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!

Some Homegrown Love on the Home Front...

Home and family has been much in my thoughts lately as it always is during the Christmas season, and this year I feel especially blessed to be a part of the  Susan K. Weckesser DT Family and the Christmas Love Campaign... an Idea I Totally Agree with.... Share the LOVE!  (check out Christmas Love Campaign Details here)

 

So for my Guest Designer Post for the Susan K. Weckesser Design Team this month I wanted to "share the love" I have been feeling and created a card that is a bit different than my usual style.  I want the person who receives this card to feel like they are sitting in a lovely, warm room looking out onto a cold and frosty but sunny winter day... and life is good!  Please go to Susan's Blog to see how I created this little gem and let me know what you think!

It's a GLORIOUS Morning!

Happy American Thanksgiving to all my friends in the United States!  And in celebration of this day I want to share a layout that is very close to my heart - Every morning I wake up before the sunrise... not on purpose, that is just my internal clock... and I make a cup of coffee and stand outside on my back deck and watch the sun rise over the ridge.  No matter what else is happening in my life this morning ritual allows me to have some perspective and helps me to be thankful for the "little things" that somehow always seem to become the BIG things.

I used myStamp Box stamps Enjoy Your Latte and Sigh, Gush, Gasp to create this layout, and pages from Canvas Corp's new kraft line, Coffee Words on Kraft, Chocolate & Kraft Mini Dot Reversed and Chocolate & Kraft Swirl Reversed.  For more ideas celebrating family and home please go visit the myStamp Box Blog to see what myStamp Box design team members have created for today.

a THANKS-Giving Moment....

I guess with the American Thanksgiving holiday just around the corner and the last of the leaves dropping off the trees,  being thankful has been on my brain a lot.  This year I have discovered that the more grateful and thankful I feel about the life I have RIGHT NOW, no matter what the circumstances, the more good things seem to arrive into my life.  It could be something as simple as people being nice to me all day or as amazing as unexpected gifts of things and money... but the key is to be truly, deeply, "heartfelt" thankful for all that I have in this moment.

So with all that in mind I went a little crazy when with the myStampBOX Floating Leaves stamp set I just received because not only is it a lovely set, it is also very versatile.  I made cards, tags, and a layout each using a different technique. You can see everything I made on my very first post at the myStampBOX Design Team Blog so why not stop by and "Leaf" me some love... Grin!

I stamped and embossed the leaves on Basic Grey patterned paper, then fussy cut and arranged on a card using foam popdots to add dimension.  I "die cut" my sentiment using my Quickutz Harvest font, but any stickers will do, and a few dew drops and a bit of hairy fiber finshed it all off... a simple, elegant Thanksgiving card!

Sometimes Life Gets Messy... So why not Wear an Apron!

I'm a JUST DO IT kinda girl and I am MESSY when I am doing it! It doesn't matter whether I am in the kitchen, in the garden or playing in my studio, when I am immersed in the creative process - trying to scratch that idea out of my head and make it take some kind of tangible shape - I just DON'T CARE about my clothes!  And there came a day when I realized that every piece of clothing I owned (that wasn't a dress) was stained with either dirt, or food or ink or paint!  So out of sheer necessity I started to wear aprons - at first just to protect my clothes, but then they became a kind of uniform that said, "Don't mess with me right now.. I am WORKING!"

Working in my Garden.. Yes, that's what I wear!

But why oh WHY do working aprons have to be so Ugly!  I know you can find cute little aprons with ruffles and bows that look like little Audrey Hepburn dresses, but I don't have that 1950's housewife body with the tiny little waist that you need to really pull off that look.  Plus I need a BIG apron... a WORKING apron - one that covers me from neck to knees and goes all the way around!  But let's face it those aprons are all UGLY, and I still want to look good when I am working, so what to do?  I don't own a sewing machine and stitching by hand is just too much work to put into an apron that will end up being stained and "well used"!  So I was at a loss until one day, by total accident, I discovered that you can color on fabric using Copic markers!  You can even shade and layer colors and add dimension! AND if you heat set your work with a hot iron, you can wash it too -  WHO KNEW!  So I have been playing around with coloring my aprons.  First free-hand, but then I tried stamping my apron with a pattern of images and then doing the coloring - Fast-Easy-and PRETTY!

So ... Here it is being revealed for the first time... 

A new Stamped & Colored Apron created by Me... 

and my first project as Guest Designer for the Susan K. Weckesser Design Team using the stamp set "Poised and Pretty" by Unity Stamps:

For detailed instructions on how I created this apron please go to the Susan K. Weckesser DT blog

Christine modeling my newApron

The details

Don't you just LOVE the shading!!!

Life is GOOD!

Well, it's official... effective November 1st I am on the myStamp Box Design Team (Big GIANT Smile!) and I cannot WAIT to share with you all my ideas for the things you can do with the stamps from this wonderful Canadian company!  My first "official" post will not be released until the November 1st reveal on their blog but I want to give you a little "sneak peak" into one of the projects that I have been working on: (Shhhhhh - don't tell - grin)

 Here's the birthday card I created for a dear friend whose birthday was yesterday...

Happy Birthday Tanya.... GRIN!

I used the new "Floating Leaves" stamp set from myStamp Box and just heat embossed the images using a bronze embossing powder on an autumn colored patterned paper from Basic Grey - No coloring required - then cut them out, layered, popped and glued... DONE!

Now Enjoy!

A Little "Christmas Love"...

I just had to share a wonderful event that is the brainchild of Susan K. Weckesser:

The 4th Annual Christmas Love Campaign  

 

The basic idea is that you "spread some love" by crafting something - ANYTHING - and then you share it with someone - anyone - even a total stranger! After which you upload a photo and/or post about your experience on Susan's blog.  And as if that's not enough, you are then entered into the random draws that Susan makes over a 2 1/2 month period.  It has really taken off over the past couple of years and there is even a badge that you can grab for your own blog if you participate ( I LOVE that!).   And now along with Susan's own amazing line of products, prizes are now being provided by other people and companies as more and more people  "Share the LOVE".  Check out this amazing offer from Unity Stamps for this year's campaign... 

UNITY STAMPS Sponsors Christmas LOVE Campaign 

So I encourage you to check it out, the stories are heartwarming and they are coming in from all over the world.  Personally I love how it helps us all to feel connected in a very personal and touching way, so WHY NOT join in on the fun and maybe help to brighten up some one's day...SMILE!