May your cup overflow!

It was my sweet sister-in-law's birthday
so a cheery little card made it's way out West:

The image and sentiment from Unity (which reads
'May your cup overflow with Joy, Love & Laughter)
were perfect for my dear sister who loves a good
cup of tea and deserves a year just overflowing
with goodness! I totally copied the layout of one
of the cover cards from the latest Stamp It!
magazine (What an awesome issue, by the way!
And congratulations to this amazing gal whose
beautiful creation was published on page 61.
Wowee!!) I do wish I had die-cut the purple
layer to match the white, instead of leaving
it square with the wonky white stitching...
but once I had it all sewn down I wasn't
about to rip it all apart. Sometimes it's best
to just leave well enough alone!

I embossed that ca-ute tower of teacups with
clear embossing powder and then coloured
them in using dye ink and a blender pen.
Love how it turned out! I think I'll be
trying this technique out a bit more, I had a
lot of fun with it! I'd also like to mention how
much fun I had using my first set of
Nestabilities (a most awesome gift from an
incredibly thoughtful friend - THANK YOU!).
I think a serious addiction may have just begun...
;)

Thanks for stopping by to visit! The kids and I
are starting to get in the Valentines' Day groove,
so hopefully I'll have some delightfully LOVE-ly
things to share with you in the next little bit!

January's HCCC

This month's challenge was a GREAT one! Thanks Marnie!

I opened up my scrap drawer and pulled out the leftover
pieces I had from this card that I had planned to make
two of...but never got around to it. I forgot to take pictures
at the very beginning, but I had four 1-inch squares of
card stock that I then punched into little hearts. Here's
what my desk looked like halfway into the card:
I had a couple thin strips of kraft card stock and after
trying to make them into stripes in the background, I
thought of the little ruler stamp from Cosmo Cricket's
'Material Girl' stamp set (another goodie from the Unity
prize pack I won - SO amazing!!) and knew exactly
what I wanted to do:

The inside of the card says:
We love you T-H-I-S much!!

It's just a little card, about 3x4, but I think
it still packs a pretty big punch!

The second card didn't turn out quite as well
but I thought I should share it anyways.
It's always good to learn from someone else's
mistakes, right? ;)
Here's what I started with:

I thought I would glue all the scraps together on a
piece of paper and then trace my Top Note die cut
on to it and cut it out...however the the papers were
too small for the die, and so I ended up using a smaller
one from Tim Holtz. It was a little fancier and I think
the combination of the busy, mix-matched papers
and the die were a bit much. I wasn't sure what to do
with it, and only being able to use scraps upped the ante,
but here's what I ended up with:

(My husband also pointed out the irony of
the sentiment and the very busy card...
Oh well! Better luck next time!)

Here's a close-up of the wonky, scrap-paper die cut:

Anyways, I've learned that sometimes I'm better off
keeping things sweet and simple. The whole 'shabby-chic'
look is obviously not my forte...
But, do not fear!! My scrap drawer is not empty yet
and the month is only halfway through so perhaps
I will attempt another creation or two :)
Stay tuned for more adventures from the Scrapyard!

A few more MDS Thank Yous

Alright! I for real figured out how to post

my MDS creations here...not just an accident
like last time. Ha!

Here's the second batch of thank you cards
I made. So far I love this program for making
cards with photos! I'm still not really sure I would
make a card without a picture on it though. I really
like the layers and texture of a 'real life' card...plus
there's just something about playing around with
paper and ink, y'know?

The boys in their shirts and skateboards from
Grandma and Grandpa:

Jude and his pull-cow from Aunt Michelle:

The boys in their Batman pj's from Oma & Opa:

Levi, who exclaimed "Thanks!!! It's my FAVORITE!"
after every present that Aunt Katie and Uncle Will
gave to...everyone! LOL!!
What a precious kid:

I still have a handful of thank-yous to finish up.
I'm determined to have them done before the
end of the month...I'm hoping by typing that
out here, I'll be extra motivated to get them done!
Although the MDS program is motivation in itself.
So fun! If any of you are thinking of diving into
the world of digital cardmaking/scrapbooking
I highly recommend the My Digital Studio
program from Stampin Up! (No, they're not
paying me to say that...maybe I should look
into it though. Really, if a technically
challenged girl like me can do it, anyone can!)
Alright, happy stamping! er...digital crafting?

For my little LoveBug

This stamp may be the very reason I joined Unity's Kit of the Month club....that and a certain someone who tends to strongly influence my card-making supply purchases. I'm pretty sure
she twisted my arm when it came to joining up {grin}. Anyways, one of the perks (at the time) was a kit called 'Love Bug' and it was based around a main image of a VW beetle. As soon as I saw that cute little car, I knew I needed that stamp to make a card for a friend of mine who a.) loves getting mail b.) loves all things handmade and c.) drives her very own lime green little Bug.
Well, I got the stamp and it sat in my collection...over her birthday, her anniversary, a new home...finally I couldn't take it any longer! Christmas was coming and I was determined to make a 'Love Bug' card for my friend. Now the problem was "How in the world do you make a Christmas card with a Volkswagon on the front?" Well, it took a little bit of pondering, but here's what I came up with:

I totally forgot to take a picture of the inside where I
stamped "Merry Christmas to my little LoveBug".
Love it!!!

