Winter Penguin Cards

The weather has started to turn cold, so I decided to pull out my Winter Penguins stamp set (Z3917) & try my hand at a penny slider card & a wobble card! I've been wanting to use this set since last winter and have also wanted to make a slider a card for just as long!

After embossing a piece of glacier cardstock with the Confetti embossing folder (Z3118), I random stamped some delicate snowflakes in glacier ink.  I used 2 metal dies from the Fancy Borders Thin Cuts set (Z3682) to mimic hills of snow.  All of those pieces were splattered with my clear Shimmer Brush (Z3293) to add a subtle shimmer.  The tops of the snowy hills were edged with Diamond Stickles (Z3563). I also added a dot of Diamond Stickles to the centers of the snowflakes!  

I made a channel for the penny to slide in using foam tape & added the skating penguin to the penny with a small round pop-dot. This made my penguin tumble & spin down the card, instead of slide.  Since I was using the "Sliding By to Say Thanks!" sentiment, I really wanted the penguin to slide.  So I took of the round pop dot & replaced it with a small piece of 1/4" foam tape. This insured that my penguin would stay steady in the channel & slid from side to side.  I used the Dark Red Tri-Blend marker (Z2497) on his scarf & on the sentiment.  Such a fun card! 

The second card is a 4.25 square card.  That size can still fit in an A2 envelope and won't cost more in postage, as most square cards will.  I used a snowflake embossing folder to emboss a 4 x 4 square of white daisy cardstock.  Then using the medium square from the Stitched Square Frames Thin Cuts (Z4259), I cut a square frame & layered it over a 3 x 3 piece of black & white checkered paper. I used a swirly die to cut a white swirl and added my sentiment on a 1/2" piece of dovetailed glacier cardstock.  After paper piecing a glacier scarf (cut from another penguin in the stamp set), I colored his hat and added more Diamond Stickles to the pom-pom.  Three snowflake sequins (Z4319) were added to the base, along with a wobble element to make this little penguin pop up & wobble!

Here are the cards in action:

 

Some of the items I used are retired, but here are links to the Close to My Heart products that can still be ordered:

Winter Penguins Stamp Set 

Fancy Borders Thin Cuts 

Clear Shimmer Brush

Diamond Stickles

Foam Tape

Dark Red Tri-Blend Marker

Stitched Square Frames Thin Cuts

Snowflake Loose Sequins

Card bases & Envelopes

 

 

 

Adorable January/February Catalog

 

The January/February catalog is one of my favorites!!  The colors are fresh and the patterns are adorable!  I have a few favorites that I will tell you about soon (such as the Happiness Lives Here collection pictured below) but before I sway you, check it out for yourself by clicking HERE and see what catches your eye!

 

The November - December catalog has some cute ideas!  I think one of my favorite items in it is the Serenity Cardmaking Workshop. Pictured below are the four cards that the kit can make.  You'll have enough supplies to make 4 each of the 4 cards.  I'm always searching for anniversary card ideas, and this kit has great sentiment stamps for those occasions!  Once you've used the paper in the kit, use the included patterns & instructions with some paper you already have on hand, and make 16 more cards with the same stamp set and they will look totally different!  That's what I love about our kits!  Give it a try!

 

Click HERE to order the workshop!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dollhouse That Mom Built

In the 70’s, my Mom bought a huge Dura-Craft Victorian VH600 dollhouse kit. When she got it home & opened Up the box she was surprised by all of the thousands of pieces of wood! Nothing was pre-assembled. Every wall, staircase, window & door needed to be put together. The instruction manual detailed the process step-by-step. She set-up a work space & started at it. For years she plugged away on that project, until it was finally completed! It had lights & wallpaper & everything!

 It moved with us from California to Oregon. When we relocated to Seattle, it stayed with my Mom’s best friend. I remember thinking it was so cute displayed behind the couch in her living room! When she moved, it was returned to my Mom and was placed in her family room. Fast forward about 25 years.....when my Mom gave it to my daughter last October. 

The house didn’t look too bad on the outside. A few missing roof shingles and several missing spindles & railings. It was a bit dirty too. So we took it outside & started cleaning it. We removed the front bay windows in preparation for a new paint color!

 
Inside of the house was another story!

 The wallpaper had seriously aged over the years! You could also see the copper wiring through the wallpaper, which had corroded in some spots.  We removed all the wallpaper. Even though several lights on the house still worked, we did some research & realized that we could no longer get lights or replacement bulbs for the  “vintage” electrical system. That was the hardest thing for me to remove because, as a child, I remember my Mom working on the lighting & I was fascinated by it. I was always so excited when a new light was working! All that hand soldered copper wiring that she worked so hard on was sadly removed.

The wood slat floor in the living room was buckled & curling in several spots. At first I thought I could just repair the floor, but in the end we scraped out all the slats & dried out glue and decided to put in a new wood floor. 

My next post will continue the saga. Priming & painting :)

Where Have I Been???

I can't believe it's been almost 5 years since my last post!! I would never have guessed all the changes that have taken place over the years!  I'll just summarize by saying we moved to Oregon and I've added a new hobby to my life ... miniatures!  I still love paper crafting & seem to always have some paper project in the works. I also still love Close to My Heart stamps & supplies. But I have fallen hard for all things miniature over the past year! I wanted to document the project I'm working on, so I thought I'd use my blog to do so.  My daughter inherited a huge dollhouse from my Mom and we've been working on restoring it.  I'll be posting about it going forward.  And I'm sure I'll throw in a few paper projects along the way! ;)

December specials!

Attention all planner addicts! During December, you can get your hands on the new, gorgeous Everyday Life™ album from Close To My Heart, the accompanying Everyday Life 2016 planner pages, and the coordinating Everyday Life Perfect Plan roller stamp in an exclusive product bundle for only $29.95. That’s over 15% off the retail price! With the new Everyday Life line, you’ll experience “memory keeping on the go” as you track your water intake, stamp reminders, keep appointments, and tuck away precious memories—plus much more—all at once! This offer is only available while supplies last, so plan to place your order early in the month and start 2016 off right

If you love mason jars as much as me, you'll love the December Stamp of the Month!  It's super cute and only available for a few more weeks!  It's only $5 with an order of $50 or more.  You can also order it alone for $17.95, but only during the month of December!

 

July has a great special for all you Close to My Heart fans!!  All the Hostess Rewards stamp sets that you see in the front of the catalogs are available to purchase until the end of July!  Normally these stamp sets are only for rewards to those who host a gathering or workshop.  But this month, if you place an order for $25 or more, you qualify to purchase one of these adorable sets for only $5!!  There are some really cute ones that I'm sure you'll want to scoop up! Just let me know if you would like to place an order, or order directly from my website HERE at anytime!

The pictures in this post are just some of the Hostess stamps sets or of cute cards made with them. Hostess sets in the smaller Seasonal Expressions catalogs also qualify.