Crafting in Croatia

2 is Much Better

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:01:00 +0000

Yay, it's Friday! It's going to be a busy weekend in our home. We're expecting lots of friends coming over and I even planned a special crafty time with my girls. We're working on something, a fun decor for their room. We'll see how they'll turn out.

Today's card uses my new Spellbinders Home Sweet Home dies again. I just love this little house. The set comes with the little hearts too that you can use to die cut the inside of the house. The sentiment is from my The Craft's Meow's In Tandem set and the swirly bling is from Want2Scrap (They're having a BIG 99 cent bling sale, by the way!). As usual, the supplies list are linked below.

Here's a close up of the house with the sentiments. And look at that gorgeous swirly bling.

I love these little roses.

Here are the dies I used. They're going to be available soon at your favorite retail and/or online stores.

InLinkz.com

CHA Paper Collection Favorites So Far

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:38:00 +0000

Have you been looking at the previews by paper manufacturers for CHA? Oh my, there are so many new products that are so drool-worthy :). I do notice that so many of them tend to look similar. For example, I love vintage-inspired images, but unless they put a unique twist on them, they don't grab my attention because I still have some leftovers from previous releases. I guess you can't avoid that when everybody's trying to follow the trends. Speaking of trends, vintage is still going strong and I couldn't be any happier. I found these in so many new products:

Butterflies
Botanicals
Bicycles
Birds
Damask
Quarter Foil
Woodgrain
Lace
Chevron Stripes
Vintage kids

I know not all of these collections will make their way to my craft room, but let me just share my favorites so far:

Pink Paislee's Jubilee Collection is so full of vintage goodness but with trendy colors! My only wish is that they included more plain patterned papers, rather than some of the collages. As a cardmaker, I can't always use the 6x6 size collage as a whole sheet. But I'm sure I'll find a way :).

Cosmo Cricket's Tea for Two is just as sweet as can be. It's reminiscent of my favorite CC collection ever, Odds & Ends, but with more muted colors. Their Evangeline collection is worth checking out, too.

I never noticed My Mind's Eye until the Stella Rose Collection came out last year. And their new Miss Caroline collection is going to be another favorite of mine. I especially love the Howdy Doody set 6x6 paper pack pictured above. So soft, so feminine and so shabby vintage!

GCD Studios is coming out with two wonderful summer-inspired collections, Country Charm and Oh Happy. They both just scream summer with their bright colors and gorgeous patterns. They make me wish for warm weather so I can go on a picnic, frolick in the meadows, munch on some yummy berries while watching a fireworks show. Okay, I've never done that, but I want to :). I can't wait to make cards that will brighten somebody's day with these papers.

It's no secret I'm a Webster's Pages fan, and these new Petite Paper packs are for sure coming to Croatia. I love the vintage images in bright girly colors and they make the prettiest collages.

Here are a few that I think I will like, but the companies haven't shown the full collections yet: EK Success French General, Echo Park's This & That Graceful and October Afternoon Woodland Park collections:

Well, that's all I have so far. What do you think? How about you? Please share if you found something you just absolutely love. I'm sure I've missed some of the new reveals.

Dear Friend

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:21:00 +0000

I have been posting some of my publication rejects cards lately, but always forget to post the ones that actually make it :). Part of the reason is I can't keep track of the magazine's policies regarding sharing photos of published cards. I have been slacking in the submission department lately, just because life gets so busy. But I have to say it's always well worth the effort. I love the challenge of getting cards accepted, and of course the perks of getting paid and/or receiving paper crafting products are a plus. :)

Today's card was published in CARDS Magazine back in October 2010.The sentiment is from Layers of Color's Sent with Love. The paper is American Crafts.

Speaking of publications, I have some published in the recent Paper Crafts Magazine special edition magazines and their first ever book that will be revealed at CHA:

More CAS cards

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:49:00 +0000

I've been enjoying making clean and simple cards and here are two more using the most recent The Craft's Meow release. I used various Tsukineko inks on these. I love this color combo of aqua/turquoise, red and black.

Here's a pink winter scene. I colored the image with Copic markers.

