In your arms

When I saw Soul Kisses on TAC wonderful winter wishes promotion, I knew I wanted to use this one sentiment with SU's Summer by the sea set. I just love when sets work so perfectly together, and you already own one of the sets. I have to say I totally love TAC's sentiment sets. This one will be another one of my favorites for cards for Paul for years to come! Our anniv is a week before V-day, so I at least have one of those events covered!

I had one mistake making this card. Made my jaw drop, I was so upset when I made the boo boo! My Crystal Effects is so old, the tip of the bottle broke off. So, I have a hole in the top of the lid. I figured I could still squeeze softly to put down the dew drops, but instead I had a big blop of CE come out of the top! Yikes on my perfect card too! It took me a few minutes to come up with a plan to fix it. I still wanted the dew drops on the card, but that CE had to come off! I'm also very frugal, so in my mind I'm all worried about wasting what I have to get off the card. I wasn't able to come up with a way to get it back in the container, so I lost some! I'm thinking now I need to combine a few of my stickles that are low into one jar. I have two crystals, and both are low. This way I can pour the CE into it instead of using the container with the hole in the top!

I used PTI ripe avocado cardstock for the base, TAC soul kisses and willoughby paper pack, SU's summer by the sea, close to cocoa ink pad and real red cardstock, noir palette ink, Lyra water color crayons, dew drops, ribbon from Joann's and too much CE! Layout was provided by Kim's little sketch book again! She should be real proud of how often I'm using it!

Lovely and bright

Holiday stuff is all done, so I played around with a few new TAC sets. Well, one set is just new to me! I just got the angel set, Just Dream, with an order last month, and just not sitting down to play.

I thought the new animal set, Barn Yard Birthday, was too cute. They released some sets that'll be in the mini catty that is coming out in Jan. If you haven't heard, they're not doing two catties a year any more! Woo hoo! Doing one base catty again, with full sized stamps-big grin, and doing bigger magazine style catties out twice a year, which will also have full sized stamps. They went to partial sized images to save on the catty and that allowed them to shrink the size of the catty, but lots of us TAC demos didn't care for it. So, TAC listened and is switching back again.

Anyways, Barn Yard Birthday is coming out in the new release booklet in Jan, and it's at a discounted price too! It is part of the Wonderful Winter Wishes promotion. I grabbed a few of the new sets, including the sentiment set called soul kisses. I love those sentiments! I'll be making a card with them soon. I used a TAC pack of paper that is retired, but man, it made the card so much fun! I used a retired sentiment from them too.

For this angel card, I pulled out my favorite SU color combo. It's such a girlie combo, but so pretty! I grabbed Kim's little sketch book she gave me and used a layout from there. I tried to fit a sentiment on there, but had a hard time fitting it right. I wanted to try to use my new bottle of Shimmerz Silver bells again, so I painted it on her wings. How cute is that angel?! I thought it might bother me they had no faces, but it hasn't at all. I also found that glitter paper at Target, and grabbed it. It's full of bling! The pack had about 8-10 sheets in four or five different colors. They had two packs to pick from in different colors too. It's not stiff like some glitter papers. This paper was still soft and went on the card front well.

For both cards I used my Lyra water color crayons with Palette Noir ink pad, stickles, and liquid pearls. Angel card used SU card stock, SU corner punch, ribbon, CB folder. Animal card DCWV, TAC pattern paper misc circle punches, and claret palette ink pad.

Fa La La La!

I hope everyone is having a blessed Christmas Eve. I headed out to mall today for a few last minute things. I love the happy faces out there doing their last minute shopping. There are some grumpy bugs in the bunch, but from working Christmas Eve so many years at CFA, I always loved working that day, and wishing people a Merry Christmas! I found most to be in good spirits, and enjoying the season! .

While I was snapping a photo of something funny that today, I snapped a photo of one of my favorite holiday decorations, pictured above. This was given to me by my future MIL at a Holiday Bridal shower. I'm a big Disney fan, so this was the prefect gift for me! I put it out every year. It reminds me of before Paul and I were married and how romantic the holidays seemed being younger and head over in heels in love. Now, Christmas more about the magic for the kids, and the fun of the holidays. I love Christmas like that too, but do miss those quiet cuddling Christmas with just hubby and myself.

I got a good chuckle out of the mail today! I received some handmade cards in the mail from some Losties. I opened one from Justine, and she sent the TAC Retro Christmas card from a kit that Jeannie had sent in a recent card swap they did with some other Losties. Than I opened a card from Rachel, and it was the same retro Santa kit! I started to laugh! Not sure if they were sending me a message that I've been too grumpy this holiday season! LOL! But how randomly funny is that?! Rachel's card is on the left, Justine's is on the right. Both cards were darling, and used my favorite TAC paper line that had been retired! That is a bah humbug! Loved that paper!

