Secret Santa, continued again...

...yet another day's gift - this one filled with chocolate!

In a previous post a few weeks ago I posted the last secret santa gift, a box filled with gift tags... hope she enjoys:)

Secret Santa, continued...

...another secret santa gift...this one, a journal..

Secret Santa

Every year at work we have a week of Secret Santa where we get someone's name and either give them gifts throughout the week or a big gift on Friday. I found a great Friday gift at a local giftshop called Creekside and decided to make some little gifts for the other days of the week. This snowflake ornament is one of them:)

Matching Gift Tags

In my last post, I told you that I was trying to use up Christmas supplies I had before buying new, so it seemed natural after making my card swap cards to use the scraps and make a few gift tags. I've put a few in with each of my swaps for fun this year:)

Christmas Card Swap

I finished my cards for this year's Christmas card swap. I tried not to get too complicated this year - the last couple of year's I've had some finick-y parts to my swap cards that took forever when you're trying to make 12-14. Also, this year I used what I had so there are 3 different colour themes to the cards.

Actually, I haven't purchased any Christmas dsp this year (well 2 sheets that I haven't used yet from the LSS, but that can hardly count;) I still had more than enough paper from the last year and the year before that I told myself I wanted to use up first.

I was inspired by a layout from the Sunny Stampin' Studio on these. The card base is textured SU cardstock (in real red/old olive/chocolate chip) with snowflakes from the Holiday Collection clear embossed on them. The DSP is all from last year's SU collection and the sentiment comes from the Holiday Collection as well. This was actually part of the Country Living Holiday Collection which I didn't purchase last year but rather this year for less than $20 (including all sorts of dsp, chipboard, glues, glitters, ribbon and the stampset) - now that's a good deal!

Happy Birthday to my Rockstar Husband!

...I love you more than words can say!

Joy Fold Christmas

Beate reminded me of the joy fold in a post last week, so I played around with the idea on this card...

Top Note Box

Splitcoast featured this tutorial as part of their holiday tutorial blitz and so here is my interpretation...

Club

We had stamp club this past Wednesday, and it was fun to get together with the 'girls' - especially since I missed last month. Here are a couple of the Christmas cards we made.

One more...

This is another sympathy card I made last weekend. It's more than sympathy...more like compassion...or my heart goes out to you...(sigh) once again - I just don't have the right words..

It's never easy...

It's never easy to find the right words to say or the right card to make when someone looses someone dear. I guess you just do your best and wrap them in prayer...

A2 Card Box

I've been looking at the Christmas Blitz tutorials on Splitcoast over the weekend and only had time to try this one. I'm not completely happy with the tags inside... I tried using a colour that I just don't seem to use. I guess I'm just not a big fan of 'bermuda bay', so I made myself use it in this project;)

Sympathy Card

A friend of ours had a death in the family on the weekend. I always have a hard time making a sympathy card. Words frankly just do not convey enough - so on this one I just tried to use colours and images that would hopefully be something my friend would choose....

Happy Anniversary, Les!

7 years ago today, I married the man I love...and today, I'm more in love with him than ever! Happy Anniversary, Les!

I tried to capture the feel of Paris in this card since for our anniversary we were able to go there, but without necessarily using any of the icons of Paris... The buildings have this yellow hue of aged plaster that my husband and I both liked, so that is where the colour inspiration came from...also clocks are a big part of architecture there and seemed fitting for anniversary card celebrating a marking of time.. All supplies were from Stampin Up except for the ribbon and charms. I picked up the charms (there's one inside too) at my LSS and the ribbon was a find on ebay, that I've had in my stash fover (big bolt!)

Dear Reader,

I'm not sure if I was missed, but wanted to apologize for how long it's been since I've posted... A dream came true and my husband and I went to Paris! We got back a bit ago, but then our daughter got sick and so crafting hasn't been happening lately...and I miss it! But I LOVED Paris! Our 7th anniversary is tomorrow, and each year in October we usually try to get away, just us two, usually somewhere within driving distance of here. This year, by God's grace, we were able to do Paris:) I'll be back tomorrow with the anniversary card I'm making for my husband...thanks for visiting my little blog!

Sherri

Christmas notecards

These are little 3 x 3 notecards...bravo burgundy and not quite navy...with sparkle a la crystal effects & dazzling diamond glitter (all supplies SU):)

Christmas Tags, Part IV

...isn't that one of the best uses for scraps, tags...this is getting addicting;)

Christmas Tags, Part III

...more playing...even trying to use my scraps;)

Christmas Tags, Part II

...and the playing continues:)

Christmas Tags, Part I

I saw these adorable Christmas ornament stamps and punches that I wanted to order to make Christmas tags with, and then I thought, 'that's crazy! I have lots of things here that I mean to make tags with and I never seem to get around to it.'

Well, I finally got around to playing;)

We Need a Little Christmas...

As I said, it snowed here this past week, and so it kind of got me into the spirit of making Christmas cards. I'm still loving my new medallion stamp, so this time I gold embossed it:)

Happy Thanksgiving

Another thanksgiving card - this one for our friend and neighbour:) This is the first time I've used razzleberry since I got it - I had to, I think her favourite colour is purple;)

Emboss Resist

Another thanksgiving card today...this one using the emboss resist technique. You clear emboss your image and then sponge it with ink.

