String Tie Envelope Box

Good morning blog friends, it's been a long, long week. I struggled with lack of motivation for blogging, I have several bare bones posts sitting in my 'Drafts' folder, taunting me, but I had no desire to write them up and publish them. Actually, I had a couple of projects done, but didn't feel like setting up my light tent, taking pictures, editing, etc. etc. I've been working longer hours so I can carpool with Jimmy and save a big chunk of cash on gas, but it's really cramping my crafting time. And when I can't do my thing, I get grumpy, and tired, and overwhelmed. sigh...

Thanks for letting me vent, I'm done now. Here's a cute project I made using a Silhouette Store digital template for my Cameo. 

How adorable is this string tie box with little string tie envelopes? Something a little different from a traditional Christmas card. This would be perfect for sending Grandma the kid's school photos, you could attach them to the little inserts.

I just made little ATC sized cards with some Lili of the Valley stamps this time. I used 'Christmas Star', 'Set 33- Christmas Grungy Messages' and the tag is from 'Set 32'.

The papers are from the 'Classic Christmas' paper pad new to the LOTV store. 

I embellished the box with some paper 'greenery'. The pine boughs are a Cheery Lynn die, if I remember correctly. The pine cone is also made from paper, cut on my Cameo using an awesome set from SVG Cuts. I dabbed on some white Acrylic paint to the tips of the pine cone and greenery for a snowy effect. 

I love making 3D projects, and they're so much easier to make using my Cameo!

Thanks for visiting!

Clarissa and Camille Have a Cafa

Happy Bellarific Friday! I have a little gift box to show you today featuring Clarissa and Camille Uptown Girls. A couple of months ago I got my auto delivery from Green Mountain Coffee and they included a few free samples for me, a cold drink cup and a box of four iced coffee K Cups. They came in this awesome custom box that I immediately tore apart and vowed to duplicate it! And here it is...

I simply traced it onto some sturdy cardstock and cut it out. It was a large template so I had to use two sheets of paper and weld the two together after I cut them out. Boy I wish I knew how to make this into a cut file for my Silhouette Cameo! I'd love to have my machine cut it out and save me a lot of time...

Look at the inside, so purrrdddy! I love it! A simple little gift for a happy birthday wish, which is our theme this week for Bellarific Friday. 

Thanks for visiting, I hope you have a great weekend!

Stamps: Stamping Bella 'Clarissa and Camille Have a Cafa' with matching sentiment, PTI tag sentiment
Ink: Adirondack
Papers: Hammermill for stamped image, PTI, Bazzill
Tools & Accessories: PTI ribbon, Nestabilities, Copics, Cheery Lynn Doily Die, old paintbrush, acrylic paint, Scor Pal

Boys Love Cookies

Good morning friends! This month we're making stuff for the boys with circles as an optional addition to the theme. I know a lot of you have a hard time making cards for the boys/men in our lives, but I love making cards for boys! I think it's the cool patterns/textures and masculine colors. It's good to use different things than I usually do. So here's a little card and cookie tower box I came up with. The milk carton template is from the Silhouette store which I modified a bit with an oval opening so you can see the stack of cookies. I love how the Cameo not only cuts this box template out, but scores all the fold lines too! Super easy to put together.

The stamp I chose for the card is an oldie but goody, 'Milk and Biscuits' which I colored with Copics, and some colored pencils as well. I dug deep into the paper stash and came across this old SU collection with colors that were perfect for a little boy. 

I added some banners to the card and the box that I cut with dies. I don't use these nearly enough, so it was perfect for this project. 


I hope this helps you get some ideas for those sweet little boys in your life, they're so much fun. I'll have some more masculine themed cards later on this month, including the perfect card for Dad!


Thanks for visiting, have a great day!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley 'Milk and Biscuits' and 'For Him Sentiments'
Ink: SU
Paper: SU, Hammermill for stamped image
Tools & Accessories: Nestabilities, SU ribbon, pinking edge rotary cutter, Copics, banner dies, baker's twine, Silhouette Cameo

Feeling Poorly?

Hello friends! I hope everyone is well, we're past the mid week point which means the weekend is soon here. Always a good feeling for me...

I have a little project and card to share with you all today. I love this older stamp from Lili of the Valley, 'Little Nurse' and I wanted to make a get well card with a little box of tissues to go with it.  Those little packages of tissues are very convenient to have in your purse or car, but they're not very pretty to give as a little gift. They're so much nicer in this box.

