Happy New Year Everyone

I sincerely wish each and everyone of you a blessed, prosperous, and healthy New Year. I hope it is one where countries can resolve their differences and wars will cease. I pray families resolve their differences and stay together and that children are upheld as the blessings they are. I hope the economy which has caused so much harm to so many can resurge and become vigorous again. I hope we can find the cures to the worst diseases and most of all, I wish this country to return to "under God" and realize that He is the center of all good things. Say one small daily prayer for peace and justice and maybe it will happen. I also want to take this time to thank all of you who have become friends and my regular readers for your good wishes and encouragement. You brighten my day immeasurably. Happy New Year!

Cricut Valentine

Here's my first card using my Cricut and A Child's Year. I think this cartridge is the best they have out. The images are just so evocative of past times. I edged the cut out with a dark red to give it a little definition and added perfect pearls along the MS border. The DP is SU.

Is It Over?????

Well the big day has come and gone....as it does every year. Did you go bargain shopping this morning? I made a quick stop at Mike's and JoAnn's and found that the prices of holiday merchandise anyway was the same as it was before Christmas. The craft stores gave such deep discounts prior to Christmas that they were the same today. Mike's had Cricut Carts on sale but none I wanted. Sniff, sniff. Anyway, I'm still playing as you can see. Enjoy a calm and relaxed weekend everyone!

Glitter Graphics

Check It Out!!!!!!!!!!

Is this not cool? Click to make the picture larger and you can even see the reindeer's smiling faces. Save your pennies, find a sugar daddy, get a job, whatever it takes....but get yourself one of these if you don't have one. It is such a great toy!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you are having a wonderful day and that you feel the peace of the season.........and that Santa was good to you. You can see how good he was to me, the old elf! My three children went together and got me all that you see in the picture. I couldn't wait to use it and cut two very intricate snowflakes quick as a wink! This is a wonderful machine and I am going to have loads of fun with it. I knew they were getting the Cricut but I didn't know all about the extras and I was floored.

Drop me a line and let me know how good Santa was to you! My family will be here today for ham and all the fixins! Meanwhile I'll be playing..............

Tonight is the Night

A Blessed Christmas

My Best To You All

I know the next 48 hours are crazy for most people so I want to take the moment now and wish all of you a very merry CHRISTmas and a joyful and blessed New Year. This is my tree filled with all vintage glass ornaments from my parents, my in laws, and some 40 year old ones we purchased when the kids were little. I hadn't had a tree for about five years. I have been the quintessential Bah Humbug person. This year, for some reason unknown to me, I have really gotten into the spirit. I choose to think my recently deceased brother has something to do with it! Who knows. I miss my loved ones who are with the Lord more at this time of the year than ever. But life goes on, doesn't it? May the light of the Christ child shine brightly in your hearts and may He bring the spirit of Christmas into your home and your life all year.

An Early Christmas Gift for Everyone

You have got to watch this. It's wonderful. Beautiful. And it makes you chuckle.
http://ericsammons.com/blog/2009/11/10/how-many-silent-monks-does-it-take-to-sing-handels-messiah/

Sock It To Me!!!!

So here we are, like most of the East Coast, getting pummeled by snow. It's so windy, the snow appears to be coming down horizontally! One pic is from my front door and the other is of the deck and rear yard. Wherever you are I hope you're warm and snug!

SIZZIX DIES FOR SALE

I have the following Sizzix dies for sale:

LARGE: $5
Pie
Sun
Colander
Butterfly and Dragonfly
Basket
Paper Sculpting: Pansy .........SOLD
Paper Sculpting: Lilac ..........SOLD
Flower Layers

MEDIUM: $4
Pineapple
Bird
Keys, Skeleton
Watermelon

SMALL: $3
Bunny

You could get quite a few of these in a flate rate box for like $4.95 shipping. If anyone's interested, let me know. You could probably find the picture of these on Sizzix' site.

Update on Stamp Sale

Just to let you know....I have updated the list of stamps I have for sale. I removed the sold ones. Those still available are in the post below. Thanks everyone.

