Holiday Card Catch-up {days 6, 7, 8}

What is it about the weekends that just makes it so darn difficult to find creative time?! I always go into the weekend with high hopes of spending several hours in the stUdio. Oh, well; it feels good to be caught up on my card-a-day's. So here they are:

Day 6 A little hand-made felt snowman sitting in a felt snowbank.
The snowflakes are heat embossed.

Day 7

I've had this snowmanfabric kicking around since my sister and I

went crazy one year with gifts in a jar topped with fabric covers.

I cut out the square and ironed it to a piece of Pellon fusible fleece

to give him a little quilted look. I sewed him to a mini card and frayed his edges.

The BG is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder,

and accented with some doodles with a Sakura glitter pen.

The checkerboard is also a piece of frayed fabric.

The snowman piece opens to reveal a photo and/or greeting.

Day 8

Taking a break with a simple, graphic card. Not too much going on here--perfect for mass-producing. I borrowed a color scheme from a card I made several years ago (Not Quite Navy, Ruby Red, More Mustard, and Old Olive). Just some punches, brads (with a smash of the hammer), and a stamped sentiment.

Well there you have it. Being caught up feels pretty good! Be back tomorrow with another one. Thanks for looking!

Holiday Card No. 5

I hadn't given much thought to today's card until late this evening when I glanced over at a Dunkin Donuts coffee cozy sitting on my desk (I indulged in a pumpkin spice latte the other day--sooo, sooo yummy!). A few snips with the scissors, and voila! letters for the card. I've had this wide printed snowflake ribbon sitting in my stash for at least two years now. I think I used some of it on some gift wrapping, but still had some leftover. It turned out to be a great background to glue my letters. I stitched the ribbon to the kraft cardstock, then zig-zag stitched the Kraft to some red, applied some rub-ons, mounted the whole thing on a white card base and called it done.

This one would not be too hard to mass-produce, but that would be an awful lot of coffee to drink between now and December!

{Sorry for the poor quality of this photo, but I wanted to stay on track and get it posted tonight. I'll reshoot it in the morning.}

A Giveaway!!

Ford Warriors in Pink have partnered with Martha Stewart Omniliving to design a beautiful stamp set, whose entire net proceeds benefits Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

This set features 13 inspiring symbols:

etched on high quality rubber and mounted on stained, hardwood blocks.

The set also includes 6 ink pads and is held together neatly in a designer tin.

Martha Stewart featured these stamps on her show to create beautiful stationery. You could use these stamps to make ornaments, gift tags, cards and more.

I am thrilled to be giving away TWO of these sets! Please leave a comment on this post and I will randomly draw two names one week from today (Thursday, November 12th at 9:00pm EST). I will post the winners here, so please be sure to check back.

Ford creates limited edition Warriors in Pink apparel and accessories featuring important symbols signifying the message of hope, strength and unity in the commitment to the fight against breast cancer. Ford donates 100% of net proceeds to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Please check out the Ford Cares Warriors in Pink shop for lots of great holiday gift items, including this stamp set.

Holiday Card {day 4}

Today's card has a touch of alpine rustic charm: a bit of paint, a dab of distress ink, and some stitching. Here's how I did it:

1. Type up the words to 'Twas the Night Before Christmas or email me for my text copy and print out.
2. Cut out your tree shape from your printed text (I used the Sizzix Pine Tree, but you can just as easily cut a simple traingle shape).
3. Distress the tree--spritz with walnut ink or similar mist, paint on some strong tea or coffee, smudge with ink.
4. Let dry then add a bit of green acrylic paint. I added some gel medium to mine, but you can also create a wash with just a bit of water.
5. Distress a piece of vanilla cardstock (more ink, spritz, paint, whatever you have).
6. Use a paper towel roll and some red acrylic paint to add the circle.
7. Stamp your greeting in the circle (use post-it ntes to mask if necessary.
8. Add stitching to the tree and the edges of the vanilla cardstock and adhere to the red card base.

I like how the tree sticks out from the background. This was a super fun card to make. Do I want to make 85 of these? Um, maybe not, but I am really liking this one. The inspration for this came from the Anthropologie catalog I received in yesterday's mail. It's loaded with all kinds of die-cut book pages. So much eye candy!

If you've been working on some holiday cards, please link them up in the comments. I would love to see them!

Hotel Pool: Method Playground challenge

This week's Method Playground challenge is all about magazine inspiration. I love thumbing through magazines and catalogs and tearing out bits of inspiration from advertisements or drawing up a quick sketch based on a magazine layout.

Here is my inspiration piece from a baby boutique guide I picked up when I was pregnant with baby #3. I tore out quite a few of the ads from this to add to my inspiration binder.

I love the playful overlapping circles and the happy combination of colors. Here's my take:

The page is built on a gessoed piece of duck cloth canvas. I love working with this fabric. It's sturdy like cardstock, but takes the paint and stitching a bit better than paper.

So how about you? What magazines or catalogs will inspire your next layout? Give it a try and don't forget to post it on the Playground (I heard there may be a rocking RAK up for grabs--just a little inside scoop for you!)