Yep, it is that time of the year! I definitely do not waste anytime… as soon as November 1st is here, I am already planning and prepping for Christmas. It is my favorite holiday of all time for many reasons. Normally, we purchase our photo cards from Costco or Shutterfly, but this year I decided that I was going to go ahead and create my own. I did a bit of research (and what do ya know, the Papertrey Ink Design Team challenge came right in time for my venture into photo card world!) and I found that they can actually be quite simple!

I also ran across the Just Us Girls challenge for this week, which just so happens to be a holiday photo card! What are the chances, just so much inspiration right at my door step! I hope that you all will join me in creating a photo card. If you don’t normally do photo cards for Christmas, do share a link to your homemade Christmas cards this year! This will be my DARE for the week… get started on those Christmas cards (with or without a photo!). Last minute cards are just no fun… so put your Christmas spirit on, maybe even take a walk through some past Christmas photos as inspiration to create from your heart for those that you love!

Have a blessed time! And here is mine: I only make cards for writing in for my super close family. But for those far away, I just want to send them some love (and remind them that Im still alive!!). So these cards are flat 4 1/4 x 5 1/2.” I broke out my embosser and tried one with white and one with clear… PLEASE HELP ME CHOOSE which one to use (see the comparison photo below)! They both look lovely with that Papertrey Ink Fancy Flourish! The photo used is NOT the photo that we will be using for our cards — it’s just a stand in so I can get an idea! Hopefully this month we will be able to find time to take a perfect portrait to use! This card is meant to be simple but pretty. I hope you enjoyed it!

hehe, I just love calling my challenges “dares!” It just makes them even more intriguing and I look forward to them. I dont know about you but I am a competitive person, so when you dare me, I dont back away. My poor, poor husband who tries to play Wii games and board or card games with me… he ends up just getting punched in the arm when he wins! haha but in all seriousness, who enjoys losing?

I am SUPER excited to say that I was one of the Papertrey Ink Annual Holiday Blog Hop WINNERS! I was a bit reluctant to even check on the winners board to see who won, I guess I just assumed that I wouldnt win… but as soon as I clicked that link and saw my name on the top, I just about screamed! It was so exciting to win something that I truly LOVE! I get to pick one free stamp set of my choice as my prize, and let me tell you, it didnt take much time to pick THIS ONE! The Damask Designs set has been used on many beautiful creations by other bloggers and the PTI Design Team, so I had had my eye on it for awhile now. I can not wait to play! Thanks Nicole and the PTI team for the opportunity to win great products!

Alright, now on to this week’s Dare. This week I DARE YOU… to flip your design. Take your pick of any sketch from out there in blog land and instead of doing it exact, flip it, turn it, and have fun with it. Even go as far as using opposites, such as stars for hearts, hearts for circles, leaves for squares… use your imagination and change it up a bit. Most sketch artists are totally cool with this as long as it still follows the main sketch! Below are a few of my favorite sketch sites for your convenience (I will be using the Unscripted Sketch that is shown above…):

Mojo Monday
2 Sketches 4 You
Unscripted Sketches
Card Patterns
CPS

Have fun flipping that design! Please do come back and share a link to your project if you decide to join my dare!

Why are gift cards so exciting to receive as a gift from someone?

I remember that as I grew older, all I ever wanted was gift cards, anything to be able to pick out my own gift! Now that I am older and buying gifts for my family and friends, I find that I miss giving an actual gift. I suppose there is a mixture of feelings toward wanting to pick out that fun and perfect gift for someone you love and also knowing what a blessing a gift card can be to someone. Even Garrett and I look forward to the gift cards we traditionally receive for Christmas now — they usually are for the movies, Starbucks and some nice restaurants — these really help us to take more time out of our lives to get out and spend time alone and together :)

Therefore, I have finally made a decision on this week’s DARE! I dare you (and myself) to make a special gift card holder! Feel free to make it in any way, with any template or guide, as long as it is created for the purpose of holding a gift card. For today’s Gift Card holder, I used the new template that Papertrey Ink has released called the Cash or Charge Collection by Lauren Meader. It includes three different templates to create some super special gift card holders; right in time for the holidays! I am SO excited to get started on these special little guys that will help me present my gifts in an extra thoughtful way! Check it out!

Supplies Used:

Colors: Just Us Girls color challenge: Red, Light Blue and Vintage Cream
Papers: PTI In Bloom and PTI Bitty Dot Basics
Stamps: PTI Fancy Flourishes and PTI Everyday Button Bits (sentiment)
Accessories: Large Red Button and Hemp
Tools: Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/4″ Circle Punch and Hole Punch

Thanks for stopping by!

Good morning, everyone!

I hope you are all ready for a challenge! This week I am challenging myself to use more than just my usual amount of Patterned Papers on my projects. Normally I pick Two patterned papers and two or three cardstock pieces for my projects, but I know that I have seen some wonderful creations using much more patterns out there! So that is why I DARE YOU to use 5 or more Patterned Papers on your project…

My card was created using this week’s Mojo Monday sketch that I thought was perfectly simple enough to allow for many patterned papers. Aren’t these papers just GORGEOUS!? I adore these colors and lately have fallen in love with Yellow! These papers were in the July Kit from Scarlet Lime (and just so happens to be my all time favorite kit!). Another challenge I used with my card was over at  the Kitchen Sink Stamp Challenge: Use only 1 Pop Dot, 2 Embellishments (of your choice), and 3 different stamped images.

I better not forget to give credit to my crimper! I LOVE this easy little guy; I dont use it much but when I do, I love the result. I used it to crimp the yellow cardstock for some added texture… I think it did it’s job! The stamps used are Papertrey Ink called In Bloom and I used my sponge to sponge on some light green into the bloom and then to swipe the edges with a Teal. Love how easy that is!

My inspiration comes from Amy Butler’s fabrics (see photo below)… she creates gorgeous patterns! You can even find her patterns on papers for those of us who scrapbook!!! If you Google Amy Butler’s fabrics you can find some amazing projects, including quilts that are absolutely amazing!

Happy creating!

This week’s dare is to create something Simple AND Elegant, all in one… this one should be fairly easy, but sometimes I think that when we want something elegant we go all out and spend a ton of time on our cards, forgetting that simplicity can also be elegant. I hope you will join me in this challenge and that you end up with a lovely card that will truly bless someone in your life!

Here are my cards and oh how I love elegance and simplicity all rolled into one! Today was a rough day for me at work, so when I got home my handsome hubby encouraged me to scrap :) I love him so much for this! I decided that I wanted to play with a Close To My Heart stamp set that I purchased in August and never even used yet! This set is called Childhood Portrait and includes six precious silhouettes. I also decided to use two of my new favorites from Papertrey Ink… Fancy Flourishes and Vintage Labels. Both of these sets are very elegant to me and I just had to have them as soon as I saw them! They will be very versatile for some time to come.

As for the cards, I really just wanted something simplistic, no words and just pretty. I paired up the CTMH Sorbet cardstock with PTI’s In Bloom paper in Berry Sorbet… they work very well together! I used this week’s 2 Sketches 4 You sketch (even the second card is a variation of the sketch, just turned to the side and the center is not so centered). They also qualify for the challenge over at Whimsy Stamp Challenges where they challenged us to use a girl or boy theme and at Timeless Tuesday Challenge where the challenge is to create card for a woman in your life with pink as the main color AND over at 3 Clovers Designs another challenge to use Pink…. PERFECT!

Thank you so much for visiting and hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week!