Happy New Year

Just found a few minutes to stop by and wish all of you a very Happy New Year! I'm excited about 2009 and what it has in store for me! For those of you wondering, I promise to start posting regularly again soon!!

Whatever you may be doing this evening, please have a safe and happy one! See you in 2009!!!

Santa Bars

Just a quick post today. I made these Santa Bars for the preschool staff. I bought a few extras to have on hand and am going to also give one to my mailman. It's a really quick project and very easy to make. If you need a last minute quick gift, this is perfect!

If you are like me the part the takes the longest is figuring out all the dimensions...well I've got em for you so it will be super fast for you!

I used red cardstock 9 1/2 x 7 1/4. Score at 1 5/8, 2, 6 1/8, 6 1/2. Fold around the chocolate bar and secure with adhesive. Black cardstock is 1 1/2 x 9 1/2. Fold it around the chocolate bar and secure with adhesive. To make the buckle, first punch out a square using the Super Jumbo (blue) Square punch. Next, take the Mega (pink) Square punch and center it over the first square punch out. I then attached the buckle by placing small pop dots in the four corners. The buttons are just 1/2" circles from a circle punch.

That's it! Easy peasy, right?

Monogram Cards

I received another order last week for 5 more calendars and some monogram cards. A friend of mine (thanks Melynda!) told me about the JustRite Monogram Stamper that she had just purchased. I have been to blogs and seen samples of work using the system but never felt I needed it. Well after receiving this order, I bought it (along with some add ons, lol!).

Sorry about the lighting...I took the photos at 3AM and there isn't much light then! Normally I sell packs of variety cards - each card looks different. I really liked doing the monogram cards because I used up full sheets of paper, my punches coordinated with the stamper and they were really fast to make.

I'm pleased to report that the customer was very happy with the product. She gave the cards & calendars as Christmas presents to co-workers and told me that she needed about 10 of my business cards because everyone wants to know where they can purchase more. I need some kind of way to support my purchasing habit!!

Anniversary

Congratulations on 40 wonderful years!!

We Love you!! Happy Anniversary!

Teacher Gift

I'm so happy to share this little project with you today. I just LOVE how this turned out and will be making more of these in the future! This is a purse that I found on Tracy's Inky Doodles Blog. She provides excellent step by step instructions with photos! Here is the outside of my purse.

I should tell you that I had trouble keeping my purse closed so I added a Velcro dot to the middle and it worked perfectly! This is the inside of the purse. This side holds 6 greeting cards and envelopes.

Here are the greeting cards. I really like how everything coordinates. I used We R Memory Keepers papers for everything.

This is the other side - it holds a calendar, which I got instructions from my good friend Heather. And doesn't every teacher deserve chocolate - the good stuff too!

Now isn't that SWEEET!! The most confusing part was figuring out how to cut the plastic boxes that go on the inside of the purse. Other than that it was really fast and it only takes one piece of 6 x 12 cardstock, ribbon, some scraps and a clear card box to make!

I'm telling you, this is ADORABLE! I'd be more than happy to answer any questions about it cause I think you need to make one too! Would love to hear what you think, so leave me a comment!

Thanks for looking!

Preschool Christmas Celebration

Yesterday, was Abby's Christmas Celebration. Although I don't have any pictures from the actual program, I can assure you that she did an awesome job singing and only pulled up her dress a couple of times! It's not that I didn't want any pictures but I just couldn't get any to turn out. Jay was able to come so he video taped it. We'll at least have that to watch! After the program, we went to the Celebration Center to celebrate Jesus' Birthday.

Here is Abby who is very proud to show off the cake that we brought. She was also excited to have her Grandma & Papa there to share in the celebration.

Here is the cake. Abby did the decorations. Although it looks like she did the writing, she didn't. Remember she is only 5 but to my defense I've been working on little sleep here...very late nights, like 3AM and early mornings, like 8AM.


After cake, the children in her class got to go on stage to have their picture taken with Santa. As you can tell all the parents were up there taking pictures so the kids are looking everywhere!
Abby & I made a treat bag for her friends. The idea was given to me by a very talented lady Barbra!

They are smore goodie bags. Each bag has a marshmallow peep, bar of chocolate & graham crackers. I thought the idea was so cool cause at this age the kids like to "make" things. This way they get to "make" their own smore.

