I'm a Grandma!!

Hi everyone! I thought I would do a quick post & show off my new grandson!! What's that you say? that I'm too young to be a grandma? lol, well that's what happens when you marry a man 15 years older who now has a 26 year old son. So, Justin's girlfriend Kayla gave birth to a healthy baby boy yesterday morning at 6:04am, making him a St. Patty's Day baby! Here are some pics & a video....

Fox Vincent Martin



Fox Vincent Martin born 3-17-12 at 6:04am, 6 lbs 8 oz, 19" long



Only 1 hour old!

Aren't those the cutest little baby noises he's making?! And how adorbs is that hat?! It was hand made by a hospital volunteer, which is so sweet. Anyway, just had to show off my new little man! I'll be back with another post tonight or tomorrow to show you a project I made for him. Thanks for visiting me today & sharing in my good news!

*** SEE MORE PICS ON MY PERSONAL FACEBOOK PAGE HERE ***

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hello my friends! I hope you are all having a wonderful week. We are just trying to keep from floating away! We got 6 inches of rain in the last 24 hours! Can you believe that?! Crazy!! I love the rain but geez...

Today I have a St. Patrick's Day card to share with y'all. I've had this design in my head for quite some time now & I'm pretty happy with how it turned out....(By the way...I'm totally addicted to challenges now! in case you couldn't tell, lol)

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

My Pink Stamper-  March Pinkalicious Blog Hop Challenge, "St. Patrick's Day! Think Green!"

Peachy Keen Stamps -  Peachy Challenge 08, "Anything Goes"

Cardz TV -  Cricut Cardz Challenge #104, "Wearing of the Green"

K Andrew Designs -  Simply Sunday Challenge, use green & white & 1 other color

Little Scrap Pieces -  "Luck of the Irish"

Creative Cutter Room -  Design Time Thursday, "St. Patrick's Day" Challenge

DL. ART -  Thankful Thursday Challenge, my chosen sentence is "Shamrock is the National Flower of Ireland"

Scrappy Moms Stamps -  Terrific Tuesday Challenge, "St. Patty's Day Challenge"

BBTB2 -  Project of the Week Challenge, use a shamrock & green

Simon Says Stamp -  "A Bit o' Green", St. Patricks Day theme

I used my Cricut Imagine for this entire card. All the colored papers are from the color pallette on the "Best Friends" Imagine cartridge, except the shamrock patterned background paper which is DCWV. I printed out a full sheet of pink paper for the card base & cut it down to make the card size 4" x 9". The shamrocks are from the "Designer's Calendar" cartridge (pg. 30, base & shadow features). The green shamrocks are cut at 2.2" & the pink shamrock at 2.5". I used 3 different Cuttlebug embossing folders:  D'Vine Swirls, Swiss Dots & the one that came with my machine which I can't find the name of. The twine is Peapod & Honeydew from The Twinery. The clear rhinestones are from my stash. The face on the pink shamrock is from the Peachy Keen Stamps Large Critter Faces set. The edge punch is from Fiskars. I used some pink chalk for the cheeks & a white Signo pen to fill in the whites of the eyes.

Thanks so much for stopping by today & I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week - and happy St. Patty's Day"!!

A Naughty Fishy

Howdy folks! We had a great day! Kitty Boy didn't have to be put to sleep after all. His jaw is broken, thanks to my Fox Terrier, Hugo (very bad boy!) I'm about to go pick him up from my vet & she said it will hopefully heal itself over the next month or two. So.... he has to be bathroom kitty for a little while longer, lol.

Anyway, on to the intended subject.... my card! For the first time I successfully updated my Gypsy (I was using the wrong program) - and to my sweet surprise I finally got the Smiley Cards cartridge to work!! Hallelujah!! In my little world it was a cause for celebration! So I have a feeling I'll be posting alot of projects from it!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

K Andrew Designs -  Simply Sunday Challenge, Pirate or Fishy theme

DL. ART -  Thankful Thurs. Challenge, any occasion card w/ min 3 layers, a bow & some bling

Whimsical Wednesday -  Challenge #45, "Going Green" (use any amount of green)

  
This entire card was made using my Cricut Imagine & Gypsy. The card base & 2 circle layers are from the "Imagine More Cards" cartridge (pg.25), cut at 5.5" (relative size) & flood filled with coordinating colors/patterns. I inked the edges of the layers & base with some VersaColor ink in "Umber". I embossed the light blue layer with the Cuttlebug "Spots & Dots" folder.

The fish image is from the Smiley Cards cart (Gypsy exclusive), cut at 3". Her little bow I made myself out of some Offray ribbon & used some "Star Dust" Stickles to add a little bling in the center. I used some Glossy Accents on her lips & eyelids. I inked some of her edges with Martha Stewart ink in "Hibiscus" (also used this color for the sentiment). I attached her with some Scrapbook Adhesives pop-dots.

