Handmade Photo Cards

Before I wrap up the Christmas blog posts, I want to share with you the Christmas cards that I gave to my family and friends this year. Digital photo cards have become quite popular over the years, and this year I wanted to make my own version. I chose a photo from our California road trip and put together a collage of designer paper, cardstock and embellishments. Here are some of my favourites:

And that completes Christmas 2013!

Christmas 2013 Highlights

I'm finally getting back into the swing of things after the Christmas holidays. A little late, I know, but nevertheless, it's good to be back in a routine again.
We had a wonderful Christmas vacation in Ontario! The two weeks went by so quickly!
Here's a recap of some of the highlights:

1. Christmas Day was spent at the in-laws where we had a delicious turkey/ham dinner and a fun evening of gift opening:

 

Each year we pick names for the gift exchange. This year I had my sister-in-law, Rachel. I gave her a smoothie cookbook, a pair of feather earrings, and a little gag gift - Poo Pourri -- If you haven't seen the commercial, you must! It's absolutely hilarious!

 

 

I added my own personal touch to her gift with some creative wrapping:

 

I created a gift bag topper and decorated it with designer paper, stamped images, and ribbon. Simply add a slit using the Word Window punch at the top of the bag topper and slide the gift bag handles through it - brilliant! (I followed this simple tutorial for the measurements).

 

I used coordinating designer paper and ribbon for the gift wrap of each gift inside the bag:

 

 

2. Another highlight was Christmas with my family on New Year's Eve. We had another delicious meal and a great evening of gift opening. One tradition we like to keep every year is writing poems to go along with our gifts. As hard as it may be sometimes to think of rhymes, it adds such a fun aspect to the gift exchange! Here are a few photos of our time spent together: 

 

 

 

 

3. For an evening out, my family went to the bowling alley. I love outings like this where we can get out of the house and spend some time together doing something fun!

 

 

4. On a different outing, we went to the Bird Kingdom in Niagara Falls. This was especially fun for the kids, but I also loved it!

 

 



 

I held a snake for the first time!

 

5. I got to spend some good quality time with my sister, Esther, as well as my Mom. I really miss them, being so far from home!

 

It really was a great Christmas! I'm so thankful for all the time we got to spend with family and look forward to the next visit!







Winter Frost Double Pocket Card

I've been making Christmas papercrafts to the very last minute before we head home to see family tomorrow! I plan on sharing each and every one of them when we return!

Amongst all the Christmas cards, I made a special one for my coworker. We are a great team at work and she has become a good friend of mine, so I thought something unique would be most appropriate :)

I chose the double pocket fold for this card. It's quite simple really. I followed this tutorial on youtube and added my own creative touch. I chose the Winter Frost designer paper from Stampin up - this paper is gorgeous! (I've pretty much used all of it up this year!) Bermuday Bay, Coastal Cabana and Smokey Slate have become one of my favourite colour combos! Here's how it turned out:

 

 I finally made use of the chevron punch! I bought it quite some time ago with good intentions to use it... Months later, I pulled it out and have now used it on multiple projects. I love it! I think the rhinestones and the eyelet border really add some detail to this card front. Pull the tag out of the front pocket....

 

 

A simple tag with a little designer paper and adorable sentiment, and of course... rhinestones!

 

Let's take a look inside:

 

 

I simply added little ornaments hanging over the edge of the 2nd pocket. I filled this pocket with a tag from David's Tea filled with White Chocolate Frost tea (sounds delicious!) I pasted a small labels framelit to the space below the pocket so I had a spot to write my message.

 

I love how it turned out! And like I said earlier, this colour combo is fabulous!

 

This will be my last post until 2014! (I hope to be a bit more dedicated to my blog in the new year) :)

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!





 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Tree Trimmings, Four Holidays, Word Play

Paper: Winter Frost DSP, Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana, Smokey Slate, Whisper White

Ink: Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana

Tools: 1-3/4" Circle Punch, Large Scallop Circle punch, Eyelet Border punch (ret.), Snowflake Punch (ret.), Chevron Border Punch

Accessories: Rhinestones (Michael's), Pool Party Bakers Twine, Silver ribbon



Very Merry

It's been quite some time since I've posted about my latest papercrafts (sorry about that!). After craft fair season, I start preparing for the upcoming Christmas season. And like every year, Christmas seems to sneak up on me!
But, I always love this time of year - the lights and decorations everywhere, cheery Christmas music, the smell of evergreen Christmas trees, delicious turkey dinners, gift exchanges, time spent with family, and most importantly, celebrating the birth of Jesus. It really is a wonderful time of year!

