Hi! I missed last week’s leftover Sunday because of the drama surrounding my parent’s departure, and I worked all day yesterday, so I was finally able to sit down to my pile o’ scraps and get a couple of cards done… Here’s my stash:

It was/is pretty substantial and I still have lots of scraps left, but here are two cards that I made with some fun papers:

I played around with a technique that Teri shared on the Technique Tuesday Blog the other day. I used a white gel pen to highlight the grooves in the Technique Tile. Anyway, that sat in the pile until I made this card today! I cut the stars with my Slice and added an SRM sticker and a MME brad.

This one was obviously very simple to put together. I cut down the patterned paper scraps and scraped the edges. Another SRM sticker and a Prima flourish completed this card.

Wanna see a peek of what’s coming tomorrow from Whimsie Doodles?

Does the colour scheme look familiar? lol.. A lot of cute stamps are being released tomorrow and I can’t wait to show you my card. In the meantime, if you’re doing some shopping at the WD store don’t forget to use this coupon code:

Supplies: Echo Park papers; SRM Stickers; Prima Flourish; Technique Tile; Slice “falala” cartridge, MME brad.

Today's "Ways to Use it" Challenge at SCS is to use butterflies. I LOVE butterflies (I don't know why or how this love developed, but such is life) and find that I used them often as a focal point in a card, whether it be a stamped image or a die cut. Today it's the latter...

The tubes from SRM have been a real "blessing" this holiday season. It's been my go-to gift for people in my life, young and old!

I changed up how I did my Christmas tubes a little by die-cutting some words with the MM Slice and adding an SRM sticker to complete the sentiment, like this:


Take care, and I'll talk to you one more time before the big day!

Every few months Splitcoast Stampers has two nights of challenges called Virtual Stamp Night. This time around I was able to finish 6 projects, two of which I shared with you yesterday. Here are the rest:

• There are 3 snowflakes in decreasing sizes layered on top of each other. They were cut with the Slice. 
• The patterned paper is by Lasting Impressions.. I LOVE this colour combo for Christmas... 
• Finished off with the *perfect* SRM sticker. 

• I bought a Crate Paper paper pack yesterday forgetting that I already owned it.. DUH! So I'm on a mission to use it up. I was also reminded that I have a bunch of Christmas sentiments that fit in the SU! Word-window punch, so I put that to use as well!
• That moose is from  Kim Hughes set by the late CHF... 

• I love this stamp and sentiment. I special-ordered the sentiment because it's so perfect for ME, and for this stamp... I gotta use it more this Christmas...
• This is more Crate Paper BTW...

• I also have a bunch of last year's Cosmo Cricket Christmas papers that I need to use up.. This card is a result of me throwing a bunch of scraps on a card and seeing where it goes.... 
• The sentiment is by Hero Arts. 

I sat down one day to make cards just because. Isn't that weird? Weird for me, maybe. I always seem to have some deadline I'm chasing, or some challenge I'm doing, and it's rarely (lately) that I ever just sit down and create.

I made these cards with some brand-new My Mind's Eye papers.. I was hoarding my new papers (like I usually do) saying to myself that ONE DAY I'll use them for something really special... Well, that never really happens in my world so I bit the bullet and cut into my precious paper with good results!

Even though this is technically my "summer vacation" I am still working a lot. Almost every day... But I am able to steal away to do some great summer activities with the fam'. In the mean time, I have been crafting a little too... I've been trying out a few different styles, so stay tuned for some variety!!
Here are some projects that I've completed:





There you have it!

Cards 1&2:

Stamps: elzybells

Paper: melissa frances, MME, PT

Ink: melissa frances, MME, PT

Accessories: button (jenni bowlin), ribbon, copic markers, glitter, chipboard

Card 3:

Paper: crate paper, PTI

Accessories: tattered angels mist, MM Slice, eyelets, srm stickers

Card 4:

Paper: ep, bo bunny, pti

Accessories: ribbon, srm stickers

Card 5:

Stamps: whipper snapper, amuse

Paper: basic grey, pti

Ink: ranger

Accessories: flower soft card an accessory, flower soft, copic markers, MM Slice, button, ribbon

• Had my first surgery: gall bladder removal. Not fun! 
  
• Completed a very successful first year at my new school as music director
  
• Bought my first new car, a Mazda 3 Sport (fully loaded!)
  
• Got married
• Went on a month-long honeymoon across Canada and the US
• Started my second year at school with a 300% increase in choral students! YAY!

As I stared at this year's Santa picture my thoughts went to LAST year's Santa picture and lingered on the fact that I have not scrapped it yet!! So with the slight burn of guilt in my heart I decided to get this layout down right away so I could at least feel good about that! And I do!


I used this week's sketch from Pencil Lines provided by Donna Downey. At first I cut out all of the snowflakes to actually be used on the layout, but I had the brilliant idea to use them as masks and airbrush with an E25 Copic Marker.. It is a better choice because now the focus is on the picture and the snowflakes are subtle, and yet still a lovely feature! *happy dance* Phoenix's smile is questionable because he has a lot of teeth issues going on and the poor thing is embarrassed to smile. It makes me so sad that he's self-conscious, but he knows that after the "Rapid Palette Expander" that's in right now to widen his mouth will soon make way for braces, that will eventually bring him perfect teeth! He's young for braces, but one tooth is completely sideways and is causing damage to not only his psyche, but to his lower teeth. :(

This next card I made as I was cleaning up my craft/crap area and I had this image coloured and just sitting there!! I HAD to make a card for it....

I'm really enjoying colouring lately.. I have started to pay attention to the shading AROUND the main image, and it's amazing how good it makes the image look. So much pop and pizazz...


So I have a bunch of Christmas photos to edit and a couple challenges to play so I will be back soon! Have a great day!

Supplies:

2009 Layout: Paper: Kraft, Elzybells; Chipboard shapes and die-cut numbers, Basic Grey; Snowflake shapes cut with the Slice; Lace, unknown, journaling tag, Basic Grey Origins.

Card: Paper: Bazzill, PTI; Stamp: Stampavie; Ink: Ranger lamp black; Ribbon; Amuse; Brads, Nestabilities, Copic markers, rub-ons (Cosmo Cricket).

I have a lotta scraps on my table. It's starting to be a pile, really, so it was time for me to root through them and make some cards! I placed with my Slice to create the words and the labels. I used the Falala cartridge for all of the Slice cuts. Here's card #1:

I had a piece of kraft CS stamped with the woodgrain stamp (Hero Arts) and white ink. I know woodgrain and kraft aren't your traditional Christmas colours, but I thought it would funky! The paper in the background was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and I rubbed white ink over the raised spots.

Card #2:


Here's another scrap of the woodgrain that I cut out with a label shape. Joy was inked around the edges. Ribbon is from Papertrey Ink and it's delicious!!

Card #3:


This is my favourite. I used the reverse of the cut-out and saved the pieces from the word to fill in the gap. How much easier can you get design-wise, but I'm just loving this one!!
Dare: Use a non-traditional paper/background stamp/stamp to create some holiday cards! You might be pleasantly surprised!

Post a comment if you take my dare! I'd love to get some more non-traditional inspiration!

For those of you that aren't in "the know," yesterday was World Card Making Day, and yes it's a real thing.

So my mission for this year's WCMD was simple: play along with a few challenges, get some mandatory design work done, and use up scraps on my table. And guess what? I actually accomplished all three of my goals, so here are a few cards that I made yesterday and today: