Embellished Journal

This is an ordinary notebook that has been
covered in card stock and
embellished.
I think it makes an inexpensive and
one-of-a kind gift.



Happy Winter Sampler

I completely stole this sampler idea from my sister,

Penny Thomas.

The stamp set used has retired and

 is one of my all-time favorites. 

I think it might have been one of the very

first sets I bought. 

Love that little snowman working so hard to stay warm.

Beautiful concept, Penny!



Snow in a Jar!

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned how much I

LOVE Pinterest. 

I steal ideas from it daily.

Winter scenes inside jars are so popular these day.

I have these two sitting on my kitchen window.

It's the only kind of snow I enjoy!

Not a fan of the cold weather,

but these guys cheer me up on cold dreary days.

Ho Ho Ho!



This little banner hangs on the back of my front door.
All the squares are adhered to the pretty striped ribbon.

The letters were cut using the
Big Shot Die Machine.

Santa and Rudolph were made with punches.

I love walking by the door and seeing them there.

Happy-making!

Family Christmas Invitation

Steve and I are hosting the family Christmas party

this year.  I have to admit, I am a bit stressed already!

 

I saw this sweet snowman on Pinterest recently

and couldn't wait

to make him part of our celebration. 

He'll be on the front of the invitations I am sending.

Who could resist that face?

"And the stockings were hung..."

This little cutie is just big enough

for a chocolate nugget

inside.

Love the tiny clothespins.

Golden Tag/Card

Is it a tag?

Or is it a card?

I saw a version of this card on Pinterest,

and decided to add my little flair to it.

The tag is heat-embossed with gold embossing powder.

The butterflies are punched from gold

Glimmer Paper.

I Punched Santa!

If I could figure out how to turn this around,

you could see how stinkin' cute this little

Santa tag it. 

All done with punches.  

And the Christmas Season Begins....

I absolutely LOVE tags.

And I absolutely love this one.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thankful.

Kickapoo State Park Beauty

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Perfect Blend Gift Card Holder

Stamp set is called

Perfect Blend.

Perfect for a coffee shop gift card!

Coffee Sour Cream Container

Inside this little sour cream container

are two Starbuck's ready-to-brew coffee packages

for someone special. 

The stamp set used is called

Perfect Blend.

 

Postage Collection

BRIGHT Blossoms

And I do mean BRIGHT Blossoms!

 

Flourishes and Pumpkins

Monogramed Wedding Card

Pumpkin Sampler

I love samplers.

It's such a pretty way to decorate for a holiday or season.

This one is just pumpkins.

Using the

Large Oval Punch

and the

Sweater Weather Designer Paper,

I placed them in an 8" x 8" frame.

Just needs whip cream!



Wedding Card Envelope

When giving a gift,

I think the unexpected is fun.

With this wedding card,

I wanted the envelope to be just as special.

Using

Vellum Card Stock,

I punched several pieces from the

Blossom Punch.

I cut some of the petals away

and started to form a 3-D flower.

Inside is a Pearl and Rhinestones

on the tag.

Now THAT envelope is going to be noticed!

Tiffany Box

This little box was made using the

Simply Scored

scoring tool.

The theme for the wedding shower,

(yes, another one!),

was Breakfast at Tiffany's.

So, I thought the famous

Tiffany box as appropriate for the

gift card I enclosed inside.

It was decked out in bling using

Silver Glimmer Paper.

(I couldn't figure out how to turn the picture

of the gift card around.  Still learning Windows 8.)

Love that bow. 

I think Holly Golightly would too.  

Mrs. Grim-Reaper!

No projects today.

Just a picture of my beloved flower garden.

Steve and I have spent so many hours on our front porch

enjoying the pretty flowers. 

I am in a panic now because my flower bed has

 become the home to a family of

VOLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have tried playing nice guy with them.

I think they laughed at my 'humane'

attempts at trying to get them to

MOVE.

That didn't work.

No more Mrs. Nice Guy.

I'm ready to play the Grim-Reaper now.

They are killing everything that I loved out there.

If anyone has a suggestion that will help rid

my garden of these vermin,

PLEASE

let me know.  

Gingham Kind & Cozy

Stamp sets with coffee cups speak to me.

This set is called

Kind & Cozy.

Not sure if you can tell that the card stock

has been embellished to mimic the gingham

designer paper called

Gingham Garden.

I used the embossing folder called

Stripes

and turned it both ways.

Another Invitation Ornament

I hope the newly wedded couple likes this

as much I do.

Once again, I took the wedding invitation and

cut it into strips, curled them and put them into

a glass ball ornament.

And I REALLY like the little package it went into.

So, so pretty.

Another wedding Card

I think tone on tone is so rich looking,

especially white on white.

I don't think any words are necessary on this one.

Screams LOVE!

Plugged in.....

Speaking of 'guy' cards,

I thought this one was a hoot!

Mr. Bowtie

You can NEVER have too many 'guy' cards!

This one is a favorite,

and so easy.

The bowtie part is made using the

Extra-Large Oval Punch

and 

the 1/2" Circle Punch

for the middle

and buttons.

Also, LOTS of

Dimensionals,

because I can not make a card without them!

Wedding Invitation Ornament

 

My goodness, we've had a LOT of wedding invitations recently.

 

I've taken some of those invitations and given them back!

Something the new couple may not be given are

 Christmas ornaments.

This one, I think, will be one they will especially

enjoy seeing on their tree.

I cut the invitation into small strips and curled them

into a spiral.

Then I put them into a round glass ornament and

added ribbon.

This one fit nicely into our

Kraft Gift Boxes

(page 160 of the Stampin' Up! Catalog).

I embellished the top with a pretty bow. 

With a nice check for the new couple,

I think this was a great gift.

Happy Veterans Day

Dad,

thank you for your service.

I love you.

Vintage Tag

It seems the more you glob onto a tag the prettier it becomes.

This one is a CASE

('cuz that's what I do best)

of one I found on Pinterest.

It was for a wedding shower gift for someone who loves purple.

Looking past the purple part,

I really think it came out romantic.

The sad part about making tags like this,

is I think the recipient is more interested

in what the gift is and may not appreciate

the time spent making the tag. 

But that's okay. 

 I enjoyed making it and of course will

do it again and again.



Happy Spiced Pecans

It doesn't take much to add personality to a little gift.

As much as I've fallen in love with using jars,

I've also become a big fan of making pretty tags.

These little jars of spiced pecans are just so happy looking.

Jarred Kind & Cozy

I've become addicted to projects that include Mason-type jars. 

I think they are fun to use as a container for a gift.

I noticed one in the Stampin' Up! catalog on page 82 and

completely CASED it.

I needed a last minute gift and threw this together.

Inside are stamped note cards and envelopes, 

using the stamp set, Kind & Cozy.

It turned out so cute I hated to give it away.

Me...again....

As you can see by the date, a lot of time has passed since my last blog entry.  I'm not quite sure why, but I am still stamping and have made some projects that I would like to share.  So, for the next few days, I will post pictures, (if I can remember how to do that now that I have the lovely Windows 8), and hopefully you will like what you see. 

FIJI!

 

Recently, I had the fantastic opportunity to visit Nadi, Fiji, with my

sister, Penny Thomas. 

She is such a talented demonstrator with

Stampin' Up!

and earned the incentive trip there.

Her husband was unable to go,

so she asked me to travel with her. 

It took all of two seconds for me to

get YES! out of my mouth.

We had a wonderful, relaxing time together.

The place is unbelievably beautiful.

 

 

Every morning we would have breakfast while looking at this breathtaking scenery.

 

 

French-pressed coffee, pastries and flowers.

I could get used to this!

 

 

 

The view from our room.

Not bad, huh?

 

 

We took an excursion called

 Nadi Places and Faces.

One of our stops was a local vegetable market.

The colors of the unusual fruits and vegetables were

eye-catching!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

 

We were lucky to be able to visit an actual village. 

 I believe the name of it was Buda.

One thing we found was that the people all over Nadi

were so very friendly. 

They genuinely wanted us to enjoy our visit.

We did!

 

This is the house the chief of the village lived in. 

 

Another visit was to an orchid nursery originally started by

Raymond Burr of Perry Mason fame.

Since his death, it was turned over to the Fiji government.

It was unbelievable.

 

 

 

 

 



 

Back at the resort, we had to have the

obligatory drink with an umbrella!

We are in Paradise, of course!

 

Mountains and the South Pacific.

I know, we had it rough.

 

 

Thank you, Penny. 

You've given me something amazing.

It was a trip of a lifetime!