The metal faux eyelets are by Mark Richards (from the $1 bin at Jo-Ann). I thought they looked like little portholes on a ship, lol. The little white dots are from a Signo pen. The plant is a piece of an adhesive border strip from K&Company. The white strip the sentiment is stamped on I cut by hand out of white cardstock with my Fiskars "Scallop" paper edgers.

The sentiment is a combo of 2 different stamp sets by K Andrew Designs. The "Who's" & the "?" are from 3 separate stamps in the "Owly Hoo Sentiments" set. The "Naughty" is from the "Winter Wishes" set. I know I've gushed about Kristal's stamps in previous posts but I'm probably gonna keep doing it so I hope no one minds, lol. Out of all the stamp sets I have her's are by far the most versatile. The mix & match possibilities are virtually endless! I can attest to this as I spent more time than I care to admit deciding which combination I was going to use! I know that most popular stamps these days are made with high quality photopolymer, just as Kristal's are, but I swear hers stamp crisper & clearer than any others. I am a loyal fan & customer for life!

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today! I wish everyone a fabulous week ahead!

Ring Around The Rosie....

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful week. Ever since the hubs & I retired from our business all the days are pretty wonderful around here! We are very very blessed....

Today's card was inspired by a card that my best blogging buddy made recently. I have had these little pink rose embellishments for over a year & always wanted to use them but could never think of a good way to use them. That is, until I saw Arin's card! To see her original post click HERE. Thanks for the inspiration my friend! And congrats on being "showcased" in the latest Die Cuttin' Diva's weekly challenge!

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

DL. Art -  Thankful Thursday Challenge, "anything goes"

Paper Playtime -  Delicious Die Cuts Challenge #69, "For the Girls" (use flowers)

ABC DT Challenge Blog -  "Springtime" theme

The base of the card is Coredinations white cardstock, cut with my Cricut Expression machine, using the "Art Philosophy" cartridge (pg. 42 - card feature). For the rest of the card I used my Cricut Imagine. All of the solid & patterned papers are from the "Lori's Garden" cartridge. The 2 background ovals are the coordinating layers from the same AP image on page 42 (base & tag layers). The rose bush image is from the "Freshly Picked" cartridge, cut at 4.3" The green bush part is embossed with the "D'Vine Swirls" Cuttlebug folder & inked with VersaColor ink in "Umber". All the inked edges on this card were done with this same ink.

The white satin ribbon is from Offray & the pink bow, pink fabric roses & pink pearls are all from my stash. The pink roses came with some green ribbon loops attached to represent the leaves but I didn't like the way they looked on this particular project so I removed them. I then used some dark pink Smooch to darken the crevices of the roses to give them more dimension. I finished them off with some Smooch "Pearlized Top Coat" for a little sparkle. I also used some Stickles in "Cotton Candy" on the ribbon cut-out under the bow.

The "love" sentiment is from My Pink Stamper's "Itty Bitty-licious" stamp set. To order this set or any of her other sets click HERE to choose from her retailers. This is currently my favorite MPS set!

Well, I think that's it for me today! Thanks so much for stopping by!....

God Bless.....

.....those affected by the tornadoes & storms in the midwest & south. Just a quick post to send my love out to all of those out there who are being affected by these disasters or who have family in harm's way. Of course, we don't have anything to compare that to here in California but that doesn't make it any less real or tragic. Personally, we've been glued to the TV the past couple days worrying about my brother & his girlfriend who live in Nashville, TN. By the grace of God the tornadoes missed them but they did have to take shelter in their basement & were definitely shaken up by the hailstorm they got!

Photo by Jay LeDuc on 3-2-12

This photo was taken by my brother 30 mins after the hail stopped & it was 84 degrees so it had actually melted quite a bit already when he took this photo!

While I am eternally grateful that my own family is ok, I know there are some of you out there who maybe weren't so lucky. My prayers & genuine love go out to those of you affected by these disasters. God bless everyone & may He continue to watch over you in this time of need....

My 1st Award Ever!!

OMG! OMG! I'm so excited because my cat & dog card from my 2/23/12 post is "showcased" HERE at the Die Cuttin Diva's blog. This was challenge #53 - favorite pet. This was literally one of my very first challenges so I'm beyond happy about being recognized! There were so many amazing projects! I just want to say thank you so much to the ladies at Die Cuttin Diva for choosing my card to showcase! So.... thank you! thank you! thank you!
                     
                          

If you haven't checked out the Die Cuttin Diva blog you should check it out! There is a new challenge posted if you want to participate....It's so much fun!!

