New Year....With A New Look!

NEW YEAR.......NEW LOOK!

First I'd like to wish each of you a happy and prosperous New Year along with God's richest blessing in the New Year.

As the New Year begins...I decided I'd like to begin this year with

a new look on my blog.  So here it is!

  

As we all try to take on New Year's resolutions, I decided on a New Year's resolution of my own to try to give my blog a new look for the New Year.   It's been fun learning and discovering how to present a new look on my blog. I enjoy personal challenges sometimes.  So here you have it!  I hope you like it?

When I first began my stamping blog last March I didn't know anything of how a blog worked?  So, I began to read and began playing with Blogger.Com to see if I could learn how to do one of my own.  As I got started, it began to take shape and I learned gradually how the template works and decided to post it out there for others to view my work since I so enjoy viewing and reading other blogs out there.   It's been almost a year already of learning and growing on my site.   You may have noticed small subtle changes earlier this year and more to come along the way? 

So enough about that...it's on to my next card for the New Year. I have a bit of humor to share with you about this card.   I made this Anniversary card for some dear friends of ours who live in Dallas, Texas. I sent it to them and they really loved it.  The funny thing is, I missed the correct date of their Anniversary by about a month and sent it to them on the wrong date unknowingly. 

After I sent the card in the mail something told me...."I don't think that was the correct date"?  My mind began to ponder? Was I sending this on the wrong date? I rechecked my calandar and YEP...I was wrong.  How their Anniversary date got written in my date book incorrectly, I'll NEVER KNOW?  Dave and Ann knew my intentions were well intended and laughed it off when they received it, but especially loved the card anyways.  (I bet I won't be making that error again next year?)

We ALL did manage to get a HUGE chuckle out of it anyway.  LOL!!!~@*#.....

Just a little bit about this card. I used my Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch to make little flowers and adhered them to the front of the stamped flowers. I think that the small flowers give this stamp a bit more interest to it.  I won't go on about all the little details to bore you.  I'm sure you can figure out most of the details yourself? 

Now...I love comments!

 

So... for "YOUR" New Year's resolution....

I'm challenging you!

I'm challenging each of you into leaving me more comments

through out the year so that I know you've been on my site or

following my site regularly?

I'd truly do appreciate it if you're finding my cards and projects an inspiration? 

So, please don't be shy! 

Let me know what you like or dislike on each of my

postings for all of 2012 and/or if  I can improve

on anything I post for you?

So...for this year....remember....

I LOVE COMMENTS

and I hope to see more comments from 

YOU ALL in 2012.

Happy New Year!

&

Blessings...to each of you
from Leanne in '2012'

                          

Two More Small Crafting Ideas for Christmas...

 Happy New Year Wishes!

I bet the hustle and bustle and Christmas pace at your place has finally came to a crawl?  The wrapping paper has been cleaned up and the decedent dinners enjoyed, the laughter and joy with family and friends are now pleasant memories etched in your mind. 

It really doesn't matter what gift you may have received but more significantly sharing the love with family and friends during the Christmas season makes it so much more a joyful and meaningful event. I've had a most pleasant Christmas with my whole family and enjoying quality time with my darling grandson, and meeting my niece's two beautiful baby TWIN girls for the first time.  Audrey and Cameryn.  What a blessing.

Here I have just one more quick post this Christmas week that I wanted to

share before the New Year arrives.  

I took a few little tea lights that I had and used different colored ink by dabbing it on my dobbers and then onto the candle's raised flower, already on the tea lights.  I then took my Crystal colored Ranger Stickles and applied it on top of each flower.  This just added enough sparkle and bling to catch the eye. I then used lace and wrapped it around each of the metal liners.  I have clear box's 3" x 3" x 1-1/4" box's that I purchased at a craft show this past year.  I wrapped the candles in pretty tool netting, making a small bow on top and adding a few flowers, a large snowflake (with crystal colored Ranger Stickles added to the snowflake), a  large leaf and large Christmas pearls. Lastly I added the little tag, stamped with Christmas Holly's to add a touch of a Christmas's feel to the box.

 

This makes another one of those quick and easy gifts.

Here you can see how it looked from the side.

And also a picture of my own Christmas money holder I made to give money

to my children this Christmas.  Who doesn't like $$$$????  The snowflake also had Ranger Crystal colored Stickles applied to them for more glitz which is not showing in the picture.  Seems no matter how hard I try to catch the glitz in my pictures it just doesn't happen.

