Snow Slopes

Hello again!
Here is my third card.
This set, Patterned Pines, was actually sent to me from my wonderful friend Katrina!
Thank you so much, it really makes beautiful trees.

I didn't know what I wanted to do with this card, but I knew I wanted to use Real Red this time. After doing the other two in other shades, I wanted the true color for my third card. So, along with that came the Glorious Green, so bold and beautiful, perfect for Christmas.

This was a pretty basic card, in that it's clean and crisp without too much going on. I really like that about it. And the red polka dot ribbon was a perfect match for the embossing folder I used.

When you make the snow slope, if you do it just right, you'll get two cards from one piece of white cardstock. Another time savor when you are doing an assembly line of cards for Christmas.

Set: Patterned Pines & Holiday Best
Accessories: Real Red, Glorious Green & Whisper White cardstocks, Scallop Punch, CB Folder, White EP, Real Red Polka Dot Ribbon, Real Red & Glorious Green inks.

New Years is around the corner. Not sure what we might have planned (as I am typing this early and setting it to post later...) but I don't think I will be awake at midnight, with my little guy, I can't do those late nights anymore, unless he is the one keeping me awake. To all my wonderful friends and family, have a wonderful and safe New Year! Enjoy and may you have a great 2010!

Delightful Ornaments

I hope you are all having a wonderful week.
This week is usually so busy for many, between traveling and of course visiting with loved ones.
Stay safe!

Here is my second card of the year.
I love these ornaments. And that ornament punch is genius! Not only a time savor, but a mind savor, it saved me from cutting all those out. I think it's one of my favorite punches!

It's great to hold onto some of the older sets, you never know when you'll need something...like the pine stamp for my tree. I could just smell the pine as I was stamping away, felt like I was in the tree ;)

You can't really see it in the picture, but I added white to the centers of the embossed flowers. I originally planned to use my white gel pen, but neither of them wanted to work, so I used a white Koh-i-nor pencil, it rubbed on easily.

For fun I added a little rhinestone in the middle of Joy.

I also like having my old "In Colors" on hand. The last card I posted sported the Cranberry Crisp from our first year of In Colors, and this one has the Purely Pomegranate. It's always hard to part with the colors when the book ends, but you see...I don't really part, they stay on for a while. Nice to have so many shades of red.

Set: Delightful Decorations & Pines
Accessories: Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi & Whisper White cardstocks, Purely Pomegranate & Wild Wasabi ink, Petals A Plenty folder, white pencil, rhinestone, silver cord, Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon, White taffeta, ornament punch

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to all my friends and family!

I have, once again, made three different Christmas cards this year.
Hopefully by now, they are in the hands of all my loved ones.
I will post one today....this one was voted as both my husbands and my daughters favorite of the three I made.

When I saw this set in the mini catalog, I just fell in love with it.
That polar bear is just ... well, cuddly! I could give him a big ol' hug.
But, I'll just enjoy some hot cocoa with him instead.

I think we are all getting spoiled. It used to be that we used background stamps for everything and now these embossing folders make life so easy and there is more texture to make our cards pop. I love it!

And again, you can see that I got out my brayer, I think it made a wonderful background for our bear friend.

Set: Cold & Cuddly
Accessories: Cranberry Crisp, Bordering Blue, Whisper White cardstocks & Holiday Thyme DP. Brayer, Dazzeling Diamonds, White EP, Scallop Oval Punch, Oval Punch, Scallop Edge Punch, Taffeta White Ribbon, Cranberry Crisp Stitched Ribbon, Sponge and Snowflakes CB folder.

Cold and Cuddly Birthday

Hello all, I'm still around, just becoming a bit consumed with the whole holiday season. I love this time of the year. We have our tree up, we've been to a couple Christmas gatherings, tonight we are even going caroling, which I haven't done in years! I'm so excited. Only if we could have a bit of snow...but I will have to just dream of a White Christmas instead. I love that movie. And now that I'm almost done with my Christmas cards, I'll be able to sit down and watch it along with a bunch of others that I've been wanting to see.

Anyway....

Today is my favorite sister's birthday (Happy Birthday!!)....yup, you guessed it, I have just the one. However, I do have a couple great sister-in-laws :). It's not snowing in Maine today, but they do have snow, and with a winter birthday, I thought I would have fun with this set. I hope she likes it. Her favorite color is purple, so I try to use it in her birthday cards, this year was Almost Amethyst, since it reminds me of a cold snowy color.

On SCS I saw a couple cards with stacked penguins and I thought it was just too cute, so here they are. There are four of us in our family, so we are all sending her celebrations on her birthday!!

