A New Year’s Gift — Monday Montage #35

Posted on January 11, 2015 by amyoneillblog

We’re back with another Monday Montage blog hop, our first of 2015. You can follow along the hop by clicking on the links at the bottom of each post. All of these other ladies are so talented so you won’t want to miss a thing.

This was our second year to do a swap of our favorite things. We decided to do a New Year’s swap to avoid a little of the craziness around Christmas. Plus, it’s fun to extend the season a little and give a surprise gift. I had the pleasure of giving a gift to Wendy Weixler. She is pretty much the fearless leader of our little group, so I wanted to give her something good as she is very deserving.

I started with a homemade card. I used a little gold, silver and Night of Navy and the Many Merry Stars photopolymer set. This set came out for Christmas, but it so versatile that I plan on using it all year (birthdays, graduation, etc…). Since this is a New Year’s card, I thought it deserved lots of sparkle, so I used lots of glimmer paper, embossing and sequins.

For her gift, I gave her one of my favorite books from last year, The Rosie Project. Have you read it?

Our book club read it, and we all loved it. It’s a smart and quirky romantic comedy. I’ve read that they will be making a movie from the novel, and I think it would make a cute movie.

I also included a little something to snack on while reading her book, a Peanut Butter Creme PowerCrunch bar. Love those things! I decorated it with the same materials I used for the card and just made a wrap to go around the bar.

I feel so blessed to get to work with the ladies in this group. Not only are they are amazingly talented, but they are kind, funny, and supportive.

You’re ready to hop on over to Breelin Renwick’s blog and check out her beautiful projects. She sent me some fabulous gifts, and I think she’ll be sharing that in her post. I have greatly enjoyed them. If you prefer to work your way backwards, you can venture over to Wendy Weixler’s blog where she’ll have something beautiful to share with you.

Enjoy your Monday Thanks for stopping by!

Hey, Camera! — FMS168

Posted on January 7, 2015 by amyoneillblog

We’re ready to get back to it at Freshly Made Sketches, and to kick things off I get the pleasure of hosting this week’s challenge.

I pulled a stamp off the shelf that I hadn’t used in a while, Snapshot, and I paired it with some fun dsp from the Flashback collection.

I watercolored the fun camera with an aquapainter and re-inkers. And then I added some Crystal Effects to the lens of the camera. I also looped some twine behind the top panel.

We hope you’ll join us and create your own card using the sketch as your inspiration. For some truly great inspiration, you should drop by the Freshly Made Sketches site and check out what the design team made this week. They always inspire me!

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Pennants

Posted on January 5, 2015 by amyoneillblog

Happy New Year! I hope you had a good holiday season and are enjoying 2015 so far. We had a great, relaxing vacation these past two weeks. We made a trip to see family in Kansas and spent a lot of time here at home just hanging out with each other. My son came down with the flu two days before Christmas, which was when we were supposed to leave for our trip to Kansas. We stayed home instead and fortunately, his flu was short-lived and we were able to make our trip later in the week. And no one else got the flu, so we were really blessed.

I really haven’t stamped at all over the past couple of weeks. So when I sat down today to make something, I was at a loss of where to start. I ended up pulling out a stamp set that has never seen ink, Playful Pennants, and decided to make a birthday card for my stash.

I love these cute little banners and I think they are perfect for a birthday card. I used a color combination of Strawberry Slush, Crisp Cantaloupe, Bermuda Bay and So Saffron. The card base is Soft Sky.

Enjoy your Monday! Thanks for stopping by!

Merry Christmas – from Redneck Santa

Posted on December 23, 2014 by amyoneillblog

I am blessed to have some very dear friends that I have met through Stampin’ Up! Unfortunately I don’t get to see some of them but once a year at the annual convention. This past year, there were four of us that shared a room and we had the best time. I know some of you may be thinking that four people (women) sharing one hotel room doesn’t sound very fun. But it is! We all get along so well and we have the bathroom routine down after all these years. I really love it that we all get to stay together.

When they gave us the new Holiday catalog at convention, we all got a good laugh out of the Visions of Santa stamp set and coordinating Santa and Co. dsp. One of the girls in our group said the Santas looked like Redneck Santas, which made us laugh even harder. So now every time I see these Santas, I always identify them as Redneck Santas.

I thought it would be fun to send my other three roommates cards from Redneck Santa each month until Christmas, just to keep these silly “Visions of Santa” in their heads. Each card was simply signed by “Redneck Santa” with a little note inside.

I have to admit that this was not exactly my favorite set in the catalog, as it’s not quite my normal style. However, after making several cards with it over the past few months, I actually find it to be pretty fun.

I enjoyed coloring these guys with my Blendabilities, and they’d always make me smile (once I got past the “ewww” factor of the body hair and long underwear. 🙂

This last project is actually a Christmas ornament I made for each of my roommates. I figured they needed to have something to remind them of Redneck Santa each year.

I hope that you have visions of Santa dancing around in your head this Christmas. Enjoy your Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Thanks — FMS167

Posted on December 17, 2014 by amyoneillblog

Wow! Time is flying! It’s like our clocks get set on fast forward during the two weeks before Christmas. We have one last sketch for you for 2014 at Freshly Made Sketches, and our Australian friend, Narelle Farrugia has a great one for us. She is so talented with layers, so it is fitting that she has given us a sketch with some fun layers:

My husband and I both lead small groups of 10th graders at our church each week. This is our second year to do this, and I really love it. I am amazed at the faith that some of these youth exhibit while only being 15-16 years old, and I admire their commitment to develop their relationship with Christ. One of the boys in my group gave me a Christmas gift so I needed to make a thank-you card.

