13 years ago today

  Thirteen years ago today my youngest daughter made her way into this world.  She chose to make her grand entrance during the worst ice storm we had seen in years.  She was born tiny and has always been small in physical stature, but has a giant warm, sweet, wonderful, loving personality.  She brings us so much happiness and I am so very, very proud of the amazing young lady she is growing into.  She is beautiful in every way!  Happy, happy  birthday Hannah! <3  You overfill my heart and make my world a better place.

The grown up birthday card I made for her.

Up close.  

My beautiful birthday girl.

Have a nice day. Will be back soonest.

Siblings make the best best friends!

   Hey there.  Thanks for stopping by.  I spent some time going through some of my pictures today and thought I would throw together a digi page.  It is no secret that my very favorite scrapbook page subjects are my kiddos and since they are who I happen to have the most pictures of they are my subject for my page today.  I am fortunate to have kids that really get along well (most days!).  They are sincerely friends and that makes me happy.  Here is my digital scrapbook page:

A happy day at the beach.  I love this color combo and I sure love those kiddos. I made a similar page a while back, but I like this picture so much I couldn't resist using it again.   

Have a nice day.  I will be back soonest.

Happy New Year

   Well, today marks the beginning of another new year.  Time to reflect on the last year and make plans to conquer the new one.  Are you a resolution maker?  I usually have a long list, but this go around I have decided to focus on just one thing.  I resolve to appreciate the little things.

    Sometimes life has a funny way of yanking the rug out from underneath you and challenging your ability to get back up.  Often these times make you re-evaluate things in your life.  It all goes by so quickly and so I want to be certain that I am aware of and  properly grateful for the things in life that mean so much; both big and small.

    The card that I made and am sharing today is for someone quite close and indescribably important to me.

Punch art puppy all drool-y and full of love.

Side view.

I love you, Mom. <3

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Have a good day!

Merry Christmas!

Hope that your day is filled with love and family and warm and fuzzy wonderful things!  Have a great one!

With much love!

Paper Princess Challenge #4

   Good Sunday morning!  I have another Paper Princess blogging challenge to share with you today!  The challenge was to make a side step card with a winter or Christmas theme!  This was a challenge for me because I have never made one, but it turned out to be simpler than I thought!  Wheeeee!  Love it when that happens!  I am kinda of tickled with how it came out!  Mostly because there is so much shimmer it practically lights up the room!  I do love my shimmer!! :o)

 I had fun with this card!  There is an inch of  'torn' snow on the ground and lots of snow falling from the sky.  The giant snowflake has a rhinestone in the center and every snowflake on the card has a touch of dazzling details!  I would buy that stuff by the bucket full if I could! :o)  The snowguys  mittens, scarf and hat brim are Cherry Cobbler to add a tiny bit of pop.  

This measures larger than a standard A2 card and would make a cute table centerpiece!  

Recipe:

Stamps: Jolly Old Saint Nick (retired) and Lovely as a Tree

Paper: Marina Mist and Whisper White

Ink: Marina Mist and Baja Breeze

Extras: Rhinestone, Dazzling Details and  Snowflake punch

See all that fun shimmer?!  It really sparkles!

Well, the count down clock has smoke starting to come off of it!  7 little sleeps til Christmas day! Still lots of merry to create and things to do! 

Have a wonderful day!  I will be back soonest!

Snowy day!

   Hello!  End of the week and one day closer to Christmas!  Time is really flying!  I am working on my Christmas cards today.  I am still in the assembling stage and  should probably be in panic mode about now, but I just don't feel like stressing over things.  LOL  I have a big cup of tea and an ample supply of chocolate though so I should be in good shape! :o)

  Although I am mass producing about 25 cards I felt inspired to make a different one this morning. I combined a couple of sets and put this one together for a very special friend of the family.  Have you ever met someone that just seems too good to be true?  This gentleman is like that.  He has been a true blessing to us and I couldn't be more grateful to have him around.  Here is the card I made for him today:

Sorry about the stinky lighting (and shadow on the card!).  Tough to get a decent photo when the skies are gray!  This card shimmers in person!  I used Dazzling Details on the snow and the base of the trees. Added a couple of colored rhinestones and a punched ribbon border.

Such a proud looking reindeer!  I just love that stamp!  

Ok, back to Christmas card assembling I go!  Have a great Friday!  I will be back soonest!

More tiny little cards!

