A Notable Brief

I am SO EXCITED about this little Briefcase Note Holder. I wanted to make a gift of notes for a male co-worker who's birthday was last week (and I missed it! Yikes!) I wanted to make some kind of masculine looking package. I know I've seen a brief case card somewhere before but I haven't been able to locate it in my HUGE pile of things I've printed off the internet!! (one of my 'to do' piles).

Luckily, while I was blogging around this morning I came upon this wonderful tutorial by Tracy Harp (Inky Doodles). She calls it a Tote Purse and she decorated hers using a feminine design.

I masculined it up by using this great striped designer paper and by using brown twill for the handles. Here is a side view and you can get your first peek as to what's inside the case!

I made 16 - 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" personalized notes (just a single layer note - no fold) using my friends initials (PTI Fresh Alphabet) and 'From the Desk Of' (PTI Simply Stationary). I attached a thin strip of the designer paper to the top of the card so it coordinated with the case.

I needed something to hold my case closed so I attached a tag (the designer paper came with a sheet of die cut tags - how nice!) to the back of the case with tacky tape and used velcro on the front. I added a piece of Chocolate Chip card stock to the tag as it was a little bit light weight and I thought it would rip with repeated openings). Luckily my twill was spaced just perfectly so the tag fit between the handles as I hadn't planned for the tag when I started out making the case!! Phew!! I also used my corner rounder on the top corners of the case.

I also put a piece of designer paper inside the Pentel RSVP Pen (you can get them at CVS or Staples about $1.00 a piece). You just open the bottom of the pen - take out the ink stick - roll a piece of 3/4" x 3" designer paper so the long ends overlap and slip it into the pen barrel and then replace the ink and the end of the pen and - Voila! - A coordinating pen to go with your project!

The clear box inside the case that holds the cards and envelopes - is a 4 1/2" x 5 7/8" x 1" box. I bought mine at Clear Bags.com. They also sell them at Papertrey Ink. You just cut the box in half and attach it with tacky tape (see Tracy's complete instructions)

Here you can see the note, the envelope and the matching pen close up. I'm so thrilled with how this project came out!

I added the tag with the Hand Stamped (Stamps by Judith) on the front of this project to look like a luggage or ID tag. It was also our Tuesday Doubledog Dare Challenge for this week - Beverly (beestamper) challenged us to use a 'Card Back Stamp' on the front of our card or project. A card back stamp is one that you would usually use on the back to show who made the card or that it was hand stamped etc.

We'd love to have you join in on our challenges - just load your card or project following the challenge into your Split Coast Gallery and use the keyword DDC so we can all come by and see it! Check my side bar to see all the Double Dare challenge members and check here to see all the DDC cards!

Thanks for stopping by today! let me know if you make one of these cases - I'd love to see it!

Stamps: Fresh Alphabet & Simply Stationary: PTI, Hand Stamped: Stamps by Judith

Paper: Chocolate Chip: SU, Vingage Cream: PTI, DP: Crate Paper - Cowgirl Buckle

Ink: Dark Chocolate: PTI

Accessories: corner rounder, tacky tape, foam dimensionals, loopi brad, Twine: SU, clear box: Clear Bags.com, copics, Twill: Martha Stewart, Pentel RSVP Pen, Velcro Tab, Large Brad: American Crafts

Simple Hope

I made this card with no layers - all the stamping was done directly on the card stock. The only addition was a knotted twill ribbon around the top of the card. When I first started card stamping this was the only kind of card I knew how to make - and then gradually as I saw more and more cards on Split Coast - I began learning how to add layers until suddenly I found it really difficult to NOT add them!

But todays Limited Supplies challenge on Split Coast was to make a clean and simple card (CAS) and it brought me back to my roots! After I got over the initial shock of one layer I enjoyed the great simplicity of it. You can view a whole gallery of simple cards here.