Purple-licious

Hi there! I hope you all had a fab weekend! We had a good one - except for yesterday morning 3 of our dogs got ahold of one of our feral (wild) cats & tore him up pretty badly. His jaw is fractured & he has several large puncture wounds. He's home from the vet's now so we have a temporary cat ICU in my husband's office bathroom, lol. Hopefully he'll recover - poor little guy!

Anyway, I really wanted to enter a couple of challenges but with all the cat/dog drama I couldn't get my project finished in time to link up. However, I decided to carry out the challenges anyway, just for the experience & fun. The first challenge was over at DL Art & it was to use only the color purple & one other color. The other challenge was over at    K Andrew's blog & the theme was to do a wedding or engagement project. I was able to combine the 2 challenges into one card, which I had a blast making!....

I am entering this card into the following current challenges:

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog -  "Challenge Me Monday", theme is "Fancy Trims", use fabric or lace

Creative Cutter Room -  "Design Time Thursday", shape card (no squares or rectangles)

        

       

 

I used my Cricut Expression & Gypsy for this project. The card base is from the "Sentimentals" cartridge, cut at 5.25". All of the paper/cardstock I used is from my stash of loose papers, although I think most of it is Bazzill. The main image is from the "Damask Decor" cartridge, cut at 4". I used pop-dots for the main image on top of the twine & also for the birds by themselves.

The twine is "lilac" from The Twinery. The button, fabric flower, brad, eyelet, pearls & rhinestones are from my stash. The tiny lavender dots are from a Viva Decor Paper-Pen in "lilac". I used Stickles in "Star Dust" to outline the birds & on the tips of the fabric flower & "Lavender" on the eyelet & the heart brad.

All of the stamps on the outside & inside are by K Andrew Designs. I love love love her stamps! They are super high quality and the mix & match options are virtually endless! They are definitely a fabulous deal for the price & worth every penny. I used combinations from 2 sets: "Owly Hoo Sentiments" & "Winter Wishes". The little swirly flourishes on the inside are on the "Winter Wishes" set as well.

Well folks... I think that's all for today. Thank you so much for stopping by & taking the time to view my blog. I really appreciate all the super sweet comments too! See you real soon....

Love is a Four-Legged Word

Hello there! For those of you who don't know, I change my blog's theme according to the nearest holiday, hence my new St. Patty's Day motif  :)  Anyhoo, I'm really excited because I'm entering today's card in several challenges. I have only participated in 3 challenges before so I'm kinda nervous! Isn't that silly?! I couldn't help myself because my favorite theme is pets, dogs specifically & there are so many challenges with a pet theme right now! This is really a reach for me because I'm really shy & unsure of myself in this whole crafting/blogging world. There are sooo many talented crafters out there - it's very intimidating to me for some reason. I know I shouldn't feel that way - everyone I've chatted with so far has been super nice & encouraging, so I guess it's just in my head, lol. Well, I figure the best way to overcome any fear is to jump in & give it my best! Sooo (deep breath) here I go!...

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Paper Playtime - "Say it with Sentiments", theme is pets & a sentiment

Scrappy Moms - "Terrific Tuesday Challenge", theme is "Tag - you're it!"

Die Cuttin Divas -  Favorite pet

Crafty Ribbons -  "Paws for Thought", ribbon(s) required

Cardz TV -  "A Stitch in Time", use real or faux stitching


And here is my card....

     

First of all, I was almost done with this card when I noticed the major contradiction. Can you tell what it is? Yes, I used a 2-legged half-dog to go with the "Love is a Four-legged word" sentiment. I had to laugh at myself when I realized it! I really didn't want to change it & I figured it would just give the card more character & get a few giggles. Sometimes the most obvious things just seem to slip by me!...so I'm very used to laughing at myself!

Now on to the details....The card base is Kraft cardstock cut at 5" square from the Cricut "Art Philosophy" cartridge on my Cricut Expression. The rest of this card was made using my Cricut Imagine machine. All of the papers on this card are from the "Best Friends" Imagine cartridge, as well as the dog & cat images (which are mounted using pop-dots). I am currently obsessed with making my own double-sided paper & I just love incorporating the corner folds to show it off.

The paw print punch is from EK Success & the paw/bone embossing folder I actually have no idea who made it, lol. I bought it on eBay & it didn't say who made it in the description & it came without any packaging or sleeve or anything. It's my mystery folder! The bone brad & the 3D paw print are from my stash. The paw print ribbon is by Offray. I'm usually thoroughly annoyed by those little score marks the Cricuts put on a card feature, but this time I used them to thread my ribbon through. They're still annoying but slightly less now, lol. I used Stickles in "Diamond" & "Xmas red" to add a little bling to their collars. The little tag I cut by hand. The faux stitching around the perimeter is done with a Micron05 pen in brown.

