Just A Little More Christmas....

Hello friends! I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season! I haven't posted in a while because I was just too busy with getting ready for Christmas, as I'm sure many of you can relate. My Christmas was awesome & I wanted to share my most favorite gift, which my husband gave me....

Yes, it's the new teal Cricut Expression 2! Isn't she beautiful?! It's a Michaels exclusive & it comes with the "French Manor" cartridge. Of course it also comes with the 2 pre-loaded cartridges: "Cricut Alphabet" & "Cricut Essentials". Since I already have 3 Cricuts in my craft room, I have to do some rearranging before I hook it up. I'm in the middle of remodeling my craft room so I just have to wait to find the perfect spot for it, but I can't wait to try it out!

Anyway, I do have a card to share with you today. I made it before Christmas, but haven't had a chance to post it until now....

SIZE:  5.5" square
CRICUT:  Imagine
CARTRIDGES:  "Mr. Frosty", "Art Philosophy", "Create A Critter 2"
EMBOSSING:  Cuttlebug with "Distressed Stripes" folder
PAPER:  Core'dinations white cardstock
OTHER:  Stickles "Star Dust" & "Xmas Red", CTMH Liquid Glass


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Entering in these challenges:

Card Makin' Mamas -  Christmas or New Year's
Craft Junkie Too -  TGIF Linky Party #78, anything goes
Cute Card Thursday -  Challenge #249, anything goes
Die Cuttin' Divas -  Challenge #95, "More Holiday Spirit"
Divas By Design -  Challenge #66, anything goes
DL.ART -  Thankful Thursday Challenge/Linky Party, anything goes, 2nd entry
Dream Valley -  Challenge #47, Christmas, 2nd entry
Every Day Is An Occasion -  Sunday {Fun}day #4, anything goes, 2nd entry
Go Fish -  Challenge #31, anything goes
Hiding In My Craft Room -  Challenge #78, "Freestyle"
Little Scrap Pieces - Fun Friday Challenge, "Winter"
Party Time Tuesdays -  Challenge #100, anything goes
Pause Dream Enjoy -  Challenge #52, anything goes
Simon Says Stamp -  Anything goes
Simply Create -  Linky Party #15, anything goes
Stuck On U Sketches -  Die Cut Challenge, "I Deer-ly Love Christmas"
Totally Gorjuss -  Challenge #164, "New" ("Create A Critter 2" cartridge is new)


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Thank you for visiting me & have a fabulous day!!

-Diana :)

Thoughts & Prayers

Hi everyone. I just want to do a quick post to express my condolences to the victims & families in Newtown, CT. It's so hard to accept that one very ill person could cause so much heartbreak to so many. There's really nothing I can say to make it better, but I want to offer my prayers & love to those affected by this tragedy.

It's times like this when our faith in God can be challenged, but it's times like these when we need Him most. I wish for everyone to have faith & know that prayer does work & God can ease the suffering if you let Him into your heart. My love, prayers & thoughts go out to all the dear people suffering from heartbreak tonight & always. May God be with you....

-Diana :)

Giveaway Winner!....

Hello friends! I hope you are all having a lovely week! I apologize for not doing this earlier today, but I have a winner for last week's CTMH Inspirational Wednesday giveaway. And the winner (selected using random.org) is....

LISA (A Mermaid's Crafts)

Congratulations Lisa!! Please email me at: leeleecarddesigns@gmail.com with your mailing address so I can get your CTMH Idea Books right out to you :)

One more thing.... We will be taking a short break from our CTMH Inspirational Wednesday posts until after the holidays. We will resume our normal posting schedule on 1/9/13. Of course, I will still continue to have regular posts during this time. As usual, you may shop for CTMH products anytime at my online store by clicking HERE or the icon at the top left of this page. 

Thank you for stopping by & have a fabulous day! 

-Diana :)

Fabulous "Folk Art Festival"

 ***To check out my current giveaway, please click HERE ***

Greetings crafty friends! I hope everyone is surviving the holiday madness, lol. My biggest challenge around this holiday time is to stop buying stuff for myself & start focusing on others. I know it's really selfish, but is it still bad if I'm confessing it? I know - clearly I have issues, but who doesn't, right? I'm just sayin'....

