Celebrating Christmas

Happy Holidays! Christmas is just a few weeks away and I have been busy stamping up some fun projects for my family and friends.  I am posting a couple of these projects on this blog spot. It warms my heart to make projects for those I love and giving them as gifts is so much fun!

Tim gave me three new Papertrey Ink stamp sets for my birthday last week; he really knows how to make me happy! I can hardly wait to create new projects with them.

This winter Papertrey Ink came out with a metal tag die that I have been having so much fun with, Tim even helps me make tags for our holiday gifts- he likes to go crazy with the aerosol spray-on glue!

It is going to be a white Christmas in Faribault this year. About 16 inches of snow fell in our neck of the woods yesterday and it is going to continue to blow today...I guess I am stuck in my art room for the day...YIPPEE!

I purchased this stamp from Electric Paper last winter. It is a Penny Black design.

Ady and August are anxiously waiting to go skating on the pond

at the end of our block. An elderly man shovels it daily for the neighborhood kids

to skate on throughout the winter.

These ornaments are a part of a Unity stamp set.

I made 3 different styles

of notebooks for my friends this year.

I just love this evergreen stamp set by Stampin Up! I use it every winter

on some type of project or card. It is a set that will never go out of style.

I finally got up enough courage to use pink and red together...

and the two colors work together great! I used a little dot of

dazzling diamonds stickles in the middle of each snowflake.

The next two projects were made with the Papertrey Ink metal tag  die. It is so much fun making fancy tags for such simple gifts.

Bath and Body Works just came out with this Peppermint hand soap.

It smells so festive and fresh. This tag has a small pocket attached to it for the perfect gift card.

I discovered this cup at Star Bucks and just had

to buy it for a friend. I plan on putting Crystal Light single packets

in the cup and a Star Bucks gift card in the pocket on the tag.

Caribou coffee has a similar thermal cup with a straw, super cute for the holidays!



Celebrate Fall

Greetings, Friends,


The hardest part of the entire school year is over....September. It is so much fun to reconnect with all of my students, but it can be tough getting everyone, including myself, back into the swing of things! I had a great day today... yeah!


I have made a number of cards over the last couple of weeks, but have not had the time to post them. Here is a sampling of my latest creations. I hope you enjoy!




Thinking of you



I hope this card...makes you happy.

I thought of you today...and smiled.

All the material that I used to make this card is from Papertrey Ink. The new leaf die cuts are easy to use and add so much to the background. They are a nice touch to an autumn themed card.

Today is brighter....with you in it.


All of the flowers are on one stamp. Using buttons and punches for the center of the flowers was fun. You can be very creative with this set from Papertrey Ink.

Happy Birthday- Friend

Jesus loves Me, this I know!


I made a set of cards for a preschool religion teacher. This card is for the girls.

This card is for the boys in her class.


Both of these images are digistamps.

I hope you have enjoyed my cards. I love making them and sending them to my friends and family! Have a great week. I will post more cards soon!

Sending my love,

Nicole





Celebrate School Days

Hello Friends,

As the last day of summer comes to a close, I thought I would post a couple of cards that I made this weekend. Tomorrow marks the day that Ady enters the middle school for the first time and August third grade. I can hardly believe I have children this old already! They are so much fun to be with, I will miss our lazy summer days in the art room, running to swim practice or softball games.  

Below is a sampling of the cards that I made this weekend....

I couldn't resist this little girl, her name is Lilly. My niece, Paige, is going to kindergarten this year. I thought this card would be perfect for for her.

This card was made using a stamp set called "School Time" from Papertrey Ink. I made this card for my other niece, Sydney, for her first day at school tomorrow. She is switching schools in 4th grade so I wanted her to know that I was thinking of her, she will do great!

I just love, love all of the Pure Innocence digistamps. I order them from digistampcharacters on Etsy. I used the Basic Polka-Dot dry embossing plate from PTI and ribbon from Achievers. There are so many back to school sets out this year, they were fun to play with.

This card was very simple to make. I used Papertrey Ink new birthday stamp set which has such a nice variety of birthday sayings and fonts, it is very versatile.

