Merry Christmas

It was the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring...well except for the crazy Momma on the computer! Yup I should totally be going to bed now as I am sure it will be an early morning, but I meant to post this all day...just would feel weird to post Christmas cards after Christmas (knowing that there is no way I am getting any computer time tomorrow as my whole family is coming to my house for Christmas!). So since it is so late I am not going to get the typical details that I normally do.

I have two cards for you. The first is one of my favorites from the November Release from Paper Makeup Stamps. Using the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #134 for my layout, it uses the Dr. Seuss sentiment in Old Olive ink and then paper from the Kraft Christmas collection form Jillibean Soup. This quote brings up the fact that I think I have totally scared my kids off from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. This is a great movie (cartoon or Jim Carrey version), but I will admit I totally forgot how scary the Grinch can be in the Jim Carrey version...and of course I introduced my kids to it first. My son immediately had me turn it off after the first appearance of the Grinch and my daughter did after awhile on another occasion. Then I tried the cartoon version and since I had traumatized them from the other version, they refused to watch much of the cartoon either. Funniest part is my son knows the book and knows what happens, but apparently the Grinch is just too scary! Maybe next year...

My second card is the original version of my Christmas card this year. I think I still like this one the best, but my husband preferred the Santa to be in brown instead of white, so that is what I went for when making 70 of these bad boys! Can you tell I like the Jillibean Soup Christmas Kraft Collection? Yup used it again here. The Santa comes from the Holiday Filigree Stamp set from Inkadinkado. For this card, I used the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge #160 turned 90 degrees. And yeah, I made 70 of these...amazingly it was in 4-5 days that I did it too! I forgot to take a picture of the brown santa version (I actually used them all up), so I can't show the difference. The white is cool, but it is hard to see in some lighting.

So now let me leave you with my kids wishing you a very Merry Christmas! I got a new camera so I have been totally torturing them with it! Anyway, God bless you this day and may you an a peaceful (among the chaos sometimes) and wondrous Christmas! Thanks as always for checking out my kind of engineering!

A Slice of Published Cake

Ok I have to pause in my massive cleaning efforts (Christmas is at my house this year) to gush just a little bit! My latest project that was selected for publication just came out! So be sure to open up the January/February 2011 Issue of Paper Crafts to page 49 and check-out my cake slice box (with my name in print!!). You can download the patterns for the box HERE (follow the link and then scroll down). It looks like the flower on top shifted some in shipping, so my pic above shows how the flower was meant to be. Either way...I am so excited!!!

Hoping to get one last Christmas card related post in before Christmas and then I get to prepare for hosting Christmas...and then a New Year'e Eve party too! Until then, thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

Spinning Some Warm Winter Wishes

Well look at me...I am the Hostess with the Mostess for the Makeup 4 the Weekend Challenge #53 ...and what a hostess I am...I am totally late with my post! Wow...late...the story of my life this time of year...remember all of those November birthdays and anniversaries that I have been celebrating in December?! So my apologies for being late with my post...thankfully I got my card to Christi in time to be posted on the PMS Blog.

So onto the challenge for the week. I apologize in advance (wow a lot of apologies today!) for this challenge...it sounded like such a fun challenge when I submitted it months ago. But now that it is here and it is a week away from Christmas, this seems like a tough challenge! Anyway my challenge is to create a Spinner Card! They are so fun and totally addicting once you start playing with it! Really it isn't too hard, especially if you follow the tutorial on SCS.

For my spinner card, I chose to use the Snow Happy set from Paper Makeup Stamps. OH.My.Goodness is this set so cute...I just adore the snowmen! The snowman was stamped about three times...once on the blue base, once for the colored parts, and once for the main snowman body. The colored parts were colored with a blender pen and ink pads. I stamped the different parts of the "Warm Winter Wishes" sentiment in the spinner area and then by the snowman. Not sure if you can tell but I stamped two of the snowflakes randomly on the blue base with white craft ink. Final touch was the stickle border on my snow and a clear rhinestone in my spinner snowflake.