Please do keep these two small ideas in mind for next Christmas, they may come in handy for you?

May all your days be Merry and Bright. 

May your New Year's be filled with bountiful blessings....

Happy New Year!

from Leanne & Family.

Merry Christmas from British Columbia, Canada

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas today.

 Hoping your day is filled with fun and laughter.

I just had to share this picture real quick.  My son recently went to British Columbia Canada for his job, last week.  He loves to ski and took pictures while skiing in Kelowna, B.C. on his free time.   When he showed me his pictures today, this one really stood out.  I told him my Christmas card I just posted looked almost like the picture he took.  A bit of a coincidence?

Here is my son.

I usually don't post personal photos however, the scenery in B.C. is just

BREATH TAKING.

Hope your having a beautiful day today and blessed Christmas....

Blessings... from Leanne & family!

Seasons Greetings...

 SEASONS GREETINGS LADIES ...

Welcome back stampers.  One more quick Christmas card for you. If your looking for more Merry Christmas card ideas to help you stamp in the Christmas spirit, I think you've most likely found it here. I've been posting quite a few new Christmas ideas for your enjoyment in the past couple weeks. 

This card  is something I just began to fool around with to see if I couldn't make a double frame since I don't have one large set and one small square die set from Spellbiners that you use to make a frame effect with.  I cheated a little to do this.  

To do this I cut out my largest die cut from my Spellbinders die package and using winter white paper with my Big Kick . 

Anyways...I then took the second largest die cut from the same package.   I traced the INSIDE of the  second die cut onto the green paper. 

I then took my paper cutter and cut only on the lines I traced on my green paper to form a perfect square.  I then put it behind my white paper and there you have a second frame, to frame it out nicely.  I think that's a way of cheating without having to purchase two sized die cut squares like others do on their blog sites. 

Then, I took some light blue ink and used my ink dobber and formed blue clouds on top of my card stock that I used for the back round picture.  I then used my cute little rubber stamp from Inkado with the Evergreen Tree stamp trying to stamp the trees to appear as if they were scattered in the woods.  I then took white Pearl Ex Metallic paint with a teeny, tiny paint brush and painted white on the tips of the trees to look like snow.  I then used my glue pen on the tips of the trees (after the paint was dry) and used a very fine sparkling glitter to the tips. I also did it for the white snow below the trees.  If you look carefully at the picture you can just barely see the glittery tips.  Seems like no matter how hard I try to photograph the glitter it just won't show up?  As the light hits the trees just right you see the metallic white on the evergreen trees and glitter. It looks so very pretty!

Here is a close up picture to help you see better.

I added the trees to the left side of the frame and some pine needles with my Martha Stewart punch and stamped a few little holly leaves on each corner and added my greeting "Seasons Greeting" to the top of my frame and added few pearls to the top and bottom. I also used dark green paper on the last layer and popped up the white and green frames with my foam adhesive squares.  

I preferred to do this card in a all green monochromatic color scheme and just a hint of blue in the clouds. 

I had the pleasure of giving this card to a new friend Jackie who has been a tremendous help to me, while caring for my elderly dad.  I also had one of my little gifts on hand to give to her along with this card.  It was not one of the candles but something else.  Giving this time of the year is such a pleasure.  Jackie was kind enough to email me a picture of the card and gift I gave here and to show me how she is enjoying it and displaying it in her office for the holidays.  Glad you liked it. Thanks.... Jackie for your dedication and help regarding my father. 

That's it for now.... So till next time, it's a time of sharing, giving and a time

of believing. Hoping your heart and home are filled with love this season as we wish you a wonderful holiday celebration filled with smiles and peace.

  

Let us rejoice

in the miracle...

Let us open our hearts

in HIS love!

Have a Blessed Christmas...

from Leanne and family!

A Christmas Bag Filled With Love...

 

It's always a pleasure for me to be able to give a small gift to someone at Christmas or when I go to their house for a visit, or when my sweet dear neighbor Beverly brings me a plate full of her homemade cookies to share with us, each year.  I try to have something small in reserve to share with them.  This is one of those gifts. I bag it with love. 

I know that most of your probably already know how to do this.  For those who may not,  I'll briefly explain the procedure for you.   It's so very simple.... 

Find a candle to your choice and desired size.  A white candle color seems to work best.  Take a piece of tissue paper and with your ink and stamp of your choice, stamp it on the tissue. 