I used a floral stamp from LOTV's clear set 'Folk Flowers' to decorate the tissue box. I hid a little magnet under the patterned paper so the flap stays closed.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you've gotten a bit of inspiration from your visit!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley
Ink: Memento
Paper: Stampin Up, PTI, Hammermill
Tools & Accessories: Nestabilities, EK Success tiny scallop punch, striped twill ribbon, Copics, Crystal Lacquer, Scor Pal, Spica pens, magnets

Edited to add link to template for the tissue box:


Tissue Box Template from Lady and the Stamp

Vintage Valentine Car Dangle

Good morning everyone! Well now that Christmas is over, it's time to change out the bling in my car. I worked on this dangle over the weekend for Valentine's Day. There isn't much stamping, I really wanted the vintage Valentine look so I went searching for some clip art on Etsy. After many hours trying to decided which I wanted (for this project and others, lol) I chose a collage sheet of various old cards and quickly printed out my favorite. 

From there it was fairly simple to move along with the project. Some stitched-on seed beads around the perimeter of the image, a little Rock Candy Stickles for the wings, a silver embossed sentiment from PTI, a pretty little rose from Wild Orchid Crafts that I dyed with Glimmer Mist.

The back has to look pretty too, because it dangles, sways and spins from my rear view mirror. I used another printed collage sheet and silver embossed a sentiment from Impression Obsession. I love this quote...

When you arise
in the morning, think of
what a precious
privilege it is
to be alive---
to breathe, to think,
to enjoy, to love!

So true! Here's a close look at the Swarovski Crystals I used for the actual dangle;

I get most of my bead supplies from Fusion Beads, they have free shipping on everything, love that store! These beads are the Crystal Magma color and are such an unusual shade of red, a little different from the bold, eye popping red usual for Valentine's. 


I hope you like it, and thanks for peeking in! Have a wonderful day!

Old Fashioned Candy Canes

Good morning friends! I'm winding down with the Christmas projects, this is one of the ones I've been putting off since last Christmas! You see, last year right after Christmas I saw these gorgeous old fashioned candy canes in the liquor store on clearance. I snapped up whatever they had left thinking they would keep till this holiday. Well, I stored them in a box in a kitchen cabinet and when I went to get them out a couple of months ago, they were completely ruined. Melted and gooey and icky! Who would have thought hard candy could do that? I didn't. But as it turned out, these are all natural, no preservative candy canes from Hammond Candies, so they weren't meant to last that long, lol! 

Well, I waited, and waited to see them again in the liquor store this year, and when I didn't see them I had to order them from the Hammond Candy web site. They are just so beautiful, and come in luscious flavors. My favorite is the chocolate filled cherry one. YUM! There's also cinnamon filled, gingerbread, pear, apple...

Anyway, they're so beautiful I couldn't cover them up in a box, or package, so this is what I came up with;

They're very, very big candy canes (9") so this folder style card with the cane attached is very big. Pretty, but kind of cumbersome.

How about that antique candy cane DP from Karen Foster? Is it a perfect match to these or what?! The image is from Penny Black, water colored with Distress inks and markers. I went back with some colored pencil to do the soft amber glow around the image.

The rest of the candy canes are much simpler, with just a tag attached to it. Some more snowmen, one from Penny Black again and the other from Whipper Snapper. 

The candy cane on the left is the gingerbread flavor one, and on the right is peppermint. Aren't the colors just divine! I haven't tried the gingerbread one yet, but the peppermint and cherry ones are delish.

It's off to work for me, but I've got quite a few days off this week, thank goodness, I plan on baking those snowflake cookies. Of course I'll take pictures and share them here.


Thanks for dropping by, have a great week!


Stamps: Penny Black, Whipper Snapper, Cornish Heritage Farms, PTI
Ink: Versafine, Distress, Marvy Heritage
Paper: Core'dinations, Karen Foster, PTI, Fabriano w/c paper
Tools & Accessories: Nestabilities, Amuse Studios snowflake die, Marvy/Uchida snowflake punches, glass glitter, SU tiny tag punch, sewing machine, PTI buttons, baker's twine, Tombow/SU markers, acrylic paint, SU ribbon, wide striped grosgrain ribbon, Spellbinders Labels/Lacy Circles, Sizzix embossing folder, Tonic ticket punch duo, EK Success tiny scallop edge punch, colored pencils, OMS

'Cookies' and Nutcracker in Blue

Good morning all. It was a short weekend, but- I did manage to get some Christmas shopping done. Not much, a few small things for my other half. This is a record for me, I hate real-life shopping and will usually put it off till the last minute. It's online shopping all the way for me! I love coming home from work, stopping by our mailboxes and finding surprises there. It's like Christmas every time, lol!

