Soft Sympathy

Well, sad post today. I had to make a sympathy card for my Mom. My Dad passed away on Friday. He's had bad health for years, and seemed to always be fighting some odd aliment. He's in a better place now, but still sad for those left behind. (The card I had made about two weeks ago with the balloon and blue skies was for him, as he was having strange fevers and kidney problems they couldn't figure out.) My Mom has spent years helping care for him as his body turned on him, so I'm sure the void she'll feel will be hard to fill. I can safely say I'm a Daddy's Girl. I know he enriched my life, and taught me profound life lessons thru his life.

I used Peace With In from SU. Such a calm set. She raised birds, so I thought she'd enjoy the bird image. I try to keep it soft with my color choice. I added a touch of stickles, well, cuz it's hard not to add bling. I hope it still keeps the card peaceful and calm. I live out of state from them, so I'm having to send thoughts across the miles until I can be there in person. I used the Card Patterns sketch 78 for my sketch.

Supplies: Nesties, SU Chocochip ink, stickles SU stamps, Martha punch, K and CO paper, Wild Wasabi cardstock, Close to Cocoa cardstock,

Mary Grace

I've been busy scrapping this week. Taking advantage of Trey being home, and us having to stay put. I have gotten done a total of 5 double 12x12 layouts, so I'm pretty pleased with that. I ran out of tape today. I finished up my last page with glue, and called it quits. I had wanted to create a card, but with no tape, was out of luck! Not wanting to waste this time glued to the house, I worked on a project for Gabi's third grade teacher. She's expecting a little girl in Nov, and is naming her Mary Grace.

I had found these blocks at Michaels on clearance. I'm taking cheap! Barb would be jealous! I'm a Frugalista, too, like her! I think that's what the Target ad is saying lately. I was so excited about the price when I found the blocks, that I grabbed every set off the shelf! LOL! The buttons, primas, brads, scrappers floss, and stickles were from my stash. I grabbed the paper because I liked the colors better than the kid paper I had on hand. I grabbed the charms ages ago for another project, and didn't use them. The stamps are from a retired SU set. Isn't this just a darling baby gift?!

I made a set two years ago for Trey's male teacher in Kindergarten. He displays them in his room, which I think is very cool! Anyhow, so I spent the day making these and decorating them for her room! I made her teacher this gift last year, and she loved it, so I know she's gonna love this project, too! I can't wait to give it to her on Monday!

Thanks for stopping by!

Dude!

Those who know me well know that's a perfect title for me! Today's card covers a few challenges.

It's the sketch from Sketch and Stash. Billy is a new set, uncut. The paper is DCWV, from my stash, cardstock is also from my stash.

At CCEE, it was to make a summer card.

At Pile it on, an orange card.

At Flourishes Timeless Treasures, to use shimmerz. My waves are covered in it, as are the doggies glasses, and the blue line on the surf board.

At Spoonfull of Sugar, it was swirls. There's swirls with the waves and I stamped in Night of Navy on the back ground paper, and the edge with Swirlies from TAC.

Other supplies: Copics, nesties, SU's Surfs Up, SU Inks: Only Orange, Night of Navy, dew drops.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Beautiful Spring Day!

Man, didn't this card turned out so pretty?! Such a pretty color combo! It feels like a beautiful spring day! This card is for the Whiff of Joy Challenge for the day, which is a sketch challenge. I tried a new challenge today called Color Dare that I found off the Pile it On blog. I didn't have any Mellow Moss on hand for cardstock, so I dusted some of the other cardstocks and papers with my ink pad.

Other supplies: SU sentiment, SU word punch, regal rose, pink piro cardstock, primas, SU felt flowers, buttons, Martha punch, K and CO Brenda Walton, copics, stickles. Copics-skin-E000, E11, E93, clothes-RV21, RV13, RV10, E50, E51, hair-E47, E37. Thanks for stopping by!

Cuties Galore!

