Thanksgivings!

I had to share this awesome card my daughter Allison made. She is becoming quite the creative card maker!

For Thanksgiving this year my husbands new company gave the employees a turkey and a bag full of all the fixings...potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, butternut squash and even pumpkin pie! It was so awesome of them and tasted so delicious. My husband suggested that we make a card to thank his boss's family (it is a small company that is run by a family). So Allison was super excited to do so and came up with this all on her own.

She used my SU First day of School set to stamp the bookworm image. She colored it in and then cut the worm out from behind the book and placed him on either side of her telephone pole. The thing that makes this so cute is that my husband works for a fiber optics company and they hang the wire on the poles to run the fiber optics. So she knowing this came up with the idea to make a telephone pole and put this little guy up there. I love how he peeks around the pole. Inside she wrote a wonderful not about how great the basket was and how delicious it tasted! She is so cute and creative...hmmm takes after someone...!

Well thanks for stopping by and looking! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are planning for a Happy Christmas season too!

~melanie :)

And now onto Christmas!!!!

Okay now that Thanksgiving is over, I can focus on Christmas! It seems everyone gets started earlier and earilier, the radio had 24 hour Christmas music last week! Will we be decorating while wearing our bathing suits next year? LOL

That said, I LOVE Christmas! So I am ready to share some of my Christmas cards with you!

Below is the front of the card side by side with the center of the card.

The reindeer image was stamped with white craft ink and covered with clear embossing powder and heat embossed on Night of Navy card stock and mounted on Whisper White cardstock. The satin ribbon is Night of Navy. The background paper is from a paper stack I bought at the store last year. Finally I mounted a rhinestone on top of a felt snowflake.

The card is 4x4 square, so it will fit in a regular A2 size envelope, which makes room on the side for the ribbon!

I hope you enjoyed this Christmas Card..I will be posting more later :)

~melanie

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am posting cards made by my wonderful daughters Ally and Lily. The card on the right was made by Allison in school with the help of her awesome Classroom Parent Mrs Jennings. Check her out at www.sentimentsinstock.com. I thought it was so neat that I used her idea to assist Lillian with making a card as well. Each card is for the aunts that we are going to visit today to thank them for having us over for dinner and dessert!

I am thankful for my wonderful family! I hope you all have something to be thankful for today as well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

~melanie

Ruffled Birthday

I spend a lot of time surfing the web and browsing blogs and I often CASE (Copy and Share Everything). I must admit, I am very bad about remembering where I saw the original card to give proper credit. This happens partly because I take notes while sitting at my computer, I have sheets of paper all over my house with ideas and layouts sketched on them. Then, I take the paper down to my craft room and create a card. At some point I photograph the card and then eventually some of those photos get posted. So, by that time, I have long lost my little paper! I could be more organized, but then that wouldn't be me!

This card was made during the summer. The bright colors are a key to that, I am affected by the seasons and the feel of the weather as to what colors I use in a card.

I used my SU! scallop border punch and cut strips of SU! cardstock and punched the edges. then, I lined them up, glued them together and trimmed the edges to make them even.

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Well Scripted Set.

Ribbon came from Michaels craft store.

I hope you enjoyed this card, I am off of work today and have a few projects to work on: Birthday card, Thank you cards, Cancer Survivor Card and an Anniversary card for my hubby!

Thanks for looking, have a great day!

~melanie :)

Coffee Junky!

For those who know me...you know that I LOVE coffee! I live off the stuff. Sometimes I have to say to myself "stop drinking so much coffee and drink water". I have weaned myself down a few times, but I love a nice hot mug. Look at the steam coming of that mug...just what we need on these cold fall New England days...of course hot chocolate works too! Chocolate...yum!

I feel that lately I need a lot of coffee just to function. I just finished prepping for a craft fair at my work. (didn't go that well, not nearly as much traffic as last year. Then another girl and I realized that alot of the office staff were moved to different branches this summer. Oh, well!)

I am also studying for my Oncology Certification exam and am feeling stressed about that. Then, trying to get my daughter to her cheerleading competition and finish the season...I signed up to be team parent having no idea what was involved...lots of emails and asking for things from other parents! Just a couple more weeks. I am really looking forward to the cold, calm winter!

I do have one more craft show coming up. I will go to my sister's work for her annual craft fair. I figure I can try and sell all the stuff I have left from my craft fair and I am working on a few other things as well. So between all of this and my family and my full time job, I really love coffee (and sleep)!