I used last years Felt Flurries and added a bit of glitter to the snow. I just hope it doesn't melt too much, or these guys will all tumble down.

Set: Cold & Cuddly, Wonderful Words
Accessories: Almost Amethyst Ink and Paper, Whisper White cardstock, StazOn Black in, Markers, Felt Flurry, Sticker Dots, Eyelet Edge Punch

I don't know about you all....but I like to settle down and enjoy the holidays as much as I can. I've been baking, card making and running around, so I've put my Etsy store on Vacation mode so I won't have to run to the post office after I mail my cards....I've just about finished shopping, so I will be making some hot cocoa, getting the wrapping paper out and putting on one of my many movies to enjoy.

Merry Christmas everyone. Jesus is the Reason for the Season.

Elmo, Cake and Mommy's Big Boy

Hello again everyone!


Now I am a whole year old! Mommy cried. She said that the year went by too fast. She said that even though she’s thrilled with each moment, she can’t believe that it was a year ago that I was placed into her arms for the first time. I remember that too, I knew that very moment that I was the luckiest kid alive.


She said I’m her turkey. Since my birthday was on Thanksgiving, she even got me a special bib. It had a turkey on it and a 1, so I must be her #1 turkey. I think it looked rather good on me.

I had fun on my birthday. I got to try some new foods… I haven’t decided what I like to eat. I sometimes let her get it into my mouth, but quite often it comes right back out…sometimes I even reach Mommy with it, it’s funny. She says she doesn’t like to wear my lunch. And now that I’m one, I even get milk and that stuff is yummy, but not nearly as yummy as EGG NOG, that stuff rocks!!

And chocolate…where have they been hiding this. My cake was chocolate with my buddy Elmo on the top (and yes...Mommy made my cake). I tried to get him off the cake so that he could celebrate with me, but I smudged him instead and well, at that point I thought I’d just lick him off my fingers, that seemed to work.

So, the secret is, all you have to do to get some fun new toys is have a birthday. That seems easy enough. And everyone around seems to have done it plenty of times, so I think I like how this works. And Mommy even made me a cool Elmo card.

(images taken from online, Elmo flocked, cake/1 glittered)

After I finished my cake…I started in on my hat. That was really yummy!!

Over the past six months I grew so much! I am walking all over the place now and the house looks like a zoo, really it does! Not that I’m an animal or that we have lions or anything…but there are cages everywhere! There must be some really great stuff beyond those gates, I’m going to find out soon, but the plan is still in the works. For now, when she is in the other room, I will just stand there and yell at her to come back. She seems to like this.

I also have 8 whole teeth! I have a really handsome smile! Yup, I use it all the time and it really helps me to get what I want. But, when it doesn’t work, I use the old standby, crocodile tears! Those things are awesome!! And they really come in handy. Mom says that although I don’t talk yet, she usually knows what I want, she's right.

Well, that is all for now, I’ll be back, just you wait and see.
~Garrett

Thanksgiving Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving!

There are countless blessings that I am thankful for today.

All the blessings that my Lord bestows on me daily, many I don't even recognize. He is so good.

I am so thankful for my little boy who is ONE today, yes, he's my special Thanksgiving treat. A year ago I was in the hospital with him in my arms. He's such a joy!

I am thankful for my daughter, so bright and beautiful. She has such a big heart. She came home with Honor Roll this week, her first quarter of her first year in high school. We are so proud.

I am thankful for my husband, he's always so loving and caring to all of us. Thankful for his back surgery he had a month ago and that he is doing so well.

I am thankful for my family back home. They are missed daily and thought of all the time.

As we approach another year, I pray we count our blessings.

A Happy Place

Hello all, life has a way of getting away from me, I have still yet to start my Christmas cards! Yikes. Better get a start on those....plus, for some reason the computer wasn't allowing me to upload cards/pictures, so that is fixed now.

Anyway, my hubby had back surgery on his birthday at the end of October and this is the card I made him. I figured that he could use a happy place while in all that discomfort. Inside has the birthday wishes, of course.

I found a bit of inspiration on SCS for this card. I just love this set. JeanneS had one that was pretty similar with the two-toned trees, that I liked.

I used the Zindorf way of brayering my background, goodness I like that....and added the rhinestones for those precious diamonds in the sky.

Yesterday was our anniversary and no, I didn't make him a card for that. Just no time. I need time to stop for a while, so that I can catch up. But, before I start on Christmas cards, my little guy turns one ON Thanksgiving, so I have to make him a special card to celebrate that day.

Have a great week!!

Stamps: Cute Converse, Happy Camper
Accessories: Brocade Blue, Whisper White, Night of Navy and Going Grey cardstocks. Rhinestones, brayer.

