Gingerbread House Thank You

I had seen many great examples by other CTMH consultants of using the Around the Block stamp set as a gingerbread house when this stamp set was first released, but I never tried it out until now. What a fun look! The striped paper from Mistletoe reminded me of peppermint so that's what I decided to use. At preschool, we've been reading Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett and the kids had an enormous cardboard box decorated as a gingerbread house that they could play in. When they would go inside, they said that they were gingerbread babies! So cute! My students gave me a tote bag with their handprints and names on it, so naturally, I thought gingerbread house thank you cards would be perfect to send out to them.

Supplies Used: (D1377) Around the Block stamp set, (D1361) Thank You stamp set, (X7130B) Mistletoe Level 2 paper pack, (X5644) Brown Bag cardstock, (Z1336) Opaques Pearl Adhesive Gems, (Z1326) Sparkles Red, Pink, & Purple Assortment, (Z673) White Daisy embossing powder, (Z891) Versamark Ink Pad, Nestabilities

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Inspired by Card Magazines

One of my presents for my birthday was a gift certificate to Borders and my first thought was to go and buy an updated street atlas for Northern Virginia since our old one is all tattered and somewhat outdated. I talked myself out of it! With mapquest and google maps, I thought, "Do we really need one?" We don't have a GPS right now but we might get one in the future...so I talked myself into getting two card magazines. Okay, so it wasn't a tough sell! I bought, "Take Ten," from Stampers Sampler and, "Card Creations," from Papercrafts. Both magazines have a lot of great card ideas so I'm glad I didn't get the street atlas!

This card was inspired by the design challenge featured in the, "Take Ten" issue I got. The card is folded in a way that the outside or front is a bit shorter (about an inch) than the inside.  And the corners are rounded, even though my scanner kept cutting off the top corner, grrrr! I used CTMH's textured cardstock (one side is slightly lighter than the other side) as my card base so that's why the extended inside edge looks lighter. I made this card after having worked on another complicated one for a VERY long time. I just didn't like how the first came out so I went on to this one which ended up having no stamping and coming together much more quickly! I needed to do something simple after all that.

Supplies used: (X5670) Textured cardstock Winter Cozy Palette, (Z822) Just Blooms Summer Posies, (Z1104) Clear Sparkles, (Z578) Corner Rounder, (Retired) Sassy Strands Autumn Harvest

The next card does have stamping and wasn't necessarily inspired by a card I saw in one of the magazines but I used the same textured paper for the card base that I used in the no stamping card. I also used a stamp set that I've recently gotten (I love the little ducks in Springtime).  The top of the umbrella is popped up for dimension.

Supplies Used: (X5670) Textured cardstock Winter Cozy Palette, (D1415) Springtime stamp set, (C1257), Happy Birthday stamp set, (X7114B) Bella Level 2 paper pack, (Z2111) Chocolate stamp pad, (Z2161) Petal stamp pad, (Z2367) Creme Brulee marker, (Z2301) Autumn Terracotta marker, (Z1151) 3-D Foam Tape, nestabilities

I've always admired those who can make simple yet elegant artwork. It seems that when I try to do this, something is just a bit off. I don't have quite the same graphic design sense. Anyway, here's my attempt at a simple card which also uses up some scraps and it was inspired by a card I saw in, "Card Creations."

Supplies Used: (D1187) For Every Occasion stamp set, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, scraps from my scrap drawer (black cardstock, Emporium papers)

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Lucky Girl

My birthday was last Tuesday and I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful family and so many amazing friends who made it a special day for me. Since we all had Monday off, my family and I celebrated on Monday, with some pampering and a special cake from Tivoli (an awesome bakery in Ballston). We also saw, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and went out for lunch. I had many nice cards, calls, and emails too. At work the next day, there was even more cake, specifically yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting (simple, but my absolute favorite type of cake). It motivated me to walk on the treadmill yesterday! And I think I'll have time to do some walking today too! Here's a picture of some of the fun stuff I received as presents.

So I have a lot of people to thank and need to get going on making some thank you cards! Here's one design I came up with (I love using the plaid paper from Felicity as "clothing").

Supplies used: (CC1008) Felicity Collection, (D1345) Ms. Sweetheart stamp set, (D1361) Thank You stamp set, (Z1104) Clear Sparkles, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, (Z2342) Parchment marker, (Z2302) Baby Pink marker, (Z2305) Black marker, (Z1126) Designer Ribbon Rounds Colonial White Collection, (Z1300) Just Blooms White Daisy, (1388) Colonial White cardstockPin It

Going Through My Stash (Sonata and My Heart)

The music teacher at the preschool where I work turned 61 today and in honor of her birthday, I wanted to give her a set of notecards with a musical theme. I also had promised myself to use up more of my hoard of paper so I decided to use a retired paper pack I have called, Sonata. I really do like this paper and since it's retired, it was even more difficult to let go of my hoarding tendencies...but I did! I also used a retired stamp set, My Heart. It may be difficult to see in the picture but I used Clear Sparkles on the stamped musical notes (it looks nice in real life) and the music book is popped up with 3-D adhesive.

Supplies: (Z1104) Clear Sparkles, (X5747) Basic Textured Cardstock, (Z2111) Chocolate stamp pad, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, (Z2311) Chocolate marker, (Z1151) 3-D Foam Tape, Nestabilities

Retired items: Sonata paper, My Heart stamp set, Chocolate grosgrain

I like using the textured cardstock as a card base because it is two toned. So if you have a dark color like the Chocolate shown here, once it is folded the inside of the card is lighter and easy to write on with a regular pen. Here's a picture of the inside:

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