Clean and Simple Card Making Inspired Card Set...

I was lucky enough to take the Clean & Simple Card Making Online Workshop taught by Jennifer
and Kristina and I was SO inspired. I have a difficult time creating simple cards and this class helped me not overdesign my projects.

I decided to create a card set that was full of fun and color but still simple. Here it is..

A closer look...

I used THIS sentiment set from Paper Smooches. I am in love with their playful fonts and various greetings..

If you want to recreate this look, here are the supplies you will need:

Directions:

I heat embossed THIS background image from Hero Arts (my new favorite background stamp) with white embossing powder onto white watercolor paper. Then I used my distress stains (love them!) and swiped it horizontally across the image to create a rainbow look. I matted the image in black cardstock and adhered it to a 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch card. Then I stamped various greetings in black ink on white stips and adhered with foam dots. Super fast and easy.

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Baby Aiden's Nursery

Hello friends. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been nesting like crazy preparing for my little guy to arrive. I finally have his nursery complete and couldn't wait to share it with all of you. So lets get started with the tour...

After much debate, I finally decided to show you the BEFORE pic. Now please don't judge. This was a spare bedroom for MANY years that never got touched and quickly became our junk room. I am known to be a bit of a neat freak so this room was always my enemy. LOL ...

Yikes. Moving on...A major clean out begins and the room gets prepped for painting.... (Can you see Ted hiding? lol)

The green goes up....

...and the blue goes up on the bottom...

Then we were going to add some white trim but Ted decided to paint a white trim...

Ta dah...

Here are the final results. As you walk in the door, this is what you see...

 Moving around the room...

There you have it. A tour of Aiden's nursery. I think he will love it. :)

Thanks for stopping by. Be back soon.

Hello 2012!

Happy New Year. I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday. I'm just now trying to get back in the swing of things. I'm about a month away from my due date and I've been nesting like crazy, getting ready for the little guy to come. His nursery is almost complete so I will share pics soon. On a different note, I wanted to share a 2012 calendar I made for Ashley (Alex's girlfriend) for Christmas.

I got a 8x8 blank calendar from Hobby Lobby, printed pics of the cute couple, cleaned out my stash of patterned paper scraps and ribbon, and had Alex come up with some of his favorite love quotes from songs and this is what I came up with....

The cover..

January

 February

 March

 April

 May

 June

 July

 August

 September

 October

I must have not photographed November, (oops!) but here is December lol ....

Be back soon with more shares. Thanks for stopping by!

Our Christmas Cards 2011

I absolutely love to make handmade cards to send out to friends and family for Christmas. I took on a bigger project with these cards than normal, but it was worth it! I created the front of my card with THIS and THIS set from Hero Arts. (I always tend to gravitate towards their stamps every year.) ...

To create the cover, I stamped the musical BG stamp with Versa Mark onto watercolor paper and heat embossed with white embossing powder. Then I randomly applied peeled paint, walnut stain, and fired brick distress stains all over and sprayed heavily with pearlized water. I stamped the greeting in black onto a kraft die-cut. I sprayed that too with pearlized spray. It is so shiny in real life...

I was so happy to find that Silhouette sells a cut to create a CD card. So I cut all the cards on my Silhouette using Neenah cardstock. Here's a peek at the inside...

On the left is the Ruwe Holiday Music Mix for this year....a track list of all the songs on the CD and who picked what. Even Baby Aiden picked some holiday songs. ;) When you remove the CD, it reveals our family pic..

A closer look at our playlist...

That's all I got for now. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

First Published Scrapbook Page!

I've been missing here lately becuase I'm in the middle of a mountain of paper and embellishments making my Christmas cards. I should have them done today! :) Anyway, I wanted to hop on and share what came in the mail yesterday....

 THIS magazine. It contains my FIRST published scrapbook page! ...

A closer look at my awesome son...

I'm so excited, I just had to share! Have a great Monday.

Cards that Care

I wanted to share some Christmas Cards I created for the Cards that Care Card Drive. This card drive sends cards to the elderly living in nursing homes. I'm hoping these cards will put a smile on their faces during this special time of year.

The first card features one of my favorite techniques to do. Emboss a background then go to town with Distress Stains (my new favorite product) and spray heavily with pearlized water. It's hard to see the shine on the photo, but its stunning in real life....

The next card uses THIS set which is so fun because you stamp and then emboss the image...

I like that this card uses non-traditional Christmas colors...

THIS nativity scene stamp set is a must have. I embossed the image in white on dark brown cardstock and then sprayed with pearlized water. Love the results...

The last card is pretty simple but my favorite. I heat embossed the flower image in white and then used Fired Brick Distress Stain to "color" it and again, sprayed with pearlized water....

 I also made sure that each card had a different message stamped inside, something I do a lot lately...

(All stamps used are from Hero Arts.)

That's all I got for now. Off to work on my Christmas cards. I just can't believe it is December already. Thanks for stopping by.

Baby on the Brain...

I apologize for the lack of posts here lately. I'm in full swing baby mode...getting the nursery ready, getting ready for my baby shower this weekend, and starting a bunch of house projects. I've also been shopping. I'm in love with Etsy and wish I can register there too! :) Here's a handful of things I found on there matching the theme of the nursery (elephants)....

THESE burp cloths are so fun...

Love THIS scripture print...

 Thinking of putting THESE decals on the wall...

 The simplicity of THIS is perfect..

THIS is a fun, bright tote...

And maybe even something fun for me! ...

I promise to be back soon with some creative shares. Thanks for stopping by and being patient. :)