Holiday Craft Show Goodies

Wow I think that I am the worst blogger (can I even call myself a blogger?) It is fall again, one of my very favorite time of the year-mostly for the pumpkin everything!  We have been enjoying wonderfully unseasonable weather of the nearly 90, yes 90 degrees in October-kinda puts a damper on my desire to have hot cocoa.  But you know Colorado weather one day a sunburn the next snow...

I have been working on my Etsy Stores, Whimsical Cotton and Requires Postage.  And I am so excited to be working on 2 holiday craft shows-so I wanted to show some of the fun things I have been creating.  I thought this year I would make some quick and easy gift giving items.  The holidays never get any calmer and I figured that I could make some quick gifts to stock pile for that time coming very quickly, I won't say the days-it makes me stress out!!!

So these cocoa cups I thought turned out so cute-can you tell I love snowmen?  Just wait I think you will get that soon enough!  I think they would be a great gift with a gift card?!

So this was the next super fun ah, snowman (are you seeing the theme here?) I thought he could be used as an ornament or giant tag and do double duty as a gift card holder.  I mean I needed to face the fact that people love to give gift cards ( I admit sometimes it is just easier) so why not be really cute too?  And going along with the hot cocoa or favorite beverage idea I made some mug rugs/coasters-I used holiday fabrics and made Snowmen, Gingerbread men, Apples, Chickens, and even a few pet ones, Tea Pot, Tea Cups and Coffee Cups. To me they were so quick to whip up and I packaged them for sale with a gift card holder.  I love the packaging so they also include a cute label.  I am going to decorate my table using whimsical rustic things-like wire baskets, old loaf pans and a frame with chicken wire-so that I can clip samples on it.  Trying to put everything into a small space and still have it be cute can be difficult-this year I started early to play around with display options!  More things coming..,tiny felt ornaments and table mats...

Went to the Pumpkin patch on Saturday me and my fellow 6,000 neighbors-OK probably not that many but it certainly felt like it.  It was downright hot-but it was even more inspiring for me to get going and get making, pumpkin bread, donuts, french toast-

Welcome Fall

It it beginning to feel like fall in the air-we even have started to see leaves changing.  I can't say I am sorry, the Summer raced by as usual.  I loved that this year just wasn't as hot as it can sometimes be.  Really nice weather hardly in the 90's.  I don't like to be hot let alone humid.  After this Summer's snow in June in Park City I think I was even more excited for pumpkins and falling leaves.  This year we have seen a lot of spiders and one really creeepy snake in the bushes.  My two least favorite critters...moving on.  I have been making fall themed cards and started on Christmas-this year I am going to send some out instead of just wistfully look at the pile of beautiful patterned paper and fun stamps!!  Plus I have been super motivated by an organizing class on line and as I have been studying my space/studio I have been trying to concentrate on how I work-which mostly is just a mess, I have everything out where I can see it and go thorough things.  And it has been fascinating to me to read about others and how they organized their rooms etc.  I basically know that I am a digger sort of organizer.  I like baskets that I can quickly put things in and retrieve things from-but I am also a person who organizes by theme and color.  Some people had studios to die for all matching furniture and great organizational items. I am far from there-but I am working on using what I have until I can have my fantasy craft area-which includes of course the fantasy elf who puts all the paper away at the end of every session...it is fantasy after all.  I love to have great coordinating paper to work with and enjoy searching through the stacks at my local scrapbook store for fun treasures.  Part of my goal has been to use up my paper and I have done pretty good- I am now down to the last stragglers who don't match with anything-remember the days when companies were trying to out do themselves in the colors that didn't match with anything but there own line?  I have a few of those floating around.  I think we should have a challenge, like the horrible Christmas sweater challenge only with the worst paper we have that we can't seem to match with anything challenge?  I bet we could see some really special cards made up!  I have decided that some of that paper is destined to be donated to schools who don't care what it looks like, they are just happy to have it! 

I got way off track there I wanted to say that I have been inspired by going through all my patterned paper and organizing it-I found some old favorites and some new favorites and have been even inspired to create-I still really like coming home with some new supplies and putting them away and imagining all the fun I am going to have creating with them!  I just got a new die from Die-Namics
from My Favorite Things.  It is blue prints die # 16 and makes tabs and mini pennants I can't wait to play with that-I have been forcing myself to finish a few other projects though before I immerse myself in my new die. I think new things inspire us right?  We come home with our bag of goodies and start creating-I love it!  Welcome Fall, the end of Summer and the beginning of pumpkin everything! 

Wedding Card/Gift Card Holder

I have been working on a design for a while and I think I have finally come up with something that I think will work pretty well.  It is always nice to have a card that does double duty and I think that a wedding card should do that.  In the time when most wedding gifts have been reduced to a nice 2.5 x 3 gift card I wanted to be able to give the gift card but also write a quick note of congratulations!  I used some great wedding paper and used my new Sizzix die little bag-love this die!  You are going to see lots of little things coming up made from this die....  I also made a couple of birthday cards. I am admitedly a plain jane kind of card maker.  I really like fun folds but I like my cards to fit in 4.25x 5.5 A2 envelopes so there isn't an extra postage cost.  Plus I don't like to waste paper. 

