More Cards, this time Christmas!

If you have wondering where I have been, I have a new website/blog going for my art business. Since the October art show, things have been very busy in my studio. I communicate the most on facebook (where I also have a fan page). You can find all the links you need at Melanie's Art Website

But I have some Christmas cards to share. These were made using the CupCardstToGo November kit (which I believe is sold out). The December Kit will be released December 1, so check back for more holiday card ideas.











Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful week!

~melanie~

Cupcards To Go Christmas Card Kit Peek!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!!! Welcome to the CupCardstoGo Blog Hop! The November Cupcardstogo Card Kit "Ribbon Candy" is full of awesome Christmas goodness and I can't wait to share a peek with you!!

You should have arrive here from Hilary's Blog.

Here's my peek!




Now hop on over to Michelle's blog for more peeks!

If you arrived here another way, start at the very beginning here!

Thanks for stopping by!!

~melanie~

Holiday Cards!

Now that it's officially fall, it's a good time to start working on holiday cards. Have you seen the new Paper Crafts Magazine Holiday Cards & More Volume 5? It's full of oober delicious cards and gift bag creations.



Here are a few creations of mine published in this issue.



The stamp is from Stampin Up! I used white chalk and a blender pen to shade the dove.







Papers and die cut images are from Graphic 45.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful weekend.



~melanie~

More Cosmo Cricket Projects

The sun may be shining, but baby, it's STILL cold outside! And there's nothing like cold weather keeping you indoors to intice you to create something with your Cosmo Cricket stash.

The gals at Pursuit of Craftyness were recently sponsored by Cosmo Cricket. We all worked with the complete Jolly by Golly collection. Here are more of my projects created with this line. It's sooo fun and not just for Christmas!



This little gift set was super easy to make. I used a pre-made gift box, covered it with paper and added the cute chipboard mittins.





I hand stitched around the cardstock with pink embroidery thread. (thought it would give the feel of warmth, like hand-knit mittens). If you know anything about Louisiana, you know we really don't get alot of snow down here. Notice the short sleeve shirt my daughter is wearing the photos? Well, it was actually about 80 degrees in December and one of the local churches created a "winter wonderland" complete with a snow machine. Yes, a snow machine. And yes, it was melting and the snow was so hard they could barely pick it up - but hey - when you are 4 years old...and have never seen "real" snow - you are happy, right?


Here are some cards I made with this collection.





Be sure to check out the Pursuit of Craftyness blog to see all of the design team's projects. That's all I have for today. Thanks for stopping by.

~melanie~

A Merry Little Christmas Card

This is my creation for the Moxie Fab Challenge "All Creatures Great and Small". I have had these stamps for a couple of months and still haven't used them! I needed the push.



Papers are Basic Grey. Stamps are Stampin Up!. I cut the tree using the Cricut. A little frosting on the rick rack and star, and finished up with some buttons.

Scroll on down to see my daughter's entry.

Thanks for stopping by!!
~melanie~

Twas the Friday before Christmas

and all through the house...the smell of freshly made fudge was watering my mouth...

Okay - that is ALL the rhyming I'm going to attempt. Tomorrow starts the series of "busys" for at least 3 days in a row. This may be my last time to post.

First of all - it was a happy Friday! I got word that I was one of the prize winners at Collage Press's blog! Yeah! I can't wait to play with their holiday paper line! Fa la la la la.

I was browsing my google reader blogs and I saw where one of my fellow scrapbook friends had some local publicity! Her local newspaper did an article on her. It's a great article. Here is Miki's blog. Be sure to check it out AND her etsy store. Congratulations, Miki!!

And last but not least, here are a couple of Christmas cards I made using some of my older stash. I'm such a HOARDER of papers and things I love. I know...I know...I had better use it while it's fresh.. even though hoarding it for "later" doesn't hurt. LOL. Enjoy your last weekend before Christmas!!





Both of these cards use Basic Grey, Melissa Frances and My Mind's Eye. The stamps on the first card are from Stampin Up! I used Martha Stewart crystal glitter on the larger poinsettia's. Thanks for stopping by!

May Your Days be Merry & Bright

Just getting ready for Christmas around here. Party on Saturday, Christmas production on Saturday and Sunday night. THEN I can breathe.......

Here's a few creations made with Dream Street Paper's "Merry & Bright" Christmas collection.








I take a photo of the two little "misses" together at Christmas. I haven't taken one this year yet, so I used one from a previous year. (reminder - take the little misses' photo soon!)





Off to play practice. No school tomorrow so I think we'll stay in PJ's... at least until noon. Thanks for stopping by!!

This blog post belongs to....

