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Monday, November 29, 2010

A little Snowmen

I LOVE snowmen! I have quite a few snowmen stamps - but this is one of my Sugar Nellie stamps. This week on the All things Sugar Nellie forum on Paper Craft Planet the challenge was to make a 'step' card. Well, here is another kind of card I have never done. There are several types out there and I really wanted to make a different style, but couldn't find the directions on how to do it. Of course, I didn't really look that hard. I had a raging headache this morning and just did something simple. I hope you like my snowman.
Thanks for visiting my little spa on this blustery sort of day. I have not been out since I took my husband to work - but planning on going out shortly so we can do the final walk through on our house.

~Paula~

A Change of Vintage!

This past week was a Vintage Week over at the 365 Card Blog and I had so much fun making vintage cards all week long. Creating beautiful vintage cards has helped pass the time while waiting for closing on our house - which will happen tomorrow!
Anyway, I want to show you the last card that I made for the week long challenge. For my last card, I decided to change my DP and use my Deck The Halls DP as I LOVE this paper and think it gives that vintage feel just as well as the Vintage Rose DP I have been using on my other vintage cards. The Vintage week started with a blog hop. We were to hop to each DT members blog and see what item they were contributing to a recipe. The first day there were five blogs to visit and the rest of the week we hopped to one blog a day getting the rest of the items to make up our recipe and then on Saturday we were to put all those items together on a card. The first two items were paper piercing and stitching (real or faux). Since all my stuff is still on a moving truck, I chose to use faux stitching. I 'stitched' two lines around two sides of my card. For the paper piercing, I pierced all around the edge of my die cut oval. Using a die cut was another one of the items on the recipe from the first day's hop. We also were told to use a button and I just happened to have this 'vintage' looking button in my items I brought with me. I was more than happy to use one of my deck the hall buttons, but this one worked out nicely I think. The last item we were given on the first day was the size of the card, which was to be a 5 x 5 card. Then we had to wait until the next day and each day after that to find out the other items required for the card. By the end of the week, we had added a hatpin, a stamped image I chose to use a new just rite stamp and colored it just a bit with silver and gold smooch. Another item on the recipe was distressing. I distressed the edges of my DP and the matting and then edged all with Early Espresso. A dimensional sticker was another requirement, but since I didn't have any, I made my own by popping my oval mat off my card and then popped the stamped image off of that. The last item was lace. How can you NOT have lace on a vintage card? I really like the way this card turned out and may even consider making a few more similar to it for Christmas cards to send. Yeah - I haven't done that yet!!
I hope you have enjoyed viewing my vintage cards this week. Later today I hope to have a couple more cards to share with you - so come back when you get a chance and visit for awhile.

The teapot is on!
~Paula~

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Vintage with Lace

Old Lace - yellowed with age - so old fahioned. Right now, I am picturing in my mind a lady of the old days with a BIG hat on her head with a PUFFY sleeved dress - and decked out and ready for tea! Hmmm - that DOES sound yummy - and it WAS!! Yesterday, my husband and I went down to a tea room and had high tea. It was LOVELY. We used to take tea often when we lived in Washington state and talked of doing that while in California. Now - only in Alabama a few weeks and we have had our first spot of tea at a tea room. I am sorry - just reminiscing about old fashioned things - which is what the Vintage Blog tour over on the 365 Card Blog has done to me this week. As I anticipate moving into the home we are purchasing and the way in which I will decorate - it is hard not to think Vintage. I love old fashioned - pretty things. I really like this card - adding a bit of lace - which was the challenge for Day 271 in addition to making it vintage. It was fun to add the different layers and the floral spray - which I haven't done to much of this week with my cards.
I hope you have enjoyed the cards that I have shared with you today - I will have the final card ready soon - but there are SO many elements to add to the card - however, if you want to know what all to include on your card - you will have to check out the blog and the DT hop from the week. You REALLY don't want to miss it - and you still have time to win some fabulous prizes from my friend Gloria, who is the sponsor for the week.

Thanks for stopping by - do check back soon for my final Vintage Card.

~Paula~

Vintage Christmas

What images pop into your head when you hear those words - Vintage Christmas? Hmm, I think of old fashioned pictures of children skating on the ice. Old photos of old fashioned Santa's. Aged items basically - which is what I mentioned in my last post - Vintage is a feel of aged, antique items. As the 365 Card Blog Vintage Week continues - Day 270 brought us Vintage plus a dimensional sticker. I just happened to have these old fashioned - looking - stickers that I had purchased JUST before our move for another project. In fact, that project was for Operation Write Home and the Joann's Creativity for a Cause - they made it into the top 3 Finalists - so be sure and vote for them! Anyway, back to my card - I made it quite simple adding just a bit of lace and the ribbon and then the sticker.
I have one more card to show you from the week - and then on to the BIG FINAL card - so stick around for just a little longer.

