A few cards

I was able to stamp a couple of cards over the last few days. My daughter has been busy playing Guitar Hero World Tour (to which she is grounded from that today because she didn't want to get up this morning but that is a different story), and my husband has been busy building more ink storage units (more on that later). So I was able to stamp. I looked in my birthday card box and saw that I hadn't made one for my father-in-law yet. His birthday is in a little over a week now, not to mention that they are coming to visit in a couple of days so having it for him when he gets here would be a good thing. So I went through my sets and found my favorite chef, Voila! Since my father-in-law likes to cook (dutch oven mostly, which his dutch oven is yummy! but that is off the point) I thought this would be perfect. I really had no clue what I was going for but I'm pretty sure this wasn't it.

Although I do still like it, it just wasn't quite what I had in mind. Maybe it's the cake colors that are throwing me off. I don't know. I paper pierced the zig zag pattern and the faux stitched using my BB marker from SU because I couldn't find a thread that matched. Stamp set: Voila (SU); Cardstock: Bravo Burgundy, Basic Gray (SU) PTI White; Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black; Accessories: Copic Markers, Crafter's Tool Kit, Bravo Burgundy Marker



Next came my Nephew David's card. He will be 5 next month and I wanted to do something different then what I have done for all the other nephews (I try to do an original card for each one if you couldn't tell, that's the joys of stamping.) I have done, frogs, pirates, cupcakes, fish, birds, etc. so I was kind of stumped. Then I looked at my Crazy for Cupcakes set (which the cupcake card that I did was for a nephew on my side of the family so technically I could have done a cupcake card for David). I saw the balloons and decided those would be perfect. Well, like I said, he will be 5, so I had to do 5 balloons.

The colors are off in this (sorry, still trying to get used to the new camera, oh, ya, I got a new camera!!, more on that later too) so the lighting is bad. I couldn't find my post-it-notes so I couldn't do actual masking so instead I stamped my 5 balloons and then colored 3 of them, then stamped the other two on another peice of CS and then colored and cut the balloon part out of each and peiced them over the original balloons. I know, it would have been easier to just find the post-it notes. (I have since found them, I cleaned my craft room yesterday). The ribbon is actually artichoke not black like in the picture. Stamps: Crazy for cupcakes, On Your Birthday (SU); Cardstock: Tempting Turqiouse, Only Orange (SU), PTI White; Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black; Accessories: Copic Markers, Ribbon

This last one (like so many of my cards) looked so much better in my head. But it still turned out o.k. I wanted to do faux framing cause I haven't done that technique in ages. So I cut out my template, laid it over the white card, sponged my ink and then stamped with my stamps. I did get a little of the ink from the stamps on the top of the card so I just covered up those oopsies by DTPing the top edge and added some ribbon. I also added a few brads and a sentiment as well.

Stamps: A Rose Is A Rose (SU); Cardstock: White (SU); Ink: Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Old Olive, Black (SU); Accessories: Ribbon, brads (SU)

I did make a recipe tin but I forgot to get a picture of that, I also did a scrapbook page but the pictures of that turned out not so good so I will retake that and take a picture of the tin and I will post those another day.

Now for the new camera news. Can't beleive I didn't mention this sooner. My sweet hubby knows I have been wanting a new camera. As you know a couple of months ago I went to Utah to see my family (most particularly my daughter who lives there with her dad). At the end of the visit I went down to Cedar City to visit most of my husband's family (his oldest brother and his family weren't there but everyone else was). My husband met me there and then we came back to NM together. Well while we were there another of my husband's brother's had his camera out and was taking family pictures of each of the individual families as a present for my mother-in-law. I got to use his camera to take some pictures of him and his wife together. It was so fun! It had the continuous shooting feature and was just a blast to use. The problem was, his camera (since he is a photography major) is expensive. Well, after much discussion and research we decided that a Canon Rebel Xsi was the way to go. It is a step up from what my brother-in-law has so yes, it was more expensive (it's actually the same camera he will be upgrading to very soon, and he is the one who recommended it). We found a great deal on Ebay for the camera and a bunch of accessories (to include lens, filters, tripods, etc.) for a little more then the retail price of the camera itself. The problem is, I hate spending money, ecspecially on myself. Well, my sweet husband decided to buy it for me. When I told him that we had already gotten our Christmas presents he said that it wasn't for Christmas, it was an early Valentine's Day gift to make up for all the occassions he has been gone for over the last 5 years (since he has been in the Army). Sweet huh? I love my new camera. I am still getting used to it and some of my pictures aren't the best lighting wise. But I'm getting the hang of it. *grin* Yes, I do have the best husband in the world! Speaking of him, I will post more on the additional ink storage units later. For now, I have to go bug my daughter more. She still hasn't gotten up. Ya, grounding her from the Wii for the day really worked....

