Madison Avenue

Hugs & Kisses

Good Morning all!  I hope you and your families enjoyed a wonderful Christmas together.  We certainly have had a festive and fun week of activities.  Lots of time with family and friends, yummy food, fun gifts and a bit of exhaustion!  Now I am trying to organize and find places for all the new toys, not to mention catch up on laundry and life in general.  We have another week off, well I have to work a bit but not too much.  My hubby and boy are off all week so we get to spend lots more time together.  So in the midst of catching up on life, I finally stamped some cards last night.  Not the one I am sharing today but I will share them soon.  Today's card is one I made with last months Papertrey release set, Simple Valentine.  The colors are non-traditional Valentine colors but I like how they look together - Spring Moss, Spring Rain and Melon Berry.  I made a simple background using a few different hearts, then added in a strip of glittered Melon Berry and some Spring Rain Gingham Ribbon. 

The round focal point was punched out and offset a bit, and I added a glittered Melon Berry heart to the center with two Spring Rain gemstones on the sides.  I love those gemstones, they are so so pretty!

Supplies:  Stamps - Simple Valentine; Ink - Spring Rain, Melon Berry, Spring Moss; Cardstock - SS White, Spring Moss, Spring Rain, Melon Berry; Other - Spring Rain Gingham Ribbon, Corner Rounder (EK Success), Prism Glitter (Palette); Border Punch (EK Success), Circle Punches (Marvy), Gemstones (Kaiser Craft)

Thank you so much for stopping by!  Have a great week!!!

 
 
  

Simple Stampy Christmas Card

Good evening all!  Just a quick post to share a card I have made quite a few of (or at least some variation) in the last week.  I was a little short on Christmas cards once I sorted through all the cards I have made in the past few months so I made a bunch of simple, sendable cards using Holiday Tree with Dark Chocolate, Ripe Avocado, and Pure Poppy.  This is actually one of the few that has a Pure Poppy Vintage Button sewn on the top of the tree.  For others I just used the solid dot on top and it looked really cute too.

I hope you are all enjoying the season and maybe if you don't have all your cards done yet or just need a quick card for a teacher, neighbor, bus driver, friend, etc. this one will inspire you!  Have a super duper weekend.  Can't promise I will blog next week, we are taking a quick family trip the first part of the week, then home for all the Christmas festivities.  Hugs to all for a wonderful holiday!  I will leave you with a cutie pie pic of my boys I captured while trying to get "the" picture for our holiday card insert.  Not the most in focus or anything spectacular photography wise but I just love the pure happy expressions on their faces!

Merry Christmas!!!
 
 

Blooming Button Bits

Hello there!  Everything is getting so busy with the holidays practically upon us.  Are you ready?  I feel like I have to get everything done this week cause Jacob will be home next week and I don't want to chance him seeing any gifts and want to spend time with him and Mikey too.  So today I have a quick card I created with Blooming Button Bits, the new button set from Papertrey Ink.  I absolutely love these button sets, they are so fun and more versatile than they seem at first glance.  You don't even have to use buttons, there are so many possibilities out there, I used a combination of punched flowers and buttons for my card.  The color combo is one of my favorites, Pure Poppy, Summer Sunrise, Ripe Avocado and Dark Chocolate.

I love using that curvy border punch from EK Success to create a ground for my flowers, works perfectly and quickly everytime.  The embossed background is an embossing folder from Quickutz, one of my favorites.  I added glitter to my flowers by running them through my xyron (right side down) and just shaking the glitter on the adhesive, easy!

So that's it for today, I thought I had more time but the babies don't seem to want to nap at all!!!  I have all three today so I have to go find out which one is still crying.  I am hoping to make some peppermint fudge during nap but we'll see!!  Have a good one! 
 

December Papertrey Release

Happy Papertrey Release Day!!  I am sure you have all been just drooling over Nichole's samples as well as all the other girls peeks!  The sets this month are fun, happy, and full of love:)!  I will share a few more cards I made with the sets today...I had so much fun creating this month.  It was a welcome change from the Christmas and winter stuff I have been doing lately.

Blooming Button Bits - beautiful in classic Nichole style, I love the different elements and the sentiments included so much.  I chose a slightly non-traditional color combo that I have been absolutely loving lately...Raspberry Fizz, Plum Pudding and Ripe Avocado.  I paired it with True Black this time but it is equally stunning with Smokey Shadow.  Try it, you might be surprised how great it looks! 

 

Simple Valentine - just the perfect Valentine set, I just love all the elements included.  Heather thought of everything!  I paired the set with the Simple Valentine Patterned Paper also created by Heather, it is so so cute.  I made a frame with the words and smaller hearts from the set, then added all my small patterned paper squares.  As a finishing touch I added a few cute buttons in coordinating colors.

Say It With Style - the great new (big) font set from Dawn, absolutely love this font and all the words included.  Lots of classic says and lots of Dawnisms too!!!  I just had to use the "Smooches" sentiment and pair it with last years Love Songs set, those lips were just calling my name.  Used more Simple Valentine patterned paper and took my color scheme from that. 

