A Big Chrismassy Post!

And I am back!  It's been a bit too long since I last posted and I truly apologize! I hope you had an amazing Christmas!  We sure did!  We had a great time with our families and were so blessed!   I have been so busy with wreaths!  My etsy shop has had amazing sales all fall and into the Holiday season!  I also did an amazing craft sale and did amazing at the end of November!  I love being creative and that my wreaths are selling!  I have some great ideas for Valentines Day and some other new ideas too! My plan so I can do more sales next fall is to make flowers all year long in preparation!But I am looking forward to being able to paper craft!  It's been so long since I've last posted that I do have quite a bit to post.  And while Christmas is passed oh well I still feel like sharing it, I will just do it in a large mammoth post!

I wanted to share a card I had published in the November/December 2013 issue of Paper Crafts magazine!  I was lucky enough to have a card and treat published in this issue!  I love this card and when I made it I really thought it would get picked up, it fit three categories in the magazine, sequins, shaped card, and stamps and die combo!

 For the last day of school for Ariel's class I made chocolate covered pretzel sticks.  I made half with chocolate and skor bits (like heath crunch) did you know that Skor bits have Almonds as a second ingredient, me either!  So I had to make a second batch since no nuts at school!  I also made up a bunch to give to teachers.  And to hand out to the school office workers.  The night before I decided to make tags for them using some Hero Arts stamps and tag die (nothing like the last minute oh well)  I loved every minute!  Even though I haven't paper crafted much this fall that night showed me how much I still find joy in it!

I also made a few tags for gifts.  Okay I made all the tags for gifts but I forgot to take pictures of all of them.  Whoops!  

When making tags last minute while wrapping gifts (so it matches the paper! not because you procrastinated) using images that you stamped before is a quick way to get it done!

Here's a gift bag I made to hold a white elephant gift!

And I shall leave you with our Holiday card this year!  I made it myself using pic monkey!  I made the collage with fall photos we had done, had them printed 5 by 7 at Costco and than trimmed the sides so it was a 5 by 5 card.  Much cheaper and more personal and it didn't take me long at all!  

Moxie Fab Thanks Blog Hop!

Hello!  Happy Saturday!  Today I am here taking part in the Moxie Fab Thanks Blog Hop, along with pretty much every paper crafter ever!  This is one huge blog hop!  But it's for one really wonderful and deserving lady, Cath Edvalson former editor at Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking Magazine and blogger extradionare at Moxie Fab World!  You should have arrived here from Cornelia's blog.

I love this blog hop and how many paper crafters are taking part.  It truly shows what an impact Cath has made, and how much we value her and will miss her!  Cath your blog is a true gem that inspired us, helped us to be better paper crafters!  The comments you have left on my blog always made my day brighter.  I have been blessed to have won your challenges twice (I think twice) and been mentioned a few times on your blog and I can tell you that I may have been jumping up and down!  I always enjoyed stopping by your blog and seeing what eye candy you had in store, it always inspired me not only in paper crafting but with my wreaths too!  I truly think that with you leaving we are all at a loss, I understand and only wish you the best.  Thankful for social media and being able to stay in the loop with you! Can't wait to see what is in store for you!  I have a friend card to share as I consider Cath as many of you do too to be a friend.

Stamps:  Lovely Mum's by Mama Elephant
Paper:  Bazzill, Watercolour paper
Inks:  Versamark by Tsuenko
Hero Arts Embossing Powder in White, Gold by other
Sprays:  Tattered Angels  Pink Poodle, Thatched Roof,


I heat embossed the flowers in white onto heavy watercolor paper, than I heavily sprayed it with light pink, dark pink and yellow mists and let it dry, than cut it out.  I heat embossed the sentiment in gold onto the white card and finished the card with two gold stripes and mounted the flowers with foam adhesives. 

That's it for me!  Thank you for stopping by!  The next stop is Kim.

Caring Hearts Blog Hop!