Last week was kind of dry for me, not much going on in the creative department. I seemed to hit a wall and couldn't get much done. Everything was starting to get stale and nothing I usually do was inspiring me. I decided to try something different...

Somehow a Family Circle magazine ended up in my mailbox, I don't know if it was a freebie, wrong address or what, but I was flipping through it a couple of weeks ago and came across the recipe section. There were the most gorgeous snowflake cookies I had ever seen and I immediately went online to hunt down the fancy cookie cutters! I bought a bunch of them, snowflake junkie that I am, but this one particular set of 5 was amazing. There were three snowflake shapes in several sizes and two small triangular cutters for cutting out the insides in pretty patterns. (See them here.) I couldn't wait to make Christmas cookies, but it's still kind of early for parties and such, so I got to thinking...

What if I dig out all my old polymer clay gear and make some snowflake cookie ornaments to hold me over till I can make real cookies? Bingo! Out came the P.C. dedicated pasta machine, clay, and roller. I wanted to make them look like real sugar cookies, so I used a beige colored clay mixed with pearl white and translucent. In no time at all I rolled out some sheets of clay and started cutting. Popped them into the oven for half an hour and let them cool. I inked the edges of each ornament with Corduroy Distress ink to simulate the golden color they get from baking. Then I went to work with the Viva Decor Pearl Pen, lines, swirls, dots and glass glitter (looks like real sugar!), added some gold cord for hanging and voila! This project seemed to bash through the creative block! 

And finally yesterday, I was back to making cards. This gorgeous nutcracker from Waltzingmouse Stamps has been a long time coming. Doesn't he look proud!

He's gold embossed and Copic colored. Kept it simple with one color family. I decided to stick with the monochromatic color scheme for the papers too. Blue, white and gold. 

I made the plaid label layer using a plaid stamp from DRS Designs as well as one of the herringbone patterns from a WMS background set. I'm lovin' the plaid lately if you haven't noticed....


So, it's a pretty good start to the countdown till Christmas, no more dry spells please!!


Thanks for stopping by.


Stamps: WMS, DRS Desings
Ink: Versamark, Adirondack, Palette
Paper: PTI, pearl stripe from The Paper Temptress
Tools & Accessories: Spellbinders Nestabilities/Labels, Martha Stewart snowflake PATP, Filigree gold embossing powder, Stickles, Copics, PTI ribbon

My new Christmas car dangle/air freshener

Hello blog friends, finally a weekend off from work for me. I came home from work yesterday so tired, the first thing I did was lay down on the couch and take a long nap! I didn't have to worry that I wasn't going to be able to go to sleep at night, and not be able to get up early in the AM. That felt good! It also felt good to sleep till 9 AM, lol.

Anyway, I needed a new car dangle for my rear view mirror, the Autumn one I still had in my car was doing nothing for my Christmas spirit, soooo-- here it is:

I 'stepped it up' this time (according to my 14 year old daughter) and made it as a car freshener as well. I first did this a while ago in this post here. The scent doesn't last that long, but for a few weeks, it smells wonderful. Since I change the dangles in my car for every season, this doesn't matter to me. Or, I could always add more scent.

I took a lot of time with this project, and I have to say it was worth it. I'm obsessed with stitching seed beads to everything, as well as hand stitching with embroidery floss. This project might look a bit familiar if you've been following my blog for a while, I made a card using similar techniques a long time ago. (See here.) Because that card was my all time most favorite card I ever made, I had to use it for inspiration on this project. 

The background papers were all stamped using a white ink resist technique I learned from Pine is here. LOVE this technique, it is one of my faves. I first stamped a piece of Aqua Mist cardstock with Impression Obsession's sheet music cover-a-card in Ocean Tides. Then I stamped random snowflakes from Peace Be Still in white ink. When that dried, I brayered over it with Soft Sky (SU) ink. I cut it out with a Spellbinders label die, spritzed it lightly with Glimmer Mist and ran it through the Big Kick again to emboss it with an impression plate. Pheww!

A lot of work, but so worth it to create beautiful patterned papers in your favorite color combinations. 


