"Bruno" comes home (last of the pet posts

Santa brought sweet Bruno to the girls this morning. He's bushed from running, walking and exploring. In the immortal words of the "mom" on Raising Arizona - "I just love 'im SO MUCH!! Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Last minute Gift card holder

Hi all! Thanks to Julie at Paper Pleasing Ideas I was able to whip this up for my SIL before I head over to her house. She's got a great tutorial here that was a great help. Here's what I came up with using Cerise from SU and Real Red and Riveting and Papertrey's joy to the world. It was fun and quick although I had difficulty with the scoring. Anyway MERRY CHRISTMAS and thanks for visiting.

The newest member of our family

We are calling him Shatzi for right now. He's a surprise for our DDs. We'll sneak him in on Christmas Eve. He's so incredibly adorable! He had a rough day traveling to Virginia from Illinois. I'm already in love.

Joy banner

My wonderful demo had us make this awesome banner from the catty. I love the way it looks on the mantle. I look forward to hanging it each year.

more tags

I used K and Co. peppermint stick paper for the ornament. I cut it out with my coluzzle. Then I added the ribbon and faux stitching. The sentiment is SU

This last tag was done using all SU stamps. I think it's self-explanatory and very simple

Tags, Tags, Tags

I was pretty impressed with Tim Holtz' Christmas Tags. They were incredibly inspiring. The first one I'm uploading was inspired by one of his tags, but nowhere as ornate and beautiful. I used SUs lovely as a tree and the retired Christmas greeting set. I embossed the tree in old olive on glossy cardstock. Brayered several colors over it and then smooshed the colors with first a wet paper towel and then a dry. Then I embossed the greeting in StazOn jet blacka nd clear embossing powder. I mounted the finished tag on SU Cool Caribbean, aged it all with a sponge and Chocolate Chip ink and then used my Crop-a-Dile to put in the pretty silver square eyelet. I really liked that eyelet. I almost forgot that I used a glue pen and dazzling diamonds to glitter up the tree.

The wind is blowing like crazy here, but it's balmy compared to our 40 degrees yesterday. (I realize for many of you, that's already balmy).

I'm off to my stamp swap, so I'll post again later. THanks for visiting and checking out the tag.

baby boho

This is kind of a bohemian baby card, for the young couple next door. They just had a baby last week! It's the first baby born in our neighborhood since my youngest! 7 years ago! We are getting ready to take the gift over and I wanted to upload the card before I did. Hope you all have a nice weekend. I will be uploading some tags tomorrow.

Recipe:

Paper: SU coral, ruby red. Basic Grey DP and watercolor paper from Michael's

Ink: Ruby Red, olive, coral

Access: markers: ruby red, chocolate chip, and coral.

olive ribbon from Michaels', corner rounder

RAK from Cindy

How cute is Cindy's card? This is my very first happy mail! What an awesome surprise to receive in the mail. I love the DP and the tree is totally sparkly. I love this card! Thanks, Cindy!

Masculine Congrats

This is for a friend's brother-in-law who was promoted in the army. I cased it from the following: The original is very pretty.


http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/718084?cat=10562
I can't wait for Christmas to get a new camera!!!!


Here's the recipe:


paper: River Rock (SU) , Apple Cider DSP (SU), Real Rust (SU)


ink: Chocolate Chip


oval punch (Marvy)


brads


heidi swapp edge distresser





I was happy with the look of the oval punchouts. They reminded me of hinges. I probably should have distressed them as well.





The weather here is incredible. I keep reading about all the cold temps out west and north and am feeling for you. We are expecting a high of 85 tomorrow in southeastern Virginia. We're trying to stay in the spirit tho! I would love a great "shut down the town" snow this winter, though. We only really need a couple of inches though for everything to shut down. Being a teacher, I'm up at the crack of dawn like the kids, checking the school closings whenever we get white stuff.

The other exciting thing going on is that we are expecting a puppy next week! We are having one sent from Illinois from a breeder my husband found on line. We are totally surprising our girls who have been BEGGING for a pup! I'll upload a pic of the litter he is coming from! I don't know which is ours. I have to find the file. But first, off to bed. TFL!!!!

Wild About the Dollar Spot!

I got this clock at the Target Dollar Spot (for 2.50) this summer. I finally altered it for my daughter's bedroom. I just added Garden Green and DSP from the sampler pack cut with my Coluzzle. I glued them with Tacky Glue. The images are from SU's Wild About You. They were stamped and matted with Rose Red.

My daughter is a huge animal fan, so this goes perfectly in her bedroom - and she can add photos to the clips. She's gonna love it! Hope you like it too. I kept it very simple so it wouldn't compete with her decor.

Counting Down To Christmas

Hello. I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving. My family and I had a great get together will good food, tons of laughs, and a couple of soccer games in the backyard. It was truly great.