So for this birthday card I made a belly band which holds the card shut because it opens from the bottom and has a surprise inside (ok peeking out)  I have seen all this fun cards with floating parts and thought balloons would work well. I embossed the front and added the belly band just for embellishment.  My next birthday card used this darling girl from Pure Innocence holding the giant cupcake.  I guess I may never "grow up" when it comes to cupcakes.  I enjoy making them and especially using them in fun cards.  I fussy cut her dress and colored the rest of her with copic markers adding the sentiment wish big.  I embossed the front of the card with a tiny dot and cut the pink and orange papers out of spellbinders dies.

 I know that we are in to zucchini season not strawberries but a zucchini thank you card just didn't work for what I wanted here... So the sweet strawberries it was.  You can never have enough thank you cards on hand. I seem to have this love affair with embossing folders, don't I?  I just like the dimension and finished look that it gives to cards.  I guess it is like those fancy edged scissors that we all used to by-only now it is embossing folders.  I guess once you make cards you really start to collect items. Copic colors, stamps, dies, paper, the list is long and probably varies for each of us! My last card is also a thank you card and uses a sunny watermelon on a wait for it-black embossed panel.  The black makes the watermelon just pop.  Yes I considered my other favorite polka dot... I am already obsessing about fall and Halloween cards and working on a whole slew of gift card holders.  I just love the packaging that finishes the gift. 

Bendi Cards

I have had so much fun making these bendi fold cards!  I saw them posted on various blogs and Splitcoast stamper and I had to play around with them.  I love fun folds in card making it just is a fun element to add dimension and pizazz to cards.  I also happened to get a Cameo Silhouette for Christmas and now with ease can cut many variations like this little fence which I absolutely love!  I am ready for fall.  I love pumpkins and the stamp from My Favorite Things Pure innocence is just darling.  I colored her with Copic markers and fussy cut her clothes.  Gave the pumpkin a couple of extra layers and some good old 3D tape to give it even more dimension-  I shrunk down a little wheel barrow and added more pumpkins with some ink and pen work for embellishment, a tiny acorn and some small leaves and my outside was done.  The inside sentiment was easy and a few more pumpkins and I was done.  I am working on a Halloween one for Inkblots class and I can't wait.  I have been collecting various fun elements and trying to stay within the 4.25 x 5.5 card size (can be difficult for me...) I am almost there and will be posting more photos soon! 

Still wearing sunscreen -

As you can tell I do not blog for a living...I have been crazy, no excuse for the absence-none that is really good anyway.  I have been creating cards just not posting them.  Even though we are still Summering away, I like everyone else who wants to have their holiday cards made have been busy making Halloween...

 Love to make Halloween cards.  I actually think that the  only ones I send are Easter, Halloween, and Birthday-I always think about Christmas, but am usually stressing so much that I never get them sent out.  This year maybe!
I have a whole collection of these stamps I lovingly call my "stick" ladies.  I used chalk to color her because my paper was more subtle and called for a softer hand than I probably use with pens or pencils-old school fun!




  I had to have this stamp from Impression Obsession-too much fun. I stamped extra of her hat and feet so that I could pop them up-green face mask I love it!







 Simple I know but I made a Halloween treat can out of a paint can, strips of cloth and big eyes peaking out and thought it would be cute in card form-I crimped the paper then antiqued all the edges to make a fun, simple card.

 More to come since I can't resist a good witch...and I have quite the collection to prove it.  I guess it is truly feast or famine-speaking of feasting it is time to get back to the reality of dinner...

Penny Black's "Frankie"

Faux French Country

I love French country the look and feel.  For me it has to do with the colors and patterns that when mixed and matched tend to take on a life of their own.  Since I am working on using up the supplies that I have, I have started making these little piles in my to do box of paper that I have envisioned a  good use for.  This particular pile has been calling my name for quite some time and when I finally sat down to create-out popped these "french country" roosters.  I don't want to offend any decorator with my whimsical rendition, this was my own take on that wonderful artistic style. It is like scrap-booking , after a number of years I found a style that fit me-collage, but neat, orderly, I guess you could say collage for obsessive compulsive disorders...these roosters reminded me of how much I enjoy mixing patterns and papers-backgrounds wings, bodies.  I enjoyed it so much!  So here are a few patterns that I have made so far-I am not done by any means so a trip to the coop will be making an appearance again...

How to Decorate???

March is going to be a rough month in the decorating department.  I have super cute St.Paddy's Day and Easter decorations.  So to give each their fair share of time on the front door and fireplace mantle I took down the Valentines right after Valentines and put up the St. Paddy's Day- and unfortunately for that cute stuff it is going  down on the 10th so the Easter will have some time.  Then April will just be-boring. I don't have any decorations that just are.  So for the cards I have been working  on they reflect the same not enough time to give each one it's proper due if you will. 

 It is no secret I love rabbits at least on cards and designed a few  new ones for this new season of "bunnies". I created some eggs to fit in my Sizzex basket and used various flower dies, button and tags to embellish them.  I antiqued all the edges followed by some fine black pen work to give depth.  And of course chalk for pink cheeks!  I used a shamrock stamp from my collection-to stamp a simple Irish greeting card-I added some glitter just for fun and away we go.  I am really having fun going old school with my dies and creating new and fun cards with them-stay tuned there are more to come...