~Paula~

More Vintage!

Day 269 continues the Vintage Week at the 365 Card Blog sponsored by my friend Gloria. Vintage is such a varied technique - it really can be anything you want - you just have to make it look aged - and what better way to make something look aged than by distressing it?? That was the challenge on Wednesday - Vintage plus distressing. My choice of paper was easy - as I am using my Vintage Rose DP for these challenges, however, I just didn't know WHAT I wanted to do with this challenge. It is easy to distress the paper and add a bit of ranger ink. I decided to use my LARGE flower - I ordered these awhile back from Wild Orchid Craft and hadn't had an opportunity to use them. I tried spraying with my Silver Foil smooch - but I don't think it comes out silver - it is more of a black and made SUCH a mess. I added some gold and called it good.
Thanks for checking back to see what else I did today - but wait - I will have more - so hang around.

~Paula~

It's A VINTAGE Week . . .

. . .over at the 365 card blog and my friend (she truly IS my friend - not just an internet friend, but a real live friend - that now lives thousands of miles away on the West Coast!) Gloria is the sponsor for this week. She is not only on the 365 Card Blog DT but also on the coveted Graphic 45 DT - so she has TONS of Graphic 45 goodies that she has shared with her teamies and now wants to share with a few bloggers. Gloria LOVES doing vintage cards - so that was the theme this week - and I am just getting caught up on all the challenges for the week. On Day 268 the theme was VINTAGE plus a stamp. Well, in my limited supply of stamping items, because my stuff is still 'on the truck', I have this 'vintage' looking tea stamp set. PERFECT for this challenge! I used my Vintage Rose DP on this card again - it is so 'vintage' looking - I think anyway - what do you think?
Well I have some other cards to show you - so stick around, or come on back in a little while when I have uploaded them here.

~Paula~

Monday, November 22, 2010

Vintage Easel Card

Yesterday was Day 266 on the 365 Card Blog and the challenge was a Sketch to launch the start of the Vintage Week. My good friend Gloria gifted the members of the DT with her excess Graphic 45 DT stash. Now, I don't have any Graphic 45 papers, but I was able to find this vintage rose paper amongst my limited stash. I had some Core'dnations cardstock that worked nicely with the vintage rose - so I cut the nesties scallop circle out of the core'dnations and then sanded it to bring the blue color forward. I then glued this piece of one of the vintage rose papers on top of it. I decided to make the card an easel card and added the sentiment to the inside of the card. I know it is hard to see the sentiment from this picture.
I am looking forward to more of the challenges that will be posted each day this week on the blog. Each DT member will be added an element to use on a card that will be revealed on Saturday -so stick around here to see how I create the card, but come back each day to see what other challenges are going on.
As always, I appreciate your comments and you stopping by to ready my musings and see my creations.
~Paula~

Double Challenge

This week has started off quite busy in the land of blog. I participated in the bloghop over at Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog over the weekend. It is their birthday and they had a fantastic bloghop with all the DT members giving away some yummy candy.I just discovered this blog through my internet friend Lorraine - who happens to be on the DT.One of the rules of the hop was creating a card using the sketch provided. What a FUN sketch, full of lot's of angles. I had fun creating my card. So, the double challenge is that I am also entering this card in the 365 Card Blog Challenge for Day 267 Which was to make a Vintage card and use a stickpin!! WELL - I love the vintage look, but don't feel that I create it that well. With limited supplies right now - since our possesions and most of my stamping supplies are still on the moving truck - I only have a few packages of paper at my disposal - however, one of them is called Vintage Rose - so I found it fitting for this challenge. Now the stickpin was a different story. I didn't have any, so went in search of some. I was only able to come up with a corsage pin, but I guess that will do. Since it is Vintage Week all week long at the 365 Card Blog, I have decided to use this paper pack to create my cards. So, come back each day to see my take on the challenge for each day.
~Paula~

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

A NEW Gift Project!