Today, I want to share with you a Christmas card I made just this past week for a friend of mine:

 

I love how this card came together! I've been wanting to use the Pennant Parade stamp set on a Christmas card, and finally got to making one! The pennants in the stamp set are so versatile! I love that you can use them for either a banner or little trees!

 

After stamping the lined pattern from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set and placing the trees on the embossed cut-out circle, there was just too much white space (clean and simple just isn't my style!). I created a banner from striped designer paper and placed it in one corner. I then added some linen thread to fill the white space on the bottom half of the card. And finally, I completed it with rhinestones.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Pennant Parade, Gorgeous Grunge
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Whisper White, Soft Suede, Season of Style DSP
Ink: Old Olive, Soft Suede, Cherry Cobbler
Tools: Circles nestabilities, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder
Accessories: Linen thread, rhinestones (Michael's)

More Punch Art Gift Tags

One step closer to Friday... then a busy weekend ahead! I will doing my last craft fair of the year, and this one is usually the biggest! I've been a busy bee this past week!

In yesterday's post, I shared with you a few different punch art characters I made. Here's how I used them on gift tags:

Love how they turned out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Punch Art Penguin Gift Tags

This will be a quick post, as I have limited time before I go off to work this morning! But, I just had to share these cute punch art characters I made last night.

Here's a picture of the 4 different kinds I made:

I can't take credit for coming up with the design of these - I found ideas on Pinterest, but made them somewhat my own by adding googly eyes to some of them and I will be putting them on gift tags.  

Aren't they cute?!

I came across this blog on how to make these penguins using the Owl Builder punch! The ears of the owl were cut off and used as wings, and the nose is simply the small heart in the owl punch - brilliant! It was quite tedious putting all the pieces together, but I love the end product!

Last night, one of the things I worked on was putting these penguins on gift tags. Here's how they turned out:

 

Love these!!

 

Gift Tag Ingredients:

Stamps: Chock Full of Cheer

Paper: Pool Party, Winter Frost DSP, Whisper White, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie

Ink: Island Indigo

Tools: 1-3/4" Circle punch, Owl Builder punch, Tags Bigz Die

Accessories: Island Indigo bakers twine



Craft Fair #2 and a Christmas Card

After MIA for a little over a week, I'm back with a new post!
It was a busy week of evenings filled with preparing for the D.P. Todd Craft Fair, but it was well worth it! The weekend was a great success! This was my first year doing this particular craft fair and I really enjoyed it. There was a great selection of vendors, from woodworking to baby bibs to delicious baked goods! There was a cupcake vendor on one side of my booth and jams and jellies on the other -- sitting next to the cupcakes was especially dangerous! My most favourite was the Salted Mocha Caramel cupcake - yum!

Here's a picture of my booth, much the same set up as the last craft fair:

This week will be another busy one as I keep on crafting for Thursday night's fair: "Ultimate Shopping Experience & Pampering Night". This will be a bit of a different atmosphere than most craft fairs. It's a ladies night, with a more interactive shopping experience - looking forward to it!

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I thought I would start sharing some Christmas cards I've been working on lately, since Christmas will be here before we know it!

Here is my latest and one of my favourites:

 

I used Early Espresso Co'ordinations cardstock for the card front. I love the distressed look it gives when it is embossed. The stamped image is from "Welcome Christmas", a retired stamp set that I snagged when it was on clearance (bonus!). I love this stamp set. The images are so adorable! My favourite part of this card is the Cherry Cobbler striped ribbon with the jingle bells and tags tied to it. The jingle bells add the perfect touch!

