A Late Merry Christmas! and an early Happy New Year!

That kind of evens everything out, right? :) I had a wonderful Christmas, and hope that you did too! We have one more Christmas celebration tonight...then I will be all partied out, I think (no, I KNOW!). So here's the last Christmas card that I have to share with you. I ended up using this card as my template for cards, but it left me some scraps. So after every 3rd card I made like that, I made this card. I pretty much used my entire Mitten Weather paper from Cosmo Cricket making cards like this! I think I have 3 pieces left (I used a 6x6 paper pad). It feels good to actually use up what I have.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!
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Christmas Treats

If you have followed my blog for the last year, you will know that at Christmas time one of the things that I do is make treat bags for everybody at church. This is our first year at a new church and I decided to continue the tradition...however, somehow time got away from me, and I had one day to make them. I decided to make a sugar cinnamon Chex mix type thing (it would be great if I knew the official name, but I don't). After I made my 6 batches, I tied ribbon around the bag and attached a tag. At first I was using a circle Nestabilitie and a stamp...but then I decided to do what any self-respecting Silhouette owner would do, and do a print and cut of some tags. So I found this cute one by Samantha Walker and after some technical difficulties (of course), it went a whole lot faster. 11 hours and I was done! I'm glad I started small this year and didn't set the bar too high for next year! :D

The Enjoy tag was made using a set from Stampin' Up! called Holiday Collection

And these are the Samantha Walker tags:

And here's about 100 treat bags (yum! guess who is eating the leftovers?)

And when I was done with this, I finished up my 20+ Christmas cards. It was a long (but productive!) Saturday.

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Candy Cane Holder (and winner)

Today I have a fun project to share. I cut out these adorable little stockings using my Silhouette. Then I stitched around the sides to close them up. I stuffed them with polyester stuffing to puff them out. Then I added some Liquid Applique to make the tops puffy. I wanted to embellish them a little more, but I have pretty much run out of time (my Christmas cards are still not finished!). I am going to put a candy cane in each of these and give them to my kids at school. I love how they turned out!

I wrote the kids names in Stickles at the top of the stocking. I smudged them in the picture on purpose (not sure if I needed to, but just to be safe!). They are NOT smudged in person...okay, yes they are, but only a little. You all know that I hate Stickles, right? :) Imagine that there is a candy cane in there, I haven't bought them yet.

And the winner of my blog candy was Karen B. also enduring the freezing cold state of Wisconsin with me! Email me your address and I'll mail your stamp. katytipton at yahoo dot com.
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A Little Sketchy

Today I have two cards to share with you. The first one is for the Limelight Papercrafts sketch and product challenge. The product we had to use was shimmer. I used glitter on the snowflakes, which I stamped onto a Jillibean Soup Sprout.

If you haven't heard, Limelight is closing it's doors. Sad for us, but great news for Mandy! Lucky for me, I have a LSS, so I will somehow survive. Thanks Mandy for the great customer service! I always ordered from her because she would include a cute little handmade note just to say thank you.
Okay, on to the second card. This is for the CardPatterns sketch. I am loving the Mitten Weather paper from Cosmo Cricket -- are you sick of it yet? :)

Lastly, this is your last reminder for the blog candy a few posts down!
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Christmas Hope

Happy Blizzard Weather! And I'm not talking about the delicious treat from Dairy Queen either. It's a blizzard here in Wisconsin, so I spent my day working on Christmas cards (and not getting very many done either...whoops). Here is a card I made for the caardvarks challenge to make a monochromatic card. This is the last caardvarks challenge. It was one of my favorite challenge blogs, so I am disappointed to see them go, but I'm sure it's a lot of work.

Supplies Used: Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather), Cardstock (SU Riding Hood Red), Ribbon (May Arts), Die Cut (Nestabilities Labels One), Rubber Stamps (Unity Snowflakes Fall from Heaven, Taylored Expressions Christmas Blessings)
So what is one of your favorite blogs to visit for challenges? This weekend is the last chance to enter a comment for my blog candy. Stay warm!
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Thank You Gifts!

Well I haven't had much time to make any cards lately, but I do have something to share. I needed 12 thank you gifts for Christmas and they needed to be affordable (that's politically correct talk for "cheap"!). So I decided to put together some coffee mugs. They each have a packet of hot chocolate and a packet of flavored coffee in them. Then I added peppermint sticks and 4 chocolate dipped spoons for them to stir into their drink. I know the chocolate spoons are so 2002, but I liked the idea so I went with it anyway. I then used a new stamp set that I got from MFT with a matching die to make the tags. I was going to wrap each mug in cellophane and tie the ribbon and tag at the top, but I forgot to buy it. So I wrapped the ribbon and tag around the handle -- and now they can see the coffee flavors inside the mug.

This was one of my favorite coffee mugs that I picked up. The Santa Claus is just too cute. Shopping for cute and different coffee mugs was actually my favorite part of putting these together.