I thought that since it was for a Christmas gift, I could use Christmas themed stamps. That also made it a little easier to make a masculine card since many Christmas sets are pretty gender neutral.

I thought this sketch was perfect for pulling out some of my leftover dsp. Both of these patterns came from the Trim the Tree dsp stack. I used my Festival of Trees stamp set and coordinating punch for the focal image. The “thanks” is from a stamp in the Lots of Thanks stamp set.

We hope you’ll join us in this last challenge of the year. We’ll be back on January 7th with an all-new sketch for you. Meanwhile, you can drop by the Freshly Made Sketches site for some inspiration from the design team.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Sledding in the Snow — FMS166

Posted on December 10, 2014 by amyoneillblog

It’s time for another challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches, and Karren Johnson, our favorite Kiwi, has a versatile sketch for us.

I still had a couple of the cute sleds from the Watercolor Winter Simply Created Card Kit, so I grabbed one and watercolored it with some Cherry Cobbler and Smoky Slate ink.

I paired it with some of the pretty dsp from the All is Calm Specialty dsp collection. I added some silver ribbon and glimmer paper. Pretty easy.

We hope you’ll be able to join us and share your own take on the sketch this week. We love looking through the gallery at all of the work you create. Meanwhile, you can go see the design team’s awesome work at the Freshly Made Sketches site.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Holiday Happy — Monday Montage #34

Posted on December 7, 2014 by amyoneillblog

We have another Monday Montage Blog Hop ready for you. There are ten of us participating, and all you have to do is click on the links at the end of each post to work your way through all of the participants.

I started this card by spreading some embossing paste (non-SU) over the Stars Decorative Mask and then sprinkling some Dazzling Diamonds Glitter on the stars before they dried. While that was drying, I colored this fun stamp from the Mingle All the Way set using Real Red, Coastal Cabana, Blushing Bride and Wild Wasabi Stampin’ Write Markers.

I love the sparkle that the glitter adds and the texture from the embossing paste.

You’re ready to hop on over to the ever-creative Breelin Renwick’s blog to see her fabulous work. If you prefer to work your way backwards, I won’t judge, and you can see the super talented Wendy Weixler’s work. Either way, be sure to work you way through all ten blogs.

Enjoy your Monday! Thanks for stopping by!

Glittered Snowflake — FMS165

Posted on December 3, 2014 by amyoneillblog

It’s time for another sketch challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches, and this week the fabulously talented Cindy Lovell from Germany is our hostess. I love everything Cindy makes, and her sketch this week is no exception.

I had my new My Paper Pumpkin kit on my desk, so I immediately thought of using the snowflake from the kit as the focal image on this sketch.

I ran the snowflake halves through my Xyron machine and applied Dazzling Diamonds glitter over it. The dotted background and sentiment are from stamps in the recent My Paper Pumpkin kit.

We hope you’ll join us and make your own creation using the sketch this week. We love looking through the gallery and seeing what you make. Meanwhile, you can check out the rest of the design team’s work over at the Freshly Made Sketches site for some inspiration.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

A Christmas Bauble

Posted on December 1, 2014 by amyoneillblog

After having a whole week off with family it’s so hard to get back into the normal routine. I didn’t set foot in my craft room for the whole week, and while I missed it, I had such a great week spending time with the kids and my hubby.

We put up the tree and the other Christmas decorations on Saturday. So when I sat down to make a card last night, I immediately pulled the Christmas Bauble stamp off my shelf. It’s so fun to pull out all of the Christmas ornaments out of the boxes — I forget about some of them and get to rediscover them while decorating.

I stamped the ornament on Whisper White card stock and colored it with my Blendabilities (which are on sale today only!), and then hand-cut the ornament. I placed it on a card from the Seasonal Snapshot Project Life kit. The sentiment is from the Watercolor Winter Too set.

I’m not very good at coloring — I have trouble staying in the lines, let alone blending my colors well. But it is so fun! It’s therapeutic.

Enjoy your Monday! Thanks for stopping by!

Grateful for So Much — FMS164

Posted on November 26, 2014 by amyoneillblog

I love this week of the year! The kids get the whole week off from school and this year my husband has been able to take the week off from work, so we are getting lots of family time. We don’t have much planned — a little cooking and baking, going to see a couple of movies, a little shopping, and visiting some family. I love it!

Another thing I love is this week’s sketch by the oh-so-talented-and-lovely Jen Brum at Freshly Made Sketches. She has such a good one for us this week:

I wanted to make one more Thanksgiving/Fall themed card because the Christmas train is coming in a hurry. I pulled out the Seasonally Scattered set and stamped it with Cajun Craze ink on a strip of Very Vanilla card stock. I then layered some burlap ribbon and Natural 5/8″ Chevron Ribbon over the stamped image.

I stamped the sentiment from the For All Things stamp set over the banner image from the same set. Colors used were Crushed Curry and Bermuda Bay. This card came together pretty quickly. I will use it to send to my MIL to thank her for her preparations for our Thanksgiving dinner.

We hope you’ll be able to join us and make your own card using this sketch. We love to see your creations in the gallery. You can check out what the design team made at the Freshly Made Sketches site for some inspiration.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!