Wrapping Up Christmas

At the beginning of December I ran out of all my Christmas wrapping paper. Rather than going out and buying a ton of rolls, I ran down to the local stationary store and picked up some brown packing paper. I bought a large roll so that it will last for years to come hopefully. I saw the idea on Lauren Conrad's website. Its the perfect blend of rustic and modern. Best part is it can be used for any occasion. I loved the white polka dots that she did, however I do not have a white stamp pad. What I do have is every other colour so I decided to jazz up each present in a different colour. 

How To:

1) Use a small stamp or an eraser on an unused pencil. 

2) Start stamping in no particular order. If you are using a pencil eraser, hold it down for 2-3 seconds otherwise the ink from the stamp pad doesn't transfer quite as well.

3) Wrap you gift! No need to wait for it to dry. Use whatever ribbon you have around for wrapping or crafting. 

Here's an example of one I did with a small snowflake stamp using a light blue colour.

Note: The gift tags are a free printable from Sass & Peril.

Happy Wrapping! Now get to it!

Week 28: Reindeer Love

With only two days till Christmas, today is filled with all the last minute tasks so that tomorrow I can just relax and enjoy everyone's company. I realized I need two more christmas cards and was VERY tempted to buy some, however making them meant I didn't have to go out into the stores. I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided I just had to try it! I also figured it would be a big hit since my most popular card post is the Fingerprint Christmas Lights. Best thing about fingerprint cards = only take 10 minutes!

How to:

1. Stamp the reindeer first so that they can dry before drawing on them. I did the heads first so that they are just touching. I used my 2nd finger for the reindeer. 
2. For the heart, try to get more of the base overlapping to give the look of the pointing end.  I wanted a smaller heart so I used my pinky finger.
3. Draw a nose, mouth, eye, antlers, feet and tails. 
4. Sentiment is from Red Rubber Designs. 
5. The background is leftover packing paper from wrapping presents.

Tips:

• The Stampin' Up ink pads will stain your fingers. So if you don't want that be careful to use washable ink pads. See picture below.
• Great project to do with the kids! 

Merry Christmas!

Week 27: Moroccan Holidays

I saw this inspiration photo by Stampin' Royalty and just fell in love. The Moroccan shapes and tones make me imagine a Christmas holidays some where warmer. The colour are not really Christmasy but I love the cool tones. Also the shapes remind me of Christmas ornaments. Moroccan Christmas anyone?

The layout I was inspired by CAS(e) this Sketch #54.The ribbon I picked up at Michael's at a Boxing Day Sale. The ornament stamps I received as a gift from Cndn Stamper.

Challenges:

• Stampin' Royalty: Picture Inspiration Challenge #203

Week 5: Warm & Cuddly Christmas

Superbowl Sunday, Midterms, Grocery Shopping...How could I possibly find time to make a card this week? Well ladies and gents I did something that may blow your mind. I planned ahead! I know right; what a novel concept. I am so good at it when it comes to my school life. I make a study schedule and stick to it pretty well. Same thing with running, if I am doing a race I will plan it out and I find the race is easy by the time I get there. However, who schedules in relaxation time? I should! Its the only way I will do it. What I tried to do this week, was if I wanted to watch one of my "awful" tv shows I would plan or make a card at the same time. Worked out pretty well except for the whole sleeping thing but who really needs that anyway!

This week I used my own design. The pattern on the white paper is a stamp that I got from Red Rubber Designs. Same with the hedgehog and sentiment. I loved how it turned out! What a great way to create patterned paper when you don't have any. The corners are embellished with chocolate pearls. I thought they were the perfect said for a Christmas card since I love red and brown together. The scalloped edge of the oval I created by using my corner rounder. The guiding edges come off so that you can create a scalloped edge but it does take a lot of concentration and time. 

Challenge

Christmas Stampin' - Anything Goes
Hiding In My Craft Room - Reds
2 Sisters - Color Challenge
Christmas Card Challenge - Christmas/Gingerbread(optional)

Week 2: I'm Folding Under the the Pressure

Here is a novel idea for you: I made my card a day ahead of my personal deadline. Felt so good! I got this idea off Pinterest and was led to the great tutorial on Inkspired Treasures. 

Folded Christmas Trees

1. You will need double sided paper.

2. Download the template off the Inkspired Treasures blog post. You can see the template below. She posted two different sizes of circles so they will create different sized trees.

3. Cut out the circle. Cut the circle is half. Score the paper along the score lines. I used the bone folder out of my Cricut Tool Kit.

