Happy New Year's Eve Mojo119

Well, it's New Year's Eve! I know a lot of people had a really rough time this year, but for some reason, I was blessed. I was able to "retire" from my job with the family business where I worked for 15 years. My hubby and I fostered a dog for 5 months, got him healthy and helped find him a wonderful home. We adopted a third dog, Layla, who REALLY needed a home. I was able to dedicate more time to volunteering at the CT Humane Society (and got Cindy involved too!) and we were able to spend fun times with friends and family. So, my wishes go out to those who struggled this year and wish you a much better 2010.

On this last day of 2009, I was able to participate in Mojo Sketch Challenge #119. I used a few new items I've bought in the "after Christmas sales" Particularly this Hero Arts girly stamp and American Crafts paper from their Metropolitan collection. I colored her with prisma pencils and gamsol. I'm hoping to improve my coloring in 2010. I really *aspire* to color like Paula. Maybe I can save some money and fly out to take one of her coloring classes!!!!

I used a PTI sentiment, Nesties circle dies and a few acrylic flowers with seed beads glued on.

Thanks for stopping by today and wishing you and your a Fabulous 2010!!!!

Cards for Friends final cards...

Well, here are the two final cards I made for two of my co-volunteers at the CT Humane Society. They might be my two favorite of the whole set!!! First is a PTI stamp from the "Mailbox Greetings" collection. I watercolored this image and was quite happy with the result! I also used the PTI sentiment, a Martha Stewart punch and a Cuttlebug circle embossing folder.

The last card of this gift package is from the PTI "Button Bits" collection. It's such a GREAT set, I reach for it a lot!!! I used the Martha Stewart punch again along the side of the card, tied some ribbon and a bit of patterned paper and the PTI sentiment and a finished card! Sounds really quick and easy, but most of my cards take me about an hour to make (YIKES!)

Maybe sometime in the future, I'll be able to speed up my cardmaking process, but it IS what it IS right now :) Thanks for visiting :)

Cards for Friends continued....

Here are three more of the eight cards I created for two of my CT Humane Society co-volunteers. The first card was focused around the shopping bag which was given to me by someone who wasn't going to use it for crafting. They've been sitting in my room for about a month just waiting to be used! I punched a scallop square and pasted the bag on top. I added tissue paper in the bag for that "real" shopping bag feel. Then I grabbed my Too Much Fun Rubberstamps sentiment - which speaks the truth - and finished off the card with a Studio G high heel. This is a total Papertrey Ink card...top to bottom! I used my new polka dots stamp on the left hand side and the "On my couch" set for the remainder of the card. The paper is from the Bitty Baby Blessings collection. I cut a Nestabilities label and stamped the sentiment inside. Added a PTI button to finish the card off!

Lastly, I stamped up an Inkadinkado bird stamp on my Nesties scallop oval and added these cute rosettes on the side. Finished it up with some ribbon and a PTI sentiment.

Thanks for taking a peek today! Tomorrow I'll upload the remaining cards from this set I made!

Cards for Friends

As part of a Christmas gift, I made a few cards for two of my co-volunteers at the CT Humane Society. I couldn't post these earlier as Gisela gets the blog feed - so since I have now given the gifts away - I can finally post some of these cards!!!

I made about eight cards in total, so I'll post them all in the next few days.

First off is a card using ribbon that I've been dying to use for a looooong time. Just never had the perfect color combo until this card!

I used PTI stamps from the Borders & Corner set, Cuttlebug swirl embossing folder and a Sizzix die cut with some bling!

Up next is a House Mouse stamp that I was very excited to use also! These types of cards take me a while to color up, but I love how they come out! I used a watercolor technique on them and was really happy with the end result. I believe the finished product looks a lot better in person. The sentiment is from PTI's Button Bits set.

This was the last card that I made out of the eight and I was not happy with my original birthday creation, so I had to make another quick one because I was running out of time to give these away!!! So, I used the Cuttlebug birthday embossing folder and a Studio G cake stamp. Mounted them on circle and scallop punches and I made a quick birthday card!!!