I also plan on updating my etsy shop soon, so keep your eyes out for that. (link to right)

I really love this card. Why wouldn't I it has coffee and it is pink! I hope you enjoy this card and I hope right now you are enjoying a warm mug full of something good :)

Supplies All Stampin' Up!

cardstock: pink pirouette, riding hood red, whisper white

designer paper: SU retired

punches: corner rounder, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border, scallop trim border

accessories: pink button from designer buttons subtles collection, hemp twine

Thanks for looking today!

~melanie

Pretty Purses

Okay, are these not the cutest little purses you ever did see?

While I was blog hopping I came across this post Curtain Call over at It's a Stamp Thing and I had to CASE it!

Finally put ink to this Things I love stamp set by SU!

I made a couple of purses so then I had to make a couple of cards! I hope you enjoy these cute little cards as much as I do! But, I have a very busy day and must get off of my computer! Have a great one :)

~melanie

Circle circus

I had so much fun making this card. I made my own designer paper.

I used the Circle Circus stamp set and stamped 2 of the circles in a random pattern over whisper white paper. I used Real Red and Brilliant Blue ink. I also stamped the red circle on the edge of the cardstock inside the card.

I used a stamp from the Everything Nice set and used my Stampin' Write markers to color the stamp to get the alternating colors on the sentiment. Then I stamped happy birthday inside the card.

A corner rounder, a circle punch, some real red ribbon and my card was beautiful!

Well, ready to start another week. I am able to post this AM because I have been up since 3:30 and not able to sleep! Finally after laying there for 45 minutes, I decided to just get up and be productive. I was able to design a Christmas card last night, so I am hoping to finish the set and photograph for you later tonight!

Have a great day!

~melanie :)

Punched Owl

I love the new 2 step punch from Stampin' Up! This one is like the 2 step bird, but is an owl! How adorable is this guy?

One punch has all the pieces to make this cutie. Just punch multiple times for whichever colors or DSP paper you want then glue it all together.

On this little guy, I used crystal effects on his eyes to help hold on his little pupils and to make his eyes shine! Isn't this just adorable?

Well, got to get to bed. This back to school week has worn me out! Getting myself to work and the kids to bed is exhausting!

Thanks for looking today!

~melanie

Splitcoast Sketch Challenge

These 2 cards I made using SSCC296 over at splitcoaststampers.com

Both are made using a retired SU set that I had bought at a yardsale during the summer. I forget the name right now (the problem of having a craft room in the basement and a computer in the living room and no laptop! Do you feel sorry for me? Just Kidding)

Both cards were made using all SU products: paper, DSP, stamps, ink and accessories. Much of it is retired,but I have lots of stuff to use up! I admit it when it comes to craft supplies, I am a hoarder!

Well, thanks for looking today, I hope you are having a super Labor Day Weekend!

~melanie :)

Back to school week!

Well, it is that time of year again! I love that commercial on TV where the kids and dad are back to school shopping for supplies and the dad is cruising on the cart and the kids look horrified and the music is playing "It's the most wonderful time of the year...."

I am so glad that fall is coming. I like summer, but I love the cool weather of fall. Also, we really need some structure in our house right now. It has been so chaotic during the summer, staying up later, no routines. I am so looking forward to routine!

Above are my gorgeous daughters Allison and Lillian ready to go to the bus stop for the first day! Ally is in 2nd grade and Lily is entering Transition. Full days for both of them! :)

So, do you think I have gotten any stamping done this week? Of course not. I have spent the last 2 days doing errands and dragging along my 2 little ones. My husband thinks the house should be clean I bet, but it looks worse now than it did yesterday morning! I went to the grocery store this am and realized how tired I was, so I put half of the food away and left the non perishables all over and took a nap with the kids! That felt good! Now, waiting for the girls to get off the bus and then heading for a swim to my mom's...it's 95 degrees out today!

The house will get clean later :)

And, hopefully some stamping!

Thanks for stopping by, ~ melanie

More Christmas

I made more Christmas cards! This one was so easy and so pretty!

I used Bashful Blue card stock, cut in half 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 and folded to make a standard 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 size. I ran my folded card stock in my Elegant Lines embossing folder (page 216) through my Big Shot (page 206) so only the front would be embossed.

