Sparkly and Sweet (CQC113, PP74, JB48)

Well hello there! Hope you all are doing well today. I am having a great day so far. Started out with a 3.3 mile walk/jog with a friend, and came home and realized that I could successfully navigate 3 challenges with one card! Dontcha just LOVE it when that happens? So, before I get much further, let me link you up. This is for this week's colourQ challenge 113 Please come play with us this week at CQC! Love these shades of BLUE! :)

It is also for Lesley's sketch challenge at The Paper Players 74.

And it is the final challenge at Jingle Belles for this year (**sniff sniff**) the challenge is to incorporate food into your card!

So, I figured by going with a gingerbread man, using the colourQ colors and using the PP sketch I would be a super-duper multitasking crafty chick today. ;)

I started out by cutting my gingerbread man. I used this same guy last year on one of my fave Christmas cards of all time! You can check it out here. So I cut him out with the Cricut, making a shadow for him in the Marina Mist color. I die cut the squarish shape for him to be layered on. I accented him with some googly eyes and these old silver button embellies I found in my stash. The supply list on this post will be short as so much of what's on this card is so old I really don't know who made it! Once that piece was all done, I set it aside. I made a regular A2 sized card base, but as I went to put it all together, I realized I needed to go bigger to fit all my elements! So this is a 6" square card.

The rectangular panel is a snowflake acetate sheet laid upon an old scrap of SU! DSP. I used a punch to make the tab and sticker letters to spell out "sweet."

The strip across the bottom is a laser cut felt ribbon, so pretty! I accented it with some blue pearls.

Well, that is all! I hope you like my card & don't forget about my blog candy giveaway! If you're already a follower, all you have to do is click and comment on that post! Have a super day! :)

hugs, Noelle

supply list: Cricut cartridge "from My Kitchen;" dies: Spellbinders; stickers: Jolees and K&Company; punch: EK Success; snowflake acetate: Hambly; snowflake felt ribbon: martha Stewart Crafts; patterned papers: stampin' Up! and unknown; silver buttons: unknown; blue pearls: unknown; googly eyes; solid cardstock in challenge colors: Stampin' Up!

DUST IT OFF!: So many old goodies on this card I don't know where to begin! the buttons, the stickers, the paper, it's all old, but it's alllll GOOD! ;) 

Mixed Media Let it Snow sign

Hi there! I don't have much time to type today, so I'm gonna be speedy. This project was born of necessity! Well, the necessity for me to have proper visual aesthetics in my house that is.... I know, crazy designer girl. I had this little display goin' on in my house:

Now, everything's cute, and the scale is good here, but that little snowman trio in the back left hand corner doesn't quite "gel" with the other items. The style of it is more country not vintage like the rest. It's going to find a new home, by some more countrified winter decor & here's what I made to go in it's place:

I had considered hitting up Gordmans or TJ Maxx looking for just the right thing to go in that corner, but who needs to spend money when you have all the goodies on hand to make just the perfect thing in the perfect size that you will love? :)

Heres  quickie tutorial on how I made this...

1. start with a 12" canvas. I used a metallic stamping marker (very similar to a paint pen)to color all the outside edges gold, but you could always use acrylic paint instead.

2. Decoupage music sheet scrapbook paper to front of canvas using Mod Podge. While still slightly tacky, lay a laser cut snowflake scrapbook paper on top of the music sheet. Spray liberally with brown metallic spray ink. Move sheet around and spray heavier in spots to make some snowflakes "pop." 3.Remove laser cut paper and use a blow dryer to surface dry the canvas. This will give a crackly finish where the spray is heavy.

4. find large die cut letters (or cut your own s, n, and w). Stamp lightly with a snowflake stamp and sponge brown ink onto all edges. Adhere to canvas with glue dot's leaving room for snowflake "o." 

5. Using gel glue and glass glitter completely coat a chipboard snowflake with glitter. Let dry overnight.

Color another chipboard snowflake with metallic pens in gold and silver. Accentuate center of flake with a wood snowflake and blingy sticker.

