Place Setting Creations

Short post. I just wanted to share some napkin holders I made for our Christmas dinner place settings.

Hope you like :)

Supplies:
I used the cardboard wrapping paper tube for the base. I then used Christmas papers from the dollar aisle at Target. The flowers are from Making Memories brand and the brads are from JoAnn Fabrics.

I'm still working on playing with the napkin and silverware to make it look a little nicer, but that's what I've got so far!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas 2010

I finally took pictures of our Christmas tree this morning. (Probably because I had finally moved all of the things sitting on the floor around the Christmas tree so that I am now okay sharing a picture of my living room ;) ) 

Things have been a little crazy lately. I've had two Physical Therapy appointments a week for the last month and with prepping for Christmas, we haven't had a whole lot of spare time! But, my parents and sister are going to be here tonight and thus sets off the Christmas festivities. I am very glad my family can come spend Christmas with us. It will be a nice time. 

It seems that Christmas gets busier and busier each year. With all of the hustle and bustle (especially in the DC Metro area) it is so easy to lose site of the true meaning of Christmas. I was reading a friends blog the other day and she was sharing on her meditations of what Christmas really means. I would encourage you to head on over to Anita's blog, The Other Side of Me, and read her entry entitled The Greatest Gift. May all of us remember what Christmas really means and remember to give thanks for the Father's precious gift to us all.

Wishing a blessed Christmas to you all!

Encouragement

Hello all... Hope you are all having a grand weekend.... I just finished working on a card for my boss's wife who is having some health problems. We're all going to sign it on Monday and give it to him. I used bright, cheerful colors to hopefully bring some spring time into her day. :) 

Supplies:

Paper: From my cousin

Ribbon: From Ollie's ( a discount store)

Embellishments: Gems from Michaels dollar aisle, Flowers a stamp from my cousin and colored with Marvy Uchida marker pens (hubby bought them for me :) )

Sentiment: Digi image from TLC Creations blog

Congratulations on your new baby...

A childhood friend is having a baby soon, but she lives in Georgia so I couldn't make it to her shower. Instead, I made her a card.

Using some papers from my cousin, some ribbon from a friend and a digi image from I can't remember where, because I accidentally did not add the blog name to the file extension (sorry to whoever created this image :( ).

The next picture is from a card from a couple of weeks ago. Made from patterned papers from a friend, ribbon from Ollie's and flowers from a friend. The digi image is from Raindrop Echo Designs.

Christmas decorations up, check....

Our Christmas check list is actually coming along quite nicely. We put up our Christmas decorations up last night and I now have MOST of the family gifts (still have one coming in from being ordered and two more to get) boxed up and labeled (so I know which belongs to which) and ready to be wrapped. I still have to finish shopping for my hubby and a few more things to pull together for our parents, but I think we're right on schedule. :) I actually managed to slide two gift bags under (or up against as the case really is) the Christmas tree last night. I created a couple of cards this week, just haven't had a chance to take pictures and edit them yet...

And on to some rambling.... The past couple of months have been difficult. The Lord has been taking me through a new, and as it looks right now prolonged, trial and I have been having a bit of a hard time being very thankful for the situation. But (the past few days particularly), I have been contemplating on how gracious the Lord is to send us blessings, even while in trials. Right now, I am in a fairly difficult situation at work, but amidst the situation the Lord has given me a blessing. He put a spirit filled Christian woman in as my immediate supervisor. The situation has been difficult for her as well, but how gracious the Lord has been to provide another lady with whom to be able to talk to at work, while actually going through these circumstances, and be encouraged through this whole situation. I am very thankful for this lady and am so thankful for the Lord, who is ever faithful to us in each and every situation.

The Last of the Christmas Cards....

And I am done.... waiting for two more addresses and the last batch go out tomorrow morning!!! Woohoo!  Here are a couple of pics of some of the last ones that I made. I didn't make them all this year. We send out almost 50 and I am not quite at that level yet!

Card Update: Supplies used on cards (sorry.. I was super tired last night when I posted these.)

Paper: Card stock from Michaels, Textured card stock from a paper pack from Michaels, patterned paper from a magazine bonus and from a friend
Embellishments: Foam sparkly snowflakes from Michaels, ribbon from a friend, black and white pearls from acMoore, Wreath and ornament on last card from some bonus materials in a crafting magazine I bought a few weeks ago. 
Sentiments: Free hand (at this point, I was running out of Christmas card mojo and did them freehand!)

Hope you likey. :)

 

And with that, I am quite sleepy, so I will say goodnight :)

Sidenote: There are very few things better than coming home after a LONG day at work to find that your hubby has dinner done and has dug the Christmas tree out of the closet and put it up to get ready for decorating :)

Some Christmas Home Creations from last year....

