Gift Tag Blop Hop!

Welcome to our Holiday Gift Tag Blop Hop! If you've just happened upon my blog, you can start the Blog Hop here on Monika's blog. Thanks for organizing this, Monika! If you've come here from Allison Fillo's blog, then you're right on track with the hop.

There will be some surprises hidden along the way, but we’re not telling you where so be sure to leave comments on every post so you have a chance to win!! The winners will be announced on Monday, December 14th here and on the individual blogs where the suprises are hidden.

I made my tags plain ole' rectangular shapes, just like the stick-on kind you can find in the wrapping paper aisle. They're 1.5" high x 4" wide.



I set up the santa hat from my Merry Little Christmas set along with Trompe 25 pt (uppercase and lowercase) font letters on my rectangular wooden stamper, stamped them onto MME Life Stories DP (the backside, which looks JUST like Kraft CS), and then matted them against different shades of CS to match the ribbons and my wrapping paper.

**Next up in the hop is Melissa Sauls!**

SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: JustRite Merry Little Christmas, JustRite Trompe 25 pt
Paper: MME Life Stories DP, Prism Classic Red, Real Red, Mellow Moss, Soft Suede
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Copics: R17, R59, G40, G24, G28 Copics
Accessories: JustRite Rectangular Stamper, Ribbon, Bow Easy, White Sparkly Fluff, Quickie Glue Pen, 1/8" Scor Tape

Have a great day!

Raisin Cake & Spiced Nuts

Hey there! I made two recipe cards for today's Inkspirations Challenge....wow, what a great sketch and how PERFECT for recipe cards!

On both cards, I used used my Hero Arts What's Cooking clear set with some patterned paper that I picked up at Michael's and Prism Vibrant Cobalt CS. The purple crystals on both cards are glued down with a small dot of Diamond Glaze.


The "secret recipe" (that's not such a secret if I posted it on my blog, huh? hehe!) tag on the first one is up on foam tape.


On this second card, I added some lavender Stickles to the hearts in the "Made with Love" sentiment.

*Note about recipe cards*
I've gotten a few emails and comments from some of you saying you're afraid to make a recipe card thinking it will get messy while cooking. I'm a messy cook too, folks! What I do is store my recipe cards in clear protectors. If I slop up the plastic cover, I can just wipe it off and the recipe card is still good as new. {smile}

*Note about the raisin cake recipe*
I'm especially fond of the raisin cake recipe since it's one that's been in my family for a long time. My tip for this recipe, if you're going to try it out, is to make sure you cook the raisins in med to med-low heat so you keep as much of the liquid as possible because you'll need it for the batter....helps keep the batter "workable." Also, I take my cake out of the oven when it is JUST barely done. That also keeps it really moist. Oven times vary, so start checking it at 45 minutes.



*Note about our Christmas tree*
I had some questions about our Christmas tree and what's underneath (sorry that it has taken me so long to answer this....I kept forgetting to add it to my posts this week). My husband loves trains and likes to have one under our tree. He built a big wooden base for the train tracks and tree stand. The base is elevated a little so he can run all the wires for the village buildings between the base and the floor. The little village buildings you see in the photo are all Christmas-related buildings (a toy shop and toy clock tower, Santa's Sleigh Depot, a village mill with a waterwheel, and a wood workshop)...they all light up and a couple of them have moving parts. You may be wondering why there's only one train car. Our cat likes to knock the cars down (total brat that he is!...kidding, love him!) and we're tired of setting each one up over and over and over again....so this year, we decided to just have a "Christmas Trolley" instead of a "Christmas Train." {smile}





SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: Hero Arts What's Cooking Clear Set
Paper: Prism Vibrant Cobalt, Ivory, K&Company Addison Blue Gingham DP
Ink & Accessories on 1st Card: Versafine Onyx Black Ink, Lavender Lace Ink, Purple Swarovski Crystals, Diamond Glaze, Purple May Arts Ribbon, Spellbinders Tag, Foam Tape
Ink & Accessories on 2nd Card: Versafine Onyx Black Ink, Purple Swarovski Crystals, Diamond Glaze, Purple May Arts Ribbon, Scallop Circle Nestabilities, Lavender Stickles
Size: 4" x 6"

Gate Fold Bouquet

Hehe, I made a gate fold card for the first time...they're fun! It's for this week's Timeless Tuesday Challenge. I used my Flourishes Winter Bouquet set. This set is currently sold out at Stamper's Dream, but Michelle has lots of other Flourishes sets in her store that you can see HERE.

