Season's Givings Blog Hop

Hi everyone, and happy 2014! Welcome to the Season's Givings Blog Hop!

Latisha Yoast came up with a great idea to share our new/unused crafty supplies--to have a blog hop and give the supplies away to people hopping. I love this idea!

I'm so thankful for the blogging community. I know everyone is busy, and it means a lot to me that people take the time to stop by. I wanted to do the giveaways as a thank you!

Here is a home decor project I made for the new year:

In my guest post at Moxie Fab World, I shared some embroidery hoops, and I *finally* made one using a paper background. I loved using paper since I could watercolor on it. I have a photo tutorial, which I'll be sharing later this week.

I CASE'd some of my prior cards for this hoop (THIS, THIS, and THIS). I painted the outer frame of the hoop and then on the cardstock background, I watercolored with mists. I fussy cut the flowers from Webster's Pages' New Year New You. I used some Webster's Pages, Crate, and Cosmo Cricket papers and vellum for the die cut hearts, and I stitched through some of them. The sentiment was made in Photoshop. Here's a close-up:

I really need to adjust the tension on my sewing machine. ;)

I've been fortunate enough to win some extra supplies, and I'm thrilled to be passing them on! I have three giveaways for three winners. If you enter once, you're entered into all three:

Giveaway 1: I won a Simon Says Stamp Monthly Card Kit, but I had the stamps and papers. I added some Studio Calico Mistables and extra Papertrey Ink white cardstock. 

Giveaway 2: There is a BasicGrey paper pack and some Crate Paper embellishments I won. I've added two stamp sets, Smooch Spritz, ribbon, washi, buttons, and wood veneers. 

Giveaway 3: There is a Stampin' Up paper pack, Graphic 45 paper pad, chalk cardstock, two stamp sets, rub-ons, BasicGrey brads, Thicker, washi, tags, and ribbon. 

Here's the scoop: 1) You can leave a comment for a chance to win. 2)For a second chance, you can "follow" my blog and leave another comment to let me know if you already follow or are a new follower. You can follow my blog by clicking Google's "Join this Site" on the sidebar and/or following by e-mail.

The giveaway will end at 6am ET on 1/6, and I'll announce winners later that night. Also, I'm happy to pay for international shipping.

The people/companies below are all offering different giveaways. To enter, all you have to do is go to their blogs, leave comments, and you'll be entered:

Lawn Fawn

Reverse Confetti

My Favorite Things Stamps 

CAS-ual Friday Stamps 

Fresh Squeezed Stamps 

Julee Tillman: Verve Stamps 

Avocado Arts Stamps 

A Jillian Vance Design 

Latisha Yoast 

Amber Hight 

Amber Kemp-Gerstel

Alice Wertz 

Debbie Corbari 

Vera Wirianta Yates 

Lori McAree 

Carolyn King 

Sharon Harnist 

Amy Tsuruta

Beth Pingry

Becky Oehlers 

Angie Blom 

Julia Stainton 

Sharon Johnson 

Michelle Woerner 

Cindy Lawrence 

Lori Tecler 

Daniela Dobson 

Savitri Wilder 

Theresa Momber  

Giovana Smith 

Kimberly Crawford 

Maria Levine 

Colleen Schaan 

Lydia Fiedler

Kelly Klapstein

Kim Kesti

Laura Williams 

Shanna Vineyard  

Jennifer Gallacher 

Heather Pulvirenti 

Stacey Schafer 

Leigh Penner 

AJ Otto 

Teri Anderson 

Julie Overby 

Margie Higuchi 

Jimmi Mayo 

Tenia Nelson 

Lee Ann Barrett 

Iwona Palamountain  

Kim Jackson 

Linda Lucas 

Sarah Gough 

Dina Kowal

Elena Roussakis

Lisa Henke

Jodi Collins

Joanne Basile 

Melanie Muenchinger

Darsie Bruno  

Libby Hickson

Dana Joy

Jody Morrow

Heather Campbell

Savannah O'Gwynn

Lee Murphy

Lisa Arana

Jocelyn Olson <--You are here

Isha Gupta

Piali Biswas

Ashley Harris

Bunny Vance

Anabelle O'Malley

Andrea Murdock

Stephanie Muzzulin

Alyssa Bennett

Christiana Reuling

Laurel Seabrook

Melody Rupple 

Emily Branch 

Megan Hoeppner

Thanks for visiting! I really appreciate it!! Have a wonderful 2014!

