Happy New Year!!!

It's New Year's Eve, and I managed to find a little time to scrap.  I needed to make a card for family member's birthday, and I figured that I would snap a picture and pop it up here.

I think it's pretty much CAS style.  That plastic sheet with the silver print is from Hambly and I love, love, love it!  It classes up any project.  The sentiment is a Scenic Route rub-on, and the ribbon is Stampin' Up.

Here's a peek at the inside:

I tell ya, I can not have too many SRM stickers in my stash.  I wanted to continue the sentiment on the inside of the card, and I just knew there was a spot for one of those fabulous stickers.

I will be celebrating in a very low key manner tonight, since I'm still recovering from strep throat - yuck!  But I'm not too sick to ring in the new year with friends :-)

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve!!

Merry Christmas from SNR and Me!

Do you love a good tag?  This is definitely the time of year to add them to your collection with all the gift giving that goes on.

Everyday, for 12 days in a row, a different Scrapbook News and Review staff member is bringing you a tag to inspire you.  It's my turn today, so let's get started...

Step 1: Gather your supplies, including several colors of cardstock cut down to the same width (3 1/8") but of varying lengths, so that the bottom colors will peek out when the shorter pieces are layered on top of them.  Mine are cut down in 1/2" incremements.

Step 2: Using scalloped border punch, give one end of each piece of cardstock (including the tag itself) scalloped edges.

Step 3: Layer the pieces so that the shortest piece is on top and glue or tape them together.

Step 4: Sponge some white ink around the edges of the tag, including all the scalloped edges.  If you want a cleaner, more even look, complete this step on each piece of cardstock before layering them.  So Steps 3 & 4 can be swapped, if necessary.

Step 5: Stamp the sentiment on a die cut shape that will fit within the parameters of the top piece of cardstock.

Step 6: After you've placed the sentiment on the tag, tie a piece of ribbon into a bow towards the middle of the tag, making sure not to cover up the sentiment.

Step 7: Add some stickpins (mine have a Christmas theme) and your tag is complete.

A Very Merry Christmas to You by Pam Maas Supplies Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, Paper Trey Ink; Stamp: Stampin' Up, Ink: Inkadinkado, Clearsnap; Ribbon: Stampin' Up, Stickpins: Making Memories; Scalloped border punch: Stampin' Up; Nestibilities die cut shape: Spellbinders

Would you like to see the tags that have been shared so far?  Just click on this link to head over and check them out:

12 Tags of Christmas

Also, for those interested in subscribing, the current edition of the magazine is now available online and loaded with Holiday scrappy goodness, so check that out as well!

365 Cards Vintage Week Blog Hop

Welcome to our blog hop, which is all about the vintage style!

When 365 Cards Monday designer, Gloria Stengel offered to share her Graphic 45 goodies, I thought we needed to do it up right.  So you'll need to go hopping to earn a chance at a great prize.  If you want to know more about the prize packages, you'll have to check back in with us at 365 Cards during the week to get all the details.

There will be 3 separate drawings at the end of the week, and one way to earn a chance to win is to comment on all 11 designers' posts for the blog hop.  Some of the designers may ask you a specific question - but I would just like you to leave me a comment at the end of this post. 

Here is my card for the Sunday sketch:

I had such fun playing with the goodies that Gloria sent to me.  I would have to say that the vintage look is not typical for me, but I was up for the challenge, especially with G45 paper and embellies!

So there is another way that you'll earn a chance to win a prize.  The 1st ten blogs on the hop will be giving you ingredients to a Card Recipe challenge that will posted on Saturday, the 27th.  Each of us will be using a specific design element that will be included in the recipe.  My element is Paper Piercing.  So here's a close-up if the inside of my card where I did the piercing:

Now that you've started your hop here, you can move on to Amy's blog, Tsuruta Designs to leave a comment and grab another ingredient for that card recipe.

We're so glad you're hopping along with us, because it will be a great week of fun challenges.  Also, if you want all the specific details, just hop over to the 365 Cards Extra Blog.

Catch-up at 365 Cards

Yikes!  I'm way behind posting my card for last Sunday's sketch at 365 Cards.  I keep thinking that because I've posted at 365 Cards, then I've also done this post as well.

So here is my card:

It came together quickly because I knew I'd be making a Halloween card and I had already picked out what I would use. 