Anyhow, I hope your Christmas celebrations are wonderful tonight, and tomorrow. This evening we'll set out the cookies we baked yesterday, the reindeer food the kids brought home from school, head over to the neighbors for a quiet family evening, and than bring down the stash of toys. Coarse those events aren't listed in order of when we'll be doing them! Tomorrow I'll be awoken early by the squeals of delight from the kids.

Merry and Bright

My sweet friend Tammi sent me some surprise Hangler images in a card recently. I wasn't sure I was up to the challenge on coloring them. The cards I've seen with this style of stamp are created by such great colorers (is that a word?), I thought I'd ruin the poor images she sent! But they are so cute, they were calling to me today when I had time to create. I should have been wrapping gifts, I totally pulled it out instead of the wrapping paper. I also pulled out a fab gift Kim gave me during a LSS round that had sketches to find a layout. As perfect as this is, I found one of Tammi's she'd listed in the book, so I went with that layout. Than I went digging thru my stash of papers. I just love this retired set of Christmas papers from TAC, the sentiment is a stamp set they had last year at Christmas time too. Than I sat down to color her in with gamsol and primsacolored pencils. I think she turned out super cute! Now I just know I'm gonna have to buy some of my own! Dang, they're too cute! I tried a new product on the wings too, that shimmerz stuff, I used silver bells color on her wings. The card base is my first sheet of cardstock from PTI. This is the poppy color. Very nice cardstock! I was impressed with how sturdy it was! The button brad was colored over with a palette ink pad, followed up with embossing powder, and heat set to match her outfit better. I used different colors of stickles on the hearts. I can see Kim cutting out the basket and popping it out!

New Maid and The Nutcracker

Not sure if I told anyone about my new maid. I figured with Paul getting a new FSU CFA, I could afford a maid! I'm not sure if taking a photo of a maid is normal or not, but since I scrap, I figured I should show case a clean house. Goodness knows it's not clean when I'm done! LOL! It reminded me of the Friends episode where Monica is going crazy with her new maid, thinking she stole some jeans. I don't think I'll have to worry about the new maid stealing stuff! I had to giggle when my DD came down dressed that way to vacuum the floor, which is one of her new chores. Such a funny picture! She added the apron, which is a smock for art projects!

Anyhow the dance went super well today! Gabi did so well with both shows. Even have to commend Trey, who had to suffer the whole day at the recital! He did so well too! We where there from about 12 to after 7:30, Gabi and I were there until after 8. Long day for both of them. It's harder on Trey because he doesn't have a bunch of guy friends floating around to play with while he was waiting for his sister to get done, but he did manage to keep himself fairly busy with a few boys and girls here or there. A friend of mine helped keep an eye on him while I was running back and forth tending to Gabi's costume changes. I sent him home with Daddy after he came in to see Gabi's part of the show two, and than they headed out while I watched the end of the show and the bows.

Only drama we had to deal with was over Gabi's wings. Gabi's wings were made of a material like hose. She accidentally got caught on a door latch last night, and tore it. Momma wasn't happy about that. Another mom fixed it up for her. Thankfully, no tears tonight, and the wings made it thru the evening! All four of the angels in her group tore their wings, either last night or tonight. Three of them got caught on the door latch.

We had happy surprise tonight because her best friend came in on a whim with her Aunt to see the show. She was a wonderful surprise for Gabi, and she was excited to learn Gabi was dancing in the production.

The dance studio owner is friends with a gentleman who took over a struggling dance company locally, he moved from TX or Ohio. Aren't I good with details?! For the last two years, they've flown him in to set the routines, but this year he lived locally, so they worked it out and brought in professional dancers to be guest stars at our production. Gabi had a sweet part in the dance where she walked out with the Sugar Plum fairy, the one dressed in pink as they were greeting Clara in the arrival scene. I don't think she understands how cool it was to dance with a professional ballerina, let alone get to hold her hand as they walked on stage!

The dance company was sweet enough to host a little Tea Party for the girls if they wanted to drop in for photos and sweets. I snapped some photos for Gabi with the Sugar Plum fairy and Snowflake Princess, or Snowflake Queen. Aren't their costumes so pretty? These ladies danced so gracefully. Both men were so gentle with them as they were flipping them in the air and helping them with their spins. The one in white is married to the ballerina dude, sounds funny together, who did the setting of the dances. The other male ballerina was in with the ladies and even had on pants for the tea party! (I'm sure that made all the young girls happy, as it turned out it was much the chatter behind the stage doors amongst all the 9-12 year old girls! As Gabi told me last night, there were kids there for goodness sakes, he needed to put on some pants!) I let her know that he was dressed correctly for being a male dancer doing a ballet. Handsome chap he was too!