CAS Hello

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:01:00 +0000

I have been showing some shabby cards using my new Spellbinders Home Sweet Home dies. Today, I have a clean and simple (with a touch of vintage) card with them and The Craft's Meow stamps. The background is my TCM Sent with Love set. The sentiments are SRM Stickers Fancy Thinking of You.

Speaking of The Craft's Meow, they are having a DT call and Grab Bags for sale at the store. Make sure you check them out. Have a super creative Monday!

InLinkz.com

SRM Stickers Fancies

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:43:00 +0000

Thank you so much for your kind words about my new licensed designs for Spellbinders. As you can imagine, I am very excited and hope you will like them, too! I have been out of town and wasn't able to post this on Friday when the SRM Stickers blog revealed these new release stickers.

I used the new SRM Fancy Stickers Baby on this card, along with my new Spellbinders Sewing Elements and Home Sweet Home dies, and the already released Fleur de lis Accents dies.

This one uses the Thinking of You Fancy Stickers and Want2Scrap flourish bling.

Don't you just love the big fonts? It makes the sentiments the focal point of the card.

Comment on the SRM blog for a chance to win these and other new release stickers!

InLinkz.com

Spellbinders Abilities and Beyond Blog Frenzy Day

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:55:00 +0000

The entry window for the Spellbinders Paper Arts contest on this blog has ended.

Welcome to the eighth day of the Spellbinders Abilities and Beyond Blog Frenzy!

Spellbinders™ Paper Arts is absolutely thrilled to bring you our largest product releases ever! These new collections are some of the most innovative and beautiful die cutting and embossing templates in the world! The Spellbinders Abilities and Beyond Blog Frenzy allows you a sneak peek of our introductions for the 2012 Winter Craft and Hobby Association trade show later this month.

Win today’s new Spellbinders products!
Be eligible to win the Grand Prize by entering each day, see the schedule below!

Enter my Blog Frenzy from 12:00 am Eastern Standard Time (EST) January 19, 2012 until 11:59 pm (EST) January 20, 2012. Today’s participating Blog Frenzy includes my blog and Tina McDonald, Gloria Stengel and Windy Robinson’s blogs.

You can enter yesterday’s blogs, Linda Duke, Sherry Cheever and AJ Otto's through January 19 at 11:59 pm EST. See the Spellbinders Blog for the complete schedule of designers and contest rules. Thank you Spellbinders Paper Arts for sponsoring this contest!

I can't tell you how excited I am to finally show you some projects I made using my very first licensed Spellbinders die designs. For my projects below, the S5-089 Home Sweet Home and S5-088 Sewing Elements dies took center stage. Using the same die shapes, I made a necklace pendant and a coordinating card. I will show you below how I made the miniature versions of the die cuts into a piece of jewelry.

Here are the new dies I introduced:

Sku Name S5-088 Sewing Elements

MSRP: $29.99

PRODUCT SIZES:

Spool: 1 ½ x 2"

Machine: 2 ½ x 2 1/8"

Pin Cushion: 1 7/8 x 1 7/8"

Dress Form: 1 x 2 7/8"

Buttons SM: 3/8"

Buttons LG: ½"

Thimble: 1 x 1"

Scissors: 1 5/8 x 3/4"

Sku Name S5-089 Home Sweet Home

MSRP: $29.99

PRODUCT SIZES:

House: 1 5/8 x 2"

Roof: 2 ½ x 1 ¼"

Star LG: 1 7/8 x 1 ¾"

Star SM: 7/8 x ¾"

Heart LG: 1 1/8 x 1 1/8"

Heart SM: 3/8 x 3/8"

4 Petal Flower LG: 7/8"

4 Petal Flower SM: ½"

8 Petal Flower: 5/8"

Wings: 2 ¼ x 1"

Round Tag: 1 ¼ x 1"

Rectangle Tag: 1 ¼ x 7/8"

I first die cut and embossed shrink film, a thin plastic material that shrinks and thickens when heated.

Using solvent-based inks, I stamped various images directly onto the shrink film. I highlighted the embossed parts and images with permanent markers. I punched holes where I planned to connect the die cuts with jump rings.

