It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Well, all over my craft desk that is! It seems every year my holiday paper crafting starts earlier and earlier! This year, I think it started even before the official first day of fall! Man, it’s pretty bad when I am creating holiday projects and the stores haven’t even starting carrying Halloween goodies yet! But in order to make sure I have lots of lovely little creations for all my workshop hostesses I have to get started this early!

So in keeping with my post-a-palooza, the next project I am sharing is this lovely little creation for an upcoming workshop which happens to be a Christmas mini-album!

Supplies Used:

• X7085B Everlasting Level 2 Paper Pack
• X7085C Everlasting My Stickease
• X1404 True Fit Folios
• D1366 Holiday Trinkets Stamp Set
• E1009 Building Block Alphabet Stamp Set
• Z2116 Cranberry Exclusive Inks
• Z2118 Desert Sand Exclusive Inks
• Z1103 Cranberry Grosgrain Ribbon
• Z1126 Colonial White Ribbon Rounds
• Z1219 Essential Brad Assortment
• Z1285 Holiday Buttons
• Z1084 Olive Waxy Flax
• Z1086 Cranberry Waxy Flax
  

World Cardmaking Day

In honor of World Card Making Day I have decided to share some of the Christmas Cards I created with our new Jingle Paper pack. As I have mentioned before, I LOVE THIS PAPER PACK! Not only is it so versatile for other papercrafting besides Christmas...it can also make such dramatically different styles and color familes of cards - all in the same paper pack! Take a look at these two cards....both of which you could be making at my upcoming Christmas Card Workshop on October 17th. Want more info on my workshops? Visit my website at www.stampinallday.myctmh.com or contact me!




Supplies used:

• X7115B Jingle paper pack
• C1371 Holiday Jingle Stamp Set
• Z1126 Colonial White Ribbon Rounds
• Z1104 Sparkles
• Z2166 Tulip Stamp Pad

Supplies Used:

• X7115B Jingle paper pack
• D1366 Holiday Trinkets Stamp Set
• Z1220 Twinkle Brad Assortment
• Z1151 3-D Foam Tape

Invitation inundation....

So it was with great pleasure that Katie (my little sister) allowed me the opportunity to make her wedding invitations. After scouring the many, many sample books at the store she quickly discovered the style and type of invitations she really wanted were better suited for a ‘champagne budget’ and she’s working with something closer to a ‘tap water budget’!! Shocked and dismayed at the prices on these very simple invitations we were seeing, I knew I could make them with no problem and at a fraction of the cost! So many brainstorming and collaboration sessions later, we came up with this final product. This is a 5x7 invitation with a creative side-fold, wax-sealed flap design. When you open the invitation, there is a pocket on the left hand side which held the rsvp card and small additional information card. All the traditional wedding information was centered on the inside. If you don’t know Katie…she has impeccable taste! So it was my goal to make sure her handmade invitations didn’t look ‘handmade’. One of the things I am most happy with is the beautiful metallic cardstock with matching envelopes I was able to locate on the internet. (Gotta love Google!) After many months, lots and lots of hours and a few friends over to help with the assembly ….75 of these beauties were finally mailed out a few weeks ago….



As soon as I was finally finished with the wedding invitations…it was already time to think about the bridal shower invites. So back to the brainstorming we went. Katie took some time to go through my CTMH catalogs…picked a stamp set and a color scheme and I was off and running. I was also really pleased with how this little 8x3-1/2 beauty came out! With the exception of the small flower and the black metallic cardstock (same used on her invitations) all the other supplies used were from Close to my Heart! Take note I even used some of the paper from our new Jingle Level 2 paper pack…that is a Christmas paper pack! (When CTMH released the new catty and this new spunky colored Christmas paper was in there – I was really disappointed. I was really hoping for a more traditional paper pack.) But this paper pack is so versatile!! I am now in LOVE! I have done tons of artwork with it already and plan to do much, much more! So with that being said…check out this great invitation and come back again soon to check out all the great art I will be posting with the new Jingle paper pack!

Thanks for visiting today!

Finally coming up for air....

WOW! This past month has just been a non-stop, whirlwind month! My oldest baby girl turned 16 this month and we had a terrific party for her! I even made her two-tier, fondant covered, pink floral cake! I had a fantastic Open House at the beginning of this month, completed 75 wedding invites and 30 bridal shower invites, 5 more workshops and a Vegas scrapbooking retreat weekend later….and the month was gone! Whew! That tuckered me out just listing it...I can't believe I lived it! So I apologize for my absence as I was shocked myself to see it’s been a whole month since I have posted on my blog! It’s not from lack of items to share…just lack of time! So hold on….’cause I plan on having a post-a-palooza in the next few days and weeks sharing all the great goodies I have and those which have yet to come! So I hope to see you back again soon!

So, to begin my 'post-a-palooza' I am going to go back to the beginning of the month! Here is the Sweet 16 birthday party invitation I made for my daughter's party.


Okay, so not that I need to add another creative hobby to my list...but lately I have been having a blast exploring cake decorating! I attended a cake decorating class with my mother-in-law back in August and I am now hooked! So here is the very first two-tier cake I have ever made! It is covered in pink fondant frosting with handmade sugar paste flowers. Yes, I did....I made every single one of those flowers by hand and then attached each and every one individually to the cake. It was slightly bitter-sweet when we finally cut into it! :)

Okie dokie! That finished off my first post of the month! I am off to schedule other posts for the rest of this week and beyond! So hopefully I will see you back tomorrow!