I used the With Sympathy stamp set from Papertrey Ink and 4 colors of ink. I actually made 7 cards of this design in the time it might usually take me to design and put together just one layered card. I ran out of the lavender twill after 6 cards so I used Spring Rain on the last one - Look how a different color ribbon can change the whole look of a card - I think the blue ribbon makes the blue butterfly pop a little more - what do you think??

Happy Friday night everyone - are you all going to be watching Football on Sunday!?!? We are - even though our Patriots didn't make it to the Superbowl this year!

Stamps: With Sympathy: PTI
Paper: White: PTI
Ink: True black & Lavender Moon: PTI, Landscape: Pallette, Cloudy Blue: Adirondack
Accessories: lavender moon & Spring Rain twill ribbon: PTI

New Window Card

Hey all. I was trying to think of something different for a card and thought I should do a window. I know it's not new...but it's new for me. ;o) I have a couple other cut out (I love my Silhouette!)and I'll post those later. Hope everyone is having a great day!

Ever Grateful Throw Down

For my card today I used the sketch challenge from Split Coast and the colors from this weeks Color throw down challenge - which was to use real red, brocade blue and black. I've been wanting to participate in the Color Throw Down challenge for a long time and for some reason just never got to it - so today was the day - finally!!I used a Bazzill blue as I didn't have Brocade. The flowers are Nested Flowers Nestabilities and I added dew drops on the bottom right. The flowers and sentiment are popped up with foam dimensionals.

We had some snow this morning but it turned to rain by noon time - and now we have slush and giant puddles everywhere - and it's supposed to freeze tonight --- what a winter we are having!

I hope everyone that is living in a cold climate is safe and warm tonight!

Thank you so much for taking a moment to drop by!

Stamps: So Many Sayings: SU
Paper: white: PTI, Real Red, DSP: SU, blue bazzill
Ink: true Black: PTI
Accessories: foam dimensionals, dew drdops, nested flowers nestabilities, word punch: SU

Receiving and Forwarding an Award !

My wonderful blogging/stamping friend Anne just gave me this award - she is just the sweetest friend, a very talented card maker and also my long distance Stampin Up enabler! We also do the Double Dare Challenges together on SCS.

So the idea is to share this award with other wonderful people/blogs that I know and whom I'd like you to get to know! so be sure to check them out!

I'm passing this award on to :

Patter - who has inspired me to deepen my faith by participating in her biweekly His Holy Name challenge. She is a wonderfully creative stamper and scrapbooker.

Linsey - one of my first blogging buddies - we knew each other 'when' - before each of us became famous (LOL!!!) she is so talented she is on the Design Team of about 100 companies - I just CANNOT keep up with this talented lady!!

Jean - a new friend from Australia who makes lovely cards - I became aquainted with Jean after she visited my blog

Theresa - another friend I've met blogging - she does the best coloring on her cards and often has fun tutorial's for fun projects!

So ladies - grab the pic of the award and give it to some of your friends if you are so inspired! I appreciate you all so much in this wonderful world of card stamping/blogging!

You all inspire me!

Caardvark's Challenge...Seeing Spots!

Here is my card for the Caardvark's current challenge using polka dots. :o) I used paper sudio pp, bazzill cardstock, ctmh rub-on, inksentials white pen, mm brad, bazzill & prima flowers, ribbon & tag from stash. Here is another card I made last night just because. :o)

Friend to Friend

I love this sentiment - if you stop and think about it - it's just a nice simple wonderful statement to send someone on a card.

I made this for today's color challenge on Split Coast as well as this weeks Our Creative Corner sketch challenge that you can check out here. There are prizes to be won there this week but you have to load your card by Friday so be sure to check it out!The colors to use for the color challenge were Garden Green, Baja Breeze and Pacific Point or a reasonable facsimile there of!! I used a green Bazzill card stock not having any Garden Green but I did have a Stampin Up Garden Green marker so I inked up the stamps with the marker. I used Just My Type narrow cuttlebug folders for the side panels (first time using them after purchasing them almost a year ago! another 'Yay' for the New Year's Resolution!) and the Leafy Branch folder for the middle panel. I thought I was going to have trouble with this color combination but I really like it!

