Monthly Archives: November 2007

Metallic Cardstock….

Posted on November 30, 2007 | 16 comments

I love copper metallic cardstock. So rich looking, warm and  just a little unique from gold and silver. I found an unopened package of it in my closet earlier in the week and thought it would make a great Ways to Use It Challenge. It was a busy week but I worked hard Wednesday night coming up with a card for Thursday’s challenge. Alas…the best laid plans of mice and men. 😉

I managed to pry the laptop from my teenager’s grasp today…picture big argument here LOL…but I prevailed and I have INTERNET today! 🙂 I’m hoping my own computer with all my files will be fixed today. This laptop takes twice as long as I’m not familiar with it. But hey…I’m not complaining here! What I do need help with….resizing photos in Photoshop Elements….I just can’t figure it out!
Anyone? Please?!

Copper Christmas

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This card has a very traditional Christmas look. Love this Flourished Christmas tree! It is stunning. Packaged in the same set with my favorite reindeer and some beautiful sentiments…this is one of my favorite Christmas sets. One of those ones that always looks good and is easy to use. To keep things a little fresh…I paired up the Copper with a new color combo….Soft Sky, Taken with Teal and Copper cardstock. I like to revisit looks with a slightly updated approach to see if it works. I like it…what do you think?

One of the things I love to do best with this copper cardstock is to emboss it with my Cuttlebug embossing folders. Its heavy paper holds the texture well and the embossing really picks up the light…adding to the shimmer of the cardstock. I ran this piece of copper through my favorite embossing folder…snowflakes. LOL I really do have a lot of favorites here today, don’t I? The copper layer was matted with a thin mat of Taken with Teal and mounted onto a card base of Soft Sky.

For the main image….I stamped my flourished tree onto soft Sky cardstock and then embossed it with Copper embossing powder. This powder is by SU which no longer carries it so I’m going to do a copper ep hunt soon! The sentiment was stamped along the bottom of the design with Taken with Teal ink and the same ink was used to sponge the edges of this layer. After matting with a 1/8″ larger mat of Taken with Teal…I added a 1/4″ mat of white cardstock behind that. Before adhering together, I used my ticket corner punch from Stampin Up to notch the edges for added interest. For my final touch…a knotted scrap of May Arts ribbon was adhered with a glue dot to the tree. 🙂

Have a great day!

Don’t forget to join us tomorrow 10am EST at Cornish Heritage Farms for the birthday celebration and release of the new backgrounders…it is sure to be a lot of fun. 🙂

16 Comments

Posted in Card Designs, Challenges, Holiday

Computers….

Posted on November 29, 2007 | 1 comment

Oh how I hate them! LOL Well I like them when they are working but right now…..hmmmmmm……

I seem to have an inordinate amount of trouble with mine! Did you know that in French a computer is called L’ordinateur ……hmmmmmmmm those words sound very much alike.I finally got hold of a laptop so I’m quickly catching up on a few quick things and stopping in to say hi. I was so glad that I finished my Craft Critique article yesterday afternoon so it was all set to go today there. If you’re looking for a fun holiday project…check it out at…

A Merry Little Christmas Frame 🙂

 The Ways to Use it challenge went ahead without me today. Thanks to Dawn for quickly stepping in and posting it for me. I still have my card ready to roll….I guess it will have to wait for a little while yet. I’m hoping to get time to upload it tomorrow. I believe the challenge is metallic cardstock…so if you like a fun look for the holidays…make sure you stop by the challenge forum on www.splitcoaststampers.com and check it out.

Have a great night! Hope to get things fixed up and be back soon! hugs!!!

1 Comment

Posted in Blog Misc

Better Mark this Down…

Posted on November 28, 2007 | Leave a comment

Lots of fun things going on this weekend and you really need to mark it down so you don’t forget! 🙂 Cornish Heritage Farms is having a new release of sixteen backgrounders that you are not going to want to miss. They are all fabulous! And guess who the designer of these backgrounders is? Lisa Strahl, who is also celebrating her 30th birthday on Saturday December the first. Happy, happy birthday Lisa!

