A Merry Christmas To You from WMS

I'm back today with a card that features a sentiment from Very Vintage Christmas by WMS. I love Claire's stamps and hope to spend more time in 2012 exploring all of the creative options her stamp sets give you.  This is such a bold sentiment that I decided to keep this card clean and simple (CAS) with little to no fuss. A secondary reason is that it is going to my mom and Alzheimer's patients are not allowed cards with objects that they (or other residents) could potentially swallow. I hope the pearls make it through the security check though as she is aware of what they are and why they are on the card but we'll see.

I stamped the image onto Choice Buttercream then fussy cut it out and popped it up on foam dots to create some dimension. A wonky rectangle was die cut from aqua cardstock and a Jolly by Golly dp brings in the color factor. Four bliss pearls and a red grosgrain ribbon add some spark and this is an easy card to mass produce, which I'll remember for next year. ;)

Have an awesome day and happy crafting!
~Lisa

Stamps: Very Vintage Christmas (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Antique Linen Distress Ink (T!m Holtz)
Paper: Jolly by Golly (Cosmo Cricket), aqua cs (Bazzill), Choice Buttercream (TE store); white cardstock from stash
Accessories: Wonky Rectangle Die (Spellbinders); bliss pearls (Kaisercraft); red grosgrain ribbon (Hobby Lobby)

Altered Tins that are SNOW fun!

Good Monday morning to all of you! Ours was a busy weekend with Christmas shopping, gift wrapping, packing Christmas boxes, room arranging, finishing a custom piece of furniture, getting the Christmas cards ready to mail today not to mention ALL the cooking I have been doing lately. ;) Whew, I think I need another weekend already, lol.

I did steal some time to make these super quick and easy altered tins for my gift card giving. What would we do without these nowadays? Both feature an adorable snowman woolie from BG's Jovial line and Tiny Type alpha's from Cosmo Cricket. I used MME 12 Days of Christmas dp's on the "ray" tin and Crate Paper's Snow Day dp's on the "sara" tin. The star is also a woolie from the BG's Jovial felt sticker sheet and the glittered brad is by Paper Studio. The inside of the tins were decked out in coordinating papers and I used X-Pressit double stick tape to attach ribbon to the outside edge. As the recipients read my bloggie I'll refrain from showing the inside but you get the idea.

I love seeing all of the wonderful Christmas ideas that all of you are coming up with. I definitely need to work on Christmas throughout the year, like a lot of you, because this year I am coming up short. There's so much I want to do and so little time.

Thanks for stopping by today!
~Lisa

Fa la la la la

I'm making a quick stop here to post another fun holiday card featuring the cutest cupcake ever, Cuppie. It's a busy shopping day for me so I'll make this short and sweet.

For today's card I used stamped images from Home Sweet Home by Taylored Expressions and dp's from Holly Jolly Christmas by Echo Park. I ran into a wonderful sale at Jo-Ann's a few weeks ago and picked up a Susan Winget Glad Tidings Toys & Presents Chip Box and pulled two glittered chip snowflakes out to use on this card. A Spellbinders Large Classic Inverted Scalloped Circles die in pink cardstock helps to frame out the main stamped image and Cuppie was stamped onto TE's Choice Snow White in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. A few Rouge Liquid Pearls by Ranger finish it off and I stamped the Fa la la la la in the upper right corner also in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Two hot pink brads complete the embellishments and Cuppie was colored with various Copic markers.

I'm off to start my day and I hope all of you have a wonderful day wherever you are! Thanks for stopping by and I always enjoy your sweet comments. ;)
~Lisa

Stamps: Home Sweet Home (TE)

Two of My Favorite Peeps, Brian and Sara

Okay, I have a confession to make. This is definitely going to be a fave for me because my two peeps are featured this month. It is hard to believe that our son is 23 and will ship out for basic training next April, did I forget to mention that? Yep, next April he fully becomes the property of the U.S. Army and leaves our corner of the world for a long, long time. I am still trying to wrap my brain around it but he is following in his grandpa's footsteps and we fully support him all the way. As for the youngest peep, our dd, it seems as though her life has flown by and now she's all grown up. Mercy, life isn't fair because I am NOT ready to be an empty nester in less than two years. LOL! Oh well, enough reminiscing for now as I might get a little weepy on you guys. Here's a close-up of the sparkly eggs...

and the deets for the month of April. I started with the Taylored Expressions Spring 2011 Project Pantry Kit which featured paper from We R Memory Keepers Hippity Hop Collection. I purchased this earlier in the year and it isn't currently available but maybe she'll bring it back next year. ;) Another purchase earlier in the year was Verve's awesome Easter release. Seriously cute stamps that have so many uses, it was one of my very favorite releases this year. I stamped eggs from Egg-stra Special onto dp's, cut them out and used a generous amount of Glossy Accents to make them shine and they received a dusting of MS's Sugar Cube glitter to make them sparkle. The grass border is another of Martha's wonderful border punches and I picked up the ribbon by Studio G for 97 cents at Wal-Mart. :-) The little butterfly is from the same stamp set and they were colored with Copics and I added a pearl to the center. Spellbinders dies are used to frame the sentiment which is also by Verve and again I used Taylor's Mini-Dated 2012 Calendar Download for April. I layered the calendar so I could outline it with liquid pearls and I love it when these work correctly, kwim? So there you have it, quick and fun and a treasure to keep!

