Snowflake Joy

Here is that long awaited card from Snowflake Serenade, a beautiful set from PaperTreyInk. It's a fantastic set, and the 3 snowflakes are gorgeous. This card just uses the small and medium size snowflakes. I hope you can see how pretty they are. The background piece is Blue Bayou cardstock, and the snowflakes are stamped in versemark, then embossed with clear detail embossing powder. The White panel is Soft Sky ink snowflakes stamped on Stampin Up Whisper White, then matted on top of a soft sky panel which is pierced with the paper piercer matt pack. The sentiment "Wishing you Joy" is actually 2 different stamps but put together at the same time on my acrylic block. I don't have any blue bayou ink yet, so I used Buckaroo Blue, one of last year's "In Colors" and it looks just fine. For the finishing touches, I traced the JOY word with the sakura stardust pen, stamped another snowflake on soft sky and punched it out with the 1 3/8 circle, and highlighted that circle with more stardust pen, and some fine lace stickles, added some ribbon and silver cord, and then added a tag that says "Happy Holidays", which I traced with the sakura glaze pen. This card took DAYS, way longer than most cards I do, because I just couldn't quite get the layout that I was happy with. Thanks for looking! It's almost time for Grey's Anatomy, so it's time to snuggle up on the couch and turn off the phones! :) Yeah.... tomorrow's Friday, although I have such a busy weekend ahead, it really won't seem like Friday until my day off on MONDAY.

Hi Again Crayon Resist

It's been a while since I've done a crayon resist card, but Jami did one a few weeks ago and reminded me to get my little piece of broken white crayon out that I have in my stamping stash!

It's so easy, but so fun. It doesn't show up very much on this card, but it's very subtle. This is the large flower from the set "Mixed Bouquet" stamped in black classic ink on glossy white paper, then highlighted with the white crayon. Then I used a sponge dauber to "paint" the flower with short round strokes of ink: Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue and Wild Wasabi. I was trying to follow last week's color combination challenge, but ended up adding the bashful blue to pull out some of the blue color from the DP. The ribbon isn't actually TIED, but it's looped around in and out of 2 holes and pulled until the ends are even. A fun alternative to tying a bow. The small saying at the bottom corner is from "Simply Said." Thanks for stopping by today.

I just got my Snowflake Serenade stamps from PaperTreyInk in the mail Saturday, so I'm excited to get some cards done to share with you in the next day or two. Thanks for stopping by!

HOW MANY OF YOU SAW A GREAT MOVIE OVER THE THANKSGIVING WEEKEND? We saw "Enchanted" with 10 Scheevel girl cousins, nieces, aunts, grandma, etc. What a fun day! Then after dinner we wanted "Hairspray" so it was a good movie day! What movies have you seen and tell me whether or not you liked them....

Saying Thank You

A dear friend of mine is having back surgery next week, and she will be laid up for 6-8 weeks. She is always the person who comes to the aid of everyone she knows... taking food, taking people to the hospital, or just lending a listening ear when needed. It's going to be very hard for her to let other people HELP HER for a change. As I was trying to think of ways to help her, and thinking about all the many people who will want to bless her and help her as a thank you for all the ways she has helped others, I thought that perhaps she might need a bunch of thank you cards as she is recuperating. So I'm making her a set of 10-12 cards, and will put them in a clear banded box from PaperTreyInk. (http://www.papertreyink.com/w.papertreyink.com/ )

Here are a few of the cards. Several of them feature my favorite paper from a little mat stack I bought last year from "Die Cuts with a View." It's called Retro Prints, and it's a stack of 162 4.5 x 6.5 papers in awesome colors and prints, that not only coordinate with each other, but also with many Stampin Up colors. I love using this mat stack. This card also uses Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa and Tempting Turquoise Cardstock, my brand new scalloped circle punch from Stampin Up, and 2 adorable little turquoise and white brads from Queen & Co. The turquoise starburst is stamped in craft ink onto SHIMMER WHITE paper and then popped up on with a piece of foam tape. The strip of close to cocoa is crimped with a paper crimper, (something I hardly ever use anymore!) This was a very simple but fun card to make.

This next card was fun also. It uses a very old set I bought at a garage sale, called "Oh My Word." (It was a hostess set way back.) The flower pot says "Thank You" all over it, and it is stamped in Old Olive ink, then it is cut out using a marvy oval punch (the pink one). The scallop is punched from Old Olive Paper using the scalloped marvy giga punch. (the purple one.) For some extra fun, I punched a window into the chocolate layer and the DP layer, to stamp the words "From the Heart" (from the set "Simply Said" and colored with an Old Olive Marker) onto the bottom base layer of the card, which is "Soft Sky." I also used the stamp-a-ma-jig for this to get the right allighnment, stamped the words, and then put the papers on top. There is a slit punched in the side of the oval and a piece of wide brown gingham ribbon tied to the side for some extra fun.