Halloween was such fun this year!  I had a little devil and super cute tiger to escort around the neighborhood, and they came home with full buckets of candy. 

Now it's time to think about Thanksgiving, not to mention all the exciting things happening at 365 Cards later this month, but more about that later...

Card Patterns Sketch 88

Thank goodness for Card Patterns, because I started out knowing (or so I thought) exactly how I was going to make this card for my niece.  And then, not so much.  Quickly I hopped online and found CP sketch 88, and just in time!

Here's my card:

You'll have to imagine the sketch tipped on it's side and then as a mirror image, and that's how I used the sketch.

That fabulous background paper is American Crafts adhesive-backed fabric paper! 

Thanks, Michelle, for this very inspirational sketch :)

Card Patterns Sketch 86

I really needed to make a birthday card for someone, and I was not sure where to begin.  I decided to check out the latest Card Patterns sketch and it's been a while since I've played along over there.

I don't spend as much time blog hopping and checking out other challenges sites as much as I'd like to, so I decided it was time to visit my other favorite challenge blog.  So here's my card for CP Sketch 86:

Here's a close-up shot:

The Details:

Cardstock Bazzill Basics

Patterned Paper My Mind's Eye

Tag (cut down to a rectangle) Martha Stewart

Scalloped Trim Making Memories

Stamp and Ribbon Stampin' Up

Pearls Kaiser Scrapbook

Ink Stampin' Up and Tsukineko

Thanks for looking and have a great week!

Stampin' Up Week at 365 Cards

This week we are being sponsored by Catherine Pooler, frequent 365 Cards participant and Stampin' up demonstrator.

Here's the sketch to start off the week:

And my card:

I'm such a rebel with my own sketch.  Based on the sketch, I should have something in the bottom left corner, but I just could not come up with something that wouldn't spoil the overall look of the card.

My absolute favorite product from Stampin' Up is the ribbon.  It's gorgeous and each spool comes loaded with ribbon.  The ribbon and the Happy Birthday stamp are both Stampin Up - and this is just a teensy bit of what I have in my stash :)

This week there has been a big change at 365 Cards.  We now have a set of seven spotlight designers that we'll reveal every Monday from the previous week's challenges.  It's been a change that was long overdue.

I hope you'll join us this week for some great challenges!

We have some incredible sponsors at 365 Cards, and this one is no exception. We got to play with some fabulous stamps this week, and here is my interpretation of this week's sketch:

I was feeling Halloween-y....hmmmmm, I wonder why?

Have a great week!

Jumping in...

I'm jumping in on a challenge with Sophie this week, called The Break-up, because it's all about breaking up sentiments from rubber or digi stamps to suit the design of the card.

We are being sponsored by Wink Wink Ink this week, and I use this sentiment on my card:

I had such fun with this card! I've been making lots of cards for 365 Cards recently, but I haven't had a chance to post them.

Things are crazy around here with school starting last week. I'm excited about the Holidays and all the motivation I usually have to create!!

Welcome SNR Magazine Readers!

So glad you could drop by! I'm a happy staffer of Scrapbook News and Review Magazine for sure!!

As the header of my blog suggests, I am a card maker, but I do dabble in other crafty areas from time to time. So I'm going to share a different kind of project...

My youngest daughter recently celebrated her 4th birthday, and I decided to make all the party favors for the girls. I realized I had everything I needed, except for some cheap plastic headbands. I have more ribbon than a person should, so I put it to some good use.

A little hot glue is all it takes to attach the ribbon and some decorative blossoms. Here are my favorite ones:

The crocheted flowers came from my MIL who whipped up a bunch of these in several colors for me - I'm totally spoiled!! I had a big container of white blossoms that I glittered, sponged on and/or colored with my Copics. This was so much fun and I was able to make about 3 in an hour. I also made hair clips using some plain metal clips, ribbon, buttons, blossoms, etc.

Here's a look at a few of them:

I used hot glue to attach the bow to the clip and then popped a felt flower on the inside to better attach it (plus it's just prettier that way):

For the packaging, I found some plastic bags at the craft store, and I cut out some giant labels on my Cricut out of decorative paper and then folded them in half. I stapled the labels around the plastic and the favors were complete:

Honestly, these were not at all hard to make and helped me use up some things in my stash.