The beads are all Swarovski crystals, oh-- and some pretty little jingle bells. Maybe all the pot holes won't be so bad when I hear a little jingle every time, ha ha!!


Hope I've been able to inspire you a bit to make your own car pretties, if you have I'd love to see what you come up with! Just leave a link with your comment so I can take a peek!


Thanks for stopping by!


Stamps: Papertrey Ink, Impression Obsession
Ink: Perfect Match, SU
Paper: PTI
Tools & Accessories: Spellbinders Labels, PTI Impression plate, seed beads, self stick pearls, embroidery floss, wool felt, Swarovski crystals, silver bead cap/spacer beads, jingle bells, PTI ribbon, eyelet, Crop-a-dile, invisible thread

Christmas Cottage Gift Box

Hello everyone! 

I don't know why I waited so long to make this Three Kings box from Waltzingmouse Stamps. I suppose it looked very complicated and I was a bit intimidated, so I kept putting it off. Well, to my surprise, it was actually pretty easy! (Pssst...it's a freebie in the WMS store- here.) Sooo, I'm looking through my fresh new stamps I got last week and 'A Cottage Christmas' jumps out at me, and I immediately thought of the 3 Kings box. A match made in heaven if you ask me...

So I print out the template on some Cascata shimmery ivory paper, make some score lines on my Scor Pal, pull out the old ruler and Xacto blade and in a few minutes, this gorgeous box emerges. This would be the perfect packaging for a small bottle of perfume, or some other little gift, I love it.

The cottages were stamped and embossed in gold, then I did a little light coloring with Copics. Two of the three sides of the box have the cottage, and the third has the 'Seasonal Remedies' label. 

I decorated the top of the box with a glass glittered snowflake and some twill ribbon. The bits of patterned papers I've decorated the box with are scraps from a Kaisercraft paper pad. 


Thanks for visiting, have a great day!

Postcard from Home

Hello everyone, I love Christmas scenes. I can't stop buying them even though I have tons. They just give me such a warm, cozy feeling. Here's my latest addition from Flourishes, 'Vintage Postcard'. 

I wanted to have a soft snowflake pattern in the background of the image, so I stamped it on some Basic Grey paper that had such a pattern already. I think it's from an old collection 'Wassail'. I then went back and colored it with Copics

The frame was stamped separately in gold EP, then cut out as a frame. I love this card, and I'm keeping it for someone special! 


Now here's my latest car 'dangle' creation for Halloween:

I used Topaz, Purple and a deep Mocha beads for this one instead of the traditional orange and black, and antiqued brass findings for a more vintage feel.

The pumpkin was cannibalized from a necklace I bought on Etsy last year. 

Thanks for dropping by!


Stamps: Flourishes
Ink: Memento, Distress, Versamark
Paper: Basic Grey, Stardream, SU, PTI
Tools & Accessories: PTI ribbon, gold Filigree embossing powder, Copics, Stickles, Cheery Lynn lamp die, Marianne Creatables flourish dies

Spooky Treat Jar

Good morning everyone! Can you believe September is just about over already?! Where does the time go? 

I've been wanting to make a jar filled with Halloween treats for a while now, especially with the Ghost shaped Peeps peeking through the side. So cute! I decided NOT to make it the recipe mix, since I read the comments that the bars didn't come out so well, so I just made it a treat jar. 

Stamps are all from Waltzingmouse. I colored the Gracie tag from 'Gracie at Halloween' with Copics.

 I covered the lid of the jar with SU's waffle paper, curled up the edges and added some Cosmo Cricket patterned paper circles. 

The jar needed a 'knob' to lift the lid so I fashioned one from a glass bead and some Vintaj bead caps. 
I adhered a label stamped with the sentiment from 'Cicely at Halloween' and from 'Very Vintage Labels No. 5' to the front of the jar with some super sticky double sided tape. 


How cool would this be to give your older kids?! They come together very simply and look so much cooler than a plastic baggie, LOL. I know my daughter, who is 14, has dibs on this one.


Thanks for peeking in on my blog, see you again soon!

A Year of Flowers Notecard Set

Hello everyone, sorry I've been so quiet, working on quite a few things behind the scenes. Believe it or not Christmas comes early when you're designing cards for stamp companies. We have to be, customers want to see Christmas things with plenty of time to create in time for the holidays!

