New Year's Tag

Shocking but true, I'm actually getting my Tag Tuesday challenge up on a Tuesday, LOL!  This week, Louise at Kard Krazy challenged us to create a tag about the New Year.  As the year comes to an end, I love to remember all the happy times of the year just past, and think about all of the possibilities of the new year ahead.  I tried to capture this feeling in my tag.  Thanks for looking!

Some sources if you're interested: background and butterflies - Mary Mata collage sheet; stamps - Cornish Heritage Farms, JustRite; decorative tape - K and Co.  I altered the image of the woman from a free vintage photo image at art-e-zine.co.uk.

Vintage Heart for Tag Tuesday

Good gracious, it's been a long time since I've posted!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and that you are enjoying some rest and relaxation between Christmas and New Year's.  We spent 7 days in Disney (plus two days travel), so I've been completely torn away from crafting.  I'm jumping back in with a little tag for Tag Tuesday.  I originally thought I would be doing a Christmas tag for this challenge, which was to do a shaped tag.  Oh well, let a few days slip by, and it's on to the next holiday, LOL!  This tag uses ruched paper from Paper Temptress (I am soooo addicted to this stuff!), stamps from Stampington, and some tags from Making Memories Vintage Findings.  The music and button are vintage, and the rest is from my considerable stash of "stuff."  Thanks again to Louise at Kard Krazy for always inspiring me (even if I don't always get to play along, :). )

Here are a couple of pics from our Disney trip.  I am totally OBSESSED with the castle, and probably take as many pictures of IT as I do of anything else, including the family, LOL!  But I'll leave you with one pic of each.  Have a happy rest-of-the-weekend!

More CHF Love!

Another peek at the new "Love" Scrapblock releasing from Cornish Heritage Farms on Friday.  This time I stamped the block and cut out only the sentiments that were in the old-fashioned typewriter font.  I distressed the edges, and placed them randomly on the card.  The edges of the center paper were cut with the Fiskars threading water edge punch, and threaded with Martha Stewart ribbon.  The little heart is a Tim Holtz grungeboard heart painted with Distress Crackle paint in antique linen.  This one is going to my hubby... ssshhhh, don't tell him! :)

Clean and Simple Wedding, Vintage Style

A little sneak peek of the newest Scrapblock from Cornish Heritage Farms.  The "Love" Scrapblock releases on Friday.  For this card, I chose to use the stamp in a wedding theme, but you could also use it for Valentine's Day or anniversary cards, too.  I lined up two coordinating patterned papers (from My Mind's Eye Bella Bella paper tablet) and stamped the 6x6 inch Love Scrapblock in brown ink.  Then I inked up only the word "always" and stamped in brown marker on ivory cardstock for the focal sentiment.  I added a little ribbon, a few buttons, and called it CAS and done.  You could do this up in whatever the couple's wedding colors will be.  This would also be a great stamp to use to make a patterned background paper for a wedding scrapbook (think pale sand-colored ink on an ivory background, or clear embossing on white... understated and elegant).

I'll have another peek in a few days.  Stay warm! :)

Sandpaper Challenge

It's Wednesday, and time for another challenge over at Gingersnap Creations.  This week's challenge is to use Sandpaper in some way.  I love the vintage distressed look, so this challenge was super fun for me.  For my tag, I first ran a plain manila tag through my Xyron sticker maker machine to be sure the entire tag was coated with adhesive.  I then placed the tag on a page from a very vintage book, and trimmed around the edges.  Vintage text is often rather brittle (mine was), and so it's very important that the adhesive cover the tag entirely, and that it's not too wet of a medium.  Then I pulled out my sandpaper and sanded over the text to get a really worn look.  It starts to look really muddy, since you are getting dust from sanding off the black text - just close your eyes and blow on it really hard, and it will look pretty again!  I distressed the edges with Ranger Distress Inks in antique linen and vintage photo.  I colored a Santa image from Hearts in Touch using Copics, then trimmed him in some vintage rick rack and adhered him to the top of the tag.  I stamped a sentiment, and glued on some holly leaves (from a "big box store" sprig) and some glitter domes for the berries.  I think it has a retro kind of feel to it.