From the heart

I made a card for my Mom, my parents anniversary was in October and since Dad's passing, each year we try to make it special for her just the same. And this card really was 'from the heart'. Their marriage is what brought all of us here.....

Anyway, I found the idea for this card over at Michelle Zindorf's blog, she's a true artist. I really love pulling out my brayer now. I never used to use it at all. It's such a wonderful tool!

I have different stamps then she used, but it still worked. I love pulling out my Artfully Asian set anyway :)

Set: Artfully Asian, F3345 Large Grass (The Happy Stamper), Shore Thing, Holidays and Wishes.
Accessories: Whisper White, Bermuda Bay & Basic Gray cardstocks, Stamp A Majig, Brayer, Sponge, White Gel pen, Various SU Inks, Light Pink Organdy (retired) and Light Pink Grosgrain.

A True Golden Oldie

My older brother hit 50 this past week! I'm stunned that one of us is half way to triple digits!!
I'm out of town, but his wife put on a grand party for him, I'm told I'll get to see the video :)

He's always been a funny one in the family, both in humor and looking so I thought this would be the perfect set to use!

I tried to find an old man type paper to use and this seemed to fit. Not to pink, not too floral. It's from the Razzleberry Lemonade DP. I paper pieced his shorts with the DP.

He doesn't look a day over 49, but he'll now have to claim the big 5-0!!

Set: Golden Oldies, Whimsical Numbers
Accessories: Razzleberry Lemonade DP, Crushed Curry & Whisper White cardstock, Crushed Curry ink & ribbon, Jumbo Brads, Ticket Corner Punch, Scallop oval and med oval punches

Voila it's a sweet treat!

These sweet treats out of the Holiday Mini catalog are brilliant! I haven't used my Voila chef in quite some time, but when pondering which set to use for these cups, his little platter came to mind. Perfect fit!

Today is my brother's birthday and since I had made some fun cards for his kids birthdays, last month, I thought I'd make him something fun too!

I paper pieced the chef's outfit and added some brads for his buttons. Then I sponged around for some color. I wanted him to be able to get the candy without tearing the card, so I followed the instructional video over on FroggieStamps, very easy to follow. Now, I know he'll give in and his kiddos will end up with the sweet treat.

Set: Voila
Accessories: Main Blueberry DP, Not Quite Navy, Old Olive & Whisper White cardstocks, Sweet Treat cups, Brads, Circle Punch, Sponge

Shenandoah National Park

I have always wanted to get over to the Shenandoah National Park. I lived here in Virginia years ago, when my daughter was small, and never made it that far in-land. I always seem to stay by the coast, now that we are back....it was time for a drive. It's about a 4 hour drive from the beach, but well worth it. We finally went this past Sunday and what a wonderful day we had. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and it smelled so crisp and fresh with the fall air! I loved it!!

The views were spectacular. Very breathtaking. I actually felt like I was back in New England. Just about each year, when I'm there, we go into the White Mountains to drive up the Kangamangus Highway...so I felt like I was home :)

One thing that really caught my eye, was all the rock walls that lined the street. A lot of time went into those, but WOW! So much better then any metal guard rail, that's for sure.

We stopped at one spot to stretch our legs. My little guy is just about ready to run any day, he has taken as many as 9 steps on his own. His big sister is enjoying her little brother.

And a little time for leaf play.

And just as we got back into the car to start driving again, there were two does on the side of the road. They didn't run off, but stayed put while many cars stopped to take their portraits.

Nothing like getting back into nature for the day. I hope you all get out to enjoy a piece of fall if you can.

Courage

I love it when SU gets a new military stamp set in. I knew I had to have this one. Even though it's taken me a while to get it inked, I really like how this came out. Even hubby liked it.

We have yet another birthday over on Ocean's 11. This one is being sent to another military wife, I'm sure she'll enjoy it! The inspiration for this card came from JackieB over at SCS.

I brayered Ruby Red and Not Quite Navy from the edges, I think it gave a wonderful effect over the Soft Suede cardstock. The soldier has been bleached. I haven't done that in ages. What a great image it makes.

I didn't feel it needed much else in the line of colors, the image says it all. Just a bit of the red and blue here and there.

Being military, as this set shows, brings you closer to God. Well, if nothing else will do it, it's great that this will. Our men and women need someone to lean on and know that someone is watching out for them. It's great when they go to God for that comfort that they need. And even for those of us at home. Knowing God is in control makes their deployments more bearable.

Set: Courage
Accessories: Soft Suede, Not Quite Navy & Sahara Sand cardstocks, Various Inks, Bleach, Black EP, Photo Corner Punch, Cutter Kit, Brads, Brayer, White Gel Pen