So there you have it!  I hope you all have enjoyed this release and I hope you have the happiest of holidays this year.  I will be back with more soon (before Christmas I promise)!    
 

Tiny Treats

I just love making Valentine's treats and Nichole's newest set, Tiny Treats: Valentine, makes it so easy and fun.  There are so many cute images in the set and you can even get your little one involved by letter them color the images of their choice.  I know my little guy likes the airplane and the dinosaur the best.  I like them all, so so cute.  For my project I used the little dinosaur and colored him with Prismacolor pencils, it was so easy and quick.  I used the label stamp in the set and added a Labels 1 die on top, it fit perfectly.  I chose New Leaf and Pure Poppy for my color scheme, perfect for this little image.  For my treat, I made some heart shaped sugar cookies and packaged them in a Papertrey glassine bag (I love these), tied with some New Leaf Saddle Stitched ribbon and bitty white ric rac , add in my tag and poof it's done.  It didn't really take much time at all!  I also added an Amuse heart twinkle sticker to the heart on the dinosaur, perfect!!

 

The set has so many images and can also be used for year round applications.  I decided to make a mini gift enclosure card, coordinates with Papertrey's 3x3 envelopes.  I actually think this could be a Valentine but I intended it to be a birthday card which works too.  I used Raspberry Fizz, Hibiscus Burst and Dark Chocolate to color my cupcake (again with Prismacolor pencils) and complete my card.  Lots of hearts background images (Nichole will have more on that set later in the countdown) and another Labels 1 die.

Again I added an Amuse twinkle sticker just cause they are adorable.  I also rounded the corners of the card bottom to go with the label.  Another thing I like to do to add interest to the die cut is add just a strip of patterned paper, just makes it a little more interesting.

 

So that's it for the peek today, I did make another card with the set, you can see it in my gallery on release night or on my blog a bit later!  Have a good one and don't forget to stop by the rest of the team's blogs for more inspiration!

• Nichole
• Becky
• Betsy
• Dawn
• Debbie
• Heather
• Lisa
• Melissa
• Mish
• Niki
• Kim

 
  

Click Simple Sneak Peek

 

The new Click Simple card templates are very fun, very cute and very very addicting!  I have so many plans for them, now I just need to find the time!  I worked with the Two Hearts One Love card and decided that while it is fine and pretty to leave the front plain, it would be fun to make the double heart more visible by incoroporating another heart in a different color.  This lead to using the outline files to made smaller versions and scaling down the hearts gradually.  I used a fun color combo and lots of glitter for a sweet little valentine anyone would be lucky to receive!

 

Thank you for stopping by tonight for a sneak peek at Papertrey's new Click Simple line, I know you will love it!!!  Make sure to stop by the other Click Simple previews today:

 

Jennifer Holmes

Charmaine Ikach

Laurie Schmidlin

 

Have a great day!

 

Patriotic Christmas Card

Good Afternoon blogland!  Hope everyone is well and staying warm.  I think it has been cold in many places lately, including here.  We by no means get the cold that say Minnesota gets but it does get pretty chilly.  We have been in the high teens and low twenties the last couple of nights.  Which for us means lots of ice and not a lot of snowmelt.  My oldest has been out of school for three days, he likes it mostly but I think he is getting a bit bored. 

So I thought I would share a Christmas card I made a while back, it is a bit non-traditional in the color choices but I like how it turned out.  It uses Winter Swirls, Vintage Labels and a large dot from Polka Dot Basics. The color combo is Pure Poppy, Enchanted Evening, Dark Chocolate, Kraft, and Fresh Snow.  Very simple card design, I added some embossed strips to the middle before adhering the main panel. 

In order to make the Enchanted Evening ink a little less intense, I stamped it off once, I really like the look it created.  The star was punched out with theXL star punch from Fiskars, such a greate size!

Supplies:  Stamps - Winter Swirls, Vintage Labels, Polka Dot Basics; Ink - Fresh Snow, Enchanted Evening, Pure Poppy; Cardstock - Rustic White, Kraft, Pure Poppy, Enchanted Evening; Other - Rustic Button Twine, XL Star Punch (Fiskars), Scalloped Scallop Edge Punch (Martha Stewart Crafts), Scor-Pal

Have a wonderful day everyone!  Almost time for some Papertrey peeks, are you excited?  It is going to be fun this month!! 
 

Christmas Card Stamping

Wow, can't believe it's already December 7th...not too long before the big day?  Are you all getting ready?  How about Christmas cards, are they out yet?  I have made lots of Christmas cards over the last few months, I mean lots! and will be using those and inserting a picture of the kids.  I think people like to save the pictures and sometimes when I make it part of the card it gets thrown out.  Plus I have lots of non-photo Christmas cards made that I don't want to let just sit around!  Here is one I made a few weeks back using a few Papertrey sets, Vintage Ornaments, Take a Bough, Polka Dot Basics II, and Background Basics: Text Style.  It is a very stampy card using colors of Ripe Avocado, Scarlet Jewel, Dark Chocolate, and Vintage Cream. 

I dug through my button stash to find this pearly creamy button to slide on the twill, I love all those pretty buttons! 