Merry Christmas!

It has been a great Christmas. As my husband pointed out this morning at 10 a.m. when our daughter was still sleeping, this was the first Christmas in years where we were all together just the 3 of us. In fact, the last time was the 2nd year we were married. (We have been married for over 7 years now). Someone has always been gone on Christmas, whether it was my husband with a deployment, or my daughter being at her dad's (we share her on the holiday's normally). So it was great having all 3 of us here. Yesterday we had our Christmas dinner and then were getting ready to play a game. The neighbors came over so we had to postpone the game temporarily. While Jacob and I were talking to them Tammy decided that she was bored so she turned on Jeff Dunham's Christmas special (we DVR'ed it a few weeks ago). I walked in and this is what I saw, I just had to chuckle. In the background, our pretty tree, filled with family ornaments to include several nativity ornaments. In the foreground, Achmed. Nothing says Merry Christmas like Achmed The Dead Terrorist:

After we finished laughing our butts off we settled down to play a game. Clue Mysteries


The dog decided he needed to join us (he cracks me up!)




We also enjoyed the glow of our tree
I took this picture just for fun. It took forever for my daughter to decide to wake up, in fact we ended up waking her up at 10:15. (She fell asleep with her santa hat on for some reason, she's a teenager, I don't pretend to understand her)

Before we woke her up we made our Christmas breakfast of Cinnamon rolls. (we like things to be relaxed and easy on Christmas so it's Cinnamon rolls for Breakfast and leftovers throughout the day)

After everyone was awake and fed we opened presents.

Of course we started out with stockings. Speaking of which, Tammy loved her new one:



She kept rubbing it and commenting on how long it must have taken. I told her she was worth it. We decided to get the family a Wii this year and we each got a few other things as well. The only one that didn't know about the Wii is Tammy, so to start out the excitement we wrapped one of the controllers and put it in her stocking.

We spent the rest of the day playing games and napping. We also got to talk to some our loved ones on the phone. It really was a good day. I hope everyone else had a fabulous day.

For now, it is bedtime so A Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

150+hours, 2 months of work, an it's finally done!

If you are a regular reader of my blog you know that I have been working on a stocking for my daughter. The stocking is cross-stitched and very detailed. It took over 150+ hours, and 2 months. But I am finally done! YAY! Just wanted to share some quick pictures of it.

I have posted this before but thought I would again. The pattern came from this book that I got at Hobby Lobby. It has 15 of the most gorgeous cross-stitched stocking patterns I have ever seen.

And now for my daughter's stocking. (I used the font pattern from another of the stockings because I used my daughter's actual name and not her nickname so if I had used the font that was for this stocking it wouldn't have fit in the area allowed (it was a scroll type font) I am going to use the font for all of our stockings actually.

And a detailed shot

And a pic of the back (so it's not the whole back but a detailed shot. Gonna use this same fabric for all of our stockings)

I am going to take some time out of cross-stiching and then in a month or so I will start on my hubby's stocking. Not bad for my first stocking though.

ETA: I had a question about the stocking so I figured I would answer here so if anyone else was curious they could see the answer too. The question was whether I used a premade pattern and if they sell those. I actually bought a book that has patterns and then cross-stitched it. Then I cut around the finished pattern and sewed it from there. It is fully lined as well. It was actually easier then I thought. However you can find some stocking kits with all the peices. They are about $30 normally and can be found at most craft stores. I couldn't find any this year so that is why I bought the book.
Thanks for the sweet comments everyone. My daughter actually hasn't seen it yet. I am going to wrap it and put in her old stocking for Christmas. Get it? Her new stocking is a stocking stuffer. LOL I crack myself up!

Been awhile since I posted a cake

So it has been a while since I have posted a cake that I have done. It has actually been a while since I have done a cake at all. O.k. not totally true. I made a couple of cakes for a Christmas party at church a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't take pictures of them.

But tonight is the Christmas party for my husbands company. A bunch of drunken soldiers. What a fabulous time it will be! *rolling my eyes*

Anyhow, I signed up to bring a cake and when the 1SG (First Sergeant) found out I was bringing one and that my husband had signed up to bring something as well he said that no matter what, I had to bring the cake. *blush* He has apparently heard about my cakes and he is anxious to try it.


A couple of weeks ago I bought some disposable cake pans and one of them had a picture of this cute snowman cake. So I used that as my inspiration. The "snow" is covered with edible cake glitter sprinkles. Because of the sunken cake pan I couldn't use my letter press set for the writting so this was done freehand.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Look what my honey made me!!