Oh, don't forget about my blog candy in the post below this.

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I'm Sorry/Christmas Giveaway

I haven't been a very good blogger lately....so to say, "I'm sorry!" and also to say "Merry Christmas!" how about a giveaway? I recently won a stamp from iheartpapers and what do you know, I already own it. So I'm going to pass it on to one of you...and maybe a few other small things too. Just leave a comment below. I'm not sure when I'll draw a winner, probably in a few days. Here's the stamp that I am giving away:

It's probably a little more fitting for Easter, but I'm sure all of you are done with your Christmas cards and ready to make some Easter cards anyway, right? None of you are slackers like me. ;) Pin It Now!

'Tis the Season

For sporadic blogging and Christmas cards! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was good. I was able to be in Michigan with some of the best nieces and nephews there are. I really love living closer to home! After a few days of Jon being their personal jungle gym, we were ready to come home and rest. :) So here is a Christmas card that I made. It's one of my favorites so far.

Supplies Used: Christmas Tree die (Quickutz), Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather), Border Punch (EK Success Snowflakes), Rubber Stamps (Taylored Expressions Christmas Blessings)
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Apparently I'm a Little Too Dramatic

Maybe you noticed this in the last post? I write for effect...I wasn't literally crying about the snow or anything. I will survive the winter. No worries. There is one thing that I love/hate about winter though. That's wearing sweaters and sweatshirts. I love being all cuddled up in a comfy sweater. What I hate though is when I have to put on a coat over the top of them. Let's just say I'm big enough without all the layers...add the coat and I have a serious oomp-a-loomp-a problem. I look like I could do some serious damage to some bowling pins. I better not bend down when standing on top of a hill... You get my drift. Big and round. :) Someday I will figure out how to be warm and stylish. Until then... I have a card! I am really loving the Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather paper. I really like the non-traditional colors for Christmas cards.

P.S. The snow didn't stick, the sun is shining and it's pretty nice today! YAY! Pin It Now!

My Blood is too Thin

I grew up in Michigan. Lived there my entire life. I attended college in Illinois. I know what cold is. I know about snow. About 5 years ago, my husband and I packed up and moved to Kansas City so he could go to school. I enjoyed the "not so bad" winters...Some ice and snow now and then. I hated driving there when there was snow or ice on the ground though because Kansas City drivers are well...interesting. One day on the way to work, I saw a man half hanging out of his window scraping his windshield WHILE DRIVING. Point proven.
However, something happened when I moved there. My Michigan blood apparently thinned out a bit. Because now we live in Wisconsin and I am COLD! And tonight, it snowed. I maybe, possibly, almost for sure, cried a little bit. Maybe not on the outside, but on the inside for sure. Last night I told Jon that the clouds looked like "snow clouds." Apparently, I haven't lost my knowledge of snow, just the thick blood that is needed to deal with it. HA! So, to "celebrate" the cold, I have two Christmas cards to share. I used the Hip Hop sketch from Unity Stamps -- even though only one card has a Unity stamp. I am actually lacking in Christmas stamps from Unity.

This card uses Cosmo Cricket's Mitten Weather paper, Taylored Expressions stamp, May Arts ribbon, and the snowflake/flower is actually made with a Quickutz Christmas Tree die.

This one also uses Mitten Weather and May Arts ribbon, Unity Stamps, Nestabilities Label One Die, and Sizzix Dots embossing folder.
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Somebody's a Little Bit Windy

My last two posts have been a bit long-winded, haven't they?? To make up for it, I'll keep this one short and sweet! I have two more challenge cards to show you. The first is from the Basic Grey challenge blog. They have a sketch for us this week. I have noticed that a lot of sketches lately have been catering to my clean and simple side. But this sketch took me out of my comfort zone and was a real challenge -- lots of layers, that is for sure! I made my card a square 4.5" card. The Basic Grey that I used was the Kraft collection. The stamps are from Studio 490.

The second challenge card was for a Unity Hip Hop Sketch Challenge. I used my favorite patterned paper -- Cosmo Cricket Earth Love. And the stamps are from a store kit (I can't remember which one at this very moment).

I hope you all had a great weekend. I had the last 5 days off work, and now it's time to go back. It was fun while it lasted, anyway! Happy Monday!
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A Fungi Story

My dad tells bad jokes. You know the kind I'm talking about. The ones that make you groan. We call them "Al Jokes" (that's my dad's name). Growing up, whenever we heard a bad joke we'd say "That's an Al-joke!" So when my dad told this joke, I knew it would be bad (it was), and I knew it would stick with me (it did). Here goes (is your groan ready?).