Hello and welcome to my blog and the Caring Hearts Blog Hop!  You should have arrived here from the Fresh Squeezed Stamp Blog!  If not please start at Vera's blog for all the fun! The Caring Hearts Card Drive collects cards for the elderly who are in nursing homes, a lot of elderly people don't always have visitors and the holiday time can be really hard for them.  Sending a card really does brighten there day to see that a stranger cares enough about them to make a card write a message and send it to them.  I am personally collecting cards on behalf of Canadians and have a large nursing home to give cards to!  So if your in Canada and love to make cards please send them!  If your in the US send it to Vera!

I have 4 cards to share with you. I stamped a whole bunch of Poinsetta's from WPlus9 Design Pretty Poinsetta and die cut them.  Often when I make Holiday cards I make more than 1 of a design which was my plan with these cards but than I changed my mind.  I already adhered down the main panel so I was stuck with that as my base (I considered trying to pull it off that never works) So I played around with the same elements and stamps and did four designs:

It was fun coming up with different designs using the background and stamps!  I used a Hero Arts background along with My Favorite things Cheerful Christmas Greetings, and a Joy die cut from Papertrey Ink.

The next stop is Sarah Moerman!

Please leave a comment by Tuesday November 12 for a chance to win prizes from these companies:

Clearly Besotted Stamp

Ellen Hutson

Fresh Squeezed Stamp
Hero Arts

Inspiration Emporium

Lawn Fawn

Li'l Inker Designs

May Arts
My Favorite Thing

Newton Nook & Design

Online Classes

Paper Smooches

Simon Says Stamps

Studio Calico

Tim Holts

There She Goes Stamp

The Twinery

A few important details:

• This card drive will be going on till November 28, 2013. We need to receive your card by November 28, 2013.
•  Please make the cards for Christmas or Holiday Wishes. Anyone can send a card, your children, church group, scout troops, etc.
• All cards need to have a message in it (it can be stamped or hand written).  
• Please sign your name and where you are from. 
• Please include an envelope for each card and please don't seal the envelope.
• Please stick to just cards (all size welcome)
• And please don't use any pins (safety reason).
• You can mail the cards to:

                 Vera Yates                                         Card Drive                                            

                       109 N. Post Oak Lane Ste. 430               c/o Tina Schrof                                    

                       Houston, TX 77024                                        P.O. Box 75                                                

                                                                                                     Springboro, Ohio45066                                                                                                                                                                        

 

Pine-Fine

Attn  Anita

P.O. Box 30

Piney, MB R0A 1K0

Canada

Rock Chalk Baby Blog Hop!

Hello Friends!  I am so excited to be here as part of the Rock Chalk Baby Blog Hop for my crafty friend Erin!   Your should have arrived here from Amy's Blog! Erin is currently expecting and is due any day now with a baby boy!  In fact it would be pretty awesome if Erin was so surprised by this hop it put her into labour! :> 

I am so excited for you Erin and your baby boy!  I have a girl first like you and than a boy and it really is great to have one of each.  It's so different but fun!  And guess what boy diapers are so much easier to change, yes seriously!  :>  Too bad I don't live closer, I love babies and would love to snuggle!

I had fun using a certain stamp in this set for Erin's card, I thought she would buy a onsie like this:

 

I apologize for the quality of this photo, me and my camera are not getting along right now so I took the photo with my ipad mini!  I used Taylored Expressions stamp set Onsie Twoosie, along with the sentiment from Avery Elle's Petals and Stems and the background stamp by Hero Arts, tweed background.

And I used Flair from my talented Friend Jocelyne Cuthchens!  You can check out her fabulous flair here.

Thank you for stopping by!  The next stop in the hop is Cheiron! 



