Thanks is for Giving

Saying "thank you" is such an important thing to do.  One of the best ways I know how is to send a card, or better yet a card and a batch of chocolate chip cookies to show your gratitude.  :)  Thanksgiving is not the only time I reflect on what I'm thankful for.  Every day I am thankful for so many blessings in my life. (including you!)

On Monday I showed you one way to use the burlap ribbon, and this card uses up the pieces of "string" I pulled off the ribbon to make it fray.  Isn't that burlap bow a nice touch to the card?

In the video I will show you some easy things you can do with Stampin' UP!'s burlap ribbon.  It's great for the fall cards I've been making lately, but I've also used it on several masculine cards as well.  The texture is unique and I think that's why I like it so much.

***Note- If you are reading this post in your email you may need to go to my blog to view the video.

After the camera stopped rolling I made another card using the burlap banner.  It's one of my favorite Autumn cards this year.   It was also my Design Team card for StampNation earlier this month.  Originally my card submission was going to be the one in the video, but I like this one even better.

My favorite part of this card has to be the burlap banner with the addition of the brown button.  It just feels like fall to me.

The "thank" comes from an expressions thinlit that spells "thankful"  I just cut off the last three letters and glued it down using my two-way glue pen.  Next I stamped "YOU" from Friendship Preserves to add beneath it.   Adding the "you" took the longest time.  I went through all my stamps to find the right you and had to cut this one out to make it work, but it's worth it.  Now that the card is complete I love the added touch.

These are obviously Fall themed thank you cards because of the autumnal colored leaves stamped in the background, but if you changed up the color and stamp you could send these year round.  Perhaps I will make a snowflake thanks to show you what I mean.  :)

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Stamps: Friendship Preserves, Magnificent Maple, Seasonal Sayings
Ink & Paper: ??? Summer Starfruit, Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso (or was it Chocolate Chip), Soft Suede, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla (Basically just pull out your fall colors and go to town)
Misc.: Burlap Ribbon, Nuetrals Button, Expressions Thinlits

Masculine Monday

Last Friday I was in need of a quick card for a 5th grade boy's birthday.  I was looking at my friend, Kristie's, blog, of Kreative Kristie fame, and was instantly inspired. 



At first I thought about dusting off the Cricut and clearing off the space in front of it so I could make a star like she had on her card, but I was short on time.  Instead I used the stamped image I had on my table from the Great Sport stamp set and colored in the stars with a Daffodil Delight marker.  The piece was already cut out using my Labels Framelits, and sponged.  (this is why I don't clean my stamp space, you never know when inspiration will hit!)  Then I stamped Happy Birthday from the Blue Ribbon stamp set. 

It appears I used just about every "masculine" stamp set I own.  :D  Next I stamped one of the Gorgeous Grunge stamps with Smoky Slate ink and then stamped Celebrate, from Seasonal Sayings, on top of it with Pacific Point ink.

How many stamp sets did I use?  5? I was thinking this was a clean and simple card, but now I'm wondering if it was.  :)  The boy that my son gave this to actually thanked me for my card when I picked him up from the birthday party.  Isn't that sweet?

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Celebrate Green

Spring is on its way and green is popping up everywhere, even on my card today.   In honor of St. Patrick's Day this weekend I have two green cards for you.  I'll show you my shamrock card tomorrow.  ;)

The hearts were made using the Fashionable Hearts Embosslit.  I then used a dimensional on each of them to pop them up off the square.  When the card was finished I added Crystal Effects to each heart which gave it a really glossy finish when they dried.

The tag was super easy to make.  First I stamped Celebrate from the Seasonal Sayings stamp set in Gumball Green onto Whisper White card stock.  Then I cut it out using the Apothecary Accents Framelits.  Then I added some "stitch lines" with my Gumball Green marker.  I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch out a hole in each side of the tag and threaded a strip of Lucky Limeade Bakers Twine through the holes. 

Hopefully this green card makes you think of Spring.  I'm told it's coming.  In fact it's time for me to head out to the baseball field.  My youngest has tryouts today.  Hope you have a great weekend and Spring comes soon to your home.

Creative Blessings,
Heather North



Seasonal Sayings



Print Poetry DSP Stack



Fashionable Hearts Embosslits



Celebrate ~ Basketball

My husband and father-in-law are both big Sacramento Kings fans.  Not sure what will happen if the Kings move, but for this season they get to cheer on their team from Sacramento.  With Papa Marty's birthday in February I wanted to make him a special birthday card sporting the Kings colors.

The first thing I did was to stamp the basketball image from Great Sport 3 times using Black Staz-On ink and stamping them on to Pumpkin Pie cardstock.  Then I punched them out with different sizes of circle punches.  Next I ran them all through the big shot using my dots embossing folder.

This gave them great texture, but I wanted a little more, so I took a sponge and some Basic Gray ink and sponged VERY lightly to add some shading.  Then used my tombow mono-multi glue to adhere the balls to white circle mats.

The arrow paper clip points to my sentiment.  These clips are larger than I thought they would be, but I was (almost) able to fit it where I wanted too on the card.

I wanted to finish off the inside of the card, so I stamped yet another basketball, but did not emboss it this time.  Instead I used my Designer Label and Word Window punches to make a "banner" over the ball. 

Happy Birthday Papa!  Hope this card made you smile when you opened it!