The sentiment stamp is from the Scrappy Moms Stamps set called "Raining Cats & Dogs" I love love love her stamps & this is my absolute favorite set! I stamped it with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in "Walnut Stain".
                             

Phew! I think that's it! Thank you so much for stopping by & have a fabulous day!

My Super Hero

Hi again! I don't want to jinx myself but I think I fixed the problem of some of you not being able to see my pics. If you still can't see them, please let me know (so I can set my computer on fire, lol).

Anyway I hope you all had a nice V-day! The hubs & I just chilled at home with the dogs & had dinner, then he was asleep by 9:00 (sigh), lol. He gets me with the same joke on every holiday/bithday, which is "can you make me a real nice card to give to you?" Ha ha ha. So, I've just decided that what he really means is I should go buy myself some more supplies. That sounds logical right? lol.

Anyway, here is the V-day card I made for him.....
                
          

First off, the SV stands for Super Vinny (that's his name but no - he's not Italian at all, lol). I used my Gypsy & Imagine for this project, which I finally successfully downloaded the Imagine app! OMG! this is so cool I can't even stand it!!

This is a 5 x 7" card & the base is Kraft cardstock. The bird image & the wording are from the "3 Birds on Parade" Cricut cartridge. The "you're" above the sentiment is from a K Andrew Designs stamp set called "Owly Hoo", which I heat embossed. The background cloud paper is from a Debbie Mumm stack that doesn't have a name on it. The grassy hill is from the "Pop-Up Neighborhood" cart & the sun is from "Simply Charmed". I used Stickles in lime green, Black Diamond, Xmas red & Diamond, also some Glossy Accents on the sun & his beak. The little accent dots are from a Micron05 pen.

And that's all folks! I will be posting several new projects this week, including some challenge entries, if you want to stop back over & check them out. Thank you so much for visiting today! Have a great rest of your weekend!

Grrrr....

Hi guys! I've been having problems with some people not being able to see my photos in my recent posts. I've been trying to find out why & I'm currently waiting for a response from the blogger tech dept. I have some really cool projects to post as soon as it's fixed....hopefully soon!!

In the meantime.... it seems to work fine if you go thru this link HERE

(this was posted for a challenge at My Pink Stamper & seems to work ok as a round-about way to access my blog).....please let me know if you CAN'T see it this way either.

Also, it seems to work more frequently anyway if you use MOZILLA FIREFOX as your browser

Thanks!!

My Pink Stamper February Blog Hop & Challenge

Hi there! I hope you are having a fabulous Monday! Today's post is for the My Pink Stamper February Blog Hop & Challenge. If you want to participate in the hop you can go HERE & start hopping thru all the wonderful design team projects. If you want to purchase My Pink Stamper stamps you can go HERE & choose from her retailers.

The rules for this challenge are:
*Use the color RED, a circle, a pink ribbon & more than one My Pink Stamper stamp.

Here is my project....

            

                            

                             

                              

The card base is Kraft cardstock, folded size 4 x 8". The white base layer is white cardstock from my stash, embossed with the Darice "Layered Hearts" embossing folder (it might be hard to see but this is where I fulfilled the "use a circle" requirement). The 3 hearts are cut from the Cricut "Art Philosophy" cartridge, size 3.5" for the middle heart & 3" for the other two. The "Art Philosophy" cartridge is only available thru a Close to My Heart consultant - you can click HERE to check out their website & find a consultant. The red paper is a linen paper from The Paper Company & the pink shimmer paper is from my stash. The pink ribbon in the background is from Offray.

The stamps are from My Pink Stamper, of course! You can check them out by clicking on the link above at the beginning of this post. All 3 sentiments are from the "Itty Bitty-licious" stamp set, which is currently my favorite MPS set.

Well, I guess that's it for today! I have some baby shower projects I'll be posting in the next couple days & I hope you'll come back & check them out. Thanks for stopping by today!

Moo-chas Gracias

Whoo hoo! I discovered what my problem was & I won't bore you with the details but it had something to do with me having 2 gmail accounts. Anyway, I finished all the baby shower invitations & now I'm on to decorations & party favors. The shower is on Feb 12th so I have plenty of time but there are so many projects I want to do for it! I know, I know, I'm gonna have to choose which ones!

My mom offered to help me make a diaper cake (gulp!) but I still haven't decided if I'm brave enough to actually do it. I guess if I screw it up or can't do it I can just give her a giant bag or box of diapers! I know she'll appreciate them either way! I will be sharing all my projects as I go along over the next 12 days so please stop back by & check it out!

Before the baby madness sets in I had to do a thank you card for our former neighbor who had us over for dinner last week. She's 85 & still going strong! So here's the card I made, with the details below it.....