Here is the master link for the hop:

Aga Malyszek http://justmadefrompaper.blogspot.com
Amy Kolling: http://www.stamp-n-paradise.blogspot.com
Anita Recksiedler http://craftygrldesigns.blogspot.com
Cheiron Brandon http://cheironbrandon.typepad.com/
Dana Warren: http://www.kraftpaperstamps.blogspot.com/
Debbie Marcinkiewicz: http://www.papersweeties.com/category/blog/
Elena Roussakis www.justmeprints.blogspot.com
Heather Campbell http://parkermolly.blogspot.com/
Jennifer Rzasa http://ourchangeofart.blogspot.com/
Jennifer Ingle: http://justjingle.blogspot.com
JJ Bolton: http://rgcards.blogspot.com/
Jocelyn Olson http://redballooncards.blogspot.com
Joscelyne Cutchens www.cutchens.com
Laurie Willison http://soapboxcreations.blogspot.com/
Miriam Prantner: www.mprantner.blogspot.com
Nina Yang: http://waffleflower.com
Taheerah Atchia: http://littlemisst-papercraft.blogspot.com/
Tessa Wise: http://www.craftygrl.blogspot.com
Wida Yusufi-Miller: http://beachorado.blogspot.com/

Snowman Gift Bag!

Hello Friends!  It's November ALREADY!  How did that happen?  While for many of you November is fall for us it means soon it will snow!  It's been beautiful fall days lately but it's just a certain amount of time till it's here, SNOW!  Oh no!  November means Christmas is on its way with Christmas cards, wreaths and projects being on my mind! 

I thought I would pop in since it's been a bit and share a project.  It's a Holiday gift bag!  It's actually a reusable bag from my favorite tea company, David's Tea!  When you buy there loose tea they send you home with this lovely paper blue bag, I covered the David's Tea logo and made up a bag:

 

I used Hero Arts Snow Much Joy set, love that snow man along with Basic Greys Aspen Frost!  This was fun to make!  :>  I look forward to giving a gift with it this upcoming Holiday season!

Lots coming up this week, Ariel's 8th Birthday and her party I still have some prep to do for that.  This year will be her first party not at home, it's nice how much easier it is to do a not home party, it's just not nice to your pocket book! :>  I am still quite busy with wreaths but this week was able to catch up quite a bit which is awesome!  I am taking part in not one but three blog hops this week so you shall see quite a lot of me! :>  Until than!

Cards Designer of the Month November, a Card and More!

Hello!  Hope your having a great week!  The end of October is here already!  I've been kept busy with making wreaths for etsy sales and an upcoming artisan sale this Saturday!  I am excited and also nervous since it will be my first sale with my wreaths! I am also bringing headbands and pacifier clips!  So I am busy creating!

I wanted to stop by and share a card but also some exciting news!  I am Cards Designer of the Month for November!  I've known and did share back in January but it's finally here!  I can't share any of the cards yet but I would be thrilled if you did check it out, you can purchase the issue here on there website.  I have an ipad mini so it's easy to look at it!  Here is a little snap from the article:

I can't share any of the cards from the issue but I can share a card I created a bit back using one of my favorite Mama Elephant Stamps along with some Hero Arts:

I started off by stamping the Looped Flower Background by Hero Arts with wet cement by HA.  Than I stamped the Mama Elephant Lovely Mum flowers in orange soda and bubble gum pink by HA.  I heat embossed the sentiment from Mama Elephant's Smitten set onto grey cardstock and finished this card off with sequins by Avery Elle!

In case you didn't see I wanted to share that I am collecting cards on behalf of Canadians for the Caring Hearts Card Drive, there are a lot of prizes!  You can see more info here  I would love it if you sent cards in!

I also wanted to share some new wreaths in my shop!

This one has been quite popular already. you can find it here

A Christmas Burlap Bubble Wreath that you can find here

And a Snowflake Wreath in cool winter colors, you can find it here

That's it for me!  I hope to be back soon!  I apologize for the quietness on my blog.  You can find me on instagram as AnitaReck and on facebook Anita Recksiedler I post there a lot!  Until next time!

2013 Caring Hearts Card Drive!

Hello Everyone!  First off Happy World Card Making Day!  Hope you have a chance to spend time making cards!  I plan to today, in fact I plan only to make cards! (Ok well be a mom and so on but no other crafty stuff just me and the cards!)  