Well, this project isn't necessarily for Christmas, but I needed to make a gift for a very generous friend of ours who happens to love my cards, lol. I decided to use every one of the stamps in Papertrey Ink's YOF set to create a boxed notecard set. 

I have never made a large set of cards like this, so I knew I would have to keep it somewhat simple for the amount of time I had to make them. Instead of intricate, detailed coloring of each flower image, I opted to gold emboss and water color. I didn't have to worry about painting out of the lines with embossing, so I went to town with the markers and water brush.
Here are the December and November flowers, Poinsettia and Chrysanthemum. 

September Morning Glory and October's Marigold:

July's Larkspurs and August's Gladiolas:

May's Lily of the Valley and June's Rose:

March's Daffodil and April's Sweet Peas:

And finally January's Carnation and February's Violet:

 I made the box for the cards using the Boxer from Crafter's Companion. Pretty simple, although it took me a long time to figure out how to do it the first time. I even added a little divider in the middle of the box to keep the cards from sliding into each other.

I really hope she likes it, this was truly a labor of love!


Now I really need some input from my faithful readers, if you have a minute to leave me a comment. Here's the question I have....


Should I add sentiments to these cards? I always have the problem of making a card with a birthday, or congratulations sentiment only to be asked to change it to something else, lol. What do you all think? 
Thanks for your input!


Most supplies from Papertrey Ink

Elegant Wedding Box

We're almost getting to all the celebrations going on this week, lots of fun stuff happening! First, Impression Obsession will be having a week long CHA sneak peek party. LOTS of new stamps (new artists shhh..) The DT will be showcasing them on their individual blogs every day, so hold on to your wallets! Gorgeous stuff is coming!

Also celebrating this week is the joint blog party with Lili of the Valley/Wild Orchid Crafts. Sneek peaks of NEW Christmas stamps coming out soon, so don't miss it! There will be some blog candy to give away so come back and spin that wheel!

OK, enough with the announcements! Onto my project... I did this box quite some time ago and just never got around to posting it. I love it so I thought I'd share it with you this morning. 

It's an explosion box of course, a wedding one done in Ivory and gold. I tried to keep it simple and elegant, not too busy. 

The mums were made using punches from The Punch Bunch with instruction from a Leone Emm Floral Punch Craft book. Kind of a complicated, long process but the end results are just amazingly realistic. 

The mirror gold paper I used is so cool, it catches every little ray of light and shimmers and shines casting reflections all over the place. It drives my dog crazy, lol! 

These boxes are a lot of work, but so rewarding. I wish someone I know would hurry up and get married so I could give it away!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

Stamps: Gina K, unknown butterfly stamp

Ink: Versamark, SU

Paper: Pearl Linen, Gold Mirror, PTI

Tools & Accessories: SU embossing folder, Spellbinders Labels, The Punch bunch md. and sm. Daisy punches, embossing tool, Martha Stewart leaf sprig punch, satin ribbon, pearl brad, gold EP

The perfect summer day...

Good morning everyone! 

I've always wanted to try a diorama style card since seeing the tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers a long time ago. I am however, The Great Procrastinator..haha. Well, I could put it off no longer. I was going through some of my older stamps and came across this Magnolia background from my design team days with them. Then I came across this 'Little Girl - SwingTime' stamp from Lili of the Valley and I had a light bulb moment. It was time for a 3D card! 

I searched through my stash for a large tree stamp, came up empty. No time to buy one, I had to go with this creative spurt ASAP! So I started searching for a digi. Sure enough, I already had a digital stamp from Cuddly Buddly that had the perfect tree for my project. So I start coloring...

When it came time to assemble the diorama card, I had to do a lot of experimenting with different paper sizes because the SCS tutorial was too small for what I needed. But I was able to get the basic directions and I soon figured out which sizes I need to make a 4 1/2" square diorama. 

Now, there's only one problem with the finished result. It was supposed to collapse down so it could fit into an envelope, and it did. BEFORE I used foam tape to layer the grass die cuts! Grrr.... Mistake. It doesn't fold flat at all because of it, soooo- it's no longer a 'card', just a diorama, lol. 
Pretty as a picture though, methinks.


Thanks for looking!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley, Magnolia butterfly BG, Cuddly Buddly digital image
Ink: Memento, SU
Paper: Neenah Solar White, Memory Box
Tools & Accessories: MFT grass die, colored pencils, OMS, Stickles, Copic sketch/Spica pens, PTI rustic string, Nestabilities, Scor Pal