            
The card base is Kraft cardstock from my local JoAnn store. I cut it with my Cricut Expression & Gypsy using the "Art Philosophy" cartridge, at 5" using the card feature on pg. 34. If you want to purchase the Art Philosophy cartridge it is only available thru a Clost to my Heart consultant, which you can find by going to the CTMH website. This is totally a must-have cartridge! It comes in a bundle with a bunch of other awesome stuff so it's absolutely worth the $99!

Ok, moving on now.... The blue & green backgrounds were also from AP using the Base & Tag features on the same page as the card. Both papers were from my stash & the green was already pre-embossed. The cow image is from the "Pop-Up Neighborhood" cartridge, using the Accessory feature on pg. 54 & she's cut at 2.5". This was a Cricut circle exclusive cartridge & I really didn't care for the base images, but upon further investigation I discovered that it has the BEST Accessory feature ever!

Ok, moving on again (in case you didn't already notice I have a hard time focusing for more than 2 minutes at a time!)..... the tag is also from the AP cartridge, using the Base & Layer images on pg. 65. I used some Aleene's Paper Glaze on the red border. The sentiment is from My Pink Stamper's "Even More Punny-licious stamp set. I used "Black Diamond" Stickles on the nostrils & hooves, and of course some googley eyes. The twine is "Maraschino" from The Twinery.

Well, I think that's it! Now it's off to more baby shower projects!.... Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Blogger problems!!....

Hi everyone! I'm only able to write a short post because my Blogger won't save anything longer than about 10 lines. If I can't save it - I can't post it! So after re-doing the same new post 3 times I decided to take a break & try again tomorrow (actually I needed to take a break or I was gonna throw my computer out the window!). So I just wanted to let you know that I'm still here - I'm just having some issues right now. One way or another I'll be back soon with some really cute cards & projects!...

Baby Shower Invitations

Hello! I have taken a little break from blogging just because I've been so busy & had so many projects going on all at the same time. However, I thought I would take a few minutes & do a quick post of my major project of the moment......

My stepson & daughter-in-law are having a baby & she's due April 1st! We are having a big co-ed shower for them next month & I'm doing the invitations - 50 of them! I am the WORST mass producer ever! I normally put so much attention to detail into every card or project I make that it's very hard for me to do quick & simple, but I'm getting better at it now. Anyway, here are some pics of the invitations.... (I should mention that the baby is a boy & his name will be Fox, hence the fox on the invites)....
                      
                                 

                           

Here are the details....
The base is Bazzill cardstock in "Bitter Chocolate" cut at 5 x 7". I rounded the corners with my Fiskars corner rounder. I embossed the top & bottom, leaving the middle flat so that the blue paper would lay smoothly. I used my Cuttlebug machine & the "Seeing Spots" embossing folder. My daughter-in-law composed & printed the text on the light blue paper with her computer. I then cut them down to fit & edged the top & bottom with my Fiskars Paper Edgers scissors in the "Deckle" pattern. The fox is from the "Create-a-Critter" Cricut cartridge (size 2") & was printed & cut with my Cricut Imagine machine, then attached to the card with pop dots to give them some dimension. I added some Stickles in "Black Diamond" on each nose & a tiny bit of "Star Dust" on the tip of the tail.

Well.... I think that's it for today. I still have about 15 more to do so here I go! Thanks for visiting!

YaYas Rule!

Hello & happy new year!! I hope you're out doing something fun tonight!! I, of course, am blogging. Lol. My husband fell asleep at 8:30 so it's just me & the dogs eating fancy cheese & having our own little celebration.

My mom has a group of women friends who have been friends for 40+ years. There are 5 of them including my mom. In 2002, when the movie "Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood" came out, they began referring to their group as "The YaYas". As they do every year between Christmas & New Years the ladies hosted a party for all of their families. There are now about 30 of us in this big family. In honor of this event I made a banner & some party favors for them.....
              
                    
                                 
                                  
                                  
For this banner I used the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge, which I just got for Christmas from my mom! It comes in a bundle for $99 with a bunch of other stuff including 3 stamp sets & these stamps are the best I've ever used in terms of clarity & crispness. You can only order this bundle from a Close to my Heart rep so HERE is the link to do so. I can already tell I will be using this cartridge all the time! Anyway.... the letters were also cut from this cartridge. All of the papers came from the K&Company "Classic K Bailey" and " "McKenna" stacks. The twine is "Honeydew" & "Cappucino" from The Twinery. I used some Stickles for a little bling on some of the letters, using colors "Diamond", "Cotton Candy" & "Stardust".

Now..... on to the party favors.....
                                 
