Holiday WIshes

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas celebration.  Its difficult to believe after all the preparation and shopping, baking and cooking, Christmas has come and gone.  But when you have a big family, like I do, the celebrations don't stop at the 25th.  We will have 2 more Christmas gatherings!

Once the parties are over, the red and green is packed away for another year, and the gray gloom of January is upon us, I am looking forward to returning to my creating and creativity.  I want to learn new techniques, improve my current style and complete more projects in the coming year.

Enjoy the rest of the days of 2008, and wishing 2009 brings you health, happiness and abundance!

Koala-t hugs,

Cathy

Accordian Books

Katie (my daughter) and I made quite a few accordian books for our craft fairs.  They are very popular.  These were made for our last show in November.  I love using Design Studio, creating unique covers for these books.  Here is a sample of some of the books we've done.

One week until Christmas!  Hope you have your shopping done!

Koala-t hugs,

Cathy

Oh Christmas Tree

Today's card is fairly simple, but time consuming.  This card was made using gold vellum, embossed with two different Cuttlebug folders (Swiss Dots and Snowflake), making the background.  The tree was made using the Martha Stewart branch punch.  I love the look of this punch, but its more involved than I like.  I ended up selling the punch because after punching LOTS of branch pieces, I hurt my hand.  So this card ended up being a one of a kind!  THe verse is from Studio G stamps.  It may be difficult to see in the picture, but I used different colored Stickles to make "lights" on the tree.

Have a koala-t day!

Cathy

HO HO HO Wordbook

Something different today, this is one of the Christmas wordbooks I created.  It was created using Cricut Design Studio, George and Pooh Font cartridges.  I had been making wordbooks for awhile and wanted to do this one differently than my past books.  Red and green cardstock over .22 thickness chipboard was used for the base of each page.  The printed paper is by American Crafts (LOVE this paper.  Its thicker than your usual printed paper, but not as thick as textured cardstock).    It was bound using the Bind It All and DCWV glitter paper and Stickles were used to embellish the pages.  I had lots of fun creating this book!

More Christmas Cards

Although Santa looks a bit distressed (maybe the economy's got him down?  Maybe too many cookies!  ;-D ) I've gotten positive feedback for this card.  I created it using my Gazelle electronic cutter.  It was one of the first successful cuttings I made with the new cutter.  The background is Black Magic paper by Core'dinations, the chimney is also Core'dinations paper, both were embossed using the Cuttlebug.  Details on Santa and his reindeer were hand drawn and Stickles were use for Santa's hat.  I need some practice with paper piecing, but I'm happy with the way it turned out. 

Thanks for looking! 

Koala-t hugs,  Cathy

Christmas Cards

Here are some of the Christmas cards I've made this  year.  I was busy completing other projects, so these were made one or two at a time in between those projects.

This first one was made using cards that were unfinished.  Ever have one of those projects you worked on and didn't like the way they were coming out, so you put them aside?  Well, this was one of those projects for me.  I came across these in my Christmas stash (that I put away, separate from my regular stuff).  I figured I could do something to finish these.  They had the background paper, the word "Christmas" and that was it.  "Christmas" was cut on foil paper, using the Christmas Cheer cartridge with my Cricut.

To finish this one, I cut the word MERRY (from my new cutter Gazelle) and the poinsettia was a cut file I got from BossKut (they make the Gazelle)  A bit of Stickles on the center of the poinsettia and done!  I had 5 more of these unfinished cards...I made each one a little different.

 This one was made using the snowflake Cuttlebug folder, cut two scalloped circles from Storybook and JOY is an acrylic stamp I had on hand. I used Stickles on the "O" snowflake.   Simple, but I liked the way it came out.

Tomorrow I'll post a few more cards!  Thanks for looking.

Cathy

Happy BIrthday Dylan

We will be celebrating my nephew's 6th birthday this coming Saturday.  I made these cards for him.  One is from me and the other from my mom.  

The first card was made 5 x 7, using Mickey and Friends, Mickey Font and Design Studio.

The second card was made 5 x 7, using Paper Dolls and Design studio.  I decorated the Super Hero's costume with Stickles, colored pencil for the hair, and used a Black Glaze pen for the eyes.

TA-DAA!

This is my first real post!  I'm new to this blogging world, so please bear with me as I learn how to organize and showcase some of my work.

The following is just a sample of my work.  Although I have been a cardmaker for several years, I didn't start scrapbooking until mid 2005, after the birth of my first grandchild, Kayla.  I believe my work has improved quite a bit over the past 3 years, with the help of some really cool gadgets and high tech tools.

The layouts posted below are of my son and daughter from their first years, and of my two granddaughters.  I hope to be more organized as time goes on.  

Thanks for viewing, and hope you return in the near future for pictures of my creations!

Have a Koala-t day!

Cathy