Holiday Gifts for teachers at work

Thanks to Angelina Clark over at http://intatwynedesigns.co.uk, I made these cute holiday gifts for the teachers at school.

Instead of the gift card aspect, I simply made the top into a card.

When I took these photos I added a cheap copy of Ferrero Roche, but I have since switched them out for the real thing!

Then I found this lovely idea to make snowman tea lights. I'll add where I found the idea later, since I've forgotten at this time. Anyway it was pretty easy to make these two gifts, and I'm sure the staff at work will love them.

Now I'm getting busy with making the 31 student gifts. I'm making 2 types of decorations for them. When they are finished, I may make a tutorial for them.

Happy Valentine's Day

I had a lovely day on Thursday when we celebrated Valentine's Day with the kindergarten kids. It was a PD day for parent/teacher interviews on Friday so we had to share on Thursday.

We had an assembly that included some singing, some information on famous black Canadians, and some dancing. We also had Crazy Hat day. What a shame there are no photos of mine... NOT!

I made those dear little owls for the children, and some of the parents that let their kids look at their Valentine boxes, (tissue boxes with tissue paper and hearts), came to me to let me know they loved them.

The children did a few Valentine activities, which was good because it was an indoor recess due to the wind chill factor being -32*c brrrrr. I handed out my little treat boxes to the staff, with chocolate inside. The free cutting file for them is here. Thanks SVG cuts.

My favourite card that I received from the kids was this one, (I know we aren't supposed to have favourtes, but those ugly dollar store Disney ones are nasty!)

Handmade, just for me. LOVE IT!

And now here is the card I made for my son, since he is the love of my life, always.

I used the Cuttlebug Script embossing folder on the dark purple cardstock, 3 other purples for the banners, and the Lovey Dovey stamp from Stampin`Ups A Little Somethin` and 3 little purple jewels.

I LOVE the way it turned out. I bought him a red mug and a chocolate cake as well.

Happy Valentine`s Day Everyone

Long overdue card making.

I seemed to have lost my mojo for all things crafty, lately. I am assuming it's this long cold miserable winter!

I set about last weekend to making a few cards, not because I wanted to, but because I thought it would help inspire me to find my motivation. It didn't!

I made a card for my niece's daughter, Talia, whose birthday is March 23, and a card for my dad, just telling him I was thinking of him.
I found the sketch for Talia's card at Freshly Made Sketches after seeing it on The Redheaded Crafter's blog.

Talia's card. She will be turning 5 this year.

Flip it card for my dad. I miss him, and he has been on my mind a lot lately.

Once I brought the Stephanie Barnard stamps out, I thought I might try something simple with them, and came up with this. I found a honeycomb embossing folder at a craft store recently on sale and used it after stamping, then went over it with yellow ink on a sponge.

Then I tried the same stamped image on top of a hexagon shaped Happy Birthday stamp I found at the same sale.

I didn't like the way it turned out. But it was worth the try anyway. 

I am hoping that I can get excited once again for card making, scrapbooking, knitting, book making, or any of my other crafts that I usually enjoy.

What helps to inspire you?

Cards

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I didn't go out much due to a little annoying medical condition, that has now been corrected with medication. So it gave me some time to think about cards that I wanted to make.
First one is a Christmas card using Stephanie Barnards Framelits Flip it card die. I love it, as it is pretty easy to put together.

I got to use up some Martha Stewart Christmas papers, I've had for ages.
Then I saw a Happy Birthday card on Pinterest that I loved using the Cuttlebug Happy Birthday Embossing folder.

And finally a Fall card that I will be sending to some of the people on Papercraft Planet who are in a card swap group I am in. This was my own design, using a Fall stamp set that I have hardly used.

Winner

Well I had hoped for an increase of traffic and comments to this blog, and it happened. It wasn't as much as I hoped, but more is more!

Before we get to the winner, I wanted to share an attempt at making some vintage cards. This really isn't my forte, but I have had stamps for over 5 years that I have never used and wanted to give it a go. I also bought a new stamp set recently that has vintage style stamps.

I'm sending this one to a friend who loves to cycle.

When I saw this sentiment I knew this image had to go with it.

This is so cute, but I am nervous about the white space. My son said, "leave it as it is!"

And finally this one, I change the colours to black and cream, then muted the cream with some ink. This one is for a challenge over at Mojo Monday. I had another sentiment in mind, but I can't seem to find it! The typewriter stamp is from the set I bought over 5 years ago.

Mojo283

You may have noticed the background paper is printed paper. The Last time I was at BizzyB, my local scrapbook store, they were offering free books to craft with. So I figured I should use it.

Now for the winner of the stamp set:

glitterbird said...Well Mary, You already know my favorite beverage. I drink it every day. probably too much,but then again I think it is an innocent vice.

Congratulations glitterbird, the stamps will be on their way very soon.

BIRTHDAY GIVEAWAY!!!!!

As mentioned in the previous post I have a stamp set to give away in celebration of my upcoming un-birthday (February 29!). My plan is to hopefully boost my followers that will in turn, encourage me to post more often!