I am so excited to be here and share that I am part of the 2013 Caring Hearts Card Drive that my friend Vera along with Jennifer are hosting! Holiday time is approaching and we are back for the 4th year for our annual Caring Hearts Card Drive to collect holiday cards for the elderly that lives in nursing homes!  We want to bring holiday cheer to as many homes as possible!

I am collecting cards for all of us Canadians!  International shipping can be expensive and I love being able to share cards with the elderly in nursing homes here in Canada!  I hope all my fellow Canadian crafty friends and more send cards in!  I have a large nursing home lined up who are very excited!  So please blog and share on social media so us Canadians can get involved!

The holidays are about family, about kindness, and joy. During this time many of the elderly who lives in nursing homes would really feel the loneliness or missing their family. Wouldn't it be so awesome if we can bring a smile to their face & brighten their holiday season simply by sharing our love of card making? A simple gesture to let them know that they are not forgotten.

We all love making cards and what’s better than knowing our creations can bring a smile to others? I hope that many of you will help out in the effort to spread joy & cheer.

We have some people that already agree to help us deliver the cards to selected nursing homes.

A few important details:

·                                 This card drive will be going on till November 28, 2013. We need to receive your card by November 28, 2013.

·                                  Please make the cards for Christmas or Holiday Wishes. Anyone can send a card, your children, church group, scout troops, etc.

·                                 All cards need to have a message in it (it can be stamped or hand written).  

·                                 Please sign your name and where you are from. 

·                                 Please don't seal the envelope.

·                                 Please stick to just cards (all size welcome)

·                                 And please don't use any pins (safety reason).

·                                 You can mail the cards to:

                        Vera Yates

                        109 N. Post Oak Lane Ste. 430
                        Houston, TX 77024

                        Piney-fine

                        Attn: Anita Recksiedler
                        Po Box 30

                        Piney, MB
                        R0A 1K0 Canada

·                                 In each package, PLEASE include a piece of paper with your name, address, email address and how many cards you sent.  This helps me in keeping track for prizes! For each card you send, you will get a chance.  So the more cards you send, the better your chances. 

To thank you for your generosity in supporting this drive, I have several PRIZES ready for several winners. There will be many winners and remember… the more cards you send the better your chances. :)

Please check out Vera's blog here to see the prizes!  There are so many!  What a blessing all these fabulous companies are!

So I can't go sharing about this card drive without a holiday card now can I?  I don't know about you but I do not have any new holiday stamps yet (don't worry I am working on fixing that)  So I created this card with non holiday stamps:

I used Wplus9's Embroidered Bouquet along with a Hero Arts set (Blessings something..) The floral set isn't a Christmas set but using Christmas colors makes it work!


That's it for me!  I hope that you are able to take part in the card drive!

 

I am back!

Hello!  I am back!  It's been a bit since I've last blogged and I apologize.  It's been quite busy over here!  And I am not complaining as I was very busy making wreaths, what a great month for my etsy shop! So I have been creative every single day making wreaths!  I did want to stop today and share a card!  I made it a bit ago with the feather dies by My Favorite Things!  

Did you know that these shades of blue are my favorite?  I don't often make cards in them but they are my favorite.  I think it's easy to follow trends and all that but at the last Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking call I only submitted 3 cards, 2 in the paper flower category and I made a card that was so me, my favorite colors, my favorite things on the card not thinking of trends and all that, and it got picked up!  Yay for May I know when you see it you will know right away that it's my card!

With this card I dipped the edges of the feathers into versamark and heat embossed it gold, my talented friend Donna was the first to do that with the feather dies.  It's fun to do, you know how much I love embossing!  I die cut the hello by My Favorite Things with heavy gold paper.  I really liked how the paper was heavy, I think paper companies should make heavy paper for die cutting, yes you can cut and glue and layer paper but I am not that patient, nor good at not getting glue everywhere!  I realized that after making this card I didn't do any stamping on it!  Oh the horrors!

Now to announce a random winner for a surprise from me:

Linda W. (ScrappinBari) said...

Fun feather card, Anits - love the colors! And what great autumn colors on your fabulous wreaths!!

