A Tag You're It Farewell

Today, I'm here to participate in a farewell post

for Tag You're It.

The challenge closed its doors last month,

but Tracey wanted to do a post of both the past and present designers 

as a tribute to it.

I joined the team in June of 2014 (how can that possibly be 3 1/2 years ago?)

This was the first tag I created for the challenge:

Here are a few of my favourite projects I made as a design team member:

August 2014

August 2014

November 2014

While I left the team in December 2014, I was very honoured to be asked to be 

a guest designer for the challenge last month, for which I created this tag:

Please go and check out the favourite tags that the design team has created.

Thanks for looking! 

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My Christmas Tags

Well, I finally got all of my tags made 

and my presents wrapped for Christmas.

I think this is the latest I've ever gotten this done....

I thought I'd share them here on my blog.

As I shared earlier this month, I bought some pretty wrapping paper

from Chapter's this fall and wanted to make coordinating tags.

Because, you know, that's very important to me. ;)

Here they are:

This one is for Jonah, using Beary Merry from Neat and Tangled,

as well as a sentiment from Reverse Confetti.

This one is for Sage, using Papertrey Ink's Winter Village.

This one is for my husband, Cameron, using deer die (I can't remember the manufacturer 

-- could it be Crate Paper? Did they have dies?), a banner from MFT Stamps

and a sentiment from PTI's Songbirds, which I heat embossed in white.

Now, my mojo started to wane a little, so I made a couple of tags from some Teresa Collins

patterned paper in my stash, as well as my PTI Journaling Tag die.  

This one is for my mom, when she gets back from Montreal.

Here, I heat embossed the sentiment from MFT Stamps Handwritten Holiday.

And this one, I left as it. 

Sage thought I was really phoning it in at this point. ;)

This one is for Austin, from my mom.

Yes, my mom has me buy presents for my kids, wrap them and bring them to her

house to give to them -- a sweet deal for her, I tell ya!

I shared this one earlier this month, but I wanted to show it on the pretty paper.

It's for me from my mom. ;)

And this one is for Austin from Cameron and me, using the sentiment from Neat and Tangled's

Beary Merry and the owl from Lawn Fawn.

And this one is for Sage from my mom, using WPlus9's Winter Wonderland.

And here are the gifts, under my new Christmas tree (I picked it up

in November -- it's a display model at a store that was closing.

It's flocked and pre-lit and I love it!)

It makes me so happy when everything coordinates so well! :)

Merry Christmas!

Thanks for looking!

12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist 2017

It's amazing to me how I am inspired by challenges!

I was wanting to wrap presents for my brothers, their significant others,

my nephew and my mom, which all needed to be mailed away.

So, I was in a hurry.

But, I wanted some cute tags to accompany my gifts (of course!)

I went on the Ellen Hutson Classroom Blog and saw their 12 Tags of Christmas 

with a Feminine Twist Challenge and was immediately inspired to make some quick tags.

The first one I made is for my nephew and is for the Day 3: Naturally Neutral Challenge:

I used a Papertrey Ink tag die, Mama Elephant Calli stamps for my nephew's name

and the little snowman from Neat & Tangled's Beary Merry.

For my next tag, I was inspired by Keeway Tsao's beautiful tags in Day 2: Silver & Gold:

I used a MFT snowflake and Reverse Confetti Flowers for Mom dies.

It's hard to tell in the photo, but the "mom" was diecut from gold cardstock.

And lastly, I used the Day 8: Challenge Sketch to make this tag:

I used a MFT circle die (& Fancy Pants patterned paper), a Reverse Confetti Branch Out

die and cork paper and the Mama Elephant Calli stamps.

I hand-lettered the ampersand.

Thanks for looking!

Tag You're It #79 -- Guest Featured Artist

A couple of months ago, I was asked by my talented friend, Carol,

if I would be interested in being the Guest Featured Artist for the Tag You're It Challenge.

Some of you might remember that I was a member of the TYI Design Team a couple of years ago.

As this challenge holds a special place in my heart, I immediately accepted Carol's invitation.

And I'm extra glad I did, because it turns out that Tag You're It #79 will be their last challenge.

So I hope you'll play along while you still have the chance.

I bought some super pretty wrapping paper from Chapter's earlier this fall (click here, here & here),

so I decided to make a tag to coordinate with these lovely colours.

I started by diecutting my MFT snowflake from white cardstock and pressed the tips of

it into my versamark pad, so I could emboss them in gold.

I adhered it to a tag I created using PTI aqua mist cardstock and Tag Sale #5.

I stamped my sentiment (from PTI's Fillable Frames #10) in versamark and heat

embossed it in white on a strip of black cardstock.

Please visit Tag You're It #79 to see what the other designers were inspired to create

based on my tag, and to play along, if you'd like.

