More Simplicity

My mother doesn't like all the layers that I think are so cute on cards! But she likes me to make cards for her and I love making cards for her. Recently I put together a batch of cards to send to her. I made several of these 3 cards.

I love the new Pocket Silhouettes set and think it really worked well on these cards.

One Layer Card

Back to my swap cards: I was part of a swap at Stampin! Up's convention for one layer cards. Only one layer of cardstock and one embellishment. This is actually my favorite kind of card. I love to see what I can come up with using minimal supplies.

I stamped the flowers using craft ink on Kraft cardstock. Then I took a fine tipped black marker and dotted the centers of the flower. I thought that paper piercing would set off the gingham ribbon. And voila'! My one layer card.

Hoo-Wee!

I was nominated by three people for this award:



Rachel
Samantha
Tracy

I don't know what to say - I've only had my blog up and going a very short time. I'm just thrilled that people are reading my blog and like what they see here!

The rules that go along with this award are:
1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to their blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

I am really torn because I have so many blogs that I love and I don't want anyone to be hurt because I didn't chose their blog!

What I am going to do, tho, is to direct your attention to blogs and artwork of some very special ladies. I got to know them before Stampin' Up!'s convention this year. We started chatting with each other on Splitcoast Stampers. We are all professed Swap-a-holics! We are still chatting on a daily basis, and these are some of my new BFF's!

Please take a look. I know you will love their work as much as I do!
Amy - A New Song
Amy - Not Just Another Stampin' Blog
Crissy - Scrapbooking Fool
Ellie - Create Release Smile
Lisa - Lisa's Corner
Lisa - Caffeine Induced Musings...
Paula - Scrapshappen Gallery
Sharon - Roaming Stamper
Rhonda - The Stampin' Bunny

Birthday Card

Wednesday was my upline, Pam Bert's, birthday. I didn't have time to stamp a card for her, but pulled one out of my stash. This is a card that I made for a 'Wow card' swap at convention. It looks like there are tiny blue dots - but those are dots of glitter. Very sparkly in real life.

This is a tri-fold card. Untie the ribbon and the top and bottom 'unfold.'

Easy Christmas Cards

My hostess club this month requested 'Easy' Christmas cards. The layout for this card above was cased from the awesome Lauren Meader. I thought the Winter Post set and a quick rub-on from Season of Cheer were a perfect match.




This card (again, above. I can't figure out how to get typing ABOVE the cards, today!) was the easiest one, but it is so elegant. I paired 2 of the papers from Ski Slope, layered the felt flurries snowflakes and added a silver brad. Then I added another rub-on saying from Seasons of Cheer. Can't get any easier than that!



I CASE'd this card - and I can't for the life of me find out who I CASE'd it from! I'm usually really good about saving the info from cards that I see and like. I love the little 'presents' on the top of the card. If the owner of this original sees this card, would you please let me know so I can give you credit. Paper comes from the Holiday Treasures designer series paper. Saying is a stamp from Home for Christmas.



Again, another CASE. This one comes from Melissa's blog. Scroll down to the end of this post to see her Jingle All The Way card. I just used rub-ons from Season of Cheer again and paper from Ski Slope. Topped it off with Real Red grosgrain ribbon.




It was so hard to get a decent picture of this project! We used cardstock vellum and stamped the snowflake from Winter Post using Silver Encore. Then we sprinkled Irridescent Ice embossing powder over that and heated. In real life it's just gorgeous! These little sour cream containers are so easy to make. Click on the link to find Beate's great tutorial.

Have y'all noticed a new look to my blog? I have to give a great shout-out to Debbi (aka motherof6 on SCS). I posted on a thread there, looking for help with my blog. She responded within hours, and within a few more hours, Voila! New blog look and all the widgets in place. Thanks, Debbi!

She also has a great blog! Check her out!

October Hostess Club

We made this project last month for my hostess club. I LOVE these stationary boxes!

Jackie Topa's instructions are here.

And here is a great video with hands' on instructions.

And when I saw Allison's box, I knew that I wanted to use the Hawaii Papaya paper. Perfect for fall!

Here's the 'aerial' view:


Here are close ups of the cards:

3x3 Cards

Tags

Holiday Mini Swap

Can you see a theme for my posts? They have all been for swaps. Hence the reason I am part of a group on SCS called Swappers Anonymous. We are all Swap-a-holics! I've slowed down on the swaps for the past while, but did want to post the cards that I have made.

I think this card looks so much better in real life. I didn't use a flash, but it still washed out the warmth of the watercoloring. I needed a ribbon to match, but didn't have any chocolate chip taffeta, which was my first choice, so I colored the white taffeta ribbon with my creamy caramel marker. There is also paper piercing around the watercolor paper, which adds some nice depth to the card, but it didn't show up very well in the picture.

Big Shot Swap Card

I want to explain this card before you look closely at it. I made it for a Big Shot swap. The reason the pink flower looks off-center is because I took a picture of the card sitting open, hoping you could tell that there was a hole punched in the polk-a-dotted layer that goes clear thru the front of the card, and the pink flower is adhered to the back of the card. But you can't tell - the flower just looks skee-wampus!