Working on Christmas Cards

yayyyyyyyyyyy,

I am so happy to finally begin working on some Christmas cards. I've pulled out my Christmas stamps, baubles, ephemera, and stuff and am ready to go. This was prompted by a challenge on a Facebook group to make Christmas tags. Since my Christmas items were already out and I knew I wanted to get started making Christmas cards...what better time.

WOYWW you asked?!! Well it seems whenever I craft, my desk morphs into a total mess, stuff gets buried, and I waste time looking for it.

I will be pulling a collapsible table into my craft room to set stuff on so not to overcrowd by desk and be unable to find things. I will have to cover it because we use for seating during the holidays.

I've only completed 3 cards using up scraps. I'm not ready to break into another pad and add to the scrap pile. I'm off to a good start. Last year I had the idea to make Christmas cards, but that did not happen [at all].

Well back to Christmas Card making.

Happy Wed-nes-day.

:)
Anita

Happy New Year

Hello All and hope you had a joyous Christmas and that your New Year is a blessed one. I am claiming blessings for my household in 2014.

I am finished moving; thank God. Moving is tiring and strenuous work. Getting everything back in its place and trying to find things. The one thing I did not like about moving....NO CRAFTING. I put everything into my craft space and I am still getting it together. I need another expedit from Ikea. Even though they hold quite a bit, the ones I have are not enough and since I wanted to keep my bookshelf (the walmart/target kind) I don't have room for 2 large ones. There's nothing wrong with it so I don't want to throw it out.
The bookshelf stills needs to be [better] organized...HA!. Once I get the other expedit, some of that stuff will come off along with the clear paper containers on the floor. I liked them when I got them, but now realize they take up quite a bit of space. The brown paper on top of the clear storage was packaging from when I ordered things. I now use it to cover my desk when I'm art journaling and then I cut it up to use it in the art journal. The bells on the third shelf are being packed into the Christmas stuff. I will be using them next Christmas on a wreath. Let's see if I can find them then.

I kept my fabric storage chest that I got for I think $20 from a garage sale. I need to start using some of the fabric. I've got scrap fabric in the garage that I need to use or toss. The lamp on my desk...I'm so proud of me. I found it at the Goodwill back in November. I paid $7 for it. Around Christmas time, we went to a few antique stores and I saw the same one for $30. Yippee Yippee Cah Yeah....I luv saving...money for other crafty things.

I have not really been in my craft room a lot other than to "try" to get it organized. I did make a few cards. I made a Christmas card for a neighbor and a thank you card for a young lady at church.
For the Christmas card, I used the Stampin' Up lovely as a tree stamp and snowflake embossing folder along with Tim Holtz Distress Ink . To get the look of snow, I dipped a toothbrush in bleach and flicked the bleach onto the stamped image. The 2nd card I can't remember if it was a Raisin Boat stamp or another. I think I may have used another stamp ...it was Fiskars Latte Love stamp. I started making a few cards using the Raisin Boat but they aren't done.

 

 

Other than that, no crafting. I'm itching to play in my art journal but it won't be today. I took down the Christmas decorations yesterday and today they need to be back in the garage, but I've got to attempt to get it semi organized to get it in there.

Hope you all are having a wonderful day and it's a new year and a new time to celebrate and another day to give God praise.

Be Blessed

Card Swap

Hi All,

I am so excited. I particiapted in my first ever event...a card swap over at Scraps of Color. It was a bit of a challenge getting all the cards done due to a family matter, but I met the deadline. The card design is not what I originally had in mind, but due to time I had to change it. I like the end result. I can't wait to see what I receive in the swap.

The cards are A2 size, which IMO made it easier and quicker to make. I did not use a lot of embellishments because I wanted the card to be easy and inexpensive for others to mail them.

I chose colors/themes you'd find in a male necktie/shirt or complimentary.

The theme was birthday cards. I used a tan base with black, browns, and whites.

I used a sentiment that I found on the web, not sure where and made it brown to match the card. I border under the sentiment is the scraps of paper that were left from cutting the paper to size. I thought this would be a good way not to add to the already mess of scrap paper I already have.

The envelopes, I stamped brown with Happy Birthday sentiment to match the card and give it a bit of uumph.

I still have not learned to write down what paper collection or stamp set I'm using. But I will definitely do it for the next card (no promises).

Hope you enjoyed the card as much as I did and I'm looking forward to doing a challenge where I only make one card.

Thank you card

Hi all,

It has been a long week, but I'm glad to be back home. The past weekend I went to my granny's funeral and it was as difficult as I thought it would be. An amazing and loving woman. I moved a few months ago and the new tenants were nice enough to bring mail that had still been delivered to the old address to our home yesterday. Thank God for kind people. Inside the stack of junk and magazines was this thoughtful card that was sent in April.

This was quite a nice surprise. The card is beautiful. It also has a bookmark (dream, imagine, create, inspire) attached that I will be using. I am enjoying my Stampin' Up products but want to use them a bit more. I like how the note is a pull out from the card and the card can be reused/resent. Thank you Cybil.



Just wanted to share my nice surprise I received in the mail.

Have a God blessed weekend.

I have been busy

Hi everyone and welcome to this beautiful Saturday at Chocolate Purples.

It's the weekend and I finally completed some cards and got them mailed out. The inspiration for this card came from Random Acts of Creativity. I've learned that I need to create a calendar that sits on my desk that has b-day's, anniversary, holidays...at a glance for the month. I need to work a month ahead.

My mother's day cards were late, well some on time and some late.

I liked the butterfly on the card, I thought it made it real summery and you know butterflies like flowers

I got to use some brads and ribbon that is always out of sign. The sentiment I did on the computer. The inside has coordinating card stock. For me it finishes the look of the card.



This card gave me a fight. I tried using glue instead of using up my adhesive and the glue would not hold. I had to apply it maybe 2- 3 times, but it finally stuck. You can see the warps/waves in the embossed layer. Not sure what I did, but it adds a bit of uniqueness to the card. I was happy with it. I was excited to finally get to use some of my Stampin' Up stamps. I used the same sentiment for both cards. I used the spellbinders (I believe labels 9).

I also made an envelope for the inside of this card. I'm trying to use up/recycle the packing paper that comes in the packages. I used some fiskars scissors to make the edge a bit more frilly.

This card was a last minute card. I usually send my aunt a birthday card. I got the calendar reminder, but got busy doing other things and totally forgot to send one.
I have tons of cards that I've bought over the years for last minute sending, but since I started making cards, I wanted to send her a handmade one. It's simple and I hope she likes it.

My mom's birthday is Monday, and I made her a simple card. The floral paper is what I liked most and wanted to use on the card. I didn't have any brown bias tape so I used some Tim Holtz vintage photo to die the ribbon and it came out pretty good. The card has a more vintage look than what I was going for, but overall I like it. 

I want to get more organized, I want to start sharing with you all what papers and embellishments I use. I'm so excited and proud of the work I do. I must admit, I don't always like the outcome and am sometimes challenged coming up with an idea, but I'm learning so much.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great weekend.