Thanks for looking!

Create Along With Us: November 2017

Today, I have a tag to share that I made for

this month's Create Along With Us at Papertrey Ink.

We have our parent teacher conferences this morning and, as is our custom,

we made some butter crunch to give to the teachers we visit.

I was totally inspired by this gorgeous card from Betsy to make my tags to accompany my treats.

Isn't it beautiful?

Here's one of my tags:

I started by  diecutting my tag using Tag Sale #7 from Rustic White cardstock.

I made a stencil by diecutting the rectangle from the die set from clear cardstock

and blended Green Parakeet and Hawaiian Shores ink onto my tag.

Leaving the stencil in place, I stamped the snowflakes from the stamp

set that accompanies the Shaker Shapes: Snowglobe dies, in Tropical Teal and New Leaf.

I stamped the sentiment (from Fillable Frames #10) in Tropical Teal 

and added a MFT snowflake die, which was also diecut from Rustic White cardstock.

Thanks for looking!

Papertrey Ink 10th Anniversary Challenges -- Part 1

I had big plans to spend the afternoon in my craft space making cards...

but Sage sprained her ankle last Wednesday (March 1st) 

and it's still swollen and she can't walk on it, so 

I figured it would be wise to take her to the ER to get it looked at.

Thankfully, we were only there for 3.5 hours --

and a second X-ray confirms that it's not fractured.

So, these evening, I quickly whipped up a few cards for the 

Papertrey Ink 10th Anniversary Challenges.

My first card is for the challenge that was posted on March 5th:

create a project inspired by the stitched coasters that Lizzie Jones shared.

I don't have any of the stitched coaster dies, so I decided to incorporate

my square Shaker Shapes die, which has stitching lines on it, into my card.

While I do own the bicycle stitched die, I didn't want to fuss with that

when trying to make some quick cards, so I pulled out my Pedal Pusher set instead.

I masked off the square on my Stamper's Select White cardstock panel

and blended Altenew Mountain Mist ink onto it.

I left the mask in place and stamped my bicycle, using

Altenew Evening Grey, Jet Black, Lagoon and PTI Green Parakeet.

I layered the diecut square over top and added my sentiment,

also from Pedal Pusher.

Next, I made a couple of tags for Sage's teachers' gifts of Butter Crunch,

which we will be giving them on Friday at Sage's parent-teacher conferences.

I created these for the challenge that was posted on March 6th:

as I was inspired by Rebecca's packaging to add doilies to my tags.

 

I diecut the doily and some aqua mist cardstock using my Tag Sale #7 die.

I stamped the sentiment (from PTI's Pedal Pusher) onto a piece

of smokey shadow cardstock and heat embossed it in white.

Next, I made a card for the challenge that was posted on March 11th:

to incorporate multiples of a single shape into my card.

Again, as I was pressed for time, it seemed easiest and fastest

to use my PTI Hearts cover plate to make my card.

I blended Altenew Mountain Mist ink onto my background panel

and layered my diecut hearts over top.

I blended PTI Limeade Ice ink onto some cardstock and diecut it with my

Stylized Autumn die.

I stamped the fox from the same stamp set using Altenew Caramel Toffee ink.

I stamped the sentiment using a Reverse Confetti stamp set.

And lastly, I have a card for the challenge that was posted on March 12th:

to use my favourite floral set.

Now, this seems very hard to pick a favourite floral stamp set --

almost like choosing a favourite child!

But Brushstroke Blooms popped into my head almost immediately,

so I decided to go with that.

I was also inspired by the current Card Concept Challenge: Lime & Aqua:

Here's my card:

I stamped my jar using Lawn Fawn's Summertime Charm stamp set,

which I inked up in versamark and Altenew Lagoon and heat embossed in clear.

Then I masked it off and blended Altenew Mountain Mist ink onto it.

I stamped the flowers from Brushstroke Blooms in PTI Limeade Ice,

Altenew Buttercream and Mango Smoothie, 

using some masks. 

I stamped the sentiment from PTI's Phrases and Praises

in Altenew Mountain Mist and Lagoon.

Thanks for looking!

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Merry Christmas!

I hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas Day!

We attended the Christmas Eve service at our church last night

-- it made me so happy that everyone dressed up for the event!

It's tradition to take a photo of our family in front of the tree

at church on the 24th.

(By the way, I can't believe I'm almost the shortest person in my family!)

And it's also tradition for the kids to pose in front of our tree

on Christmas morning before opening their gifts...

They were all very happy with what they received, which made me very happy

this Christmas morning. :)

I had a couple of extra gifts to open under my tree this morning, too...

I had won a gift certificate to MFT stamps this summer for Camp Create

and decided to order some goodies. 

When they came, I thought it would be fun to wrap them up, with a tag

that said: "To Leigh, from MFT Stamps."