The main image was stamped on Life Stories DP (the back, which is just like Kraft CS), colored with Copics, and I added Waterfall Stickles to the berries to match the ones on the DP. I also added some Gold Stickles to the center of the large flower. The upper left-hand corner of the main panel tucks under the bow to keep the card closed.

Here's what it looks like opened up:



SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: Flourishes Winter Bouquet
Paper: Prism Baby Blue Medium, MME Life Stories DP, Other Misc DP, PTI Dark Chocolate
Ink: Memento Cocoa, Copics
Accessories: Waterfall and Gold Stickles, PTI Dark Chocolate Ribbon, Square Nestabilities, Scor Pal
Card Size: 5" Square

Thanks for the well wishes yesterday. I'm still having dizziness today but I'm taking my meds like a good little girl {giggle} and hoping it goes away SOON!

Have a great day!

Corn Soup Recipe

Hey all! What a week it's been. I've had an inner ear infection for over a week now with all sorts of wacky symptoms...constant dizziness, nausea, headaches, tiredness...and it's affecting my stamping time. The nerve! (lol!) My dear sweet husband is out at the pharmacy right now as I'm typing this picking up a new prescription for me.

Here's a recipe card that I made a few days ago for some corn soup...just getting around to posting it now...

It's another 4x6 card to go in my binder. The corn image is from my Autumn Blessings set. It's stamped on the DP and then I colored an extra bow with copics, cut it out and popped it up on foam tape. I also added a bit of Stickles to the bow and curls on either side of the image.

Here's the back.....(really wishing I would have embossed the yellow panel and added a bit of rust like I did on the front....but oh well, too late once it's all glued down, right?)



SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: JustRite Autumn Blessings
Paper: PTI Kraft and Lemon Tart, Really Rust, Misc DP, White
Ink: Memento Cocoa, Copics
Accessories: Piercing Tool, Platinum Stickles, Foam Tape, Leafy Branch Embossing Folder

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Puppy

Good morning from white and wintery PA! It snowed all day yesterday and I just can't believe how much we got...it's totally white around here! I'm not a fan of the snow, but it was pretty cool to have all this snow hit yesterday because that's when we were putting up our tree and decorating the house....felt very festive and Christmas-y. Anyway...

I finally got to ink up my new Helz Cuppleditch stamp. It's called Surprise and you can get it at Stamper's Dream. I paired it up with some more of my favorite Life Stories DP, added some Diamond Stickles to all the dots around the image, and gave it a big bow with a button from my French Twist Bag O' Buttons.

On the inside I used this Celebrate sentiment from my Just a Note set.



I thought it went really great with the stars in the puppy image. Both circles are up on foam tape and then I punched some Martha Stewart Confetti Stars from the DP. The stars are glued down with a Quickie Glue Pen.

SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: Stampavie Surprise Clear Stamp, JustRite Just a Note
Paper: MME Life Stories DP, Neenah White, PTI Kraft
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Close to Cocoa (sponging)
Accessories: Curved Mega Rectangle Nestabilities, Diamond Stickles, Ribbon, Hemp Twine, Frenh Twist Button, Sponge, Circle Nestabilities, Foam Tape, Martha Stewart Star Confetti Punch
Technique: Sponging, Gamsol Magic

Here's a picture of our driveway...holy snow!



...and here's a picture of our tree...



Enjoy what's left of the weekend and stay warm!

Workout and Calorie Journal

I've been trying to keep up with tracking my calories and workouts in a composition notebook. Well, I haven't been as strict as I was over the summer so I thought if I *prettied up* my journal, maybe I'll be better about logging everything again. Sounds good in theory, right?