Crossing the Finish Line!!!

What a challenge this was! I had no grungepaper. Had grungeboard but that's too thick so I just used SU cardstock. For the first time I don't think the roses are bad. What a fitting finish though! Tim really gave us a workout but I learned so much. I'm thinking now of going back to the past two years and doing the tags from then. I'll miss the daily challenge! Hope you enjoyed seeing the tags. Have a great weekend.

Just wanted to let you know that I scanned all the stamp sets for sale so if you need pictures, let me know. Get them to you right away!

STAMPIN' UP! Stamps for Sale

I'm doing an end of the year MAJOR clean up of my studio and I have some stamps I have to part with in order to contain all my "junk" in this one room. The following is a list of the sets I have. I am pricing them all at $5 to get rid of them which is a bargain price. All sets are boxed, except one. If you would like a scan of the sets (a picture of the stamps) I'd be glad to send it to you. Just send me an email or comment. You could ship several sets for one price with Priority Mail. Most of these stamps have only been used a few times. Many have never seen ink!



Lexicon of Love
Happy Harmony
Measure of a Life
Morning Soft
Make a Wish
Cause for Celebration
Gently Falling
Big Bold Birthday


All the stamps and their wood mounts are in great condition. I take care of my stamps very well. If anyone is interested, let me know. I also have some Sizzix dies ( older ones) if anyone is interested. Come on.....buy em up!!!

Tag 11.....coming down the home stretch!

I didn't have the cool new tool that Tim used to make brads for this tag or the reindeer stamp. So I just improvised as I have done so often on these tags. I'm really pleased with the colors on this one. Only one more to go!

Day Ten Heavy Metal.....or Not!

OK Tim's tag today was covered with metal, literally. But he was reminiscing about old glass ornaments, of which I have quite a few from parents and family. I couldn't replicate the metal but I did give a good try on the colors. I backed the tag with a vintage music sheet, then used grungeboard letters and MS glitter as well as some other metallic accents in the form of fancy brads and a metal snowflake. When done I spritzed it all with Glimmer Mist Mistletoe. Take it or leave it! Have a great evening everyone.

Day 9 I love this one!!!

I think this is about the closest I've come to one of Tim Holtz' tags. My daughter had just given me the film strip for my birthday. I did have a label maker but my tape was white and I didn't think that would look good so instead I used a K&Co. chipboard piece. And BTW, the little girl on Santa's lap front and center just happens to be little ole me!

Day 8...can hardly believe it!

This parchment look on vellum was a cool technique. It really does look and feel like real parchment and it's so easy! I am really learning a lot of distressing techniques and cool stuff. So much fun!

Day 7 of Tim Holtz tags

It's very dreary here today with melting snow and gray skies. I have a pot of home made turkey soup on the stove and here I am trying my darndest to do this tag. My white flourish didn't show like it was supposed to and the sentiment I embossed in gold at the bottom isn't very readable. It wasn't as bold as the one Tim used. Be that as it may, I enjoyed this tag. I made my own mask for the face with the large santa stamp and that was really cool. Onward and upward!

Day 6

This one is going to be a do over. Background turned out great and I used the truck from Loads of Love and instead of flocking I used Perfect Pearls on the tree. At the last minute when it was all done I spritzed with Silver Glimmer Mist and it made the distress inks run. Where was my head? I should have known that. Anyway, here's Day 6 with all its warts!

Day 5

This is my interpretation of Day 5. I used an evergreen spray in the upper right corner and for trim, instead of German dresden trim, I used a MS punch from gold paper! I am loving the soft red color of Aged Mahogany distress ink. It's like a beautiful rose and when mixed with some gold it's gorgeous. For the ornaments I popped on some K&Co. trims and the JOY is a MS stamp. Be sure to check out Tim's blog. It is full of ideas and I know Sherry Cheever is following along with this tag challenge as well. Lots of fun!