So a few weeks ago I posted the new ink storage that my husband made me. It was not completely finished at the time. He still had to build the drawers for the bottom. In the meantime I was looking for marker storage for my SU markers and my Copics. Well, the one thing that I found that I would like the best were these Xcubes from Office Depot. I know several people who have them and they work really well, not to mention look nice. My problem was that I wanted something to match my ink storage. Reason being, when we buy a house next year I want to be able to over time build my dream craft room. The cabinetry in that room will be white, which is why my ink storage is white. So I wanted my marker storage to be white. I guess clear cubes would be close enough, but I still wasn't satisfied. So I showed my husband the Xcubes. On my birthday last week he surprised me with this:

They are very similar to the Xcubes but are made out of wood and painted white to match my ink storage. There are 8 cubes in all, 4 on each side of the storage. The great thing about this is that I can put them in any configuration that I want because they are 8 seperate peices. I don't have enough to fill all 8. I told my husband that, and his response was, he planned it that way. That way I have room to put new markers as I get them. What a husband!

As if that wasn't enough, this last weekend my honey had time to make the drawers for the ink storage unit.

As you can see the ink refills just nestle nicely in there. There are 4 drawers in all, one for each SU color family. Perfect!

So what does the entire unit, refill storage, ink storage and marker storage look like?

Seriously! How awesome is that? I am so completely thrilled! Don't you love it?! I know I do!! It turned out so much better then I imagined! Thank you honey!!

ETA: (August 8, 2009) Because we are getting ready to move in a few weeks and have to get our new home ready for our ammended home study for our adoption (nope, haven't been chosen yet, just trying to get the word out, hopefully soon though!) we have decided to temp. stop selling these units. If you would like to be put on a list to be contacted when we do start selling them again, or if you would like pricing information, contact us: crownscreations at yahoo dot com.

A card, a Stocking, a Ball, and a tree

A few months ago my husband went to my daughter and told her that he wanted to give me a hand made card for my birthday but asked her if she could make it (since she loves to do that kind of thing and he really doesn't.). She excitedly said o.k. The other day my hubby handed me the card. I love it! She is becoming quite the stamper! She used the Grumpabella from Stampin Bella along with some Gable Green and Orchid Opulence CS (cause purple and green are my favorite colors) and colored the bella (the robe is turqiouse which is her favorite color. hehe) and she added some light green brads. The sentiment is from It's Your Birthday (SU).

I had absolutely no clue, which is saying something because neither of them can keep a secret. It was a pleseant surprise and I love it!

Speaking of my daughter, as you know I have been working on Cross-Stitching Christmas Stockings for the last little while. I haven't made a huge amount of progress on T's, but it's getting there. I haven't been able to work on it as much as I would like but that should change soon. I would really like to have her's done by this Christmas.

And a shot of the details so you can see what it is taking me so long!

So anyhow, last night was the 8th Anniversary of my first date with my hubby (he actually remembered that, not me. I knew that our first date was on the 5th of Dec. but yesterday for whatever reason it didn't click that yesterday was the day. I know, I'm brilliant, aren't I?) So anyhow, where we live does a Holiday Ball every year for those that live here and since our unit just got here we were included. J got dressed up in his dress greens (similar to Class A's but instead of the green shirt and tie it is a white shirt and bow tie) and I did my hair and makeup and put on a nice gown and we went to a ball. It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend the anniversary of our first date. On our first date we went to dinner and played miniature golf afterwards. We doubles with his brother and his brothers wife (who also happens to be my friend, she is how hubby and I met). This picture was taken at our house just before the ball last night. We did get a professional photo taken there but we won't get those for several weeks.

And just for kickers, I thought I would post a pic of our Christmas tree this year. It doesn't look as good as what it has in years past, but still not bad. That and we got a new tree this year, not sure we like it. We'll see.

One Layer Christmas Cards

On SCS there is a thread about Easily Mass Produced, Flat, Wow Factor Christmas cards. I was reading it and came across this link posted by AmyR. Her cards are GORGEOUS! Just screaming to be CASE'd. Who am I to ignore the call so here is my version.

Even though I have the Snowflakes set (it is one of my all time favs. and always will be), I wanted to use Snow Swirled. I started off by stamping the larger of the snowflakes in Elegant Eggplant (stamped off on Scratch paper once) onto my Whisper White CS. Then I stamped the snowflake just smaller in Elegant Eggplant as well. (This time not stamped off.) Next I stamped the sentiment in the lower right hand corner using Versamark and poored my Silver Embossing Powder and heat set that. For the inside I stamped the sentiment using Elegant Eggplant, next stamped the snowflake (stamped off twice) and then the smaller snowflakes (stamped off once). I love how these turned out. Thank you Amy for the inspiration!