Lastly, one quick card for the day. I made this to go with one of Gabi's teacher's gifts. I used Basic Grey paper, TAC's Joy of Christmas, palette ink pad, cranberry crisp SU paper, Martha Stewart double scallop punch, and ribbon from Michaels. The card came together quickly, but I felt it really turned out pretty. That Christmas line from Basic Grey is so pretty! All the card needed was stickles, which I forgot to add, and by the time I realized it, I didn't have time to add it before giving the card away.

Two stamp companies were tried in the making of this project!

I've been super busy this week. I was working on finishing up my teachers gifts, and Gabi's very busy with dance stuff. She dances in the Nutcracker tomorrow. Here she is in her costume from the parade. I will follow up with a sweet photo of her in her Nutcracker outfit later. I didn't get a good shot tonight. I got a photo of her in it, but man, she was a mess in it! Put 1 ADHD kid in a white costume + 3 hours of dance time=1 messy looking little girl! Girl had me in stitches when she started telling me what she thought of men in tights!

Back to the crafting....I instantly fell in love with Teacher's apples at Paper Trey. Got it the second I saw it. I had been wanting a set for teachers stuff that wasn't kiddy in nature. The sentiments with this set are perfect! Than the mind started to work, and I came up with a perfect idea for Gabi's teacher. Using the sentiments in this set, I pictured hall passes on coasters, so they would hold up well to the kids little hands. I help with the PTA so I thought, cool, I can even get them laminated too! I didn't want to use the apples for the whole thing, and thought a teacher image with the apples would work well. On the front I wanted to use teacher Bella. I don't know about you all, but I have a local LSS store that sells bellas, so I headed there the next morning to get it. She didn't have her. Bummer!

So, than my next thought went to my friend, Tammi, who had used her in a calendar she made for my pie guru friend for a Lostie swap. I called Kim, had her look at Tammi's blog while chatting with me, Tammi got the image from Danni. Now Danni doesn't know me well, so she's not familiar with my um, bold crazy self! I get in touch with her, asking to trade some images. Isn't it nice to know that crafters are that nice you can just email someone like that?! Anyhow, sweet Danni had gotten the image of a wish list, she didn't have the stamp. I needed so many of them, I didn't want to bother a complete stranger for the images. I than checked to see if I could get it from Bella in time. No such luck-mental note, start earlier next year. Than I start to think about who all makes teacher images. I finally remembered there was one at MFT. Two new stamp companies were tried in the making of this project! LOL! I'm spreading the love around!

Enclosed with the hall passes, I made her a monogrammed set of cards. PTI had the cool the clear boxes that I had almost ordered at another site. Those made the monogrammed cards look so pretty! Plus, it saved me some time making the outer box I had made for the other cards. Than at PTI they had this super cool teacher questionnaire thingie to tell their story thru a journal. I put a nice journal inside for her to write. I printed off that, it even comes with a cool letter explaining it! I cut them, curled them, put them in a little jar I had floating around, decorated it to match the monogrammed cards, and there was a beautiful set for Gabi's teacher. All nice and personalized too! I didn't get to see her open it, but I really hope she enjoyed it!

I used more of the K&Co paper, SU scallop punch, stamps from MFT, CTMH, PTI, Palette ink pads, Lyra water color crayons, clear box from PTI, little jars from Michaels, and scrappers floss in brown.

You're Beautiful

Finally finished Gabi's pages. These were pictures taken on Thanksgiving at our local park, but it was also her birthday. She turned nine the day I took these photos! She thinks she's 15! Isn't she beautiful?

I was debating using the Elzybell stamp of the girl on the moon, and paper piecing her outfit with the red dotted papers. Instead I used this darling Bella stamp, Wendy, I grabbed the other day looking for teacherbella-that's another story-at my local LSS. Anyhow, I have to agree with Gabi, her pages turned out very pretty. I love the stacks from DCWV, they have a nice amount of different styles in the packs.

This part this will give you a chuckle. While working on this page, I wanted something different for the long border under the bella stamp. I started digging thru my stash of papers, and found from like 2004/2005 some SU vellum paper. I pulled it out, and it matched the papers wonderfully, so I finally cut some of the stuff and used it. I'm such a horder! I can't bring myself to use papers I know are retired. Bothers me to think I can't get more! LOL! So, anyhow, at least I'll have it wrapped up in my scrapbooks for a lifetime! I also thought it was a perfect paper to use, because I wanted those lovely white flowers to show on the page. This allowed for me to use the sketch layout from "Cherish" by Jeanette Lynton, and allow for the white flowers to grace the pages the way I wanted too. I gotta say, I think it was a perfect touch to the scrapbook page.

