Covered Shaker Box & Gift Tags

I love covering these little shaker boxes for the holidays with paper, fabric and ribbon.

I first saw the idea in MS’s Living a few x-mas ago where she used them to make little drummer boxes. I decided to cover one of these little boxes to hold little gift tags using the HA set of four Christmas Circles.

I covered the top of the box with a remnant of home decorating fabric and ribbon.

The bottom side is covered with paper that has been stamped with HA’s Santa’s Reindeer stamp.

The inside is covered with paper. Here's a close up of the inside with the gift tags.

Close up of gift tags.

I would have loved to use the scalloped nestabilities that I just got last week with these tags, but I didn’t realize that I need a special mat to use with my cuttlebug.

Thanks for stopping by...

Santa's Reindeer...

Second shaker box for the HA 2009catalog win a day submission.

I covered the sides of this box with two different ribbons .
I covered the top with paper and used the Hero Arts Santa's Reindeer stamp and a reindeer head stamp by inkadinkado. I also added a little bling.

Another view of the top of the shaker box.

Thanks for stopping by...

Passion for Crafts - offering some amazing Blog Candy

Some amazing blog candy is being offered by Debbie over at passionforcrafts until midnight (GMT) through April 30. Debbie is celebrating her blog's one year anniversary. Go check it out ...you won't be disappointed... and leave Debbie a note to wish her happy anniversary!

Another simple tree card

for the Caardvark's "tree" challenge.

The trees are drawn free-hand. I first attached iron on fusible web to the back of some fabric samples from a home decorating sample book I purchased awhile back from a store that was going out of business.

I drew the tree outlines on the back, cut them out and attached them, with the tree trunk, to cardstock and then added some stitching. The "lawn" is also fabric.

I like the colors of the trees and the overall color combination, but looking at it now it looks... blah....boring. I think I needed to add some add'l buttons or maybe some little flowers...or something...to the trees.

Oh well...thanks for looking!

A very simple cherry blossom tree card…

is my creation for the "trees" challenge over at Caardvarks.

The stamp is from a set of four clear tree stamps by Flourishes. I used Versa Magic pretty pastel dew drop chalk inks and a paper towel to create the look of the blossoms.

I was inspired by the beauty of our spring here in the D.C. area and as you probably all know, cherry blossoms are big here.

Perhaps it’s knowing that this will be our last spring (for a few years anyway), so I’m noticing just how lovely it is here with all the trees, the azalea bushes and other blossoms, especially since we’re headed to pretty treeless town...

Thanks for stopping by…

Distressed...

This is another version of the card posted below. I decided to distress it for the HA distress challenge, only to realize…at…the…very…last…moment that I hadn’t used any HA stamps on the card! Glad I caught that…before embarrassing myself deeply and submitting it to the challenge!!!!

I guess I was so intent and enjoying the distressing, that I forgot who and what I was creating it for...

Maybe the HA discussion threads such have a “bloopers thread!”

Thanks for stopping by…

With Deepest Sympathy…finding the right words

I find sympathy cards difficult to send…it's hard to find the right words to say during a time of sorrow.

Creating a sympathy card is equally difficult…I don’t want it to be bright and cheery nor do I want it to be all dark and gloomy…and it has to be heartfelt.


This past week we needed a sympathy card for a young man who was my son’s age and a school mate. I wanted this card to be special…just like he was known to be. I know Hallmark has tons of cards out there with touching real life sentiments, but I wanted this card to be completely and totally from our hearts and not some mass produced sentiment...written by a group of people sitting around a table somewhere…no matter how poignant or touching.

At the same time, though, I thought…how can I possibly be doing something so trivial as making a card!!! Or…how can I possibly send my trivial creation to a family whose heart is breaking?!

I thought about this long and hard…all the while working on this card...and then it hit me! I was creating from the heart. I had thought about what I wanted to say…how I wanted to say it…and the look of the card, especially since this was for parents of a young boy. I didn’t want it to be too adult or somber...nor too bright and juvenile.

