American Crafts: Christmas Cards

Happy Friday! Holy moly, I can't believe tomorrow is December 1st! I'm looking forward to a very fun night tonight and special breakfast tomorrow. Our favorite friend, Buddy the Elf, is headed our way tonight and we have a special North Pole breakfast at our house to kick off December. It's a new tradition we started last year and I'm very excited to do it again this year.

I've been quite busy this week finishing up decorating, cleaning, and creating, and I managed to come down with an ear infection. I haven't had an ear infection in years and good grief, it was so painful! I'm feeling much better now but I didn't move from the couch one bit on Wednesday. I wish moms had sick days because I could have used one that day. Luckily, the girls played really well together and I was able to rest!  

Today I have a couple of Christmas cards to share with you that were on the American Crafts blog this week featuring the Kringle & Co. collection. I love the addition of black and teal to otherwise traditional colors. It gives it a little elegant feel. The little puffy stickers were just screaming at me to create a grid design so that's what I did for the first card.

And for the second card, I kept the focus on the beautiful die-cut in the collection and added a few Thicker dots to highlight it and give it a little more dimension.

Thanks for stopping by today and enjoy your weekend!

Elle's Studio: November Gallery

Good morning! I just realized that I have not yet shared my projects for the November Elle's Studio gallery and thought I better get on that before it's time to share my December gallery.

I focused on the Spooky Tales tags this month and created several Halloween themed projects using photos from Halloween this year.

For my first layout, I loved, loved, loved this photo of my little ballerinas ringing the door bell. This was really the first year that they were able to do so and they were so excited about it. The layout also features the Pumpkin Patch collection by American Crafts.

I used so many of those black tiny Jenni Bowlin stars on my Halloween projects this year.

The next layout was actually not created for the gallery but for a special promotion Elle had going on with the number stamps and 3 x 4 tags. (My other layout was picked up for publication so I won't be able to share it here quite yet).

I used all of the tags in this set and printed my photos to 1.5" squares. The numbers were stamped and then heat embossed.

I created this one with a lot of October Afternoon's Witch Hazel collection.

This one was fun to embellish here and there...

And finally, I also created a simple thank you card by layering a bunch of tags with elements from the Pumpkin Patch collection from American Crafts.

Thanks for stopping by today! More to come soon...

Emma's Paperie: Thankful Tin & Tags

Good morning! Today I have a new project for Emma's Paperie featuring a brand new manufacturer, the Farm House Paper Company. I used their "Sugar Hill" collection to create a tin and tags celebrating everything I am thankful for during the month of November. The tin was one that I picked up a while back from the Target dollar spot.

I created a tag for each day using kraft tags and cardstock with patterned paper strips.

I also hot glued a couple chipboard shapes (the apple and pumpkin) to wooden spools by Maya Road. The spools help keep the tags standing up in the tin.

Here's a closer look at the tags. I tied some with twine and seam binding and then adhered some of the chipboard shapes to the top.

For a complete supply list, please visit the Emma's Paperie blog here.

Thanks for visiting today! :)

Webster's Pages: Give Thanks & Merry Christmas!

Good morning! It's been awhile, I know...been busy celebrating with my family so I'm a little behind on sharing projects with you. Today I want to share a few projects with you for Webster's Pages. Last week the design team shared tags for Thanksgiving and this was my creation using "Park Drive".

Also, I had a quick and easy tutorial on how to create photo cards for Christmas on the Webster's Pages blog.

Step ONE:  Print family photos to 2" x 3" (I always leave a white border on my photos).

Step TWO:  Cut an 8.25" x 5.5" card base and fold in half (or pre-purchase).

Step THREE: Cut a window from the "Deck the Halls" patterned paper.

Step FOUR: Cut a 1.5" strip from "Pine Needles" patterned paper and cut to fit front of card. Adhere to bottom of card.

Step FIVE:Adhere window, photo and add "Merry Christmas" mini message sticker or similar sentiment.

Step SIX:Punch a star from vellum and adhere with foam adhesive to top of card.

Step SEVEN: Punch starburst circle from "Lights Aglow" patterned paper (B side) and adhere to center of vellum star. Add a rhinestone or pearl to center.

 Step EIGHT: Tie knot in length of sparkle ribbon and adhere below photo.

Step NINE:  Draw a border around the edge of the card (or machine stitch).

 

Super simple! This was our family Christmas photo from last year but this design would be easy to replicate for multiple cards.

Thanks for stopping in today! More tomorrow... :)

Simple Stories: December Daily Blog Hop!

