In a few days, I'll be leaving to visit a friend I haven't seen in about 8 months. I'm planning on bringing her a hostess gift, along with this cute little card:

Since I didn't have time to follow along with the Holiday Card Boot Camp, I'm trying to catch up now. This card was based on a tutorial from Day 3, in which Jennifer McGuire created a pretty window card. I didn't have the same supplies she used, but I substituted a few things and I'm quite pleased with the result.

I wanted to do something for this week's extended CAS-ual Fridays challenge. The sketch is simple and lovely, and I really wanted to work with it. Here's what I came up with:

My best friend's sister just passed the Bar Exam, and I wanted to send her a pretty card to acknowledge her accomplishment. I wanted a fun, feminine feel to the card, and this is what I came up with:

I'm relatively new to Pinterest, having only created my account a few weeks ago. Already, it's become one of my favorite daily digital stops. Pinterest is a "virtual pinboard", a way for people to share photos of all the wonderful things they find on the web. And then, in true social media style, everyone else gets to see and enjoy those things, too.

After spending some time (all right, a LOT of time) on Pinterest, I realized my love for the site comes down to these 5 reasons:


1. Inspiration. I don't know about you, but I'm always on the lookout for things that inspire me. Maybe not consciously, but if I see something that catches my eye, I'll immediately start thinking about ways I can use it. Can I make a card using the color combination in a piece of fabric? Can I create wall art from an old magazine? Can I decorate a cupcake using the general shape of a scrapbook felt flower? On Pinterest, I can find more ideas than I know what to do with!


2. New pretties, all the time. Every morning when I log in to Pinterest, I'm amazed by the wonderful things that are showing up in my feed. It's a little bit like reading the newspaper to learn what's new, except instead of being bombarded by bad news, I have beautiful things to look at and absorb. I can't think of a better way to start my day.


3. Learning about myself. I've never really given much thought to my style. I know what appeals to me, but that's about it. Ever since I've started browsing Pinterest, I've started making sense of the styles that call to me. For example, I didn't realize I like vintage and "shabby chic" motifs and much as I do. And I wouldn't have thought I liked grunge designs, but I really do! Armed with this knowledge, I can use those styles in my own designs and push my creativity more than I would otherwise.


4. New project ideas. When I started out as a paper crafter, making a card seemed difficult. Now I'm contemplating branching out into other crafts. So when I see something I'd like to do, but don't think I have the skill to pull it off yet, I'll pin up the project idea on Pinterest. I'd love to go back next week, next month, or even next year, and try my hand at some of those more complex projects to see how far I've come.


5. Collecting recipes. I've tried many different ways of organizing recipes I've found online... from bookmarking them to importing them into software specifically created for that purpose, nothing's really worked for me. But Pinterest allows me to pin up the recipes that interest me, and then shows them to me using mouth-watering images. They say you eat with your eyes first, so what could be better than seeing a bunch of incredible looking food when looking for something to make for dinner tonight?

These are just a few of the reasons I find Pinterest a wonderful website, and wholeheartedly recommend it. I'd love to hear from you... Do you have an account? Do you love it as much as I do?

For this project, I wanted to keep things as simple as possible. Originally I'd envisioned just a simple stamped image, but, well, I couldn't resist adding a button, some twine, and a bit of ribbon just to brighten things up a little.

When we bought our house nearly 3 years ago, one of the most important criteria was office space. Since my husband and I work from home, it was imperative that we both have offices we love. Over the years, I outgrew my space, especially as I became more involved in my crafting hobby.

I'm sure all of you know exactly what I mean when I say that my crafting supplies started spreading on the floor, against the walls, and all over my desk like weeds! I loved being surrounded by all those colors and textures, but finding anything in that mess was a real challenge.

And then hubby decided he'd had enough, and insisted it was time I had an office upgrade. Well, who am I to argue?

We spent all of last weekend putting together furniture... And this was the result:

I love challenges almost as much as I love swaps. Not only do I get to try new things and push my creativity to the limit, but I also get to see how other people interpret the same theme. Their end results are always so different than mine!

Today's Splitcoaststampers challenge required participants to use three colors, plus a neutral white or vanilla. The colors (using Stampin' Up names) were: Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, and Marina Mist. Furthermore, we were asked to use these rather non-traditional holiday colors to make a Christmas card, if possible.

Here's what I came up with:

I spent the entire day putting together a whole set of new furniture for my office/studio. I'll have pictures to share next week, once I have everything set up just the way I want it.

In the meantime, here's a quick, drive-by post showing off some new artist trading cards I've created. All of these were made for various swaps.

It's my dad's birthday on Monday. His present is a gift certificate, so I knew I wanted to create a card that also indicated the present was inside... even if it didn't double as a gift certificate holder.

And this was the result:

I take part in a lot of swaps. There's something about being given a particular theme and asked to create that brings out the best in my inner artist.

Today, I sat at my crafting desk with the intention of making an artist trading card for a swap. The theme was simple: glitter. I love glitter, and I knew I wanted to use it in a number of different ways.

So this was born:

I signed up for the fabulous Holiday Card Boot Camp, but life interfered and I didn't get a chance to start watching the videos until today. I'm giving myself a personal challenge of crafting one card for every instructional video I watch as part of the class, and here's Card #1.



It's quite a bit different from Kristina's example, but that's one of the things I really love about participating in these types of workshops. We can all be as creative as we want with the materials we have!

I used kraft cardstock, which I stamped with a Fiskars Layer Away Dots stamp using Versamark ink. Then I cut out two pieces of pattern paper from Basic Grey's Nordic Holiday collection, and used two different distress inks on them. The strip on the right is stained with Tim Holtz's Evergreen Bough Distress Ink, and the one on the left is stained with Tim Holtz's Iced Spruce Distress Ink. (These are both part of his limited edition holiday set.)

I added a sticker from the Reflections Dimensional Stickers Christmas Set, then punched a hole in the front of the card and tied a piece of SewEasy Fancy Floss from their Glitter Tertiary pack into a bow.

Finally, I punched another sheet of pattern paper from Basic Grey's Nordic Holiday collection, and stamped the sentiment using Colorbox Frost White ink. The stamp is from Inkadinkado's Christmas Characters stamp set.

And that's it for Card #1!

I love swaps, especially themed ones. Like challenges, they test my creativity and allow me to go outside my comfort zone. Very often, I'm surprised by what I create and usually very pleased. That was the case with this little gem:

My husband's birthday is in two days, and I realized I needed a card to go with his gift. Since I had been working with the lovely Jillibean Soup September Card Kitchen Kit all week, I decided to use some of the papers and embellishments in that package for this card.