This blog post is for my daughter. She loves to create things. Gee wonder where she gets that from. She loves stamps. She boldly walked into my scrap pile (room) Friday night and said she wanted to make her pastor a Christmas card. I said "Okay!" and asked what she would like to put on it. With her eye quickly looking around and spying some vintage Christmas stamps, she started naming things she saw. I said - "Oh, so you don't want to use the penguins, reindeer and Christmas tree stamps"? "Oh... well... I didn't know you had those kind of stamps". and when she saw them her eyes got big. So, instead of a one card night, it was a three-card night. And since I knew that Cath at the Moxie Fab blog had a challenge for "creatures", I asked her permission if I could take a photo of her cards. Oh, and in case you are wondering... the Penguin card isn't shown because it went straight to her children's pastor a few hours after making it.
So.... presenting Miss Arielle's Moxie Fab challenge Christmas cards, featuring "all creatures great and small".











Stamps are "Penguin Holiday" and "Beauty of the Season" from Hampton Art. And a little disclaimer here - my daughter did all the stamping, stamp placement and marker coloring. I DID, however, let her use my "good" markers for the coloring. I also tied the ribbon and sewed on the button. She's only in 2nd grade. Maybe I'll teach her to sew next year.(wink)

Thanks for stopping by!
~melanie~

Merry Christmas, Y'all!

Just a little something for the holiday. The photo on the page below is from last year. I love taking photos of these two together. They are quite a pair. The papers are from Dream Street papers. The chipboard tree is from Everlasting Keepsakes.





Oh and about the newspaper interview earlier this week - she DID have her photo posted at the newspaper's online gallery, but not in the paper. Although the little boy beside us in the Santa line had the most adorable photo printed along with the article. I know his mom and grandma were so happy. :)

If you are doing a little bit of online shopping for yourself in the next few days - here's a tempting little offer. Right now Stampin' Up! is offering this Love You Much stamp set, Heart to Heart punch and Candy Cane Designer Series 12x12 papers at a 20% discount! Yep - that's right - twenty percent off! For more info and to shop anytime... go to my store!


Meanwhile - have a safe, peaceful and very Merry Christmas, Y'all!

The Price of Gas this week was...

$1.69 per gallon! Congrats to:

TerryG said...
Everything looks so awesome and ymmy! And I think that you probably gave $1.69 for gas..

Leave me a message so I can contact you for mailing info and I'll send your magazine to you. Thanks, girls, for playing. My sister guessed right, too, but she wouldn't post it on the blog so she didn't get to play.

So, how much is gas this week in your area? I didn't even shop the prices. I was pumping and looked across the street and it was the same price there. Nice, huh.

I've been playing this morning with my new Winter Post stamp set from Stampin Up! I just love this set. I also have a new ribbon love. The striped red/cream ribbon I used on these cards is also from Stampin Up! It's 1 1/4" wide and the roll comes with TEN YARDS! It's so soft and easy to use.





I used the Best Yet (phrases) set for the Christmas greeting. The patterned papers are the Bella Rose Designer Papers - all availabe from Stampin Up!.




On this card I used an embossing folder from Provocraft and my Cuttlebug for the swirls. The metal plate is Hodgepodge Hardware (Vanilla) from Stampin Up! Don't you just love the striped ribbon? It's called "Riding Hood Red/Very Vanilla" it's 1 1/4" and there are 10 yards on a spool - all for $8.95. You can shop ANYTIME at my store.






The deer on this card is from the Winter Post stamp set. The border frame stamp is from Frames With a Flourish. Brad is from the Hodgepodge Hardware and felt flower is the Accents and Elements Flower Fusion. (All from Stampin Up!) Who knew that had such yummy embellishments!

On another topic - I went with some ladies this week to see the movie "Australia". Oh. My. Stars. I loved this movie. It's long... so if you go - don't take your potty break until after the first kiss. Can you believe that we're planning to go back next week? Yeah - it's that good. (or maybe it's just the leading man we want to see again?)

Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend! I'm happy it's Friday.

Deck the Halls!

I think we are finally finished with all of our Christmas decorating. Hubby put up the lights while I was out grocery shopping so I was surprised when I drove up and the house was aglow!

Here's a little fa-la-la card I made using non-traditional papers. I used Dream Street's Clubhouse papers on this card, along with some stamps from Paper Salon. I just love the vintage feel these otherwise masculine papers give. I used the Cricut Expression (Mini Monograms Cartridge) to cut the scalloped square.





Check out more Christmas cards today and during the next few weeks at the Dream Street Papers Blog.

Today is going to be fun. I'm having some non-paper crafting girls over to stamp and make goodie bags. We'll see if they cross over to the dark side after they see how much fun they have. Have a great day!

Tis the Season

Attention shoppers. There are only 24 shopping days until Christmas!

Did that set off the panic alarm in your brain? Just curious.

The card at the top was made with some of my Just Johanna Odd Bird Planet stamps.(sorry about the cruddy photo...) It's one of several cards I made for the "Holiday Mail for Heroes". There's still time for you to participate if you want to make some Christmas cards. Click the link to read about it.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the brown delivery truck to bring me this stamp set

to finish some of my Christmas cards. It's on sale right now and you can order it right here.

Tomorrow is a busy day. Lots of preparations for my crafty food day with friends on Tuesday. We are going to stamp some tags, make some treat bags, then make treats to go in them. Oh - then that night some of us are going to see Australia.

Have a great Monday - and oh yeah - don't forget to finish your Christmas shopping.