Next in the hop is my sweet friend Isha.

Looking Back

Hi everyone! I hope you had a happy holidays! It's been a whirlwind for us--Christmas, my daughter's eighth birthday, and my sister-in-law's family and brother-in-law's family visiting. It's been a great break. :)

With New Year's a day away, I decided to look back at my blog cards for this year and make a top 10 of my favorites. I haven't done a top 10 list before, but I enjoyed it...it was good to look back and remember making the card, the reason for the card, etc. I'm not sure what was going on, but I didn't have any cards in my top 10 before May. ha ha

Here's my list (in chronological order):

Congrats (AC Digitals)

Have a Magical Birthday for Gallery Idol Round 1 (Robyn Meierotto)

You Get Me (BasicGrey, American Crafts, Pixels & Co.)

Love Machine (My Mind's Eye, Paper Smooches)

Grateful for You (Hero Arts, Technique Tuesday)

Put You In My Pocket (Glitz Design)

Whitewashed Leaves (Paper Smooches)

Cashmere Dame Card Set (Glitz Design)

Oh, Hello There (Lawn Fawn, Creashens)

Joy to You and Me (Glitz Design)

All of the supplies are linked in the original posts.

Thank you for all of your support and comments this year. Sometimes it's hard to blog--I don't like my photo or the project, or I think my post content sounds lame. But, I'm very grateful for the visits and comments--you are very kind. :)

Have a great New Year's Eve! Happy 2014!!

A Little Gold

Hi everyone! We're down to the wire now. I'm *finally* getting out my Christmas cards, although they're now probably going to be New Year's cards. ha ha

Wow, is it really almost 2014? This week's CAS-ual Fridays post is a joint challenge with the 10 Minute Craft Dash. We're making CAS New Year's projects.

Honestly, the thought of making a card in 10 minutes is stressful. I deliberate over every detail. When I went to JJ's house in November, we spent about 10 hours crafting. She joked that I worked on one card the whole time. She was close--I think I spent four hours working on one tortured card. Ha!

So, my card for this week's challenge took me longer than 10 minutes, but I did follow the theme:

I saw THIS pin, and I was inspired by the gold embossing and vellum (although I used glassine). I used Gold Modeling Cream and a stencil from Simon Says Stamp...it was the first time I had worked with the modeling cream (instead of paste), and I loved it! It kind of reminded me of frosting a cake, which is always a good thing. :)

The glassine bag has a mix of sequins, and I sealed it with some cool glitter tape (thanks, Joscelyne!!). Not like I'm really going to do this, but I thought it would be fun to rip the bag off and use the sequins like confetti to ring in the new year. With all of the bling (the glitter tape, stars, and sequins), I'm entering the card in the Simon Says Stamp Bling It On! challenge.

Here's a close-up:

The sentiment is computer-generated. Apparently I don't have any New Year's stamps? Then again, I've never sent someone a card for the new year. Well, unless you count a late Christmas card.

If you'd like to play along with this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge, it's being sponsored by CAS-ual Fridays Stamps:

You can link up your projects HERE. It's a two-weeker, so there's time!


Have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by!