I pre-heated the oven to 300 degrees F (please check the instructions included in the shrink film packaging). I laid the die cuts on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

I covered the die cuts with another sheet of parchment paper and baked them in the oven for a few minutes (again, check the instructions on the film packaging). The shrink film die cuts will curl first, then shrink some more to their final size (about 20% of the original size).

I removed the cookie sheet from the oven and gently flattened the top with a metal spatula. To finish the jewelry, I connected the pieces using jump rings and attached them to a necklace metal cord.

I will be showing more projects in the next few weeks using these new dies on various projects. I hope you can join me.

By entering the Spellbinders Abilities and Beyond Blog Frenzy you agree to the Official Rules. For questions on the Spellbinders Abilities and Beyond Blog Frenzy, send an email to contestquestions@spellbinders.us; no entries will be accepted at this email address.

TO ENTER:
My blog is open for entries from 12:00 am, January 19, 2012, until 11:59 pm, January 20, 2012, EST.
1) Send your Blog Frenzy email entry to: Reveal23@spellbinders.us
2) The subject must be S5-088 Sewing Elements and S5-089 Home Sweet Home
3) Send!

Be sure to visit all the Designers on their Blog Frenzy dates!
Daily winners will receive an email within 24 hours of the blog frenzy’s closing. The winners will have 72 hours to reply to that email to claim prize. If a winner fails to respond within 72 hours, a new winner will be drawn.

To be eligible for the Grand Prize, enter each and every Blog Frenzy within its designated time period, send your entries from the same email address for each entry. The Grand Prize has a retail value of over $1900 and includes the complete Spellbinders line of die cutting and embossing templates released at the 2012 Winter CHA show, and a Spellbinders Grand Calibur® Die Cutting and Embossing Machine!

I love your comments! Unfortunately, your comment does not count as an entry, so be sure to enter as stated above, and then leave a comment! Thank you for visiting!

To receive information and announcements from Spellbinders, sign up for the Newsletter and subscribe to the Spellbinders Blog. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and Pinterest. Thank You!

Spellbinders is a trademark of Spellbinders Paper Arts, llc.
Grand Calibur and Edgeabilities are registered trademarks of Spellbinders Paper Arts, llc.

----------------------------------------------
Supplies used for Home Sweet Home card and pendant set:

Tools: S5-089 NEW Home Sweet Home, S4-324 Ribbon Banners, and LF-010 Square Bracket Edge Box - (Spellbinders Paper Arts); Spellbinders Grand Calibur Machine; Pinking shears; Jewelry Pliers, Necklace Chain, Jump Rings (Making Memories); oven

Stamps: Sentimental Banners, Beautiful Lace, The Love Chapter (Layers of Color)

Inks: Memento Rich Cocoa, Desert Sand, Stazon Black (Tsukineko), Spun Sugar (Ranger), Y28 Lionet Gold (Copic)

Papers: Ivory cardstock (Gina K Designs), Romantique (Prima Marketing), Luxury Stack (DCWV)

Specialty Medium: Shrink film (Grafix Arts)

Accents: seam binding (HugSnug), paper rose (Wild Orchid Crafts), button and lace (stash), wool felt (Vintage Vogue)

Supplies used for Sewing Elements card and pendant set:

Tools: S5-088 NEW Sewing Elements, Spellbinders Edgeabilities® E8-006 Classic Petal and E8-001 Classic Scallop Edgeabilities and LF-010 Square Bracket Edge Box (Spellbinders Paper Arts); Spellbinders Grand Calibur Machine; Pinking shears; Jewelry Pliers, Necklace Chain, Jump Rings (Making Memories); oven

Stamps: Nana’s Needlework Sentiments (Gina K Designs); Sent with Love and Lovely Labels 18 (The Craft’s Meow); The Love Chapter (Layers of Color)

Inks: Memento Rich Cocoa, Desert Sand, Stazon Black (Tsukineko), Y28 Lionet Gold (Copic)