Supplies:  Stamps - Take a Bough, Vintage Ornaments, Polka Dot Basics II, Background Basics: Text Style; Ink - Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate, Ripe Avocado, Scarlet Jewel, Vintage Touch Tea Dye; Cardstock - Kraft, Vintage Cream, Ripe Avocado; Other - Cream Vintage Buttons, Scarlet Jewel Twill, Border Punch (EK Success), Adhesive Pearls (Michaels)  

Happy Monday!  Hope you all have a great week!  We are starting our week off with a big snowstorm, lots and lots of snow today and no power all over our area, my boy didn't even have school today.  Thanks for stopping by today!

A Couple of Leafy Cards

Hello there!!  How is everyone doing tonight/day?  All is well here, getting back to our routine after the wonderful holiday week (my son has the whole Thanksgiving week off).  My mom really liked the Tres Leches cake I made for her birthday, it turns out more custardy than I expected and I think it is definitely better served cold.  Of course I like most cakes cold so maybe I'm weird.  Anyhow, I am so glad my mom liked it and that she had a good birthday.  I have been busily creating things I cannot share right now but I thought I would share a couple of thank you cards I made with the fabulous new set Turning a New Leaf.  Seriously if I could only have a couple of sets from Papertrey this one would be at the top of my list, the top I tell you.  I have been using it constantly, I actually think I need an intervention.  Also used the Communique Sentiments on these cards, another great little set, I would buy it even if I didn't want the companion set (although I like it a lot too!) just cause I love that font.  So these cards are very very similar, just a little different color combo used on each and I replaced the patterned paper on the first one with my own stamped pattern on the second.  I love the simplicity of these, they could be done without any pattern behind just the plain cardstock and look equally striking I think. 

Here's the first one...color combo is Spring Moss, Summer Sunrise, Aqua Mist and Melon Berry...oh and the picture was taken when it was a little shadowy so sorry for the poor lighting.  The patterned paper is Cosmo Cricket Earth Love from the mini deck.

 

The sentiment was stamped in Dark Chocolate and I added those Spring Moss gemstones at the end.  You could totally leave them off which I did in the second card.

 

And the second card uses a similar color combo...Spring Moss, Ripe Avocado (leaves), Melon Berry, Lemon Tart and Aqua Mist.  I stamped the background right onto my Spring Moss cardbase which I think distorted the Melon Berry color a bit, it looked really dark, so I added glitter to some leaves to calm it down a bit.  And see sunlight...what a difference it makes right?!

And no gems on this one, but I did add the line of dots to the bottom in Aqua Mist and Lemon Tart.  Edges are sponged with Spring Moss.

Supplies for Striped Leafy Thank You:  Stamps - Turning a New Leaf, Communique Sentiments; Ink - Spring Moss, Dark Chocolate; Cardstock - Vintage Cream, Spring Moss, Aqua Mist, Summer Sunrise, Melon Berry; Patterned Paper - Earth Love (Cosmo Cricket); Other - Spring Moss Gemstones (Kaiser Craft); Sewing Machine, Prisma Glitter, Circle Punches (SU!)

Supplies for Leafy Background Thank You:  Stamps - Turning a New Leaf, Communique Sentiments, Christmas Friends (dot); Ink - Ripe Avocado, Melon Berry, Dark Chocolate, Spring Moss, Aqua Mist, Lemon Tart; Cardstock - Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate, Spring Moss, Melon Berry, Lemon Tart, Aqua Mist; Other - Prisma Glitter, Circle Punches (SU!)

Thank you for stopping by tonight!  Have a wonderful Wednesday!!  
  
 

Catching Up

After a nice long weekend I finally have a quick chance to post a new card.  And I mean, really quick...it is my mom's birthday today and I am making a cake (Tres Leches Cake per my mom's request, got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman) as well as guacamole and a yummy dinner.  Mostly though I have the three babies today and it is always busy.  Anyhow, did everyone have a nice Thanksgiving?  Ours was really good, lots of yummy food and my family all around, did lots of laughing with my sisters and just enjoyed myself.  I also made an awesome apple pie, so good in fact that it got eaten up on Thanksgiving and I had to make another one last night! 

I have a quick card to share tonight, one I made during last months Papertrey release, using Big & Bold Wishes, Background Basics: Diamonds, and Giga Guide Lines.  I used the same color combo as another of my release cards, it is just such a rich beautiful combination - Ripe Avocado, Enchanted Evening, and Orange Zest. 

 
Lots of little details on the card, white dots in the center of each diamond with my gel pen, scalloped edge on one side, stitching with floss across the front, and the cute heart with the shiny orange button in the corner. 

Supplies:  Stamps - Giga Guide Lines, Background Basics: Diamonds, Big & Bold Wishes, Christmas Friends; Ink - Enchanted Evening, Ripe Avocado, Orange Zest; Cardstock - Kraft, Ripe Avocado, Orange Zest, In Bloom Patterned Paper; Other - Heart Dies (Provo Craft), Scalloped Edge Punch (SU!), Orange Zest Vintage Button, Corner Rounder (EK Success), White Gel Pen (Inksentials by Ranger)

I hope you all have a wonderful day!  I will report back on how delicious the cake is:)!!!