I worked for the last couple of days on this advent calendar, inspired by my demonstrator. Hers is really quite beautiful.

Anyway, I used K and Company Peppermint stack DSP, SU Retired Holiday Basics and Frosty (days, from happy holidays), Rhona Farrer Script Clear Stamps, SU Brushstroke Numbers & Brushstroke Alphabet, SU Real Red, Wild Wasabi, and Whisper White. Ink Colors are Real Red, wild Wasabi, and Sage Shadow. I printed two colors of the snowman and tree and cut and paste. I adhered the papers to the clipboard with Tacky Glue and Mod Podge. I used the awesome Crop-A-Dile to cut holes for the Martha Stewart ribbon. It went through the clipboard like buttah! For the numbers, I punched circles and tabs and adhered them with brads which are magnetic! They stick nicely to the magnetic tape on the board.

Thanks for looking today.

Thankful Banner

I CASEd the Thankful Banner from the SU holiday catty. I loved the way it turned out and went out and bought some beautiful Martha ribbon that coordinates nicely. I made very few changes but it was so fun to put together. I'll be making the Christmas banner for sure. Here are some detailed pics. I used the apple cider paper DSP and glue stick to keep it all together. Of course, I also used my Crop-a-Dile to punch holes. Thanks for visiting! Hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Isn't this ribbon gorgeous? I wish I had a better

picture to show you.

Blog Candy Times 2!

Hello! I have decided to Pay it Forward because I love the idea! Here's how it works. The first 3 comments get a handmade gift from me within 365 days! (I'll email you for snail mail address). Then those three do the same on their blogs! What a great community we have :).

I've got some posts coming up. Sorry about the delay, but I'm having camera issues. Here's an older project of mine... It was made with Stampin Up's Bonjour set.

Also, follow this link to Erika's blog for some awesome blog candy. She has a GREAT site and 10,000 hits! Congrats to her!

Paper Bow Success!

Again, my issues with the camera.... I tried the bow tutorial from splitcoast and it was pretty simple! I thought it turned out kinda cute, but I'm sure I'll get better with practice. I used the sampler pack from SU of the 6X6 paper that was a promotion in aug/sept. Follow the link ahead for the tutorial;
paper bow. Exciting! I just did my first link. I am SO a newbie.

Merry! Frosty

Hi all! I cased nitestamper, the featured stamper at http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/703096?cat=10720. I really loved her layout. I wanted a Christmas card for an upcoming swap and wanted to use SU's Frosty. I feel like he may not make the next SU catty. I used my cuttlebug to add some texture to the background and I used my crop-a-dile to add "snowflakes" to the whisper white sheet. I'm not sure if that shows in the photo or not. Anyway, I hope you like it, if you happen upon my blog!

Surprise Birthday, No Wedding Party

My big brother got married today in a very intimate ceremony. It was also a surprise ceremony (to the bride). They had rings, and had gone to the courthouse, but this was the actual ceremony.


I hope that you all have the closeness and love for your siblings that I have with my brothers and sister. Although we are all different, we love each other dearly, and good times are to be had whenver we get together. I love my new sister in law too!


Life is hard, and family makes it so much better.


Anyway, I made this card using the Papertrey cake set. I really struggled with the layout, so kept it simple. I like the new flower embellishment from Papertrey, too. I adhered it with double-sided tape, and it's completely invisible.



I forgot to mention that it's my SILs birthday today, too, so I was in a hurry to snap the pic.

Awesome Oak

I'm loving fall these days probably because the temps have finally dipped below 80. I like having seasons, so I'm ready for a change. We might get temps in the 60s next week! Be still my heart. The card I made is definately not perfect, but made from Beate's tutorial. It's a fun project. I used a spectrum pad and Stampin Up's Fall Foliage to put this card together. I also used a bit of SU's textured paper. I'm not sure it shows in the pic.

Papertrey paperbag

This is a paperbag scrapbook that I made with papertrey ink's halloween set. I made if for a swap and to give to a friend who admired it. I put journaling sheets inside the bags and places for photos between the bags. I can't remember whos website I got the idea from, but I will link it when I figure it out.

Hope your weekend was good. I had a busy weekend by my standards. I saw a friend/coworker perform at a comedy club this fri. and did soccer all day sat. and my swap today.

DH is gone this week, so the girls and I were on our own.

We'll be glad to have him back!

Fall Sympathy

I've had so many friends experience loss this fall that I thought I'd make a simple, single layer card to have on hand. I saw it on someone's post and can't remember whose... Sorry. Please let me know if you know where it can be found. The artiste who created it used black butterflies, and a cute clear flower embellishment. I have to figure out how to get sharp images with my camera. Sorry! I'm new to this!

Beate's Bandaid Box

I CASE'd this from Beate's blog. It has cards inside with tabs that say first steps, first sleeps through night, etc. I gave it to a niece that is having a little girl.