So would you like to join me? Would you like to win some free rubbah? Join me in my spinner card challenge, use a PMS stamp, and link it to the PMS Blog and you just might win the single stamp of your choice! So come on and get inky with me! In the meantime, thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Snow Happy (Paper Makeup Stamps); Paper - Basic White (Papertrey Ink), Night of Navy, Bashful Blue (SU!); Ink - Real Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White Craft (SU!), Brilliance Graphite Black (Tsukineko); Accessories - Word Window Punch (SU!), Stardust Stickles (Ranger), Clear Rhinestone (Darice), Blender Pen, Dimensionals, scissors, pennies

A Trio of Man Cards

Why oh why do I insist on waiting to start my Christmas cards right about...now...ok tomorrow...or maybe on Friday. I have the supplies...so that is something right? Seriously I tell myself every year I am going to get started early and then I NEVER do! Oh well...I see some Christmas movie marathons while making Christmas cards in my future!

In my continual attempt to make up for all of the November (and now some in December) events that I missed sending cards for, I went for the Verve Project Parade Triple Play Challenge again, but this time in the form of a trio of "Man" cards! It felt good to get these done...I always find "man" cards to be one of the hardest to make!

Like last time I went through my stash of saved sketches and found some that would work (shown below). The main design elements that I kept between the cards were the colors and paper, the star image, the copper embossing and brads, the Labels 14 die shape, and almost the black cording (didn't quite make it in the last one).

The paper I used was from the Granola Paper Pad by Basic Grey plus Always Artichoke and Bordering Blue cardstock from Stampin' Up!. I of course didn't have any copper brads, so I made my own! Yup I took some pewter ones, pressed them to the Versamark pad, dipped it in copper embossing powder, and heated it (in case you want to try it, make sure you are holding the brad with some tweezers so you don't burn yourself!). Not sure there is much more to say on the cards...or maybe I am just tired and thinking about those darn Christmas cards!

So while I check out, let me thank you for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Seeing Stars, Starlight Starbright (Verve Stamps); Paper - Always Artichoke, Bordering Blue (SU!), Granola Paper Pad (Basic Grey); Ink - Versamark; Accessories - Labels 14 Die (Spellbinders), Pewter Brads (SU!), Copper Embossing Powder (I forget!), Word Window Punch (SU!), Edge Distresser (Tim Holtz), black cording, dimensionals

December Fan Club Blog Hop - Holiday Style

So this is the beginning of a fun new event for Paper Makeup Stamps. Since Katie, the owner, decided to switch to every other month releases, she decided that we just cannot let a month go by without a Blog Hop. The catch is that it is not just the design team, but some of the PMS Fans as well! How fun! So you should be arriving to my blog from Michelle McDaniel's Blog (awesome huh?!). If not, make sure you start at the beginning at the PMS Blog so you don't miss anything! As a precaution you can use the Link List below if there are any issues. While you are hopping, be sure to leave comments along the way...one lucky commenter will receive a grab bag of stamping goodies (speaking of grab bags, don't forget about all of the amazing grab bags that are being offered...I got mine)! I am the final stop on the Hop, so sit back and stay awhile!

For my card, I used the Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge #85 for my layout. I used the Moody for Presents (by PMS of course) and stamped her in Whisper White craft ink and embossed it with Crystal Clear embossing powder on Crumb Cake cardstock. Then I colored her with Bravo Burgundy, Chocolate Chip, Blush Blossom, and Whisper White ink and an aquabrush. Had a heck of time with he eyes...the white outline or something was just not making it easy on me...so sorry they suck a little!

She was cut out with Oval Nestabilities and layered on top of a Labels 16 die cut of Chocolate Chip cardstock. The pattern paper is from the Christmas Chestnut Soup on Kraft Collection by Jillibean Soup. The final details were some sponging, paper piercing, the white taffeta ribbon, and a couple of snowflakes.

