Christmas Thank You notes (Curtain Call 62 and CCMC 131)

Hi again! Here are some thank you notes I made for Christmas gifts. The dots and lines at the bottom are glue dots and sticky tape covered in white flocking powder. They really are white, though I am not sure they look white here, sorry. I was trying to make snow and I think it looks pretty cute :) For the snowflake accent, I used some white K and Company snowflakes that are already layered and glittered. They each had a silver rhinestone in the middle, so I peeled that off and punched a snowflake out of the Baja Breeze color and layered that on top of the white flake. I added a gem to the blue snowflake and backed the whole accent with a Pear Pizzaz scalloped circle. I made 4 of these and made each one different at the top, here are 2 variations. 

This will work for the challenge at Stacey's Stamping Stage and the Let it Snow challenge at Create With Connie and Mary. 

I hope you like my card! Please comment or follow if you can, I'd LOVE to hear from you! :)

-Noelle:)

Supply list: solid cardstock, stamp and ink-SU!, dimensional white snowflakes-K and Company, glue pen and flocking powder- Inkadinkadoo, scallop circle punch- SU/EK Success, snowflake punch- Martha Stewart Crafts, ruffled ribbon- The Paper Studio, green and blue ribbon and corduroy brad-SU!

ColourQ Design Team Submission for scrappers

Hi there all! It is FINALLY snowing here! I am very excited, it's been an oddly dry winter and so nice to see the white:)

There is a design team call for scrappers at ColourQ. I actually got into scrapbooking first, I've been doing that since 1998. I had a Creative Memories party and that was the very beginning of my journey into papercrafting. I still love to scrapbook & my sons always surprise me with how much they LOVE their books. Through the years, I have completed 30+ 12" albums, so I thought I might be a good candidate, even though I have mostly kept the blog to cards in the past. I am a traditional scrapper rather than digital by nature, just because I'm just such a tactile person.

For this first page I used ColourQ 49. I thought these watery and sandy hues would work well for this Aquarium page. The cork letters reminded me of sand, so I used those after laying down my wavy layers, which were cut with my old-school Creative Memories wavy guide and blades. I cut the fish out on my Cricut and made a trail of "bubbles" with epoxy stickers and (for fun!) some Melody Ross buttons.

Supply list: Solid cardstock-SU!, cork letters-Craft Essentials, Animal Kingdom Cricut cartridge, journaling stamp-Autumn Leaves, whale stamp and ink-SU!, buttons-Melody Ross, punch-EK Success, dot paper-K and Company, blue letters-Doodlebug Designs, gem stickers: K and Company, mini alphabet stamps-Studio G

This one was from the ColourQ #20. Here is the link to see the original inspiration cards. This is my middle son at his field day. I used a SU! star wheel for the background with a Versamark cartridge. Some punched stars with tennis shoe brads on the center for the accents and an old trophy cup sticker. The letters were cut on my Cricut and dry embossed with a circles Cuttlebug embossing folder. Not sure if you can see the dry embossing here or not.  I love the shot of the back of his head and the parachute in front of him. Too bad his ribbon isn't red! :)

Supply list: solid cardstock and star wheel stamp-SU!, DonJuan Cricut cartridge, Cuttlebug circles embossing folder, star punches-EK Success, journal paper-CM


Thanks so much for stopping by! Please comment or follow if you can, I'd LOVE to hear from you!!! :)

-Noelle :)

Happy Belated Birthdays!

Hey there, my papercrafting peeps! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas Day. I was bound and determined to do at least a little catching up today, with all the things that have fallen by the wayside this week! This was one of them. Oh, you would THINK with my own birthday falling on Christmas Day, I would be uber-sensitive & get these birthday cards for my aunt (the 24th) and my BIL (the 26th) out BEFORE the holiday rush? Yeah, no such luck unfortunately :(. Hopefully they will forgive me anyway! I had preordered a few new SU! goodies from the upcoming Occasions Mini and sale-a-bration goodies. I got these for some upcoming Stamp Club projects, I am SOOOOOO in love with these new papers! The one above uses the SAB paper and accent kit & a retired stamp set called "Wow Flowers." Also, one of the buttons cut from the new embosslits die (new Occasions mini) is in the center of the sentiment.