Man, I've had the best morning! I haven't done a darn thing, well, outside of the kids bathroom. I went to my crafting desk, and just had a good time! I've been dying to play with these darling girls from Mabelle's Dear Friend set in the TAC Serendipity. Kim was sweet enough to send me some images to play with a while back. These girls are darling! I didn't want to cut up any of the ones she sent, so I used the balloons off StampinBella's Balloonabella to get the extra popped up balloons. The paper is Lilly Anna from TAC. Love the bright colors in that paper pack! This card measures 4.5x4.5.

For my next sweetie, I used a sketch off SCS's sketch challenge. I used Caitlyn papers from TAC. I love the colors in this pack of paper. I added some punched out butterflies to her. I have a blank spot in the top, which will hold a sentiment at some point. I'm not sure if I'll use it for Teacher Appreciation week or a Mom's day card. I think it would work wonderfully for both.

Last for the day, I feel in love with this set when I saw it in the new SU catty. I think it's got something to do with the cats with the little girls. I think the cats in the hat is a precious concept. Reminds me of when our cats were kittens hiding in the laundry basket! I made this one last night, but couldn't get a good photo of it. I found a layout on Mojo Monday for it, but something went wrong with my card! LOL! That happens often! I used Basic Grey's 6x6 Two Scoops.

Supplies: TAC Dear Friend, Lilly Anna and Caitlyn papers, SU Kind Day, dew drops, shimmerz, stickles, nesties, EK punches, lyra water color crayons, MS punch, Wild Wasibi, Rose Red cardstock, stampin bella stamp.

Java Lion

I found the cutest papers at Joann's the other day by DCWV. It's called Animal Crackers! What a darling name for a paper line! It's also a glitter stack! And better yet, on sale 40% off! I grabbed the 6x4 pack, which is perfect for making cards. There's another set called Green that was new to me, made from recycled papers, and it's too stinking cute too! It's a green theme, so it's has animals and trees and stuff on it. You should see the animal artwork-gosh! Cute! Here is a link showing the chip board for this set.

I have TAC's Wild For You, and I always forget to use it. Such a cute set to not use! I knew as soon as I grabbed that paper pack, I was gonna put the two together! The only thing I don't like about this card is I choose to make the lion's face a shade lighter than the body, well that and he's standing too tall on the right. I had already stamped him twice in creamy caramel with poor results, I just couldn't get him just right in the nestie or inked right in the creamy caramel, so he stayed that way the third time I had stamped him! Mental note, I need more ink for my creamy caramel pad. Next time, I'll keep his face and body the same color though.

Have you ever noticed that solid stamps seem to do better being stamped in pigment ink, compared to dye based ink pads? Or am I just a hair lip that can't get the ink coverage right on dye based pads? I finally pulled out my Versamagic spots, and the coverage was wonderful.

I cased the layout off my friend Kim's blog. She did this layout the other day.

Supplies: SU Wild wasabi cardstock, PTI pure poppy, DCWV Animal Cracker's, versamagic spots, nesties, TAC Wild for you, ribbon from Joann's and stickles.

Michelle Zindorf Inspired Christmas with a Ghetto Pool

It's the Christmas card challenge on Sparkle's blog. I was out of town last week, so I didn't play along. So, I combined both challenges this week, which were to make a square card, and no bling. I wasn't sure if bling included brads and stuff, so my card is paper only! Since I was going easy with the other stuff, I pulled out a TAC set called Silhouette Nativity, a bunch of ink and a brayer.

I adore Michelle Zindorf's style, and love reading her blog. Sadly, I so can't get my brayer to brayer like her's. I swear, she makes it look so simple, and I end up with lines, goobs of ink, more lines, more goobs! It's endless, so I pull out the sponges, and work the paper to get the lines to soften. I swear, if I see she's in the area again, I'm going to her workshop! She was in Richmond once, and I had no idea until after she'd come and gone home! All that to say, one day I want to brayer like her! I made the red card first. I swear, every supply I went looking for I couldn't find. I looked for my word punch window, in the tote with the punches, no punch. Than after I moved on to a different project, there it was, right next ot the bag! I couldn't find the paper piercer template, so I did it free hand, and again, found it right after I was done with the card! So don't understand how I lose things that are right under my nose!

