd and asked if he was finished shopping as Dad was home and she thought he would want to come home and see him before he left again.  They haven't had much chance to see him since Saturday.  So he said he'd be home soon.  We went on talking about the fact that we wouldn't be having a Christmas tree, but we'd still have Christmas anyway.  We'd be okay.

A few minutes later Jaryd and Brian came in and they were carrying a Christmas tree!  They had gone out and bought us a tree!  I'm guessing that since Kelsie and Jaryd work together, they planned it all that day at work.

I just started crying, how sweet are these kids?!?!  Brian is like a 2nd son to me and it was so sweet of him to be involved in this too.  I hadn't realized how much I really wanted a tree until I saw them come in with it.

The boys gave me hugs and told me Merry Christmas!

Now this is really what Christmas is all about, don't ya think!

Right now the tree is standing in the corner of the livingroom, naked, but it will get decorated and we will have our Christmas. 

We have worked out some things with caring for Aunt Bea, the animals and visiting and being with Deb,  between Dave, his siblings and me, we have it covered.  This will be a bit of a different Christmas, but we will have our celebration.

AND we have a Christmas Tree!!!!

Let us all remember the meaning of Christmas and show the love that my kids (all 3 of them) showed this season.
Wishing you the love of Christ this Christmas season and all through the coming year!

Embossed Tree Card

Hello readers!

Today I'd like to share a pretty basic card with you.

On this card I have used the "Tree" image (#14501) from QKR Stampede

I stamped the image onto blue card stock with VersaMark watermark ink then applied gold embossing powder to the image.  I then heated it with my heating tool to melt the powder.

If you have never done heat embossing and want to try it, it is very simple and gives beautiful results. If you have questions, feel free to e-mail me.

Once this powder is heated it becomes metallic and shiny. 

 I love the effect heat embossing gives.

I layered the image onto gold metallic card stock and then onto the black with gold stars and used a white card base.

This is a very 'clean and simple' card that I love. 

Very easy to make.

Thanks for stopping by today, come back again soon!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Poinsettia card

Hello all!

Today I have a card made with the Poinsettia stamp (#83407) from

Biblical Impressions. 

Biblical Impressions is another sister company to QKR Stampede and Eureka! Stamps.

This is the stamp that was used for the Design Team Call for

Biblical Impressions.  I am on the other 2 company design teams and I think that is enough for me right now, but the owner was happy to have me create a card with this image even though I'm not on that team.  She is wonderful to work with and like the other two companies, Biblical Impressions, has many versatile images.

I stamped onto watercolor paper and colored the image with watercolor crayons.  I then used my new set of Spellbinder dies to cut the scalloped circle shape.  I adhered it to the card stock base and added the crystal bling around the edge.

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you'll stop in to Biblical Impressions and see the many images they have to offer.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Gift card holders

I generally don't like to give gift cards for Christmas, but I have come to the realization that sometimes, this is the best gift for a person.

For instance, my Aunt Marilyn, who lives is North Carolina

 and is 88 yrs old.

For years I struggled with what to give her for Christmas. 

Then one year I hit on something that she really loved.  So, for the last 4-5 yrs I have given her gift cards to restaurants.

She loves this gift from us every year.  $10 at Burger King can last for a long time when you just get a burger and a senior coffee!  She loves to get out of the house for a bit of a walk each day and then stop for a quick little lunch.

I like to dress up her gift cards a bit with some kind of cute little holder.  Today I'm showing you what I made for her this year.

"Ice Penguin" (#7902) from QKR Stampede.

 Snowbaby stamp from Department 56, 1995 Rubber Stamp Heaven

Snowflakes are punched with punch from Creative Memories.

 "Poinsettia" (#83407) from Biblical Impressions

 "Joy" (#15703) from QKR Stampede.

 Snowman is from Studio G Clear Stamps

Tree is from Bo Bunny,  Merry Christmas Clearly Stamps set.

 These two are stamps from my stash and have no name on them.

Inkadinkadoo Holiday Assortment.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'd love to hear what you think of my little gift card holder, so leave me a comment and let me know.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Round Card

Hello! 

 I hope your holiday preparations are moving along well.  Mine are, we made a huge dent in our Christmas shopping today, now just to get them wrapped.

Today I'm showing you a round card I made with

"Snow Scene Circle Stamp" (#17301)

from Eureka! Stamps.  This is the image used for the Design Team call for Eureka! Stamps.  I'm happy to tell you that I will be on the Eureka! Stamps Design Team for another 6 month term.  I am thrilled to be able to work with this company.  There are so many wonderful images in their store!

I stamped onto watercolor paper and used watercolor crayons to color the image.  I used a glue pen and added glitter on the snow and used Glossy Accents to give the moon and the pond some shine.

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you'll stop again soon.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Christmas cards

How are you doing on your Christmas cards?

I was having a tough time deciding on a card to make and I was thinking I wouldn't get them done.  Finally, a style ect. just hit me and I was set to go.

I decided to use the "Pine Sprig" (#15702) image from QKR Stampede.

I stamped it onto white card stock and colored them with water color crayons.

I used a few different colors of card stock with the image as a mat.

I then ran white card stock through my Cuttlebug with the snowflake embossing folder.

Here is a close up that shows the embossed snowflakes better.

I use just a touch of gold Stickles on the bells to finish them off.

On the inside of the cards I used the digital image of

"Merry Christmas" (#6803) from Eureka! Stamps.

By using the digital image, I could adjust the size and change the color to match the card fronts.

I'm lovin' how they turned out!

Did you make Christmas cards this year?  I'd love to hear about them.

Leave me a comment telling me about them and a link if you have them on a blog etc.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Come again soon.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Banner for the wall at My Happy Place

A very long time ago, I won a lovely banner kit from Teri during a virtual crop on Christina's blog.  And when I say a long time ago, I really mean a long time ago.  This beautiful kit has been waiting for me to put it together, sitting at My Happy Place with my other supplies etc, begging to be taken care of and loved.

This past Saturday, I finally put my foot down and said

"Kristie, you have to make this beautiful banner!!!" 

So I got all the parts out and took a look at them, there were so many lovely supplies to work with!  It's been so long that I don't even remember what Teri's banner looked like, so I just started creating and I really LOVE how it turned out. 

This is the whole banner and below you can see all the individual pieces.

Right now it is hanging on the blackboard at My Happy Place, but we are going to find a nice spot where it will really show up and hopefully be an inspiration to those who come to scrapbook and craft with us.

Thank you Teri!  Sorry it took me so long to get this done. I guess good things are worth waiting for.  Hope you like it as much as I do!

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope, if you live in the area, you will come to My Happy Place and see my banner in person.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!