I should tell you that Abby is really becoming the little crafty girl (well DUH, I mean who is her momma!). She stamped the sentiment on the tags, tied the ribbon on the tags (I double knotted them), taped the tags to the toppers and attached the santa chocolate. She was very proud of herself as was I! The only thing I need to remember that she does take a little longer to do everything so I should NOT wait until 7pm the night before to do them! Oh well, lesson learned!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

That's right it's a whopping 4 degrees outside and snowing! Now, I was born and raised in Kansas so I'm not a stranger to Kansas winter weather BUT I've been gone for 4 years! For some reason I don't recall this!! In Memphis, if it was cold in the morning usually by the afternoon we were in t-shirts. And if it snowed well EVERYTHING shut down...so we didn't have to deal with it! This morning when it was time to take Abby to preschool, I thought why do I need to get out in this. I mean it's PRESCHOOL!! But I'll have to do it sometime so I went ahead and did it. It wasn't too bad cause Kansas also knows how to deal with it - Sand trucks, snow plows, people driving slow!! Here are a few pictures - they aren't the greatest but you get the idea!

These pictures are from about 9:30 this morning...it's now after 3pm and the snow has not stopped! So believe me there is more than this out there. Here are a few things I realized today:

• The things that weren't important in Memphis are very important now - like a heater working in my car!
• Even though the fan motor makes a HORRIBLE noise, my dad assures me that it will not catch on fire!
• That rear window wiper that my hubby broke would come in very handy when it's freakin' freezing outside and snowing hard!
• I love my house but it would be oh so nice to have a fireplace - go figure apt in Memphis had one! What's that about?!?!
• Love my basement and my scrap room but I think we need a few portable heaters!
• This weather is perfect to be stamping in but my hands and toes are freezing so all I really want to do is drink hot chocolate and snuggle under the thermal blankets!
• That saying I used to say - "well if it's going to be this cold, I'd rather it be snowing as well" - don't think I mean that anymore, lol!

Hope you are having a great Tuesday and are staying warm! I've been working on some cards and I have an ohh-soo-fabulous teacher gift to share with you too! So stay tuned for those.

Little Things

I think it's important to reflect daily on all the blessings given to us. Sometimes life happens too quickly and it's easy to let things go. At the end of each day, I check off the items I've accomplished for the day, write a brief summary of the days events and make a journal entry. This entry can be how I'm feeling, something said, something that happen. It's these things that are important... When I received this image, it just spoke to me. That girl is so cute and she appears to have no cares in the world. She lives life like my Abby - in the moment and finding all the blessings she can!

I made this card for a challenge. The challenge was to use pink, purple and blue in a card with an image that had been sent to me. I colored the girl in with pencils & OMS. The sentiment is from a TAC set. I'm really not a fan of the pattern paper but it works with this image (and color scheme). All the paper was in my scrap pile so it's a one-of-a-kind :)

I hope you have a great weekend! I probably won't be able to post again as I have a very full weekend. But I'm going to be sure to remember the "little things" and I hope you do too!

Thanks for looking!

Polly Packages

Good Morning! This card was for a challenge on one of my Yahoo groups. We each were given the same image to use - Polly Packages from Stamping Bella. I like these type of challenges/swaps because it's so fun to see all the different creations with the very same image! For my card I used Mojo Monday #64 sketch.

I colored Polly with my Copics, used paper from DCWV Christmas Stack and added a few blingy brads to top it off. Although I love the traditional Christmas colors, this was so fun to do! I don't have this stamp but she is now on my wish list (which is like a mile long, lol!).

Thanks so much for looking and as always I'd love to hear what you think!

Q.T. Hooty Owl

Meet Q.T. Hooty Owl. Ok, so maybe you know him. But he's a newbie in my collection. See there has been this owl obsession going on in the scrapbooking/stamping world. As you know you can find LOTS of owls. I've been looking for that perfect one. You know the one you look at and go "awwwwwh isn't he cute". That's Q.T. Hooty Owl. Please forgive him because right now he's a little under the weather - but then again who isn't with the snow and cold!

So do you want him? You can purchase him (and his friends) at Pink Cat Studio . Like the layout? Well that came from here. I found Our Creative Corner from another blog. There are lots of great inspiration on the blog so go check it out! Back to my card. I wanted to raise Q.T. Hooty Owl a little so I stamped him twice and cut one out to place on top of the other.