Then I used Basic Pearls (page190-a great product, self adhesive) in a couple different sizes to add a little bling! I also used smooch spritz in Vanilla Shimmer (page 197) to add a lotta bling and sparkle to the entire card front.

Finally I used my 5/8" Organza Ribbon in Whisper White to tie a knot along the left side.

I really love how this card came out. And even though my description sounds long, it was pretty simple to make.

I have also made another one with Rhinestones and Silver cord and stamped in Happy Birthday! A quick and easy card that can be changed for any occasion.

I hope you enjoyed this card. I will probably try and make some non Christmas cards in the next few days. :)

Thanks for looking!

~melanie

Christmas!

What Christmas? It's not even Labor Day! Well, I need to start thinking Christmas.

I made a few sets of Christmas cards this week. Here is the first:

The layout for these cards was from Taylored Expressions TESC125

I thought the layout was so cute, then I saw my new Christmas DSP from Stampin' Up! and I thought the cirlces in the sketch reminded me Christmas ornaments.

I added pearls and then used my new smooch spritz to shine up the cards (you can see from my picture that I am not good at photographing glossy items, but you can imagine the effect!)

Well, it certainly got me in the mood for Christmas card making and I will be making more soon!

Happy End of Summer!

~melanie

Always

Well, I have been having fun this week in my craft room! This is the first card I made for the colourq challenge. But then I decided to use my second card. Usually, when I start to play with certain colors or papers, I make a few cards with them at once.

This stamp set is Always Elegant (page 67 of Idea Book and Catalog)

I stamped the image in Wild Wasabi multiple times across the Vanilla Card stock, then flipped my stamp and stamped in the opposite direction to fill in the blanks...I made my own DSP!

I then used Cherry cobbler to stamp the Always sentiment and to border the Vanilla Paper. The main card stock is Baja Breeze.

The ribbon is taffeta Daffodil Delight and a cute button.

Super Simple, but Always Elegant!

Today we are getting ready for my daughter's Cheerleading Jamboree! She is 7 and so excited to cheer for a game! So, I gotta get my butt in gear and get myself and her ready!

Thanks for checking out my card today, have a great weekend!

~melanie

Tea Time

I am really loving all these cute cards with tea and coffee themes. This card was made using SU! Morning Cup set. This card is all Stampin Up!

So, I mentioned that I love to do sketch challenges right? Well this time I decided to do a color challenge. See ColourQ challenges at http://colourq.blogspot.com/

I did improvise a little because my ribbon is actually Marina Mist, but it blended in nicely!

So, we all make mistakes right? Well check out the image below. This is my card before I had to fix my error. Do you notice it? I stamped my sentiment crooked! Why did this happen? Because I was being too lazy to use my super easy Stamp-a-ma-jig tool which would ensure that my image would be placed exactly as I liked it to be.

So, I had to fix this by getting a new piece of vanilla card stock and then restamping my image and mounting it on cherry cobbler card stock after rounding both top edges. Actually, I like the new card better. I guess good can come from mistakes.

I hope you enjoyed this card and remember....it can always be fixed!

~melanie

Aviary

I just love this new Stampin' Up! set called Aviary. 4 little birds and 4 different cages as well as one stand post. You can mix and match the images to create different designs!

So, how do I get my ideas for card layouts? Well, some I think up on my own or just make as I go, but what I really like to do is scour blogs for challenges. This layout (which I really adore) came from Taylored Expressions TESC 117. Sketch from Taylored Expressions, but all supplies from Stampin' Up!

recipe:

stamp set: Aviary

cardstock: Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede

DSP: Greenhouse Gala

accessories: Daffodil Delight taffeta ribbon, Scallop trim border, corner rounder punch

Well, I hope you like my little bird card.

Hope to share more soon.

~melanie

Hoppy Birthday

Sorry for the fuzzy photo, it was taken with my phone. This card was made for my nephew who turned 5 in July.

Recipe:

Stamps: I love the fun image from Pink Cat Studio it is so adorable.

Ink: I colored the image with my Stampin' Up! markers. I didn't want my boy to "float" so I drew a line and colored the grass with Garden Green and used some Old Olive to add specks of grass to eliminate the plain-ness of one color. For the sky I used bashful blue and my sponge to sponge a light color over the white. My little frog is also Garden Green. The boy is colored with Soft Suede, Blush Blossom, Not Quite Navy and Cherry Cobbler. I roughed up the edges of the main image with my fingernail and then sponged the edges of the card to make it look rougher because this card is for a rough and tough boy!