Anyway, enough about me (at least for right now). I have a Christmas card to share with you today, which I'm very excited to say that I made with my new "Folk Art Festival" cartridge. I saw this cartridge when it first came out on "Hello Thursday" & I have been obsessed with getting it ever since. So, after going to 3 different Michaels stores (it's a Michaels exclusive), I finally found one! And it was on sale for $34, so merry early Christmas to yours truly! So, here is the first card I've made with it....

 

SIZE:  4.5"

CRICUT:  Imagine

CARTRIDGES:  "Folk Art Festival" & "Mr. Frosty"

PAPER:  Core'dinations

INK:  CTMH Exclusive Inks "Hollyhock"

OTHER:  JoAnn glitter, Zig glue pen, foam tape

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Entering in these challenges:

Crafty Friends -  Challenge #12, CAS
Cricut Cardz -  Challenge #122, "Tis The Season"
Die Cuttin' Diva's -  Challenge #94, "Holiday Spirit"
Divas By Design -  Challenge #64, "Let It Snow"
DL.ART -  Thankful Thursday Challenge/Linky Party, anything goes
Dream Valley -  Challenge #47, Christmas
Every Day Is An Occasion -  Sunday {Fun}day #4, anything goes
Go Fish -  Challenge #30, Christmas
Joyful Stamper -  Inspire Me Fridays #88, anything goes
Little Scrap Pieces -  Fun Friday Challenge, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas"
Scrappy Moms Stamps -  Terrific Tuesday Challenge, "Christmas Time"
Simon Says Stamp -  Snowflakes
Totally Gorjuss -  Challenge #161, "Oh No Snow"
2 Sisters -  Challenge #121, Snowflakes
Use It Tuesday -  Challenge #45, Christmas/Hannukah, (stash item is "Mr. Frosty" cartridge, which I haven't used in over a year)


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Thank you so much for stopping by & have a fabulous day!

-Diana :)

CTMH Inspirational Wednesday #4 ***With A Giveaway***

Hello & happy Wednesday to you! It is, once again, raining like mad here & we're anticipating more power outages, flooding, washed out roads & fallen trees. I love the rain & winter is my favorite season, but it scares me a little when we have this much rain. I hope everyone is managing to stay safe & at least somewhat dry!....

Today's post represents the 4th week of a new venture that two of my CTMH sister consultants & I are doing. We're calling it CTMH Inspirational Wednesday & it is simply us showing you projects we've made with some of the fabulous Close To My Heart products.

For some more awesome inspiration, please check out Patti's projects HERE & Linda's projects HERE.

To see all the wonderful products CTMH has to offer, please click HERE to visit my store.

Today I have another card I made using the CTMH card kit "Around The Holidays"....

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And now.... onto the giveaway!....

These are CTMH Idea Books (Autumn/Winter 2012 & Spring/Summer 2012). These are so much more than just a catalog! Each 144 page book contains tons of inspirational project ideas, tutorials & tons of pictures of amazing cards, layouts, home decor, etc.

All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment on this post by 12/11 at 11:59pm PST. I will use random.org to pick the winner, which I will announce on my next CTMH Inspirational Wednesday post on 12/12.


Thank you so much for visiting me & have a fabulous day!

-Diana :)

Fun With New Stuff

Hello everybody out there in blog-land! I hope you are all surviving the madness that is December, lol. We had some outrageous storms over the weekend, which left its mark on our property with washed out roads, flooded vineyards, fallen trees, etc. I am very grateful that it's all fixable stuff & I know I'm so lucky compared to so many who had real life-changing damage from Superstorm Sandy. I don't even dare to compare, but being in California my whole life, this storm was definitely a big deal for us!

Moving on.... I do have this "Thank You" card to share with you today. I recently acquired some Anna Griffin & David Tutera items & have been having a lot of fun playing around with them....Here is one of the first cards I've made....

Below is the inside of the card, which is hard to read due to the glare from the gold embossing, but it says "You're The Best".....

SIZE:  A2

PAPER:  Anna Griffin, David Tutera, Core'dinations

STAMPS:  CTMH "Kudos" set, Inkadinkado single stamp

EMBOSSING:  VersaMark watermark stamp pad, Recollections embossing powder "Clear Gold", Marvy Uchida heat tool

PUNCH:  Martha Stewart 

RIBBON:  Anna Griffin

INK:  CTMH Exclusive Inks "Desert Sand"

OTHER:  Fiskars Paper Edgers "Victorian" & "Clouds", adhesive gold dots from my stash 

Thank you for visiting me!!

-Diana :)