                                 
                      
I originally got this idea from two different blogs: My Pink Stamper & Pink Cricut. For the candies I used Hershey's Nuggets, which already have gold foil wrappers on them. I used papers from the same K&Company stacks mentioned above & either cut out the shapes with my Expression or used an edge punch. The candies are wrapped with 1 x 3" strips of paper. All of the stamps are "My Acrilix" from Close to my Heart (see above for link). Once again, I must say I love love love these stamps!!! To hold it all together I used little cello bags from my local Michaels store & a stapler. I am definitely using this idea again for my daughter-in-law's baby shower next month (yes, I'm going to be a Grandma!).

Phew!! That was a long one! I hope you enjoyed these projects & thanks so much for taking the time to look! Happy new year!!

Christmas Card Grand Finale

Happy almost new year! I was so busy making Christmas cards & doing family stuff that I never got around to posting anything. So.... these are some of my Christmas cards I sent out....

I have a real problem with mass producing cuz I want everyone's card to be unique. The drawback is it takes me sooooo much time, lol. But the good thing is I'm very fortunate to have lots of time to craft.

I managed to crank out 35 original designs. I sent our photo card to 60 people, which was my original goal of sending a handmade card with each photo card (you can see the photo I'm referring to on my last post). However, I think I should have started in September in order to accomplish that feat!

Anyway.... I will post each card with its description underneath....

                        
                       

The card base is white cardstock from WalMart & it measures 4 x 5". All of the paper was printed & cut with my Cricut Imagine machine, from the "Snow Angel" cartridge. The tree is cut at 3". I used my Cuttlebug "Swiss Dots" folder to emboss the brown layer. I used a Viva Decor Pearl Pen in "ice white" to make the little pearls. The rhinestone star is from my stash & the corners were chomped with my Fiskars corner rounder (small).

                                                

                         

This card base is white cardstock from WalMart & it measures 4 x 5". All the patterned paper is from the DCWV "Homemade Christmas" stack. The tree was cut at 3.5" with my Cricut Expression machine, from the "Joys of the Season" cartridge. I also used some Stickles in "Candy Cane" for the outlines & dots. The twine is "Maraschino" from The Twinery.

                        
The base of this card is white cardstock from WalMart & it measures 4 x 5". The rest of the card was done on my Cricut Imagine machine with the "Snow Angel" cartridge. The silver snowflake in the center is a brad from my stash. The scalloped corners were done with a Fiskars corner punch & the twine is "Honeydew" from The Twinery. I outlined & accented with "Cotton Candy" Stickles & a Pearl Pen in "ice white".
                               
                               
                  
This card base is made with red Coredinations cardstock, size 4 x 5". The background layer & the deer/bird image are printed from my Imagine "Snow Angel" cartridge & the background layer is punched with a Martha Stewart punch. The twine is from The Twinery. The stamped sentiment is 2 seperate word stamps, both from the K Andrew Designs "Winter Wishes" stamp set. Her stamps are truly awesome & her sets have so many mix & match options it's almost endless!

Well.... I think that's a pretty good sampling of the cards I did this Christmas. I hope you enjoyed them & thanks for stopping by!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Happy Howl-idays!

Hi friends! I just thought I would share our Christmas card photo with you guys. My poor babies were not very happy about it (except Hugo, who seems to enjoy workin' it for the camera)! Every year I make them dress up & wear antlers or some silly thing but they are always good little troopers & tolerate the torture (barely)!......

Haylee (3), Hugo (5) & Lexi (11)



Quick Altered Comp Book

Howdy! I just threw this together for my friend's birthday & thought I would do a quick post & share it. This was really easy & took me about 20 minutes to do....

                       
                                                         
The color really doesn't represent well here as it is actually a brighter pink in person. I used a standard 7 x 9.75" comp book & covered it with a patterned paper from the DCWV "Madly in Love" stack. The ribbon on the edge is from my stash. I did her name using my Gypsy, the internal cartridge "Gypsy Font" & the welding feature. I also covered the back with a coordinating pattern from the same stack....

                              


That's it! Super easy peasy! Thanks for stopping by!
                                                    

A Christmas Card....

Hallelujah!! I finally figured out how to get bigger pictures on here!! There was an issue with my browser apparently, but thanks to those of you who sent me their suggestions!

This is a card I did earlier today when I couldn't decide which image I wanted to use next (anyone else suffer from this problem??) The result? A very busy card! I know this particular reindeer is a very popular image but I just love him so much that I have to use him at least once every Christmas....

 
This card is 4-3/4" square (don't ask about the weird size - I had some issues, lol). The background papers are from the DCWV "Merry Christmas Stack" & the background scalloped image is from the "Songbird" cartridge (p.61) & was cut with my Cricut Expression machine. All the other images were printed & cut with my Cricut Imagine machine. The reindeer is from the "Create A Critter" cartridge & is cut at 2-1/2". The tree is from the "Winter Frolic" cartridge & is cut at 3". The lights are also from "Create A Critter" & are cut at 1-1/2". I used several different colors of Stickles & some Glossy Accents for the antlers, hooves & spots.