Somehow, I don't remember why...I thought about butterflies and their short but beautiful life span and went looking for butterfly poems and found this, which I absolutely love...even though I’m sure it’s written (or even mass produced) on Hallmark cards everywhere!

Thanks for letting me share…

Blog Candy...from Siri

Some serious candy is up for the offering over at Siri’s blog, which you can find here…
http://hundoghand.blogspot.com/2009/04/blog-candy.html plus she has some wonderful handmade flowers to offer. Visit her blog, leave a message and post a comment on your blog for a chance to win!

Distress…A lady in Hat

Another card for the Hero Arts Club Blog distress challenge.

The lady with the hat is by Inkadinkado. All other stamps, with the exception of “thinking of you,” are by Hero Arts. The “thinking of you” sentiment is dry embossed (with stylus and metal template) and I have the ladies over at the HA discussion threads to thank for my current success…because I’ve failed before! Thank you ladies, for the tips and suggestions…they helped!

As usual…it’s after midnight here on the East Coast so the colors aren’t perfect.

Gotta learn to make my cards…early!...before the sun goes down.

p.s. Don't look too closely at the punched holes around the scalloped edges...I was going to try and do some french knotting (just learning) and realized...it wasn't going to work.

Thanks for peeking…

This Old Shirt...

Distress Card created for the Hero Arts Club Blog using a shirt stamp by Flourishes.

I stamped the shirt on a piece of duponi silk fabric after first adhering iron on fusible web. I also tried to emboss it with kaleidoscope (sparkly) embossing powder.

I had a vision for this card...I just wasn’t sure how to achieve it. I initially wanted this to be a masculine companion card to my fantasy dress cards, but the shirt is too pedestrian to carry it off...need something like a tuxedo shirt for that. I did, however, like how it looked on the silk.

Since I didn’t know what to do…or where I was going with this card, I decided to distress the shirt to give it a well worn and traveled look. Don't know if you can see the torn pocket or collar.

I had picked up the Anyone Can Stamp clear design Travel Journal set this week and decided to have a go at it…and the card evolved from there. Not sure, though, that the shirt and sentiments really work together, but...

The speckled looking background paper is actually a sheet of sand paper...how's that for a distressed look! I inked most of the edges (even the shirt) or smudged the papers with either Ranger's tea dye or walnut stain distress inks (or both). The exception is the brown card base, which I actually burnt with a match. My son had asked if he could burn a letter he was writing for an American studies project to give it an aged antique look (funny how we're both working on similarly themed projects!) and I guess I got carried away as I love the (real) burnt paper look and feel.

I decided to carry the travel theme to the inside of the card by using two additional stamps from the clear “Travel Journal” set…I thought they'd make an interesting way to write a message...travel tips, etc. to the recipient of the card.

I decided to add two ‘remember this’ stamped circles...for more writing space.

Hope you enjoy…

And the Winner is…

[Written first thing this morning but posting delayed due to some sad news...]

Jennifer!

Congratulations…my son pulled your name out of a hat before heading off to school this morning.

Jennifer…who together with her family, is literally in the throes of a HUGE move herself…has a really fun Blog (http://jenslifestampin.blogspot.com/) with lots of great cards, recipes and tips. I’ve enjoyed reading Jennifer’s online journal and plan to return…often…for new inspiration, to view her cards and to learn how they’ve landed in their new hometown.

MUCH thanks to all who have dropped in to say hello, to wish me a happy anniversary and for all the kind and encouraging words regarding our upcoming move.

I was joking about my husband not letting me haul all my craft stuff along to Laramie, but I’ve collected way too much product and really need to purge. So I’m thinking I might have another offering or two of blog candy before we make the big move at the end of July.

Thanks again for playing and I hope to see you around…I’ve enjoyed visiting all your bogs, seeing your cards and reading your online journals. Hope you have a great day!

It’s pouring cats and dogs here and is very chilly again. (I might just have to find me some more wood to burn!)

Thanks for stopping by…

Apology...