Supplies for green card: Wild Wasabi cardstock, ink, baja cardstock, ink, not quiet navy ink, prussian blue palette ink, garden green ink, jardin moss palette ink pad, brayer, CB folder, gold ink, black marker, snowman nativity, silhouette nativity.

Supplies for red card: DCWV cardstock, TAC tag tidbits-sentiment, silhouette nativity, so saffron ink, baja blue ink, not quite navy, wild wasabi ink, garden green ink, jardin moss palette ink pad, prussian blue palette ink pad, black marker, SU punches-scallop, tag, and cornor, white ink pad.

Than I finally scrapped Trey's birthday party! His birthday was 7-11. So, it's well over due! He had a pool party last year. We call those nice fun blue pools Ghetto Pools. I hope no one takes offense to that! I love those things! Kids spend hours out there every summer. I have to say, the metal frame stood well compared to the blue ring kind.

Have to say something about this product. My scrapbooking totally moved up in my opinion when I found this book by Jeanette Lynton founder of CTMH, called "Cherish". I totally love this book. I had all my newbie scrapping friends go out and buy it. She has such a great use of pattern papers, and clean crisp lines. I love that she showed ways to have many pages on a page without it being busy. I love lots of photos on my pages, I love different papers, and she brings it together perfectly! This page was inspired by her book. So, if you're toying with the idea of scrapping, this is a book you should go look at.

Supplies: buttons, scrappers floss brown, DCWV fall stack, DCWV solid papers-summer stack, hardwares.

Ah, that I like!

Okay, now I'm happy! I love the blog photo! And better yet, I took all the stuff I made for it, and turned it into a card afterwards! I think they call that going green! LOL! Anyhow, I love SU's almost amethyst. One of my favorite colors!

I pulled out my favorite TAC sets called Just Dream, colored her in with lyra water color crayons. I used my nesties to cut her out, and layer her in a scallop circle nestie. I paper pieced the wings with a glitter paper I found at Target. Added some stuff I had floating around, prima flowers, ribbon from Joann's for a buck, brads, dew drops, I used a new Martha Stewart punch I picked up today. The sentiment is from a new TAC set called Beautiful day which can be purchased after Feb 1. Just love how this all came together!

Supplies: TAC's just dream, beautiful day, SU's lovely lilac cardstock, Almost amethyst cardstock and ink pad, lyra water color crayons, prima flowers, Martha Stewart punch, dew drops, lyra water color crayons and Noir palette pad.

Lilly and Billy, Queen goes Green, and a butterfly

Edited to add that Queen and Co is going Green! Queen and Co is one of my favorite lines of eye candy! Check out the info on their blog! They have some fun new stuff coming from the peaks on the blog!

I made this Lilly and Billy card with Pink Cat Studio stamps, because they were calling for snow in our area yesterday! We hardly ever get snow. All the local schools were out too, because the weather man said we were gonna have 3-5 inches! Guess how much we got-nothing, nada, zip! Crazy sad! I was so looking forward to snow!

Back to the card, I first learned about Pink Cat Studios from Debbie. I hadn't heard of Lilly and friends, and she'd asked for dress up Lilly because I was her secret sister. My, when I saw the images online when I ordered for her, I thought they were darling! I just got myself my own PCS set this month! I picked this winter fun set because it had a boy and a girl in the images. Having a daughter and a son, they fit me just right! I think the new V-day set is too cute too!

Anyhow, PCS had issued a challenge to make a card with pink, sparkle, and a critter. Here's my card for that challenge. Coarse having two kids, I colored them to look sorta like my own. I had fun with Billy, because I gave the chap freckles. My son is full of freckles. I tell him that's where the sun kisses him! I added glitter to some fun flock which add sparkle to it. I paper pieced her jacket, and filled in some of their snow with shimmerz.