On top of Ms. Wendy, I added some gems where her dots on the apron. I put a little pearl in her flower on the headband. I lined the wings with diamond stickles. All around, that'll be Gabi's favorite part of this page. Girl loves some bling!

I also forgot to point these out on Trey's page, but these clear letters are super cool. I spelt out beautiful on her page. His said adore.

For this page, I used DCWV fall stack, and cardstock, Wendy from stamping bella, gems from Michael's, diamond stickles, flower from Michaels, Lyra watercolor crayons, brads from Kim, eyelets, Cropadile Big Bite, and cool clear letters from Joann's.

Falling for Trey

I finished Trey's pages from the photos I took on Thanksgiving. I think they turned out wonderfully! I love the color scheme I used with his, so much softer than the page of them together. Plus, how can a momma not be happy with a cute face like that plasted all over some pretty papers? Even better, he posed so many times for me, without any pushing from me! Yup, I've raised him right!

He found locations, such as the ones where the trees were too deep and covering his face with shadows. I still scrapped some of those photos because he posed in those places on his own.

I used these cool shape templates that Kim gave me when she had me for her LSS. I used the circle one, I think she got them from Gina K. I paper pierced a few circles under the stripped paper. It's a cool subtle touch on the page. I than filled in the center with a button. I wish I had brown buttons. I used to have a major stash of buttons, but I must have given them away. I dug under my scrapping desk and every thing, and couldn't find them.

The supplies used where DCWV Fall stack, Gina K piercing template, misc buttons, brown scrappers floss, SU punches, eyelets, Crop-a-dile big bite, clear letters from Joann's, and TAC Abundance is stamp set.

I'm finishing up Gabi's page. She didn't give me as many good poses that day. But her page as she put it was pretty! Just needs a few more touches before I'm ready to photograph it.

Golden days

I printed the photos from Thanksgiving. I like to take them to Sams, because it only costs me 13 cents a photo! I took so many photos I fell in love with, I'm having to make three sets of pages. I started working on this one last night, and finished with the final touches this morning.

On these pages, I used the photos that captured both children. I'll make a page just with Trey, and one for Gabi later. I just love the way they look in these photos. Amazes me how quickly they grow! I think my paper turned out to be a little too busy, but I still like it. I think I should have used at least one solid background sheet instead of all pattern. I do love crazy bright pages as my local scrapping friends can tell you. I'm not one to shy away from bold combos on my pages. Just didn't seem like I was able to make the photos stand out as much as I would have liked. I think I know what papers I want to use for Trey's, and I think that'll have the look I was hoping for.

I love the two photos of them at a distance walking. The one where they're facing me, sun hitting Gabi makes her seem like she's glowing. Then the shot of them away, Trey running behind her is such the younger sibling shot! He has to keep up with big sissy! Reality is he can run much quicker than her, but she had a head start! LOL!

I think I also captured our Christmas photo in this group too. There's two photos that I'm trying to decide between. It's hard, because I'm happy with both photos. But I"m so pleased because I just did my very first Thanksgiving Day scrapbook page!

Supplies used on these pages were SU's tag punch, word punch window and corner punch, Crop-a-dile big bite, TAC's count your blessings, scallop square punch, DCWV Fall stack, DCWV solid paper, misc hardware, and flowers.

Blingest Box set

So, I made another box for a friend. I picked out some way bling-afied paper for this one! The whole sheet is covered in the stuff! Again, this was a pad of papers I found at Michael's made by K and Company, this pad was called Blue Awning. This is a specialty stack, inside are embossed sheets, feels like velvet , and glittery sheets. It's filled with rich blues, browns and greens.

I messed up on the top of the box again. The tutorial does the bottom first, and I for some reason keep wanting to make the top first, and end up with a sheet too long. So, I used my corner rounder to trim up the top a little, and it works fine and dandy. But I gotta get that mental note in my head telling me the bottom comes first! Here is a peak at a few of the cards.

The white stuff on here is very soft and fuzzy. It feels like velvet. Isn't it some pretty paper? I keep using double sided paper, because I think it'll make a nice little pop for my friends when they open the box. Here's what they'll see when they open the box up.

One last card to show off how cool the papers in this pack are. I couldn't cover up this flower. It's embossed, and the green parts are kinda like the white coating on the card above. So, I had a hard time figuring out where to put my monogrammed letter. But the flower was so pretty and big, I had to leave it on the card. Isn't that a majorly huge flower?

I used K and Company papers, DCWV papers, star dust stickles, SU scallop punches, Martha Stewart monogrammed stamp set, misc CB folders, Basic brown SU ink, close to cocoa, misc ribbons and mini pearl bling.