First Basket

This is my first basket. It is fabric (sis, you might recognize this yellow & white check!) torn into 1" strips. Then crochet, just like yarn. (For those of you who don't know, this is my absolute favorite craft ever!! And maybe a big cause of the carpal tunnel!) It was a one afternoon project, and I split it up into two segments so my carpal tunnel wouldn't hurt so badly. I have enough fabric to make one & a half more! It was so easy and fun! I think I'll be making more of these!

Santa Ball

Is this an old idea and I've just never seen it? I thought these were so cute when I saw them recently. Then I ran across a sleeve of 5 red balls for $1 today and snatched them up. There were 3 shiny ones and 2 fuzzy ones. This is one of the fuzzy ones. It takes about 2 minutes to make one. So simple & so Christmas! I'm excited about the season already!

Cut a strip of about 1/2 inch black paper (8 inches long) and a square of metallic gold paper a little bigger than the strip is wide. Glue the gold square to the end of the paper with part of it sticking off the end, so three sides have gold edges. Then attach the black paper around the width of the ball. I used SNAIL adhesive to attach it all....I have never used it on a project like this, so we'll see if it holds around that circle.

Sympathy Card

I've been working on my babe's scrapbook, so I've not been posting much, but had to make this for a friend. The Stippled Stencil grapes are stamped in Chocolate Chip, the square background is stamped in Always Artichoke, stamped off twice before stamping it here to make it lighter. Then I matted it with the two matching papers, and put a brad in the top right corner. I put it on the confetti cardstock with Dimensionals, though I don't think it shows in the picture. I stamped the sentiment on the card in Chocolate. Then I cut a strip of Sage Shadow and stamped on it in Artichoke & ran the edges in Chocolate to give it dimension as well. I originally punched a hole in this strip to put in more brads, but didn't like the brad on the strip, so I tied this ribbon and attached it over the hole instead. I like the soft texture of the ribbon on the card.

Congrats Baby Foster

My doodles aren't the best, but it does add a little to the card. This is a square 4 1/4 inch Whisper White card. I started with a Shimmery White square, with the elephant from Year After Year stamped in Basic Black onto the center of that. I colored him in with my chalks & Blender Pen and doodled around the edge with a Black Journaling Marker. There's a Basic Black, then Soft Sky, and finally Not Quite Navy square behind the elephant. Then tie a white Organdy ribbon around this part and knot once. When knotting the second time, insert a small piece of the Black & White ribbon, so that the white is knotted over it. I stamped the sentiment from Holidays & Wishes in Black onto a scrap of Whisper White and punched the ends of it with my Corner Rounder Punch. Then I did the same with a scrap of Basic Black and attached them all to the white, square card.

Pocket Card

This card is a pocket. The card you write on is the part that you pull out of the center. It was fun to make, everyone loves it, and it's nice to have something different. Start with half a page of Certainly Celery cardstock and fold it in half. All of the stamps on this project are from Polka Dots & Paisley. I stamped polka dots first with my VersaMark ink pad onto the Celery cardstock. Then punched half of a 1 1/8 inch circle out of one of the sides. Ran SNAIL adhesive down each side and glued down. Then stamped paisleys in black onto the Whisper White cardstock, and colored a bit of the paisleys in with my Blender pens and Chalks. Then matted with Basic Black and Rose Red. For the tag, I stamped the flower in Black and the outline in Red. The tag is punched from Rose Red and the smaller one is free-hand to make it smaller. Then I glued a piece of ribbon tied in a knot on top of the tag and attached to the card. (I'd recommend a pop-dot here, it would make it look so much better - but I didn't think about it last night!) Then for the inside, adhere a white square to a larger Mellow Moss. Punch a Red 1 1/8 inch circle, fold in half and attach to the top center. Punch a 1/2 inch black circle and adhere to the front of the Red circle, punch a 1/4 inch hole through all layers and tie a ribbon through. It was really an easy project, but sure gets some WOW's.