 

 

Thanks for looking! Hope this inspires you to get an early start on your Christmas cards! :)

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Welcome Christmas (ret.); Tiny Tags

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso co'ordinations

Ink: Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler

Tools: Jewelry Tag punch, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder

Accessories: Cherry Cobbler striped grosgrain ribbon (ret.), linen thread, jingle bells (Michael's)

 

 

Mojo314: A Christmas Card

I've been eager to post my Mojo Monday card (I made it earlier this week). It is contest week and I just had to play along! Here is the sketch:

I've been wanting to get an early start on my Christmas cards and I thought this was a great opportunity! I pulled out my new favourite Christmas designer paper - Winter Frost - and used it as inspiration for the colour combo. Here's the end result:

 

I love how these shades of blue/teal coordinate together! The snowflake embossed cardstock and a punched out snowflake with a rhinestone makes for a perfect wintery Christmas card!

 

 

Thanks for looking! I hope this inspires you to get an early start on your Christmas cards!

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Chock Full of Cheer

Paper: Island Indigo, Whisper White, Pool Party, Bermuday Bay, Winter Frost Specialty DSP

Ink: Bermuda Bay

Tools: Circles Nestabilities, Snow Burst Embossing Folder, Snowflake punch

Accessories: Coastal Cabana Stretch Ruffle Trim, Rhinestone

Inspired By... Funky Nail Art!

Just one more day of work and we are on the road again! This time we are making our way down south to Kelowna, to get one last taste of summer! Looking forward to a relaxing weekend of camping, shopping, and sun-tanning on the beach!

Friday means a new inspirational challenge!

 

It was Karly's pick this week and she chose a fun photo of funky nails. Love these colours together! 

 

At first I thought of doing a nautical-themed card... However, these colours would be a great non-traditional combo for a Christmas card! And with Christmas coming up in just 4 months, it's time to start building my stock! I chose the Retrosketches sketch to use as a guide and pulled out my new collection of Christmas DSP.

 

 

What do you think? I cut strips of DSP and glued them on a piece of white cardstock. The ornament is stamped in Coastal Cabana and popped up to give the card some dimension. The sentiment is stamped in Smokey Slate and rhinestones are added to embellish it. After taking a look at it again, there was something missing on the top portion of the card so I added pieces of ribbon in similar colours and I like how it turned out!

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Enjoy the long weekend ahead!

 

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Sentiment - unknown; Delightful Decorations

Paper: Coastal Cabana, Whisper White, Winter Frost Specialty DSP

Ink: Coastal Cabana, Smokey Slate

Tools: Ornament Punch

Accessories: Rhinestones (Michael's), Coastal Cabana ribbon, Silver 1/4" ribbon, Pool Party Satin ribbon (Sale-a-Bration)

Birthday Wishes for a Special Mother-In-Law!

There have been so many birthdays lately! It seems like every week there is another birthday! I enjoy making cards/projects for each family member's birthday. If I can't be there to celebrate with them, I want to at least let them know I am thinking of them and put a smile on their face :)

Today we celebrate my mother-in-law on her 62nd birthday! She is a very special lady - such a sweet, caring and thoughtful person. She has a big heart! When I married my husband, Kevin, his mother welcomed me into the family like I was her daughter. She made me feel at home everytime we came to visit and still does! I appreciate everything she does for us, even from a distance.

I went to my crafting table and crafted up something nice for her birthday :) Here is the card I made for her:

I love the Blooming with Kindness stamp set. The flower is just so pretty! And the sentiments so elegant! I sometimes find it difficult to coordinate colours with Rich Razzleberry. This time I tried Sahara Sand and I think it's nice and soft against the rich purple. The scallop trim border and embossed background adds to the elegance of the card.

I also sent her a handmade perpetual birthday calendar that I made using Stampin Up cardstock and designer paper. I had it bound by Staples and put ribbon through the binding so that it can be tied at the top and hang from a nail on the wall. Here is a few sample pages from the calendar:

These type of calendars are so handy! We have one hanging in our bathroom. Weird spot for it, I know, but apparently it's a very Dutch thing to do! I grew up in a Dutch family and we always had a calendar like this one hanging in the bathroom. If you think about it, it's quite a handy spot to have it! Every morning when you wake up and every night before you go to bed, you will always see it :) It's a great reminder for all the many birthdays in our large, growing families. Not sure how else I would keep track!

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Blooming With Kindness
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Summer Smooches DSP
Ink: Rich Razzleberry
Tools: Apothecary Accents Framelits, Scallop Trim Border punch, Fancy Fan Embossing Folder
Accessories: Pearl (Michael's)

Thanks for visiting!