Day 4 - My Own Thing

Well it's SNOWING to beat the band here and I got caught up with my Tim Holtz tags. I should say Tim Holtz inspired tags because I did not have all the doo dads he has available to me so I did my own thing. This is day 4 with the collaged background and then I used this huge button with a rhinestone bauble on the end as the centerpiece. Not as fancy as Tim's but it serves the purpose and I am having fun with this challenge!

In Between Tags.....

I have Sharon Johnson to thank for this inspiration. She did one of these on her blog last year and I wanted to try it and never go to it. So I finally made time the other day and it was great fun to put together. This would be a great little gift for someone. Make a special box for it! I used Real Red and various designer papers, stamps and punches. I couldn't photograph it in its entirety or it would have been too far away. Hope you get the idea. It looks very nice standing on a mantle or windowsill.

Day 3....one tag

Tim showed us two tags today demonstrating this plaid background technique done with alcohol inks. I didn't have his santa stamp but I used this one instead and the other tag which has trees I haven't finished yet. This is so much fun!

Tim Holtz Day 2.....Day 3 is coming

I had pretty much everything Tim suggested for this card. I have a lot of his Ranger products but not a lot of his stamps. You'll see on the next tag.

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas Day 1

I don't know if you are familiar with Tim Holtz annual 12 days of Christmas Tags. I decided to play along this year, although I can't promise I will be able to do them all but I'm gonna try. I had no snowman stamp....can you BELIEVE that. I wanted to finish so I used this little foam snowman and distressed him up some, along with the star. Everything else I pretty much did as Tim directed. His products are so wonderful. If you want to learn a lot and play along check out Tim's blog http://www.timholtz.typepad.com/. Thanks and have a great evening!

BLOG CANDY

Lots of blog candy floating around the cyber world. Here's a link for some lucious goodies:

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im.htmlhttp://cathyscrazybydesign.blogspot.com/2009/11/ready-for-giveaway.html

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In The Christmas Mood

Be sure to click on the pictures to see them up close and personal. I have been dying to do one of these and today I took the time. What fun!! The template is a Lauren Meader called Home Made and PTI's stamp set is called the same. My daughter gave it to me for my birthday and I set right to making this house. I used SU Naturals White for the whole house and all the windows and doors etc. They were stamped inTim Holtz Vintage Photo. I used Art Institute Designer Dries Clear Adhesive and sprinkled the whole thing with MS Snow Glitter. Glitter makes such a mess-yuk! But nothing else gives you that fresh snowly look. I hope you enjoy seeing it.....it sure was fun to make and I'm ready to start another with more color this time. I recently saw houses like this in Lancaster and they were $60!!!!

On Dasher......

Hasn't this little guy captured everyone's heart this season? This is Dasher, for those of you unfamiliar with Stampin' Up! stamps. He is one of our individual stamps. You can have him for a mere $8.95. This is an all white card but I have shown it for camera purposes on a red background. I embossed the first layer with the Swiss Dots CB folder, the second with the Snowflakes folder and the third is plain with Dasher embossed in Carnelian EP. He's such a cutie!

Quickie Card Tonight

I don't care for the reindeer in this set and the elves are just "ok" but I love this snowman line up! These guys are so cute. I colored them with Copics and cut them out with the Nestabilites Labels Four. I edged the Nestie shape with a Spica glitter pen ( not sure if you can tell that or not) and then finished with a Create a Flake One die from Nestabilities. On the snowflake I used Crackle Accents and while it was wet sprinkled it with the new MS Tinsel Glitter. It's actually like small shards of cut up tinsel, linear in shape, rather than round like most glitter. Really cool!

Home for Christmas

Remember to click to enlarge this image and hopefully you can see the Rock Candy stickles on the ground and the Liquid Pearls/Icicles Stickles on the tree. I am enjoying coloring these detailed images with my Copic markers. I am by no means an expert but it is so easy to shade with these things! The card base is Whisper White, Paper is Wassail from K&Co. and the background red is Bravo Burgundy behind both image and sentiment which are from ta da! Home for Christmas by SU. I used some gold ribbon to pick up the gold in the DP. Hope you like it!

A call for prayer.....