Well, life has been super busy lately with traveling and some editing I've been doing for a Pastor friend of my husband I and editing I'm doing for my dad, and grading exams from our Bible Institute, so I haven't had much time for crafting lately. I did make a birthday card for my aunt-in-law, but I still have some Christmas cards to finish up and send out (I think I'm doing pretty well this year though, I passed out most Christmas cards for my family over Thanksgiving, plus we had some friends in town so I was able to send like 10 cards with them to give to other friends and I sent out 3 in the mail this morning. I think I've got about 25 more to go - either to send out or finish making.)

Anyhoo, since I haven't had time to craft I thought I would share some home decor crafts I made last year for our living room and as a center piece for our dining room table.

I made the branch in the vase, not the vase :) It actually wasn't that hard. I Just bought a branch with the neutral colored beads, then bought bundles of the other colored beads and wove them in. I was pleased with the outcome.

This also wasn't too dificult. I just bought ornaments to tie in my green table cloth (not shown here :) ) with the blue Christmas decorations in the living room. ( I live in an apartment so the living room and dining room are all in one room). My dear hubby spray painted this thing silver out in our cold storage shed. He had to put on like 3 coats of spray paint!

Hope everyone's Christmas preparations are going well!

Some Christmas Creations

Well, Monday marks the end of the Caring Hearts Card Drive. This week I made up a few more cards to get out so that Vera, the sweet lady running this card drive, would get them by Monday!

(This card didn't actually go out, this was one of my Christmas cards.)

I used some non-traditional colors for these cards. I got these papers and embellishments as an addition to a Card crafting magazine that I recently purchased.

On the last card, I used a silver gel pen instead of actual string for the ornaments, but it doesn't show so well in this picture.

Thank You Minis

Hello Ladies... It's been a few days since my last post. It's been a busy couple of weeks. I just started on a new project at work and am getting used to a new schedule with about 2 hours more travel than I'm used to, so I've been a bit exhausted in the evenings. I have been crafting though, just haven't had the opportunity to get any posts up. These are some mini thank you cards that I made almost a month ago. 

Supplies:

Paper: Solid cardstock from Michaels, patterned paper from My Minds Eye

Sentiment: TLC Creations

Embellishments: Ribbon from Target dollar aisle, flower from a stamp and cut out, Gem from Michaels dollar aisle

I also made a few Christmas related projects... some mini cards and some mini gift bags

I haven't decided whether I am going to give these to someone or use them for Christmas tags myself.

Supplies:

Paper: Solid cardstock from Michaels

Embellishments on Gift Bags: foam snowflakes from Michaels, patterned paper and ribbon from a friend

I FINALLY GOT MY WEDDING PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you sense the excitement, the joy, in the all caps title?????  After 2 years, I finally got my wedding pictures back!  We only have the digital finals right now, but that is enough for me at this moment.... And to share in my glee.... I am going to share a few pictures with you all!

First, my very favorite picture... Isn't he handsome??? ;-)

The two pics above were from the pictures before the ceremony. We did the guys and the girls pictures before the ceremony to save time after the ceremony.

Being Silly :)

This is my hubby's favorite

Me and My Beautiful Mama

Me and My Loon of a Sister ;)

Me and My (cough) Ladies

The New Gohl/Scheid Family! 

for u

I was playing with some bright, cheery colors today as it is quite the opposite outside right now! Hope you like and that it brightens your day too! :)

Supplies:

Paper: Pre-folded blank cardstock, patterned paper from My Mind's Eye (I think)
Embellishments: chipboard letters from Target dollar aisle, button an extra from a sweater, ribbon from a friend
Digi Image: GTC Blog

Mini Christmas Cards

I've been working on a few different creations lately. I wanted to make a set number of things before I actually added anything to Etsy, so I've been working at it for a couple of weeks.  First up is a set of 6 mini Christmas cards, which could also easily be gift tags for gifts. Each card comes with a mini envelope. 

Complete Set

Closeup with Envelopes

Supplies:

Paper: Plain white cardstock for card base and envelopes, Christmas patterned paper from a friend

Embellishments: Glittered snowflakes from Michaels, Buttons from a friend, Ribbon also from a friend (can get the same ribbon from Michaels though)

Adhesives: Score Tape (Just recently got this and LOOOOOVE it.... it works wonderfully!), and therm-o-web, medium sized zots (clear adhesive dots)

P.S. Has anyone had problems with the new Image Uploader gadget? I noticed that image uploads will be down for a couple of hours today. I hope they fix whatever is up with it.