(Here I found that by using a plastic carousel and putting your candle on it with wax paper helps to distribute your embossing gun heat more evenly when you begin to heat the paper to the candle.)
 

 

Cut a small portion of the tissue paper out where you just stamped and colored it.  Then take your candle and place the tissue on the candle.  You may want to use a very tiny bit of snail tape to the candle to help hold the tissue in that spot.  You then take your embossing gun and begin to heat the tissue onto the candle.  You will see it begin to adhere to the candle from the heat.    Most importantly remember..... You have to work fast with your gun.  As holding it in one place to long will begin to melt your candle and form drips.  If that happens it ruins your candle. 

 

 

Turn the carousel slightly in a circular motion, as you see the tissue begin to melt into your candle.  If all the paper did not seem to melt into the candle you can go over it again  with your heat gun quickly until you see it melting. 

I hope these directions gave you a better picture of what to expect and that you have fun decorating a candle, to give to your friends.  I know I did.  Here a little close up of how my blue candle turned out after a little embellishing on it with pearl and glitter.  I used a little glue and watered it down and with a fine paint brush I put it on the snowflakes and added some fine glitter to it and then brushed it off lightly.  Sorry, the glitter is not showing my in pictures.

When I finished decorating my candle with a few more embellishments I took a plastic bag that is used for candy wrapping from Michael's Art's and Crafts store and used it to wrap my candle and put ribbon and a cute Christmas label I made and attached it to the ribbon.  Now my gifts are ready for giving.  I hope my friends or family enjoy the labor I put into it for them?  Making my own Christmas cards and a little gift for giving, gives back the original idea from many years ago.  Years ago people made their own gifts to give to others.  No store shopping or mall shopping in those earlier century's. 

Another peek of how they looked all finished before bagging and

wrapping them up to give away. 

Hope you got the idea and will want to give it a try also?

May the peace and beauty of the season

be yours throughout the year.

Christmas Blessings to all!

From Leanne and family.

Merry Christmas Greetings to Everyone...

As the Holiday Season begins to kick into high gear It's also time to
 send out those Merry Christmas wishes to our special family and friends.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE....

This year I chose to use all white card stock with my Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder while adding a bit of sparkle to it.  I generally begin working on my cards in June and work on them any time I have a few minutes and when I feel inspired.  This way I don't feel so rushed when November arrives and want to get my cards mailed out right after Thanksgiving.


Here are a few tidbits as to how this card began.  The snowflake background is embossed with glitter embossing powder. I took my Versa Mark pad and turned it upside down to put Versa mark all over on the top of the snowflakes.  Then sprinkled my Ranger Embossing Tinsel (called Bridal) all over it and heated it with my embossing gun.  It really left an nice glittery effect when done. (Not showing up to well on the picture).  Doing so helps each snowflake look like it's glistening.  I left the bottom greeting part of each card plain white and embossed "Holiday Greetings" with my stamp from Stampin-Up in silver embossing powder for my greeting. 

I then used my Martha Stewart small snowflake punch and punched a small snowflake hole to the right bottom side of the card.  After stamping a snowflake hole to the right bottom side, I attached a white metal snowflake brad that I purchased last year at another stamp show and placed one inside of each card so that when opened it would seem be floating there below the verse with my husband and my signature. 

I also punched out one large snowflake and one small snowflake to attach to the front left top corner.  I also used my Crystal color Ranger Stickles and colored my snowflakes to sparkle like my card front.  The bottom was cut with a Stampin-Up punch to give it a slight scalloped edge.

The inside of each card reads... 

I always put a verse inside of each of my cards.  I computer generated a verse with a program that I have in my computer.  I tailor each verse to what the occasion is for.  I think it helps make the card your sending a bit more personal for that special someone.

This is my bling-bling for the Christmas holidays.

This card is quite simple.  Since I have to make approximately 30 cards each year I have to come up with a simple Christmas card idea each year.  I try to avoid a using a bow on my card at Christms so I'm not charged extra postage from the Post Office.

Let the shopping start, the Christmas Carols be sung,

the lights twinkle, the egg nog flow, the parties commence,

 and the gifts be given.

Most importantly... enjoy your Holidays and may
God give you the spirit of his love at

Christmas and HIS joy and peace in your heart. 
"Jesus it the reason for the Season"

Merry CHRISTmas blessings.....

from Leanne and my whole family!