Supplies:SU Cert. celery cardstock, Ridinghood Red cardstock, DCWV Glitter Christmas stack, SU corner punch, stickles, shimmerz silver bells, fun flock, Martha Stewart Snowflake punch, lyra water color crayons, snowflake from Target.

Today is Flutterby Wed on Danni's blog. I was looking thru my TAC catty for my MIL today, who was looking at stamps, cuz they're still 50% off T-code stamps. I saw Forever Family in the catty again, and thought I really wanted to ink it up, since I hadn't yet. Than I went digging thru my stamps looking for butterflies. I pulled out Priceless from SU. I thought the butterfly image went perfectly with the circle stamp from the TAC. Than one of those freaky wow, that goes great together moment happen-I don't get those too often!. I pulled PTI's Berry Bliss paper/ink. There was a small swap of paper left over from the SU scallop punch on my desk from a card I made recently sitting by the cardstock. They looked so good together, I wanted to use that paper. I'm digging around all my packs of paper trying to figure out what pack it came from, no luck. So, next best thing, look at the card to figure it out. Well, the card was gone too. I'm the worst at cleaning up my desk, but honestly, this stuff can't be that hard to find! I than grabbed the DCWV Sweet stack which was at the front of my drawer, and with the back to me, and it was part of that stack! Yippie! I thought this striped sheet looks perfect with Berry Bliss. That filled in the need for another color, because it worked perfectly with Apricot appeal!

Supplies: SU scallop punch, ribbon Joann's, PTI Berry Bliss paper/ink, TAC Forever family, SU Priceless, DCWV Sweet stack, SU Apricot Appeal ink pad, stickles, gems.

Chilly day in VA

We've chilled at home today. Gabi's sick today. She's fighting a sinus infection, and DR said to keep her out of the cold. It's pretty chilly here this weekend. I love it that way, so I'm happy about the cold. But feel badly for the kids. Been to the DR too many times this month, and it's only half way done! Hopefully, she will feel better by tomorrow. On to crafting....

I had a cow I had already colored from TAC's Barn Yard Birthday but hadn't made it into a card yet. I tried a layout I haven't before, where the top of the image is peaking over the top of the card. I think this layout is way cute, and not sure why I haven't tried it before. I used DCWV glitter Sweet Stack. That stack has some way cute papers in there. Fans of cupcakes will be happy with it. I was happy with it, because it found it on clearance for half off! Love deals!

Supplies: TAC Barn Yard Birthday, sentiment retired from TAC, gems from Michaels, DCWV Sweet Glitter stack, DCWV cardstock, Nesties, stickles, lyra water color crayons, SU scallop punch, liquid pearls.

I have to say again, how much I love nesties. I think they are so easy to use with cutting sentiments out in great little sizes! I have so many more on my wish list, and I feel like I grabbed a lot when I got them for Christmas! I think I should feel guilty about that! But, man they make layering so nice and easy!

Than I placed an order at All That Scraps last week, and it arrived today. Grabbed some Gingersnaps stamps-can we say DARLING! Anyhow, I got the Valentine set, and love the little chickie sitting on the mushroom. I'm digging mushrooms lately. Anyways, I found this layout at Sketch Saturdays off a link on my friend Tammi's blog. I also saw a challenge today at Sugar Bowl to use three embellishments, and three different papers. It's hard to tell, but the pink under the fairy is the light pink paper in the Basic Grey Bittersweet pack, so there's three different papers on there. Oops! I think I went over on embellishments, because I have brads, stickles, gems, and flowers! Oh, well, it's still a stinking cute card! LOL! I cut out the section with her knees and mushroom top and popped them out.

Supplies: Nesties, CC Designs Hey Cupid, Bittersweet by Basic Grey, SU pretty in pink cardstock, primas, stickles, lyra water color crayons.