Papers: Ivory and brown cardstock (Gina K Designs), 5th Avenue and Attic Treasures paper packs (Melissa Frances), Luxury Stack (DCWV)

Specialty Medium: Shrink film (Grafix Arts)

Accents: burlap twine (May Arts), buttons and lace (stash), wool felt (Vintage Vogue)

Thinking of You Silhouette

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:19:00 +0000

I've been so busy creating away for new stamp sets. It is always a dilemma for me what to do first, stamp designing or card making, since I love doing both. If only I can skip sleep and do both! :)

Have you been following the Spellbinders Blog Frenzy? The talented DT has shown several of my die designs, but the highlight will be tomorrow for me when I show my first licensed die designs. I will be showing you something I've never made before and I'm so pleased they turned out as expected. I hope to see you back here tomorrow!

Today's card is one I made a while ago and it's one of my favorites because it perfectly represents my style, whatever that may be :). I was saving it to submit for publication, but decided it's better to share it here with you all. I used the Layers of Color Sweet Silhouettes, Elegant Labels and Sentimental Banners sets. The bad news is these are sold out at the moment, but the GOOD news is they may be re-released later on by another company. I will update here on my blog when I'm allowed to share :).

Here's a close up of the silhouette, which was inspired by my oldest daughter.

Finally, did you see I'm sponsoring the Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge this week. Two GinaK Designs stamps are the prizes! The challenge is use something new.

InLinkz.com

A Trio of Thank Yous

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:43:00 +0000

I hope you had a great weekend. Thank you for your anniversary wishes for me and my husband from my last post. I am happy to report that we found a good steak restaurant in the capital of Zagreb. We miss juicy and tender beef and it was a real treat to get a good one for our anniversary.

I have three CAS thank you cards for you today, all using SRM Stickers' Fancy Thank You and Webster's Pages papers. These took no time to make and who can't use more thank you cards?

Here are close ups of the cards:

They are perfect for both male and female recipients.

A simple ribbon and button are all the embellishments I used for these.

Speaking of SRM Stickers, did you see their new DT? What a great group of talented ladies! And I'm so happy to see my friends make that list.

InLinkz.com

I Love You

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Today is a very special day because it's our wedding anniversary. I have been blessed beyond measure by my sweet and wonderful husband and I consider him one of my most precious gifts from God. We have a low key celebration today that includes a dinner in the capital.

I made this card to honor our special day. I know it's feminine, but why can't we make such pretty cards for men? :) I used The Craft's Meow's Sent with Love set for this. I accented the side with some Spellbinders Ironworks die cuts. The images were colored with Copics. And it was finished off with 3 little pearls from Want2Scrap and a paper rose.

I will be announcing the winner of my Facebook Page giveaway later today. And finally, have you checked the Spellbinders Blog Frenzy going on now? Bekka Feeken is showing one of my designs today. What do you think? She's amazing, as are all the Spellbinders DT.

InLinkz.com

You're So Sweet

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:43:00 +0000

Slow and steady, I'm finally getting back to creating again and it's been wonderful. I'm still a bit rusty after taking a few weeks off, but I'm just glad I produced something. I can't stop now :).

Today's card uses a vintage image that I downloaded a while ago and I can't remember where I got it. I just love that little girl. If she were a brunette, she would totally remind me of my youngest, curls and all. The stamps are The Craft's Meow's Life is a Carnival and Timeless Tags sets. The images were die cut using Spellbinders dies. I used one of the Elegant Post dies as sort of a border. I like that and will do that again. The papers are Prima.

InLinkz.com

Spectrum Butterfly and Winner

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:10:00 +0000

Thank you for your kind comments about my wonderful Spellbinders news! I hope that you will love the dies I've designed and will use them on your projects. I am so glad to be able to do what I do and count it a huge blessing. And one of the best things is I get to do it all from my home in Croatia!

Before I share the winner of my giveaway, here's a card that I had fun making. I wanted to do a spectrum background using my Memento inks. The reds are a combination of Lady Bug and Rhubarb Stalk. The butterflies are all from Layers of Color. The big one is colored with Copics. The banner is from Sentimental Banners and die cut with Spellbinders Ribbon Banner dies. I have to say is not one of my favorite colors to wear, but I love using it on my cards. Did you know Tangerine Tango is the Pantonne color of the year? It's not quite this orange, but red-orange like the center of my butterfly below.