4. Fold along the score lines, making sure to fold back and forth. Secure with some sort of double sided adhesive.

Improvements: 

• I really wanted to do the message with white embossing powder but I don't own embossing powder or a heat gun. Its on my craft wish list. Hopefully at the end of this month if there is money left in the budget I can do some craft shopping.
• I think it would be beautiful to add some strategic glitter to the trees. I haven't really played with glitter so I wanted to wait and do more research before I go messing around with it (Type A much!). 

Challenges:

Christmas Card Challenge - Christmas or Winter Card

Creative Card Crew - Snow & Ice

Scrappy Frogs Challenge - Try Something New

That Craft Place - Christmas

Gingerloft - Winter or Let It Snow

A Very Pinterest Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

As my Christmas gift to you check out my favourite Christmas craft pins on my "Very Crafty Christmas" board.

Ho Ho Ho!

A Very Cricut Christmas

Happy New Year Crafters!

I have been very bad about updating my blog but it is not due to late of projects. Just to keep you updated I did finish my 22 Christmas cards. Everyone seemed quite impressed! I was just excited because this was one of the first years that we started receiving our own Christmas cards. I was included in some of the Christmas cards addressed to the boy's family too.

Santa was very good to me this year and brought me..... a CRICUT. I know you are jealous but that is only normal. But seriously, the boy's mom gave it to me. I was so shocked! It turns out she almost gave it to me early in order to finish my Christmas cards.

Here are a couple of experiment's with my new cricut:

"Happy Birthday"

Cricut Cartridge: Paper Lace

"Birthday Blessings - Cupcake"

Cricut Cartridge: All Wrapped Up

"Just Married"

Cricut Cartridge: Sweethearts

It definitely took some getting used to. Trying to find the right pressure, speed and blade setting to cut through the paper but not tear it up too much was difficult. However, once you get use to it it becomes much easier. My card making has been taking up much less time! 

Here are a couple bits of Cricut advice:

1) The Sweetheart cartridge only cuts all layers at one time. You cannot choose which parts you would like to cut out of a particular colour or pattern. *To reduce paper waste make multiple images using all the scraps at one time. This is what I did with the "Just Married" card.

2) If you would find it annoying to have all the layers cut out at once then choose a cartridge like All Wrapped Up. This cartridge allows you to cut each layer separately rather than all at once.

3) I highly recommend you pick up a set of the Cricut tools. These tools allow you to peal the paper off the mat, make extra cuts in your image, poke out delicate cut outs, etc.

If you have any cricut advice please let me know.

Oh and check out this new blogger: Christina Mynen

Christmas Card Countdown...

Hello to all crafters out there!

November is the scramble for card makers to finish all the christmas cards they want to send out in December. So far I am at 11. That means I am half way there. However the more cards I have been making the more people I have been thinking of sending them too. I finished two cards in the last two days! I've been so excited to use my new materials I picked up two weeks ago. I have been so busy making cards that I forgot to blog about them. The boy had to remind me :) .

merry & bright

Stamp: The Old Island Stamp Company

Cardstock: Stampin' Up

Patterned Paper: From Scrap Arts (its reversible)

HO^3

Stamp: Recollections from Michael's 

Cardstock: Stampin' Up

Patterned Paper: From Scrap Arts

I love the girl in "merry & bright"! The stamp is made by the Old Island Stamp Company. I saw them at the Circle Craft fair in Vancouver. I highly recommend their stamps. Lots of different styles!

Oh and my sister lent her "Big Shot" to my mom for the week so I will definitely be swinging by to try it out! Can you guess what's on my Christmas list?

Groupon for Scrap Arts

I recently purchased a Groupon for $20 worth of scrapbooking supplies from Scrap Arts in North Vancouver. I have not been happy with the stores around my house so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to check out some place new. Overall I thought they had great paper but was disappointed by the rest of the selection. I really wanted to find some great stamps and perhaps a few other embellishments. Other than the paper their classes look really interesting. Perhaps I will take a few...

I picked up mostly paper to work on Christmas cards. The top sheet are punch outs/stickers that I will use for cards rather than stamping. The other bonus is that the paper is double sided so that you always have paper that matches the pattern. 

Here are a few cards that I used my new paper on:

Merry Christmas Elves

Rudolph the red nose reindeer...

May you forever shower each other with love

The elf stamp is also new. I stopped by Michael's craft store on my way home and picked up some Christmas stamps. The Christmas stamps are currently 50% off so I bought two sets by Recollections. They are so cute and match my new paper perfectly!

Lastly, the paper from the monkey's card is from Winner's. Lots of great deals on card supplies this week :)