Anyway, I saw this Marianne stamp on Suzanne Dean's blog and just HAD to get her. I love Marianne's workout pants...and oh how I *wish* I could look as good in an outfit like this, lol! She's colored with prisma pencils and I added some Pink Stickles to the flowers in her pants. I also made her belly button look pierced by adding a tiny dot of Platinum Stickles...{giggle}.

I put some of the butterflies up on foam tape. Here's a close-up:



SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: Marianne (exclusive Elisabeth Bell for SCACD)
Paper: PTI Kraft, Scarlet Jewel and White; My Mind's Eye Life Stories DP
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Rose Red
Accessories: Prisma Pencils, Gamsol, Platinum and Pink Stickles, Foam Tape, Curved Mega Rectangle Nestabilities, PTI Scarlet Jewel Buttons, PTI Scarlet Jewel Ribbon, Pink Burlap String, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punches, SU Butterfly Dies

Have a great weekend!

JR Week - Note Cards

I'm back with some more cards using my Just a Note set with Decorative 2" Round Borders. Silke and Michelle are also showing JR projects today.

On this first one I paired the MME Life Stories DP with Prism Rose Dark. I love this color Prism CS with this pattern of the Life Stories DP!



Both circles are up on foam tape, the edges are sponged with Rose Red ink, and I added pink Stickles to the stamped butterflies and swirls. The edges of the card are faux stitched with a Soft Suede marker.

The layout on the next one is Weekend Sketch 105.



The small Thinking of You circle is up on foam tape, the edges were again sponged with Rose Red ink, and I dotted the i's with pink Stickles. The colored CS on this one is PTI's Scarlet Jewel.

SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: JustRite Just a Note, JustRite Decorative 2" Round Wide Borders
Paper: Prism Rose Dark, PTI Scarlet Jewel, Kraft, My Mind's Eye Life Stories Collection 2
Ink: Rose Red, Soft Suede
Accessories: Pink Stickles, May Arts Ribbon, Paper Piercing Tool & Mat Pack, Spellbinders Circles, Foam Tape

Okay, now check this out. Here's a ZVA Rhinestone carousel....



You can flip it over and use the clear scalloped twist top as a guide for piercing around a circle:



Just pierce in between the scallops with your piercing tool. Whoo-hoo!....rhinestones AND a piercing template...gotta love double duty!

Have an awesome day!

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks

Hi everyone! Sneak peeks are beginning today for the newest Taylored Expressions stamps and supplies...and everything is being released this Friday, December 4th. Be sure to stop by Charmaine, Dawn, Donna, Jackie, Jodi, Karen G, Karen M, Laurie, Sankari, Sharon, and Taylor's blogs today at 11 a.m. EST through Friday and check out all the new stuff.

I won't be previewing any of the newest sets because, as you may have seen on Taylor's post yesterday, I've decided to step down from the Baker's Dozen DT. Between my family, a house that needs attention, working from home, keeping up with the fitness program I started over the summer, my new interest in cooking, and a desire to pull out and ink up those stamps that haven't seen the light of day in WAY too long, I feel like I need to cut down on the amount of DT work I have on my plate and make room for these things.

I've LOVED being a part of Taylored Expressions, working with such a fun group of girls, and watching how much TE has grown. Taylor was the first person to pick me to be on a DT outside of the dirty dozen, and that has meant so much to me. I'll always have a special place in my heart for anything TE-related because of it. Thanks for everything, Taylor!

I'll still be designing for Michelle at Stamper's Dream, who I think is just awesome! I also have a guest spot coming up in January with another great company (more on that when the time comes), so I'm not going to completely stop design work. I just need to make sure there's a balance between DT requirements and other things, ya know?

I'll be back later this morning with another post for JustRite Week. Hope to see ya then!

{{hugs}}

JR Week - Christmas Cards

Good morning! Michelle, Amy, Tosh and I have more JustRite projects to show you today.