Buttery Rose

Today was Flutterby Wed's on Danni's blog, so today I grabbed my new butterfly set from TAC that's releasing later this month. I grabbed Basic Grey's new Bittersweet paper, and saw today's sketch challenge at SCS, and decided to play along today as well. I think this set lends itself very well to the layout. I also was a little naughty and grabbed a butterfly punch of Martha Stewart at Walmart when I was grabbing milk today. I added little pearls to the centers, nice sweet touch! I had a TAC order come in too, where I ordered some corner swirly stamps-half off due to a good sale their having until the 26th of this month. That set is peaking out under the BG background, stamped in SU's Close to cocoa.

Supplies: SU Close to cocoa paper, ink, Rose red cardstock, lyra water color crayons, pearls from Michaels, stickles, ribbon from Joann's, bittersweet basic grey paper, TAC stamps-True beauty and swirlies.

Playful birds

Here's another set being released from TAC. This set is called Beautiful Day. The flowers lined up in this first card are all individual stamps. I put them together on my card. I love the sentiments for it. Beautiful is by itself as well. So, that would go nicely on so many cards, since it has such a pretty font. A few of the flowers weren't my style, so I'm looking forward to seeing what other folks do with them. I hope I did them justice with my creation, though. It also screamed to me that I should use the Mabelle paper, Bella Flor, both seemed fun and whimsy. I think they make a cute set together!

Included with this set there are 3 bird stamps, on by itself, in the card above, and two couple birds. I do think this set would make a darling congrats for a baby card, using one couple set, and the little birdie! I may have to try that tomorrow. I thought the couple sets would make a cute V-day card or anniv card for hubby. They're back to back in Feb. I kept this one more low key, cuz ya know, he's a guy! I just get looks from him when I hand him a card! The sentiment on this card is from Soul Kisses, which can be viewed on the TAC's main website under promotions.

I also released I totally want the rest of the oval, as I went to layer it, and having only the large scallops, it was too big. So, that's on my list of wants! I didn't understand what the buzz was all about last year over those nesties. Those things ROCK! Makes layering a breeze! I love them!

Supplies: nesties, beautiful day-TAC, Bella Flor-TAC, DCWV cardstock, noir ink pad, lyra water color crayons, Martha S double scallop punch, SU scallop punch, stickles.

New TAC stamps

Here are two cards I made tonight. This set is coming out later this month. I think she's such a cutie! I just love her boots! Her little bird friend is in several of the images too. I used my long rectangle nestie to trim the end of the diamond layer. I thought that was a clever idea on the Elzy blog when she did it with the paisley nestie.

Supplies:DCWV cardstock, TAC stamp and dp paper, little whimsy, stickles, lyra water color crayons. nesties.

I think I want a sentiment for this card that says Home Tweet Home. I'm sure I've seen that some place before! I think it would be a perfect match with this image! This bird is just too cute! I think I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this set!

Supplies:Primas, lyra watercolor crayons, TAC stamp and dp paper, little whimsy, gem brad, SU word punch window, dew drops, SU pixie pink cardstock, nesties, stickles.

I'm happy with all the sets that TAC released early for the angels to preorder! I'm hoping to play some tomorrow with a different set! I'm sure I'll have to vacuum first though! Wink! Wink!

I should share with how I told Paul I got the vacuum! Our phone conversation: I have bad news for you. I was naughty today. Paul-Yea? I got a new vacuum. Oh, gosh! It was a Dyson. Oh! CRAP! It was 500 bucks. WHAT?! I paid 94 bucks for the sucker! How did you do that?!

Such a mean wife! LOL!

Blue Flutterby challenge

I was a little rushed today making this card. The kids had a two hour school delay due to fog. Believe me the extra sleep was nice, but it made me rush the rest of the day. Not enough time to get my stuff done! I headed out to a few stores, Michael's in search of some paper packs on sale this week, a new scrapbook store I heard about, and Target. I got lost in Target for too long! LOL! I did grab about 4 6x6 packs of papers at Michaels, and found Basic Grey's new Bittersweet at the LSS. So, it was a good crafting shopping day! Anyways, after school is dance for Gabi, so I got started with the card right after homework, worked for about 15 minutes, than ran out the door. Paul wanted to go look at laptops after dance, so just now finishing up the card, and posting it.