   Hello!  My day has been a blur!!  I am running, running, running to get things done so today's visit is going to be a brief one! : o)  I made a few more little cards to pop onto some gifts that we have already started handing out!  I am trying to make good use of some of my Christmas colored scraps and so the sizes are a little different here.  I made some more of those cute 3d Christmas tress for these little guys!  They are really fun to do!

I stamped the pot in Chocolate Chip and the tree is stamped in Always Artichoke.  The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

Side view.

Rhinestone tree toppers add a little bit of bling!  Fun, fun little cards!

Oodles to do today so I am off to try to manage my monster To Do list!  Have a wonderful day!  I will be back soonest!

O' Christmas tree!

   Morning! :o)  Middle of the week has me running to get things done!!  We are traveling for the holidays and so my To Do list is sincerely longer than I am tall! Yikes! Lots and lots and lots to do!  I do have a fun card to share with you today though! It uses the Pennant Punch and Pennant Parade stamp set from Stampin Up!  Each tree takes three stamped and punched trees to create.  They look so cute popping up off the page!

How cute are they?! :o)  You stamp, punch and score each down the center.  Then you glue the edges together and then the final outside edges get glued down flat against your card.  I stamped the little tree holders first and then used a blender pen and some Going Gray ink to create shadows. Although this would probably do fine in an envelope I may save this card for an envelope-less gift and save smooshing my trees flat!

Side view.

Each tree has a Rhinestone topper.  I debated whether or not to color the rhinestones but decided to just leave them as is.  *Note!  If you decide to color your rhinestones for a project do it on the rhinestone paper rather than your project!  Better safe than sorry!

Recipe:

Stamps: Pennant Parade and Contemporary Christmas

Paper: Always Artichoke, Lucky Limeade, Old Olive and Very Vanilla

Ink: Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip and Cherry Cobbler

Extras: Rhinestones

How are your Christmas preparations coming along?!  I am feeling waaaaaay behind, but that wouldn't be much different from any other year! LOL Have a wonderful Wednesday!  I will be back soonest with more to share!

Post #2 today!

   Hello again!  This is post #2 for today so if you missed the first one and would like to see it feel free to scroll down! :o)

  I have a trio of 3 x 3 mini cards to share with you!  I figured these would be a practical thing to have lying around over the next week or so!  I am sure I will find a use (or three!) for these little guys!  Small packages that need a greeting, or a quick note for the mail person or even packaged together for a little gift themselves!  My color combo is about as Christmas themed as it gets!  Real Red, Always Artichoke, Whisper White and Silver Shimmer!  Take a look:

I ran the red through the Snowflurry Embossing Folder and matted it onto the green. I used Tombow to make sure it would stay stuck!  I punched the greeting with the jewelry tag punch and added a rhinestone to coordinate with the silver center on the snowflake. The sentiment is from Tiny Tags.  

Pop dotted the snowflake on, but glued the sentiment flat down.

I added Dazzling Diamonds to the snowflake for some extra sparkle!

All three cards together!  This is a super quick and fun project to throw together! These are too small to mail through the Post Office, but compliment a gift nicely!

Ok, I better get back to my To Do list!  Hope your Tuesday was a good one! 

Thanks for stopping in to visit with me! :o) I will be back soonest with more to share!

Princess Card Challenge #4!!!

    Hello!  Sorry to be MIA!  We did some traveling this weekend and it has thrown off my crafting and posting schedule a bit!  I do have two posts today though so be sure to check back later for post number #2! This past Sunday was my blogging groups Sunday challenge.  I am in charge of hosting these and the challenge I presented to my super group of blogging buddies was to use a picture for inspiration and to make a card from it.  This was the inspiration picture:

This is my little ole bag!  Notice the wrinkles?!  It has seen lots of use!  It is very special to me.  My sweet kiddos gave it to me for my birthday this year and I have toted it all over the place full of things!  (Usually my chocolate stash!) LOL  I just love this bag!!

Since my whole schedule has been thrown off I am a little late with posting my card, but better late than never...right?!  Here is my take on our Sunday challenge:

I used Cherry Cobbler instead of  pink for the ribbon and a snowflake rather than the bow! I used white craft ink for my polk-ie dots!  The center of the snowflake has a silver glimmer paper dot!  I had a corner left from a previous project and didn't want it to go to waste!  I am trying to use every millimeter of that gorgeous shimmer-y goodness!  My lighting is off in the picture, but the shade of lime green matches the bag almost to a tee!  This is a different kind of color combo, but I think I like it! :o)

Side view.