To make the tag, I used this week's MFT Wednesday Sketch 312:

Here's my tag (sorry it's a little blurry! 

I was going to retake the photo, but I think it got thrown out with all of the wrapping paper.)

I stamped the BG Scattered Surface in Altenew Morning Frost on PTI Soft stone cardstock.

I stamped my Snowflake Flurries stamp in Altnew Crimson onto its coordinating diecut.

I heat embossed the sentiment (from PTI's Holiday Folk) in white on a strip of red cardstock.

And here's what was inside my package:

I actually let Sage open it -- and was delighted with her excitement

over what I'd picked!

I had also won a gift certificate from Altenew for their video contest,

so I did the same thing with this parcel I received in the mail.

I decided to use CAS(E) This Sketch #202 to make it:

as well as Altenew's A Year in Review Inspiration Challenge:

I was inspired to use the pretty pinks and greys from the August Challenge.

Here's the tag:

I stamped the sentiment (from MFT's Hand-Lettered Holiday)

and the flowers and leaves from Altenew's Bamboo Roses in Altenew Jet Black ink.

(I just got this ink and I love it!)

I painted in the flowers and leaves using PTI ink that I pressed onto my acrylic block, water

and a paintbrush.

Here's what I got with my gift certificate:

  

I'm looking forward to playing with my new goodies!

How about you?

Did you get any stamps for Christmas?

Thanks for looking!

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CAS(E) This Sketch #202 -- Take Two

Today is my children's last day of school before Christmas break. :)

As is my custom, I made some Butter Crunch for Sage's teachers
as well as some tags to embellish the bags of treats.
I decided to use CAS(E) This Sketch #202 to make them:

I made four of the same tag:

I stamped my snowflakes from MFT's Snowflake Flurries and my sentiment

(from MFT's Hand Lettered Holiday ) in versamark onto aqua mist cardstock that I diecut using PTI's Tag Sale 3 and heat embossed them in white.

With my Tim Holtz Blending tool, I blended PTI Hawaiian Shores,

Tropical Teal and Enchanted Evening over top.

Remember, you have two more weeks to play along with this CAS(E) this Sketch, if you'd like.

You have until Thursday, January 5th to link up your card.

Oh, and before you go, I also have a fun card up on the 
Reverse Confetti Blog today for the Confetti Camera series! 
We were challenged to CASE one of our teammates -- come and see who I chose... 

Thanks for looking!

Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

1. Well, the season of concerts is upon us.

I mean, Christmas.

But Christmas means concerts, especially in our house. ;)

Jonah kicked off the concert season on Nov. 30th

when his concert band played at the high school holiday concert.

Jonah plays the double bass.

And then he played again the following night, with his jazz band.

He also sang with his jazz choir, Vibe.

(Jonah is the second from the left, in the front row.)

And Austin sang with his jazz choir, Sound F/X.

He's in the middle, with the red tie.

I took this photo during his awesome solo in Walking in a Winter Wonderland. 

2. And then, on Wednesday, the junior high had their concert,

so we got to watch Sage play the flute with the band for the first time....

(She posed for me before the concert began.)

And she sang with her jazz choir.

I really love watching my kids perform!

They are a pretty talented bunch. :)

3. Things have been going really well at my new job.

I've placed a couple of small orders (an island for some clients,

and a murphy bed and a basement bar for some Decor employees.)

I also designed a kitchen with Sharon, the designer who trained me,

and that one should be ready to install in early January.

I've had lots of fun designing kitchens for several other clients, too

-- and am just in the middle of processing the tweaks before finalizing everything.

I'm totally loving it! #dreamjob

And, did I mention that we're opening a second showroom in Winnipeg?

It's on Academy and Jazmyn (one of my fellow designers) and I 

are headed there today to help set things up.

And, beginning in the new year, I will be working there one Saturday a month. :)

4. I took the kids to the movies last night to see Rogue One.

5. I'm feeling pretty good about Christmas....

My shopping is done, my photo cards are addressed (but now that I think of it,

are still on my dining room table -- they need to get dropped in the mail!)

and 90% of my presents are wrapped.

I found this gorgeous set of wrapping paper at Walmart last week 

and used it to wrap all of my gifts.

And, I decided to coordinate my gift tags to match.

I stamped all of the names using Mama Elephant's Calli Letters sets.

One of the wrapping papers looks like birch bark, so I stamped 

the background of this tag with Concord & 9th's Woodgrain stamp. 

 

And to coordinate with the snowflake paper (see above),

I stamped these with MFT's Snowflake Flurry.

And for this tag (and the next two), 

I used my new Simon Says Stamps Winter Flowers.

What?

You don't wrap a little something for yourself to open? 

You totally should.

I'm always thrilled with what I get. ;)

Thanks for looking!