Got Patterns?

Wow!  Do I have a bunch of patterns here?  Yes!  Yes, I do!  When I got the Top Note Bigz Die out to make Rudolph, I decided to play a little more.  I made this card using the die as the card base.  Oh, how cool is this?

I decided to use more of my Jolly Holiday designer series paper.  I punched out an ornament in very vanilla, and punched out another one in the designer series paper.  This made the ornament sturdy, so I could tie the gold cord around it.  Love it!

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: delightful decorations

Paper: old olive, very vanilla

Ink: cherry chobbler

Accessories: gold cord, 1/4" OLD OLIVE GROSGRAIN RIBBON, TOP NOTE BIGZ DIE

Punches: 3/4" CIRCLE, ORNAMENT

Techniques: BIG SHOT

I filmed two videos today.  Whew!  I will post the YouTube video for the gift card purse the next time.  I had fun making that one.  It takes about 15 minutes to make one of the purses, so I had to edit it a lot to get it down under 11 minutes.

In addition, I filmed the first of three videos for my basic brayer class.  I found out my camera doesn't have a big enough SD card, because I ran out of memory before I got down.  I had to download what I taped to my computer and finish the rest.  I decided to buy a 16 gb card, so I don't have to do that again.  I will be able to use this card in my new camera, once I buy it...hee hee!  Still saving for that one.  I hope to get it by Christmas, so my photos are awesome!

Rudolph

I have been wanting to make this guy for a year now.  I saw all the top note characters floating around on the internet.  I really like Tammy Beaver's version, so used it for this card.  This is the last of three projects were are going to make at club.  Oh, so much fun!

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: None (Can you believe it?)

Paper: jolly holiday, dsp, chocolate chip, poppy parade, whisper white, black

Ink: early expresso, poppy parade

Accessories: dimensionals, brads (other), decorative accents bigz die, top note bigz die

Punches: 1" circle, 3/4" circle, large oval, curly label xl

Techniques: big shot

I am trying to video tape my brayer classes and a YouTube video this week.  My parents and sister are coming on Thursday for the weekend, so I have to get busy.  I have club on Friday night too.  This is a great week.

Santa Pillow

Happy Black Friday!

I hope all of you who celebrated Thanksgiving had a happy one.  Today is Black Friday!  I don't even go close to the stores today.  Do you?  Are any of you the die hard Black Friday shoppers?  I stay home where it is safe and warm.  I might do some internet shopping.  That is my favorite type of shopping.

The boys and I are going to put up our Christmas tree and decorations while listening to Christmas music.  Oh, so much fun!  I love this time of year.

This is the last project I made at Kim's house this month.  Isn't Santa a cutie?  It is a pillow box for a special treat.  Love it!

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: none

Paper: real red, whisper white, blushing bride

Ink: blushing bride, bashful blue

Accessories: googley eyes (other), cotton ball (other), pillow box bigz die, scallop circle bigz die, dimensionals

Punches: 5 petal flower xl, 3/4" circle, 2 x 1 3/8" XL oval,

Techniques: 3d

Dotted Scallop Frame

Remember how I loved the dotted scallop frame I made at Kim's house.  I decided to make a card for our next club meeting to show my members how to make it.  In addition, I created a YouTube video for you too.

Here are two Peace, Love, Joy versions:

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: all holidays, baroque motifs

Paper: cherry cobbler, certainly celery, old olive, holly jolly dsp, very vanilla

Ink: crumb cake, old olive, cherry cobbler

Accessories: petals of plenty impressions folder, 1/4" old olive grosgrain ribbon, vintage brads, dimensionals

Punches: dotted scallop ribbon punch

Techniques: basic stamping, 2nd generation stamping

Christmas Collage

This is another card I made stamping with Kim.  It is the Christmas Collage stamp set in the holiday mini catalog.  We stamped it in soft suede, but it looks like gold ink.  I like how it turned out.  It is the first time I used the waffle paper from the holiday mini too.  Fun, fun, fun!

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: christmas collage, teeny tiny wishes

Paper: cherry cobbler, very vanilla, garden green

Ink: soft suede, cherry cobbler

Accessories: gold waffle paper, dimensionals, Markers (cherry cobbler, pink pirouette, garden green, pear pizazz, daffodil delight, so safron)

Punches: modern label, word window, 1 3/4" circle

Techniques: watercoloring with markers

Christ Is Born

Thanks for all the Anniversary wishes.  We had a nice and relaxed weekend.  I even got to take a nap on our anniversary.  My hubby is awesome!  He knows I love naps.

Guess what?  I have all my Christmas cards made.  YES!  This is the earliest I have ever been done.  Ah, what a good feeling!  When I went to an all day crop with my sister a couple weekends ago, I made 20 of my Bethlehem brayer cards.  Whew!  That took all day.  I am not one that likes to mass produce a card, but I love the way they turned out.