Well.... I think that's it for today! I'll be posting more cards & projects throughout the week...
And, of course, a continued happy holidays to everyone!

Christmas Name Tags

Hello!! I hope everyone is having an awesome Wednesday! It's a beautiful day here in my little corner of the world...

I know I just did a post on name tags a couple weeks ago but people keep asking me to make them & I keep crankin em out! This pic is of some of the ones I did for a friend to tie onto her family's Xmas stockings. I did 12 of them total but you get the idea from looking at these 4....

By the way, that reminds me.... does anyone out there know how to make iPhone photos bigger on a Blogger post? If I try to make it any larger than "original size" it gets really distorted.... If anyone has any wisdom on this subject I would really appreciate some feedback! Thanks! ....

These were all done with the Cricut "Speaking of Winter" cartridge, using the base & layer features, cut at 2". All the lettering was printed & cut on my Cricut Imagine machine & the tags are from the Cricut "Plantin Schoolbook" cartridge & cut with my Cricut Expression machine (and Gypsy of course!) from heavy white shimmer cardstock. The tags were cut at 3" in height with lengths varying from 7-8". I used some Stickles in "Diamond" & the ribbon is from Celebrate It (by Michaels). Finally, the edges were inked with Studio G ink in bright red & deep green.

Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of the week!!

Happy Birthday Chick!

Hello my peeps! I hope everyone is surviving yet another holiday season.  We are just trying to keep everything grounded here at the ranch during these horrible wind storms! I seriously think I saw a chicken blow by me yesterday, he he he. All I can say is thank God Vinny cut back the GIANT Valley Oak tree that was literally hanging over our house!

Anyway, this is a card I made for a friend's birthday the other day. . . . .

This card was actually super easy & quick! I held off on getting a Cricut Imagine machine for so long because I thought it took away so much of our creativity. However, I find that it is an awesome supplement to my Cricut Expression because sometimes you just need a quick card & don't have time to pick out all the different papers (which is exactly what happened in this case).

This is a combination of 2 different images on the Imagine More Cards cartridge. The card base is from the 1st layer of the image on p.25 & the rest is from the images on p.10. The card base is cut at 4-1/4" & the other images are cut accordingly. The twine is "Cappucino" from The Twinery.

Thanks for stopping by!. . . . .

More Llama Drama....

Hello again! I just realized I never followed up about our poor lonely llama, Lily. Well . . . about 2 weeks ago we finally got her a new friend! This is Dahli . . . .

And here is a video of her first meeting with Lily (the white one), who is acting like a stuck up b-word in this clip but she's slowly getting used to her new friend . . . .

Have a great day!!

I'm baaack!! (with name tags)

Hello everyone! I have not blogged in almost 2 weeks so I'm gettin back on the proverbial horse today. I've been super busy, as I'm sure everyone is this time of year. On top of that our internet was out this whole past week. There are very few drawbacks to living in the boonies but the biggest one would have to be our internet situation (followed closely by mountain lions). We're not on satellite anymore - thank God! but this new internet provider we have consists of 3 guys & a tiny office. So when our internet goes out over the long holiday weekend there's no one answering the phones till Monday. Luckily it just miraculously came on about 3 hours ago. I was totally freakin out! I mean tomorrow is Cyber Monday for Pete's sake! And this chick is all about the online shopping! I haven't been in a mall in years & I will do everything within my power to keep it that way.

Plus......I'm a huge QVC & HSN junkie. I have one or the other streaming live on my laptop pretty much every waking hour. Oh yeah.... and I also have a little eBay addiction problem. The hubster has to cut me off occasionally when I get out of control, lol. But now I'm rambling so on to the project we go!.....

Some family friends of ours asked me to make these name tags to put on the front of their shoe baskets in their mud room (very Pottery Barn-esque I know). They still need to be mounted to a wood background but that's Vinny's department! Once they're mounted to the wood we will (he will) drill 2 holes in the top so we can use a ribbon or wire to attach them to the baskets. I love doing personalized stuff like this for people! It's so much fun figuring out a color scheme, size, font, etc. And it gives me a chance to reflect their individual personalities a little bit. So..... here are the pics......

Here is a quick summary of the elements I used:  all paper from DCWV & Colorbok; Cricut cartridges: Songbird, Gypsy Font, Feeling Groovy, Cuttin Up & Calligraphy. I used Aleene's Paper Glaze to give the names some dimension. The size of each tag is 6-1/4 x 3".

Thanks for visiting me & have a fabulous week!