I've gotta go - I'm trying to get to bed early tonight (before 11 at least!)

Thanks so much for coming by today!

Stamps: Stampin Up: Pocket Silhouettes
Paper: white: PTI, Pacific Point, baja Breeze: SU, Green Bazzill
Ink: none
Accessories: Garden Green Stampin Up Marker, cuttlebug, Leafy Branch folder, Just My Type Folder, word punch & scalloped circle punch: SU, circle punch, foam dimensionals

Basic Grey Challenge 19

This card is for the Basic Grey Challenge #19. It's a recipe using 2 pattern papers, 3 brads, 1 button, ribbon/bow and using at least one BG item.
Here is what I used:
*Basic Grey's Lollipop Shoppe papers...Strawberry Jam, Blueberry & Rainbow Sorbet.
*Brads, ribbon, button & embroidery thread from my stash.
*Brilliance Pigment Ink in Pearlescent Poppy.
*Tilda stamped Image.
*Sentiment from CTMH's All My Love stamp set.
*Frames cut using my Silhouette.
*Copic markers.
*Pop dots.
This is my 1st challenge for BG Challenges...let me know what you think. :o)

More Cards

Hi all. I made a couple new cards that I thought I'd share. Let me know how you like them. ;o)
This Tilda card I made for a challenge using magenta, olive green and the word broken. The inside of the card says "if you won't be mine." Perfect little card for Valentine's Day.

A Double Dare Thanks

The Double Dare Challenge for last Tuesday that I do with some SCS friends - was from Michelle (sf9erfan) and that was to case a card from the now 'old' SU catty.Wanting to use my 'bought em, love em, never used em' stash of stamps - I cased the card on Page 18 of the catalogue using the Organic Grace stamp. I used the flower instead of the dragonfly - changed the colors and cuttled the panel instead of stamping. I used one of the sentiment stamps from Upsy Daisy.

This is a 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 card. I thought it came out pretty cute!

You too can join in our fun weekly challenges - just make a card using the challenge (case a card from the Fall Winter 2008 SU catalogue) Post it on SCS and use the keyword DDC. The Double Dare team will be looking for your cards!! There is no time limit to these challenges so come along! You can see all the Double Dare Challenge cards here. And you can see all the Double Dare Team members on my side bar (scroll down a bit).

Stamps: Organic Grace & Upsy Daisy: SU
Paper: Pumpkin pie: SU, Summer sunrise, white, Ripe Avocado: PTI
Ink: Pumpkin pie: SU, First Snow: PTI
Accessories: script guttlebug folder, foam dimensionals, SU scallop circle punch, circle punch

And I also wanted to share with you the wonderful project my DH Kent just completed for me to use for my "His Holy Name" challenge 6"x6" pages.

Every other Sunday I'll be hanging a new page on this beautiful wooden rack. I'll be able to flip them over - back and forth - forth and back - so I can keep reviewing them throughout the year. Since there will be 26 of them - he's going to make me a 2nd rack so I can put 13 on each one so neither gets too full. He earned a BIG kiss for this one!!

Short post today - I have a church meeting at my house so gotta go!

Thanks so much for dropping by today!

A Featured Birthday

Yippee! I used another stamp set that I love and had purchased quite some time ago but never got around to inking up! This card was made for the Featured Stamper challenge over at Split Coast.



Vicky Gould was Featured stamper and I chose this card from her wonderful gallery to case.

My changes were: I made my card a 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 square, different colors, no ribbon, punched bird instead of stamped, and cuttled bg instead of stamping.

I used the script Cuttlebug folder on the background panel and my scalloped Nestability circles to frame the image. On the white circle - I left the die in place on the card stock and sponged from the edges into the center - then removed the die so it left a white clean edge. The sentiment and circles are popped up on foam dimensionals.