Now we couldn’t let Lisa’s Big 3 – 0 go by without a party….so we’re going to party all day Saturday December the first  in the Cornish Heritage Farms forums and gallery. You’re invited! We want you to join us for the fun. After all…the more the merrier, right. We’ve been super busy planning a fun time full of challenges, prizes, games, chat … you name it. 🙂 The party starts at 10 am EST and the last challenge will be posted at 10 pm EST so there will be lots going on right up until 11.

Until then…check out Mona Lisa Moments. Lisa has been busy cooking up THIRTY projects using the new backgrounders in honor of her birthday. Some of them are up already and some more will be added over the next couple days. I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek…you won’t want to miss them! 🙂

Have a great day!

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Posted in Blog Misc, Cornish Heritage Farms

Pinkalicious Presents

Posted on November 28, 2007 | 19 comments

It’s been a while since I’ve done a pink Christmas card. Love them…they are so fun! When I found t his gorgeous Websters’ Pages in a pile on my desk yesterday, I really wanted to have a little fun with it. It is beautiful, heavy, double-sided paper and it was so easy just to pull my color combo directly from the striped paper. When you create a color combo, decide on the one color you wish to feature. I chose pink for a fun look. Pink card base, pink layers that are just a little wider to make them stand out, some gorgeous pink ribbon and a pink button ties it all together. 🙂

A Pile of Presents

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I love this stack of presents from the Lizzie Anne Designs High Hellos set. I think it is really meant to be for a birthday but I thought they’d be super cute for Christmas. After the amount of presents I’ve had to buy so far (and I’m nowhere near finished – the joys of large families!) I think I could pile up quick a few of these stacks around here. Actually, I’ve had to cart them all over to my Dad’s house as this old house has very little storage. I paired up the presents with a couple other Lizzie Anne Designs sets to emphasize the Christmas theme…Holiday Cheer for the Merry Christmas Sentiment and Celebration Frames for the holly and frame layer. My images were all colored in with my Copic Markers..so quick and easy. My circle stamped layer was punched out with two EK Success punches… 1 1/2″ and 1 3/4″. I just picked up the larger of the two the other day. I’ve been wanting one of these for a while…perfect for extra layering and they both work really well with this set.

As I mentioned above, I was inspired by the Webster’s Pages patterned paper. I just love this Ting a ling line! The striped paper is called Ribbon Candy (yummmm) and I used another paper from the same line with beautiful olive candy canes. A simple layout gives a clean look that works well with this image and color combo.

I couldn’t use pink and not use my favorite pink velvet May Arts ribbon…love the warmth of velvet on Christmas designs. I ran a strip of it over the seams where my patterned paper met and then tied a scrap of it to highlight the sentiment. An Autumn Leaves button is tied with some aqua stitched ribbon for a simple embellishment. I’m soooo into buttons these days. They are a fabulous embellishment…easy to use and not too expensive.

Wishing you a Pinkalicious day! 🙂

19 Comments

Posted in Card Designs, Holiday

Flowers and Periphery…

Posted on November 27, 2007 | 20 comments

I just love this color combo! When I saw the challenge this morning …I just knew I had to play along and knew right away the perfect paper to use. Basic Grey Periphery paper has a gorgeous Basic Grey theme with pale blue and celery hightlights…so elegant… it is one of my faves. I decided to pair it up with some floral stamping…the Fantasy Floral Garden from Flourishes worked really well with the look.

Vintage Floral Hello

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This design is actually a very simple layout…this paper is so pretty I didn’t want to cover it up. For my image panel…I stamped three of the floral sprays together to create one image. This is so easy to do with this set…the clear stamps make positioning easy without the need for masking. I’m all for keeping it simple these days as life just keeps getting busier and busier! The images were then colored in with my Copic markers, matted with Certainly Celery and Bashful blue and then stitched around the edges. To carry on the vintage look, I used my Basic Grey ink to sponge the edges of my cardstock, image layer and patterned paper.

