Spooky Cute!

Christmas is over and yes Halloween has certainly passed us by. I am still scrapping and trying to get caught up before the New Year is here. I printed off my Halloween pictures and sat down to scrap them. I did not want the typical Halloween colors and directly went to the colors in the photo's. Both my daughter and I were wearing pink this year so why not go for it, sorry boys! I think the pop of pink was just perfect, it's SPOOKY CUTE!



The argyle ribbon, liquid glass title and pink glitter give it the glamour quality it needed!

Christmas Goodies

It's been a baking marathon the last two days around here. My house has never smelled so delicious as you can imagine! Here are some visions to make your mouth water.

Stained Glass Star Cookies: {Not just an ordinary sugar cookie though. I use a cream cheese cookie dough, it makes them oh~so moist}


Chewy Chocolate Drops: {These are my sisters favorite, I hope she's on the nice list this year! :) }



Lemon Cream Cookies: {Hardly fair to call it a cookie, it's more like a mini cake with lemony icing on top. Made with fresh lemons and Ricotta cheese they are super moist and delicious. My Hubby's favorite}

Holiday M&M Cookies: {It's a traditional Holiday drop cookie that the kids can't resist}

Peanut Butter Brownie Cups: {Gotta have some peanut butter, why not combine it with chocolate brownies!}

Sugar Stars: {Cut out from the centers of the stained glass stars, these are finished off with colored icing, YUM! and they're bite sized too, how convenient}

Gingerbread Cookies: {My daughter and her best friend helped make these festive cookies. Anyone remember the skit: "Oh! No, Mr. Bill!" Ha Ha Ha}

Hope you enjoy all the "sweetness" of the season.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry "Elf"mas!

All month long I enjoy going to my mailbox to see what cards have been sent. I especially love the photo's everyone sends. For the last couple years I have just taped them to a column in my home. This year I wanted to create a better and more fun way to display them. I had this frame laying around for some time now. The glass broke out of it, but the frame was still in good shape. So I covered a piece of cardboard with some Cranberry and New England Ivy cardstock. I adhered a strip of B&T across the center then laid strips of twill ribbon in a grid pattern across the entire surface. The grid is not perfect, it's meant to be a bit crazy and whimsical. I held them in place with New England Ivy and Cranberry big brads. It is already filled with family photo's and there are more coming. I guess I need to make another frame!!

Same Design ~ Different Look

Here are a few cards I sent out this year. This was a fun project to complete. I took one template, the same sentiment stamp, a store bought snowflake and the same color scheme and created 8 different cards. They are all cohesive together yet each is individual... just like a snowflake! I like the combination of colors and elegant papers, hope you like them.


Here are just a few close up:

Christmas Card Exchange Results

Here are the cards from last Saturdays exchange. All of the ladies did a great job. I am always amazed with the creations that everyone comes up with. It is also interesting to see how different a few of the cards turned out using the same Jingle papers. Unfortunately a few of the cards got lost in the mail, but I'm certain that they were beautiful.

Here is another view of this card so you can see the detail of the 3D artwork. Very cool!

This snowman card was not only cute and filled with detail, but it smelled like hot cocoa!

This card closed by tucking the outer circle under the ribbon. So clever!

Fun With Gift Bags

I had some fun decorating a few gift bags this year. They are inexpensive and come in an array of colors. I chose a white and a craft (brown) bag for these projects because they allow the papers and stamps to be the star!

This first bag was the create and take project for last Saturday's card exchange. The ladies got to make this fun ornament bag to collect all of their cards at the end of the day. It uses some polka dot Jingle paper and the Holiday Trinket stamp set. We also incorporated a large 'E' size alphabet stamped directly on the bag then stamped a sentiment over the top from the Holiday Commentary stamp set. A couple strands of ribbon and some bling finished it off perfectly.


This next bag was the craft type or brown bag with handles. It was the perfect backdrop to some creams and twilight blues. On this I stamped some snowflakes from the Heartfelt Christmas stamp and used the same ornament as the prior bag. A simple sentiment and it's cute as can be.

