Sharing Cards Made By Others....

As "2013" closes to an end...  I hope each of you had a wonderful and blessed Christmas season with family and dear friends?  I know I did! Spending Christmas time with my 5 year old grandson and family always gives me great joy.  Seeing the excitement and anticipation from my grandson opening his gifts from Santa on Christmas morning always makes it a little more delightful and exciting even for me (Grandma)!  

 

The past couple of years I've embraced a couple of  new and dear friendships with other blogger's out there (that I've never met) but who took time to send me a lovely homemade Christmas card this year.  Thank You!  It touched my heart to know that you thought enough of me to make, send and share your cards with me.  I enjoyed receiving them from the bottom of my heart! 

 

Let me share with you some of the Christmas bliss that was so graciously sent to me and my husband this holiday season.

 

This beautiful card (below) was sent to me from Jill from "Ribbon Challenged" (new blog friend).  She spent extra postage to send this one to me but I will always cherish it.  Thank you Jill!  I always save homemade cards that others send to me.  This and the others I received will go into my saved box pile to look and admire again at a later time. 

 

 

 This beautiful card (below) all in blue and silver was sent to me from Peggy Dollar (new blog friend) who is very active and well known on Split-Coast Stampers.  She even took the time to emboss the envelope so pretty.  It really added that extra touch when receiving the card.   She may have inspired me to take time do the same to each of my Christmas envelopes next year.  Thanks again Peggy!

 

 

This one is from Nancy my dear friend and distant relative.  Nancy and I usually get together once a year and delight in stamping and creating cards together when she visits me.  I love it Nancy!

 

 

This group of cards are sent to me from various personal friends who usually send me homemade card wishes each year.  I always look forward to receiving those homemade cards from them. I know from experience that sincere love and great care went into making each one of them. Thanks Cheryl S, Cheyl L., Sue, and Pam.

 

 

 

I hope your holidays were extra special and you enjoyed the love of good times and sweet memories to etch in your mind and heart, for years to come?  Wishing each of you a blessed and Happy New Year! 

 

From Leanne...

Season's Greetings...

 

 

Christmas is just around the corner and I'm still hustling along trying to be prepared.  So one last post before Christmas to share with you my cards I made to send out.

 

 

Here's a peek at the inside verse that I computer generated to the inside of each of my cards.

 

 

However, I did start my cards early in the year so I would be able to send these out right after Thanksgiving.  I never want to be making my cards at the last minute and find it easier to do them a little bit at a time during the months when I get inspired.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I started them early in June and took pictures for you along the way to show you how I do little bits at a time.

 

 

I stamped and embossed about 35-40 of the Poinsettias and cut them out at my leisure.  It then punched out many of the Martha Stewart ivy branches and glued the branches to the back of the Poinsettias and let them dry well. What you can't see on my pictures is I used green glitter paper to punch out the green branches to give the card more bling.  I used Stickles Iridescent Glitter  on each Poinsettia to add a little more shimmer look to each flower, as well  Unfortunately you cannot see the pretty glitter on the green branches on my photos.  Doing so just added enough bling and simplicity to each card to look quite simple but elegant.

 

 

 

I always try to make my Christmas cards simple as possible since I send out at least 35 each year to dear friends and family and don't want them to be to bulky for extra postage. 

 

 

 

I hope your all ready for the Christmas holidays and may your Christmas be filled with love and blessings in 2104!  I am wishing each of you a MERRY Christmas!

 

 

from Leanne and family!

Soap Santa-tizer...

 Christmas is right around the corner and were all beginning to feel the rush.  So here's a quick look at something little I plan on giving to friends this season.

 

I enjoy giving a little gift to friends during the holidays so early on in the year I got busy and made my own version of SOAP SANTA-TZIER.  I've seen other versions out there and hoped this would make a sweet little gift for giving.  I do have a computer program that I was able to come up with a Santa background of my own that I liked.  I then transferred the background onto a jump drive and took it to Office Max to have them lazar print it onto clear transparency paper.  

 

If your not familiar with this procedure the print has to be done on a lazar printer so that the ink will not run when you place it into the soap solution. I cut the transparency paper design with an oval die cut and folded the cut piece small enough to place it into the soap solution.  I then rolled the paper to about a pencil size and slid it inside the soap. The transparency paper will open automatically and unfold nicely in the solution.  

 

You then decorate the bottle to your likening. I enjoyed making my own gift tags to attach and used cello bags to help decorate the look for giving. 

 

 

I hope this finds you all feeling ready for the Christmas season and have all your shopping, baking and cards mailed?  I have the luxury of being with my family and grandson who is now 5 years old....so our Christmas this year will be extra special with fun and laughter.  Hope yours is as well? 

Merry Christmas greetings to you all and may your season be filled with the holy spirit of Jesus and his abundant blessings to you in the coming New Year.

 

Merry Christmas Bird...