Paper: Stampin' Up! Whisper White, Not Quite Navy, Cherry Cobbler and Barely Banana.

Accessories: Certainly Celery button, Linen thread

I know that I used alot of different colors from a lot of different color families for this card, but I find that many of the colors blend well together and even though I am using different shades, there are the same basic colors: i.e. olive green blends well with certainly celery. So don't be afraid to mix and match.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this card. I am now getting ready to spend the day at the lake with my family and 2 of my sisters and their families. So have a great day and I hope you pop by again soon.

Hoppy Stampin'!

~melanie :)

Love You Much

Okay, can you tell that I love pink and green together? This was a quick card I made using many of the same card colors from the other day's card.

For inspiration I was flipping through some of my old Stampin' Up! Idea book and catalogs (they are great for references you know, so don't toss them after their year is up!) I saw a card with this layout. I thought, how cute! I could do that easily. So......

I used a pink cardstock base, punched a few shades of pink and green with various sized circle punches and a few with designer paper. A little ribbon, a pink sentiment in a circle and voila! I have created a super cute and easy card.

Think of the possibilities! Flowers! Stars! or even butterflies! What a quick and easy layout! Think outside the box (or circle) LOL

I hope you enjoy this card, thanks for looking!

~melanie :)

Birdy Birthday

This is a birthday card I made the other day. I was using my SU! bird punch and thought I would first run my paper through the swiss dots embossing folder for dimension. How cute?

I really love this color paper and am sad it retired, but there are lots of new colors that I am growing to love.

recipe:

All materials Stampin' Up!

Cardstock: Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, Garden Green, Barely Banana

DSP: Kaleidascope

Accessories: So Saffron Ribbon, Circle Designer Brads

Punches: Extra Large Two-Step Bird, Scallop Trim Border

Stamp: Well Scripted

Hope you like it! Thanks for looking!

~melanie :)

I made this card for this weeks Layout Challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers. This is the first time I have done this. I always look, but decided to get off my butt and start making more!

I hope you like it.

Supplies: All Stampin' Up. The stamp is from a retired set I found at a yard sale last week and the paper is various colors and designs that I believe many of to be retired. I am trying to use up my stash!

The card was quick and easy and got my creative juices flowing so I am totally in card making mode! I made 7 cards in the last 2 days, I hope to post more soon.

Thanks for looking!

~melanie

Simple Birthday Card

I love this card and it was so easy to make with clean simple design. Sometimes I remind myself it doesn't need to be complicated! The layout was simple and it probably took me about 5 minutes to make this card! Great if you need a last minute birthday card!

All Supplies Stampin' Up!:

Cardstock - Brilliant Blue, Yo Yo Yellow, Whisper White

Ink- Brilliant Blue, Real Red, Yo Yo Yellow, Green Galore and Tempting Turquoise

Accessories - 5/8" grosgrain ribbon in so saffron

Stamps - Party Hearty

I know that some of these colors are retired, but I admit this is not a new card! Last weekend I spent 5 hours in my craft room (located in my basement) using new stamps and using new colors. I went back down a few days later and found a puddle on my craft table with my cards directly in the middle! We could not locate the source at the time, but there are pipes running across the roof of my room and we are guessing there was condensation due to the warm weather. That really stinks! I wanted to cry at the time. So hopefully since I am on vacation from work this week I will be able to get ALOT of crafting done!

Hope to share more soon!

~melanie :)

Oh, my poor neglected blog! I have been so bad to you.

Well, did you know that for the last year I have not had a camera? It makes it awfully hard to share my projects! Finally, last weekend I decided I NEEDED to get one! Summer is here, we had our family reunion coming up and my vacation from work. So I am happy to announce that I will now be able to stop neglecting my blog and post more! Yay!

Well, right now I am getting ready for my kids party. It is a playdate that I have had planned for a while and I invited all the kids from my 2 girls classes at school. I have not had many replies (I realize that it is a Saturday in the middle of the summer, so I am not too surprised) but we plan to have a good time. The sun i starting to come out and the girls are getting excited.

I PROMISE, my blog, not to ignore you anymore. I will be back later today to share on you.

