Joyfully sharing some quick easy and fun projects!

Well, back to school and back to work! How weird is it to experience "Monday" on a Wednesday and realize IT'S ALMOST THE WEEKEND! Woo Hoo!

Well, my friends, here are some projects that I worked on over the holiday season and month of December! I couldn't share them before because it would have..shall we say, "Tipped my hand"?
They were all very simple projects, but they have some great pizzazz to them! Everyone who received one loved it, so I was pleased with how they turned out! Nevermind that I was up until midnight over several weeks...it was just TOO MUCH FUN!

First, I made up some of these tag and pin tins for my friends at school who work really hard to make my job easier! My kids at school need a lot of support, so I made these gifts the aides and assistants in the classes I teach in! I got these perfect 4 oz. tins with clear lids from Papertreyink.com. They are awesome and come in a package 3 for $4. A great deal! I then used a Gina K's punchy Words stamp set and inked the sentiments with real red and Night of Navy (LOVE that color!) and punched the circles and glued them to the red, green and navy blue scallops! I also added a few snowflakes from Stampin' Up's Snowflake set to the 'tag pile'. Then I used one of the snowflake tags, added a peel and stick pin backing (Yes, they call me 'Shortcut Queen') and voila! I put 30 tags in each tin, topped it with the pin and then covered the tins in SU's Cerise Designer Paper with a ribbon bow! I also glued one of the scalloped tags on top of the tin! Easy, quick and fun!

This next project was for the families in my family that have kids! From a tutorial on Nicole Heady's blog (of Papertrey ink) I put together these accordian albums in a tin! Even though I ADORE PTI's stamp sets...of which I own four...I didn't have the one she used in the tutorial...so I used Gina's K's Let it snow set and the sentiment from her Punchy Words set (I actually cut the sentiment in half and mounted it in two lines onto the acrylic block so it would fit better :) I didn't take a picture with it open, but if you click on the link above, you will see how it looked! How CUTE is that snowman!? I didn't add any pictures, as I am leaving the moms to do that! Quick and easy! Oh, forgot to mention that I added SU dazzling diamonds to the SU snowflakes on the cards! I used soft sky and...you guessed it! Night of Navy cardstock, as well as CHF's Ice Gold Prismatic cardstock I showed in my last post! Oh, hey, almost forgot to mention that I punched a hole in the top of the tin with my DH's rivet tool punch! I added a ribbon from SU's summer collection so I could hang it on the tree!

Finally, here are some candy bar wrappers I stamped up for my students! I am totally in LOVE with this stamp set of the month for December, Joyful Winter wishes from Cornish Heritage Farms! I even bought them as gift sets for two of my dearest friends!

I measured the paper and then used SU's cool Carribean, real red and night of navy ink to decorate the paper. Then I wrapped the Hershey bars and signed my name on the back and VOILA! Quick and easy! And fun! Of course the kids went 'gaga' over the candy and a gift from their favorite speech teacher!!!!

The only drawback of this project was the sad and mysterious disappearance of my snowman!! I think he may have gone the way of the burn barrel when I picked up all my scraps! EEK!! I had to QUICKLY order a new set before the end of the month! Phew! I love the set too much to give it up! You should check out the CHF site....you can pick up your stamp of the month set for a special price (one you won't believe!)....and don't forget to get some of that Ice Gold cardstock....trust me, you NEED some!

Well, this was a QUICK post! Glad you came to visit! Three posts in three days! There! One New Year's resolution down!!

Hey, why not leave a comment on your new's year's resolution?

Be blessed!

Kim

More to share!

Happy new year, everyone!! We had a great time welcoming in the new year with some good friends in our town's church, playing games and watching a movie...we saw Secondhand Lions...if you haven't seen that movie, I suggest you rent it...I loved it! Great family movie!

And here I am again...to share some of my card making mania! I know Christmas is over, and you have all finished your cards and such, but it's never too late to get inspired for next year! On Splitcoaststampers, they have a Christmas card challenge...you make just 10 Christmas cards a month , same or different, and by Christmas next year, you are all set for cards! What a great idea! No, I probably won't do it, but I could!! And so, I hope these cards inspire you!

Most of you know that my DH (that's darling hubby!) is a letter carrier. He receives nice thank yous from his customers on his route. He has been very blessed this year, as many of his "people" love and appreciate his smile in all kinds of weather and how he will go out of his way to bless them. Of course, he wants cards to thank them and of course he wants HANDMADE cards!

Awww, forced to stamp! Poor me! Tee hee! Today's post highlights all the cards I made up for him....I actually had to keep making more as he was REALLY blessed on his route! The warm winter wishes card above used CHF's Prizm Ice Gold cardstock....BEAUTIFUL, addictive stuff!!! Hard to see well in the picture, it is white with a gold undertone. I actually ordered it by mistake, but I LOVE it! I used SU's Warm Winter Wishes stamp set and Frost Blue Kaleidoscope ink pad. I also used Encore's Metallic Gold ink as well as SU's gold cord. I think it came out pretty...warm and cold at the same time!


