One layout three cards

I recently bought a roll of black washi tape with white polkadots on it. It goes with the Smashbooks line. I don't have a Smashbook, just the tape.

I cannot stop using this tape! I'm totally addicted to it. It is sort of freaking me out. I've not been showing all the PILES of Christmas cards I've been making with it, but believe me... tons.

Here are three super simple cards with it.
I love this chicken stamp! I picked it up the other day at Big Lots. I think it originated in either the Joannes or Michaels Dollar Bins. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set. Colored with pencil and OMS.
Here we have an adorable Gina K duckie. I have a whole set with these cute ducks. Pencil and OMS again.
And this one. These boys are colored to be reminiscent of my two oldest boys. They are from an awesome set by There She Goes. I love that store for painfully adorable stamps.

Well it is the new year in 9 minutes. So good luck with that and all. I'm not that into resolutions and such.

hello

I had the best day today visiting with my friend Laura. She makes all this tons of stuff from scratch and all organic and all. She was making an amazing smelling chicken soup. Despite all my sniffling and hints I didn't seem to come home with any. So I'm making my own ham bone soup. But I put a TON of garlic an onions and celery in it. YUM! My grocery store was giving away free poinsettia's too. Fun. Also me and the boys walked there. Always an adventure.

Here is a fun card I want to share. I want to tell you that it is NOT crooked on top like that. I just looked at it in real life and it's not. I'm not sure if it was then I fixed it and forgot, or if it is something about the camera angle. Anyhow imagine it not crooked.
It is the papertrey circle background set again of course. And again, heavily inspired by Susan over at Simplicity. And I love it.

Gifts for Strangers

So I saw an AWESOME youtube video the other day. It is about Gifts for Strangers. I am so totally inspired! I'm so doing this for next year. I'm going to collect up cool gifts I find, good deals and such, all year then go out with the boys and give them all to strangers. If any of my local friends want to join me let me know, if any of my not-local friends want to join go on the site and they have all the info.

I have a related story to share. When we went driving looking at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve we saw a house that had a nice sign saying they had a living nativity going on. It welcomed us to stop and get out and see it. It was so nice, a friendly party of strangers, they had hot cocoa and cookies, and the nativity and a Shepard (who was the homeowner) telling the Christmas story. Then he invited the boys to take presents out from under his tree. He probably had 50 wrapped gifts under there. The boys each took one, they were super grateful. We opened them on Christmas. Stephen got a cool nativity ornament that you put one of your tree lights into and it glows, Ethan got a full children's nativity set. I was blown away at the time and expense and love that went into such a wonderful Christmas gift to that man's whole community.

My other Christmas inspiration, came too late for this year as well. We LOVE driving and looking at Christmas lights. I always wish I could let the homeowners know how much joy it brings our family. So next year I'm going to make up a bunch of Christmas thank you cards, we will all write in them, put them with some candy and when we see a house that really touches us one of us will jump out and deliver the card to the doorstep. Yall feel free to keep me to this plan. I'll try not to have pneumonia next year.

Atlas Wreath and kid art

Ethan bought himself a fancy schmancy art kit yesterday, raced home and started painting. He later added a face, this is just work in progress. Can you guess what it is?
I have been working for a few days on this wreath. I love it. I love all things atlas. I think the colors used on maps are just outstanding. I cut pieces of one of my old atlases I get at thrift stores into strips that were 8.5x4, then rolled them into skinny cones and glue gunned them to a wire wreath I happened to have.

Came to me in a dream card set

I have terrible insomnia. I also have pneumonia and am taking forever to recover. I spend a lot of my nights tossing and turning and coughing. A few nights ago (Before Christmas) I was half asleep when the idea came to me that I HAD to make a certain card set. It had to be the particular cards and for a particular teenager I know. Side note, I know AMAZING teens, and have no point of reference for understanding the phrase "Kids these days" because all the ones I know rock.

I was excited to find the notecards worked out perfectly! I embossed a 4x5.25 piece of kraft cardstock with the woodgrain embossing sheet by Papertrey. Then I punched 3 hearts out of one of my vintage atlases. Sewed them down the center onto the embossed sheet and attached that to a folded card.

For the envelope I made it out of some kraft text weight paper I have (and am out of and bummed), then lined it with the atlas paper. So easy but just exactly how it looked in my dream.
Here is the stack of them:
And here they are in a Papertrey card box.
I wish I had taken a photo of the wrapping, I wrapped them in another atlas page, then tied it with red cotton lace and sheer cream ribbon. Then I used a silver and white bird with feather tag.

I hope she liked it. I was quite happy with how it turned out.

baby it's cold outside

Actually it's not. It is like 80 and humid. But making these cards made me feel the chill of the season.

While I was taking my photos Calvin was super upset and crying at the window. Here is a picture:
He didn't get a long enough nap. Poor thing.

Clowning Around

Here are two cards I made with a cute clown I picked up at Michaels. Same card, two different color schemes. I think the pastel is better for a younger kid, like a 1 year old and the other for a 3 year old. Of course you never hear 1 year olds say, "I really like the soft tones on this card".

Speaking of one year olds mine ate my glasses case today! Weird kid. :)

Thank you set

I made a card set of Thank You cards using my new Papertrey circle background set. Love this set! Love the idea of coloring just a few of the circles in.
Easy as can be. I just took some scraps out of my scrap bin, that were about the right size, trimmed them to fit just right and colored some of the circles to match. On the gray I used gray and yellow, felt it needed a kick.

Super simple Modern Christmas

I have been reading Simplicity (http://simplicitybylateblossom.blogspot.com/)for about forever. Susan is, hands down, my favorite cardmaker. She is also the cardmaker I copy most by a landslide. She recently got Modern Basics by Papertrey and I knew I had to order it myself. I had been thinking about it for some time, but when I saw she had it I knew she would use it in a variety of ways that would appeal to me. And she did!

So here is one of my first cards using this new-to-me set.



It is crazy simple but I really like it. I'm working on my 2012 Christmas cards. I'm doing all handmade for next year. I've been doing the photo cards for a few years.

In other news: I'm CRAZY sick. I have pneumonia and bronchitis. It is horrible. It is taking forever to feel human again. I'm sooooo tired. The coughing fits are terrible.
All my Christmas stuff is ready except the food. Can't do that so far ahead though.
I'm dog-sitting the most perfect, adorable dog ever. It has been great to have Odie here during my illness because he is very cuddly and has been a huge comfort to me.
My kids and husband have been great to me during this. Letting me rest a bunch and stuff. Just what I need.