I've decided I wanted to do more challenges with stamping this year. Today, I wanted to play Danni's Wed. Flutterby Challenge. I grabbed my TAC Butterfly bits set, and one of the new paper packs by Making Memories called Chloe's Closet. Other supplies are: SU's tangerine, Baja blue, Brocade blue ink pads, PTI Olive cardstock, stickles, ribbon from Michaels, prima flower, and Martha Stewart Double scallop punch. I used a nestie as well. Trying to get the sizing down on these. Seems big to me sometimes. All in all, bright fun spring butterfly card!

Beautiful Wendy

I made this card the other day, but got started with the challenges and forgot to upload her. I'm so happy with how this card turned out! I think the colors are so soothing on the eyes, and the coloring came together so perfectly on Wendy! I got the layout off A Whiff of Joy blog. Great layout, isn't it? First time I've pulled out my felt flowers from SU since I purchased them several months ago! They match my TAC paper perfectly! The TAC paper is their Amberly Grace SWIC. I love the colors in this pack of papers!

Supplies: TAC SWIC, SU Felt flowers, Lyra Watercolor crayons, Bella stamp, TAC sentiment, Baja Blue SU cardstock, stickles, ribbon, nesties, versamagic ink pad, SU close to cocoa ink pad.

Than I've been thinking about this all morning. I saw this blog post at Tip Junkie, about your word for 2009. My year is starting out so nicely, so finding a word that matches how I want the year to continue is difficult! Have you all ever done this before? I've done where you find one word that describes you in one word. My word for that is "cautious". I over think just about every decision I ever make. I never take big leaps in life! I'm gonna keep thinking on a word for the year, and would love to hear what anyone else come up with for their word of the year.

Last wordy part of this post. Poor Trey is home from school today. I shouldn't say poor Trey, he's loving it! Been on the wii not fighting his sister for games! I took him to the DR on NYE, and was told it was viral, wait it out a week. Something told me that wasn't right, but can't argue with the dudes in white, ya know? So, days passed, he didn't get any better, and he kept running a high fever. His sister and cousin, who was visiting, didn't get sick, so seemed like it couldn't just be viral. On Friday night his fever got to 103.3, and I knew I couldn't wait a week to take him back. We headed back on Sat AM, and it was bronchitics. Got a strong antibotic and he's doing so much better! But the dr said he had to stay low for 3 days, and that meant today was chilling with momma! Anyhow, all that to tell you, I snapped this super sweet photo of him passed out in the chair. He'd been feeling bad for so long, and just knocked out at 7:30.

Pink Cat Studio challenge, Sparkle Christmas Challenge

I printed off cute Lilly the fairy at Pink Cat Studio. She's free to print for a challenge over there. Check it out if you haven't yet. I'm a newbie to creating with images printed off the computer. I had to print it a few times because I kept making the ink smear. I heat set the ink the third time and that seemed to help some. I was also able to use gamsol on it. I think I need some tips on how to get the printer ink not to smudge. I even tried the embossing feature on the nesties. Need to work on that some too! I thought the flower paper made her look like she was leaping in the flowers! I added silver bells shimmerz to her wings.

Supplies: DCWV Nana's kids, SU lovely lilac cardstock, SU scallop punch, primsacolored pencils, stickles, shimmerz and nesties.

I also found a fun challenge on Sparkle's blog. I was excited to see this challenge because I hasd stamps I hadn't used this Christmas, like my Drummer boy stamp. Plus, I had run out of Christmas cards to mail this year. I didn't make new ones this year, and had decided to use my stash of holiday cards. I ended up not having enough after all, so this challenge should allow me to have plenty at the end of the year! Sadly, I snipped off some of his ear on the left hand card. I'm still learning the sizing of the nesties.