6. Adhere both snowflakes to canvas with glue. Let dry. 

And that's all for me today! I am rushing, but will come back soon and add a supply list. One of the great things about this project was that everything used to make it was 2-3 years old except for the canvas I bought a few months ago. I hope you like my sign as much as I do. Some more detail shots are below. :)

Hugs!! :) Noelle

CHRISTMAS BLOG CANDY!!

So... do you think you've been good enough to have Santa stop by your place this year with some new crafty goodies? I don't know about you, but my hubby and I have chosen to skip doing gifts for each other this year. Money has been a little squeaky as of late, and it's the responsible thing to do. 

So, maybe you are like me. maybe Santa is more concerned with filling the stockings and under the tree with gifts for the kids and relatives & there's no crafty presents for you?? Well, then, this just might be your lucky day! This is my Christmas BLOG CANDY GIVEAWAY & it's simple to play. 

1. You must be a follower of this blog.

2. Leave me a comment on this post. Would be fun if you included your favorite Christmas gift ever, but it's not a requirement! ;)

3. It would be very nice if you would mention and link this post onto your blog. My hope is that I will get some more traffic, etc. Again, not a requirement, but I would really appreciate it! 

4. On DECEMBER 26th, 2011, I will use a random number generator to pick the winner, each person only gets entered once, so no point in commenting more than once. 

Here's a closer peek at some of the goodies included! 

list of goodies: 

*1 Martha Stewart Crafts "punch around the page" 2 punch set with corner and edger punch

*2 Inkadinkado clear stamp sets NIP

*1 package Jolee's Parcel dimensional embellishments NIP

*1 Inkadinkado silver starlight pigment inkpad NIP

* 1 package Recollections pastel metallic brads (package may have been opened, but none were ever used)

*2 packages Sticko stickers NIP

*2 Unity stamps, unmounted, brand new 1 sentiment and one flower stamp

*1 Michaels stamp reads "Family" NIP

*1 spool pink lovebirds ribbon NIP

Well, that is it for me! Happy Christmastime! :)

big hugs! Noelle

button tree Christmas card

Hi there! As I was floating around blogland I came across a new challenge I hadn't seen before. It was the challenge at Just Add Ink and this week (that link will take you there) was for the "Bah Humbug"challenge. You can use a Christmas sentiment, but no Christmas product on your card. This card was actually a Paper Crafts mag reject that never got posted. But the call for the magazine had been for the exact same thing, so I knew it would fit the requirements of the challenge since it had fit the requirements of the call! 

So to make a Christmas card without any Christmas goodies? Not really too terribly tough. In this case I CASEd my own card from last year! I had loved this O Button Tannenbaum card when I made it, so that was the jumping off point for this little guy. I started out with a DP base and a red mat, I think that DP is MME "Stella and Rose." I cut a triangle by cutting a rectangle first, then finding the center point on one of the short sides and cutting up to that point from the each lower corner with my paper trimmer. I used my favorite tree die (looks to be currently on sale if you likey;).

I used the technique I had described in the "Button Tannenbaum" post for the buttons...

"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."

All the buttons were from my stash and that red and beige upholstered brad was really old, just from a box of random embellishments I had laying around. Probably either from Oriental Trading or Recollections would be my guess. Used the red tape in my old-school labelmaker for the sentiment. 

Well that is all for me tonight! I am currently working on a pretty sparkly, mixed-media home decor item I can't WAIT to show you!! But... first it has to dry! See you soon! :)

xoxo, Noelle

supply list: DP: My Mind's Eye; baker's twine, Crate and Barrel; buttons: SU! and other manufacturers; labelmaker & red tape: Dymo; upholstered brad: ???; solid Real Red, Old Olive, Soft Suede cardstock: SU!

DUST IT OFF!: that upholstered brad is so old! And I bought that 2300 foot spool of bakers twine over a year ago, and it's still going strong! :)

A Little Christmas Giftie and Holiday Decorations

Hi there! So sorry it's been such a long wait. I know, I know, we had 22 people (including us) here for Thanksgiving & then yesterday was complete and total chaos! I also want to apologize for being so tardy on returning comments, I was about a week behind when I FINALLY got caught up this morning! 