Supplies
Cardstock: (white) Avery Elle; (White Linen) Ellen Hutson
Medium: (Gold Modeling Cream) Viva
Stencil: (Falling Stars) Simon Says Stamp
Sequins: (gold) Amuse; (silver) Hobby Lobby); (white flat) Kelly Purkey
Font: Traveling Typewriter

Joy to You and Me

Hi everyone! It's just over a week until Christmas. My kids are so excited. My son keeps asking if it's Christmas--every day for the past few weeks. ;)

I'm up on the Glitz blog today.

I made a hybrid Christmas card:

For the background, the light grey woodgrain in the background is from the Raven collection (yes, a Halloween collection). I lowered the opacity to add just a little texture. The sentiment is from Merry Greetings.

For the stars, I resized and printed papers from the Hello December Paper Pack and Element Pack #2. For the papers on the green and white stars, I made my own design by stamping two of the digital brushes in the Element Pack #1.

After die-cutting the papers and some vellum, I stitched through them. I added a couple of sentiment strips from the Hello December Element Pack #1, sequins, and die-cut glitterstock stars. Here's a close-up:

I originally had the stars falling from largest to smallest, but the card seemed unbalanced. My friend Wida suggested mixing up the sizes of the stars--great tip! (Thanks, Wida!)

If you get a chance, swing by the Glitz blog to see the other projects.

Have a great week! Thank you so much for stopping by!


Supplies
Cardstock: (white) PTI; (vellum) Hobby Lobby
Digital elements: (grey woodgrain from the Raven Paper Pack; other papers and word strips from the Hello December collection) Glitz Design at Jessicasprague.com 
Digital stamps: (herringbone and triangle brushes from Hello December Element Pack #1) Glitz Design
Clear stamps: (sentiment from Merry Greetings) Mama Elephant
Dies: (large stars) Lifestyle Crafts; (smaller stars from Holiday Shapes) Simon Says Stamp
Ink: (Versafine Onyx) Tsukineko; (Granny Apple) Maya Mists; (Opaque White and pink Mr. Huey's) Studio Calico
Sequins: Cartwright's

I'd Melt for You

Hi everyone! We had my son's preschool holiday concert tonight. I was pretty worried--he had been talking about how he didn't want to stand up in front of everyone. He did great! I have no idea if he was actually singing, but it didn't matter--I was so proud of him. :)

This week's CAS-ual Friday's challenge is to use a snowflake(s) or snow of some sort. As a note, the challenge will be ending early (midnight ET on Wednesday).

I used snow, as in a snowmen, for my card this week:

Aren't those snowmen so cute! They're from Newton's Nook Design's Frozen Friends set. I colored them with Copics and fussy cut them on the Crate paper. I used a PTI heart die to die-cut the window--it reminds me a little of a cookie cutter with the scallops. Or maybe I'm just thinking about cookies. hee hee

Here's a close-up:

If you would like to link up to the snow challenge at CAS-ual Fridays, you can do so HERE. This week, the challenge is sponsored by Simon Says Stamp!

My card today is also on the Newton's Nook blog, along with a few other cards Jen is sharing as my last post. :(  Jen is a real sweetheart, and NND is a fantastic company to work with. Thank you for having me on the team! I'm going to miss my design teammates, too. They are such a talented bunch!

Have a great weekend! Thank you for stopping by!


Supplies
Cardstock: (Ellen's white Linen) Ellen Hutson; (white) PTI
Patterned paper: (pink ombre from Love Notes) Crate Paper
Stamps: (snowmen, sentiment from Frozen Friends) Newton's Nook Designs
Ink: (Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko
Die: (Limitless Layers Hearts) PTI
Copics

Hello Christmas Mini Album

Hi everyone! How's your December going? We decorated our tree last weekend, and I found my favorite Putz-style ornament from when I was young. It's pretty battered, but I still love it. :) I think I may have to make one this year.

I'm on the Glitz blog today with my mini album cover. I have some photos of my daughter from Christmas time a few years ago, and I started on a mini album for them.