Supplies: TAC's Reese cardstock, Olive cardstock from PTI, SU close to cocoa, stickles, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, gem from Michaels, ribbon from Michaels, SU punch, nesties, sentiment from TAC, lyra watercolor crayons.

A cracked cuttle bug plate!

My company left this morning, so after I took down the Christmas decorations-this took all day, I headed up to play with my new toys at 8:30 tonight. I grabbed my new Rachel Anne Miller stamp-isn't she darling? I thought she looked spring-ish, so I pulled out TAC's Angelee SWIC. It's filled with those soft spring colors. I so wanted to see what the new stickles looked like that I grabbed, so I put different stickles on the mushrooms. (The distressed stickles have a big opening, so that caused a few issues at first. Had the stickle blobs happening a few times!)

But yippie! I finally got to use the nesties. I will have to get the nesting rectangles. I really like that look where they're embossed and straight line in the middle. I'm not a double scalloper person, I guess! Ran into a problem with the ribbon on this layout. So, I'm not digging where it's located.

Than I grabbed an IRAK from Tammi to make another card. Man, she's gonna make a big fan of those Hanglar stamps! Freaking cuties! I put her thru a different shaped rectangle nestie, and bam, the darn thing cracked my B plate! And it was my nice one too! I always do my die cutting on this one, so that it's freaky looking, and the other stays clear. I was a little shocked when it stuck into the plastic when I cut the second scallop rectangle out! Wasn't expecting that! Made me chuckle while I was peeling it off. I double checked the directions, and I put it thru right, so I'm not sure why it cracked. Guess I'll grab another one when it's on sale.

Supplies:Rachel Anne Miller, Hanglar, TAC Angelee SWIC, SU card stock, K & Co., stickles, ribbons from Michaels, flowers from TAC, Versamark spots, Nesties, crop-a-dile, water color pencils and lyra water color crayons.

Nesties in the house for the New Year!

Hope everyone had a delightfully, wonderful New Year's Celebration. We had a small party here last night. We do an annual party. This year we had about 22 people come. Everyone loved the food! And my handmade stuff went faster than Paul's CFA strips! I have this one pinwheel dish I make that is so yummy! It has shredded chicken, cream cheese, cilantro-my ubber favorite herb, and jalapenos wrapped up in crescent rolls. They are so light, and the spice is just the right touch. It's so yummy! I only had a few because they ate them up! I even made a double batch, thinking I'd have some today! LOL! Always nice to bring in the New Year with special friends.

I was given some moolah for Christmas from my ILS. I know, I'm a lucky gal! People seem to have a love/hate relationship with their ILS, but I've been blessed! Paul's parents are the best! Even better, he has two sets of parents, and both sides truly spoil us! I have been waiting forever it seems to get some nesties, so when they sent money, that's what I ordered! I had a good time picking them. I don't have any rectangle scallop punches, so I grabbed those two scalloped sets first. I also grabbed the scallop oval and circle figuring I could replace the two punches I have. I was surprised at how big the scallop circle was in the kit. I didn't get the non-scalloped sets yet, thinking I can use supplies I have for that for now to fill in the centers. I'm thinking I'm gonna want them. Good thing I have a birthday in Jan, huh?! LOL! In the top left corner of the photos is a Rachel Anne Miller stamp. This is my first stamp of her's.

I also grabbed some new stickles! My, the new glitz ones are very blingy! I can't wait to use these things. I have company who are in my bonus room so right now, I can't use them. All my goodies are upstairs waiting to be used! Crossing fingers maybe I can play tomorrow!

I made the card the other day using the cute TAC angel set. I used some Basic Grey paper, I think this is sultry 6x6 pack. SU's wild was. card stock. Gems from Michaels, and stickles on the wings. I colored with my Lyra water color crayons. I found the Basic Grey paper at Michaels, during their 40% off all paper packs the weekend after Thanksgiving! Such pretty papers!

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.