I was going to make 20 of the snow scene cards I posted a couple of weeks ago, but I just don't have the time.  I cut all the materials for that card, so I had to think of what I could make to use the mats and photo corners I already cut.  I remembered the card I loved on page 42 of the 2010 Idea Book and Catalog with the set Christ Is Born.  It was perfect for the materials I already had, so I made a similar card.  I love it!

  

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: Christ is born

Paper: all from my stash (non-sU)

Ink: night of navy

Accessories: poppy parade marker, really rust marker

Punches: photo corners XL

Techniques: direct marker

Happy Anniversary

It is our Wedding Anniversary today!

11 years and lovin' every minute of it!

Love ya, HON!

This is the most recent photo I could find of us without the kids.  Boy, we need an updated one.  I am much grayer (especially since I don't color my hair any more) and WISER.  I call my gray hair...wisdom hairs.  I earned every one of them.  LOL!

Kind Thanks

Oh, I had so much fun at Kim's last night.  She had three great projects for me to create.  This is one of my favorites.  Don't ya love that frame?  Oh, I have that punch and can't wait to make another card with this frame.

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: french foliage, thank you kindly

Paper: crumb cake, cajun craze, very vanilla

Ink: cajun craze, crumb cake, chocolate

Accessories: textured plate kits #4,

Punches: dotted scallop ribbon, border, modern label, copper brads

Techniques: basic stamping

Such a Sweetie

Thank you for all of your well wishes.  They helped me a lot.  I have been taking two hour naps in the morning after I drop the boys off to school, and I am finally feeling better.  I even planned a stamp night with my friend, Kim on Thursday...YAY!

I wanted to show you how sweet my Tate is and how he has such a big heart.  As I was lying on the couch Monday night nursing my sore throat and watching the movie Precious (so sad), he kept asking me when I was going to bed.  When I got to my room, I figured out why he was so concerned.  He made me this heartfelt card to cheer me up and BOY....IT DID!  He is such a sweetie!

I keep all the handmade cards my family makes for me, so this is going to be on my desk for a little while, then tucked away in my card album.  Love it!

Here is a sneak peek at the last card of the three card series I made for my first brayer class, Beginning Brayer.  Now, I just have to work on a date, time and pdf file to give you the specifics.  I will start that tomorrow.  Hope you like this peek:

Now, It's My Turn

Hello, Everyone!

Well, I nursed my boys back to health and now it is my turn.  I have a sore throat.  I just can't get myself to sit down at my craft table right now.  Maybe, I will try tomorrow.  My throat is fine as long as I don't swallow, cough or talk.  I think my family likes the latter....LOL!

I found this cute cartoon for you.  I like it, because Tanner likes giraffe's.  He loves to touch necks, especially if he really likes you.  He has done this since birth.  This one is for him and to give you a little chuckle.

The poll is closed regarding the Ustream classes and YouTube videos.  It looks like YouTube won 24 to 9.  I think I will take this week off unless I started feeling better.  Next week, I will resume my YouTube videos and I will throw a Ustream class in from time to time too.  Thanks for voting!

Have a great day!

Fast & Cute

First, thanks for voting in my poll about videos.  If you haven't done so, please do.

I am still working on creating cards for my brayer class.  Here is a sneak peak of the second one.  I have just one more to create.

Since I am working on a class and getting ready to go to my sister's for the weekend, I haven't had time to create thank you cards.  I needed a couple, so I decided to use My Digital Studio's designer cards to help me out.  Here is one of the designer cards that come with the software.

Cute, eh?  I opened up My Digital Studio, then selected the designer card I wanted to use.  Here is how it looked in MDS (My Digital Studio).  The only thing I altered was the knot that was on the ribbon.  I deleted it, because I knew I was going to add my own ribbon.

Hard to see the borders, because the card is white.  I saved this and opened up Adobe Photoshop and copied the card front four times, so I could get four cards from one sheet of cardstock.  That looks like this:

Once I printed it, I cut the card fronts apart and had four cards in a jiffy.  I love the way my SU ribbon fits perfectly over the ribbon on the designer card.  Stampin' Up! designed the embellishments to be the exact size of the ones you have at home, so you can create hybrid cards.  Love it!

I am catching up again today.  It feels that way lately.  Tanner was home from school yesterday with bronchitis.  We got Tate back to school yesterday.  YAY!  Today, both boys are well enough to go, so I am running errands and cleaning.  Have a good one!

Until the poll is closed I will continue with my Ustream classes.  Here is my next one:

Survey and Stuff

Hello!

I have a few things to share with you today.