Lastly…some fun embellishments…the photo turn and the photo corner are both hardware from the beautiful We R Memory Keepers pewter hardware set. A celery Prima Hydrangea flower (Cherry Blossoms set) ties in with a blue button for the center.

If you’d like to play along with today’s color challenge…the challenge is CC142: Basically Soft

20 Comments

Posted in Card Designs

A Merry Little Christmas…

Posted on November 26, 2007 | 15 comments

I think this year, I am totally addicted to making Christmas cards! So festive and I just love Christmas. No…no decorations here yet and no…no tree but I’m still getting in the mood with all these Christmas stamps and a little holiday music. It is actually warmer this week here and actually raining but last week when I was creating this design…I was dreaming of all the snow outside and getting the skates out for winter. So much fun! I’m hoping to schedule some skating time in with my family over the next few months. After all….what’s the point of winter in Canada if you can’t enjoy it a little?!

A Merry Little Christmas

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This stamp is the Thomas Kinkade Skater’s Pond image from Cornish Heritage Farms. Very quick to stamp by inking it all in Blue Bayou ink and stamping onto Whisper White cardstock. The image edges were sponged with the same ink and then matted with Bravo Burgundy and Whisper White layers. My sentiment was stamped right on top of the image and embossed with Claret embossing powder for a warm look.

To add a little extra to my simple stamping, I punched some photo corners out of Bravo Burgundy and added these great Making Memories Crystal Brads to the points. For my spine…I actually used the technique challenge from two weeks ago on SCS. I’ve been wanting to try my hand at this Japanese binding technique ever since I saw it on a notebook that I was sent from a very sweet person in Japan. If you’d like to do this challenge…you still can and here is the link to the instructions… TLC142 Before using my technique..I first wrapped the spine in this Creamy Caramel cardstock to add a little book-bound look. The gorgeous burgundy ribbon is from May Arts…I’m sure you’ve seen it popping up on lots of designs because I think it is fabulous for the holidays. 🙂

As for my computer update…my computer is now working in fits and starts! At least I can get it started most of the time. 🙂 I’m hoping to get caught up on all my e-mails over the next couple days. Have a great week!


15 Comments

Posted in Card Designs, Cornish Heritage Farms, Holiday

A Sunday Post…update and link…

Posted on November 25, 2007 | 4 comments

I’d love to share a {C’est Bon} entry with you today but the sad truth is…all the pics are on my own computer which is down. Rather than start again, I’m just going to wait until I can actually access it. We have a friend coming to look at it tomorrow for me…until then, I’m trying with limited success to claim my teenagers new laptop. After all the years I’ve allowed him to use my computer…you’d think he’d be more than happy to hand over his brand-new laptop…don’t you think? 😉

So……I just HAD to pop in and say hello and also give you a link to take a peek at. I know you couldn’t live for a day without me 😉 and I know you just don’t want to miss this blog link. In fact, if you have any taste at all, I’m sure you already read Joan daily as your second blog of the day. Right after mine of course. That would definitely be your first choice.  And so, you must totally read Joan’s Dear Paperlicious Holiday Countdown complete with (and I quote) …

Get ready to take notes chickees, as Dear Paperlicious has a series of columns coming up designed to help you cope with the holidays.  My goal is to stick to the true meaning of Christmas and help you beat out your fellow humans learn clever and fun ways to enhance the holiday experience for you and your loved ones. and win, win, win!  These columns are packed with tips on organization, decorations, cooking, crafts, parenting, training your spouse, legal advice, teachers gifts, dealing with relatives, etc. 

When you are done following Dear Paperlicious’ advice, you will have the best Christmas ever and all your friends and relatives and neighbors will be so jealous happy to know you!

Have fun! Have a great day and a great Holiday Countdown. Hope you take this post as it was meant to be…a fun take on Joan’s inimitable style. I know…I didn’t pull it off did I? So….better go see Joan…she’s the real McCoy. 🙂

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Posted in Blog Misc