And finally, here's one more for today... I had this image sent to me and I've been hanging onto it for a long time. It's from the set "Doodle This" from last year's Stampin Up Spring Mini. It is layered onto Saffron, then the DP Petals and Paisleys. This paper has great colors in it. To fit with the thank you set theme, I added a little circle that says "Thank You" (from the set "Fancy Flexible Phrases") and punched that with 2 different sizes of circle punches. You also might notice a little part of the big flower is cut around. This technique is called "Out of the Box" and it just adds a little extra interest to your image and in my case, it helped make the image FIT better. I need to try this technique more. It can be a lot of fun.

Well, I have SO much to be thankful for, and making these cards for my sweet friend Lori, really helped remind me of all the wonderful people God has placed in my life who minister to me, pray for me, come to my rescue when I need them. Hope you enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving Weekend. Here's a question for you...

Did you go out shopping on Black Friday?

Are you DONE with your holiday shopping?

Have you STARTED your holiday shopping?

I'd love to hear from you.

Sweet Friendship

Last night I hosted a dinner party at my house for 3 wonderful, sweet, amazing girlfriends from HIGH SCHOOL. We just had our 30th class reunion a few weeks ago, and one of my best friends, Judy, couldn't attend because she lives so far away. Because she was in town for Thanksgiving, I decided to host a mini reunion in her honor. I had originally invited 10-12 people, but it ended up only being 4 of us... so we had lots of time to gossip (nice gossip... really!), laugh, while we tried to remember who dated whom, who broke who's heart, what we wore to the prom, why we did or didn't make the cheerleading squad, etc.

Here is a picture of the four of us last night... Becky, me, Linda, and Judy. I didn't meet these girls until jr. high, because I went to a different elementary school than they did, but I sure am glad God placed them in my life! Judy and I were flag twirlers together, I helped introduce her to her husband Jimmy Carter (no lie!) and also to Jesus. I was in her wedding 25 years ago (ouch!) and she is one of only 3 or 4 people that I remained close to when I moved to Atlanta for 12 years. Linda introduced me to my very first boyfriend... Danny S... he was her next door neighbor. Boy, did I fall fast and hard! Becky and I were also in cheerleading together and also worked very hard in CSF together... making teriyaki chicken skewers for scholarship funds until our fingers were frozen. I LOVE YOU GIRLS! God is so good to allow us to spend time with people who bless our lives, even though life has taken us on many different paths!

The Basket Challenge

As many of you know, Splitcoast (www.splitcoaststampers.com) has been giving us a daily challenge this past weeks to make various holiday/ Christmas decorations. I thought I would love each challenge because I love giving handmade gifts to my family and friends, and these challenges would give me some new creative ideas to try, plus the motivation to get them done before December gets here. Well, I haven't done as many as I thought I would, mostly because the challenges have involved materials that I didn't have on hand. That has been a little frustrating, so I'm hoping this coming week there will be some challenges that actually use things I have in my huge stockpile of craft supplies!

This basket was one of the challenges early this past week, and since it only involved cardstock, designer paper, eyelets and ribbon, I could actually get it done. Here are the instructions in case any of you missed them!

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/treat_box/

Let me warn you that I had a little trouble getting the corner fold correct. At first I folded the corners in the wrong direction and had to redo the folds, but luckily that was before the designer paper was added, so I don't think you can tell. This is going to be filled with candy and given to a co-worker for her birthday next week, so she can keep in on her desk throughout the holidays. Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

Tomorrow is our church's 60th birthday celebration, and all my children from church are singing in the morning service, plus my drama team is doing a hilarious skit, and then we're having birthday cake and bouncers after church, so it will be an exciting day! I better get to bed!

Godspell at Biola

My daughter and I spent the day today working hard on her upcoming production of Godspell at Biola Youth Theater. If you aren't familiar with Biola, it a Christian University in Southern California (where I graduated from) that was origianally called "Bible Institute of Los Angeles" (thus the acronym BIOLA) and was started in 1907. (Wow!) About 15 years ago, they began a program to teach theater and music to home school kids, which eventually turned into "Biola Youth Theater." It is an AMAZING program that allows kids to participate in community theater in a safe, well supervised, moral environment, and teaches them Christian principles while they learn to sing, dance, and act! This is my daughter's third production, and she was fortunate this time to earn a LEAD in Godspell, as Joanna... Joanna is the disciple that sings "Oh Bless the Lord My Soul." I am amazed at her dancing and singing abilities..... and so thrilled that she is meeting wonderful friends in the process. Of course, I secretly hope she'll want to attend Biola in a few years when she gets ready to choose a college, but she's determined to move farther away... like New York! Let's hope and pray she realizes that musical theater majors don't make any money, and that she'll also choose to pursue her passion and gift for MATH so she can EAT while she performs on Broadway! If you want to see Godspell on stage at Biola, I would strongly recommend it! The shows are Jan. 10 - 12, and also Jan. 17-19 and you can get tickets by calling (562) 906-4574, or www.youth.biola.edu/byt