Before the giveaway, I want to share something I whipped up early this morning.
I am a member of Paper Craft Planet, and one of the groups I signed up for last year was Secret Pal. Over a period of a year you are required to send your pal 6 cards. I sent many more and a gift here and there to my secret Pal Anne in Denmark. At the end of the year it was revealed who your secret pal was. This year I am signed up to Random Happies. I can send cards to whomever I want at any time. My birthday is coming up at the end of the week, and so Anne sent me a huge package in the mail.

2 packs of paper, a Christmas elf stamp, a Union Jack embossing envelope and 20, count 'em, 20 different bags of tea!

This morning when I got up I went to the kitchen and decided to have one of those teas. I chose the English Breakfast, because it was morning and, well, I am originally from England! As the kettle was boiling I realised I needed to put the teas away, but at the same time I wanted them out so that I will use them. For me out of sight really is out of mind!  As I poured the water onto the teabag I got an idea. While the tea steeped, I cut down a cracker box that was destined for the recycling bin, and covered it with a sheet from one of the paper packs Anne sent.  Then I added the milk, just a touch, to my tea. I took out a punch and found some Thickers and this is what I came up with.

Then I sat down to finish my tea! It really was that quick.

I am also a member of another group, Crafter's Tea Party. Each month there is a challenge and we send another member some tea. So the teas I have received will also go in this box that will sit on my counter, near the kettle.
Did you know tea solves most of the world's problems?

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY

To be eligible just:

1. Follow me either through Google reader or email, (check the right panel)
2. Leave a comment about your favourite beverage (and a way I can contact you)
3. Share this giveaway on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

That's it.
I will make a random draw on March 3rd.

GOOD LUCK

Happy Family Day

In Ontario, Canada the 3rd Monday of February is Family Day. This is a relatively new holiday (2008), mainly, I think, because we need a holiday in the dreariest month of the year! There are a few other provinces that celebrate it, as well as a few other countries.

Other than my son, all my family live in England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland.  My son is busy at school, so this year I was my only family around. I decided to do what makes me happy and made some cards for family and friends.

I had gone to my favourite store, Home Sense/Winners and found a few paper craft bargains that I snapped up.  One of which was this stamp set.

There were 3 sets in the package, I didn't check them out, because it was a deal at $4.99, and I loved the bicycle. When I got home I saw that there were 2 of the same "Hello There" sets, so I am planning on a giveaway in exchange for more traffic to this blog.  Stay tuned!

After my trip to Home Sense, I went to another favourite store, Deserres. It is an art store, and I was given a bunch of gift cards, when I left my previous school at the end of July.  There I found 2 more stamp sets that took my fancy, and snapped them up quickly.

I have only used one set so far, but love these stamps.

For my friend in England who is about to get chemo

Another one for my friend about to have cancer treatment.

Adorable, right?
Here are a few others that I worked on this weekend:

I've had this embossing folder forever. My son bought it for me, this is the 2nd card I've used it for.

Found this idea on Pinterest, but mine is better! (of course)

I bought this die at Home Sense for $3, but I'm not in love with it.

Thinking about Spring!

I think this is the card I'm sending to a friend for her upcoming anniversary.

 

Don't forget to stay tuned for the giveaway coming soon!

Queen of Hearts

Today I have this card that just came together because the sketch from Mojo Monday was so inspiring. I basically just copied it. But I knew the exact stamp I wanted to use for it. I bought a bunch of Alice in Wonderland stamps in the summer while I was in NY state at a stamping convention. They were unmounted, and I was told I didn't really need to mount them, I could use double sided tape. Well in the end I did mount them, as I felt they stamped better. So 6 months later I finally got to use this stamp.

I am using these cards, (I made 4) for birthday cards for my friends over at Paper Craft Planet on Anything Goes Group for Random Happies.

Inspiring Sketch from www.mojomonday.blogspot.com

 The inside sentiment is another stamp that I got at that convention says, "If I were queen everything would be different"

Black cat for luck?

When I posted a picture of my cards that I made last month on Facebook, a friend of mine asked, 'Where's my cat?'
I wasn't sure what she meant but today I set about making her a set of 6 cards using the image of a cat I purchased a good 18 years ago and have never used!!

I used a white card base 8x5.75 then ran it through my bigshot with an embossing folder, then I added a black cardstock piece 5.5x4.25 to the back. This allows my card to have the black background I want but not making the inside of the card black.

Black and White

LOVE these cards. Black and white always looks so clean and sophisticated.

Stamp by www.stephaniebarnardstamps.com. Butterfly punch by Marthastewart.com. Scrollwork embossing folder from Provocraft.com

Flowers stamp by Autumn Leaves. Swiss Dots and Animal Prints Alligator embossing folders from Provocraft.com

Stamps by www.stephaniebarnardstamps.com

Not Black and White, but could easily be. Stamp by www.stephaniebarnardstamps.com. Divine Swirls and Measure By Measure Scrolls Embossing folders by Provocraft.com. Pearls from The Dollar Store

New cards with Stephanie Barnard's Trees4Christmas stamps

I love this set, I think it is quite versatile.

I still have at least 40 more cards to make. I may have already missed the mailing deadline.