I find myself on this dreary rainy morning here in Maryland wondering about life. I know God has a plan and I know His ways are not our ways but I have to wonder all the same. A very good Christian family we have known for years, our kids even went to school together, have recently been going through a bad time. Their youngest son who was in my son's class, has a brain tumor that is malignant and because of where it was, they were only able to remove 70%. He will undergo chemo and/or radiation. Tough, you are thinking, no doubt. Well they have already lost a daughter to malignant melanoma when she was a high school senior approx. twenty years ago and the father in this case had cancer last year. I can't begin to guess what they are going through, can't even come close. But what I can do is ask you to uphold this young man, Jeff, and his family in prayer. Many people are doing just that and hopefully this will have a good outcome down the road. I certainly hope so because I would like to put an end to my wondering and instead rejoice in God's goodness and mercy. Please join me.

The Christmas Tree Dilemma

For the last five years or so we have given up putting up a Christmas tree. My children are all adults, there are no grand children, and it just seemed like too much work. And You Know WHO does the work! But this year I inherited a multitude of old glass christmas balls from my Mother In Law. I had quite a few myself from my parents. So now I am debating about purchasing a tree, probably artificial because they are so nice now, and displaying these lovely ornaments. While pondering if I really want to do that or not, I made this little card with an Outlines tree stamp. I stamped two layers, colored them with Copics, and layered every other triangle and added stickles to the stars for bling. The band was done with a new Martha Stewart border punch called pines. The sentiment is SU Home for Christmas stamped with Bravo Burgundy ink and I added two small pewter tree brads. Hmmm, if only the artificial one was this quick and easy..........

Thanksgiving Candles

It's a cloudy day here and not good for pictures but I thought I'd show you the candles I have done for my neighbor's Thanksgiving table. She is doing a candle for each couple so I have done 9. Michael's had these on sale for $1.50 and I dressed them up with some bands of paper and ribbon, a tag from Labels 8 Nestabilites and a few punched leaves. Lastly, I added a few dots of Stickles here and there for bling. I think they turned out very well. Quick and easy!

Veteran's Day

Dragging out the soap box today for a short reminder: please never forget the service our veterans as well as our current military personnel have given to our country. Their sacrifices and their devotion have made it possible for each and every one of us to live the life we enjoy today. I take my hat off to every vet, especially those who served in foreign wars, and honor them as they deserve. Our country has forgotten many of our former soldiers. Many are homeless, some languish in outdated facilities, many have problems that seem unsolvable. Do what you can, even if it is just a quick prayer today, to see they remain our heroes.

Check Out This Blog Candy

http://jacquesmagnolias.blogspot.com/2009/11/papilio-and-some-sweet-stuff-for-you.html?showComment=1257772454126#c999557741173062525 This is a wonderful grouping of prizes. Check it out!

Let the Image Shine

This is a recipe for a quick and elegant card. Let your image be the shining element. No ribbon, no flowers, no glitz (unless the pearls qualify) and no trouble. Stamp a beautiful image in one color ink, mount it on some DP and your base. Quick, less than 5 minutes. This beautiful image is from Serendipity Stamps called Winter Walk. Enjoy!

I'm Liking Neutrals Here!

Here's another christmas card with neutrals, creamy whites, beiges and tans. This is another 5 x 7 card with Anna Griffin paper and ribbon from Michaels. The stamps are from Inkadinkadoo. The only problem I had was the Stickles seemed to "spread" for some reason. I shook them well as I always do but maybe this bottle is going bad or something. Anyway I am loviong these beautiful whites and creams. Elegant. Understated.

Creamy Christmas

Be sure to click on this picture to see the enlarged version so you can see all the details. This is a 5 x 7 card on cream stock with the DP from Anna Griffin's Chrismas Pack. The large tan snowflake is on grungeboard, painted with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I rubbed on some stickles and then added iridescent stickles on the points. On top of that is layered a Poinsettia from Nestabilities. I used two each of the middle and small sections. I edged each with Ranger Glossy Accents and dipped it in glitter. The center is a snowflake brad with the same treatment. I used an EK Success fancy corner punch on all four corners and highlighted those with Liquid Pearls. Fancy schmancy!!!