I hope that you enjoyed the Blog Hop! Remember you have until December 14 to comment at all of the stops along the hop in order to have a chance to win the grab bag of stamping goodies! Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Moody for Presents (Paper Makeup Stamps); Paper - Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip (SU!), Sweet Chestnuts and Whole Cloves from Christmas Chestnut Soup on Kraft Collection (Jillibean Soup); Ink - Bravo Burgundy, Chocolate Chip, Blush Blossom, Whisper White (SU!); Accessories - White Taffeta Ribbon (SU!), Snowflake Punch (Martha Stewart), Button from Button Latte Collection (SU!), Oval Nestabilities and Labels 16 Dies (Spellbinders), hemp twine, dimensionals, paper piercer, sponge

A Trio of Anniversaries

I am finally getting the chance to be crafty again. Had to get through Thanksgiving and a 90th Birthday party (not mine of course) and finally (hopefully!) getting over a sickness and getting Christmas decorations up (almost done!).

My cards-to-be-made list is very long and covers a lot of missed occasions, so I was pretty happy to knock three of them out with the latest Verve Challenge. The Verve Project Parade Triple Play Challenge is to create a trio of coordinating projects...whether that be a combination of a card, bag, and tag or three cards, boxes, etc. Since I was very behind on my November cards, I was in need of three Anniversary cards...so I went for a trio of cards using the same supplies, but with different looks. To help me out even more, I grabbed three of the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenges from past weeks to give me three different layouts to work with....love me some sketches!

I used The Most Beautiful Thing Wordart by Paper Makeup Stamps...inked it up with markers and stamped it on Whisper White paper. I cut it and a black mat out with Oval Nestabilities. The Black mat was then distressed. The pattern paper is from the Olivia Collection by BoBunny. Each card has some Old Olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon from Stampin' Up! and some black rhinestones from Bazzill Basics.

This was a great challenge for me and I love how the cards turned out...similar but definitely not the same! And since I need 3 masculine birthday cards, you will probably be seeing this again!

In other news...and this is awesome, so listen up...Paper Makeup Stamps is having an incredible sale during December. Since I don't want to get anything wrong, I am basically copying this from the PMS Blog:

For the first time ever, PMS is having a grab bag sale! Whats a grab bag? Well a grab bag is filled with goodies... you just dont know whats going to be in it!

There are lots of different types of grab bags available!

The Fairy Grab Bag - $10

For only $10, you'll get 3 fairy stamps! That makes them each only $3.33!!

The Moody Grab Bag - $10

For only $10, you'll get 3 stamps from the Moody Girls collection! That makes them each only $3.33!!

The Monster Grab Bag - $7.50

For only $7.50 you'll get 3 of our beloved monster stamps! That makes them only $2.50 each!

Sentiments and Wordart Grab Bag - $10

For only $10, you will get a mixture of wordart and simple sentiments at a minimum value of $20!!!!!

The Cutie Critter Grab Bag - $8.50

For only $8.50, you will get 3 stamps from our Cutie Critter collection, makign them $2.83 each!

The PMS lover & newbie grabbag - $40

This grab bag was designed for someone who either loves PMS and wants to beef up their collection OR want to share their love of PMS with someone who might not yet have much in their stamp collection. This grab bag will include a mixture of stamps and/or sets from the entire PMS inventory. This grab bag is sure to please having goodies retailing over $80!!!!!

Oh wait, and we're not done! We are also GIVING AWAY SHIPPING this month! Thats right, free shipping to anyone in the US and a reduction of $3 to shipping outside of the US. Please use USDECEMBER as your voucher if you are in the US or 3OFF for those outside of the US.

And the even better bonus, this voucher will work with all other vouchers!!!!

Quantities of grab bags may be limited to stock on hand. Free Shipping will last the entire month. No requests on the grab bags, please.

So make sure you quickly take advantage of this awesome sale! I already ordered three grab bags myself...so excited to see what I get! Until I can come back with some more card eye candy, thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - The Most Beautiful Thing Wordart (Paper Makeup Stamps); Paper - Old Olive, Basic Black, Really Rust, Whisper White (SU!), Olivia Ambrosia and Olivia Stripe from the Olivia Collection (BoBunny); Ink - Old Olive marker, Really Rust marker, Bravo Burgundy marker; Accessories - 5/8" Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon (SU!), Upper Crest Border Punch (Friskars), Black Rhinestones (Bazzill Basics), Oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders), distresser (Tim Holtz), dimensionals