Several months ago, when I discovered Sugar Nellies, I also discovered Elizabeth Bell images. At that time, some of her images were sold through Funky Kits and I ordered some. Since then, I have discovered that she has MANY more darling images. Recently she launched a NEW CHALLENGE blog and I KNEW I just had to get in on the ground floor on this one. I LOVE her images and find coloring them with my prisma color pencils to be so relaxing.
Anyway, her first challenge was posted on October 25th - JUST before we had to pack up and move. I was able to purchase a few digital images and get them printed on my whisper white and very vanilla cardstock before I had to pack away all my crafting tools and the printer. Sinced then, I have been thinking about the project and FINALLY got a chance to play yesterday - and finished up this very fun project this afternoon.
I chose to do a box as I seldom do those and have done totes in the past. I used this ADORABLE image called Eden's 2nd Christmas. I only used part of the image for the box top, but the full image is really quite adorable. Since this IS a Christmas image - the delightful innocence of a child as they discover the wonders of Christmas - I chose to use the new Cherry Cobbler and Always Artichoke cardstock for my base and box top. The new Designer paper in the holiday mini catalog goes along quite nicely with these colors. I chose to use a variety of patterns from this same package. For the edge of my box I used a punch that would go nicely with the scallop edge of the circle.I used Early Espresso satin ribbon on the edge of the box top - gluing it down so it stays in place. I also added a few of the flowers from Wild Orchid Craft to the top of the box. Then, inside my little box I have 4 little 3 x 3 cards. Of course, this isn't enough to fill the box, and should I decide to give this as a gift, I will add several more cards to make a nice little gift. Each of the cards has a different sketch design. I just looked through the various different sketch blogs that I like to visit to find something that would work for a mini card like this. I had considered putting the image that is on the box top on each card, however, since I only printed a few of the designs before I moved, I didn't have enough to do that. So, I decided to keep the scallop circle theme going and added the pearls for a nice touch to each of the cards. I only had a couple sentiments that fit inside the circle - 'thinking of you' and 'thank you' - so used those switching the colors to give two of each. I had considered just making them 'thank you' cards, but decided I wanted a variety and here again, with more little cards, I could add more sentiments (If they fit inside the circle).

So, that is my project for the first Elzabeth Bell Challenge - and just in time. I am looking forward to seeing what the next challenge is going to be - of course, by the time that one is posted, I will be looking at unpacking the moving truck as we hope to close on the house we are buying on the 30th.

Thanks for stopping by and reading through my ramblings - hope you have a glorious day wherever you are!
~Paula~

Christmas Image with a twist!

I had to miss the last Sugar Bowl challenge because I was in the thick of moving. However, I decided I was NOT going to miss this one - even if I am pushing the deadline hugely!! One of my internet friends on another forum reminded me that the deadline for the challenge was TODAY! And it is GMT - which translated means Scotland Time - so if you look at my clocks - you will see, I am nearly there.
So, on to my card - I already had this sweet Sugar Nellie stamped out and cut to size (more or less), but I decided I wanted to use purples rather than the traditional greens and reds. So, I started out with no particular theme in mind - but as I was working on it, I was thinking of my friend Lisa (we are staying with them right now) and her mom. Her mom has been out of sorts lately and I decided that I would make this card to cheer her up. I don't believe she has seen any of my cards yet - Lisa was going to show her one when she was visiting the other day, but I don't think she ever did. So, with that theme in mind - I set about to finish the card - trying to keep within the theme of the challenge - using ribbon and bows.

I have another project to show you - so stick around for a little bit.

~Paula~

Friday, November 12, 2010

Making gifts!

It has been awhile since I posted - but that is simply because I packed up my house in California and moved clear across the country to Alabama!! We are staying with friends temporarily while we wait to close on the house we are buying. So, while I wait, I am starting to make some gifts for Christmas. Of course, I have gotten a little help from my online forums and inspiration from my friends across the miles. This week on the 'All Things Sugar Nellie' Forum at Paper Craft Planet the challenge was to make a tealight candle Card. WELLLLLL - I had never done one of those before, much less even seen one. There aren't that many examples of this out there either and the one that I did find had the dimensions and score lines in centimeters!! I needed inches!! So, my good friend PEP, over in Wales (no less) sent me dimensions in inches. I sat down and measured out and it worked perfectly!! I will probably adjust just a tad to make a taller card, or a slightly wider card (if using 12 x 12 cardstock) but this one worked out nicely. I used my sweet snowman from Funky Kits that I have had for awhile. He is getting used alot it seems. I will be ordering more of these beautiful images just as soon as we get moved into the new house - sooner than later I am hoping! Anyway, I used my prisma color pencils - just love working with these pencils - though I did find a local store in my new community that sells Copics - it IS a temptation!! Just one, or two, or three - or . . . Perhaps I will get a job there and then I can get a discount!! :) I actually did apply! Anyway, back to the card. I used a retired SU designer paper. This paper is really quite versatile - it is a wintery paper, with snowflakes on some, but I have used it throughout the year on a variety of projects. This card allowed me to use three tealights - and will make a wonderful gift for friends. On the inside, I used another piece of designer paper from the same package. I added the sentiment from one of the new Christmas sets in the Stampin' Up holiday mini catalog. I am really pleased with the way this turned out and plan to make several more to give away - they make great gifts for friends, co-workers, teachers, etc.
Thanks for stopping by the spa today - I will be adding more projects in the coming days - my friend set up a 'sanity space' here at their house for me. :)

~Paula~