Thanks for taking a look today! Tomorrow I'll post some more of the cards I made for this gift collection!!!

Thanks for your support cards

Cindy and my co-volunteer at the CT Humane Society has *almost* reached her goal of 75 pounds of weight loss!!! Incredible! She looks terrific and really done a wonderful job of focusing on her goal. She asked me to make her some Thank You for Your Support cards for three people who have been instrumental in helping her achieve her goal.

She loved these Inkadinkado butterflies as well as the Cuttlebug embossing folders, so I stamped the butterflies with memento ink and then highlighted them with Martha Stewart glitter (which you can't tell from the pictures). I added a PTI sentiment and some ribbon and glued that on the Cuttlebug swirl embossed paper. ( I made two of these same cards)
For the second card, which is for a man, I used Cuttlebug Swiss Dots and then stamped an Inkadinkado script stamp on tan cardstock. Cut another circle after embossing with Swiss dots and over that, I stamped "Thanks" multiple times with the MFT stamp. Lastly I stamped MFT's Thanks a Million sentiment and cut it out with the same circle punch so it fit in the outer circle. I added some brads and manly-bling!

Thanks for taking a look today and I want to congratulate Gisela on achieving your goal !! Great job girl!

Merry Christmas!!

Well, we hope Santa brought lots of goodies to your house last night! Here is another money card using help from Jennifer McGuire's video.

I used two circle punches, a hat from Hero Arts holiday owl stamps, some bling and colored in the face. The sentiment is from MFT. My neices ripped frosty's poor scarf right off!!! He must be cold now - ha ha!

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve Money Card

Good Morning! Today's post is a "money card" Cindy made after watching THIS video by the SUPER talented Jennifer McGuire. What a terrific way to give a cash gift. Now this is what you'd call a "Money Tree" right?
I think the video shows some great ways to mask your gift within a card. Cindy did a terrific job with this one! I love the snow drifts and the die cut "Merry Christmas", along with the bling ornaments on the tree!!
Thanks for stopping by today and wishing everyone a TERRIFIC Merry Christmas!!

Doggy Videos

I'm loving my new FLIP video camera!! Here are two videos I took this morning of the dogs playing in the snow. Layla (the black dog) in the first one is our new family member and after knowing her at the shelter for a few months - I never saw her play like this. It was great to see her run around a bit. Especially to run around with Nolie. She loves the snow!!

Here's Lily and Nolie runnin' around too!!

Look at the post below this for my crafty update!!!

Maria

Package of cards

Hello! It is EARLY on Sunday morning and the snowplow woke Layla who decided to bark for 5 minutes, so that means I'm now awake and I remembered that I had these cards to post! I can't wait for it to get light out so I can see how Layla (our new dog) reacts to the 6"-8" of snow we have outside. I've got my new Flip camera all ready!!

Anyhow....here are a few cards I made for gifts to go along with some other items I put together to give away this week.

The first card is a DeNami image with an Inkadinkado sentiment. (I love this sentiment). I paper pieced the girl's dress and colored the rest with markers. I finally used some of the dog bone brads that I've owned for about 4 years!!
This is a CAS card if there ever was one! I had the fire hydrant paper and matched it with another Inkadinkado sentiment. Added the ribbon and voila!

I guess I'm noticing that Inkadinkado were the stamps to grab for this round of cardmaking, huh? Here's another set used:

Finally, some PTI stamps come into the mix! I used the flower stamps from Button Bits set and their polka dot stamp as well. I added some Amuse clouds and a Hero Arts sentiment.

Lastly, this is a Studio G stamp colored with prisma pencils and punched out with a Marvy scallop punch. I used the Cuttlebug swirl embossing folder and a little bling in the lower corner.

Oh - I just remembered my dream last night too - I had to teach a prisma pencil coloring class because the teacher (my high school English teacher - where'd THAT come from?) didn't show up and I was the only one who had used the pencils before....oh...those poor students! I guess the Indian food we ate last night gave me dream-indigestion!