Imagine Paper Sample Ring Thing-y

Howdy! So the iPhone is here, activated & ready to rock! It's definately gonna take some getting used to but I think it's gonna be more awesome than I can imagine. Speaking of imagine (oohhh.... check out that segway huh?) Today I'm displaying this Imagine paper sample ring I made. I actually lifted this idea from Robyn at My Pink Stamper but I thought I'd show you how mine looks completed. You can check out her video of this project HERE. So here we go!....

This is what it looks like all put together....

I used this snap ring thingy, which you cannot find at WalMart (Robyn mentions getting them at WalMart in her video), at least not at the WalMart in Windsor, CA. I ended up getting these at Beverly's & they're made by 7 Gypsies. I got a pack of 10 for like $7 I think.  

All I did was print out all the patterned paper on each Imagine cartridge I have. They all have 20 patterns per cartridge. I just selected the square shape from the pre-loaded images on my Imagine, set at 2" & popped in each pattern. It's a little time consuming but soooo worth it! At the 2" size all 20 patterns on the cart will fit easily on one page. I wrote the name of the cartridge on the back of each square (you could use computer labels if you want). Then I punched a 1/4" hole in all of them, put them on the ring & voila!! I organized mine by color within each cart but you can obviously do it however you want.

I was a bit skeptical on whether or not this would really help me but it has already helped me so much! I don't have to flip thru the books to coordinate my paper patterns. Plus it makes it super easy to coordinate patterns from different cartridges.

I hope you enjoyed my little OCD project! Lol....

iPhone-tabulous!

Hello there! I have been holding off on posting anymore pics cuz I'm so tired of the crappy pics my Blackberry takes. However, the long awaited moment is finally here.... my iPhone 4s came today! Unfortunately we are unable to activate it till tomorrow cuz the Verizon activation server is down :( But I've waited this long so what's another few hours?! Anyway, my point is I will be taking some hopefully fabulous pics of my latest cards & posting them over the next couple days, so stay tuned!.......

P.S.  I don't know if anyone else out there likes Pit Bulls but I am obsessed with them! Anyway you can check out the new iPhone cover I bought HERE.  Get it? Hello Pittie instead of Hello Kitty? Ha ha ha! I crack myself up! This site is awesome for all kinds of things, you should check 'em out http://www.cafepress.com/

To the Bloggers I Follow.....

Hi my favorite peeps! I just wanted to post this real quick cuz I'm having problems with my blogger page erasing my "blogs I follow" section. I had entered over 20 blogs & now it has dropped everything except for 8 of them. I've tried re-entering them but it always goes back to the same 8. I can't figure out what the heck is going on but I just wanted to tell everyone I follow that I didn't purposely drop your blog from my list. I don't know if I still show up as a follower even though it's not listed but I will find out what's going on & get all my faves back on my page! Maybe someone else out there has had this problem? If so any advice would be greatly appreciated cuz it's really irritating me! Thanks!

The Cutest Couple EVER!

Hello hello hello! I hope you are having a fabulous Friday & looking forward to the weekend. I sure am & the best part is I have noooo plans.... can you say craft-a-thon?! LOL. We recently retired from a business we had & it's so exciting to have so much "me" time now!

Today's card is one I made for my hubby for our 5th anniversary. I'm cheating a little cuz our anniversary was back in August but I just love this card & had to share it anyway. I just love it when my cards turn out way better than I thought they would. It doesn't happen all that often but it's cool when it does! And since I always have to make excuses for my crappy Blackberry camera my hubby just ordered me an iPhone! It won't be here for a week or 2 but when it does I'll finally be able to post decent pictures that are bigger than a damn postage stamp! Can't wait!

OK so here are the details of this card.......
This is a 5-1/2" square card. I rounded the edges with my Fiskars small corner punch. The card itself is just made from some white cardstock from my stash. The black 1st layer & the grey & black on the dude are from DCWV's "Black Currant" stack. The cardstock used for the 2nd base layer & the sentiment are from DCWV's "The Luxury Stack". The bride, groom & sentiment are cut with my Cricut Expression Pink Journey Edition machine & designed on my Gypsy. The bride is cut at 3" & the groom is cut at 3-1/2" (they are both from the Cricut "Simply Charmed" cartridge).The sentiment is from the Cricut "Beyond Birthdays" cartridge, cut at 1-1/2".  I used Stickles (which I got from Beverly's but they're available lots of other places too) on the bride's headband & flowers. I embossed her dress with my Cuttlebug V2 using the "D'Vine Swirls" folder (I love this folder & use it more than any other). The loopy punch on the bottom is from Martha Stewart. The ribbon is from my stash & the 3 little white pearls on the ribbon are too. The white faux stitching is done with a white Uniball Signo pigment ink pen.

Well..... I think that just about covers it. Thanks for stopping by & I'll see y'all again real soon! Have a great weekend!.......