   Close up of the snowflake.  It is punched from Whisper White and adds enough pop to separate the black from green with a little zing!

It is always fun to draw inspiration from the things around you!  I challenge you to take a look around...choose something pretty and let it be your inspiration!

I will be back later today with another little post!  Have a wonderful day! See you soonest!

My Favorite Things!

   Good morning!  Hope you are eye brow deep into a wonderful weekend!  We have had a very full weekend so far and still have lots left to do, but  I wanted to pop in for a few minutes to visit and share another digital scrapbook page with you!  :o)

   This one features...you guessed it!  My kiddos!  They do happen to be some of my very favorite people on the planet!  I feel so lucky to have these four amazing folks in my life!  It is a gift to be able to spend time with them and watch them grow into the fine people they are becoming.

  Here is a page of some of my favorite things:

 If you haven't tried out digital scrap booking I would highly recommend it!  It still takes second to hands on scrapping for me, but it is a really fun second! ;o)  

Ok, I am off to my Demonstrators holiday meeting!!  Looking forward to it! Have a great day!

On Dasher!

    Good Thursday afternoon!  I do not want to alarm anyone, but did you guys know that today is the 8th of December already?!!!  OMGoodness!  *thud!! Falls over!!*  I am soooooo not (I mean really, really not!!) ready for the holidays this year. Are you?!

   I took a break today from my tags to put together a card.  I have some others in the works that are all the same design, but I thought it would be fun to make some different individual ones too!  Here is the one I made this morning:

Dasher is the star of this card!  I just love this stamp!  He looks so handsome and ready to tackle the world.  He is stamped in Chocolate Chip and his edges are all torn for a nice soft look.  Lots of snowflakes on this card!  The giant one is punched from the glitter paper and the small ones are stamped from the Dear Santa stamp set.  They each have a Dazzling Detailed center. 

The sentiment is from Tiny Tags and the rhinestones are colored with a marker to give the card a little bit of pop!

Lots of details.

Dasher's antlers are also Dazzling Detailed!

Recipe:

Stamps: Dasher and Tiny Tags

Ink: Chocolate Chip and Baja Breeze

Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue and Silver Glitter paper

Extras: Marina Mist ribbon, rhinestones, pop dots and Dazzling Details

Enjoy your Thursday!  I will be back soonest! :o)

More tags!

   Hello! I have a couple more tags to share with you today.   I have been working like a mad woman trying to get all of these tags ready to go!  They are such fun little quick projects to make so fortunately they go quickly.  Here are the two I  am working on today:

Super simple!  I punched the 2 1/2" Circle punch for the ornament base.  Made the hanger from the Modern Label punch and cut and adhered two Lucky Limeade strips.  I ran the base through the Snowflake embossing folder and added a tiny tag with a glue dot.

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade and Very Vanilla

Tag #2 is from the Two Tags die and the stocking is from the Build a Stocking punch.  The heart on the stocking is from Itty Bitty Bits  stamp set and the whole thing is on a pop dot.  I added a Very Vanilla Scallop circle to the top for the To and From info.  It fits in there perfectly!

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade, Very Vanilla and Garden Green

  I am loving making these tags!  They really are fun! I cannot wait for the swap to see all of the other fun tags!

Off to tackle my never ending to do list!  Have a great day!

Tags X Two!!

   Hello there! Hope your Tuesday is off to a great start!  I got up first thing this morning and did a little bit of crafting while things were still quiet!  I have a tag swap coming up in my near future so I spent a little bit of time playing around with some ideas and wanted to share them with you.  Since I had so much fun with that cute little Rudolph from yesterday I thought I would make a few more!

I used the Two Tags die for both of my bases.  I snow-flake embossed a piece of Very Vanilla and matted it against Lucky Limeade.  I added a Real Red Scallop Circle with a 1 3/4"  very Vanilla Circle punch to the tag part of my tag.  The sentiment is from Tiny Tags and I stuck a rhinestone on for good measure!  All of Rudolph's punch pieces can be found here in yesterday's post with the exception of his hands/hooves/paws (???) which are punched from the 3/4" Circle punch and his body which is the Large oval.

Side view.

Tag #2! 

 Same matting color scheme.  The large circle is the 2 1/2" Circle punch and the sentiment is punched out from the Jewelry Tag.

Both tags together! 

These were really fun to make!  Good thing because I have oodles of them left to make! :o)

Are you making your tags this year?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

Ok, time to go take my day seriously!  Have a great one!  I will be back soonest!