It has snowed here...before the trees in my yard even turned fall colours - so I have to get my fall colour in my cards;)

Friendly Thanksgiving

This is a card I made for a dear friend for Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving is this weekend:) I used the SU medallion stamp (I just love it!) and my earth elements spots. Cardstock is dusty durango, soft suade and very vanilla.

Christmas Card

This is my first Christmas card of the year! I was totally inspired by Andrea, but didn't have the same supplies, so adapted to what I had. Recently I had gotten last year's Country Living kit from SU (and for like $11!), so I decided to play with those stamps - and low and behold, the large snowflake fits perfectly in my scallop punch and the small fits in one of my smaller flower punches! I used Crystal Effects to glitter it up a bit too:)

Pumpkin Placecard

I got the idea for this pumpkin placecard/picture holder from Busymom. The idea was just too cute not to try:) She enlarged her punchouts, but I made mine with round tab punches the way they are:)

World Cardmaking Day

Saturday was World Cardmaking Day - and I didn't even get to make one card - can you believe that?! So you know I did what was necessary to steal a few minutes today to make one;)

It's just a simple thank you card inspired by my new fleur de lis embossing folder (Cuttlebug folder through Big Shot Machine) :) Cardstock and ribbon are all from SU (soft suede, basic black & very vanilla).

Colourful Fall

It's so beautiful outside right now! The trees spectacular in their colour, and so I couldn't resist making this card:) I took inspiration on this from Andrea at Sunny Stampin'. I saw a card on her blog last week using an orange, red and yellow for the leaves - I had different cardstock on hand than she used, but I totally love these colours together (dusty durango, riding hood red and crushed curry). The 'leaves' were made using SU's 'Darling Dots' stamp set and an assortment of circle punches.

Home Organization

Stampin' Up came out with some designer file folders and gusseted envelopes this fall that caught my eye, but $14.50 for 12 file folders did not catch my pocketbook, if you know what I mean;) Still, I found myself looking at pages 116 & 117 of the idea book more than any of the others...the 'organization collection' -- and while I decided against ordering the file folders and envelopes mentioned, I simply HAD to HAVE the 'Favorite Things' stamp set (loved the journaling stamp and loved that there was a stamps where you could check of whether something was 'for..today..tomorrow..another day..or..NEVER - something in me LOVES that *NEVER* is an option - we'll just call that the administrative rebel inside me;) Well all that to say, that I took inspiration from those favoured pages of mine in this fall's idea book to create my own organization solution for incoming bills, filing to be done, medical receipts to be submitted etc and this is the result.

The file folders I used and embellished further came from Michael's ($1.50 a pack - and they have a French flare:) I housed them in a basket also from Michael's ($8 - on 50% off - and I think it coordinates well!) I also altered a folder into a notepad holder for the notes I made when I'm paying bills, etc. I used the 'Favorite Things' stampset throughout - and you'll notice that I altered one of the stamps because to me it's NOT 'all in the details';) This was simple and fun to put together and I'm sure I'll add to it or adapt it further as time goes on. Already it's been an improvement on my previous organization system:)

Pillow Box Bucket

I made this using last week's Splitcoast Tutorial. It is made out of 3 pillow box dies! I love finding a new use for something I already have - you know! Lynn from The Queen's Scene came up with the idea! Thanks so much, Lynn!!

Altered File Folder/Notepad Holder

I've see several of these notepad holders on the blogs I visit, so I had to try my hand at one. Most people have been using SU's new modern file folders which I haven't ordered. I made this one from a Mary Engelbreit folder. It fits a 5 x 8" pad inside and has pockets to hold stuff:) I got the file folder that I used in a pack at Michael's quite a while ago. Here's a tutorial for making these:)

Sketch Book

This is the sketchbook I made with Kristina's MACM a couple of weeks ago. I'll probably play with it a bit more yet, but I love having a place to sketch my cards out. The DSP, border and journaling tag are all from Basic Grey...I believe it was called 'bittersweet'.

Diorama

I made this diorama at club too - the windows were created with the 1 3/8" circle punch and the 1 1 /4" circle punch.

Club

Last week I went to the first stamping club of the season - which was a good chance to "play" with new things. Here is one of the cards we made... Thanks again, Nicole!!

Good Works

This card was intended to have a tissue flower on it...a tissue flower that didn't work out...oh well, I like the colours;)

Merci

This is a recent thank you card I made for a friend who loaned me a bag of goodies to help me brush up on my French. Tres bonbon!

Pumpkin Basket

I saw the idea for this adorable little pumpkin basket on Becky's blog, but I didn't have the punch she used, so I thought, what do I have that might work?... and I have a large (but not huge oval punch) - so I punched 7 of these for each pumpkin (one on each side of the basket) and voila! (If you have the really big/wide oval punch, then you only need 5 ovals:) It's pretty stinkin' cute - even if I do say so myself;) I dtp'd the edges with red ink to give a bit of a shaded effect. Paper was last season's tangerine tango from SU and the handle is attached with brads.