I'm so happy to be using my 'old' stuff!!

Hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday! Thank you for dropping by today!

Stamps: Upsy Daisy: SU
Paper: Summer Sunrise, Aqua Mist, White: PTI, Basic Black: SU
Ink: True Black, Aqua Mist: PTI
Accessories: foam dimensionals, scallope circles Nestabilities, keytag punch: SU, bird punch: Martha Stewart

Say Thanks to the Teacher!

Our inspiration today on Split Coast was a web site of Lang Calendars - this school page inspired me:

And here is the card I created from the inspiration:

I finally inked up this fun school set by Cornish Heritage Farms called Making the Grade - that I've had forever - waiting patiently for me to use it. My base card is light green like the inspiration but I sponged some red over it so you can hardly tell that it's a light color. I used Fresh Snow ink by Papertrey Ink for the sentiments - what great coverage that ink gives - but you do need to allow extra time for it to dry - it's real juicy!

The bench and tree with the grass line are all one stamp from Stampendous called Parkscape. And the bird punch is from Martha Stewart. All the panels are up on foam dimensionals as is the cute out school house and punched bird.

Kent and I went to see a wonderful play this afternoon at the Huntington Theater in Boston - called "The Corn is Green" starring Kate Burton (Richard Burton's daughter for those of you old enough to remember him!) and Kate's son Morgan Ritchie. It was a great story about a woman (Kate) who started a school in a small remote Welsh village in the late 1800's - where the children worked in the coal mines and no one got an education. The teacher mentored one of the students (Morgan Ritchie) and he got excepted to Oxford.

So - I made a teacher card and saw a teacher play - all in one day!

Thanks so much for coming by!

Stamps: Making the Grade: Cornish Heritage Farms, Bench: Stampendous Parkscape
Paper: pure poppy, Spring Moss: PTI, basic black: SU
Ink: True Black, Fresh Snow: PTI
Accessories: heart brads, sponge, foam dimensionals, bird punch: Martha Stewart

New Layouts Completed

Hi all! I have been working diligently on my puppy's album. I have to say it's really hard to make 8x8 pages when you're used to 12x12. I may not be doing a smaller album again! Here are some more layouts I've completed. :o)

A Couple of Sweet Valentines!!

Today's Ways to Use it Challenge on Split Coast was to alter patterned paper to make it special. I've been making crafts to sell at my church for Valentine's Day and I needed to create something to decorate some pretty red heart shaped glass bottles I bought on sale last year at Michaels (they were 50 cents each as I recall - great buy - I just had to store them all year and remember that I had them for this year!!)


I chose to stamp on my patterned paper and punch it with a scalloped heart punch and attach it to the pretty bottles.

I tied a narrow grosgrain ribbon around the neck and filled it with candy Conversation Hearts.I love how they came out! A simple adornment but very effective I think!

I just got the stamp and paper in the mail today from Danielle (DPKennedy on SCS) as part of some wonderful blog candy I won on her blog last week - Thanks for getting them to me so quickly Danielle!!

Stamps: Heart: Inkadinkado Gem Stone Hearts, xoxo: PTI Sweet Love
Paper: DP: Sabrina 6x6 paper set Making Memories
Ink: True Black: PTI
Accessories: marvy heart punch, ping grosgrain ribbon: Michaels, Conversation Candy Hearts: Necco

And here is a 2nd Valentine's Day craft I made for our sale - once again using containers I got at Michaels last year on sale (again 50 cents each!) These are red and white heart shaped ceramic dishes.

I didn't decorate the dishes at all - but chose to fill them with red and white basket filler paper and a clear treat bags (from Michaels candy aisle) filled with jellied candy hearts (CVS) and tied with grosgrain ribbons.

