Best Friends Embossed

Today's card is another Tim Holtz inspiration.  I love this technique of embossing clear plastic.  Again, I used a piece of laminating film, but could just as well have used some recycled packaging. I embossed it with my Cuttlebug and the Snowflakes Embossing folder.

The image is from QKR Stampede and is titled Best Friends (#23502) I stamped it onto white card stock and colored it with water color crayons.  I used Icicle Stickles to give the snowman some nice sparkle.  I love the Icicle Stickles, depending on the light and angle, they show up different colors.  Sometimes blue, sometimes purple or pink.

I layered the image onto a piece of scrap pink paper from my scrap stash, then attached the embossed laminating film to it with pink brads.

This was then adhered to a blue card base with ATG Tape.  I love the look of the embossed snowflakes over the image!  What do you think?  Leave me a comment and let me know. 

Thanks for stopping by today to see my card.  I hope you enjoyed it.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Christmas Gifts

 Do y'all have "fake relatives"???  Well I do, quite a few of them in fact.  Fake relatives are those friends of the family that are too close to call Mr. or Mrs. yet they are older, so using first names just isn't right.  My parents had a lot of these kinds of friends, consequently I grew up with a lot of Aunts, Uncles and also cousins. 

My Mom had a friend who she was close to since high school, that was my Aunt Lou.  Now I have a great nephew named Anthony. Anthony is Aunt Lou's great grandson.   I know it doesn't make sense really, since he is my "cousin's" grandson, but it's the way we do things in my "family"

Anyway, today's projects were made for Anthony's Mom and Grandma as Christmas gifts.

A while ago, I found some little 6"x6" canvas' at Micheal's that were on clearance.  They were originally $1.00 and were marked 75% or 90% off, so were very inexpensive.  I bought a bunch of them, knowing that I would find a use for them.  That is what I used for the covers of these little albums. 

First I covered the canvas' with patterned paper, being sure it was secure with ATG Tape. 

Next I cut kraft card stock to 5.75" square.  I laid out brown satin ribbon from Stampin' Up, 2 pieces, each being about 24" long.  I then used ATG Tape to adhere the pages to the ribbon, leaving space between pages.  I then adhered the end pages to the insides of the covers and covered the backs of the other pages with more kraft card stock.  Once this was done, my little album was set to be decorated. 

 I used pictures that my son, Jaryd, took of Anthony at a picnic this summer. I matted the pictures, adhered them to the pages and embellished the pages with a variety of items, metal brads, buttons, rub ons, and flowers.

 For the fronts of the albums, I used a Junkitz Foam Stampz set.  I have had this set for quite a while and never used it, but boy do I love these stamps. These stamps are foam stamps mounted on acrylic slides, love them!

I stamped "Anthony" onto kraft card stock with brown StazOn ink the fussy cut them, layered them onto patterned paper that matched the cover and fussy cut them again. On one I layered them again onto kraft card stock, the other I just layered right onto the cover. Finally I added a elastic cord and bow to hold the album closed.

Both albums were made the same way, I just changed up a couple pictures and the embellishments.  I think they turned out pretty cute, I hope Mom and Grandma like them as much as I do.

Thanks for stopping by today to see my projects and thanks if you read all the way through this post.  I know it's a bit long. 

I hope you enjoyed my projects and may try making your own little album from some items you can alter like this.  

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Become a follower too!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Inspired by Tim Holtz!!!

I don't know if y'all are familiar with Tim Holtz, but he is the crafting, inking, embossing, tag making guru of the world! And I just love that man!  Although his style is much different than anything I ever make, his techniques are amazing and can be used with just about any style.  For 12 days this month he hosted The 12 Tags of Christmas on his blog and each and every one was absolutely amazing!  I learned so much from just these 12 posts! 
Today's tag was inspired by one of his tags and a technique he used on it.

I started out by stamping Ice Skating (#7902) onto a piece of white card stock.  This adorable penguin is from QKR Stampede, you have seen him before on my blog and I'm sure you will probably see him again.  I love this image, soooooo cute!

Once he was stamped, I applied Broken China Distress Ink with an ink blending tool with a sponge applicator, around the image.  I colored the image with water color pencils.

The other day I was laminating something and had a piece of the laminating film left that had gone through the laminator.  I saved it just in case I had a use for it, I hate throwing away potential crafting items!  The very next day I saw this technique on Tim's blog. 

I took that piece of laminating film and ran it through my Cuttlebug in the Snowflakes embossing folder .  I happened to have this piece of laminating film available, but you can do the same with any type of packaging, you know the kind I mean, those clear plastic packages that are so horrible to get into!

Using brads I attached the embossed piece to the tag.

I used a piece of red satin ribbon to make a loop and attached it to the back of the tag with ATG tape, then covered the back with a piece of white card stock.

This would make a very cute tag for a gift, or would be very cute hanging on the Christmas tree.

Thanks for stopping by so I can share my creations with you.  I hope you have enjoyed this tag and may be inspired in some way.  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think, I love feedback!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Gift card holders ~ Polkadoodles Week 49 challenge

Joys of the season to you all!  Today I'm showing you a couple gift card holders that I made for Christmas gifts.  They are for the same person, just from different people.