Now this card is my favorite I think! I GOT A
CUTTLEBUG for Christmas!!! It's a cool "press" machine to emboss paper in just seconds!! It was number ONE on my Christmas wish list, and my hubby got it for me!

So, you will be seeing LOTS of use of it in my cards! The background of this card is embossed with the D'vine swirl folder and I used Gina K's Got snow? and Let it snow stamp sets. I colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol mineral spirits. I used SU's retired Liquid Applique for the snow falling....isn't it adorable? Notice the boy wearing my two favorite colors...Kermit green and Syracuse orange :)


This next card was also "cuttlebugged" with D'vine
Swirl (I only have two embossing folders so far!) And this card also uses Gina K stamp set, Punchy words. The holly paper is from a Walmart DP pack my girl gave me for Christmas :) and SU's Real red paper is the card base and strip. I used Perfectly Clear stamps for the bric-a-brac strip inked with SU's craft white ink; I added a bit of glitz with SU's Dazzling Diamond glitter while the ink was wet. Love that sparkly stuff! I punched the scallop and edged it with the white ink. Simple, yet kind of elegant, don't you think?




Finally, I made this card using some DP I bought from Current, Inc. a million years ago! I added some gold snowflakes from SU's Warm Winter greetings set as I used the Ice Gold paper for the tag and inked the Make merry stamp in the metallic gold ink (stamp from SU's tag set). The beautiful ribbon is from Hallmark and the cardbase is Real Red. A gold brad for the tag and I was done!

Do you know that I made more cards for his Thank Yous than I made for us to send out? That's what happens when you make 10 at a time....hmmm....maybe that Christmas challenge is something I should do!!

Well that's it for today! I have some projects to show you later in the week, so stay tuned! I wouldn't want to overwhelm you! (Who me??) Isn't this so FUN!? (By contrast I must now work on my lecture notes for the grad class I am teaching this Spring semester...love augmentative communication and all, but it's not as FUN as stamping!)

Hey, feel free to leave me a comment! Lots of you send an encourageing email, but it's nice to know you've been here! I check in when I can!

Blessings to you all, for today and for all of 2008!

Kim

PS The "spots" on the pictures are not on the cards...my camera has ghost spots that turn up here and there...gotta figure that one out! :)

Joyfully sharing a true Man Card

Wow! You are in for a real treat! This is a card made by my pastor for his wife for their anniversary! They celebrated earlier this fall, but I just found time to put it on the blog!

Long story short: I first introduced our pastor's wife, Deby to stamping and cardmaking when I agreed to host a women's craft group on cardmaking. Deby fell IN LOVE with cardmaking, at which she has proved to be a natural! She subsequently had such a great time that she has become an SU demonstrator (thank goodness! I need her resources constantly!)

So now Pastor Eric is surrounded by stamping supplies and stamping family members (their daughters stamp, too!) So while Deby was visiting her family in CA this fall, Pastor set out to make HER a card and this is the result! Wow, huh?
This was the inscription on the back of the card.....in case you can't read the bogus name of the website he wrote: Contact us at: coolstuffforguy.com/mancards

But my favorite part of the recipe is the color scheme he used. How do you like this?? Can you tell he is a hunter?? Deby shared this in church and we all roared with laughter!

Oh, how nice it is to have a man of God with a sense of humor leading our congregation!

How fun! Well, that's the time I have for now! I'll try to add some of my own creations tomorrow! Blessings to you all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Kim

Merry Merry Joyful CHRISTmas!

Wow! Time really has flown this month and so many times I wanted to step out of the whirlwind to blog, but to be honest, all my time has been taken up with good things related to Christmas, so I just decided living a life worth blogging about was better than just talking about how I should be doing fun things to celebrate!

So, what's been going on? Well. there was the children's ministry party, the church leadership party, the work party, the Christmas concert, the stamping projects (and projects and projects) and just hanging out with my family for movies and dinners. My son Geoffrey is home from college and we got our Christmas tree today; I'm taking a little break to stop in here for a minute! So, forgive my hiatus, but I'll be back after Christmas to share some of the projects that have kept me up past midnight some nights! Okay, many nights! But isn't it fun????

I trust the Lord to keep you all happy and healthy during this season of Christmas magic and Love! From my house to yours:

Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas! Enjoy the celebration of when Christ came to earth as a babe to set the world FREE!

I love you all!!

"Let not our hearts be busy inns that have no room for Him."

(This quote is from a Heidi Satterberg stamp design...I CASEd it from Gina K's site-loved it! The graphics from J's Magic Galleries online)

My Joyful Girl and the blog!