I also created an elegant "Congratulations" card that could really be used for multiple different occasions. I didn't make it specific for that exact reason. My inspiration for this card actually came from a set of Candelabra rub-ons.

Outside

Inside 

You may notice the embellishment in the top left corner. It started out as a candelabra, but as I accidentally ripped off the bottom, I made it into a chandelier. :)

Supplies:

Paper: Plain black cardstock, Patterned paper from a set I bought a while ago at Walmart, but can no longer recall the brand

Embellishments: Ribbon from Michaels, Gems and Candelabra/Chandelier from Michaels dollar aisle

Digi Images: Border from Birds Blog, Sentiment freehand

Hope that you are all having a glorious week... I am finally starting to feel better (PTL)!!!

I have a couple of prayer requests for you all. My husband and I are assistant pastors at a local church and one of our congregation had a stroke on Monday. He seems to be recovering, but please keep him in your prayers. Also, the head of our fellowship is having some very serious health problems. Only a miracle will bring him back to health, so please also keep him in your prayers!

God Bless!

Happy Birthday to my BIL

It is my brother-in-law's birthday this month. I haven't been feeling that well this week, so I've been working on the card little by little each day from my spot on the couch! I finally finished it today. 

Supplies:

Paper: Mostly scraps

Digi Stamp: Raindrop Echo Designs

Buttons: Michael's dollar aisle

Ribbon: A friend

Card Set

So, I've been thinking about putting some of my cards up on Etsy and I decided that I wanted to put up a few card sets. This is the first one that I finished. They are almost 4x6 (about a half an inch on the top and side of the 4x6 bag I put them in).

Supplies:

Paper: Cardstock from The Bon Voyage Travel cardstock stack and a friend

Ribbon: Dollar bin at Target, Dollar bin at Michaels, a friend

Paper Flowers: Recollections Collection and a friend (who told me where they were from but I forgot)

Buttons: A friend

I got out of work early today, so I think I'm going to go start on another set and also work on a couple more holiday cards for the Caring Hearts Card Drive I'm participating in, hosted by Ling's Design Studio.

Oops... some things you only learn through experience

So, I haven't had a lot of space to store my crafting supplies or cards. We live in apartment and my dear hubby has given up quite a few shelfs on his bookcases for my crafting already in our study. Today, however I realized that my idea for storing my completed cards was not the greatest idea. At first it seemed like it was, but today I pulled some of them out and realized that a few of the cards had been damaged (i.e. squashed!)  Oops.... sometimes you can only learn things through experience. I think that I'll be able to salvage the damaged cards to give as gifts, but I definitely won't be trying to sell them! I don't know what I'm going to do about storing cards now though. Any ideas ladies?

Birthday Blessings

Today I was able to sit down and play with my new paper cutter. Yay!  I created a birthday card using the Thomas Kinkade Paper kit that was also a gift.

Supplies:

Paper: Basic Recollections card stock, Thomas Kinkade paper, I took the green paper and used one of the blades on my new paper cutter
Embellishments: Gems from Wal-mart, ribbon from a friend
Sentiment: typed out and layed over a cut-out from Birds Cards blog and print out, I colored in the areas to be cut out with gold Recollections gel pen

I am blessed...

In I Thessalonians 5:18 it says to "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Lately, I've been having a hard time being thankful. So many times it is so much easier to dwell on the difficulties surrounding us than the gifts that the Lord is continually blessing us with!  I was reminded of this these past two weeks when two people very sweetly sent me some gifts. I wrote about one in an earlier blog entry and the other I just received yesterday. A dear friend found some wonderful crafting goodies at a garage sale and picked them up from me, including a rotary cutter, which sells for approx $60 on e-bay (she picked it up for $10!) I have some pictures below, but I just wanted to say thank you to those that have thought of me. It was such a blessing to me and it once again helped remind me of how good the Lord truly is to me.

Look at this! I feel like my birthday came a week early this year!

Is this not the cutest ever?!?! It's adorable :)

And she didn't even know how much I enjoy looking at crafting magazines. I always look and put back because they can get expensive, but now I have 5 magazines with lots of great crafting ideas :)

eeek... I just saw a stink bug (my apartment complex is infested with them right now... can anyone saw ewwww??) crawl across my lunch plate! (Thankfully I was already done eating off of it!

Some beautiful papers and a Thomas Kinkade kit

Some punches!

and stamps!

and buttons, ribbons, and some little org. containers!

and now for the big one....

a rotary paper trimmer!

with 4 extra blades 

Thank you Anita for thinking of me.... and thank you Lord for your never ending goodness to me!