Good morning, and welcome to Simple Stories' December Daily Blog Hop! (Stay with me for an epic length post and a chance to win some Simple Stories goodies!) Okay, first I must confess that I had absolutely no plans to create a December album this year. At. all. While I certainly loved my album from last year, it ended up being a bigger project that I envisioned despite my attempts to keep it simple. (Take a peek here if you would like to see what I created last year). But, then Simple Stories came out with the "Handmade Holiday" collection and a little brand called Sn@p and I decided that perhaps maybe, just maybe I could do another album.

Last year, I did not create "foundation pages" for my album at all and I am excited to share that I did make foundation pages this year. Also, something you need to know about my album is that I do not create with a December Daily format. I found last year and the year before when I thought about doing an album that the idea of a daily album stressed.me.out. Instead, I chose 31 December memories for my album and created around them. It seemed to work much better for my family when we had several activities on the same day and I wanted to share more than one.

So, here is my album cover... (and I have a LOT of photos to share with you today...all the foundation pages).

REMOVED FOR PUBLICATION

The "December" sticker and the calendar are from the Sn@p collection. For me, creating a December album is a time where I not only use whatever new collection caught my eye but also bring in some older items from my stash.

LOVE the ribbon from May Arts...the red just matches the cover of the Sn@p 6 x 8 album perfectly! The button is from Fancy Pants Designs and I threaded it with twine and then dangled some jingle bells.

Also loving the Simple Stories ticket stickers that I mixed up for my favorite sayings...I also used some older October Afternoon cream snowflake rub-ons on the cover.

On the inside cover, I placed a Handmade Holiday pocket (the largest one) to serve as a catch all for photos and memorabilia as I work on the album. The front page is one of the chipboard dividers that comes in the album. I did some misting and added a few things from my stash plus an Elle's Studio tag.

And now the foundation pages...I used a combination of the divided page protectors, the Sn@p divider pages and the Handmade Holiday divider pages.


I added some Studio Calico wood veneer trees and snowflakes here and there as well as some Elle's Studio tags.

At every 10 pages, I placed a chipboard tabbed divider page. I thought this was a good resting point and might serve as a place to add more photos and journaling if needed.

And here's the last chipboard divider page..

December 24th and 25th are usually my most photo heavy pages so I might add more to the album when I get to this point. (I like using a binder album for more flexibility!)

And there you have it! You'll notice that my design is very simple at this point but I don't see myself adding too many more embellishments once I put in photos and journaling. During an already stressful time of year, my mantra is simple.simple.simple.

Please visit the other design team member's blogs and see what they have cooked up for their December Daily albums. And be sure to leave comments on all the blogs along the way for a chance at winning some fabulous Simple Stories products!

Here's the order for the blog hop:

Simple Stories -  www.simplestories.com
Cari Locken - www.myandmythoughts.blogspot.com
Donna Januzzi - www.donnajannuzzi.blogspot.com

Emily Lanham - http://www.createserendipity.net/
Gail Lindner - http://gaillindner.typepad.com/
Guiseppa Gubler - http://guiseppagubler.blogspot.com/
Jill Cornell - www.jillcornell.blogspot.com (YOU ARE HERE!!!!)
Kelli Rabideau - www.kelliesdesigns.blogspot.com
Rebecca Keppel - http://www.myclutteredcorner.com/
Shellye McDaniel - www.paperedcottage.blogspot.com
Tonya Dirk -  www.creativit-tonya.blogspot.com
Yuki Shimida - http://lovetodaybyluvbear.typepad.jp/

Thanks for visiting today! :)

Simple Stories: Hello Family Fall Fun!

Hello there! First things first - the random winner of the Crafts 'n Things magazine subscription giveaway is:

Rhonda said...
I am signed up for Crafts 'N Things community now. :o)

3:40 PM

Rhonda, could you please send me an e-mail (cornellgj(at)yahoo(dot)com) with your address and information so I can forward that to Crafts 'n things? Congrats!

Today I have a couple of projects to share using the Harvest Lane collection from Simple Stories. And (gasp!) I even did some stamping and heat embossing on both of them. (I am gasping over here because I usually do not take the time to stamp. But stamping is definitely something that I am trying to include more in my work and get some use out of the sets I seem to collect).

My family loves, loves, loves visiting the pumpkin patch every fall (we actually go to two of them - one of them is just a little urban place to buy pumpkins but it is always beautifully decorated and the other is an actual, country pumpkin patch complete with a hay ride to a field to choose pumpkins). 