I apologize if anyone might be waiting to hear about the blog candy...I had written a post this morning that I was going to post right after work, but then I heard the news about our neighbor, Will (see below)...

I will post the winner shortly. Thanks for your patience...

For Will...

Today I am so very sad. I learned this morning that a young neighbor boy (nearly 13 years old) who had been a classmate of my 12 year son passed away in the pre-dawn hours on Sunday morning. I actually saw and heard an ambulance arrive on their street, but hoped and prayed it wasn’t for him. Sadly…it was.

His mother shared so eloquently in their online journal this morning… “It is raining here today. It must be the whole universe crying with us as we write to tell you that Will died yesterday morning.” Yes…indeed we are all crying for Will...and for his family.

Will had been diagnosed in early December with lymphoblastic lymphoma. He had not been feeling well for a few weeks in November but his Doctors thought he had a viral infection and then the flu…it was a shock to everyone when he was diagnosed with cancer.

Will was one of those tremendously nice and likeable kids…always smiling, always polite and with a wonderful outlook on life. He was sweet and gentle and never seemed grumpy. He was an avid baseball player and fan. You just knew he would grow up to be a nice adult and a good person.

It seems impossible that this boy, whom we first met in Kindergarten, is now gone. I cannot even begin to fathom how his mom and dad must feel, because even though we weren’t close friends or neighbors, I feel as if we too have lost a member of our own family. There’s heaviness and emptiness in my heart.

Will was initially in my son’s grade when they started Kindergarten, but we decided to have our son repeat a grade because of dyslexia and as he was nearly a year younger than most of the boys in his class. But we would chat whenever we saw each other at school, at the bus stop or in the neighborhood and his mom and I volunteered for some of the same school functions and always exchanged information on how our kids were doing. I can’t even imagine…

So this post is for Will. In honor and memory of his short lived life, and for his parents and his brother, his aunts and his uncles and his grandparents and his friends, who loved him and will now miss him. I hope his parents find some solace in knowing that their young man touched so many lives and so many of us share a piece (albeit tiny in comparison) of their heartache.

So after school today, I hung on to my young boy for so many extra minutes and told him (again) just how very much I love him, and how very much he means to me.

Thank you for letting me share my sadness…

Blog Candy...thanks

to everyone who stopped by to say “hi” and win some Blog Candy! I’ll post the winner after I return from work tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks for playing...

Mymessage card (maybe) similar to fantasy card

So it's late and I couldn't think of any snappy titles. Maybe I'll come up with something better in the morning...

A card I made late this evening for the mymessage challenge over at the Hero Arts Blog. I don’t think it qualifies since I only used one HA stamp {there is no one like you}. I didn’t intend for it to be that way…

I had had so much fun using the dress stamp and some fabric to create a card for the Caardvarks ‘Good Knight Fantasy’ Challenge that I asked my mom to send me remnants of the Duponi silk fabric she used to make my wedding dress. I would like to use this stamp and the silk fabric to make some engagement or wedding (Congratulations!) cards.

I stamped and then tried to emboss on the silk (like my Caardvark submission) but the embossing didn’t really take.

The sentiments and the clock are from one of the Visual Artistry sets by Tim Holtz, which my husband gave me over the weekend. The sweet man walked into Michaels in State College, PA (where he’s a visiting Professor) on our anniversary (since he wasn’t able to be home) and picked out some clear stamp sets he thought I might like. He done good!

Anyway, I guess I got carried away with the Tim Holtz stamps and it wasn’t until I was done that I realized I had only the one little HA stamp, but since I made the card I figured…what the heck, I might as well submit it.

Words/phrases were cut and pasted from these sayings/phrases:

to be all
that is
possible
we must
attempt the
impossible,
to be all
that we
can be,
we must
dream of
being more

and

Live the
Life
You’ve
Imagined.

Thanks for stopping by...

Cozy fire...or...I can’t believe I got this shot!!!

This is what I’ve had going since mid-afternoon. It’s April 15, and in Northern, Virginia, it’s raining and a chilly 42 degrees. We had some left-over wood sitting on our front porch that I really didn’t want to have to bother moving to the carport…so since the weather is cooperating, thought I would burn the wood. Now it’s all gone. But not before my son got to have one last read sitting in front of the fire!