Anniversary Card

Stampin' Up! releases 6 new colors each year, and they are only available for that catalog year. I was excited to be playing with the new colors today. They go so well with my old favorite, Chocolate Chip! I folded and stamped the 4 1/4 by 8 1/2 Purely Pomgranate cardstock with my linen stamp in Chocolate ink. Then I stamped the flowers from Year After Year onto River Rock cardstock and ran the edges in my chocolate ink pad. I punched 1/16 inch holes and inserted silver brads into the center of each flower. Then I placed the piece of Chocolate cardstock in the center of the card, letting it go off the top. I used the linen technique on the Very Vanilla cardstock and distressed it in the ink as well. Then, using my Chocolate marker, I stamped a portion of the sentiment from God's Blessings onto Groovy Guava, cut it out and ran the edges of it in Chocolate ink as well. Then put it all together. I decided last minute to add some flowers to the card, so I used my marker again to ink the flower and stamp only that in the background. I improved this card greatly by stamping the flowers again onto the Guava cardstock and cutting them out and putting them onto the River Rock flowers.

Thanksgiving Card

This is my favorite card from last night. I absolutely LOVE my new Year After Year set that this pumpkin is in! I stamped the pumpkin all over in Versa Mark onto More Mustard Cardstock. Then used Very Vanilla to stamp a Chocolate Chip pumpkin and 'Happy Thanksgiving' from Holidays & Wishes. I colored the pumpkin with my chalks and blender pens, matted it onto Always Artichoke and Chocolate Chip and put it all together. You could use any stamp in this Year After Year set this way and have a bunch of different, classy cards!

Funky Color Christmas

I feel this is similar to the my last post (the same stamp sets), but different enough to include. I love the Green Galore and Regal Rose for a 'sassy' Christmas card! I stamped the stars from Background Basics and the tree (from Year After Year) in Green Galore, and colored in the tree with my blender pens and ink pads. Then I cut a Regal Rose strip and stamped the sentiment from Holidays & Wishes in Regal Rose on it. I wanted something extra on the strip, so I inked only part of the background stamp in Rose and added it to the strip, near the Merry Christmas. Isn't it fun?!

Neighbor's Birthday Invitations

My neighbor (11 years old) brought over her (non-SU) horse stamp today and we made some

invitations for her birthday party in September. We stamped the Paisley from Polka Dots & Paisley and colored it in with a blue colored pencil. Then we stamped the horse on to white cardstock and ran the edge of the horse paper in the brown ink pad to distress it. We stamped the sentiment from Hugs and Wishes (my newest set) along a blue strip and glued it all together. I think this paisley looks great with the horse! I hope her mother likes them!

Happy 30th!

This is the wrapping for the gift below. I had this wrapping paper that I love and I wanted a little card for it that matched, but was special for her. I used the "Happy Birthday" in purple from God's Blessings and overstamped 30 in my Whimsical Numbers set in green. Used a couple different greens that I had sitting around that matched the colors on the wrapping and that's it.

Inside Birthday Wrapping

I have made a few sets of these as gifts and I am so pleased with them! I think they're fun and classy. I try to make every card different and use a different paper for each. The patterned papers are the inside of business envelopes, recycled. The "S" is from the Letterpress Alphabet set. I used some grosgrain ribbon on these too. Black & white cardstock. This particular set is for a friend's 30th birthday today - Her last name is Smith.

Quilled Paper Name

I wanted to share one of my favorite crafts I've made in the past. The old art of quilling. It's one of my favorite baby gifts to give! A plaque of their own name for their room. I try to make the colors & design match their rooms too. Sweet baby Hannah is 9 months now! The verse is from Hannah's prayer in the Bible. I love the girly swirls....

Baby Shower Thanks You's

The thank you notes! I used the same papers and stamped the Riveting circles in Versa Mark on the background. Then stamped the round sentiment the same as on the invitation, except I matted it in Regal Rose this time. I cut a strip of the confetti and stamped flowers from Wild about You in Regal ink. Simple and fun!

Baby Shower Favor

This is the favor for the shower. I stamped the circles from Riveting in Bashful Blue on the confetti paper, cut to the size of the gum package. Then I cut a rectangle of the Regal Rose and put it on the front. I created a faux-metal-edged tag with the giraffe and sentiment and tied it on with my silver cord. I hope they like it!

Baby Shower Invitations

This is the invitation for a baby shower at my house this weekend. The giraffe, from Wild About You, is stamped and matted in Regal Rose with faux stitching around the mat. Then we stamped the round works, from Riveting, in Bashful Blue and in Regal Rose. Punched them out and matted them on the blue cardstock. We used non-Stampin' Up! stamps in the background on Versa Mark. The whole thing is on confetti paper.