One last Christmas card

Good morning! I'm sorry it has been so long since I posted. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!! We went out of town for Christmas for the first time since our children were born so my timeline was WAY off. I really intended to post one last time wishing everyone Merry Christmas, but things kept getting added to my "to do" list just so we could leave on time. So again I apologize for the lapse in posts!

This card is made with CC Designs "Reindeer Games" that you can get from http://allthatscraps.com/. The set also comes with sentiments about New Year's celebrations too so you can still use it!!! I colored with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits (my coloring method of choice these days, but I'm still practicing with my copics.) The pink background of the reindeer uses a flourish from the set and I stamped in versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder, I love making backgrounds like that. There is also some sparkle with the copic sparkle markers but I'm just not good at getting the sparkles to show.

Okay, hopefully my next post will move into winter cards, but one of our resolutions for the new year is to get our house organized and do a "clean sweep" on it, so we'll see just how much stamping time I get! On that list is cleaning and reorganizing my scrapbooking room, so I'm very excited about that part!

I did get a picture of all of our kids including one of our grandbabies (the other one is our step-grandbaby and he was at his mother's house) so I will post that as soon as I can upload it and get it ready! Oh, and just in case you were wondering, there are 8 days left until the LSU Tigers take the National Championship game :o)

Thanks for stopping by and have a GREAT day!!!

Merry Kissmas

Good Morning. Another Christmas card this morning, but this one is not as bright as mine have been lately. This one is using more muted colors from Deja Views. Stamps are from CC Designs - Reindeer Games, that I colored with prismacolor pencils and blended with mineral spirits. Of course there is some sparkle in there too :) the brackets are from the McGill parentheses punch and you would be surprised how often I use these, I love them. The photo anchor is from Quickutz and the flowers are from Prima. I inked around everything in maroon ink from Clearsnap, you know the catseye ones, they are my very favorite for inking the edges of things, well along with the Brilliance dew drop shaped ones.

Lots to do today, finish up shopping and wrapping as we are supposed to leave tomorrow.......

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!!!

Another CC Designs Card

Do you know how close Christmas is? I'm not ready yet, but I bet it doesn't wait on me. We are going down to Louisiana for Christmas this year, so I won't be posting for about a week or so, but I do have some new cards to post before I go. This one uses the CC Designs stamps from Wintertime Fun and Reindeer Games. I LOVE these penguins, they're just soooo cute. I used more paper from that ProvoCraft Holiday Slab, I promise this is the first time I have ever used this much paper from one of those, but I just love the papers in this one. I colored the penguins with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits, then their earmuffs I used Sakura Stardust pens, then I glittered their bellies with ultrafine glitter. I punched them out with a circle and adhered that onto scalloped circles then used a souffle white pen (love these) to make stitches around the penguin circles. I also pierced the scallops of the circles, but you can't see that as well. The middle penguin is pop-dotted. I LOVE this ribbon because it's a thicker ribbon that has a different pink on each side. I'm sorry but I don't know the manufacturer of it. That's about it for this one. Thanks for stopping by and I'll be posting more until I leave.

Very Exciting News

Well, my exciting news is that I have been chosen to be on the All That Scraps design team. I am totally THRILLED to be on this team. The card I made for my last post uses some of the CC Designs stamps that I will be using for the team. The store is All That Scraps and they carry many different manufacturers and a TON of stuff, so hurry on over there and check it out. http://allthatscraps.com/ While you are there take a look at the Design Team, hee hee!!! Here are a list of the new super talented ladies that I am on the team with. Check out their blogs too.

Crystal Spencer ---------- http://www.stampwithcrystal.blogspot.com/
Cyndi Bundy ------------- http://www.scrappychick.typepad.com/
Inge Groot ----------- http://ingemg.wordpress.com/
Jeanette Fincher --------- (well you're already here :o)
Katie Stilwater -------- http://stilwater.typepad.com/
Laurie Schmidlin ----------- http://justgivemestamps.typepad.com/
Lesa Rapp ---------- http://paperpossibilities.blogspot.com/
Linda Black --------- http://celebrationmoments.typepad.com/
Renée Van Stralen ------- http://www.reneevs.blogspot.com/
Shannan Teubner --------- http://withfeathersandsequins.blogspot.com/
Sue Berker ------------- http://www.berkerblog.blogspot.com/
Tricia Traxler --------- http://www.simplystamping.blogspot.com/


I just want to say thanks to Christine and Amy for this opportunity. I'm very excited and can't wait to get started!!! Thanks for letting me share, I hope you have a fabulous day!
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C.C. Designs stamps

