A Few Fast Christmas Cards

Hello Crafty Friends, 
 I'm back from my family emergency. Those of you who know me, know that my father had a massive stroke about three weeks ago and he is now in a physical therapy center. It's been tough but he is on the road to recovery and getting back to where he was. It's going to be a long road for my Dad and entire family. I trust in the Lord to take him along this process and see him through.
I've been back home for about a week now and I had so many things that I needed to catch up on (home wise and crafty wise) I sat down in my craft room for the first time since my Dad's stroke and made a few quick Christmas cards. I really needed it too, I missed crafting and using my imagination. 
These two cards were quick but I think they turned out fun and festive and I hope the recipients enjoy them. I'm also entering these into the new challenge from Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog The challenge this week is Christmas!! Anything Christmas goes. They are giving away a 50.00 gift card to their wonderful store to one lucky winner.

Update

Hello blog friends, I wanted to write a post and let you all know that I won't be updating my blog for a week or more. There has been an emergency in my family and I am having to help with that so I won't be creating or updating the blog for a bit. Please hang in there with me until I can post again.

Claudine

Monster Reindeer Ornament

I have a little story for you, my nephew was drinking this Monstertm Energy drink when i was visiting the family in Colorado this past summer and I'm always looking for stuff to craft with so I grabbed the top from him because I thought it would be perfect to make something out of it. Well, it's been sitting in my craft room since June and the other day he asked me about it. I had forgotten all about it, so I got it out and brainstormed and made him an ornament for his tree. He has a new home this year and it will be a great gift for him for his first home and Christmas tree of his own.
I went with an idea from Shelly Hickox's blog. She did this really cool tutorial of a 3D reindeer tag. I thought this would be perfect for this little bottle cap. 

First I sanded it a little so that the glue and tissue would stick well. I used modge podge to adhere Tim's tissue wrap to the outside and inside and then went over that with Faded Jeans Distress Ink. Once that was all dry I sprayed the entire thing with Perfect Pearl Spray in silver to add some shimmer and I let that dry. I used Shelly's technique for creating the reindeer and added some holiday project paper to it with glue and seal. I used a Dollar Store mini wreath, cut the red bow off of it and created a bow in the color that I wanted and glued it on. A friend of mine Anita Houston inspired me to use real acorn tops and some pearls for the acorn. (you should have seen me out in my back yard gathering up all kinds of little acorn tops LOL.) Everything came together nicely I think. I hope my nephew likes his ornament. I just love it and I want to keep it. haha!!

I am entering this ornament into Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog this week it's "Anything Goes" and they are giving away a 50.00 voucher for their online store. So generous!

Thanks for coming by :)

May The Heart Be With You

Well, this week over at Simon Says Stamp and Show Blog, the challenge is "A Project With a Heart". I love this one because I just love hearts. Of course SSS is giving away thier usual 50.00 shopping card to one random winner, they are so great over there!!! 
I am currently in process of making jewelry for gifts for family so I decided to take a little break and make something for this challenge and wanted to do a jewelry piece. 

For this particular piece I used some really cool heart beads that I found at a thrift store. They were attached to a necklace and weren't that great looking with the beads that were with it. I love buying old jewelry and taking it apart and making something new out of it so I decided to do that with these little purple hearts. I added a glass bubble heart to the middle part of the necklace that was actually clear glass and I dyed it with Tim Holtz alcohol inks on both sides and strung some beads with it. I love the way it turned out. I also wanted to make some earrings to go with this as well. Hope you like :) My daughter modeled it for me :)

Octopode Factory Challenge

Over at The Octopode Factory Challenge Blog they are challenging us to use "words" in our creations. A few weeks ago I made some ornaments out of printable stamps that I purchased from The Octopode Factory Shop on Etsy and I really wanted to make some more. So this time I added a little arrow by Tim Holtz and also added some silver ribbon around the edges.
I have really protested using my glue gun, I just hate the mess it makes, but honestly it's the best stuff for attaching the ribbon to the edges here. Goes on fast and dries quickly.
Hope you like "the Mad Hatter, Christmas this way"

Face of Art

For this project I'm joining a challenge over at Ink On My Fingers  Sunday Stampers Challenge - the challenge this week is "Faces". I just love Hels over there, she is a truly talented gal. Go check her out if you haven't done so already. She is also giving away a new book from Creative Expressions just for leaving a comment on her blog you get an entry!! What a deal!!

I created these little book pages for a Mystery swap that I joined in along with ten others on my Yahoo Group... ATC_FUN. We were each to create 10 pages and send them to our hostess (who is also our list mom) Jeannie and then she will be putting them together for us. I cannot wait to see the final outcome, they are sure to be wonderful!!

This will be my submission:

These little beauties came out so wonderful. I just love to incorporate Dyan Reaveley and Wendy Vecchi stamps together. 

This is a picture of the background before I added the gals face, wings and words. I just layered and layered. I used Tim's Distress stains to cover them and then layered up some stamps and finished them off by inking the edges. After all this was done I used my little cut out face, wings and words and lastly added three little pearls in various colors.

Thanks A Snow Lot

I want to say "Thank You" to all my wonderful followers right here on my blog. I wish that I could make and send each and every one of you a card but since I can't I'm posting one here, just for YOU!! I appreciate all your words of encouragement and to all my loyal followers, YOUR THE BEST!!! You have no idea how much I appreciate your feedback, it really keeps me going.

For this card I really wanted to do something that was an Un-traditional thank you card. (is that a word? Cause I just made it one). I also just love the new Tim Holtz snowman Stamp from his Christmas Blueprint set. It's such a great set and snowmen are my favorite at this time of year so I had to use him. I also used some leftover Poinsettia cut outs from the ornament in the last post. I had some leftover and I just couldn't let them go to waste. I also added a little "thank you" sign that I created from black cardstock, I just cut it out myself and then wrote the words, trying to mimic Tim's stamp letters and doing a horrible job haha! I then cut a little slit in the snowman and put the sign through so it looks like he is holding it. I added a little dimensional sticky behind the sign to make it pop a little off the card too.
I'm using mostly BoBunny paper for this card, I really love the blues in this paper combo.
I'm entering this card into the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge this week, which is "Thank You" and what a fitting time of year to give a Thank You. 
I'm also going to enter this one into the Simon Says Challenge Blog the challenge this week is to do something in Dawny's sketch, use the template she created. It's beautiful, you should go have a look.
Of course Simon Says Store is offering their usual 50.00 gift card to a random winner again this week, for each of these challenges. YAY!! Double the pleasure double the fun haha!
I hope you like the card!!