A woman announces to her friend that she is getting married for the fourth time.
"How wonderful! But I hope you don't mind me asking what happened to your first husband?"
"He ate poisonous mushrooms and died."
"Oh, how tragic! What about your second husband?"
"He ate poisonous mushrooms, too, and died."
"Oh, how terrible! I'm almost afraid to ask you about your third husband."
"He died of a broken neck."
"A broken neck?"
"He wouldn't eat the mushrooms."
{insert rim shot here}
So, in honor of my dad (who I am pretty sure doesn't read my blog), I have a mushroom card that I made for the caardvarks challenge to make a card with both the outside and inside decorated. Who knows, maybe I'll even send him the card...since he is such a FUN-GI! :)

And just so you know, I do often threaten my husband with mushrooms...or else. ;)
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A Fall Card on a Springy Day

It is a beautiful day here in Wisconsin! 63 degrees and sunny. It was a perfect day to do a little yard work. My project that I'm working on is to transform this patio area behind our house:

into something a little more "open" feeling. So I dug up all the flowers and herb plants. I dug up weeds. I dug up a tree that was going to start growing underneath the foundation of the garage if it didn't get moved (and by I, in this case I mean, Jon). And this is what I have now:

I would like to tell you that no plants were harmed in this process...but I'm not sure I can say that. I can say that no plants were intentionally harmed though. :) And they were all given away to good homes, so no worries there. I planted some tulips and crocus bulbs. I really want daffodils but can't find them anywhere. Now comes the hard part...waiting for spring! I'm crossing my fingers that it looks pretty. :) Either way, I think it looks a lot more open.

Okay, now for the reason you came to my blog. My card. This was for the Limelight sketch challenge and the focus was to use Halloween or fall colors.

I hope everybody has a safe and enjoyable Halloween! We are doing Trunk-or-Treat at our church, so we will be decorating our car trunk tomorrow and passing out candy to the kids in the neighborhood. (If you're in Baraboo come on by!) It's my favorite Halloween thing to do (well besides eating the candy that I'm supposed to be passing out! HA!)
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Hello...Is This Thing On?

Happy Friday! I was in the middle of showing you all the cards that I made for the Unity World Card Making Day challenges and I just disappeared. Oops. So, back to our regularly scheduled programming! First up is the card that won. Whoo-hoo! I won the one-layer challenge (which is to create a card that has no layers of cardstock).

I used the Moments in Bloom kit and some fun ribbon from May Arts. If you look close, you can see I stamped something upside down...I meant to do that -- adds character (not really).

The second card I'm showing you today also uses the Moments in Bloom set and is for the distressed challenge.

And, just to stick with the Moments in Bloom theme I have going on here, this card also uses it and is for the glitter challenge.

I used glitter on the leaves and also FlowerSoft on the flowers.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

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Through Rain or Shine

Yep, you guessed it! It's another card I made for a Unity WCMD challenge. This time the challenge was to paper piece. You all know how much I love paper piecing, right?! I have 4 challenge cards down, which means only 19 to go...and I have 6 days left to do them. Let's take a vote -- do you think I'll make it? LOL! Anyway, on to the card. I used Unity's Rain or Shine Itty Bitty stamp. I paper pieced the image with 3 different patterned papers from Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday.

Just a note: to celebrate 10.10.10, I am having a 10% off sale in my Artfire store today! Click here to see what I have.
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Post 3 in a Row! (and a Friends with Flair One At That!)

It's Friday. HOORAY!!
I don't know about you, but I'm happy that this week is almost over. My card for today is one I made for the WCMD challenge to use no patterned paper on my card. I used the Moments in Bloom store kit.

Next on the Friends with Flair list is Angie. Or go on back to the Unity blog to see all of the blogs participating.
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Little Dude!

A friend asked me to make a birthday card for her one year old grandson. I made a few so she could choose the one she liked best. I saw this stamp from A Muse Arts that said "Happy birthday little dude!" and thought that would be cute for any little boy cards. So here are the cards that I made. I also bought some clear stamps (because they were cheap!), and by stamping them in VersaMark first and then in the colored ink, they actually turned out pretty well. I wasn't nearly as frustrated as before. I'm making baby steps, here. :)

This card uses Karen Foster Designs cardstock stickers, Cosmo Crickets Mr. Campy patterned paper, and the A Muse stamp on the inside. The "Spend Your Day" part was just printed and then I used some Tim Holtz distressed ink on the paper.

This card uses stamps from KaiserCraft, Cosmo Cricket Mr. Campy and Jillibean Soup patterned paper. I used Liquid Applique to puff out the trail behind the airplane, and Labels 1 Nestabilities.

This last card doesn't look too much like a little boy card, I know. She told me that he likes to play the drums and I couldn't come up with anything for drums. So I went with music notes instead. The stamps are from We R Memory Keepers and A Muse. Paper is Jillibean Soup. I also used some nestabilities for the rectangles.
So, which one would you pick? She actually picked my favorite -- the playin' in the mud card.
I keep thinking it's Friday, which is making this week seem a little long. So, have a happy THURSDAY!
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