I got them!!! The CC Designs stamps I ordered from All That Scraps http://www.allthatscraps.com/ came yesterday, about 1 hour before I was leaving to go to a wedding. Needless to say, I didn't get to play with them until today, but that's okay because the wedding was beautiful!! These stamps are so much fun! This is the first card I made with them. White card base that I made scallops with using my corner rounder about 1/2 or so from the bottom of the front of the card. The striped paper is adhered to the inside of the back of the card so it shows through when the card is closed. I stamped snowflakes from the Wintertime Fun set for the background. Then I stamped LuLu and snowman, the little penguin and the Little Snowman on white. I colored them with mostly prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits and a little bit of Copic marker in there too. There is Spica glitter pen on the penguins earmuffs and glitter all over the place (okay, really on the penguins belly, on both of the snowmen and on the scallops at the bottom of the front page. There is also liquid applique on LuLu's snowcoat trim. I cut the little snowman and the penguin out and pop dotted them onto the card. The Christmas Wishes sentiment is from the Reindeer Games set. These were so much fun to work with, I can't wait to make some more. Thanks for coming by, stay warm, and have a great day!!!

Eskimo Kisses

I don't know about you but at this time of year, there are always more things to be done in the day than there are hours. I love this time of year, but I love it even more when I'm a little more 'on time' than I am this year. I've been working on Christmas presents and most of ours we usually have to mail which means they have to be finished even earlier. This year we're going to Louisiana for Christmas so we'll take the gifts with us. I still have to mail a few though and that's what I've been working on. How many gifts do you usually make each year?

This card is made with a stamp that I bought because I LOVE the name of it. It's called Eskimo Kisses. I do love the stamp though, but really I bought it for the name, anyone else ever done that? Please someone say you have!!!! It's by Impression Obsession. I started with a blue cardstock base, stamped snowflakes from Verve Visual in Brilliance sky blue, and tied the May Arts ribbon. I stamped the snowcouple in Versafine black ink and I'm learning to use my Copic markers and sometimes I don't get exactly the look I'm going for so this is a blend of Copics and prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits. There is LOTS of glitter on them too :). The 'warm wishes' sentiment I added, it's from one of the Studio G sets. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this little snow couple stamp and I imagine it will get a lot of use from me. I also ordered some other stamps from Impression Obsession but haven't inked them yet. I will share when I do. Have a great day and thanks for coming by to see what's going on!!!

Gift Tags

These are some gift tags that I made to put on gifts, (obviously :o) They are so much fun to make and really don't take that long. I made some other ones with my cuttlebug small embossing folders but I don't have pictures of those yet, so I'll try to do that tonight. These are just cardstock bases cut into tag shapes (I hand cut mine), then they have a craft colored mat and then the white rectangle to write on. I used Quickutz dies to decorate the right sides all on pop-dots and the then little clothespins are from Michaels. They are by Lara's Crafts and come in a divided square with all of the ones I used here in the same package. FUN!! Hope you have a great day, and by the way I did get some of my wrapping done :o) Happy me!! Thanks for stopping by!

Celebrate the Season

Hi! It's a nice day here today. More wrapping in store (okay, I'm going to START wrapping, as many times as it's been on my list, there have been other things that have been moved in front of it, so cross your fingers that today is the day for wrapping :o)

This cards is based on the same sketch/game as the one from yesterday, but with a much different 'feel' to it. I love that you can take the same sketch and make cards that look so different or have 2 people take the same products and come up with two projects that look completely different. I am working on my goal of making sure that every stamp I own has been inked at least once. This one is one of the ones that actually was still in the plastic wrap because it comes in a set. I still love the set though, so I figured it was time to use it. It's a hero arts stamp. I also used the snowflake cuttlebug embossing folder, have I said how much I LOVE those things??? Some patterned paper once again from the Holiday slab from ProvoCraft, some Bazzill Bling, some May Arts ribbon and a while brad that I don't know who made. the trees on the stamp have lots of glitter on the snow on their branches, but you can't see that so well, sorry about that. Oh, and I used once again my favorite ink color for snow cards, Brilliance sky blue. Have a great day and I hope you're very productive in whatever you need to get accomplished!

ElzyBell in the Snow

Good morning! Snow and ice are still on the ground, but school started at normal time this morning.

There is a fun challenge on CardStudioDesigns, http://cardstudiodesigns.forumlivre.com/index.php?mforum=cardstudiodesigns&showtopic=490 that I made this card for. If you like sketches, it's kind of a take off of that. Come give it a try, I really enjoyed it. I LOVE the ElzyBell stamps. They are so cute! I also have some of the new CC Designs stamps on the way http://www.allthatscraps.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=360_361_545 and I can't wait to play with those as well!!!