And now the winner of my giveaway, via random.org, is...

#54 MaxineD!

Please email me, Maxine (click on Contact Me tab above), and I will get these dies out to you! Make sure you check out my Facebook Page the next few days. I also have a giveaway there and will announce the winner before the end of the week. Thank you all for entering. Have a great Tuesday!

InLinkz.com

Some happy, exciting news!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:18:00 +0000

***This giveaway had ended. The winner has been posted HERE.***

It's been a crazy week with lots of happenings, changes and announcements! Let me share some of them with you.

First, Layers of Color is having a HUGE sale right now. The company is changing direction and I'll be doing the same. I can't share the details yet, but I am now working for a major stamp company and Laura (owner of LOC) and I will continue to work together there! So, even though the Layers of Color brand will be gone, our designs will not be! In fact, this new partnership will result in a wider availability of our artwork! Yay!

My second news is that my card is one of the winners in the Paper Crafts' December Gallery Challenge. I used The Craft's Meow's Season's Greetings and Telegram sets. It's so fun to see my card among the winners. Aga and Stephanie's cards are beautiful!

Finally, my biggest news is that I am now a licensed designer for Spellbinders Paper Arts. I know that you already know I've been designing dies for them. The difference this time is that I will have my own line of dies that will bear the Nina B Designs name! Please join the Spellbinders Paper Arts team as we show sneak peeks of the new dies. The Abilities and Beyond Blog Frenzy begins on Jan 12th!

To celebrate my wonderful news, I am having two giveaways. One here on my blog and another on my Facebook page. Please join me there as well! Thank you!

Please leave a comment below (ONE entry per person, please) and I will pick a winner next week to win these:

The Classic Postage and Classic Ricrac Edgeabilities are up for grabs! I just love the mix and match feature of this line!

Have a great weekend, friends! I'm off to a tea party with my youngest while my sweet husband takes our oldest two horseback riding! It's a beautiful day God has given us here in Croatia.

Butterfly Kisses

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:50:00 +0000

I'm hosting a group of young ladies today in our home and I'll be showing them how to make Chinese food with the ingredients available in Croatia. Orange chicken, chow mein and fried rice are on the menu. I've made it dozens of time for our family, but never for such a large group (11 people!) and never while teaching others how to make it. I don't have a recipe, just kind of make it up as I go. It has worked every time before, but maybe I should look for a real recipe this time :). I'll keep you posted how it goes...

Today's card uses one of my first The Craft's Meow stamps called Butterfly Kisses. I used some K&Co papers. The little pearls on the fairy wings are by Want2Scrap. As usual, you can find the links below.

InLinkz.com

Missing You

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:35:00 +0000

I don't know about you, but I find it hard to get back to things after a long break. I just want to hang out all day with my girls in our jammies, eat homemade treats and watch girly movies. It's been awhile since I sat down and created something new. Thankfully, I have a huge arsenal of new-to-you projects that I can share here on my blog :).

Today's card uses some Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden scraps, Layers of Color (Sentimental Banners and Christmas Blessings) and The Craft's Meow stamps (Telegram). By the way, both companies are having a sale right now. The sentiment was die cut with Spellbinders dies.

InLinkz.com

Sentimental Banner Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:46:00 +0000

I hope you had a wonderful New Year's festivities. We spent it with our Croatian friends and had a great time filled with song, food and games. I am still off on my sleep, but thankfully we're still on school break, so the girls have been sleeping late.

I have two cards today that were part of a card set. I used Layers of Color's Sentimental Banners and Butterfly Collector stamps.The banners were die cut with Spellbinders dies. The butterflies were colored with Copics.

Enjoy your new week in the new year!

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 09:41:00 +0000

It's the end of 2011 and it has been a year full of changes, surprises and blessings. Through it all, God proved Himself good and faithful and I have much to be thankful to Him for.

I want to highlight my favorite posts of the year.