This one features some of the "Sweet Stitches" collection from that upcoming Occasions Mini Catalog as well, this stuff is sooooooo adorable! Also, the stamp set will be in the SAB offerings this year. I stamped in Tempting Turquoise, punched it with the coordinating punch and then colored in the "HB" with Melon Mambo marker. I used the button embosslits on this as well & that pink "buttons" accent behind the stamped piece is one of the rub ons that coordinates. 

Thanks for stopping by! Please comment or follow if you can:) I have some exciting plans for the blog for the first couple mos. of 2011. I am taking a break from spending money on supplies so I can pay off Christmas! My goal is to mix my newer products with OLD (I've been doing this for 12 years, and some of my supplies are ancient!) products and use them in cool, new ways! I hope to inspire YOU to blow the dust off of some of your dinosaurs as well:) I'll be back soon with some more fun challenges!

**All supplies on this post are from Stampin' Up!

xoxox

Noelle

Merry Christmas!

Hi there, my lovely little blog readers;) I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas! Today is actually my birthday as well (yes, for real!) and I was lucky enough to spend it with with MOST of my family. I am very blessed! 

This fancy, custom, gatefold card in custom "box-a-lope" (hey, that's what I'm going with, lol, it is in fact, a cross between an envelope and a box!) was made for a portfolio submission. So pretty, and so very fancy, I thought you might like to see. I hope you like it. I will be back soon with some fun challenges! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! :) -Noelle

Coffee for ColourQ Challenge 63

This card was featured as a ColourQueen Courtier! I am super excited! Check out all the featured cards/projects here. Thanks so much for featuring me, Arielle and the ColourQ team! :)

Hello everyone! I hope you all are well, I decided to treat myself to another challenge, my brain is so fried from all that's been going on & I need some craft therapy, NOW! ;) This card is for the color challenge at ColourQ. When I saw these colors, I immediately thought of the package I received a couple of weeks ago, an order I bought from My Favorite Things. I hadn't used any of it yet, so I was sooo glad to use 2 of the dies and the stamp set I ordered for this card! :) So I stamped my little Starbucks junkie lady (who looks, JUST like me, except for her MUCH slimmer figure, lol!;) and after coloring her in with Copics that coordinate with the challenge colors, I die cut her out and chalked some Ruby Red chalk on the edges before I removed the die. Then I die cut another of the same piece in Bermuda Bay cardstock and just rotated it a bit, so it peeks out between the scallops in the circle. Then I die cut my patterned paper and I ran it through a scond time after I moved it over a bit on the die to make it thinner, so I could use a Chocolate Chip piece to border it. I saw this trick on someone else's blog, and for the LIFE of me can't remember where, if it was yours, message me and I'll link you up on this post! BRILLIANT idea, and it looks cool:) Then I did a little dry embossing, and some punching, and a bit of layering for the background. For my accent, I used the rolled flower die to cut some red felt. I used a very old heart tipped pin to hold the flower together and accent it. I stamped my favorite sentiment EVER from a stamp set "You're the mocha latte in a world full of cheap machine coffee."and a ring stamp inside that. The flower was layered on top & then I just put the whole card together. It really was pretty quick, about 40 minutes or so & that was with me hemming and hawing about details of the design. 

Well, that's it for me! Please comment or follow if you can, I'd love to hear from you:) I hope you are all having a STELLAR holiday season!

xoxox

Noelle

Supply list: lady stamp, rolled flower die, rick rack die: My Favorite Things; solid cardstock in Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Bermuda Bay, Kiwi Kiss, and Whisper White as well as Ruby Red pastel chalk: Stampin' Up!; large scallop edge punch and large circle punch: EK Success; gem: K and Company, markers: Copic; sentiment and ring stamps: gel-a-tins; embossing folder: Cuttlebug; patterned paper: The Paper Studio; heart pin: ???  

Chocolate Bar Sliders for Teacher Gifts

Hey folks, another quick post and I'll probably be out for the next few days. The crazy chaos seems to be getting crazier and more chaotic (yep, just when I thought it wasn't possible....I'm sure you get it;)  

Just wanted to share with you my answer to teacher  
holiday gifts for this school year. You see, I am the daughter of a teacher and the best friend of a teacher and because of this I KNOW that teachers really really love something they can get some  real use out of, like a giftcard. (.... and I also know how many Christmas coffee mugs I've seen my Mom regift in 25 years of teaching, lol;) So anyway, If you just bought your child's teacher a coffee mug, so sorry for that little insight, but I always do giftcards. Usually to Target, but if I know they are a coffee junkie like me, then Starbucks.