This cards uses the snow cuttlebug embossing plate (I can't wait until the new ones are released, I find myself using these alot!), the ElzyBell stamp, some paper from that ProvoCraft Holiday Slab that I've been using lately. I don't think I have EVER used this much paper from one of those slabs, I bought 2 or 3 of them, but this one I've really used! The card also has Bazzill paper, some ribbon from Hobby Lobby, Bazzill Bling, a Quickutz flower which I think also looks like a little snowflake and a brad. The stamped square is up on pop dots. Oh, I also used Brilliance white ink to gloss over the embossed background, and my favorite Brilliance sky blue ink to ink around the square image. There is a lot of glitter that just doesn't show up well in the picture, but it does sparkle alot!

Well, stay warm today, and I hope you get to do lots of fun things. Thanks for stopping by!

Winter Wishes.......

Growing up in Louisiana we really didn't have such dramatic changes in seasons. In Iowa this morning we woke up to ice on the roads and the high temperature of 29 degrees, at 6:00am!!!! It's only supposed to get colder. I woke up at 6 and turned on the news to see if school was going to be delayed 2 hours. Much to my surprise our school was cancelled already. Usually our school district is one of the last ones to be called, but I knew it was pretty bad outside if our school was cancelled completely by 6:00am! So, I'm still in my pajamas and don't really know what time I will be getting out of them, it looks COLD outside.

I made this card a few days ago for a sketch challenge on CardStudioDesigns, http://cardstudiodesigns.com/, but I haven't had a chance to post it yet. Quite appropriate for today :o) This was a fun and easy card to make. I bought one of the ProvoCraft Holiday Slabs and the patterned paper is from that, I did use a stardust pen to outline some of the trees to make them sparkle. My card base is a shimmer cardstock from the Paper Company, I really, really, really, love this cardstock! There is also felt fusion from Queen & Co., Marvy Uchida scallop punches, the Winter Wishes sentiment is from Verve Visual, http://www.shopverve.com/, Bazzill Bling for the largest circle, and I used my favorite ink for snowy cards, brilliance sky blue! I hope to get some presents wrapped today and maybe even get some cards made, I'm kind of behind in both! Have a great day and stay warm!!

Framed Grandbabies

Hi - This post is much later than I anticipated publishing it, but that's how it goes sometimes. These are our grandbabies, Case and Tyler, the ones that I say aren't really babies anymore, but I'm still going to call them that :o) Amy, our daughter, gave us these Christmas pictures last year and I knew I wanted to do something with them so that we could look at them each year, but I didn't want them to be on the wall all year because of the Christmas theme. So, I finally figured it out. I made these frames and put them on our mantle. They look so cute (how could they not, with those cute faces inside them! :o) I dated them knowing that we will get Christmas pictures each year. Then I can just make frames for each year's pictures and have a display as they get older, that shows how much they've changed each year. I just think it would be fun.......What do you think Amy???? :o)

Just Stamping

Good morning! As I'm typing I'm watching out the window as little snowflakes are just slowly floating down to the ground. It's supposed to get alot heavier today, but I do love to watch it out the window! We already have about 4" on the ground, enough that we got the snowblower out. As a southern girl, I didn't even know how snowblowers worked when we moved up here :o) Now I'm glad I do!

For this card, I was challenging myself to use only stamps. I don't know about you but I'm kind of addicted to stamps. I see them at the store or on samples of things, or the way other people have used them on their cards on their blogs and I just HAVE to have them. Sometimes they get lonely because I don't immediately use them. Well, I'm trying to fix that loneliness problem. I've been trying to pull out stamps that either I've never used or that I haven't used for a long time. So, this challenge was going to help me with this and it did. Mission accomplished. I'm thinking about making a day that's just about that, making cards or whatever, with only stamps, no patterned paper, no embellishments (well, I did use gems on this one and ribbon, but they are accessories and don't contribute to the basis of the card :o)

Anyway, I used 3 different stamp sets, Fancy Pants - Pollen Dust, Heidi Grace, Wild Daisy Rd. and Heidi Grace, Marina Dr. I also used my corner rounder to scallop the bottom of the card. I cut out two of the main flowers and pop-dotted them onto the card, the centers of the main flowers are shimmer paper that I punched circles from, and then I added gems to the bottom flowers. Other than that this card is all stamping and it was fun to do, a little challenging, but fun! Thanks for stopping by and happy stamping (or whatever is on your to do list for today).

Merry Christmas

Good Morning! I'm working very hard at getting Christmas presents as well as Christmas cards worked on and today is supposed to be SNOWY and yucky outside so hopefully I will get many things finished. This card I made for a challenge, but I can't find which challenge it was for and usually I make better notes than that, but obviously not this time. Have you ever just stumbled across a stamp that actually called out to you and said, "I will be perfect for something you are going to do?" Well, my hubby was shopping with me one day and these two stamps actually called out to me. I was making a pocket card, which I had never made before, and these two stamps just popped into my mind as to how to use them on that card. Well, that card didn't turn out exactly like I pictured, but I might share that one at some time, but I LOVE these stamps! The "Merry" one is actually an outline and I color it in with my copics, it's by Printworks, and the "Christmas" one is by Endless Creations, Inc. I picked both of them up at my LSS. For the rest of the card I used a prism cardstock base, BG Figgy Pudding and the green stripes are a ribbon from Michael's. And of course my Prima poinsettias (have I mentioned I LOVE these?????). Have a great day and I hope we all have a very productive day!