I'm just so pleased with this card! If you are under the weather right now, I hope we've cheered you up some! Thanks so much for looking!

CAC Sketch #6

Well it's Tuesday so it must be time for another CAC Sketch card! I REALLY like how this one turned out. I have a college friend who just got engaged and I wanted to send her a card. When I saw the sketch for this week (another Becky Fleck PageMap Sketch) I thought it would be perfect.

The paper and flowers are Heidi Grace that I got in a pack. The flower stem is Making Memories velvet ribbon. Congrats is Inkadinkado. I've finally gotten a few Spellbinder dies and decided to use them. They are so easy to use and I love embossing them to give them that little extra WOW.

Would love to hear what you think! Thanks so much for looking!

Mojo Madness Contest #63

I love the sketches on the Poetic Artistry Blog, but I haven't been able to participate much. The deadline for this sketch is at noon so I'm barely going to make it (thank goodness for different time zones!). Here is the sketch:



And here is my card:

Ok, isn't it AWESOME!?!?! Yes, that is the new Pink Cat Studio stamp that I got last week! I've been dying to use them and I finally got the chance! When I saw the mojo sketch last week, I thought the Lily & Tweet stamps would be perfect!

Supplies used: So Sweet DCWV Stack, Bazzill Cardstock, Copic Markers, Cuddlebug Die (the tag), SU! Slot punch (for the scallops) and ribbon.

Thanks so much for looking! Here's hoping you find some time to create today!

More Calendars - Part 2

As promised here are the last four months of the calendar. I ended up using pencils for two months and Copics for the other two. I really like how it turned out and hope that Pam is pleased with them!

If you missed the first post with the other months, you can see it here.

Would love to hear what you think! Thanks so much for looking!

More Calendars

Sorry for the break in posts! I've been busy working on projects but haven't finished anything yet. Although I'm not completely done with this calendar, I decided I just had to share. I got an order for some cards & calendars (Thanks Pam!) that I have to send out this week. I was having a hard time finding time to create as Abby wants my complete attention right now. Grandma offered to take her yesterday afternoon and she stayed all night! Plus hubby was gone so I was completely alone from 2pm till noon today! Needless to say I got quite a bit done! I downloaded the calendar from Amuse. I got the calendar cases from PTI . The calendar was a little smaller then the case but I just put a piece of cardstock to serve as a mat for each month. I think it looks good! Here is the calendars in the case (sorry for the blurry picture!)

I stamped each month out and then went back through and started coloring. Right now I'm working on 5 of these but am pretty sure I will need a few more. I plan on giving a few as Christmas gifts! The next few photos are of each individual month. I still have 4 months left to color.

I used a variety of stamps and colored with my Copics. For the months I have left I think I will be coloring with my colored pencils because the stamps I used are a little more detailed and I don't have a ton of Copic colors. It's hard though cause I really like the brightness of the markers! I still need to edge each month with my black ink pad as well. I had to quit at about 1am though because my hand/arm felt like it was going to fall off! I haven't stamped & colored that much in a LONG time!

When I get the other months done (hopefully today!), I'll share those as well. Would love to hear what you think! Thanks so much for looking!

Notebooks

These are notebooks that I picked up in the $ bin at Michael's. They are tall and thin - perfect for lists! I knew I wanted to make one for me to keep track of all my blog/Yahoo groups information. You know requests, to-do's, prayer concerns, etc. One place for everything. I just removed the covers, painted the edges and decorated them. I didn't take a picture but the insides are covered in cardstock and the back has the same pattern paper on it.


I was hoping to use my Bind It All to punch the newly covers but it didn't line up with the original holes. I just punched small circle holes using my Crop-A-Dile. These would make great gifts. I mean you could use them for shopping lists as well! I had a little bit of left over paper so decided to make this simple holiday card. I picked up this stamp over the weekend. I don't know why I needed it but those chickies were oh so cute!

Thanks for looking!

Lookie Lookie

Lookie Lookie what my mailman brought me yesterday!! Yep new stamp sets from Pink Cat Studio!