So... if you like to get dusty and have some sandpaper lying around, you might want to check out the challenge.  There's blog candy for one lucky participant! :)

Gingersnap Creations Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the first-ever Gingersnap Creations Blog Hop and Hop Stop #6!

If you’ve already been hopping then hopefully you have just come from Hels at Ink on My Fingers.  If you are starting here, welcome! It's a loop so you can start anywhere along the way.  Your next stop on the hop is Joanne at Made by Joanne.

If you've just started here, let me fill you in.... The Gingersnap Creations Design Team are all creating with some gorgeous stamps from our December sponsor, Hearts in Touch.  If you are participating in the hop, you will get a chance to win the Christmas 2009 plate from Hearts in Touch.  So what do you need to do?

At each stop on the blog hop, you need to collect a word.  There are 10 stops in all starting and ending with the Gingersnap Creations blog.  When you get all of your words - there are 9 in all - unscramble them to form an art quote. Once you have your guess at the quote, email it and your name to gingersnapstamp@gmail.com by December 13, 2009. We will be picking one lucky winner at random from the correct entries to win the Hearts in Touch Christmas 2009 plate!  You can get all the specific information and get a peek at the Christmas 2009 plate from Hearts in Touch on the Gingersnap Creations blog.

My word is "our".

So, on to my card.... the card above uses a beautiful angel stamp from the Hearts in Touch Christmas plate.  I stamped her using Ancient Page ink in chocolate, then used Ranger Distress Inks in Antique Linen and Vintage Photo to give it that time-worn look.  I used some shimmery copper paper from The Paper Company to frame both the image and the sentiment (which is from the same plate).  The patterned papers are from the Winter Wonderland paper tablet from Creative Imaginations.  The little corner ornament is chipboard (7 Gypsies) which I covered with copper embossing powder.

Here's another card using that same fabulous plate:

For this one, I stamped the tree image on acetate using StazOn ink... I ended up loving the way the background took on a frosty window look!  The patterned paper is called Silent Night, from Basic Grey's Figgy Pudding line (so if you've been hoarding, like I have, now's the time to pull that stuff out, LOL!).  The crinkly snowy looking paper at the bottom is ruched white from the Paper Temptress.  A few sparkly snowflakes from Little Yellow Bicycle finish it off.

It's that time of year....

... right when we can least afford to feel under-the-weather, that's when a cold or flu often strikes.  Stress can lead to a lowering of our immune response, and of course, so many of us feel stressed during the holidays.  Here's a little pick-me-up card I made with a new Cornish Heritage Farms stamp set that comes out Friday from the Saturday Evening Post line.  It's called Common Cold, and has wonderful vintage Norman Rockwell inspired images of folks battling a bug.  For this card, I paper-pieced the blanket using some paper from a Webster's pages 6x6 paper pad.  So many companies have come out with this size paper, and it's perfect for this application because it reduces the scale of the print to something that's very usable.  I used Copics to shade along the fold lines in the image, which makes the paper blanket look less "flat."  I used the same paper to frame the image.

Here's another image from the same stamp set, used to decorate a tissue box.  As I colored this image, I had to chuckle at myself, feeling bad for this poor little lady... all ready for a night on the town, and having to spend the night on a bed!  Wouldn't this be cute tucked in with a little care package for a gal pal who's stopped in her tracks?  Maybe it would bring a little smile to her face, each time she had to reach for a tissue. :)  You can see all the creative ideas the design team came up with for this set on the gallery... Joanne even has a project that isn't illness-related!  Too fun!

Have a safe and wonderful evening.

Jolly Flocked Santa

Here's another take on Cornish Heritage Farms' Stamp of the Month for December, Jolly Holly Santa Collage.  For this one, I stamped the image twice, once on acetate and once on cardstock, and cut out Santa's head from the cardstock.  I "scribbled" Glossy Accents all over Santa's beard and furry hat, then smooshed on some white flocking.  I let it dry, then tapped off the excess. I adhered the cardstock Santa to the acetate image, then popped that up over some patterned paper.  I used Smooch to color the hat and holly - love that stuff!  The snowflake background on the top portion of the card was stamped using Swirling Snowflakes Backgrounder.  One more to add to my stash.... gotta get these out soon :)