Isn't this a sweet card? I put this one together last night at about 11:30. Sometimes I think I do my best work late at night...after the kids are fast asleep. This set is from Inkadinkadoo. I purchased it at Achievers. I am using it a lot more than I thought I would. The clouds are a template from PTI.
Outside of card: A little Birdie told me...
Inside of card: That it is your Birthday!

This thank you card was so much fun to make, I actually made 4 of them and they are all sold. The leaves were made from a metal template from PTI along with the leaf stamps. The large colored leaves are made of wool felt. It is the first time I have rolled out wool felt on my Cuddle Bug, it worked out great! I may be making more of these cards for myself!

This card is for a close friend. Her father passed away last week, my heart is heavy for her. This embossing template is so beautiful. The impression is so peaceful.
I distressed it with brown ink and added some hemp from PTI.

Please keep our family in your prayers as we say good-bye to our cat, Oscar. Tim and I have had Oscar for almost 15 years. He is one of the best cats that has ever ventured into our hearts. He has brought so much joy and love to our family over the years, it is heart wrenching to think of coming home and not have him meow at you for a piece of ham or snuggle with you in bed on a Saturday morning. He was our peace in the middle of the "storm" around our house. If I ever needed a "time out" I would go and hold Oscar where ever he was sleeping.

We are going to miss you, Oscar. But we know that we will meet again on the Rainbow Bridge.

With all of our Love...Tim, Nicole, Ady and August

Celebrate School Shopping!

Greetings!

It is so hard to believe that the end of August is upon us! School shopping is almost complete, just a couple of online orders and wham, presto-magic-o we're done! While we were shopping yesterday I quickly discovered gone are the days that I could buy Ady 2 pairs of jeans for the hefty price of $30...that would hardly buy the left leg of a pair of "cool" jeans these days!

I have been stamping feverishly lately trying to complete a couple of orders. Last night I finished and a small order for my aunt and created a couple for my friends at school. Here are the specifics......

I created this card for a mom who just dropped her oldest daughter off at college in Vermont. The sentiment inside said, "Thinking of You." Sweet, simple, creative, just how I wanted it.

I made three sets of five cards to gift homeroom teachers at the beginning of the school year. I have sold all three sets, but just ordered two more "teacher themed" stamp sets, so if you would like to order a set of cards, just shoot me an email!

I used PTI's, Teacher's Apple, stamp set to create 60+ apples to cut and shape then adhere. Lots of details, but it turned out just the way I wanted it to- YIPPY! The ribbon and paper are from SU! I just love the celery green and real red together...great fall colors.

Doesn't this card look more masculine? I will be gifting it to a special guy in my life...on his birthday I think;)

The ticket image and die cut are from PTI, It's Official. The ticket die cut actually perforates between each ticket, super cute! The argyle background is a block stamp from SU! I have had it for years and continue to love it...argyle never goes out of style!

I made this card for a friend at school who shares my love for coffee!


The sentiment on the inside reads: I don't have a problem with caffeine, I have a problem without it.
I just picked up this coffee stamp set at Michel's crafts, it was on super-sale! It is hard for me to turn down any image that has to do with coffee.

I made this card for a woman is celebrating her 40th birthday this year. I really wanted to make it colorful and fun...not an over the hill card, she will have to wait about 20 years for a card like that!

I used PTI newly released stamp set called, It's Official, to create the order tickets, the sentiments are part of a PTI set called, Signature Greetings- I wouldn't be a stamper without this set! The cake is from Stampin' Up! Eat Cake, I have used this set over the past 4 years, again and again...I just can't get enough of it!

I spent so much time trying to figure out how to use this chandelier set and after about an hour this is all I came up with- UGH! When I purchased this set and brought it home, one of my stamping friends looked at it then at me....she said, "This isn't your style." I knew that, but I wanted to stretch myself...it didn't work.

After 15 years of stamping I still feel like I am searching for MY style. I think I have discovered that I like simple, but not too simple. Layering, color, die cuts, embossing, lots of ribbon and buttons make me a happy stamper....I will post more cards soon!

Thanks for stopping by,

 Nicole.

Celebrate...More Stamping!