Ben & Sara

I was browsing through pictures this morning trying to decide what card to show you (I try to get hubby to take lots of pictures of cards at once, then when I'm ready to post, I just have to choose :) But I came across this picture and I decided that since I talk about my children you should at least know who I'm talking about. These are the two youngest, Ben & Sara. Cliff was just playing around with them since it's almost time to take pictures for our Christmas cards and he got some really good ones. I LOVE this one. I think it really captures their personalities. I know Thanksgiving is over, but gratitude is ALWAYS. I am grateful that these 2 young people are in our life and I just want them to know that, which is why I scrapbook! We are going to Louisiana for Christmas, so I will get pictures of all the kids and the grands too so then I can share that too. Until then, hug you kids an extra time today for they truly are special!!! Okay, now I'll go back to trying to find a fun card to share. Have a great day!!!!

GEAUX TIGERS

GEAUX TIGERS

Okay, here it is, the LSU logo. I love their uniforms, especially their helmets, they have really cool helmets. So, as I said come January 7th, I will be sitting in front of my TV watching my Tigers play. They've done a great job this season and have been fun to watch most of the time. Okay, maybe the Arkansas game wasn't that much fun to watch. But I remain loyal to the purple and gold. Do you have a favorite team? Let me know......

Christmas Pail

Today is a GREAT day. LSU (my alma mater) will be playing for the National Championship on January 7th. This will be a "everyone watches the game at my house" day. I'm trying to find a good LSU logo to share with you but I haven't figured that one out, so I might be publishing another post later on to share my Tigers!

But, until then, these pictures are of one of the Stampendous clear pails that are so cute. I have a friend who hostesses an ornament exchange every year and on the invitations this year, she wrote, "and remember it's all about the wrapping." so I decided to use my pail. Inside I wrapped my ornament in tissue paper and then I used my shredder to make the confetti for the inside so I could stuff it all around the ornament. Then on the outside I used Basic Grey papers to wrap around the belly of the pail. The top has circles cut from the Basic Grey and then Sizzix has one of the long dies that has "tis the season" as part of it, so I cut that out of red Basic Grey. The snowman on the front is from Quickutz, and then I just tied 3 colors of ribbons in knots around the handle. I thought it turned out really cute and it was really fun to do. Sara and I have talked about doing these when she gives her girlfriends giftcards for their birthdays cause it's such a cute way to wrap things. Have a great day and I might just be back later to show you those Fightin' Tigers :)

Christmas is Coming Faster and Faster

I don't know about you, but it seems like Christmas gets here faster and faster each year. I always say I'm going to start in July getting my Christmas cards made and starting to at least prepare my lists so I can be organized when October gets here, but alas it hasn't happened yet. July brings it's own set of priorities. Well, at least I've started on Christmas cards and Christmas shopping, not close to being finished mind you, but I've started. My favorite part of Christmas is the week before, I love thinking about Mary and Joseph preparing for Jesus and Christmas Eve just warms my heart. It's a more peaceful time for me than Christmas Day ends up being so I guess I reflect more on the real meaning of Christmas the week before so I like to have everything I need to have finished, finished by then so I can enjoy this special time.

As I type this I'm looking out my window at the freezing rain that is pelting our windows. It's supposed to turn to snow and then back to freezing rain, so I guess we'll be working on inside decorations today :)

This card I made for another challenge. I really like doing these challenges, I find it gives me a starting place. I used patterned paper from ProvoCrafts's Holiday Slab ( I know lots of people don't like the slabs, and I certainly don't buy all of them, but I really liked the patterns in this one and I have used it on a few cards now and I really like it). I sewed the green polka dot paper on the center and then used a ribbon that's from JoAnn's I believe. The little yellow star is punched from Bazzill Bling. When I first started scrapbooking and making cards, I had an obsession with punches, kind of like I have an obsession with paper and stamps now :) So I have ALOT of punches and continue to purchase more. I also have die cut machines, but my punches still come in ever so handy! The last piece on this card is the Prima poinsettia, oh my goodness, these are BEAUTIFUL! I have used them on a couple of cards already and I'm going to have to go get some more because I'm afraid of running out! They come in a few colors but the ones I have are the dark red/burgandy ones. These are great! Okay, enough for my rambling today, thanks for stopping by and happy decorating, shopping, stamping, scrapbooking, relaxing, what ever your plans are today!