Anyway, the crafter in me just has to do something cutesy and fun to present the giftcard in. I LOVE these chocolate bar sliders, they are a fun way to give the giftcard instead of a boring old envelope, right? :) My original plan was to do something far more elaborate, maybe with my favorite holiday stamps, some Copics, a bit of flocking powder, but then I started calculating..... going to be gone all day Xmas shopping tomorrow and these have to be given on Thurs..... today was super busy and I only ended up with about an hour to make 8 of these (did I happen to mention, my youngest has SIX teachers? No, I'm not kidding, a lot of them are only there one day per week, but 6 nonetheless.)

So anyway, in my many errands today I happened to swing by Archivers where I picked up these super cute snowflake papers from Basic Grey and making memories. The green one (mm) is from a line called "Noel" how appropriate is that for ME to use, I ask you?? ;) 

And I do have to gripe about Archivers.... I go in there with my current sales flyer and coupons, on which it CLEARLY states that if you spend 30$ or more you can have a FREE Basic Grey pattern printed reusable shopping bag. When I get to the front to pay I am VERY excited to see that they still have a whole stack of them sitting there. And, even though the sales flyer says "while supplies last" and even though they have a whole stack, and even though I am spending not 30$, but 60$, they wouldn't give me one?!?!!! I ask you HOW annoying is that? Something was said about their corporate office changing their mind about the promotion, but that I was MORE than welcome to PURCHASE the (supposedly) free bag for only 2.99? Yeah, I will tell you, I was polite, but not at all pleased, I'm not sure when I'll be back over there again, how SILLY! I worked retail for alot of years myself, so I get that sometimes things happen that are beyond your control, but I am still VERY annoyed as I write this, grr!

Ok, enough whining, SO sorry for my little tangent! So anyway, pressed for time as I was, I decided to keep these super simple, just using my Martha Stewart snowflake punch, some gems, ribbons and a few Xmas embellishments for fun. I used my old fashioned labelmaker again to put the teachers names on the outside. I had also found these cute snowman Hershey bars at Target, which is what I used & you can see in the pic, I just used a couple glue dots to stick the card to the bar.

Well, that's it for me today, please comment, or follow if you have a second in this crazy holiday season! If not, totally cool & I hope to see you again SOON!

Have a stellar day!

xoxoxox-Noelle :)

O Button Tannenbaum (Curtain Call 60)

Hello everyone!! I hope you all are doing well during this CRAZY, busy holiday season! Things have been truly mad around here, so INSANE! I really needed some "craft therapy" so I decided to treat myself to the challenge over at Stacey's Stamping Stage. The button tree idea had been festering for awhile now.... a while back I saw these DARLING button tree cards at My Little Stampin' Spot, and I kept thinking, "I should try that......" and THEN when I saw the inspiration photo at Stacey's, that's when I thought "aha! A button CHRISTMAS tree would be FABULOUS!" ;) Lemme give you some tips if you want to try this at home, especially the stitching them on part, which can be tricky. First I die cut my tree trunk with my cute new die from My Favorite Things. Then I took a scrap of Certainly Celery cardstock and cut it into a triangle with some ooooooolllllld shape edger scissors (oh, come on, you KNOW you've still got some stashed in a drawer somewhere too!) Then I picked out my buttons and fooled with the layout of them a little on the tree which I had taped down. Then I adhered each button down with a glue dot, and that step is important, even though it will gum your needle up a little. it would just be too hard to keep your layout otherwise. Then, I used a paper piercer and punched a little hole through each button hole. I laid down a paper piercing mat beforehand, but the backside of an old mousepad works just as well. Then I threaded my big needle with a long piece of my Crate and Barrel bakers' twine, (I'm doing my darndest to use up all 2300 feet!) lol, in all seriousness, I'm using it on my Christmas presents TOO! And I stitched through the holes I had pierced. It took a bit of time, but was SO much faster than if I hadn't used the glue dots or pirced the holes. Those two steps saved me loads of time when it came to the sewing.  To embellish the card, I used some MORE baker's twine, another button, a Christmas Tree brad I found in my stash, and my old fashioned labelmaker with some red tape.