I hope everyone is having a great summer and I will be back later :)

~ melanie :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!
I want to wish a wonderful day to all of the mother's out there. This is your day to be appreciated and I hope you are! My family is great to me. I had breakfast made by my hubby and kids...yummy veggie omelet with bacon! my fav.
Also had great homemade gifts from my kids and LOTS of hugs and kisses! My family is the best.
Getting ready to go to my sister's house where my wonderful mom and my 3 great sisters are going to order lunch and have a relaxing afternoon. Doesn't that sound great?

I did have a card to share with you, but am having trouble uploading it...so maybe later!
Have a great day!
~melanie :)

Wonderful Mother

Well that time of year is almost here....Mother's Day! All wonderful mother's deserve a beautiful card. I love this one and it was pretty simple to make.

Cardstock base is Real Red, branch is Old Olive, Bird is tempting turquoise. The DSP is from the Pink Flamingo paper pack. This is my favorite DSP paper pack. I love the colors, I never would have put Real Red and Tempting Turquoise paper together on my own, but when I saw these colors on the paper I was in love. It is a new fav combo of mine.
Image is from the Well Scripted set, stamped in tempting turquoise.
The adorable bird and branch was made with the Extra Large 2 step Bird Punch. How simple is that?

Look forward to more Mother's Day cards this week. Don't forget you only have one week left until Mother's Day!

~melanie

Friends

I love the colors on this card! Everything is from Stampin' Up! Olive green which has quickly become a favorite of mine, Rich Razzleberry and pink pirouette. The stamp set Vague Vintage was not a set I immediately thought I wanted. Then I started to see cards with it and liked it, bought it and now love it!

The really neat part of this card is the flower. My friend told me about the technique and I could not wait to try it. It really is quite simple, but looks dramatic. I used my flower punch and punched out 3 Rich Razzleberry Flowers and one in Old Olive. I took the Razzleberry flowers and crumpled them up really good. Then I carefully pulled apart the 2 layers of paper. The inside is suede - like. I turned rough side up and put the old olive on the bottem, used a cute pink brad in the center and fanned out the razzleberry paper. If the flower flattens out, all you need to do is rough it up a little. So cute and so easy!

For the rest of the card, I used the vine image in the set to make a design on the old olive card base. And on my white cardstock, I sponged the sides with old olive to make it more antique looking and less "in your face" white. I really enjoy playing with this set and look forward to making more cards for my friends.

Have a great Sunday!
~Melanie

Margaritaville

I decided to post this card today because last night I had a Pampered Chef show and served Margarita's to my guests! I love margaritas and I have not had one in months. They were so yummy. I had several!

All materials for this card are Stampin' Up! The layout was from Taylored Expressions.
I stamped the image and sentiment with Tempting Turquoise and colored the image with my stampin write markers. Then I used crystal effects on my "glassware" to give it shine. Thainking about it now, it would have been really cute to "pop up" the umbrella by cutting out a second one and placing it on a piece of a dimensional. Oh, well. Next time. I always come up with new ideas from cards that I have made previously.

Well we are aiming to have a beautiful sunny weekend here in Massachusetts and I am hoping to enjoy it as well as get some crafting done. Hope you all enjoy your weekend too.

~Melanie

April????

Can it really be April already? This year is flying by. I have been so busy with work and family that I have not been doing much stamping. I did however participate in LGH's spring craft fair. Of course I crammed for 2 weeks to get ready. It wasn't as busy as the fall fair, but was a good day. And since my little Lily had no school that day, she came and helped me out. It gave me a chance to make some spring time cards, use brighter colors and new stamps! :)

I am sooooo happy to see the sun today after all the rain we have had. I am hoping the ground dries up some so the kids can Easter hunt outside. I am really hoping that it dries alot for those unfortunate people in southern New England whose homes flooded! Thankfully we only got a few inches in our basement and I only lost a small amount of my craft supplies, mostly old paper.

Well, have a Happy Easter and enjoy the warm and sun!

~melanie

Sesame Street

I LOVE this card. It was made for my friends son, Alex, for his second birthday (he love sesame street and Elmo in particular)
I kept seeing these characters all over the web. I was at splitcoaststampers.com checking out all the really cute cards for ideas. I used my SU! scallop circle punch and my other SU! punches. Instead of using paper for the eyes, I used googly eyes popped up on stampin' dimensionals.

I was so pleased with the card and I am sure he loved it too.

Thanks for looking!

~ melanie