I made the cute narrow cards to tuck inside the dish. Each card is 1 1/2" x 8 1/2" Kraft card stock folded in half (pieces left over from the Velentine Origami Boxes I made here.) I stamped on a piece of white card stock 1 1/4" x 4" and adhered it to the folded Kraft piece. The XOXO is a $1 stamp from Michaels - and the hugs and kisses as well as the Happy Valentines Day inside are from the Sweet Love set by Papertrey Ink.

Stamps: XOXO: Michaels $1 stamp Studio G, Hugs & Kisses, Happy Valentine's Day: PTI Sweet Love set

Paper: Kraft, White: PTI

Ink: True Black: PTI, L'amore Red: Palette

Accessories: Ribbon: Michaels, clear treat bags: Michaels, Red & White Heart Shaped ceramic dishes: Michaels, Jellied hearts: CVS

I hope you are inspired by my Valentines Crafts - easy peasy to make if you have the containers or something similar. Thanks so much for coming by today!

You're the Coolest!

I have seen so many cute cards using this fun Comfy Valentine set by H&M Stamps. So I finally got my set out and inked it up for today's Sketch Challenge on Split Coast.

I used my new Raspberry Fizz papers from Papertrey Ink (please don't notice that I bought something in the New Year! so much for resolutions - but I KNOW you understand!!) I paper pieced the pajama pants (it's a great stamp for paper piecing! so much easier than coloring!) and added a punched heart to the top (over the flower that is on the stamp).

The fun Petaloo flowers come with the gems on them and I added two more gems on the heart and on the sentiment.

I gotta run and get in my own PJ's (mine are flannel though not as sexy as these!) so I can settle down to watch "Tell Me Lies" on TV - I think that's gonna be a fun new show. Will probably do some blog hopping while I watch though :)

thanks so much for dropping by!

Stamps: H&M Stamps: Comfy Valentine
Paper: White PTI, Basic black, Purely pomegranate: SU, DP Raspberry Fizz Mix: PTI
Ink: True Black: PTI
Accessories: Swiss Dot satin: PTI, Floradoodles: Petaloo, Adhesive gems: K&CO, heart punch, oval punches: SU

A Valentine & Other Stuff

So, Valentine's Day is coming up...I made this cute little card with a stamped Tilda image I got from Teresa. Thanks T!Here are a couple of layouts I made. The first is for my BOM (book of me), the 2nd is a layout of my friend Natasha's new baby girl and the others are for my little puppy princess' album. :o)

A Valentine, Sovereign God and Some Pics of VT

Sorry that I didn't post yesterday - we ended up having about 8" of new snow and I had to help DH shovel us out! I'm so glad it waited until we were home from VT - I would have hated to come home to a driveway full of snow and had to unpack through it!!

And then there were those two football games on when we were done shoveling...........

But I did make a card for the Featured Stamper on Split Coast. I CASE'd this card of Lori's (stamp_momma)

I changed the colors and made it a Valentine card with Heart Nesties instead of squares. I just placed the basic heart Nestability inside the scalloped heart Nestability and ran them through my Cuttlebug together and it gave me this heart frame - plus I can use the inside plain heart piece that punched out on something else later! Following the instructions on her card - I was so excited to learn how to use the small Nestibility bird for the wings on the middle size bird on this card! You just have to snip off the beak on the front "wing" - now why couldn't I think of that???!!!

Stamps: none
Paper: White: PTI and SU, Real Red: SU, DP unknown (DCWV stack?)
Ink: none
Accessories: Martha Stewart Punch, dotted grosgrain, foam dimensionals, Nested birds and Hearts: Nestabilities

The next thing I have to show you today is my 6"x6" page that I made for the 2nd His Holy Name Challenge which is issued every other Sunday by Patter. You can click on the blinking box on my side bar to get to Patter's blog or you can also see the challenge in the forums on SCS just scroll down to comment #350. I'd love to have you join in on the challenges - you can join in any time and only do as many as you like.

God's Attribute this week is: God is Sovereign. I chose this verse from Isaiah 61:11

"For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the SOVEREIGN LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations."