Tomorrow it will be in the high sixties and 72 on Saturday.

Hope you have a nice evening, wherever you live...

Never done before --- “Blog Candy” offering!

Because...

Tomorrow...April 16th...is my wedding anniversary. My wonderful husband and I have been married 15 years!

This August, we’re moving from the Washington, D.C. area to Laramie, Wyoming so my husband can fulfill his dream of being a full time Law Professor. With a limited moving allowance, the aforementioned "wonderful" husband has informed me that...I can’t possibly move/take/haul all of my “stuff.”

I have this extra set of clear stamps that I purchased by mistake (already had the set!) and can’t return (lost the receipt!) and since "I can't possibly take it with me" to Laramie…I thought I’d offer it up as candy because...in some cultures, when someone has a celebration "they" bring cake or little gifts to their friends or to the people they work with.

So…to celebrate the 15 years being married to my darling husband and the many more that are yet to come---I’d like to offer this…

Hopefully you can see everything clearly. Here’s what you get (all in a striped green and blue fabric covered "hat box"...

Set of 12 clear “Dog” stamps by Inkadinkado

Ribbon --- Approximately 6 yards from Michaels, AC Moore, or G-Street Fabrics

Buttons (pink, green, brown and doggie themed)
Yellow flower table confetti (from Bride’s Magazine)
Sheet of baby pink stickers --- Mosaic Tile’s Play

If you like what you see…just leave a little post to say “hi” by midnight, EST Sunday, April 19.

I’ve never done anything like this before…and don’t even know if anyone will stop by to visit or participate, but…even if you’re the only visitor and you like what you see…you win!

(I’m going to try and figure out this random integer thingy…otherwise I’ll have my 12 year old son pull a number out of a hat…how’s that for high tech!!)

Thanks for stopping in...

Papertrey Release Party...

I finally managed to make a Papertrey Ink Release Party! I usually miss them for one reason or another...but not tonight.

Plus, I managed to snag some “product” without getting the “so sorry…temporarily all sold out” message. Now…if I could just manage to make the Blog Hop one of these days…

I Believe…in Caardvark’s Good Knight Fantasy Challenge

[Edited: Never done before...offering some Blog Candy. See this post http://joshuajiraffe.blogspot.com/2009/04/never-done-before-blog-candy-offering.html to see if you like.]

and this is my interpretation on the challenge...

This card ‘evolved’ as I was working on it. My original thought was to have this garland---a favorite left over from the holidays---continue to wrap around the top of the card…but it would have made the card base too large and the card too bulky looking.

Without the garland, however, it looked like it was missing something…thus the ribbon and bling on the final version above.

I used two stamps by Inkadinkado that I have long admired. I found both on sale at AC Moore this week…for 1/3rd the original price! The large base stamp shows a woman sitting at her desk, writing.

The second stamp, which I love, was stamped on red satin fabric. I first ironed on fusible webbing and then stamped with Stazon ink. I cut the dress out and attached it so that it appears that the woman in the background is working…maybe doing laundry… like Cinderella!!! Don’t know if you can see here so here is a close up…

The ‘shawl” is ribbon, and so are the “pearls.” The flower is from a silk bouquet in my living room.

The Believe stamp is from Papertrey Ink’s Believe clear stamp set and I think it works rather well on this card.

I find that I really like how this card turned out!

Thanks for looking…

Me-ow! My-oh! Mymessage Card …

I made for the current Hero Arts “mymessage” challenge. Ironically, it was raining last night when I made this card…and it’s still drizzling this morning.

The "window" is stamped using a HA shadow stamp from a boxed set of 4 stamps. The “windowsill ledge” is a folded scrap of cuttlebugged cardstock.

I used a foil top from my favorite Greek yogurt for the silver “cat-tag”. I’ve been hanging onto these foil tops ‘cause I love to recycle and knew that...one-day...I would be able to re-cycle them into my craft!

