My "Mother Heart" is Full...

Merry Christmas EVE 2012 and I hope you all are having an AMAZING Day!  I wanted to share with you this Christmas Eve how proud I am of my grown-up daughter, Donna.... Being a Mother is a complicated thing... not just the "being" but the crazy quilt of emotions that go along with it... and if you think that these emotions go away after your children grow up and move out... your would be WRONG!  

Last year when my grown-up daughter surprised me with a gift of "family" by flying in her brother and his new family so we could all be together for Christmas for the first time in over 10 years I thought my heart was full... But when I came into the kitchen that Christmas Eve to see her beaming in front of our traditional Christmas Eve Appetizer spread.... which she pulled together all on her own.... (Looking like a little "Mini-Me" GRIN)... I thought My heart would BURST!  And for me THIS is what Christmas is all about... Food, Family and LOTS of laughing. 

I used the myStamp Box Sigh Gush Gasp stamp set to whip up this layout and I want to share a couple of tips with you:  I actually made a "frame" with my stamps on a large stamp block rather than try to line up each word individually... which allowed  me to space and center my words perfectly before I stamped.  It also allowed me to stamp them all at once so I could then use white embossing powder and my heat gun to really make those words pop.

And another little trick of mine ... I now use my copic markers to edge my photos and mats instead of ink... It is quicker, easier and less messy; it dries instantly and I have EVERY color at my fingertips!  And I especially love the look of a photo edged in black. 

MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS Everyone!

May your Holiday be filled with Food, Family and Lots of Laughter

Sweet Treats Just in Time for the Holidays...

I wanted to share with you how I make a simple homemade Christmas treat into something just a little more special by adding a handmade Gift Tag.  It is an easy way to quickly dress up a holiday gift and I find that adding these tags turn these simple, homey gifts into a personal labor of love.  

I created all these tags using the myStamp Box HoHoHo and Happy Birthday sets and an easy to do ink-resist technique.

First I colored my tag using Ranger's Distress Inks in a light coating of red and green, you want your base ink color to be lighter than the final color you will be using.  Use a heatgun to ensure your tag is completely dry before you start your stamping for the embossing portion.   Once the ink was dry I frist stamped and embossed the HoHoHo with a white embossing powder; I then stamped and embossed the Jingle Bells useing a clear embossing powder.  At this point the sentiments are still a little faded out so I intensified the red and green colors by coloring over the tag with my Ranger distress stain, but if you don't have any stain you can use your original distress ink colors to add more layers and intesify the color.  Any stain (or ink) that gets onto your emobssed words can be rubbed off using a soft cloth or paper towl as the embossing resists the ink (hence the INK RESIST technique) and now my words POP right off the tag!

For this tag with the gifts I used only a clear embossing powder over a yellow and red base.. you can see that the background wording is more subtle here... Also, I LOVE that these gift images are from the myStamp Box Happy Birthday stamp set, but since it's a Christmas tag you can't really tell.

I created this tag from the Happy Birthday stamp set as well, and this tag was so quick and easy I know I am going to do this again!  I inked my tag using three colors of distress ink and dried it with my heatgun.  Then starting at the bottom, I stamped each line in a watermark ink and embossed using a white emossing powder.  I decorated the candles and gift images using different colored stickles  and what a cute little tag it is!

Now to create this look I again inked my tag using two colors of Ranger distress ink and then covered the entire tag in a very thin coat of metalic silver paint so the ink still showed thorough.  I stamped and embossed the sentiment in a very black sparkly embossing powder and added a piece of paper ribbon.  I stamped, colored and cut out the myStamp Box images and used popdots to adhere them to the tag.  A finishing of stickles and CTMH Liquid Glass and it's done!  I used the pearl stickles on Santa's Beard and Liquid Glass on his boots and belts.

I hope these cute little tags will give you the inspiration to create your own!

It's Christmas Card Time...

  I LOVE making and sending Christmas cards, no I really do!
 

I fell in LOVE with this window frame die this year...

This is my Dr. Seuss Christmas Tree using a Quickutz die

I start in the summer when I am camping (yup! I can craft in my trailer... GRIN) We head out for a week of camping in May and I start making cards... I have so many ideas and so much product that once the momentum starts I cannot stop it.  This year since I have had more free time on my hands than I have ever had I made (and sent) 120 cards (and still counting)!

 

I Also LOVE to fussy cut... hence the pine branches

It has gone out of fashion - sending Christmas cards - although people still love receiving them.   But as people's Christmas lists grow to gargantuan proportions this it the one task that is easy to cut - and I do understand the pointlessness of scribbling your name on the bottom of a stock card just to say you sent one - but for me my Christmas cards are a labor of love.  

I used some none-traditional paper for this card...Susan K. Weckesser's Live, Dream, Create line... lovely isn't it!

This card was created from three unrelated stamps by different companies... I think cats are HILARIOUS!

I don't make them in expectation of receiving anything in return, or in competition with all the other "Type A's" out there (grin), but I make them as a gift that I give to my friends and family and people who have touched my life in the past year.... it is gift of time and love and each card is unique and individual, just like the people I send them to.

My new Favorite Snowman stamp... by Susan K. Weckesser and Unity Stamps

You don't have to re-invent the wheel, I found this lovely Christmas tree image and popped it behind that window die...

Now I have so many Cyber friends it would be impossible for me to send each and every one of you a card so I am posting a selection of some of my favorite cards for you to enjoy... And please feel free to copy or share any of my card ideas, but I would love if you remember to give ME the credit!

Merry Christmas 2012... From Scrapbook Lynne

A Little Christmas Gift Bag...

This Christmas season I have made a commitment to using up some of my collection of gift bags.
I don’t know about you but I have accumulated a huge number of them over the past few years, but every time I need one I don’t seem to have either the right size or the correct event and off I go to buy yet another gift bag! So using the myStamp Box stamp set HOHOHO I altered these three "Wine bags" into three mini Christmas gift bags!  It is a quick and easy way to make that gift just a little more personal AND use up something you have on hand.

So why not stop by the myStamp Box Blog to see just how I created these little lovelies!