 
For my title, I mixed and matched alphabet stickers from several collections.

I added a few details here and there...brads and vellum for texture.



The leaf stamps are a set by Cocoa Daisy that were stamped with colored inks on vellum and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. (Yes, you can heat emboss vellum - just don't hold the heat gun too close and keep it moving!) I also used leaf stickers from the Harvest Lane collection.


And like always, I made a card after I created my layout. I stamped a few more images and then layered them here and there on the card.





Thanks for stopping by today! More fun from Simple Stories tomorrow! We're having a December Daily blog hop - I know I swore I would not be doing this album again but I talked myself into it! ;)

See you tomorrow! ;)

Crafts 'n things Magazine: Subscription Giveaway!

Happy Friday! Wow...this week has flown by! I can't believe we're getting so close to Thanksgiving! Today I have some exciting news to share with you all as well as AMAZING magazine subscription giveaway for one of my blog readers!

Twice a month, I will be contributing projects and blog posts for a fantastic magazine - Crafts 'n Things - as part of their new blog team!

 

I have been able to contribute projects to their print publication since 2008 so I'm very excited about this new adventure. Crafts 'n things is a wonderful publication full of all kinds of crafting ideas - their paper crafting section is just one part and features cards, home decor, altered projects and mini albums. I have also been contributing projects for their free digital weekly newsletter and you can sign up for that right on Crafts 'n things website.

Today I am giving away a ONE-YEAR subscription to the magazine (the print publication) ! All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment on this blog post and I'll draw a random winner and announce it next Wednesday, November 14th. Also, if you sign up for the Crafts 'n things community (includes the newsletter) you can have an extra entry into my giveaway by coming back and leaving another comment that you did so.

Here's a peek at their December 2012 issue on newsstands now (and that happens to be my snowman card on the cover!)

Thanks for stopping by today and letting me share my news and have a great weekend!  :)

Emma's Paperie: Night Eyes & Step Right Up

Good morning! Today I have a couple of layouts to share for Emma's Paperie. The first project uses October's Afternoon's Witch Hazel collection and the second, their Midway collection. Can you tell I'm an October Afternoon fan?! ;) The first layout is also for the sketch challenge this month and I turned the card sketch into a layout simply by focusing on the scallops in the sketch. This year we went to Night Eyes at the zoo for the first time and we loved it!

I recently picked up this jack 'o lantern border punch from EK Success and I love the look of those smiling little pumpkins.





For a complete supply list, please visit the Emma's Paperie blog here.

Also at Emma's Paperie, the design team focused on banners. I went for the less obvious route here and made banners from patterned paper and used tags and die-cuts for banners. This summer we went to Adventureland which is a pretty fun amusement park and water park. The girls absolutely loved it! They played a fish game (the kind where everybody wins!) and thought it was so neat to win a prize!

Love the Midway collection! I'll definitely be doing a lot more Adventureland photos, Iowa State Fair photos and more with this one!

For a complete supply list visit the Emma's Paperie blog here.

Thanks for stopping by today! :)

Fancy Pants Guest Designer: Home for Christmas Projects

Good morning! Today I want to share the rest of my projects for Fancy Pants Designs as their guest designer for November.

I was also able to work with the Home for Christmas collection. We always take a family photo in front of our Christmas tree and I hadn't yet scrapbooked our photo from last year. I just love a classic Christmas collection and this one was full of traditional Christmas colors with that vintage touch I also love.

I mixed and matched more of the banner die-cuts and layered some chipboard, button, and brad. A little vellum adds more texture.

I had a lot of fun layering here with the different patterns, chipboard frames and stickers. The glitter alphabet stickers are so pretty.

The little layered tag was dressed up with a chipboard button and green button. I also used stamps on this layout.

For my second layout, I captured a family Christmas tradition with our new friend, Buddy the Elf. I created a storyboard with this one as I had several photos I wanted to use. (This is one tradition I am excited to keep up this year as the girls are still talking about Buddy the Elf.) 

I punched out several snowflakes and then backed them with patterned paper and embellished with brads.

I punched vellum circles and then added the numbers with stickers in the collection.

Here I just added a few little details here and there with chipboard.

Finally, I also created a quick and easy card with Home for Christmas. I layered a few frames with a dimensional sticker.

Thanks again to Fancy Pants Designs for having me this month! It was so wonderful to work with both the Hopscotch and Home for Christmas collections.

I'll be back with more tomorrow! :)