 This first one is one that I made for my Mom to give to her bestest friend in the world, Aunt Marilyn!  They have been friends since they met in 4th grade and since they are 85 & 86 yrs old, you can see they have been friends for a VERY long time.  The image is from QKR Stampede and titled In the Manger (#16701)

I stamped the image onto kraft card stock and colored it with water color crayons, trimmed it out, rounded the corners and used foam tape to attach it to the front of the card holder.

 The inside of the holder is stamped with the word Rejoice, which I think goes very well with the Christ Child on the front. 

The holder itself was very simple to make.  If you are interested in making one yourself, there is a video tutorial here. 

Now on to my 2nd holder.  Aunt Marilyn lives in North Carolina and loves to take herself out for quick lunches.  She goes walking and then stops someplace for a quick and inexpensive lunch.  A few years ago I started sending her gift cards for Christmas, to a variety of fast food restaurants.  This year I saw this idea on one of my favorite blogs, Going Buggy, and decided this would be perfect for Aunt Marilyn.

 This cute little gift card book is made with toilet paper tubes.  First, I flattened them, then I covered them with papers from a DCWV Christmas Stack.  I had forgotten that I had this 6x6 stack and I'm so glad I found it.  The papers are adorable.  I'm pretty sure this stack has been discontinued as it has been in my stash for a couple years.

I then used my Bind It All to make them into a little book.

Each "page" has it's own tag with a gift card or certificate on the back of it.

The first tag is covered with paper from the same paper stack and says Merry Christmas. All the others I used QKR Stampede images that were stamped onto kraft card stock. 

The Santa is Santa Snowman (#16704) and was colored with water color pencils. I used Liquid Pearls on his beard, hair and the fur on his hat to make them a nice shimmery white. 

The next tag is Pine Sprig (#15702) was colored with water color pencils, I used gold Stickles on the bells. 

Holly (#15701) was used for the next tag, colored with water color pencils again and red Stickles were used on the berries. 

This picture shows where I used the Liquid Pearls and Stickles.

The last image I used was Trees (#21704), this one I stamped with Moss Green VersaFine ink and used a white gel pen to add the 'snow' to the image. 

I then added an eyelet to the top of each tag, using my Crop-a-dile.  Then threaded a ribbon through it and added the gift card or certificate to the back.  The gift cards I attached with a small amount of ATG tape.  For the gift certificate, I attached a loop of ribbon to the back of the tag, folded the certificate and slid it under the ribbon.

I know Aunt Marilyn will enjoy the gift cards and certificate and I'm pretty sure she will like the little book I made to send them to her in. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you have enjoyed your bit of time here and I hope you have been inspired to make something yourself.

Come back again soon and see what else I have to show you. 

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Let's Talk Turkey Blog Hop

Welcome to the QKR Stampede Let's Talk Turkey Blog Hop!  If you are coming from Jessica's blog, you are in the right place!  Great project she has posted isn't it?   If you have come to my blog first, you will want to go start at the beginning of the hop at the QKR Stampede Blog.  You won't want to miss a single post from our design team.  If a link doesn't work somewhere along the line, have no fear, you can go back to the QKR Blog and click on the link from there.  Be sure to go to each blog, leave a comment and then go back to the QKR Blog and comment there that you have gone through the entire hop.  There will be a lucky winner who will receive a $20 gift certificate from QKR Stampede.  So be sure to comment on all the blogs for that chance to win.

So let's see what I have to show you today.  I thought I would give you an example of a way to use stamping on your scrapbooking layouts.  Stamps can be used in so many different ways, but I think most of us think of them as something to be used on cards.  That isn't their only use, as you can see here.  On this layout I used the Leaf stamp from QKR Stampede.  I love this stamp, as there are so many different ways that it can be used. 

This layout is about my very favorite fall activity.  Going on our annual pumpkin hunt.  We have been doing this since my kids were very young, they are now 18 & 20, but they still love this day out with Mom and Grandma. 

For all the leaves I gathered all kinds of scraps that were in fall colors, including some patterned papers, some of which were polka dots and paisleys.  I stamped them with the Leaf stamp, using Black Onyx Versafine ink.  I then 'fussy cut' all the leaves.

I usually start my layouts by positioning the photos, but this time I knew where I wanted the leaves, so I put them around the bottom of the pages.  Some of them I attached with my ATG Tape Gun, some I attached with foam tape to give a bit of dimension.  Next, I placed the photos and added the text.  The "Fall Fun" is a mix of chip board letters from a few different sets.   The "Annual Pumpkin Hunt" was cut on the Cricut Expressions with the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge.  The "2010" was done with some rub-ons from my stash.  I added a few more leaves to the layout and I love the finished project.

I hope you like my layout and will consider using some stamps in some of your scrapbooking too.  I'd love to hear what you think of my layout, so please leave me a comment and become a follower if you like. 

Now from here you will want to hop on to Carol's Blog - Stamp Alley and see what wonderful project she has to show you today, it is sure to be inspiring!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you were inspired in some way, come back soon.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!