Anyways....thanks for taking a look today! If you've been blanketed with snow...I hope you enjoy it!

Yoga Christmas....

My yoga instructor asked me to make her 6 yoga inspired Christmas cards, so I pulled out my MFT "Serenity Now" set and made two cards of each style below.

I paper pieced the yoga gal's outfit with the coordinating paper and colored her in with prisma pencils and gamsol.

This card uses an MFT sentiment and Martha Stewart punch
This card uses Sizzix snowflake die cut, Nesties punch and some bling.

Lastly, this card uses Cuttlebug Swiss Dots, some bling and an oval punch.

Thanks for taking a visit to the blog today! Hope you are having a great Monday!!

Another Christmas gift package....

Well, here's another gift package that is similar to yesterday's post! It's for another special someone and I hope they like it! I found the corduroy back at Home Goods and thought it was really cute, so again, I wanted to center the gifts around the bag. I didn't have anything paisly in my stash, so I had to go with the color combo connection.
Here's another Post It Note Stand with a PTI sentiment.

Here's a notepad cover using the PTI Take Note set and a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Here's the inside with coordinating altered paper clip.

Here's a two bag tea bag holder using another PTI set.

This is a gift card holder which holds a gift card to Starbucks! I found the directions on the Hero Arts blog. I used a Hero Arts stamp as well!

And I made another A2 card holder box for a set of 5 cards I made to go inside.

Here are the cards! This uses a Studio G stamp.

Here's an Inkadinkado stamp

PTI Set:

and...PTI sentiment with Martha Stewart punch.

And...the last one with another PTI sentiment!

Thanks for visiting today!!!

It's the season.......

Well, our holiday craft fairs are over. Sadly, the one we did last weekend wasn't a great success. Our location in the room was less than desired and although we got a LOT of "cute!!!" comments, we only sold about $200.00 worth of products. But....that's OK. Only the "perishable" items will have to be "gifted" away!

So this week I've been working on making some gifts. I can't say who it's for because I'm not sure if "they" visit the blog...but I'll explain what I made. Here's everything that will go in the corduroy bag I found at Home Goods. I just fell in love with it, so I bought one for myself - of course! I love the owls and I knew it would go perfect with the Hero Arts & PTI Stamps I have. The only thing NOT pictured is the gift card holder and envelope (since it has "their" name on it!).

Here I took a Sizzix Red Die acrylic box that I saved and I turned it into a tea bag holder. I used a Too Much Fun Rubber Stamps mug, colored it with markers and then used glossy accents for the "tea". I also used a Lockhart Stamp tea bag and a Hero Arts sentiment. I individually wrapped 8 teabags inside with the coordinating paper as well!

I LOVED Kerry's Post It Note Stands and I happened to buy a few of these frames at Christmas Tree Shop before I saw the project - so once I saw it - I knew I HAD to make it! All the paper used is from Provocraft Rob & Bob Studio. I used the PTI Take Note set for the sentiment.

I found an "initial" pad at Michael's and since I've altered a TON of these lately, I decided to do another one for this "K" person!!! I used PTI sentiment and Hero Arts owl set.

I made an altered paper clip and attached it to the pocket I made inside the cover.

Next I made a A2 card box for a set of 6 cards I made. Here I used another Hero Arts stamp and colored it in with prisma pencils and gamsol. I used glossy accents on the owl's eyes.

Here are the six cards that go in the box. Here I used a Studio G & PTI stamp and Martha Stewart punch.

Here's a PTI stamp/sentiment on the first card and for the second I used the candle punch stamp, created my own stamp background with the flower stamp and used PTI sentiment.

The first card uses another PTI set and the second card uses a Studio G stamp.

Thanks for taking a look today! I'm very excited to give away this gift! I'm pretty sure the recipient will appreciate it (well, I hope so at least) because I appreciate all THEY do !!!!