Where has the year gone!

Hello Friends! I hope you all are doing well, and not letting the holidays get you too stressed out! I can't believe it's almost been a month since my last post...what's up with that?! It seems like after Halloween, the year has been moving at warp speed! I can honestly say that I am NOT ready for Christmas. I haven't bought one gift, and we haven't even gotten our Christmas tree yet. Needless to say, it's been kind of hard for me to get into the holiday spirit without a tree. Our plan is to get one today, so hopefully that will pep me up and get my juices flowing for all the wonderful things that Christmas is.

So, since I haven't posted in quite some time, I have a couple of things to share. (just because I haven't been blogging, doesn't mean that I haven't been crafting!) LOL!

I made this card for my sister. I used the beautiful Vintage Linens patterned paper from Papertrey Ink, along with those cute camera images from MFT. The stamp set is called Picture This.

 

This next card was made for my co-worker to give to her twin sister for their 50th birthday. I used the MFT set called Picture Perfect.

 

The photo didn't come out great, but the gold foil on the bottom says Fabulous at 50. It looked much better IRL. :-) Well, I better get myself together so we can go pick out a beautiful Christmas tree. As a random side note, before we got married, my husband would buy his tree on Christmas Eve because they were basically free! Thank goodness he doesn't want to do that anymore!

 

I hope you have a great day, and thanks so much for stopping by!

 

Carol



Birthday card

Hello Friends! I hope you had a great weekend, and an awesome SuperBowl Sunday! We threw a little party and had plenty of food, fun, drinks, and laughter! Since we live in the sunshine state we were able to throw some hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill, and watch the game outside. It was really a beautiful day!

So, today I'm popping in with a birthday card. Remember how I was talking about reorganizing my craft room and putting the light tent near the window? Well, I got to thinking...(do you smell smoke, LOL!) and I came to the realization that "hello you really do live in the sunshine state, why not take photos outside?" So, that's what I did, talk about natural light!! I'm really not sure what took me so long to figure this out, but like I said, I'm a work in progress! So, without further ado, here's my card:

Not too bad, eh? I just realized today that I had a little smudge on my lens so that's what you see in the upper right of the pic. I didn't notice it when I was snapping, but it's fixed now. Again, work in progress...

About the card, it came together pretty quickly once I figured out I wanted to go the musical route. I used a giant sheet music stamp for the background, a little patterned paper, and some musical notes from my Silhouette. I kinda wish I would've cut those a little smaller but I think it still looks okay. I used a die-cut frame with matching stamp for my sentiment, and that's about it. 

Well, that's it for me today, I hope you have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Carol

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey - Hey You!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Boutique Borders - Birthday), Stampendous (sheet music)

Embellishments: Silhouette music notes, scalloped border punch, enamel dots

First photo with new camera!

Hello Friends! Are you having a good weekend? I know it's super cold in many areas, so hopefully you're snuggling up with a cup of hot cocoa and staying warm! My weekend has been great so far,  Paige and I met my friend for lunch yesterday and we also ran a few errands. She's such a good baby! I'll post her 3 month pic very soon, I can't believe she's already 3 months old!

I was able to get in the craft room and make a random birthday card just so I could take a pic with my new camera. Let me tell you, Sasha is amazing, I just set her on "intelligent auto" and she does all the work! She automatically went to the Macro setting and I think my first pic with her turned out pretty good.

What do you think? The photo is definitely sharper than what I was used to with my old camera. I'm thinking that I may rearrange my craft room and put my light box right next to the window because my room is pretty dim (not much natural light - see I'm learning!) so I'm going to try that and see if I can get even better quality pictures. It's a work in progress...

 

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Carol

 

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink

Patterned Paper: Crate Paper (Flea Market)

Stamps/Dies: Papertrey Ink - The Sweet Life, Boutique Borders - Birthday

Misc: embossing powder 

Chalkboard Birthday

Hello Friends! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! There are certainly many things for me to be thankful for this year, but topping the list is definitely our little girl! We are so thankful that we have been blessed with a healthy, happy, and sweet baby. Family is so important, and I thank God every day for blessing me with my wonderful family and close friends.