While rummaging around in my blue embellishment tray, I found these ‘rain dots’ that I had purchased a while back but never used. (I see now that I probably should have placed one or two under the windowsill ledge.)

Close-ups of the ledge...

another view...

I used a combination of letter sets: All Night Media’s DJ Chunky Clear Alphabet Stamps (My oh); Inkadinkado Cattitude clear stamp set (Meow!); and Martha Stewart Halloween Typeface clear stamps (for the - and !).

The “under the weather” sentiment is by A Muse and the cat ‘out on the ledge’ by Judi-Kins.

This was fun!

Thanks for stopping by...

Beyond Paper Challenge

Been gone for four days and so was rushed this afternoon to try and craft some cards for the Hero Arts Beyond Paper Challenge. I tried to finish my cards before the sun set but I didn’t make it in time…

The windy tree on this card is stamped on muslin that’s been sprayed with Tsukinek Walnut Ink. I’ve been wanting to tea dye muslin for sometime and figured this was the closest I could get to it today. I first ironed fusible webbing to the muslin to give it more body.

This second card is stamped with with muslin that was dyed in berry juice left over from some frozen berries we had for breakfast. I baked it in the microwave to set the color but it’s still not as dark as I would have liked. I fused it to double-sided webbing and stamped it using moonlight white by Brilliance and embossed it…but the embossing doesn’t really show.
I see from my photo that the bow is way too large. It’s frustrating that I somehow miss seeing these things until after…I take the photo.

This card also uses the windy tree stamp and a sentiment from the clear birthday anyone can stamp set on the walnut stained muslin.

I originally planned to make this into a set of tags but didn't have the time so at the last minute decided to turn it into a card…the colors (brown, lavender, lime and dark purple) are much nicer in real life.

While cleaning up earlier today, I emptied a bottle of wine left over from the weekend before and decided to experiment with stamping and embossing on glass…something I’ve never done before.

My stamping is smudged and I had to add a paper label that doesn’t fit snuggly…but it was a fun first attempt!

Thanks for looking...

All Monkey Business...Raspberry Suite Challenge

Quick card I made for the 3rd Raspberry Suite Challenge at Dawn McVey’s site.
Don’t know if this card qualifies as my PP has an extra color not in the challenge.
Its dusk here…and there was no sun today so my photo isn't true to the colors.

In fact, it was windy and quite chilly and it’s actually snowing in the Mountains of Pennsylvania, where my husband is driving to come home from his teaching gig at Penn State. We leave town tomorrow and I won’t be able to craft or blog, so I was hoping to get in one more card and challenge before we leave…now I have to finish getting us, and the house, ready for our departure.

I’m glad to see I have my priorities straight…craft first, everything else later!

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday…whichever you celebrate!

Opps...forgot to include

this photo of the "Save the Date" card I made for our friends for their son's Bar Mitzvah.

Again, I used a little piece of paper to cover the rest of his name.

Bar Mitzvah Invitation…

Our best friends’ son will become a Bar Mitzvah this coming June. His mom has asked “moi” to make his Bar Mitzvah invites. What sweet friends! So I’m currently working on the invites and reply cards. Later I'll work with her on the name place cards, the program and any little hostess gift boxes, etc.

Fortunately, it’s a small group of invitees (30 or so) so it’s still fun making the cards. Thought I would show you what she’s decided on and how it evolved….

This is a photo of the invite. There's a little torn piece of paper covering up the rest of our young friend's name.

View of the inside, which I again covered up personal information with some plan cardstock and

on this view I used the silk flowers as a cover up.


The navy cardstock is Deep Blue Sea by The Paper Company and the gray cardstock is by Die Cuts With a View. The field paper is Lux White from the Paper Source. I found the Star of David buttons at G Street Fabrics here in Northern, Virginia but I know they can be found online. Everything was printed on my computer in Microsoft Word.

This was how it all started with this 'save the date card' sample I gave to her and which she chose to use as the invite...only larger.

Thanks for stopping by...