I've been eyeing these sets for awhile and I finally broke down and ordered them. And let me tell you how glad I am! The service was very impressive! I placed my order Friday night (11/21) and received an email from Melissa (the owner & designer) right away. One of the sets I had ordered was on backordered. Melissa explained that when that stamp set arrived (which would be Mon or Tues) then my order would be shipped and since this was coming from Canada shipping could be one to two weeks. My order was shipped Mon (11/24) and even with a US holiday in there I got my stamps in one week! I was very excited to get my stamps and I emailed Melissa a couple of times. She was very kind (and funny) and responded to each and every one of my emails. Very impressive!!

Well I'm off to play with these babies....look for some creations soon!

CAC Sketch #5

It's Tuesday so it's time for another CAC Sketch Challenge. I needed a few Christmas cards so decided to dig in the Christmas bin and see what I could find. The paper is scraps and the Santa is a 3-d Sticker that I bought last year. I love using product that I've been hording especially since I continue to buy stuff. I don't know why I think I need every Christmas item out there! I have enough Christmas/Winter stuff to last me YEARS!! Oh well - on to the card...


I used Flair pattern paper, Bazzill cardstock, sentiment is from a Dollar Clear Stamp I got at my LSS, 3-D Santa Embellishment. I had a little left over so went ahead and made a second card. This card is more what the sketch looked like but for some reason I really like the scallop oval sentiment.

So are you done with your Christmas cards? I could always use more but not sure how many I'll get done. I figure the extras I make will just get me ahead for next year so I'm really not keeping count of how many I've made. I guess I should stop making them and start addressing them and get them in the mail! Otherwise they'll be late and that won't do me any good!

Do you need any Christmas Cards? I have some available for purchase! Contact me for pricing and pictures.

New Specials

Happy December! It's a new month which means NEW specials from The Angel Company! Here are a few of the specials but click on the slide show (Current Specials from The Angel Company) on the right to see all of them!

First up are the new vintage sets only available for December. Check out the snowman and that Santa is so ADORABLE and I just have to have him!!

The Wonderful Winter Wishes Special goes until February 2nd and includes 5 NEW stamp sets. If you are a hostess you'll be able to earn these sets FREE! As a customer you can purchase them at special prices with any qualifying $30 purchase!

We also have some of our wonderful paper packs Buy One Get One Free (see flyer at right to see which sets) as well as the December Stamp Of The Month. If you have any questions or would like to take advantage of these great offers, just contact me!

Thanksgiving

Sorry for the break in posts...I spent the last few days with family and friends and it was wonderful! Not to mention, the food was pretty good too! This year we celebrated Thanksgiving at my house and it was AWESOME to have room in the kitchen to move about. My mom & I were able to each do our own thing! It was so much more enjoyable...I didn't stress at all and that's saying a lot for me!! Here is my Mom - she looks happy doesn't she?!? Probably because she didn't have to do all the cooking this year!


This year we decided to fry the turkey so the guys were in charge of that. I told them I wanted to get a picture of them "working".


That's when I realized that there wasn't much working going on. Here is my Dad and my husband, Jay watching over the turkey carefully!

Where's Abby you ask? She's "helping" everyone! She took a quick break to pose with her daddy!

My sister and her boyfriend were also over for Thanksgiving but I failed to get any pictures of them. I also wanted to take pictures of the food but trust me it looked good and tasted even better!! We took time to remind each other how thankful we are and how blessed our lives are. I know I'm very grateful for all HE has done for me! I hope you and your family had a great Thanksgiving as well!

CAC Sketch #4

Hang on folks cause I think you're going to like this card! I have to tell you that I saw the sketch for the week and instantly thought of a snow globe. Why? I don't know because the sketch shows flowers everywhere but I must have been thinking about snowflakes instead! I decided it was too late to start working on this so went to bed. I then woke up at 3am thinking how I wanted to do this and couldn't sleep! I laid there and laid there thinking about this darn card! I woke up the next morning, made some coffee and got to work. I tried a couple of different ways and didn't like the way they turned out. I kept trying though cause I just had to get this right! Well (drum roll please) here it is...

Now I don't know if you can tell but I punched a circle out of embossed cardstock (white with snowflakes). Then I cut a pink circle with my Coluzzle. I took one of my TAC stamps (it's retired) and manipulated the image so that it curved and would fit on the pink circle. That's one of the neat things about unmounted stamps. You can bend then and make then into different shapes. This sentiment wasn't very big so it didn't want to stay in the curve position. I just put a little removable Dotto on it and stuck it to my acrylic block. When I was done I just wiped the Dotto adhesive right off. I stamped the snowman on acetate and glued it to the pink circle. Next I stamped the snowman on white cardstock and colored it with my Copics. I then lined up the image on white cardstock to the image on the acetate. I adhered the cardstock with pop dots. Next, I glued the pink circle to the card front.

