Monday, December 20, 2010

Do You See What I See?






Good morning! Today I have some tips to share. I love to find unique ways to use dies or stamps to create things other than what they were originally intended to be. Here are a few things I created after seeing the cuts from the Mushroom Trio die. There are other images I can see that I would like to make. If I have time, I will make more and edit my post. I hope this inspires you to think outside the box Thanks so much for visiting! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and I will be back on the 27th. Happy Holidays!
Hugs and smiles!
Janice

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Catching up!!

Has anyone been following Project 12 from Scrapbook & Cards Today? Each month, they release a new sketch for you to use to scrap your month of pictures. It has been a fun project to follow along with this year even though I have only completed about half of the layouts so far.

One thing I have found on the layouts I have completed are how perfect my Cottage Cutz dies are for embellishing these monthly layouts! For November, the sketch included a spot for a bird. Well, I immediately thought of my Cottage Cutz Turkey. This die is actually from last year's release but is still one of my favorites and would be a great addition to this year's Fall and Thanksgiving releases.




Here is a close up view of the turkey so you can see him better. I ran the die through my cutter with white cardstock and then I used my Copic markers to color the individual pieces.

Happy Scrapping!!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Unhappy Reindeer

My sweet doggie, Joey, is such a princess I can't believe she actually let me put this on her head...and then stood there long enough for me to get a pic. LOL She was sooo happy when I took it off. What a sweetheart she is to indulge me. ;)


The little lights on her "antlers" twinkle so I put bling on them in the photo to make them look like they are blinking. I love the elegant reindeer die and blinged that up as well adding stickles to the antlers and tiny i-rock gems to the ribbon.


Wednesday, December 15, 2010

From All of Us

Today I want to show you what you can do with one little mini CottageCutz die.
I cut out 5 mini reindeer heads and inked them up with Walnut Distress ink then I
grabbed some white paint and dotted the eyes and let them dry. Meanwhile I gave them all cute little noses with my black pearls and of course Rudolph gets a red gem for his nose.
When the white paint was dry I took a permanent black marker and finished off the eyes
and put marks on their ears.

(We woke up to snow this morning which means not a lot of light inside the house to take my pictures. I apologize for the lack of quality in my pictures.)
I gathered all my reindeer heads together and put them on my card. The front two heads I put on with pop dots for dimension.
They are so cute and so simple to make. He'd be cute on a little reindeer tag, placecard on your dinner table or make a border with them on a layout.
From all of us on the Scrapping Cottage Design team we wish you a
Merry Christmas!





Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Days till Christmas

This weeks project I used the Cottage Cutz Skating Penguin Die, I gave him a red scarf and lime ear muffs. Mounted him on the side of a 3 1/2" x 6" chalkboard panel. The Base panel is 6" x 8". Added mini tinsel garland around the chalkboard. Highlighted the penguin in black and white ink.


You know when you have an idea and have it all worked out in your mind and than you complete the project except for that last THING. Well this is one of the projects, completed it last week except for one thing. . Chalk. A good while ago I found this cool, self sticking chalkboard vinyl (had not yet used it) came in several colors by Wallies. . . I thought about the penguin skating on the black ice and being able to change the number each day and leading up to Christmas, added the wire handle so you could hang on a door or add magnets to the back and stick to the fridge. . . . well. . . I hadn't eaten chalk for years, so NO! I did not have any chalk in the house. I kept forgetting to pick some up.. so . . .today I did. . . went to take the pictures. . get the chalk out of the box . . . write a big bold ""10"" for ten days left to Christmas. . . . . . . . . . What happens. . .the chalk does NOT write on the chalkboard vinyl !!!!!!!!! I'm a guy, you know we don't read direction. I break down and read the instructions on the Wallies package. ""NO help '' (I knew reading the package would not be of use . . .that's why I did not!). So I am now going to cut out numbers with self sticking back to use and remove to change out.
By the way, Mr. Wallies and Mr. Crayola Chalkman do not seem to be compatible. . at this point.
Thanks and Merry Christmas !



Sunday, December 12, 2010

Baby It's Cold Outside


Good morning friends. Today I have a darling die to show you. It is the Polar Bear on Sled die. I think that he is so cute! I made him going down a hill on his sled. No snow here in MA yet, but my home town in WI has a 2 hour delay this morning because of snow. I do hope we have a white Christmas! Enjoy the day!
Hugs and smiles,
Janice

Snow Many Memories

Hello! For my card today I used the Cottage Impressions Penguin with ski's stamp. I just think he is absolutely adorable! I colored him with my prismacolor colored pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits. I used my sakura glitter pen to give his ski's some sparkle.

I attached him to the card with a wobble, so he wiggles around. ☺ Ok, that's it for me today. See you back here next Sunday. Have a wonderful day!