15 Years of Bliss	On Turning 40	CHA Winter 2011	Amy Carmichael Introduction
Remembering Also the Good Things	What TAC's Closing Taught Me	Don't Waste Your Life

And here are my favorite projects from 2011:

2012 Calendar Wall Hanging	Hello, Gorgeous	The Earth Is Full	Popup Wedding Card
I Love You	Classic Urns Thank You	Let Your Dreams Soar	Photo Wall Hanging
Happy Birthday Girl	Welcome Home Butterfly	SRM Thanksgiving Ensemble	Happy Birthday Butterfly
Happy Birthday Chair	Beautiful Friend	Happy Summer	I followed my heart
Season's Greetings	Hope	Beloved	So Sweet of You
Thanks Be Unto God	Christmas Angel

I will be back next week with new projects! I wish you all the best in 2012!

Mini Calendar Wall Hanging

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:38:00 +0000

I have another non-card project for you today. This time it's a wall hanging using SRM Stickers Mini Calendar Standard (#48005) and Year of Memories 2012 (#48004). I also used various Spellbinders dies. And, of course, my daughter has to model it for me :).

Each panel has 4 months. The months are attached with twine threaded through the die cuts. They can be either cut or untied to go to the next month. The papers are from my old stash. The lace is from a local store.

You can see more detailed photos on the SRM blog. Speaking of SRM, the deadline for their DT call is tomorrow. I highly recommend that you apply. They are a great company to design for. They are very generous and kind. The owners have become true friends of mine and I love working with them. Not to mention, you get to work with some fabulous products!

Altered Notebooks

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:24:00 +0000

Hi, friends! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas celebration. We certainly did. We fried turkey in our makeshift fryer and they turned out great. I prepared all the all-American fixin's like sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, cornbread dressing and cheesecake for dessert! We invited some of our Croatian friends who tasted many of these for the first time and they loved it! It was a great day to spend with our church family and friends.

I'm slowly getting back to normal schedule, but it's hard when my girls are home and we just want to watch videos and/or play games all day in our jammies! For today's project, I have some altered Ikea notebooks that I gave away as gifts this Christmas. Excuse the not-so-good photos, but I was in a hurry to take these before the recipients arrived :).

Here are close up shots of these covers. I just glued some old October Afternoon papers, put some fancy big ribbons, stamped some Spellbinders-coordinating stamps (LOC's Elegant Labels and TCM's Season's Greetings) and added Want2Scrap Nestabling.

These verse and quote are some of my favorites, from LOC's Encouragement set. For this one below, I tucked in a Fancy Tag die that is cut in half.

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:17:00 +0000

Hi, friends! I just want to wish you all a very

Merry Christmas!

This is a special holiday for me as a Christian because it celebrates the coming of the Eternal Savior Jesus Christ, my Savior, the One who would finally bring Hope, show Grace and Mercy, exemplify perfect Love and give lasting Peace to a lost and fallen people. May this holiday be a great time for us to really taste and see the goodness of the Lord. My prayer is that, while you enjoy the festivities and blessings the holidays bring, you will all grow to know and love God and understand the reason why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

Here's a video that explains what the Christmas story is all about:

I want to leave you with this amazing cello rendition of Carol of the Bells.

I will be back next week with new projects to show you.

Lilies as Poinsettias

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:33:00 +0000

I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was busy, but fun. The best surprise was to see a Kentucky Fried Chicken's first franchise in Croatia in our favorite mall! I know that is not a big deal to you all in the US, but for us who only have had McDonald's for the last 10+ years, this is a welcome change. We rarely ate at KFC when we lived in the US, but it's nice to have something new that's familiar. We haven't been, just because there were literally 100 or so people in line. I hope this is the first of many US restaurants coming to Croatia. I'm still wishing for a Panda Express or PF Chang's... :)

Today's card is one I made a year or so ago, but never shared here. It uses some Gina K Designs stamps and October Afternoon papers. These flowers were actually lilies and I colored them to look more like poinsettias.