Happy Crafting,
~Lisa

Supplies:
Stamps: Egg-stra Special & Happy Easter (Verve)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, ColorBox Chalk Rouge
Paper: Hippity Hop Collection (We R Memory Keepers), Bazzill Basics Cardstock, Choice Snow White (TE store)
Accessories: Spellbinders Standard Circles Large & Classic Scalloped Circles Large; 2012 Mini-Dated Calendar Download (TE); ribbon (Studio G); Baby Blue & Flamingo Liquid Pearls, Glossy Accents (Ranger); Sugar Cube glitter & Grass Border Punch (MS); Bliss Pearls (Kaisercraft); Copics-YR68 & RV25; Corner Chomper 1/2" (We R Memory Keepers)

Debuting February and July in my altered world...

Hello all! I'm back today with two calendars from my calendar/scrapbook altered project that I am working on. Life has been hectic lately but I am determined to finish these!! I'll be back later in the week to feature some that have scrapbooking as part of the page element, promise. Today's post is all about February and July and I needed a little inspiration when I began the month of February. I paid the Verve gallery a visit and  spotted a heart on a scrapped page, by Julee Tilman, which I CASE'd because I loved it and the sentiment. You can spot it in the Hundred Hearts gallery at http://www.verve.com/ if you'd like to see it for yourself. Everything else on both calendars is original and these were quick and fun to make. Hope you enjoy!

It's another cold and rainy day (check, just started snowing) here and I certainly hope your weather is better than ours. Thanks for stopping by and I'd like to welcome Lucia from Rome who is a private follower. I really appreciated your sweet comment and enjoyed checking out your blog. You are definitely a creative spirit Lucia and I can't wait to see more inspiration from FondoBlu Cards. :-)

Happy Crafting Everyone,
~Lisa

February Calendar:
Stamps: Hundred Hearts & Hearts on Fire (Verve)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Be Mine (Echo Park), Choice Snow White (TE store), cardstock
Accessories: Mini-Dated 2012 Calendar Download (TE); Heart Punch (Emagination); Rhinestone Swirls (Zva Creative); Plaquettes-14 (T!m Holtz/idea-ology); Black Diamond Stickles & Rouge Liquid Pearls (Ranger); Copic Markers; Hot Pink Brads & Pink Rhinestone Heart (PS)

July Calendar:
Stamps: 4th of July Wreath (Taylored Expressions)
Ink: Red Pigment Ink Pad (Stampabilities), Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Blossom Soup (Jillibean Soup), Choice Snow White (TE), cardstock
Accessories: 6x6 2012 Calendar Download (TE); Seasonal Wreath Die (TE); Copic Markers; Red Plaid Ribbon & Red Burlap String (May Arts); Red Atyou Spica Pen (Too Marker Products, Inc.); Blue Star Button from stash

Colors of the Day are...

coral, light pink and aqua for the CR84FN Color Challenge! I like to combine color challenges with sketch challenges when I can and the Deconstructed Sketch Challenge is a perfect fit in my opinion. Jen's sketches are so much fun and I think this one really brings out the colors in the current CR84FN44 color challenge. You can check out Jen's fabulous deconstructed sketch and as always the first challenge of the month is sponsored. Here's my card using the colors of the color challenge and Jen's current sketch, DS29.

I started off with a base of aqua cardstock and repeated it on the embossed strip. A patterned dp from MME pairs aqua with white which is one of two neutrals I used on this card. The other neutral, black, is seen on the stamped flower images and sentiment. Coral is definitely the accent color here and I tried to give it some balance with the border punch, ribbon and bow, and brad placement. Light pink serves as a highlight color and I like the way these colors work together. 

The design team for CR84FN Color Challenge is taking a break for the remainder of the month and will return in January 2012. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thanks so much for the beautiful inspiration you always provide and the endless supply of challenging color combo's.

Have a wonderful day,

Lisa

Stamps: Making a Statement (Verve)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Aqua by Anna Griffin/All Night Media

Paper: Fine and Dandy-Tickled Pink (MME), Bazzill cardstock

Accessories: Fiskars notebook border punch; Loopy Blooms Die Set and Rounded Scallop Frame Die (Verve), Just My Type embossing border (Cuttlebug); Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers); brads (MME-Market St. "Love" Brads); rhinestones (Kaisercraft); coral twill ribbon (TE store)



I'm back and a tad late...

Hi everybody, I'm back today with a card I made for the November VLV challenge featuring Week 3. I'm a tad late and I didn't get to use the fabulous sketch by Sankari Wegman for Week 4 but I plan to go back and use it in the future. :-) This awesome sketch by Tosha worked great with my Winter Park dp's from Echo Park. I was drawn to the colors and patterns and it provided an opportunity to use my new Snowflake Tidings die set by Verve, which I love. I stamped the small snowflake from Glad Tidings and die cut it with the newly released die set and I mixed and matched the stamped image panel. The mittens were paper  pieced and everything else is pretty self-explanatory. Here is Tosh's sketch which was our inspiration.

On a personal note, some of you may know my Dad was in MICU for a couple of days this week but he's  home and recuperating. I will be busy with follow-up appointments for him but hope to share my calendar pages with you and some additional altered projects soon. A big thank you to everyone who remembered him in your prayers!! Maybe this month I will stay caught up with the weekly sketches at Viva la Verve, hope so. :-)

God Bless,
~Lisa

Supplies: Winter Mittens & Holiday Phrases (Verve)
Paper: Winter Park by Lori Whitlock (Echo Park), Pomegranate (Bazzill), Choice Snow White (TE store)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versa Color Burgundy
Accessories: Snowflake Tidings Die Set (Verve); Standard Circles Lg. (Spellbinders); Snowflake Trim deep edger punch (MS); blue rhinestones (daisyd's); seam binding (Prairie Bird Boutique)