This was also my first attempt at making homemade cupcakes. And not from a box! A good friend came over and helped me decorate the cupcakes. Here's a close-up of one:

If you're thinking the theme was Princess and the Frog, you are correct! It was hard to find P&F stuff at the store, but we did find plates and napkins, and one mylar ballon with Tiana on it.

Thanks for visiting my blog and enjoy browsing the most recent edition of the magazine -- it's loaded with eye candy and ideas to keep you busy until the next edition comes out...

Color Scheme Challenge at 365 Cards

Whew - look at me just scrapping away lately! Gloria, I miss you and you can have Mondays back, lol!! Okay, seriously though, it's good for me to jump in and play along, which I need to do more often.

I threw in another color challenge, since those are always fun and generally well-received. Here are the colors:

And my card, using an image from this week's sponsor, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps:

And since it's officially past 2 AM for me, I'm heading to bed!

A Whole Sheet of 3x3 Cards

Last year, thanks to SNR Magazine, I had the pleasure of working with some Glitz papers and embellishments, and as a card maker, I wanted to make the most of the paper I had. I started with a 12x12 sheet of cardstock in a coordinating green color. I cut it down into 8 3x6 pieces:

Next I scored each piece to create 8 3x3 card bases.

The beauty of using a piece of patterned paper like this is that it isn't a uniform pattern, making each card that much more different from the others.

It's also a double-sided piece, creating more options. Here are the pieces I cut down to put on the card bases:

And here they are attached to the card bases:

Whenever I make a set of cards such as these, I like to pull out any embellishments that I think will coordinate nicely with the patterned paper. Here are some I grabbed out of my stash, along with the Glitz embellies I received to work with:

You can probably tell that I love my rhinestones!

Once I had everything laid out in front of me, I got to work on my cards. On a couple of the cards, I took Glitz stickers and out them on a piece of white cardstock so that I could cut them out and add Pop Dots to create dimension. Here's a look at a bird I cut out:

On another card, I made use of this really cool background stamp and added a houndstooth pattern to the other side of the patterned paper:

Here's another sticker, which I also stuck to white cardstock so I could add Pop Dots to it:

Here's the completed card:

I loved creating my own pattern on the red side of the paper, so I used a bit of this patterned transfer on another card:

Here's another transfer that I used on the red paper:

Here's the entire collection of cards that I created:

For me, the key to making a fun set of cards like this is to restrict my options by placing everything out for myself before I get started. Then I just let the creativity flow. I can usually make a set of these in about an hour and then I tuck them away for when I need to attach them to gifts.

Thanks for looking!!

Another Card Recipe

Today I'm getting another shot at that Card Recipe, but there have been a few changes since the original.

So here's my recipe for today:

5x5 Card
2 3x3 patterned papers
Sentiment
1 image (stamped, fussy cut, digi, whatever)
2 Buttons
4 Blossoms

And my card:

I'm having a blogoversary in just over a week, so it's time for a giveaway!! I'll have more details soon, but I'm working on a pretty fabulous prize...

Card Recipe

Today I'm jumping in for Gloria because she is taking some much needed time off. This week I thought we try a Card Recipe every day, but there is a twist. Each day, the recipe will be slightly modified from the previous day. I think the DT must be nuts to put up with me, lol! It sounded like fun, so we'll see...

Here's the recipe for today:

Ingredients:

4.25x5.5 Card
3x3 patterned paper
Stitching
3 rhinestones
Sentiment
1 stamped image

And here's my card:

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey

Stamp: Stampin' Up

Ink: Clearsnap

Chipboard Sticker: Fancy Pants

Rhinestones: Kaiser Scrapbook

Tools: Making Memories edge distressing tool

We are being sponsored by CropStop this week, and the winner will receive a $10 GC to the store - very nice!

Come on over and play along...

Another Friday, Another Card

It's been a busy week for me as I prepare for my daughter's 4th birthday party. However, I did manage to find a little time to create a card for today's sketch at 365 Cards - which is good because Sophie's on vacation and I'm filling in!

Here's the sketch:

And my card:

I recently came across that Basic Grey paper when I was going through my stash looking for something else. It was perfect for the design I had in mind. Here's a close-up of the ladybug and flower:

This card came together rather quickly since I stuck very closely to the sketch. I love that button - it was part of a scrapbooking kit I bought a couple of years ago and I've just now found an opportunity to use it.

If you love sketches, then you'll love 7 Sketches Week at 365 Cards. Come on over and join us!!