Nikki

p.s. You have until midnight tonight to comment on all my posts for the last 12 days on My Blog...I have 12 giveaways, including some Cottage Cutz Dies!!! ☺



Saturday, December 11, 2010

Ho Ho Ho Y'all

One of the reasons why I love Cottage Cutz dies so much is because they can be used year after year. For my project today, I have combined the Cottage Cutz Poinsettia Spray which is one of this month's Christmas dies with a couple of Christmas dies from last year which are the Ho Ho Ho Die and the Ornament Die.




Friday, December 10, 2010

Ya Better Watch Out...

Hello and happy Friday!!  Are you ready for Christmas yet?  Not me, by any stretch of the imagination, but, this is the time of year, when we're telling the little ones that they'd better watch out, better not pout, better not cry, becasue... YES... Santa Claus is coming to town.   Ready or not, it's coming!!  My card today uses the Santa With Reindeer Stamp from The Scrapping Cottage.  Another fun and fabulous Cottage Impressions image to color. 
 There's plenty of sparkling glitter on the snow in the reindeer's antlers, and under their feet, although it doesn't show up so well in the picture.  I thought the rhinestone swirls paired up great with this pretty paper from K&Co..  Well, I still have plenty to do to get ready for Christmas, which includes some wrapping that's calling to me.  I wish you a glorious day, a wonderful weekend and lots of happy stamping and crafting!




Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Yummy tweets!

I've been busy making Christmas goodies, decorating and getting the tree up this week. So it seemed only fitting that this week's project is a layout of my daughter, Cyndi, making goodies last Christmas. I love using non-traditional themes and colors for Christmas pages so having dies that coordinate with the bird and cage on these Christmas papers is pretty cool, dontcha think!



I cut the birdcage from metallic paper...

...and colored the "bluebird" to match the brown and red birds on the paper.


Are you ready for Christmas? You have just two weeks and two days left to finish, believe it or not!!! But hey, no pressure. ;) Have a productive weekend!



Today I'm featuring the Christmas Doily. This die is so cool and can be used as a backdrop on a card, clustered on a layout, and so many other things. Barry showed you how to use them on tags and my project today is using it on a little gift bag.
I cut it out and inked it, and added some Stickles and a gem in the center.
I put some pop dots on the back of the trees so it would stand out against the busy patterned paper.
You got to love dies that have multiples ways to use them.
Hope your holiday shopping is coming along well.

Don't forget the Scrapping Cottage for those crafters on your list.
Happy Wednesday!
Kay


Tuesday, December 07, 2010

EZ Quick & Simple Christmas Tags


EZ. . .Quick and Simple, that is what I wanted to show this week. You can make a set of Christmas Gift tags in no time. I used the Cottage Cutz Tree, Wreath and Doily from the Elegant Collection. One sheet each of four colors of card stock(red, white and two greens), a holly edge punch, 1/8" hole punch, Red & green ribbon, red and green ink, sponge and Stickles.


The white card stock was cut at 3" x 6" and the shadow card stock were cut at 3 1/8" x 6 1/8" . Two tags I edged with a holly punch on the full right side of the tag and the second I edged on the left side and bottom. Inked the edges of the white with a sponge in red and green. Used a 1/8" hole punch to cut a ton of dots for berries, randomly scattered on the holly edge. Stickled the berries for a bit of twinkle. I cut 4 Cottage Cutz Elegant Shapes (one quick CUT) glued them on the white card stock at an angle with a little over hang (cut the over hang off). I needed to remember to leave space on the tag for the TO:/FROM:.

As you can see, five parts to each tag, ribbon, white tag, shadow tag, berries and Cottage Cutz. . . EZ Cut . .One Cut Dies.
So when you need to make about 10 or 20 quick gifts for the holiday. . .fix 6 tags in a cello bag, tie it up with some ribbon. Everyone always need gift tags for the season, you know that it is a gift that will be used.
What if you are giving bottles of wine or home baked bread. . A nice big tag to attach will always added a festive touch.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you, your Family and Friends








Sunday, December 05, 2010

Santa's Workshop


Good morning friends! For today's card I used Santa's Workshop die. Isn't the workshop adorable? It comes with a tiny stamp for the words above the door. How cute is that? I hope you have had a chance to look at all the new dies and take advantage of the promotional sales that The Scrapping Cottage has had, or that you are writing a wish list of things you would like to receive. I can' believe it is Dec. 6, 2010. This year has gone by faster than I could have ever imagined it would. I haven't even started my shopping yet. I hope you all have a great week!
See you next Monday.
Hugs and smile,
Janice



Reindeer Crossing

Hello, and happy Sunday! For my card today I used the Flying Reindeer die. Just a quick and simple card.


 I hate to post and run again, but I have a friend from Guam here visiting. ☺ See you back here next Sunday! Have a WONDERFUL week!

 ♥ Nikki