Here's the cover:

I love that picture of her. :) For the base, I used some Craft-a-Board, painted it white, and added some mist. I did not punch holes in it yet for the O-rings...I haven't decided if I'm going to use two rings or three. ;)

For the papers and embellishments, I wanted to use non-traditional colors. I started with the chalkboard paper from Glitz Design's Uncharted Waters Paper Pack 2 and cropped it to remove the decorations on the paper.

On the chalkboard paper, I stamped the pine branch twice and the sentiment from the Glitz Hello December digital brushes. I also used the same set to stamp the little deer in the corner. These brushes are awesome!  Here's a close-up:




The pink zigzag paper is from the Uncharted Waters Paper Pack 1. It's such a pretty pink!

In the upper-left corner of the cover, I recolored the "holiday" sentiment from the Hello December Element Pack 1 from red to pink. I made another pom pom (I'm addicted!) and added a Giant Rhinestone from the Finnley collection. Here's a close-up:

If you have a chance, swing over to the Glitz blog to see the other fab projects.

Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!


Supplies
Cardstock: (Premium Matte Photo Paper) OfficeMax; (Premium Glossy Photo Paper) Kirkland; (silver glitterstock) Best Creations
Digital stamps: (deer, pine branch, sentiment from Hello December Element Pack 1) Glitz Design
Digital elements: (chalkboard from Uncharted Waters Paper Pack 2; pink zigzag from Uncharted Waters Paper Pack 1; holiday tag from Hello December Element Pack 1) Glitz Design at Jessica Sprague
Embellishments: (Giant Rhinestone from the Finnley collection) Glitz Design; (star sequins) Cartwright's
Die: (star die from Holiday Shapes) Simon Says Stamp
Mists: (Opaque White; Silver) Studio Calico; (Pink Grapefruit) Maya Mists
Other: (Craft-a-Board) Ellen Hutson

Inky Paws Blog Hop

Hi everyone! If you're looking for my CAS-ual Fridays post, please click HERE.

Today, the Newton's Nook Designs DT and guests are having a blog hop! If you're hopping, you should be coming from Tessa's blog. Here is the list:

Newton's Nook Designs Blog

Jennifer Ingle

Tessa Wise

Jocelyn Olson <--You are here.

Samantha Mann

Shelly Mercado

Rachel W K

Jessica Esch

Chan Vuong

Ashely Marcu

Danielle Lounds

Alice Wertz

Danielle Pandeline

Kim Singdahlsen

For the hop, I made a holiday tag and tin:

It's a cocoa tin, although cookies would work well, too. :) I used a mix of American Crafts and Echo Park papers to decorate the clear tin. 

For the tag, I used the kitty, Santa hat, and Santa sign from Newton's Holiday Mischief  for the tag. I colored him with Copics. Newton looks like he's going to snitch some of Santa's cookies! hee hee  I backed the tag with chipboard and patterned paper so it could be used as an ornament.

Here's a close-up of the tag:

Would you like to win a $10 coupon for Newton's Noook Designs' online shop? There will be two lucky winners! Enter to win by commenting on the Newton's Nook blog and all of the blogs in the hop. You have until Sunday, December 8th at 9pm CT to enter. The winners will be announced on the NND blog on Monday, December 9th. 

Thanks for stopping! Next on the hop is the super awesome and ever-so-sweet Samantha!

Supplies

Cardstock: (white) PTI

Patterned paper: (green from Merry and Bright) Echo Park Paper; (red with mugs from Peppermint Express) American Crafts

Stamps: (Newton, sign, hat from Newton's Holiday Mischief) Newton's Nook Designs

Dies/punches: (Scallop punch) Fiskars; (Tag Sale Die #4) Papertrey Ink

Copics

You Can Almost Feel the Snow

Hi everyone! Well, it's official. Wreath on the door, presents ready to be wrapped, snow on the ground, singing Christmas carols...it's feeling like the holiday season. Are you ready for Christmas?