This final bag is for the coffee lover! I random stamped an old wooden stamp on cardstock and adhered it to the craft bag. I liked the chocolate color with the tulip colored hearts. For the sentiment I simply stamped it on a thin strip of cardstock, then adhered it to some fat ribbon with brads. Do you like it a Latte?

Mini Glitter Albums

While I'm waiting for a few more cards from Saturday's Christmas card exchange, I have some fun glittery mini albums. You may recall me posting a CTMH TV link on my blog a few weeks ago. One of the products they focused on were the glitter rub-ons. I wanted to give it a try as soon as I finished watching the video. The first step I made was to use the glitter rub-ons on white daisy cardstock. I let them sit for a few days while the right project came along to use them on. I finally decided to make these mini albums to showcase my kids school pictures to be sent out with Christmas cards this year. I just cut the glittered image I wanted to use for each one and they were assembled in no time at all. I posted pics of each album up close for a better view.

Snowflake Inspired

Today is December 12th, the last day of Saturday Christmas Inspirations. Today is the day I am hosting my annual Christmas card exchange. I am so excited to see the creations of these talented ladies. I will post pictures of the cards as soon as I am able. I will also show the make and take project I prepared for them to create today.

Today's card is a mix of twilight blue, tulip red and soft sweet leaf green. I love how the colors came together, but my favorite item on this card has to be the snowflake. These can be found just about anywhere this time of year in the Holiday decor areas of the stores. I just cut off the string and used a glue dot to adhere it to my card. In the center I used a clear button glued to a piece of B&T paper. Look closely, the sentiment is attached with one of our fabulous glitter brads in tulip. It was a fairly simple card to put together with minimal stamping.

Photo Block with Elf Card

Last night my daughter's leadership group at her school held a craft night. The kids all get together and make a variety of crafts to give to hospice patients. They also enjoyed a break to eat some cookies and drink hot cocoa.

This was the craft that I came up with for the kids to make. I saw these wooden photo blocks in Oriental Trading and thought it would be perfect to hold a Christmas card, and then later they could place a loved ones photo in it. They turned out pretty cute and kids had fun making it. A few of the kids even changed the layout of the card to make it different.

Download and Decorate

My pictures went digital a couple years ago. I learned a lesson the hard way earlier this year which is to back up my pics on a disc or external hard drive. Rather than just a disc marked with the year I thought "why not craft it"! This also makes a great gift. I simply used B&T papers to decorate the insert. I stamped a label and attached it with brads. It is completely protected in a clear slip cover.




I also wanted to share my framed ornaments. You will remember these in an earlier post. I used light switch covers to create these frames and only showed it in the Juniper color. While teaching the class I flipped over the B&T papers to create another one in the Blush pink color. Now they are perfect for girl or boy. I placed my son and daughters school pictures in them.

Holiday Houses

I am hosting a Christmas card exchange next Saturday with my customers and other fellow consultants. This is something I have done for the past 3 years now. It is always so interesting to see the different ideas and I am always amazed by their creativity.

I finished the cards I will be exchanging a couple weeks ago and have already received cards from some customers. Next Saturday I will receive the rest of them and will post pics on the blog as soon as I can.

Now I am in the process of creating my personal cards that I will be sending to family this year. I really like all the ideas out there right now using the November stamp of the month, Around the Block. Here are a couple of cards I've come up with so far. The first one used White Daisy embossing powder to frame the bamboo colored house. It reminds me of a gingerbread house with gum drop buttons!

The second card features the house on White CS framed in black and then colored in. I kept the gum drop buttons or maybe it looks like Christmas lights too! Both cards feature the same colors of Tulip, Creme Brulee and Juniper. Hope you like them and perhaps they give you Christmas Inspiration!

Rudolf and Polka Dots

It's Monday morning and all of my company has left. I realized yesterday that I did not post a Christmas Inspiration this past Saturday. What a bad blogger I am! It has been a crazy week, but I am so grateful to have my family visit. Here is a fun card I made with Jingle papers and the Heartfelt Christmas stamp. The reindeer is really so much fun to shade with colored pencils like they did on the CTMH TV episode. Add a sparkly red rhinestone and you've got Rudolf!


I also wrapped up a gift for friends using polka dot cellophane and some ribbon. Just a fun way to dress up your gifts!