Have spent quite a bit of time putting up the Christmas decorations up, which, in my world, is no small feat! I know most people have a bin or 2 and their tree, mine's more like 8 large bins and requires me to essentially take all of my "regular" decorating stuff down and put up all the Christmas stuff instead. First I start by laying those silk pine garlands draped with white mini lights over everything that doesn't move. Then there's ALL the other stuff and it is crazy! Being that my birthday is on Christmas, I have received many a snowman (I collect them, and must have 30+!), Santas, pine trees, and gingerbread men decorating items throughout the years as gifts. But the thing is, I really do love it! Yes it's a lot, but I so enjoy being in my house with all this sparkly merriment around me! ;) 

Ok, so enough of that (for now anyway, but will be posting several pics at the end of this post!) I wanted to show you part of a gift I made today.... Had decided for this person that some Christmasy kitchen goodies from Crate and Barrel would be a great gift, but I wanted to personalize it a bit. So, I am including a family recipe and one of my Grandma's vintage cookie cutters in the box. Here's some pics so you can see! 

These are the recipe cards, I used an old stamp set (SU!) to stamp the cards and then I used my fave edger punch along the right side of each. Did some simple embellishing & I really feel that this will help make the gift extra special! I also embellished the cookie cutter with some ribbon a wire Santa and a jingle bell. But once the bow is pulled, it will all come right off so it can be used. 

Detail shots:

Well, the embellishments COULD come off, but if you're me you hang your vintage cookie cutters on a slim 5' tree in the kitchen! Along with all your other "food/kitchen" themed ornaments! ;)

One of the "ornaments" on my kitchen tree.
This is one of my Grandma's old cookie cutters. 

Kitchen tree, yeah I know the topper
is crooked in this pic! LOL

And here's my "pot rack" actually a planter I turned into a pot rack a couple years ago. I change out the display inside the basket seasonally. Here's my winter one! :)

And here's some family room shots, that's where the stockings go! 

mantel

one of the built in shelves

Here's a great tip if you are ever planning on
expanding your family...
When there were just 3 of us, I bought three
DIFFERENT gold velvet stockings and
personalized them myself with gold puff paint.
As our family grew it was easy to find
another gold stocking, and since they
didn't "match" to begin with, they didn't look out of place! 

shelf next to mantel

And here's some dining room shots:

I saw this one in a magazine, use large ornaments
hung with decorative ribbon off of a hanging
 light fixture. With three boys I chose these
PLASTIC ones that look like vintage glass from Tar-jay. ;) 

dining room table centerpiece

And finally our REAL tree. This is the first year it has been in this spot. I usually have it in the curve our staircase creates, but you might remember, I put Ev's Art Center there! It looks ok here, I think, but I did have to do a bit of furniture rearranging! 

Christmas Tree

And, I got my BLOG CANDY photos taken! Will be back soon with a post for that! :) 

Well, that is it for me today! I hope you are having a FABULOUS Thanksgiving weekend! 

Hugs, Noelle

supply list: papers: Echo Park and Crate Paper; glitzy snowflake sticker: K&Company; snowflake button: Dress It Up; stamps: Stampin' Up!; pens: Zig; Diamond Stickles; punch: EK Success; red glitter gems; snowflake ribbon: Michaels; jingle bell: Dollar Tree; red wire Santa: ??

DUST IT OFF!: That wire Santa is so old I have no clue where he's from or when I got him, but I've got a few, maybe I will embellish some of my other vintage cookie cutters. Also that stamp set is one a friend gave me that she did't use anymore, I never used it until today! It's pretty old, the box is all yellowed and cracked! ;) 

Can't.... resist.... the.... stamps..... (TCPTUES186)

I should be cleaning the bathrooms.
I should be vacuuming.
I should be thawing bread dough for tomorrow's fancy breakfast.
I should be checking the turkey to make sure all 22 lbs. of it are thawed.
I should be setting the table.
I should be dusting.

I'm not doing any of the things I **should** be doing, instead I did THIS... and now I am writing a post about it!

I just couldn't resist when I saw this awesome inspiration photo for this week's TCP Tuesday.








Isn't this lovely, elegant, wintry, and fresh? I loved it and I loved the idea of making a TCP card in this kind of feeling since most of the cards I make with their stamps are more bright, modern, and bold.

I thought I'd start with this little guy, one of my fave TCP stamps. I stamped him on DP, and I colored him with watercolor pencils and blender pens, except for his face and coat, on which I used Copics. I added some pale yellow flock to make his mittens "fuzzy."