Today, I'm sharing a card I made for my boss' daughter (gotta get in good with the kids!) LOL! She is 12 years old and is the sweetest young lady. I decided to go chalkboard style on this one as it is still so popular right now in paper crafting.

I think this turned out pretty fun and festive! She liked it and I think it helped me get in really good with my boss! :-) Well, I hope you are having a great start to the holiday season and getting your shopping done early, the deals are amazing!

 

Supplies:

Patterned Paper: Crate Paper (Maggie Holmes Collection)

Stamps: Think Big Favorites (Birthday), Cupcake Collection - Papertrey Ink

Misc: Enamel Dots, Washi Tape

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Carol

I'm Back!

Hello Friends! I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post (Bad Blogger, Bad Blogger - said as I'm slapping my wrist - LOL!). Pregnancy and life really throw a monkey wrench into blogging on a regular basis. Things have been going great with me, I'm now 35 weeks pregnant and we had a BEAUTIFUL baby shower last week, and my co-workers gave me another baby shower this past Friday. Paige really has a lot of people who love her already!

My husband had a boys weekend in Key West so that gave me some quiet time to just start getting things ready for Paige. My girlfriend Jeanette came over yesterday and washed all of her clothes, and put them away, she put her high chair, high tech swing, and pack & play together she really helped me SO MUCH! I absolutely love and adore her.

I promise that I will post pics from both showers very soon! Everyone was just so sweet and I am so blessed to have all of them in my life.

So, I do have a card to share with you today. We had some seriously delicious food for our baby shower and we had it catered from a local restaurant. We had baked chicken (which was seasoned like nobody's business!), green beans, pigeon peas and rice, candied yams, and cornbread muffins. Can you say DELICIOUS?! Everyone enjoyed the food tremendously and my husband asked me to make a card for the restaurant owner, which I happily obliged. Here's what I came up with...

For this card I embossed a piece of cardstock with the twig like image you see in the background. I used the Rosie Posie stamp set from Papertrey Ink for the flowers as well as Boutique Borders Thanks mini stamp set and a little chocolate ribbon finish it off. Even though there are flowers on the card, I still feel that it's manly enough to give to a dude, my husband agreed so I'm cool with it! LOL!

 

Well that's it for me today. Since I only have 4 more weeks to go before I deliver, I will do my best to post as much as I can! I guess that means that I gotta get to crafting, right?! As always, thank you so much for stopping by!

Carol

ViewMaster Birthday card

Hello Friends! I hope you've had a great week and your weekend is off to a wonderful start! My week was pretty good, kinda busy but busy is good, right? Today I'm heading off to get another pregnancy massage, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. Tomorrow we're invited to a birthday party (yup another one) but I think I'll leave my dancing shoes at home this time. LOL!

I made today's card for my very sweet friend and co-worker, Sheri. Her birthday was earlier this week so I thought I would make a nostalgic card for her. Do you remember the ViewMaster?? I sure do, I loved that thing when I was a kid! It's funny because after I gave it to her she had it on display on her desk and she said people kept coming over and asking her if it was real! LOL!

I made this card using my Silhouette for the ViewMaster (isn't it cute?!), and I used the Maggie Holmes collection from Crate Paper for my patterned paper. I think I need to get another pack of that paper because I absolutely LOVE IT!! I had some wood veneer cameras that I sprayed with mist and added to the top along with a chipboard piece that I stamped. I used Papertrey Ink stamps for the sentiment and also their die cut for the shape at the bottom. This card truly makes me smile, and what makes me smile even more was that my friend really liked it!

 

Well, that's it for me today I hope you have a great Saturday! Thank you for stopping by and I'll be posting again real soon!

Carol



Thank you cards

Hello Friends! Today I'm back to share some thank you cards with you. Can you believe that many of our friends have already given us gifts for the baby? She is going to be one lucky little girl! We really have awesome friends, and neighbors so I wanted to whip up a few thank you cards to let them know how much we appreciate their thoughtfulness. I made a set of 8 cards (unfortunately I sealed the majority of them in envelopes before taking a photo - DUH, what was I thinking??) I'm blaming it on "pregnancy brain!" LOL! I was able to take photos of two of the cards...

 

And here they are side by side...