I had so much fun creating those that I couldn't stop stamping. So I looked at my sets and my eyes fell on Riley. Riley needed to be used on a card. I stamped Carrying Tree Riley (from Hanna Stamps) onto the Whisper White CS using black ink. Then I colored him with my Copic Markers. Stamped the sentiment on the bottom (sentiment from SU hostess set Best Yet) I'm not sure how mass produceable these are unless you really like coloring, but I made 5 in about an hour, with a phone call and a visitor at the door in that hour. So not too bad. I'm still getting the hang of my copics, but I think I'm getting there. I did have to put a peice of cardstock on the back of the fronts because of the seep through that you get with Copics. I haven't gotten any of the Gina K paper yet, but I will. Then I won't have the seep through issue. Until then, cardstock on the back works.

All of these cards are so much better in person. Sorry for the bad pictures. We really need a new camera.....

The BIG 3-0!

A couple of months ago my friend Shelly posted on her blog saying that according to her kids she is now officially old because she had just turned the BIG 3-0! I told her that must mean I wasn't old yet because I hadn't turned 30 yet. hehehe

Well, I can no longer brag that I am not old, because today I turned the BIG 3-0! That's right, at 12:12 this morning I officially turned 3o! And you know what? So far I love being 30!

I spent the morning shopping. I had to find a new tree topper for our Christmas tree because the one we had is broken. I also bought some cute ornaments. I was tempted to buy a bunch of Green and Purple ornaments because they had some gorgeous ones there. Purple with gold swirly patterns on them. Gorgeous! And of course if I get Purple I have to get Green too. So I almost ended up with a Purple and Green Tree. But I opted not to go completely off my rocker and just bought some other cute ones to add to our already large ornament collection.

I then went to Hobby Lobby to look around and would you beleive, I didn't find a thing! O.k. so I did buy some Gum Paste for cake decorating, but other then that I didn't get anything. *shock*

I went to the mall too to try to find a wrap for my dress that I am wearing to the ball on Friday night but I couldn't find anything that wasn't gaudy and horrible, or would have made me look like I was way older them I am. (Explain to me why retailers think that plus size women want to look like they are 60 years old?)

I then came home after getting Subway for lunch and after a couple of hours of resting (cause I was worn out after all the mall walking, seriously, I walked everywhere in that dang mall, some of the stores I searched twice)

When I was rested I decided to try to break this stampers block I have had. After all, it's Dec. and I haven't done my Christmas cards yet. Can you say, procrastination?

I figure if you are still with me I should treat you to some cards right? So, here are the fruits of my labors today. I got the Snow Swirled set when I got my large order of goodies a couple of months ago. I haven't been able to figure this set out. I keep running into road blocks where the cards that I make look o.k. but not good enough. I think.... I think I broke through that road block today. What do you think?

This first one I did for the Color Challenge on SCS today. The colors are Sahara Sand, Basic Black and Very Vanilla. I looked through the gallery of samples of cards that had already been done and noticed that some of the ladies did Christmas cards. I was really struck by how elegant these were using this color combo. So I decided to give it a try. First I stamped the different snowflakes randomly onto the Sahara Sand using Black ink. Then I punched the bottom of the peice using the Scallop Edge Punch. I mounted it onto a Basic Black card base. Then it was onto the main image. I stamped the tree using black ink onto the Very Vanilla cardstock and then mounted it to more Basic Black. It needed something so I paper pierced around the edge using my crafter's tool kit. Sadly I don't have any black ribbon so I needed to improvise. I used a peice of black cardstock and paper pierced the edges and mounted that. Then before placing the main image I stamped the sentiment on a peice of Very Vanilla and mounted that. I added the main image with dimensionals. I am so pleased with how this one turned out. I am going to create more and this will be one of my cards for this year.

The other design I came up with was a headache and a half. I have been wanting to do a white and gold card with an embossed gold tree. After 4 dismal attempts I came up with this one. My hubby doesn't like it. He thinks it's too busy. I like it. I embossed part of the card base using my cuttlebug. The main image is embossed with gold powder on Shimmery white cardstock and mounted on gold. Gold ribbon was added. The colors are off in this picture. The gold embossed tree and the gold cardstock don't look as gray in real life.

I will share my daughters stocking tomorrow. It's not done, but coming along nicely. For now it's time to go to the store with my hubby who is going to make me a nice dinner tonight. We are going to eat and decorate the tree while we watch a Christmas movie. *grin*