I had a lot of fun adding all the little details like the
Crystal Effects in the windshield and the peppermint
patty 'exhaust' hearts. This little number just makes
me swoon! I was pretty intimidated about making a
'car' card at first, but this rubber will be seeing a lot
more 'road' in the future!
Toot! Toot!
;)

Bright paper packages tied up with string...

Just a couple quick pics of some of the holiday gifts we gave. I love 'prettying' things up a bit...and I think it makes things a little extra special for the gift-getters :)

For my sister-in-law, a cutely decorated coffee tin held a new T-shirt...I also love re-using stuff that's lying around the house instead of buying new. Some may say it's cheap. Personally, I prefer the term 'thrifty'. {grin}

For my brother's stuff I quickly sewed up
a little sack with some leftover fabric I had.
I thought it suited him. Plus, now he can
use it to carry his lunch to work in ;)

And, my very favorite of the bunch, the
'work-sock-full-of-holes-turned-gift-bag'.
Pete had these really nice woolen work socks
that he wore gigantic holes through the heels.
Since I'm not so much into the whole 'darning'
thing, but not wanting to waste anything, I
threw them into my scrap pile. When I needed
some cute little bags for the beer glasses
we gave as a thank you gift to a friend, I
knew just what to do! I quickly sewed up the
socks above the holes and cut the feet off.
Tied them up with a little bit of red ribbon
and a cool tag and there you have it. Sweet
packaging - and protective - straight
from the scrap pile. Love it!

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this little
trip into my thrifty world :)
Take care!

An MDS Thank You

I think I've finally figured out how to post
my creations from MDS here on the blog!
So, without further ado.....
Our 2010 Christmas thank you cards!

I'm a huge fan of this software from Stampin' Up!
Mostly because I honestly don't really know what I'm doing,
but I've been able to make the things I want.
I haven't read any directions or tutorials and have been able to
pretty easily muddle my way around. I know there's a lot
more to this program that, if I follow some directions, I could do
but I'm so happy with what I have been able to do.

Anyways, our thank you card is pretty basic but I'm
happy with the way it turned out. And I'm very
happy that it only took me about 1/2 an hour of playing
around to create it! I printed a dozen off at the grocery
store...and they look beautiful!! The detail, colour
and crispness is just amazing. I'm so, so happy!

If I can figure out how I got this one posted again...
I'll try and throw up a couple more that I did :)

Thanks for stopping by!

A Merry little Thank You

Late again.

Good thing I don't make New Year's resolutions
because I would be such a disappointment to myself. Hee!
Anyways, December's Hazzard County Card Challenge was
to make some little thank you cards and have them sent
out by the end of the year. Well, I'm a few days behind but
I did get it done and I'm looking forward to giving these
little cuties to their recipients at church this morning.

I've been seeing these medallion/rosettes everywhere
and I love them! Thought about getting the die for them,
but then I would also need the extended cutting plates
and, once again, since I'm Dutch, I went the cheap route
and made them myself. There are a tonne of tutorials
online and it's actually not hard or even time-consuming
to do them yourself. I guess if you were making a lot
of them, the die would be handy, but otherwise I'll stick
to making them on my own.

The card base is 4x4 kraft and I inked up the edges with
white craft and old paper distress ink.
The sentiment is from Verve, stamped in baja breeze on
whisper white and layered on a pink pirouette circle.
I finished it off by rounding two of the corners.
Easy-peasy! No lie, this card took no more than 15
minutes...and that included changing a diaper and finding
my four-year old's lost socks. Not too shabby!

These next two cards are 3x3's and I seriously
think they are the cutest, sweetest little things!
I am definitely going to be making more little cards
like this. Both of them took less than 10 minutes each
to make and I think because of their small size they look
really cute and not as 'simple' as they would if they were
done in a standard size.

For this one, I stamped the 'Thank U' from (SU!) in chocolate

chip and then added the stitching in the same ink and kiwi kiss.
Tied some baker's twine around with a sweet, little bow, rounded
the top corner and inked the edges with vintage photo. Done!

I think this last one is my favorite. I think it only took me
5 minutes. Heavily distressed the edges with old paper and
vintage photo, punched out the scalloped circle from a
Starbuck's coffee cozy that I've been saving since
Thanksgiving (hoarding always pays off! {grin}),
stamped the sentiment in riding hood red and layered
it on the same colour circle and tied a little twine
around the top. Wah-lah!!!

I will definitely be making some more of these as
I work through our list of thank-yous. I've also been
making some cards using My Digital Studio from
Stampin' Up! I took pictures of the kids playing
with their Christmas gifts and used the pictures
to make thank you cards. I'm so happy with
how they turned out, and how easy the program
has been to use. If I can figure out how to
post them on here, I will!

Anyways, hope this New Year is finding you thankful!
Looking forward to January's HCCC...I wonder what
Marnie has up her sleeve for us? ;)