If you missed it last week, I shared a download for printable tags. I embellished them with ribbons, lace and whatever was on my desk at the time. Here are two I made, one using a Santa image form The Graphics Fairy. I'm entering this to their Brag Monday challenge.

Click on the tag graphics below to download.

Peace Rejoice

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:47:00 +0000

I have a Christmas card for you today using SRM Sticker Sentiments Faith. I'm in a bit of a rush as I have a slew of projects to finish for Christmas and CHA and my daughter has a Christmas program tonight. I haven't even started my holiday baking yet.

All supplies are listed below. Have a great weekend!

InLinkz.com

Free Angel Decor Pattern

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:55:00 +0000

How about another freebie? I'm enjoying making these and I hope you do, too.

A while ago, I found this really cool angel project from Martha's Stewart that uses a paper plate. I took that genius design and made it fancier and converted it to SVG that I can cut with my electronic cutting machine. I cut over a dozen of these that range in size from 4" to 8" circle for our Women's Christmas party.These are super easy to make. My girls and I had a blast dressing these little angels.

I used some DCWV papers and embellished them with ribbons, lace and Want2Scrap bling. They look really good clustered in groups.

Here's a close up of one. this is the 8" circle. Don't you just love that swirly bling?

This is the 4" circle that makes an upright 2.5" tall angel. I just tied a mini jingle bell with twine around the waist. I wish I had taken a photo of them clustered with the different sizes, but the ladies at the party snagged them before I could do that. It makes me happy that they loved them!

If you want to make your own, here's the pattern that you can download. I included in this zip file a PDF format, PNG (if you want to customize the size in Word, and SVG (which is compatible with many electronic die cutting machines). I used an ecraft machine to cut mine. Just click on the photo below.

As usual, please leave me a comment if you created something with this pattern. I'd love to see it.

InLinkz.com

Free Tag Printables

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:12:00 +0000

In the spirit of Christmas, I have some printable tags for you to use. I had fun designing these and I hope you will like them. I tried to include all different styles, from vintage to graphic. I printed them and embellished with scraps of ribbons, lace, and whatever was laying on my desk at that time :).

For these two, I inked the edges with Distress Inks to make them look even older.

You can download by clicking on the photo below.

The Santa image is from The Graphics Fairy. The vintage flower is courtesy of VintageHolidayCrafts.com. Please take note of my Terms of Use (included in the download file) and leave me a comment if you use these tags, so we can all see. Thank you!

Noel and some changes

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Brackett) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:18:00 +0000

Before I share my card, I just want to let you know that if you have any questions for me, please use the chat box on my left sidebar. I received a few questions recently, but I was not able to send my response because the sender either didn't provide an email address; or the sender has a complicated spam filter that made my response undeliverable. I was asked to do a 2-3 step verification that included my going to an unknown link. For my own safety, I didn't proceed. From now on, if you have questions, please post in on the chat box. This will also benefit others who might have the same questions. Often emails get lost in my inbox as well and my own spam filter may tag your emails as spam, thus preventing me from seeing it in the first place. Thank you!

I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was busy that started with my daughter's piano recital. She was nervous, but did very well. I'm a proud mama :).

My card today was for Card Patterns sketch last week. This is a bittersweet moment for me as this is my last card as a member of the Card Patterns DT. In order to simplify my life, I have decided to step down from the CP team, starting the beginning of the year. I have loved my time with Michelle and Tracy and will miss working with these two talented ladies, as well as the many other wonderful ladies who have been part of the DT the last 2 years I was part of it. I won't be a stranger as I will continue to follow the sketch there, just not in an official capacity.

I used Layers of Color's Beautiful Lace and Christmas Verses sets for this one. The vintage girl image is from The Graphics Fairy. I'm entering this to her Brag Monday feature. The papers are Webster's Pages. The bling is Want2Scrap. The lace was cut with Spellbinders dies.

I also help host a Women's Christmas party for our church yesterday. It's an annual event that many ladies look forward to every December. It's our way to reach out to women in our community and is very well received every year. God truly blessed our time.

Here are some of the wonderful ladies with whom I get to share this experience.

Have a great week, friends!

InLinkz.com