As soon as I saw the new Square Decorative Frames, I thought of making some sort of buckle. Then I remembered seeing a bunch of these Santa suit cards and I always wanted to make one....so, that's what I did....a Santa suit card. It didn't come out on paper exatly how I had it pictured in my head, but it's close. I hope you like it anyway.



The buckle is stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed with silver embossing powder. I drew on some little stitches with a metallic silver Martha Stewart glitter pen (this idea was totally my daughter's....thanks E!....they helped make it look more like an actual belt!). I rounded the edge of the belt with a corner rounder, used a Versamark marker along the rounded edge, and then heat embossed that in silver EP as well.

For the inside, I used this secret santa stamp and sentiment from my Merry Little Christmas set. Ties it all together, don't ya think? (lol, hope so!)



There's a little bit of Diamond Stickles on the white parts of the hat, and the smallest circle is up on foam tape.

SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: JustRite 2" Square Decorative Frames, JustRite Merry Little Christmas
Paper: Prism Blush Red Dark, White, Black
Ink: Copics, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark
Accessories: Diamond Stickles (on Santa hat), 2" Square Wooden Stamper, Spellbinders Circles, Silver Embossing Powder, Martha Stewart Silver Metallic Pen, Snowflakes Embossing Folder, Martha Stewart Snowflakes Border Punch, Brad, Corner Rounder Punch, Foam Tape

I combined the same two JustRite sets on my next card. I love how the 1-5/8" circle sentiments work with the new 2" square frames.



The small square with the Merry & Bright sentiment and the punched snowflake are both up on foam tape. I added some Waterfall Stickles to the snowflake and the dots on the square white frame. The layout is Mojo Sketch 114.

Here's the inside:



SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: JustRite 2" Square Decorative Frames, JustRite 1-5/8" Merry Little Christmas
Paper: Prism Baby Blue Medium, Neenah White, My Mind's Eye DP
Ink: Bashful Blue, Basic Brown
Accessories: 2" Square Wooden Stamper, 2" Round Wooden Stamper, Waterfall Stickles, Silver Metallic String, Spellbinders Squares, Sponge, Satin Ribbon, Scallop Edge Punch, Flower Punch, Foam Tape

I'll be back tomorrow with two more JustRite cards. See ya then!

JR Week - Birthday Cards

Hi everyone and welcome to JustRite Week with the Stamper's Dream team! I have a couple cards to show you using my new JustRite Just a Note set (LOVIN' the fonts in this set) and this My Mind's Eye Life Stories DP (Ohhhhhhh, I think it's my favorite DP....EVER!).

Here's the first card where I made some *balloons* out of the Happy Birthday circles...I like making balloon strings with thread and then using some sort of embellishment to gather the strings. It's fun!



The balloon in the center is up on foam tape, the edges of all of them are sponged with Rose Red ink, and I added a little bit of Pink Stickles to the swirls and to dot the i's. The edges are faux stitched with a soft suede marker. The layout is Weekend Sketch 105.

Here's the second card. I used the same Just a Note set and the same DP, but on this one I added one of the new 2" Decorative Wide Borders...



I added a little bit of random Pink Stickles to decorative border and to the swirl under the birthday sentiment. Both circles are up on foam tape and the edges are sponged with Rose Red ink. This one is also faux stitched with a soft suede marker.

Now hop on over to Michelle and Laurie's blogs today for more amazing JR projects. Here's the schedule for the rest of the week, too:

Tuesday: Michelle, Amy, Tosh, and me
Wednesday: Michelle, Silke, and me
Thursday: Michelle, Silke, and Laurie
Friday: Michelle, Amy, Tosh, and Cammie

SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: JustRite 1-5/8" Just a Note, JustRite Decorative 2" Round Wide Borders
Paper: My Mind's Eye Life Stories Collection II DP, Prism Crabapple Medium, Kraft
Ink: Rose Red, Soft Suede marker (for faux stitching)
Accessories: 2" Wooden JustRite Stamper, Pink Stickles, Autumn Leaves French Twist Buttons, May Arts Ivory Burlap String, Spellbinders Circles, Foam Tape, May Arts Ribbon, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punches, Paper Piercing Tool & Mat Pack, Pink Thread

