December Stamp Of The Month Blog Hop

It's here again - the hop and can you believe it's December!  Santa's on his way!  You should be coming from Adeline Brill's blog, if not just keep hopping and you will make a complete circle.

This month stamp set is Amore D1445 - Close To My Heart is always 2 months ahead with their stamp of the month's so even though it's Christmas time, this stamp set is geared towards Valentine's day - Aren't they smart at Corporate!

I made two simple cards, again using a stash that I had pre created from a workshop months ago but I just felt the colors were perfect for Valentine's Day cards. 

I did a second generation stamp for the heart and then stamped the LOVE over it - using the same color, the heart just looks lighter. I also, love the boarder stamp of hearts - I used that along the edge on the darker pink.  The ink I used is Hollyhock.

The card below I added tiny hearts to the B&T paper to match the words.

I just felt that these cards weren't enough so I started playing with the large heart stamp.  

I bent the top in more before stamping the image so that it was more like a heart then how it sat on the sheet.  I stamped it in Hollyhock ink and then took the Tulip Marker and traced some of the lines. 

I added extra dots everywhere. (I call this doodling!  I LOVE TO DOODLE!) Using a White gel pen I added some highlights down the center of the leaves, under edges and a few white dots here and there.  To finish it off I took Liquid Glass and dotted all the dots with it to give it a shine.  I don't think my camera caught the shine.  I sponged around the torn edges with Hollyhock. 

I mounted it on Chocolate cardstock that I got wet and crunched in my hand to create a quick pleat.  Let me know what you think!

Now, hop over to Chris Shouse's blog and see what she created with this great stamp set!

Storage for Paper

 These Cropper Hoppers are great for paper.  It hold like 200 sheets of cardstock.  I have 2 boxes for each season.  I have a tab for each color.  Then I save the ziplock bags that our Paper Packs come in and put a label on the outside corner for scraps.

 This way I know which box they go in and what paper is in the bag.  With 60 colors to work with, there is no way one can remember is which blue is which (without a swatch book in hand).

I also label the front of the box showing what order the colors are in the box so that finding them are easy too.

Christmas Vinyl Part 2

 Yesterday I posted the deer artwork, here is the ornament artwork and another with words and a bow.

I used vinyl on the outside of the glass and added real bows to each ornament.

Here is one with a ribbon.  I wish I knew how to make a fuller bow - next time!

Thanks for looking!

Vinyl Christmas Art

 I created these two deer using MTC and tracing the clipart.

 This is what one looked like prior to sponging mountains and grass.  I tore paper to create the mask for the mountains.

 You can't see the grass on the one above very well.

This one is a little better. I used brown vinyl and put it right on the front of the picture frame.

This is what it looks like on the mat with a little transfer tape.

Thanks for looking.

Princess Invite - Heart 2 Heart Challenge

Heart 2 Heart is having a challenge for anything Princess and Pink.  So I dug out this oldie but goodie - my daughter's 1st birthday invite!

The princess part is the castle that is heat embossed on the bottom of the vellum top sheet.  I printed the words off my laser printer.

 Here is a close up of the white embossing powder castle.

 I stamped pink hearts onto the white cardstock that is behind the white vellum.

Here is how the hearts show threw the vellum.  A little pink knot bow at the top to finish her off - and a close up of the words.  The stamp set that I used is retired Princess Set.  Thanks for looking!

Spider Cupcakes

 An Army Of Spiders! At least they look friendly! We made these cupcakes with strawberry cake batter so they were red when you bit into them! They smelled awesome!

 Jeanie and I made these for her class last week. Didn't have time to post prior to the holiday.  We took licorice and pulled the strands apart and I came up with the great idea of putting them into the microwave to make them soft and bubbly.

 The bubbles were unexpected but nice.

As the cooled they got harder and they kept the bent leg shape!

Here is what they looked like without mouths and frosting on their eyes.  The eyes are white chocolate chips.  That was a lot of microwaving for 8 legs per cupcake!

I took a zip lock bag and put frosting in it, cut off the corner and put a decorating tip in the corner to decorate the eyes.  Thanks for looking.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We celebrated my Dad's birthday yesterday when we could get the whole family together and just before trick or treat.  Here is the card I made for him:

 The car is old and on wood (I know bad word) but my Dad is into cars. His initials are on the license plate. I used large Sparkles to give the headlights a 3D effect.  I used Liquid Glass to make the windshield shiny. My Dad even has a convertible that he takes my daughter out in during the summer - she loves it and passes out in the back seat from all the fresh air! I think I have a picture of that!

 Here is what it looks like before the car is added with foam squares.  The tree is from Grown With Love stamp set.  I love all the different style leaves you can do with this set.  I choose fall colors to go with the times.

 Again, I'm Bad - these are our OLD stamps but I knew I could find a Grandpa stamp in the set super fast!  These were a set of ours that were on foam - I wish they would do this set again in clear!

The front of the envelope.

Thanks for looking!