What a Wreath!!!

From soft and pretty to bold and classic! I just bought this stamp from Flourishes called simply Christmas Wreath. I couldn't wait to color it with Copics. It was so much fun. When I finished, I "sugared" the fruit with Stickles as well as dotted the red on all the berries on the background paper and dots on the sentiment which is from Inkadinkadoo. This card is 5 x 7 on a cream background. The DP is DCWV. It's a big stamp which made it wonderful to color.

A cup of hot chocolate anyone?

I made time this morning to "create" because if I didn't I was going to get crabby! I just love this image from Impression Obsession. The sweet little mug of hot chocolate loaded with marshmallows is so charming. This would be an excellent image to use on Snowman Soup packages as well. I started with a Whisper White base, added the new SEI Winter Song DP and then mounted the image on some Tempting Turquoise. Colored it with Copics which I am getting to love more and more. The snowflake and gemstones are K&Co. Enjoy your weekend!

Blog Candy Alert!!!

http://trashtotreasureart.blogspot.com/2009/11/lets-get-this-party-started.html Check out this wonderful web site for some fantastic blog candy. Very unusual and different.

Just checking in...........

I haven't forgotten all of you out there in blogland. It's been a very busy week. We are still chipping away at cleaning out my MIL's house after her death October 1. It is quite a chore as she was a "saver" and literally saved EVERYTHING. So much is trash. Some things we really get a laugh out of and some things are just sad. Her dementia was so bad the last few years that she would buy things she already had a ton of and forgot about. Also, last Sunday I had a nasty fall of a chair, hitting the hardwood floor face first, and knocked off a cap from one of my front teeth. I had a benefit dinner to go to Wednesday night and the dentist saved the day getting me in to fix it on Tuesday. The last three days we've been spreading 15 yards of mulch all around our flower beds and yard. What a back breaking chore. Hopefully, this week things will settle enough to allow me some much needed creative time. I have some projects in mind for you and hope you will be patient a little longer. Hopefully it will be worth the wait! Have a great weekend everyone!

HAPPY HALLOWEN!!!!!!!!!

Hope you all have a spooky, frightful but still delightful evening tonight. Enjoy all the little tackers in their costumes and savor the innocence of childhood.

Snowball Fight

I was so taken with Sherry Cheever's snowflake technique on her blog today (http://sherrycheever.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/) that I had to make a card to try it out. These are fun to make and as Sherry says you can use Crystal Effects or Ranger Glossy Accents. The snowflakes were cut with Spellbinders Create a Flake 2 but you could use any die cut snowflake. I didn't distress the edges of mine just added some Tim Holtz Broken China ink here and there. The DP is ancient, have no clue of its origin and the ribbon was old too, from JoAnn's several Christmas seasons ago. Try this out....I think you'll like it.

Great Blog Giveaway!

http://sixinonehand.blogspot.com/2009/10/bewitching-giveaway.html#comment-form Go here to win a $50 Visa gift card. Pretty nice, huh? Check it out.

My Weekend Project

This was a project I worked on over the weekend. The template/tutorial for this is from Becky Roberts and is called a magazine holder. You essentially make three of the basic box and then embellish. I was about to begin making cards from matching DP when I realized I had so many cards already made so I filled the box with an assortment of birthday, friend, christmas, get well etc. cards. I have 15 cards in there but it would hold more. I used SU ribbon and a prima flower on the front. This would also be great for notepads, coupons, receipts, desktop files, etc. A great gift for anyone!

3 Posts---Working Overtime!!!

OK this is me doing some showing off here. This creature is Gertie the Witch. I made her and had the most fun outfitting her special hat with all kinds of Halloween goodies. I tried to show you the hat from most angles so you can see what's on it, including a vintage Halloween paper cat/chenille figure. Her face is hand painted and she and her magic hat are distressed and given a vintage Halloween appearance. She is for sale. If anyone is interested they can contact me. In any case, enjoy her as I have!