My daughter thought I needed to show all my blog friends the snowman that she spent her snow day building! So here you go! Isn't she ADORABLE? Why my girl, of course! I like her snowman, too! Back to school tomorrow! sigh.

PS My list is half done and it's already dinner time!

Be blessed!

Kim

A Snowy Joy!! No school! No school!

Yippee!! A snow day! Praise the Lord! Here's a few shots outside my front door this morning. Keep in mind that yesterday we only had only a couple of inches in the morning on the ground....

Yes, those are three little lanterns that I have on my doorstep....and you can see the road a little on the left there where the guard rail is. I have to go out and shovel the walk sometime today...but no rush, right? As you can probably tell, it's still too early for me to go beyond the front door...cause I don't have too! LOL!! Maybe the sun will come out soon!

In this other picture are my Adirondack chairs that I have in the front yard. Now, I was going to put those in the garage last week....but I was holding onto that little bit of summer and fall I had left over! Now I'll have to wait for a thaw! Can you guess what that bump is in between the chairs? Go ahead, take a guess! I will put the answer will be at the end of this blog entry! Hey no fair scrolling now! I have more to share!

The snow is very pretty! Even on a gloomy day! This is all the nice part of winter...the driving is not so nice. Yesterday took me over an hour to get home from work (I work 25 minutes away) and coming home from teaching class last night was horrible...but after my hour + adventure, I asked my wonderful hubby to drive me to class and pick me up, which he did! What a trooper! The blowing snow made visibility a joke! But between my brave man and the Grace of God we got home safely! Praise Jesus!

Now, you wonder, what will I do with my day? Well, I don't want to spend it all on the computer, so after this entry, I'm starting with my list! Yes, even on a snow day, I have a list. Oh, come on, you do, too!! What's on it? Well, sunflower toast and coffee, first of all! :) Then a bunch of paperwork (ewww) that I need to do for my college students (probably take all of three hours!) then some school work I would have done anyhow (minus another hour!) then some cleaning (boo! but just a little!) and then CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!!! We don't have a tree yet...heck we have 20 more days to get one! But I do want it to be a little christmasy around here, so I'll drag out all the stuff!!! (minus a bunch more hours!)

And finally, I want to post some creations over at CHF from their virtual stamping party last weekend. Quickly, I'll show you just two things I 'whipped up' on Saturday in the flurry of the 'party'. This one is a purse....gasp! Don't say that! It was one of the challenges! No I am not just giving an excuse to show off another purse! It was!! We were supposed to try to use a backgrounder stamp instead of designer paper. This one was CHF's scalloped lace BG with some curls and a sentiment from their Kim Hughes collection, Cute curls. I used faux stitching with a gel pen and some white brads and ribbon and voila! A cute little purse card. You like it! Admit it!

This next card was a quickly whipped up sketch challenge where you try to use your own ideas but follow a pattern. I was literally rushing, so the picture looks a little rushed...sorry! Also, there's a dark spot on both pictures that must be some shadow, but isn't really on the card. What do you think?

Busy weekend! I spent most of Saturday having a TREMENDOUS time hanging out with some of my best buds from my old job long ago! We get together every year (this was our 14th, we think) to catch up on each other's lives and have lunch and a Christmas ornament exchange. We luncheoned in an old inn on a hillside. We got just enough snow on Saturday to make it pretty. I forgot my camera or I'd share a few pix! This luncheon really kicks off the holiday season for me, so it is a lot of fun! Sunday, we took our daughter on a college visit to an art college 3 hours away. The drive was snowy and icy, but it was a good time together with my husband, daughter and I. Who knows what the next chapter will be in her story? How exciting to find out!

I also really appreciate hearing all the stories of our childrens' life adventures, both joyful and difficult. We are all really woven together as a tapestry and the colors of our lives are both bright and dark, dull and sparkling. What a wonderful plan of relationship God has! We need one another so much, that it a shame when some small thing (or even BIG thing) comes between friends and family! We all have our histories, of course, but one there is one quote I heard at a woman's conference a few years ago that has really gotten me through a lot just in the past few years....

"Forgiveness does not mean that the person was right, it just releases the bonds from within."

Wow. To me that is powerful. Really think on that one; I am here to testify that it will change some of the relationships you have in your lives. By letting go of those offenses from others, we are free to be connected to them again. Free to love and free to let God work in the relationship. After all, we know the forgiveness we received from God wasn't because we were right, right?

Well, hey, I have a long list to get to today! But I can do it on my own time, so I will enjoy every bit of it! You do the same, won't you? Listen, only 21 days until we can sing Happy Birthday to the one reason we have Christmas at all! Jesus! Be blessed this week!

Love ya!

Kim

PS The bump between the chairs? My pumpkin from early October! I guess it's frozen pumpkin now! Tee hee!!