Christmas Stampin All Year Long

TGIF!!
Today we've got a brand new challenge for you over at the CSAYL blog!
Can you guess what the challenge is?
Yep - we had to make shaped cards this week!
This is not something I do very often and it was a huge challenge for me. Luckily I came up with something just in the nick of time and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
I challenge you to play along with us this week!
Hop on over to the CSAYL blog to check out what the rest of the design team did so you can get some inspiration. Be sure to leave a link to your creation before next Thursday!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long

Hey there stampers!
Today's Monday and that means a new challenge from the gals over at CSAYL! The challenge for this week is to:
CREATE A SHAPED CARD - ANYTHING OTHER THAN A2 (4 1/4 x 5 1/2).

Soooo.....here's what I came up with... Ever wonder what Santa's pants look like?
I thought this would be a fun card to send to a munchkin this Christmas.

For a little extra detail, I added some jumbo gold eyelets and hand stitched a single thread around the border.
The image on the pocket is from SU's "Deer Friends" hostess set from last year. This is the first time that I've used this image and I just love the sentiment on it. I also added a little glitter to the hat, beard and mustache for some sparkle. All of the little toy images inside the pocket are from Pink Cat Studio.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the CSAYL design team came up with!
I'll be back tomorrow with a sneak peek at one of the projects from my next class.
Until then...

Getting ready for the "Pork of July"!

I've got another Hambo project for you!
Can you stand it?!

With the 4th of July quickly approaching, I thought I'd make an apron shaped barbecue invitation. Isn't this barbecue image great? And that sentiment just cracks me up!

I wish I could say that he reminded me of my husband grilling away, but he actually reminds me of myself. Except I'm a little thinner.....and less hairy. I've been a vegetarian for 22 years, but somehow I've taken on the role as Grill Master at our house. Not exactly sure how that happened, but I'm told that I make the best pork ribs in all the land.

I decided to create an invite with my recipe in a pocket on the front of the card.
Here's a close up.
I used a silver pen for the utensils and a red
Sakura glaze pen on the barbecue. It's super shiny in person.

You've gotta have LOTS of paper towels around when you're eating ribs. I stamped a sparkler image, also by Hambo, onto a few paper towels and wrapped them up with a 1" wide strip of cardstock. Then I attached a little panel to the front.
To make the apron shaped card, I started with a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" base and scored it 1/2" down from the top fold. Then I punched out the top corners as shown with my 1 3/8" circle punch.
Then I made a quick cut with my scissors on each side.
Voila!

Bon Appetit!

A pot of flowers - 5th Avenue style

So....to be totally honest, I had no idea what I was going to do when I sat down to make this card. I knew I wanted to try this "flower pot thing" that seems to be all the rage lately, but wasn't sure about the style or colors.

Here's the end result of everything that I kind of threw together... I decided to go with an unexpected color combo and was really happy with how it turned out.
The floral images are all from an SU set called "Fifth Avenue Floral". I'm not really a foo foo flower person, but I just LOVE this set!

Most of the flowers were attached to this 3 x 7" tag that pulls out from the flower pot.

To make the flower pot, I took a 4 1/4" x 11" piece of Close to Cocoa cardstock and scored it at 4 1/2" AND 9". Then I used the eyelet border punch and some ribbon scraps to embellish. It was actually really simple to put together.

Thanks for stopping by today.
I'll see you tomorrow.

Scuba-ish

I got a request last night to make an engagement card for a couple in my Uncle's scuba diving group. The only specific request was that the card be "scuba-ish". Since I don't have ANY stamps that fit that specific category, I had to get really creative.

This was all that I could up with. What do you think? Is it "scuba-ish"?

The mask is a shaker card with sand, microbeads and some cut out images from "Crab & Company". For the background I used the "Cheesecloth" background stamp on Not Quite Navy cardstock and Versamarked some fish.

This card was definitely a labor of love, but I'm happy with the uniqueness of it. It's not everyday that you get such an interesting request.

I couldn't help myself...

I HAD to make another dress card. My sons teacher gave my daughter the cutest dress this morning and I thought this card would be a perfect thank you card to give her when we pick up my son later this afternoon!

Once again, I was able to use that yummy pink SU ribbon that I've been hoarding, ehem...I mean saving for something special. I used the tiny flower punch from the $1 bin at Michael's for the little pink flowers. For the bottom of the dress, I used the new rub-ons from SU, accented with pink Stickles and scalloped the bottom edge.

I love how this card came out - and so fast too! I decided to make myself a template, because I have a feeling that I'll be wanting to make more of these *grin*.

My first "shaped" card

This is the card that my husband and I will be giving our daughter tomorrow for her 5th birthday.

She's never been a shorts and t-shirt kind of kid - she wears dresses EVERYDAY. Not casual summer dresses. I'm talking about what you would wear for a holiday family portrait or a very special occasion. We must get asked about three times a day, "O boy, don't you look pretty, are you getting your picture taken today?" Thank goodness for Costco! They have the most beautiful dresses during the holiday seasons and at $18 a pop, I can stock up for the entire year!

Well obviously I had to make a very girly card for her. I've seen so many shaped cards and thought I'd give one a try. My first attempt went into the trash, but my second one actually looked like a dress. I finally had the perfect card to use my yummy pink crimped ribbon that I bought from SU last year. I also used some scraps of black organdy and black velvet ribbon that looked nice with the pink and white. I added some "bling" on the top to keep it clean and simple and some ribbon roses that I picked up at a fabric store last month. For the bottom of the "dress" I took the guard off of my SU corner rounder punch and created a scallop border. I love this technique because I've never been able to cut a straight line!

Get Well from the teachers

The school secretary just had surgery and I thought this would be a cute card for all of the teachers to sign for her. 5 x 7 is a little larger than I usually make, but figured it would have to fit alot of get well wishes and I wanted to make sure there was enough room for everyone to sign. Just used scraps on this and some cute alphabet ribbon that I got at the local scrapbook store.