I used the same overall pattern on all the cards, I just changed the colors so I wouldn't get bored. :-) I used this great design I got from a blog post by the very talented Betsy Veldman (it can be found in her tutorials section), unfortunately I'm still unable to link webpages on my blog. I really need to contact Blogger and find out what the problem is.

 

All stamps that were used are by Papertrey Ink (Handmade Stationary, It's Official, and Wood Mats). These cards were pretty quick to make and I really like how they turned out.

 

Well, it's back to another work week but at least it's a short one! I hope you all have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Carol

Nothing like birthday cards on a Monday...

Hello Friends! Happy Monday! Did you have a nice weekend? Mine was pretty relaxed which is always nice. Hopefully spring has sprung wherever you may be, we've had some really pretty weather the last few days and sunny skies make me smile!

So, what better way to start off the week then with birthday cards?! I have two more to share with you:

 



 

For both cards I used the same cardstock and patterned paper. On the first card I used a cute library card with my friend's name Chi as the author. :-) I used a stamp set from Papertrey Ink called Harvest Berries and then added a colorful butterfly to finish it off. On the second card I used a stamp and die set from Papertrey Ink called Just the Ticket. I really like those little tickets, it just looks festive to me. Then I added a die cut from October Afternoon and added a few enamel dots from Teresa Collins (these are quickly becoming my favorite embellishment!!).

Well that's it for me today, I hope your week is off to a great start! Enjoy your day and thank you so much for stopping by!

Carol

The weekend is here, the weekend is here!

Happy Friday friends! It's the weekend, baby!! I hope your Friday is off to a great start and you have fun plans for the weekend. Today I'm sharing a couple of more thank you cards from my brother-in-law's batch:

 

I think I said in my last post that those cards were my favorites, well these are my favorites as well!! They just look happy to me. I think I used some patterned paper from Crate Paper for these cards, along with the book print and stamp from Papertrey Ink. That large butterfly you see on the bottom and the "tab" were made using my Silhouette Cameo, love that! On the first one, I splashed the butterfly with a little Mister Huey's Mist, and on the second one I decided to leave it as is.

 

I think I have three more thank you cards to share and I will do so in the coming days. Have a fantastic weekend, and as always thank you so much for stopping by!

Carol

More thank you card goodness!

Hello Friends! I'm back today with a quick post to share. I have two more thank you cards from the batch I made for my brother-in-law.

 

This is definitely one of my favorite cards! I used my Silhouette Cameo to make the little clipboards and the notebook paper. The patterned paper is from Studio Calico (yup, using up my monthly kit!), and the sentiment and fountain pen are from Papertrey Ink. Speaking of Papertrey, I just received a box of goodies yesterday so I need to get to crafting! I'm currently working on birthday cards for my sweet friend Chi, hopefully I can get those done soon.

 

I hope you enjoyed today's post, and I think I better go so I can start getting ready for work! Have a wonderful day, stay warm (it's only 45 here this morning!), and I will see you soon. :-)

Carol



 

Last of the no-sentiment cards



Hello Friends, happy Saturday to you! I hope you had a great week and have fantastic weekend plans. We are actually expecting a little cooler weather this weekend, which is always a nice change. I think we'll be in the 60's during the day and in the 40's in the evening. I'll take nice brisk weather any day!

So, as you can see today's card is the last of the no-sentiment cards that I made a little while ago. This one uses some fun patterned paper from October Afternoon, it's that Farm Girl collection that I'm so crazy about! Then I used a fun stamp/die set from Papertrey Ink called Friendship Jar.

Well, I've been out of commission the last couple of days I have a cold. I think it's finally starting to break because I'm starting to feel much better. I just rested A LOT and as they say, rest is the best medicine. I finished up a set of thank you cards for one of the Pastor's at my church and I'm currently working on a 30 thank you card order for my brother-in-law so I'll be posting those soon.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and thank you so much for stopping by!