 

I made this card in July and entered into a contest a Joan's Garden and actually won her contest with a nice surprise (a nice stamp).  But today I wanted to show you again since it's so close to the holiday that is fast approaching and hoped it would give you a little Christmas inspiration.

 

Thanks for stopping and may your Christmas dreams and blessings soon be at hand.

 

 

from Leanne

 

Celebrate - Thank You - Friendship...

 

Today I share with you a group of cards I made to give as a gift set.  Firstly...I'd like to ad that I am not pleased with my photography as each picture shows a little different coloring.  But in real time the coloring is soft and all the same.

 

 

Each card I picked a verse to coordinate with the titled stamp I used.

 

 

What could be nicer than a homemade gift to give someone for the holiday season.

 

 

I plan on making a nice envelope that will hold each of them with an envelope to also coordinate with these peg stamps.

 

I plan on giving this set of cards away this Christmas season for a nice little hostess gift.

If your wondering what stamp set these pretty little flowers are from, it's from "Rubber Stamp Tapestry" and it's called Violet Boarder SFL34020.  Just click on the link to go directly to the website.

 

It takes a bit of patients using these peg stamps.  In order to get the hang of how to hold them and stamp them to your satisfaction, it's best to practice first..  Practice makes perfect. I was certain to practice first in order to come up with a nice pattern for the cards.

 

It was a pleasure having you stop by today and I thank my faithful followers who are so gracious to leave such sweet comments each week on my work.  It's always appreciated and wish more of you out there would also be free with comments to my blog because I love everyone's feedback.  Nothing could be sweeter than hearing from you.

 

Speedy Recovery...

 Good Day Ladies! 

 

So happy you've decided to stop by my place today and join me here.  It's always a pleasure!    I thank all my loyal followers who are so nice to share your time with me and leave me sweet comments each week.  It always brightens my day.

 

However, I'd love to gain some more comments from those of you who are to shy to leave a comment?  Why not join in?

 

 

 

Why is it that butterflies always seem to add such pretty texture and femininity to a card.  I enjoyed stamping these pretty butterflies in different directions and adding a lace style butterfly to the top of several of the butterflies while giving them a bit more demention and interest.

 

 

I cut around the outside of each butterfly to add interest rather than having them go up the card in a straight line.

 

I sent this card onto a dear and long time girlfriend who had eye surgery and was recovering nicely.  She told me it brightened her day.  As I've said before, sending sunshine and well wishes to others is my passion.

 

I was hopeful that she would know that I was thinking of her when she received this card?

To A Special Friend...

You may have noticed that from my writings that I do send a lot of my cards out to others.  I hope they enjoy receiving the as much as I enjoy sending them?

This particular card was made for my longtime girlfriend Jackie who I has been the best and dearest friend of mine since seventh grade.  We live in different states so we rarely talk or see one another.  However, when we are able to see each other or talk it's like time has never passed.  We go back many years and have many dear memories together growing up through middle and high school.

So sending her this card for her birthday this year is special to me since we cannot be together.

I hope see enjoyed it and will feel a sense of love of our many cherished years of a special friendship.

   Paper Hugs...to all!

Bling, Bling, Bling....

Bling! Bling! Bling!

I think we all love a little bling.  This little card reminds me of just that.

Once in a while we obtain friendships from people who you enjoy and embrace their company dearly whenever your with them.  I made this card and decided I want to send it to a friend that we have not seen in a long time because we live in different states.  I added a nice little friendship verse for the interior of this card just to let her know we are in their thoughts.

I think these stamps from Just Right Cling Stamps called "Kindness" and are a real treasure.  I love it when I use them and cut them out with the coordinating Die Cut from Spellbinders named Labels Twenty.  I think they are classy looking?

I hand made the little daisy flowers with an old punch I have and decided to place them in the center for more color variation.  I then used this pretty rhinestone boarder from "Want To Scrap/Say It With Bling" and coordinating rhinestones also from "Want To Scrap/Nestabling" for the larger stamp that I bought at a stamp show later last year when in Charlotte, N.C.

I love the EF from Sizzix for Stampin' Up called Textured Impressions.  But I call it dotted Swiss.  It always adds a simple but pleasant look to any card.

Thanks for stopping and hope to hear a little comment from you before you leave?

Wishing You....

I made this card for my daughter who's close girlfriend is getting married.  Since I love making wedding cards I told her I would make a special one to give to her girlfriend Jaryn and Dustin the groom. 

 

 

I love this stamp "Wishing You Both A Beautiful Forever" and seem to use it on a wedding card whenever I can.  I think embossing it in white embossing powder really helped it to stand out nicely?   I found these cute little rings at Hobby Lobby sometime ago and was sure to add them to the card which added more interest.

 

If you look really close here you will be able to see that I added some iridescent glitter powder to the bottom to glam up this card.  Unfortunately it is almost impossible to photograph it to show it off nicely.  Also adding lace and pearls feels so feminine for any bride.

 

Congratulations to Dustin and Jaryn!  Wishing you both a beautiful forever.....