I liked the analogy of things growing out of God's earth - and humans growing out of God's love.I used this great Urban Prairie designer paper by Basic Grey along with a leaf Sizzix die and layered flowers using a Martha Stewart flower punch. The bird is also from Martha Stewart. I typed the verse on my computer useing 3hourtour and CK fraternity fonts and printed it on an Avery Mailing label #8463.

Stamps: Snap Stamps: Karen Foster
Paper: Sage Shadow: SU, Summer Sunrise, Aqua Mist: PTI, DP: basic greay Urban Prairie Harvest
Ink: Onyx black versafine, Ocean tides: PTI
Accessories: foam dimensionals, glue dots, flower brads, square brads, sponge, computer generated verse, Avery Label, sizzix leaf die, adhesive gems: K&CO, oval punch, Designer label punch, spiral punch: SU, flower punch: Martha Stewart

And finally as promised - here are a few pics from our trip to Vermont this week visiting my DH's brother and sister-in-law.

This is the beautiful diningroom/livingroom in their gorgeous post and beam home.

Here I am on our first day snowshoeing in the woods - with my neck all wrapped up in my Head Sokz (a tube thing made of fleece that is a scarf and hood you can pull up if you need it!). It was about 4 above on this day out. And you can see not much sun getting into the woods here!

This is DH Kent at the edge of the woods when we just started out - standing by the sign of 'his' brook! That's his brother ahead waiting to lead the way!

This is Kent's SIL bringing up the rear with trusty dog Blue - who loves to run through the woods and snow - she calls Blue back to the trail by offering treats of cheese. Blue wears a bell to let any wild animals know she's around.

And here are some wild turkeys that came by their birdfeeders looking for a meal on a cold day!

We got some delicious coffee drinks as well as some home made cookies and muffins at this wonderful bakery down the street from them.


And a final shot of the old bicycle they have on their porch - it's lit with white lights at night.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

More or Less Quilt

I'm BACK!!! and I'm so happy to get back to stamping!!! We had a great time in Vermont snowshoeing and visiting with Kent's brother and sister-in-law. I'll have some pictures to share with you tomorrow so be sure to check back!

I made these two cards for today's inspiration challenge on Split Coast which was the Pottery Barn Teen catalogue web site. I was inspired by this quilt:I made two cards - one minimal and one stepped up for the January Fan Club More is More challenge. (One of these cards is not like the other - one of these cards is not the same... that song just popped into my head and now it won't pop out!!!)On one card I sewed up and down the panels with my sewing machine to give the card the quilted look, I popped up the center square as well as the sentiment, sponged the outside edges of the card with So Saffron ink and attached two dew drops on either side of the stamped square.

On the less card - I did not do the sewing, only popped up the sentiment and did not sponge on color or add dew drops.

The pretty heart quilt stamp and square quilted framing is from a set called Quilter Sampler Additions by Papertrey Ink and the Happy Valentine's Day sentiment is from the H&M Stamp set called My Favorite Valentines which is back in stock and at a great low price so be sure to check it out!!

Heather let us know that all the following sets are now back in stock over at H&M Stamps:

My Favorite Valentine

Comfy Valentine

Sweetly Stamped

The Cat's Meow

A Lil' Behind

Old English

Christmas is the Time for Cookies

so if you missed getting these during her big sale hop on over and check them all out now at new reduced prices!

Thanks for coming by today and I'll see you tomorrow with some pics of our mini vacation!

Stamps: Sentiment: H&M Stamps, Quilter Sampler Additions: PTI
Paper: white: PTI, Night of Navy: SU, DP: SU, DCWV Stack, Basic Grey Prairie Harvest
Ink: Onyx Black Versafine, So Saffron, Wild Wasabi, Night of Navy: SU
Accessories: word window punch, prismacolor markers, dew drops, glue dots, foam dimensionals, Sponge