Christmas Tags

I had to get going on some things for the Open Stamping at my house this coming Sunday!  I thought maybe my friends would enjoy making a couple of tags!  What you can't see from the photo is that the snowflakes are white glitter paper (new from Close to My Heart) and they are SO pretty!  They were cut using the Big Shot with the smaller of the two snowflake thin cute (see the post below for the larger one).  The green tag, I did a background stamp of snowflakes in clear Versa Mark on the kraft paper.  I'm not sure it adds anything, what do you think?  

I've missed my crafting friends so much and am really looking forward to this weekend!  

CTMH Snowflake Thin Cuts

The Holiday catalog included some thin cuts of snowflakes!  There are two in the set - this is the larger of the two.  Just playing around, I tried using some white felt scraps - I liked it but it seemed so plain!  So I used my StarDust Stickles to add some sparkle.  My plan for Open Stamping this weekend is to cut the snowflakes from CTMH white glitter cardstock!  

A CASE from a very talented lady!

I saw a post by Karen Pederson with a card much like this one that had me running to my storage looking for a pumpkin!  I figured I could use any old sentiment - the pumpkin was the critical part!  I was up in MN at the time, and would you believe that I did NOT have a single pumpkin stamp in that studio?!  My Goodness!  And I have about 400,000,000 of them in the Mesa studio!  We'll have to even that out a little bit!

So, I got the September Close to My Heart stamp of the month - despite telling myself that I didn't need it.  I tried to copy Karen's card, but there are several differences; I stamped, and water colored the pumpkin (I think she used ShinHan markers), I used dew drops (anyone remember those??) and I used waxed flax for the twine element, in a golden, pumpkin-ish color.  I am thankful for her inspiration and really like this one, too.

A card and a NEW LIGHT BOX!

I was inspired to make this card by something I saw on Pinterest.  I changed several things, and the card was not watermarked, so I don't know who to give credit to.  I love the clean-and-simple look of it!

I've been promising myself that I need a light box to photograph things.  I won't go into heavy explanations; you can easily go to YouTube and watch one of several great videos telling you how easily and cheaply you can make your own!  The only addition I will be making is to put a third clip on lamp to illuminate the top of the box.  I'll start out with a 3rd 60 Watt LED light bulb (they stay cooler - so I won't burn myself!) and if that doesn't seem like enough then I'll up the watts to 100

It's good to be home in Arizona, but I must confess that my back is absolutely killing me and I'm not able to get much accomplished between needing to lie on the floor, take naps, etc. etc. Such a bummer to be here with all the time in the world and not feel good enough to get things done. Well, at least I finally got my light box done! ;-)

Get Well Soon

Everyone needs to take a break now and then from chores and be creative!  I had held out three stamp sets from my packing to make these cards.  I had intended to make a big-ole-pile of them but time pulled me up short at two.  The flower/twigs are from Springtime wishes (with thin cuts) all retired.  The doodled circle is retired. The Get Well wishes is from a Waltzingmouse stamps set.  The ribbons and design papers are from my stash of retired stuff.  So you might say all of this is retired - maybe even the pearls!  Gasp!

I'll be traveling for a couple of days - and then trying to "set up house" again so it will be some time next week before I post again.  I will still be visiting your blogs - so PLEASE show me some inspiration!  Hugs!