Blessings for a New Home

This is a special card for my former mother-in-law to send her blessings for her new home. She lost her hustband, my father in law and my kids' sweet "poppa" on Aug. 13, and in the midst of her grief and trying to cope with all the changes in her life, she had to sell their home and move to a smaller place. They were married for 48 years and she hardly ever left his side. She didn't work outside the home, and they were involved in their kids lives, traveled together extensively, sang in church choirs together, and opened their home to hundreds of guests in various capacities. Even though I'm divorced from her son, we still try to keep in touch and get together as often as possible for the sake of my 2 kids. It was a privilege to be in their home and help minister to her and the other family members right up until the end of Poppa's life, and even on the day he passed away, as well as the memorial service, where hundreds gathered to pay tribute and celebrate a man's faithful walk through life.

This card is made using the "Long Notes" from StampinUp! It's the first time I've used the package I bought a long time ago. The color is saffron, and it also uses Not Quite Navy, Blue Bayou, and Vanilla Paper. The inks are: Not Quite Navy, and Saffron. The stamp sets used are Neighborhood Jumbo Wheel (isn't it adorable? It's actually even LONGER than I used here. I cut one of the houses off.) and also "Fancy Flexible Phrases." Then I used a 1" and 1 1/4 " circle punch, Spanish Moss Grossgrain Ribbon, Aquapainter and markers for coloring the houses, the Double Line Stitch Plaid wheel on the base of the card, and a scrap of DP from Stampin Up! Thanks for letting me share a little bit of our family's story. If you think of it from time to time, please pray for my mother in law as she makes the huge life changing adjustment to starting life over at age 70 without her sweetheart. Thanks!

Wednesday Morning Joy

Just a few quick cards participating in Splitcoast color challenge. The top folded card uses Big on Christmas and Christmas Chatter, and the oval punches down in the corner. When it's open there is a large place for a photograph or a long Christmas note! The colors used are Cool Carribbean, Chocolate Chip, and Celery, to reflect the colors in the designer paper. I think the little tab of celery dotted ribbon leads the recipient to open the card up and peek inside. The main image is colored with markers, and highlighted with a silver gel pen and the sakura stardust pen, and then softened with a little Soft Sky ink on a dauber around the edges so it wouldn't look so white. There are 2 bold brads.

The next card is for the Color Challenge on Splitcoast which comes out every Tuesday (or Monday night if we're lucky!) Since I still had this fun paper out on my desk, it was fun to discover that Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi and Ruby Red (all StampinUp!) matched beautifully. The snowman image is from Stampendous. The snowflakes are stamped in soft sky and white craft ink. The snowman is painted using the soft sky pad rubbed onto a CD and the aquapainter, the scarf done in Ruby Red and Garden Green (which is a good match for Wild Wasabi since WW doesn't come in a marker) and then some of the snowballs as well as the word JOY are covered with a glue pen and dazzling diamonds. A pretty quick card. It would be easy to mass produce if you need to make a lot of holiday cards.

Well, it's Wednesday which means a very long day with KID U at church tonight, plus Emily has a voice lesson in Garden Grove, so a lot of running back and forth as usual. I sure have mixed feelings about letting my kids get their licenses and drive. A lot less running around for me, but impossible to think about buying a car or paying for more insurance and gas!

A Pocket full of Christmas Wishes

Yesterday's challenge on "Splitcoast Stampers" (http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/) was to make a horizontal pocket card. They are incredibly easy to make. You just fold a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 piece of cardstock in half like you are making a regular card, then fold one "lip" down about 1 inch, or whatever you'd like, and decorate as desired. Then make a single layer card to go inside the pocket for your greeting or photo, etc. A fun way to use designer papers. Also a great way to enclose a gift card! This card uses two papers from "Paper Adventures" called "Enchanted Christmas Sweets" and "Enchanted Christmas Stripes." It has pretty sparkles all throughout it. The candy ribbon is from Michaels (a little bobbin spool) and I've had it for about 2 years waiting for the right time to use it. The tag on the front of the card is from StampinUp, Too Terrific Tags, and the Round circle at the top is from "Riveting." The sentiment on the inside of the card is from Stampendous and it's called "Wishes Come True." It's one of my favorite sentiments to use on the inside of my Christmas Cards. The cardstock used includes Real Red, Wild Wasabi and Yo Yo Yellow, all from StampinUp!