Obviously, I was inspired by the colors and the feel of the inspiration pic. But one way I took the pic a bit more literally was by interpreting the mitten by making an accent for the bottom of the card out of braided craft felt. It's soft and wintry. I accented that part with a punched jingle bell from a wood sheet and a bow made from seam binding.

I used a vintage look ticket for the sentiment (which is from the TCP set "Beary Good Year") I accented that with some adhesive buttons.

And that is it for me today! I really DO need to get to my "should" list now, plus I now need to add "Should clean craft room" to the list!! ha! Have a stellar day and a very blessed Thanksgiving!!

xoxo, Noelle

supply list: stamps: The Cat's Pajamas; papers: Crate Paper and Echo Park; watercolor pencils/blender pens; Copics; library clip/solid cardstock in Ivory, Sage Shadow, and Kraft: Stampin' Up!; brown inkpad: Memento; adhesive buttons: Pebbles; ticket: Tim Holtz; jingle bell punch: Martha Stewart Crafts; seam binding: SU!; bakers twine: Crate and Barrel

DUST IT OFF!: If you have some old watercolor pencils laying around, try those on your next project instead of Copics! 

Braces Off Layout (CQC112)

Hello there! It's time for another great color palette, this week at the colourQ! Here's the palette!

I think these are great Thanksgiving colors, and aren't these muffins/cupcakes in the inspiration pic so cute? I want to make cupcakes that look like Indian corn! Adorable with those jellybeans on top! I didn't have very many good Thanksgiving pics. But I thought these pics of Ian right after he got his braces off last Fall were too cute & he was wearing a brown tee in the photos, so I decided to GO with it! Here's my layout.

I started off with a sketch I found on a site that was new to me. The blog is called Got Sketch, and some very good, dynamic sketches are on there! I really liked this one that I ended up using. I often find that if I want to scrap quickly I stick to my "regular" methods, but layout is a place I struggle sometimes, so when I want to scrap FABULOUSLY, then I go to a sketch, it makes all the difference in my pages! 

For the second page, I kind of just went off of the first one with the color blocking, etc. 

For the title, I had the "braces" sticker in my stash. For the rest of the letters, I stamped these Cartoon Alphabet Stamps down on the Daffodil cardstock, and then overstamped them with another Inkadinkado stamp in the Cherry Cobbler ink. Then I cut them out induvidually and taped them to my punched border strips that I used as my title blocks. I offset two circle punches to create those orange rings around the "L" and next to the journaling. As a side note, this was a MAJOR 'punch-heavy" page! I used 3 circle punches, a star punch, a border punch and a corner rounder punch! Good thing I have so many, at least, that's what I keep telling my husband! LOL ;) The tooth shape was an SVG file I downloaded to use on my Cricut with my SCAL software. Here's the link at My Time to Craft blog. Since I didn't have any other themed items to use on my page, I thought the tooth really worked! 

For the "swirly" shape in the lower RH corner of the sketch, I used a linear stamp (from my new prize package!) and heat embossed it with white craft ink and white EP. 

I used some mini stickers and some bakers twine to make this "floss" block, heeheehee... Wish my son WOULD floss more often! 

You can see the bottom of that "braces" dimensional sticker here, I thought that was SO cute! :) 

First page

Second page

Well that is it for me today! I am hosting the BIG family Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday! But my family is awesome, so everyone brings something. :) But I still gotta clean and thaw that big bird! I hope YOU all have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Much love, Noelle

supply list: punches: EK Success; star punch: EK Success for Stampin' Up!; all stamps: Inkadinkado; dimensional sticker: Jolee's Boutique; inkpads in craft white, Cherry Cobbler, and Basic Brown: Stampin' Up!; cardstock: Bazzill; Cricut/SCAL software/free tooth SVG file; mini letter stickers: lilybee designs; journaling cardstock: Creative Memories; journaling pen: Slick Writer/American Crafts; bakers twine: Crate and Barrel

DUST IT OFF!: That big braces sticker has been in my stash waiting for an opportunity to be used for AGES, plus, my trusty punches, many are 8-10 years old but still get plenty of use! :)