I hope you are all having a fabulous holiday season and I hope I get to see at least SOME snow before Christmas! Where I live in CO we have always seen a few storms by now, but this year it has been oddly dry and warm! It was 65 degrees today, It is NOT beginning to look a lot like Christmas, or feel like it either, I'm afraid! 

Have a stellar week! xoxox, Noelle

Supply list: solid cardstock, SU!; colored buttons:SU!; other buttons-generic; baker's twine: Crate and Barrel, shape scissors: Fiskars; tree trunk die:MFT

'
 

A Little Elfin Magic as a Karber Guest Designer! :)

 Hi there everyone! This is the card for my Guest Designer spot over at Karber Digital Images, the challenge this week is "Anything Goes" check it out!!! I used the Elf Gift Digi as my pick for this card. As soon as I saw it, I was reminded of a Christmas memory & THAT is why I wanted to use this digi.  If you look below, you will see a a set of three elf figurines. My mom had those figurines out on the end table in our house growing up for as long as I can remember. I always thought they were cute. As the years passed, my mom had 3 kids of her own & she once told me that the elves then became even more meaningful as she felt that each elf represented one of her kids.  A few years ago, my mom gave me these elves since I now have 3 kids of my own, and because I've always loved them. Of course, I have 3 SONS, instead of 2 daughters and a son, so I can tell you, they do NOT sit on an end table in my house. Living on a high shelf keeps them safe from being DEMOLISHED, lol;) So I took my little elfin digital friend, and I printed him out 4 times, once on white, and 3 times on patterned papers. I actually put 4 elves on one sheet and just lightly taped down the patterned papers in 3 quadrants of my white cardstock. I paper pieced him & colored the rest in with Copics. Then I cut him out all around his edges and set him aside. For my card, I decided to do a long card. I kept turning this patchwork quilt idea over in my head, so that was my jumping off point. I cut about 3/4" off the right side of the card front and adhered a green border strip to the inside of the card which was then exposed. I then covered the front of my card with green punched squares and layered smaller patterned paper squares on top of that. I cut out a white oval and a turquoise mat for it. I dry embossed the white one with a swiss dot embossing folder. My original plan was to use a snowflake embossing folder, but I ultimately decided it was getting too busy. I used dimensionals to adhere the elf to the oval. Finally, I created a tab with my punch and I stamped the word "merry" on it with teensy tiny alphabet stickers. I stapled it to the card with a red fastenater & added a fun 3D holly sticker. I also added a yellow pompom to his hat for fun:)

Thanks for stopping by! If you are coming from Karber and have never been here before, WELCOME! I started this blog in May & I cover a variety of techniques and styles. Check out some of my older posts! :)

Supply list: Elf digi: Karber; solid red, green, turquoise, and white cardstock: SU!; turquoise and red patterned papers: Cricut; green patterned paper: SU!; embossing folder: Cuttlebug; border strip: K and Company, holly sticker: Jolee's, tab punch: EK Success/SU!;alphabet stamps: studio g; red jumbo staple: EK Success; square punches: EK Success

Well that is it for me today! thanks for stopping by. Come back soon and have a STELLAR day! :)

-Noelle

Moxie Fab glitter challenge, Spotted Canary metallic challenge, and just some pretty stuff:)

Hello everyone! I am SO excited to see my goal of 20 followers has been reached! Now I can quit harassing you guys for awhile, lol;) Thanks for following! Here's some recent projects! Also, some very exciting news is that next week I will be a guest designer for Karber Digital. Thank you to my friend Berenice for asking me! I have never been a guest designer and I am VERY excited to be asked! What an honor:) I'll post my card here for you after it's been posted there:)

This first one is for the December Metallics Challenge over at Spotted Canary. Also for the glitter challenge at Moxie Fab World. This card was made using alot of EK company products (EK Success, Martha Stewart Crafts, Jolee's, etc.) but that's not a requirement to play at Spotted Canary, though EK hosts the site. The challenge is to use metal, as much as possible. I used rhinestones, glitter, a metal button, silver embossing, and some subtle silver cardstock. The challenge at Moxie Fab is to use glitter in innovative ways. I stamped the butterfly with a glue pad and then covered it in red glitter. That sentiment is from Verve, I LOVE that stamp! :) More of my Crate and Barrel baker's twine completes this one:)

The second card was made with alot of the goodies I won doing a monthly challenge at the Spotted Canary site:) All K and Company papers, a matching Grand Adhesion sticker, one of my scrunchy flowers made from scalloped circles, and an Inkadinkadoo acrylic stamp. I love the way their paper looks like fabric! I used a piece in lieu of ribbon at the top.