Carol

Sweater Weather

 

Hello Friends! It's funny that I live in South Florida and I have a post titled Sweater Weather! But, I did have to dust off a sweater or two these past couple of days because we got down to the 40's at night and the temperature only climbed to the mid 50's during the day...brrr!! I know, I know the weather is much colder in other parts of the country, but us Floridians are a little spoiled so these chilly days deserved some layering of clothes, hot cocoa, and maybe (just maybe) a little burst of heat in the house to warm it up a bit! :-)

 

So, the card I have for you today uses the cutest sweater die from Papertrey Ink. I embossed the sweater with one of my Cuttlebug folders and added the notched flower die (also from Papertrey Ink) to give it a little character. This is one of my favorite cards, I think it will put a smile on the face of anyone who receives it.

 

I have one more card before I go.

 

This card uses one of my favorite patterned paper collections from October Afternoon, called Woodland Park. I love the colors, and don't you just love those two little bunnies?! This card was pretty quick to whip up, but I really like the end result.

 

Tomorrow is Friday - yay! Hopefully you all have great plans for the weekend, right now I don't have any plans but I am looking forward to relaxing a little bit. Thank you so much for stopping by!

 

Carol

Snapshot

Hello! Today I have a quick post with a couple of cards to share. So, I completed the no sentiment cards I was working on, yay! What I decided to do was to make two of the same design and just tweek the colors a little instead of coming up with 24 unique designs.

 

 

If you've been following my blog, you know that I LOVE this stamp set by Papertrey Ink called Shutterbug Special. That vintage camera just speaks to me. :-) 

 

Well, I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend and I will see you back here again soon!

 

Carol 

Chalkboard Technique

 

Hello Friends! We're nearing the end of the week and hopefully you've had a good one so far! Today I have a card using the wildly popular chalboard technique. I found a fabulous tutorial by one of my stamping idols, Betsy Veldman (I'm sorry but for some reason I'm unable to add the link to the tutorial). This was such a fun card to make and it's perfect for Valentine's Day. Can you believe that Valentine's Day will be here before we know it?! It seems like I just finished making Christmas cards and now it's time for hearts, kisses, and plenty of candy! 

This card was made with a great sentiment stamp by PaperTrey Ink called Sending My Love and Heart Prints. The patterned paper is the Lovely collection by Authentique, a little washi tape and a wood arrow from Studio Calico finish off the card. I have a funny feeling that you'll be seeing more of these types of cards in the near future...wink, wink. Well, I hope you all have a great day and a wonderful weekend. Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you soon!

Carol

Christmas cards

Hello Friends! Did you miss me? Sorry I've been MIA, but the holidays have really snuck up on me (as always!). I had a chance to make a few Christmas card samples for my peeps that normally buy from me so I have been busy getting those orders completed. So, since I've been absent for quite some time, today's post will be a little longer than usual. ;-) Here are pics of the cards:

Sorry for the shadow on this one, but my photography skills really need help! This cards uses a stamp set from Papertrey Ink and there's just something about that doily in the background that makes this card festive. :-)

This card also uses a stamp set from Papertrey Ink called Peaceful Pine Cones. I just love the patterned paper it's from Simple Stories.

 

This one uses the same Peaceful Pine cones set, but I embossed the background to give the card a "peaceful" feeling.

 







You can't have Christmas cards without snowmen, right?! These cute little guys really put a smile on my face.

Last but certainly not least, is my favorite card. I absolutely LOVE this sweater! This is a die cut from Papertrey Ink along with a stamp set that makes it look like it's cable sweater. The details on this card are really cute.

 

So, how are your holiday preparations coming along? Do you have all of your shopping done or will you be in the mall on Christmas Eve? Well, hopefully whatever it is that you still have left to do, I hope you fun doing it! It's all about being in the Christmas spirit, right?

 

I hope the rest of your Sunday is fantastic, and thank you so much for stopping by!

 

Carol



TGIF!!

Hello Friends! Happy Friday to all of you. Friday's are always happy days in the Weatherspoon household, it marks the end of the work week (although sometimes my hubby works on weekends), the start of the weekend, and a day that's generally relaxing and fun!

Remember I told you that I was working on a 30 card order for a co-worker of mine and I finally finished about a week ago? Well, I'm going to spend the next few posts dedicated to those cards. Since her order was for quite a few cards I decided to make 2 cards using the same layout and just change up the colors or patterned paper a bit.