Creative Blessings,
Heather North




Great Sport



Seasonal Sayings



Hung Up Cute Clips



Silver Glimmer Paper



Love You

Happy Valentine's Day my creative friends!  Love is certainly in the air... especially at the local middle school and high school.  :)  You should have seen all the flowers and balloons walking by as I picked up my kids from school.  <3  Here's a card you can give to anyone you love.

I CASEd the "Queen of Clean and Simple", Maureen Merritt, for this card.  Her original card was all white, but I added a touch of Real Red and Pretty in Pink to mine.  I like the pop of color, but I LOVE the basic rhinestone heart.  Isn't it sweet? 

To make this card, just follow these steps.

1) Stamp your "Love You" sentiment from Seasonal Sayings Stamp Set in Real Red.



Seasonal Sayings

2) Create a "mask".  Stamp the sentiment again on a post it note, and cut around the image.  Stick the post it note over the image you first stamped on your card stock. 

3)  Ink your scallop heart from the Hearts A Flutter stamp set with Pretty in Pink ink, and stamp your heart.  Make sure your heart goes over your masked off sentiment.



Hearts A Flutter Stamp Set

4)  Peel off your mask.  Now you can add your basic rhinestones.  The inner circles from the scallop heart stamp give you a perfect guide! 



Basic Rhinestones

5) My last step was to pop the panel up on dimensionals in each corner and tie a Real Red 1/4" Stitched Satin Ribbon across the top. 


Real Red Ribbon

I hope you get to spend time today with someone you love.  If you don't have a Valentine this year, consider sending a love card to a friend or someone you know could use a little cheer. 



Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Happy Halloween

Last night Scott and the kids carved and decorated pumpkins.   I was making Scott some Chocolate Chip Cookies for his birthday and completely forgot to take any pictures.  Oops.   Perhaps I will remember to take pictures of the finished pumpkins today.

Have you seen Stampin' UP!'s stamp set called Button Buddies?  If not here it is:

Button Buddies

Aren't they cute?  I wanted to make this card with the pumpkin, but I don't have this stamp set.  :(  Instead I used what I had and I like what I came up with. 

If you saw yesterday's post then you might recognize the Mojo Monday sketch I used again.  What can I say?  I'm a sucker for good sketches, and this square one just seemed to fit. 

There are a few things I changed though, including the orientation of the card.  Instead of opening at the bottom this card opens at the side. The inside is decorated too.

I made my own background paper by stamping the swirl from Everything Eleanor in Soft Suede ink, stamping off on some scratch paper first.  I did the same for the little boo tag.  The front panel is embossed and sponged.  Actually all the pieces ended up getting sponged. 

This was a quick, fun card to make and I've already begun some modifications to make it perfect for Thanksgiving.  (or a fall thank you card)

Come back later today to see my "scary" Halloween post of my craft room.  The before pictures are pretty spooky to me.  LOL

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Card Recipe:  (all items SU unless otherwise noted)

Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Tiny Tags, Seasonal Sayings
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi
Ink: Soft Suede
Misc.: Dots Embossing Folder (non SU), Glimmer Brads, Scallop Square Duo Die, Bird Punch. Jewelry Tag Punch









 

 







Blog Candy Winner

Thank you so much for all the kinds comments.  It makes me smile each time I get a new one.  You are the best!  Now for my blog candy giveaway.  I thought it would be fun to film me choosing the winner.  This video is unedited except for adding captions.  You will see why I usually edit.  LOL

Congratulations!!!!  If I picked your name in the video, please send me an email at cr8tvblessings@hotmail.com and let me know whether you want me to send you the Seasonal Sayings stamp set or the Set of Cards along with your address so I can ship them to you! 



Seasonal Sayings



 

 

 

Just in case you couldn't view the video above....

CONGRATULATIONS MUM OF 4!!!!! and Thank You again for reading my blog and leaving me comments.  Yes, I read every one of them.  <3

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Spider Web Mojo ~ Mojo258

It's been a fun day.  I've worked on 5+ different cards today, but I can only show you one of them.  Here is why...

Card 1- I sent it to school already with my son.  He's going to a birthday party after school and the mom is picking him up.  I've already shown this card on my blog, but I needed to add something to the inside.

Card 2- Another card I had shown on my blog previously.  I thought I had sent it out already, but instead it got smooshed, so I needed to redo the bow on the front.  It has also been sent out of the house.

Card 3- A card for my mom's birthday.  She doesn't read my blog very often, but on the off chance she came here today I didn't want to spoil her surprise.  ;)

Card 4- Well that is today's card...

 

 

I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch to make my first Halloween card of the year... perhaps ever.  As you can see I mirrored it. 

Here is a picture of the inside.

A close up so you can see the spiders and the texture I added by using my scoring board. 

Card 5+ - I was trying to see which color combo I liked for my next card, so I stamped the image 4 times.  Turns out I like 3 of them, so I have decided to make all three (or more) and package them as a gift set of cards.  :)  So, you will likely see them at some point.

Hope you are having a fabulous Friday and finding some time to get a little creative yourself.

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Stamps: Mixed Medley (hostess), Seasonal Sayings, Tiny Tags
Ink: Basic Gray, Basic Black, Tangerine Tango
Paper: Howlstooth and Scaringbone DSP, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Basic Black, Tangerine Tango
Misc.: Scoring Board, Punches, Paper Piercer, Tiny Brads