Getting Ready for December

 Hello peeps,

The weather has definitely moved to the colder stage and it's time to get out the boots! Yay!

Also, it's time to plan for December - so I made a cute December Daily from one of my bullet journals that I purchased on Amazon.  Check it out:

I used that beautiful paper from Echo Park for my cover and for the decoration inside.

I definitely want to keep track of what I spend so I made my own ledger.

It's great to have all the pages already in the book so that I simply just glue the clipart down (these came from Doodlebug).

There were plenty of subjects to use.

I made a separate page for each day in December - to jot down what was done that particular day (I could even add photos).

Look at the cute clipart - making it a fun book to jot things down in.

Yep, have to write down who I will send Christmas cards to - my list is quite short.

I can't wait to start using this little fun book.  I love that it was so easy to put together.  I made one just like it for my friend, Audrey.  I hope she likes it.

Echo Park Paper Kits and Ephemera Sales

 Hello everyone,

I don't buy all of the paper pads like I used to do, going from Jo Ann's to Michael's whenever they had a sale on their designer paper pads.

But when Echo Park sent that link for their paper kit and ephemera sales (separate times), I took the bait.

Here are some Christmas/Winter cards I'm going to send to my favorite card charity for December:

Here's one of the kits that I used to make the cards.

I knew I had to get the ephemera so that my multiple card making event would be easy.

I was in two swaps on Swap-bot.com where you had to send your partner a Christmas or Winter themed card.  I did check out SplitCoastStampers.com to get instructions on how to do this easel card.  They both turned out right.

Now this particular paper kit had ephemera that went so well with the papers - I was super excited when I finished these cards.

This card is the gate fold, something that looks difficult but is really very easy to put together.  Above, you see how I laid everything out so that I could keep a steady pace.

There's a small little foam dot attached to the ornament on this bottom card that keeps the flap closed.

You can see the ornament holding this one down clearly - like I said, easy peasy and look at that beautiful paper with some great ephemera.

What a wonderful card making day!

Happy Crafting!

So many cards...

 Hello everyone,

I have sent so many cards to Cards for Kindness last month - here's what I sent:

These digitals are super simple with the template I created in MS-Word.  I printed sentiments and attached using foam tape.  Don't they look great?

The birthday cards are always needed for this charity - they send to so many other places like Ronald McDonald House.

While using digital images may seem easy, the card stock is so thin, I still have to layer up the inside so that the card does not feel so flimsy.

Look at the fabulous images I found using Google image search - aren't they adorable?

I love snowman images and these were better than me using my stamps.

There was a need for Autumn and Thanksgiving cards, so I went on a card making frenzy.

I'm glad I sent the cards early because here we are just weeks away from Thanksgiving holiday.

There was a call for holiday themed cards, so I made a few.

I wanted to do something different and decided to use washi tape as my background.  I have a lot of washi tape.

The upper left corner is an image drawn by my trans-daughter, Amanda.  She has such a talent with drawing these images specifically for my craft projects.

The last of the digital images to be sent.  Yeah, these were a lot of fun to make because I know that they will be used for a good purpose and will make the recipient happy.

Do What You LOVE What You Do.

How I Find Images for my Cards

 Hello y'all,

I was watching a video and saw Lawn Fawn stamped images being used to make cards and I looked in my folder to see what I had gotten from the internet once upon a time.  Well, I wanted Christmas images and decided to "Google" for those images.  Usually, this is what I find:

It's the image that looks just like the packaging.  So I copy the image and paste it into MS Paint (see above).  I have the 3D version but haven't had the patience to learn it properly.  So I stick to the old road like most old schoolers do. <hahaha>

I take the cursor and erase those lines that are always around the image because I want a clear image.

See how I've cleaned up the lines and any sentiments I don't want (as well as the packaging label that is attached to the images).  

As you can see, I've moved the images around so that they are all in one even space so that I can then save to Paint and use in Word when I resize them (sometimes this is cumbersome due to the thumbnail not being a good size).

Stay tuned to see how I color these pretties and how I use them on a card.  

I know, I could just buy the stamp and/or die (if they have them for the images I want), but this works well for my budget.

Happy Crafting!