My dauther the Nerd!

I couldn't resist showing you this picture of my dauther Emily on Halloween! She and her best friend Melina, decided to dress up like Nerds, (which was great, cuz it was only a $5.00 costume!) She even won the contest at church at the Youth Group Costume Party! Emily is the one on the right.

Wishing You Joy!

I fell in love with this beautiful paper when I saw it, and knew I had to make some cards with it. It's called Alpine Snow Lace from KI Memories Holiday Collection. The snowflakes could coordinate with SU Burgundy or Cranberry Paper, or even Pomegranite a little bit. But the background of the paper made it more of a challenge. It's very shimmery, not exactly white, or vanilla, but kind of silver. The opposite side of the snowflake side is solid "shimmer" so you could use that to coordinate a layer on your card.

The stamp I used is from Stampendous, and I purchased it from eclecticPaperie, but I don't know if it's still availalbe. It's called "Joy Brackets" I outlined the swirls with my currently favorite toy, my sakura stardust pen. It's so great to get glitter exactly where you want it in such small detail!

And finally, because it was hard to find a coordinating color with the shimmery snowflakes and the burgundy, I fell back on black, as Jami likes to say. This allowed me to add a touch of black velvet ribbon, purchased from Fabric Barn in Long Beach, as well as a wilver swirl clip, some black brads. The card is a tent fold, and is edged with burgundy ink around all the vanilla paper edges with a sponge dauber. Easy and elegance... what could be better?

JOY is a favorite word of mine at this time of year, because so many things can try to rob our joy. For me, it's the financial stress of the holidays. I'm already nervous about it, and as my two teenager's lists get longer and longer, and more expensive, it can be easy for forget the true meaning of Christmas... the joy that came to earth in the form of the Christ child. This card is my wish for YOU and my reminder for myself to remember to focus on all the right things during the next 2 months. Wishing you Joy!

A Must Read

I am reading a wonderful book right now, and if you haven't heard of it, or haven't read any of Max Lucado's books, I think you will really enjoy this. It's called 3:16, and the whole book is based on the verse John 3:16. In his amazing poetic style, Lucado will take you through the heart of the gospel of Jesus, and bring fresh life to a verse that you may have memorized as a child. Today I found myself weeping as I read about the amazing LOVE that God has for the world He created, and how he pursues us even when we don't deserve His love. Here is a link to my favorite online Christian book place: Christianbook.com. They have everything I need at the best prices.

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/easy_find?Ntk=author&Ntt=lucado&action=Search&N=0&Ne=0&event=ESRCN&nav_search=1&cms=1&Go.x=9&Go.y=5

Got to spend extra time stamping yesterday and today because I was at home recuperating from my extra long hours in preparation for our Fall Festival at Church. The festival was a huge success (1475 people and aboug 150 volunteers), but MAN was I exhausted. Yesterday, I slept in til about 11:30 a.m. and then just stayed home and did nothing! Today I was a little more energetic and actually ran one errand and finished about 5 Christmas Cards, and a Sympathy card for one of my very best friends who lost his dad on Wednesday.

The Noel card is a very simple layout, using my very favorite new Christmas image from Stampin Up, called "Big On Christmas" The colors used are Celery, Real Red, and Old Olive. The sparkle on the letters are done with an embossing pen and irridescent ice embossing powder. The ornament is colored with markers, and highlighted with a silver gel pen. The background is done with the giant wheel called "Christmas Chatter." The ornament is also popped up on a dimentional. It's a fun and easy card and easy to mass produce. :)

This next card was another very easy card to make, and was CASED from a card we did at Jami's house a few months ago at club night. My friend Mike lost his dad on Wednesday, and so I wanted to use Yellow Roses to commemorate our sweet friendship. We've been friends for a long time, and he is the person I always call to vent and is always my "date" when a "Broadway Musical" comes to town. The roses are done with Marigold Morning, Saffron, and Mustard Ink, and then covered with a piece of vellum to soften the look. The sentiment is done with Mellow Moss craft ink, and embossed with clear detail embossing powder.

Tomorrow I have a baby shower to attend for my neice who is finally having a GIRL after having 2 boys. My sister in law was in charge of buying the gift, and I got to make the card, so I'll share that tomorrow! Have a great weekend. Hope you get to do something fun or exciting!