Atlantic City Pics

Hi everyone! Hope you all had an awesome Thanksgiving, and if you were brave enough to go out in the shopping craziness yesterday, that you found some awesome deals. Our Thanksgiving was very nice, Mom-Mom and Aunt Kay made another awesome meal for us (all I had to do was bring a side dish...easy peasy), and it was so nice to spend the day with family. It's so funny how our family has grown so much recently. Our family gatherings used to be so small and quiet.....now there are lots of new kiddos running up and down the steps, lots of giggling, toys on the floor, noise.....excitement! It's pretty cool!

I don't have anything crafty to post, but I wanted to share photos of E's 21st birthday celebration in Atlantic City. The Tropicana was a really nice place to stay, the whole main floor outside the casino was set up like a little outdoor village with a cobblestone walkway, balconies, and a sky complete with clouds....very pretty!



Here's a picture of the birthday girl on Saturday night when we went out to a comedy show.



My cousin Nina brought these pink, sparkly Hawaiian leis for all of us to wear when we went out, lol! In addition to the pink lei, the birthday girl also got to wear this COOL (lol!) tiara and a couple ribbons that advertised she was a birthday girl.....one was even a blinky ribbon (giggle!).



On Sunday we checked out of the Tropicana and headed over to the Borgata for the buffet and spa appointments.....ahhh, so nice!

Thankful For You

Here's another card I made with my Celebrate Life set from Taylored Expressions. The largest yellow panel on the card base is up on Taylor's 1/16" foam tape. The silhouettes are stamped on Choice Buttercream, and I added some Platinum Stickles to the largest flower.

SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: TE Celebrate Life
Paper: Kraft, Dusty Durango, So Saffron, Choice Buttercream
Ink: Really Rust, So Saffron
Accessories: Spellbinders Tag, Rust Brad, Platinum Stickles, Foam Tape, Leaf Embossing Folder, Taylor's Polka Dot Ribbon, Bow Easy

Have a great day!

Henry with Bauble

Good morning! Hope you're all having a great weekend so far. Yesterday morning we went to a Thanksgiving parade in town and had such a great time. Now we're thinking of heading into Philly on turkey day for their parade...something we've never done, but hey, it might be fun to actually be there instead of watching it on TV. Anyhooo, onto my card.....

Here's a 5.25" square card I made for WOJ Sketch #54 using this cute little Henry with Bauble image from Stamper's Dream. It's colored with prismas and I added a little fruit punch Stickles to the ears and feet. The baby pink light panel was faux stitched with a blue marker and the card base is nautical blue dark.

Have a great day!

Fabulous Fall Key Ingredients

Remember back in May, Taylor had a spring spectacular event and offered four Key Ingredients Kits at a discounted price? Well, she's offering four new limited edition kits again! The new fall kits are Winnie's Walls, Paisley & Polka Dots, Penelope's Potpourri, and Morning Meadow....each one at a discounted price of $12.95 and each kit will include a full color inspiration sheet with 6 samples created by members of the Baker's Dozen.

The kit that I used on my cards is Morning Meadow. It includes the patterned paper, Prism paper, and ribbons you see on all my cards below.



The "stitchy" DP that I used on my first two cards is my favorite pattern from the kit. I also love this lace ribbon. I thought they'd go really well with my Beary Special set. I stamped the little patch from the set onto some extra DP and paper pieced it onto the bears. These cards measure 5" square.



These next two cards are 4.25" square, and they show some different patterns of DP and polka dot ribbon from the kit. For these quick cards, I used my new Celebrate Life set and added a little bit of Stickles to the flower silhouettes.

You can see more awesome projects with these new Fall KI Kits today on these blogs:

Winnie's Walls: Jodi and Karen M.
Paisley & Polka Dots: Donna and Sankari
Penelope's Potpourri: Taylor and Karen G.
Morning Meadow: Charmaine

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!