Yay Linda please contact me!


By the way everyone make sure to come back tomorrow and check out something exciting! 

I have so many new wreaths in my etsy shop! But here are a few to share:

I had fun making this wreath in brown burlap, listed it and it sold in half an hour:

And I wrapped burlap around a wreath and used some fall berries:

That's it from me today!  See you tomorrow!

Feathers and Wreaths!

Hello Friends!  Happy September already!  And just like that the summer is over and school starts in two days!  Boo for the end of summer although thankfully the weather is still warm!  This past weekend was Labour Day weekend meaning it was a long weekend!  Chad went to Regina for his annual guys trip to watch there football team play there (he had a great time) and the kids and I went to his family cabin with a bunch of the nieces and nephews and family!  The nearby town had a festival so we enjoyed fireworks, a parade, and some kids activities!  We really had a great weekend!

Today I have a card to share that features feathers again!  But it's different feathers!  I've actually had this die for a while and I made this card a bit ago and than didn't post it, and than didn't make anything else with this die...shame on me!

 I used a different color scheme for me, I think I could use it as a masculine card.  This morning I thought the card was missing something so I added the enamel dots!  I used My Favorite Things Feathers and Arrow die, along with Hero Arts tweed background and WPlus9 Designs sentiment!

I am entering this card into Simon Says Stamp challenge of anything goes!  

Wih Fall just around the corner I added some new wreaths to my shop!

I love how the striped yarn looks in fall colors!  You can find this wreath here.

I added a Welcome wooden word to a wreath, I love this idea for a wreath!  

 

You can find this wreath here.

And I made my first burlap wreath!  :>  It was a fun challenge to make a new wreath and I am excited to offer them in my shop now!

You can find this wreath here!

Within two days of adding these wreaths to my shop I sold one!  Which one do you think?  I sold the striped wreath!  

Well that's it for me!  I will draw a winner for my summer giveaway next post, this post shall count.  I have some stuff to do to prepare for back to school!

Hello Feathers!

Hello!  Happy Wednesday!  Just over a week of summer left here and we are not looking forward to school starting up again!  It's HOT HOT HOT here and we have been enjoying every minute of it!  Lots and lots of swimming fun!  In fact thought I would stop by and blog before we go to the pool with my sister in law!  Got to enjoy each moment of summer while we can!  

Today I have a card to share using a new stamp set by WPlus9 Design Studio Fanicful Feathers!  It's actually not my set it's my crafty friend Leighs!  A few Saturdays ago Leigh invited me to a local crop and I went for a few hours with her!  It was so much fun to get to know her better and craft with her!  She is so talented and a great person, I am lucky to live close to her!  Here is the card I created:

I stamped the feathers in Fresh Peach, Mint and Wet Cement Hero Arts inks!  I die cut the Hello by My Favorite Things but first inked up the piece of cardstock with the fresh peach ink (at Leigh's suggestion!)  Had to add some enamel dots as I love them!  

I am entering this card into this week's Simon Says Stamp Challenge of Anything Goes!

And here is a photo of the two of us:

Last week Carter turned 5!  Yes 5!  When I started this blog it was just before his 1st Birthday!  The time really has gone so quickly!  He has grown up but is still my little boy!  Next week he starts kindergarten, he will go two full days one week and 3 full days the next.  I am glad to still have time with him!  Carter is a busy, lovable, full of energy, makes friends with everyone, and life of the party boy!  He is so much like me as a child but a boy!  He loves chatting with everyone and is always introducing himself to people and he loves chatting with the neighbors!  When he wants something he is relentless which can be a hard trait for us the parents but as he grows up I look forward to seeing how he works that!  He loves his sister so much!  Beware if you hurt someone Carter loves as he will protect them!

For his birthday we took 15 kids (plus my two) so 17 kids to see the new movie Planes!  It was busy but fun and I think all the kids had so much fun!  Here is some photos:

 My friend Sophie made for me the cupcake wrappers and toppers!  Didn't they turn out cute?

Well that's it for me today!  I am off to pack up for swimming!