The stamp is by Penny Black and I was lucky to get it 1/2 off at my Hobby Lobby store. I went there looking for Spellbinder Dies and some how walked out with this stamp, along with a few other things that I got 1/2 off!

Thanks for looking!

Mystery Swap

Warning if you are in the TACTALK Mystery Swap you might not want to read any further because I'm going to share my creation!! I joined a swap on one of my Yahoo groups where I was sent an image and had to make a card out of it. I was sent this penguin image and the star. The only rule was that I had to use TAC papers. A few things I'm not sure you can see - I colored the star yellow and then used Crystal Stickles over it. I colored the penguins hat pink and then covered it with white Fun Flock.

I left the bottom portion open so that the recipients could add the sentiment of their choice. I used my colored pencils and OMS on this because I totally forgot about my Copics. I think the bright markers would have been so pretty with this paper! I've since rearranged my desk top so that my pencils and markers are beside each other. I'm very much a visual person so the more stuff I can see the more likely I am to use it!

Thanks for looking!

Calendars

I'm so excited about sharing these today! I finally finished my cookie sheet calendar AND I made an advent calendar for Abby. Can you believe it TWO projects and I have a week before they start...whohoo!! I spent a lot of time on each of these calendars as I hope they are with our family for MANY years. First up is my cookie sheet calendar.


There were certain stamps that I really wanted to use so I didn't worry about having an image on every square. All supplies are from The Angel Company. I really like the colors in the Reece SWIC collection and knew that I wanted to base the project around that.


This is a close up of the top. I used my Quickutz die for the "25". The glass pebble you see on the first square (with the star) is a magnet. That is actually what we will move each day. I had a hard time deciding how I wanted to do this. I finally decided on "Merry Christmas" because when it's on the 25th day it's Christmas and well that is the whole point of the calendar - to count down to Christmas! I couldn't find a stamp small enough to work with the pebble so that sentiment is actually from Stampendous.


And this is the bottom half. I REALLY like how it turned out! (can you FEEL my excitement???).

Next up is the advent calendar I made for Abby. I used a Karen Foster Advent Calendar and added paper from My Mind's Eye. I just LOVE this paper!! I bought a package of it and some extra sheets of my favorites! I have to tell you that you'll probably see this paper again in a later post (wink, wink!). I went shopping last night, and picked up a few goodies for this calendar. I'm going to fill it with candy, toys & trinkets, scriptures & journaling prompts. I want Abby to know more about the holiday than just Santa & toys!

I'm sure you can do a lot more to the calendar but I realized that you'll be opening each drawer so putting too much bulk isn't smart. I found that my punches were very close in size to the template that the calendar came with so decided to use that. I thought the scallops jazzed it up a bit.

So what do you think? I would love to know! Have I mention that I really REALLY like these :) Thanks so much for looking!

A few projects

I had a FUNShop! on Sunday and I did a card using the Dryer sheet Technique as well as a gift card. The gift card idea came from a video by Jennifer McGuire that was posted on one of my Yahoo Groups. Gotta love those groups for awesome ideas!

Here is the gift card. I used the Willoughby Collection from The Angel Company. I'm so loving this paper! I seem to be using it on many different creations lately. The colors are just beautiful and perfect for male or female recipients.


And here is the inside of the card:

I left everything blank on the inside so I can add a special note/letter or photo to it. It's a 4x4 size so a photo would look really good on the inside or back cover. Wouldn't this be great for birthdays too! It's very easy especially using my Scor-Pal. That is one of the best tools EV-ER! I use it all the time. Not just for cards but tons of other projects as well!

Here is the Christmas Card using the dryer sheet technique. It's kind of hard to tell but there is a dryer sheet adhered over the penguin image and glitter is rubbed in. It has a huge sparkle effect! On the inside we stamped Happy Holidays using L'Amore Red Palette Pad.

I colored the penguin with markers (I found the brighter the image the better!). The ladies were really pleased and can't wait for our next get together in 3 weeks.

Thanks for looking! If you have any questions, just ask!

All supplies used were from The Angel Company. Interested in purchasing? Just contact me.