 

 



As you can see with the two cards above, I chose to use a kraft card base, and the same background stamp. One background was stamped vertically and the other horizontally, then I used the beautiful flowers from a Papertrey Ink stamp set and ahered those with foam adhesive. The final touches were making a mat for my sentiment and a little patterned paper along the bottom. It's a simple, yet elegant card. The inspiration for these cards came from the super talented Nichole Heady

(http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/2011/12/introducing-love-marriage.html).

 

I hope you all enjoyed today's post, and I hope you have a great weekend!

 

Supplies:

Cardstock - Papertrey Ink

Stamps - Papertrey Ink (Rosie Posie)

Patterned Paper - Cosmo Cricket

 

P.S. I would like to wish both of my brothers (Gentry and Donnie) a Happy Birthday!

Coasters and a Note Pad

 

 

Hi There! I hope you all are having a great week, it's almost Friday! Do you ever have one of those week's where it feels like it's taking forever for the weekend to come? That's how it feels to me this week, but I did squeeze in some crafting time (thank goodness!). Today I have a couple of fun things to share with you. First is a set of coasters made from tiles from Home Depot. These are so much fun to make and with all of the beautiful patterned paper out there, you can do just about anything!

 



Second I have one of my favorite things, a note pad! There's just something about these note pads that make me smile. They're both functional and pretty what more do you need? :-) Both of these projects were made for my sweet friend Chi. The supplies that I used are listed below, and I hope the rest of your week is fabulous! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies
Cardstock - Papertrey Ink
Patterned Paper - October Afternoon (Woodland Park)
Stamps - Papertrey Ink (Take Note, Happy Trails)

Happy Anniversary David!

Hi There! Today is a very special day for me because I've been married to the most wonderful man in the world for the last 8 years! David, I just want to take a few moments to let you know how much I love you, and how much I care about you. You are such a ray of sunshine in my life and I am so happy and blessed to have such a fantastic husband. These 8 years have gone by so quickly and when I step back to take a look at our relationship I see how much we have grown and how our love continues to blossom. When I look at you I see a man who loves the Lord, loves his wife, and loves his family. You take such great care of us and I just wanted you to know that my love for you is beyond measure, Happy Anniversary!

Let's chat a little about today's card. It's always tough for me to make a somewhat masculine card, but I think I did okay with this one. Although I chose to use ribbon at least it's a masculine shade of gray. :-) The supplies used for the card are listed below. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies:

Patterned Paper - Authentique (Curiosity)

Stamp: Papertrey Ink (Damask Designs)

Embellishments: October Afternoon (Woodland Park)



Congratulations card

Hi There! I hope your weekend is off to a great start! I am definitely looking forward to the weekend because my husband and I will be celebrating our 8 year anniversary by having a nice weekend getaway. I plan to post pics at a later date. :-) Today's card was made for my sweet friend Chi who has a friend that recently found out she's pregnant! I love hearing wonderful news like that and I was more than happy to make a card for her.

When I started thinking about the design for this card, I thought to myself what image screams baby? Well a onesie of course! So, I stamped the clotheline and stamped the onesie's onto patterned paper and cut them out. I then stamped the clothespins and cut those out as well. I used an embossing folder to create the branch-like image in the background, added the little hearts on top, the sentiment to the bottom and the rest as they say is history! My friend texted me to let me know that her friend really liked the card and that just makes my heart smile!

All supplies used are listed below, and I want to thank you so much for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Supplies:
Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye (Indie Chic)
Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Heart Prints), Avocado Arts (Hello Friend), Fiskars
Embossing Folder: Provocraft

P.S. To all of my card making friends out there...Happy World Card Making Day!!!

Thank You cards Part 2

Hello friends and happy Saturday! I have Part 2 of my Thank You card series today and these cards truly make me smile. The vintage camera image gives a nice homey feel and if you double-click on the second photo you can see the "film" from the camera has a little sentiment stamped on it. This is definitely one of my favorite stamp sets (I'm sure this will not be the last time you see it!). I used a slight variation of a sketch challenge by My Favorite Things and went from there. These cards were part of the 14 thank you cards I made for my co-worker and I have one more set that I'll be showing in the next few days. I hope to have a little step-by-step tutorial for the last set, so I'll be busy working on that!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies:
Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye (Indie Chic)
Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Shutterbug Special)