Hello Friends,

After a busy week of teaching and running around delivering and picking up kids I finally had the chance to get caught up on some of my stamping orders! I have spent 2 days stamping and I just LOVE it! Here are a couple of the cards that I created....

The card on the left was made for a 13 year old boy and the card on the right  for 13 year old girl- birthday cards. I thought it would be hard to create a "cool" enough card for a teenage boy, but then I found this stamp set in one of my baskets, it is an Inkadinkado set- I think this card turned out great. The sassy girl with the ice cream cone is a Penny Black stamp. This company has a number of girls in different styles, they are fun to color in. Actually, my daughter, Ady, colored in the girl with the ice cream cone, she loves to help when she can.

The card on the left was made for a 9 year old boy and the card on the right for a 9 year old girl. The girl with the Ipod on is a digistamp, so I just print her off of my computer onto card stock and color her in.

This card was made for a man with a winter birthday. I just purchased this stamp set from Papertrey ink last month and it has come in handy! The name of the stamp set is Masculine Motifs. I need to add a couple of more male stamp sets to my collection.

This card is a birthday card for a male astronaut. I really wanted to incorporate a "galaxy" theme with this card...so once again I used the same male stamp set as before, Masculine Motifs, and came up with this card. I love how it opens up. This card was easy to make: First take a piece of 8"x11" paper and cut it in half the long way. Next score it at the 2 3/4" inch mark on both sides, punch with eyelets on each flap, cut a piece of white card stock for the middle 4"x 5 1/4" and decorate the outside and inside with desired stamps. Cute, huh?

I used another new stamp set, Inspired by Nature, from Stampin' Up! on this card. I just love the writing over the flowers. I could make cards for so many different occasions with this set, watch for more to come!

Isn't this little girl sweet? This image is also a digistamp, she is a Pure Innocence image. This card was made for a little girl's birthday. I made a couple for myself, I just couldn't resist. Let me know if you would like one too!

This is the last card of the day. I love the simplicity of the card, but it still has plenty of style. This card is for a man whose birthday is in August. This card was inspired by Maile Belles at http://mailebelles.blogspot.com/.

That is it for today. My husband just put a movie in...I must go for now! I will be completing most of my current orders this week, so if you are interested in cards for any upcoming holidays, people on your birthday list or "just because" cards, let me know...I truly enjoy this craft!

Thanks for stopping by!

Nicole

Celebrate Duluth

Hello Friends,

We just returned from a quick trip up to Duluth, Minnesota to celebrate the 4th of July. This is our second year celebrating the 4th up north. About this time of the summer we all need to get away from our daily routine; we had a blast. I included a couple of pictures from our trip below along with a couple of cards that I made for my cousin-in-law, Hilary.

The picture on the left is the Glensheen mansion which was owned by the Congdon's in 1908.

  The mansion along with

all of the other buildings on the 22 acre property was built in 1908 for $850,000 to replace

just the shell of the mansion today would cost $30 million. It is just an amazing

historical place to visit-

http://www.d.umn.edu/glen/.

This was one of the flower arches in the rose garden. There is still a vegetable garden

on the estate. The vegetables are donated to the local food

shelf every summer.

August and Adeline sitting by the creek that provided fresh water for

 Mrs. Congdon's house plants and much more. The estate was pretty much

self saficiant.

We ate at Hell Burgers- YUMMMO! I don't think I have ever

had a tastier burger. I had the swiss and mushroom burger with fries...

I usually turn down fries, but they had just the right crisp on the

outside and were soft in the middle, perfect with LOTS of katchup,

mustard and mayo. We will be going back for more next year!!!

                                                                                    

                                                                    

Smile, Ady!

On to the cards........

The first card is to congratulate a newly expecting mom and the second is to congratulate a family that is welcoming a new baby boy.

The next two cards are neutral congratulation cards for expecting parents. Both cards are made by cutting out templates that I purchased from Papertrey Ink along with the polk-a-dot patterned paper used on the elephant. I really enjoy using their products, they are quite addicting!

I made this card using a basket stamp set from Papertrey Ink. I stamped it on patterened paper then cut the basket out. For the background I used a cursive print background set from Papertrey Ink.

I am signing out for now. I have a couple of more cards to create yet tonight.

Thanks for stopping by, Nicole