If you have your holiday papers and stamps out, be sure to enter this week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge--trees.

I went with a Christmas theme for this week's challenge:

As soon as I saw this patterned paper from the Silent Night collection, I knew I had to use it. I simply resized the digital paper, added the sentiment from One Little Bird, and printed it. To make the trees more prominent, I added some coarse glitter.

I did one of my new favorite looks on this card: white on an off-white or cream base. I love that subtle look! Here's a close-up:

The winner of this week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge will win a gift certificate to Ellen Hutson.

You can link up your projects HERE. I hope you'll play along!

Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies

Cardstock: (Vintage White) PTI; (Premium Matte Photo Paper) OfficeMax

Patterned paper: (winter scene from Silent Night) Nancie Rowe Janitz at Jessica Sprague

Digital element: (sentiment from 12 Days) One Little Bird at The Lilypad

Moxie Fab Hoops

Hi everyone!

I'm guesting over at Moxie Fab World. Please check out my Hoop La post--thanks!

Have a super day!

Holiday Teacher Gift

Hi everyone! Did you have a good Thanksgiving? We had family in town, which is always nice. :)

For the month of December, the Glitz digital team is sharing holiday projects. For my post last week, I shared a custom notepad I made (check it out HERE). Today, I'm sharing another notepad with a full tutorial. I apologize in advance for the numerous photos.

I decided to make a notepad for my daughter's teacher that would work beyond the month of December. Here's what the finished notepad looked like:




To make the sheets, I flipped the floral cluster from Hello December's Element Pack #1 over the yellow washi tape element from the Element Pack #2. Next, I added the sentiment. In another document, I opened four different papers from Element Pack #2, the Hello December Paper Pack, and the Cashmere Dame Paper Pack (the yellow) . I put four different copies of the white note over the patterned papers.

Here's what it looked like when I printed out the four different styles on one piece of paper:

I printed 8 copies of this paper onto a lightweight photo paper. You could use a heavyweight copy paper--just test the settings so the ink doesn't oversaturate the paper.

Next, I trimmed the papers down. This probably was the most time-consuming part of the process. ;)

Once I had all 48 pages cut, I worked on the back cover. If you wanted, you could skip this step, but I think adding a chipboard back makes the notepad more polished.

I printed off and trimmed down two patterned papers from the Hello December Paper Pack. I also trimmed a piece of chipboard...I used a leftover piece, but Ellen Hutson sells Craft-a-Board that is a good weight for this type of project.

For the next step, I glued the patterned paper to each side of the chipboard. This side isn't essential, but it makes the back pretty. :) Here are the back cover and the reverse side:

Still with me? I layered all 48 pages on top  of the back cover. The pages need to line up more tightly than they look in this photo. Don't ask me how I know that. ;)

For the next steps, I had to enlist the help of my husband. I had no idea where his clamps were, or how to use them for that matter. ha ha.

My husband is a luthier and guitar amp builder, and he had some fabric glue that he uses to adhere Tolex to the amplifiers. We did a test, and the Fabric Fusion glue worked amazingly well. It dried fast--I did three coats within three hours. I think he bought the glue at the grocery store. Seriously.

Here are the different tools you will need--two clamps, two blocks of wood, two clean pieces of paper, and the glue:

Okay, next you make a sandwich: 1) block of wood; 2) layer of paper so the wood doesn't muck up your notepad; 3) the notepad hanging over the edge of the block about 0.25-0.5 inches; 4) another piece of paper; 5) block of wood.

Add clamps toward the front of the notepad sandwich, but not in the very front. You need to leave space to add the glue. I added the glue directly and smoothed it with my finger. I'm impatient, so I only waited about an hour between coats. Here's the set-up:

While this process probably looks complicated, it was actually pretty easy...just a lot of little steps.

(Drum roll, please...) Here's the final notepad:

If you make a notepad, please share a link--I'd love to see it!

Thanks so much for stopping by!