This is also for the Moxie Fab challenge and the Spotted Canary challenge too:). This one turned out so pretty and it was super easy! That cool snowflake is a Jolee's sticker (you can't get any easier than that!) I used some of my SU! crocheted trim, a bit of baker's twine (can you tell, I'm in LOVE with the stuff??), a Martha Stewart glitter photo corner and all the papers, etc. are K and Company.

Here's another cookie sheet message board, I am making TONS of these for holiday gifts! So easy, cheap and useful! just decoupage paper onto your cookie sheet. Punch or drill holes fro the ribbon to hang it & you can use just about anything to make fancy magnets, stickers, bottlecaps, buttons, flowers, some of that jumbo hardware, you name it, it will work for magnets!

Well, that's it for me today, I will be back SOON with some more fun challenges! Hope everyone is having a happy holiday season!

-Noelle:)

Moms In Touch gifts, and other ramblings.......

Back side of candle and card

 Hey there folks! I hope you all are doing well. I am VERY happy to be back and to have TWO new followers!


Thank you new followers, I am VERY happy to have you join me:)

Back side of candle and card

from the top

Here are some Christmas gifts I made this weekend for the Moms In Touch prayer group I lead in my community. We get together every other week and take some time to pray for folks in our community who may need it. It's a nice way to be able to help others and share your faith. I joined the group almost 5 years ago, and started leading about 3 years ago.  Anyway, I always make some litte handmade giftie to pass out at out annual Christmas meeting which is TODAY! I made a set of 6 red ones and 6 blue ones (of course, I HAD to make some blue ones!;)

Peanut blossoms

I LOVE that Verve stamps has so many options with Bible verses. This seemed to be the perfect one to use for my friends who take time out of their busy lives to serve God and our community in this special way. I cut the scalloped hexagons and squares (as well as the plain cream pieces I stamped with the Verve stamp...) out on my Cricut. I stamped the candles by stamping on white tissue, and embedding the stamped images into the side of the candle with a piece of wax paper and a embossing gun. If you've never tried this, there's a GREAT tutorial on Splitcoaststampers here. So I stamped them with the retired stamp set from SU! "Scandinavian Season." I used the snowflake on the blue ones and the mitten on the red ones. Then I used some of my NEW DSP (Candy Cane Christmas and Deck The Halls in the new Holiday mini catalog) from SU! to create a band around the candles and for the love notes/gift tags. The candles were 1$ each at Dollar Tree (an important point to make, since, IMHO, candles have become WAY too expensive as of late!)

Seeing Santa

Also, you see my cookies here, these are Peanut Blossoms and if you've never made them, you've likely eaten them at a BBQ or something. Most people make them with a Hershey's Kiss in the middle, but my hubby informed me not long after we married (which was a looooong time ago! ;) that if you use a Kiss that it's too much chocolate (I know, there's no such thing, I agree!) but he also made a good point that then the Hershey's Kiss gives the cookie a hard center and it should be soft, so (FINALLY getting to my point here!) that's when I started making them with 3 chocolate chips instead. The fun thing is, at the holidays you can use those red and green chocolate chips. I was planning to do that today, but couldn't find any at my grocery store. Oh well, ces't la vie.

And here's the boys with Santa! Ian is getting too old to believe, but he was still willing to go. Evan was VERY excited and I even had to take him back a second day so he could see Santa AGAIN!

Well, that's it for me today, PLEASE follow or comment if you can I only need 2 more followers to get to my goal of 20 by the end of the year, help me out, particularly if you are a regular visitor anyway? That would be SO fabulous!

I hope you all stay warm, have a stellar day!!

xoxox
Noelle