1.  I have a survey on the left sidebar and would love your input.  I have some crafters that have asked me to resume my YouTube videos.  I don't have time to do both YouTube and Ustream classes right now, so I would like to know what you would like to see the most.  I will work something out for both depending on the results.

2.  I have had a request to show how I videotape from above for my Ustream classes.  Here are some pics of my set-up:

Luckily, my hubby is in a band and he has an extra mic stand.  He put this together for me and I just leave it together and transfer it from one of my crating tables to my desk on class night.

Here are some close-ups of the camera:

I have one of those flexible tripods you can put around a post, chair, etc.  It is attached to the mic stand.

View from above.

3.  I am working on a brayer class for Paper Craft Planet.  I have one of the cards, designed and have a couple more before I set a date for the class and release it.  It will be live on Ustream, so people will be able to follow along and ask questions.   Details to follow.

Here is a sneak peek at the first card:

4.  My wonderful camera, Canon 20D decided to call it quits last month.  I am selling some of my stamps from the past in order to raise money to get a new one.  Please see this post for the ones I have available.  Email me at clearlyinspired@gmail.com, if you are interested.

Come To Bethlehem

I love, love, love this!  I had this card in my brain (scary), since I took Michelle's brayer class, and saw this stamp set in the 2010 Idea Book & Catalog.  Oh, My!  It turned out exactly how I imagined it.  I am going to try to mass produce about twenty of these next weekend at an all day crop I am going to with my sister.  I want to send this card to my family this Christmas.

I have the set, Christ Is Born on order, because I am going to stamp all the sentiments inside my card.  Of course, the poinsettia doesn't fit this one, so I will have to use it on another card.

Oh, this is the Come To Bethlehem set I used.  The wise men, Bethlehem and the star are one stamp.  I had to do some precise cutting to get these images apart the way I wanted to use them.  That means I have the cling mount set.  

Valentine Simply Adorned

I wanted to give stampers coming to my workshop more Holiday options for their Simply Adorned Charms, so I made one for Valentine's Day.  This insert is from the holiday mini catalog on page 31.  I changed the location of the sentiment, because I used the 1 1/4" x 1" charm.

I used the new Filled With Love stamp set on the last page of the holiday mini and the single stamp, A to Z on page 140 of the 2010 Idea Book & Catalog.

I love using My Digital Studio for creating my flyers for workshops.  Here is the one I created for my Simply Adorned Workshop.  This is one of the designer 8 1/2 x 11 pages.  I tweaked it just a little to fit my needs. 

I need to start creating my calendars for Christmas presents.  Wow!  Christmas is just around the corner.  I have one Christmas present purchased already.  I try to shop early.  The only problem with that is I find more things to buy......ha ha!

I am taking Tate back to the doctor today.  His ears still hurt and he has a stomach ache.  I hope they can get this under control.  He has never missed this much school.  He hates doing homework all night to stay caught up with the class.

Snow Scene

Thanks for all of your well wishes for the boys.  Tanner is back to school and not coughing so much.  Tate is still home, but I think he will be okay to go back to school on Thursday.

Since I was home all day with Tate yesterday, I took the morning to create.  Oh, I needed that!  I made a new Valentine insert for my Simply Adorned charm that I will show you tomorrow and a brayer card.  I was inspired by this card from Michelle and knew I wanted to use my stamp set, Welcome Christmas for a winter scene.

I just can't seem to add ribbon to these cards.  I tried, but it distracts from the scene.  I love how this one turned out.  This one can be used for the holidays or anything in the winter time.  I haven't been able to part with my brayer cards yet. 

Next weekend, I am going to an all day crop with my sister.  I plan on making a few of these and other brayer cards for my Christmas cards.  Stampin' Up has released some great holiday downloads.  Don't forget....you can use these with Adobe Photoshop too.

Nurse Mom

Hello!  I have not fallen off the earth.  I have been busy and not creating (sniff sniff).  My parents were here over the weekend.  I like to just hang out with them and not create.  We had a nice weekend.  Then.....Tate had a sore throat on Saturday and Sunday.  It developed into an ear ache in both ears that had him up crying in the middle of the night Sunday.  I took him to the doctor on Monday and he has a really bad ear infection.  He is on meds now, so hopefully that will get better.  This morning he woke up with a slight fever.....Ugh!

Tanner has a croupy cough, which is fine during the day; however, he woke up last night and coughed for over an hour.  I just sat there and held him until he went back to sleep.  Needless to say, I haven't been creating.  I have club tonight and Friday night, so they boys will be quarantined upstairs.

I did want to continue to inspire you to create, so I am sharing a beautiful card I saw at the Regional Stampin' Up meeting I went to last month.  Remember....I didn't make this.  I will probably CASE it some day.  I love this stamp set Day of Gratitude and the matching Specialty Designer Series Paper, Autumn Spice.