Happy New Year, Everyone!

We are such bums, we'll never make it to midnight.  Happy New Year to all of you and congrats if you are awake to see the ball drop!

Here is a Thank You card I made for DS to send for his birthday gifts.  I kept them pretty simple - I had to make 15 of them.  This little sheep is too cute from Pun Fun, which was an impulse purchase for me but I love it.  Mats and dp are from DCWV Spring Stack.  The colors are great for year round, all-occasion projects. Good thing, because those stacks are HUGE!  I took the photo under my new OTT light with my new camera.  I am so

 pleased with the resolution on the camera, but anything is better than the 5mp that I had with my other point-and-shoot that we bought almost 5 years ago.

Happy Stamping, I hope the New Year brings everyone lots of stamp time :)  Thanks for looking!

December Aloha RAK

I don't think I posted this yet! My partner for the December Aloha RAK was Margie. She sent this very pretty card, and some Snag 'Em Stamps and Studio G winter stamps which are so cute! I love them and will use them for those non-Christmas winter-themed cards I still have to make and send. Also included in the package were some glitter brads and pink distress Stickles. Yeah for bling :)

And here is a card I made for my neighbors to enclose a gift card for their favorite restaurant. I did not have time to make another gift card holder, so I tucked it inside a full-size card. The image and Cuttlebugged background are from Angel, and all I had to do was color and run the bird and mats through the CB with the Nestabilities. I also used some red Stickles on the holly berries. They loved it and are very excited to have an excuse to eat out :)

This is a short week, with New Year's Eve and Day. I can't believe we are approaching 2009! I hope to have time to spend with my new toys here soon (Scor-Pal, Bella Stamps, ATG). There are still a ton of things on my to-do list, including Thank You Cards and a new baby gift and card for our best friends. If only I didn't work full time!

Have a good night and thanks for looking!

Too Much Christmas?

Well, the original plan was to spend Christmas home with just DH, DS, and I.  Turns out that I was feeling homesick and we decided on Christmas Eve (around 9pm) that we would drive to New Hampshire and surprise my family on Christmas Day.  I called my brother and told him to keep my parents at their house until we called to say we were closer.  Since it's a 5 1/2 hour drive, we opened our presents from Santa at home and then were packed and on the road by 10:30 am.  

It was great to see my family.  I didn't realize that it has been over 5 years since I have spent Christmas Day with them.  DS got to play with his cousins and having us there was a great surprise for my mom.

Since I have not gotten to my stamp room in the past few days, and I have to return to work, here is the summation of our Christmas.  It is a photo of DS yesterday as we were on our way from my brother's house to our best friends' house to meet their brand new baby girl.  I turned around to talk to him and he couldn't even answer me, he was so wiped out...

PS - photo taken with my new Sony A300 camera!  I am having so much fun with it and writing this post from my new MacBook.  

Merry Christmas to ALL!

Have I really not posted for 6 days? That's what happens when there's a birthday party thrown into the mix of the Holidays, I guess. Thanks to those who have stuck with me in the past year :)

Here are a few projects that I've done in the last few weeks to get ready for Christmas. The first is using the Monday Lunchtime Sketch #49 from Mary Jo at Techno Stamper. Last week she posted a fantastic double gift card holder, so I used that idea from her, too. It's perfect for that last present I had to wrap for DH. The images are from Holiday Blocks, embossed with a mix of holographic and white EP. The DP is from Making Memories (a recent RAK from Allison).

This next project was almost too pretty to give away. I finished it and wished I had purchased more of the star shapes to alter! They were from Bazzill Shapes and are a nice textured white on the back. The DP on these is from the Provo Craft Holiday Slab V that I've been chipping away at. The stickers are dimensional Mary Engelbreit stickers from Cindy. My boss was the recipient of these ornaments.

Now I'm off to run two last errands. DH was stuck in Canada this morning trying to get home from a last-minute business trip. He finally made it and I can go out without DS, who is SO excited for Santa that he can hardly sit still! Since we have no family close by, I'll probably post again tomorrow as I play with my new toys (rumor has it that Santa is bringing me a Scor Pal and an ATG!). Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope you enjoy a happy and healthy holiday season!

Last Minute Gifts and a RAK

Allison sent me a nice RAK with fun holiday papers and stickers from Making Memories. She also sent this very pretty holiday card along. I love the greens she used. Thanks, Allison!

I turned a few sheets into these bookmarks for some members of my staff. The photo shows both sides. I typed up the Books to Read list on the computer and stamped the book stack from Hambo Stamps and cut them out. The ribbons are from my stash.

The other day I was inspired by all the cute things people were doing with York Peppermint Patties and I came up with these ornaments. My plan was to make this cute little box to present three of them in, but I ran into a roadblock while making a box lid. I just couldn't get the measurements right, and it was late. Since I was too tired to try again, the top is still not done. Maybe I'll try again later. I also learned the lesson that most of you probably already know - don't use your good cardstock for the template! Use the cheap copy paper first to get the measurements right :)

Well, the boys are on their way home and my day off is almost over. DS is going to be excited from the snow and the party they had at school today. Tomorrow, we are making cupcakes for his party and this whole weekend is going to whiz by. I hope you all enjoy it! Thanks for looking!

Cute Gift Card Holder

I took today and tomorrow off from work to get some last-minute things done. We are hosting DS's birthday party on Sunday and I still had a few Christmas packages to get out. And catch up on the housework, etc. I will get to the housework tomorrow, but today had some time to stamp. One project off my to-do list is the favor bags for the birthday party. I will post those tomorrow. Today I want to share this cute gift card holder I came across on Julee's blog. The original template can be found here, at Wild Sprinkles.

Due to a miscalculation in cutting the angle, I turned my card to the side. I still like how it came out, though. Seriously, I am template challenged. I am trying to make a little box for a co-worker's gift and cannot make the top fit properly. I might have to call on my engineer hubby to do some math for me. It frustrates me to no end, and makes me greatly admire those bloggers who share their templates!

I'm off to do two more gifts that are to be given tomorrow. Have a good night everyone. Thanks for looking!

I Just Love This Project!

I often like the projects I get done, but I *LOVE* this one! DH asked me to make a set of gift cards for one of his administrative assistants. I recently ordered the Kim Hughes Nature's Silhouettes from CHF and have been wanting to use it. This was the perfect opportunity!

The card bases and inks are the '07 In Colors - True Thyme, Marigold Morning, Soft Sky and Vintage Violet. These are still some of my favorite colors and I have a ton of paper in each. I used the rectange scalloped and straight rectangles to cut the shapes and ran the vanilla layer through the Cuttlebug with Swiss Dots. The ribbons are all American Crafts and match quite nicely with the SU! colors.

Inside the cards, I attached a sheet of white paper and stamped the coordinating print in the lower right corner. My camera for some reason does not want to take a photo of the inside - I think there's too much white space to focus on. The box is the A2 card box template from SCS and I decorated the top with smaller versions of the images from the cards. In total there are 8 cards in the set - 2 of each color.

I hope she likes it! Now, I'm off to work and this week is filled with final preparations for DS's birthday party on Sunday, then it's off to the last minute Christmas rush. I have not had time to make cookies this year, but shopping is done and I even mailed a few packages this weekend! We put up our tree yesterday and it's finally starting to feel like Christmas around here. My to-do list is long, but manageable. I hope yours is too :)

Thanks for looking!

One Teacher Present Completed!

A while back, I made these cards for my son's teacher. Tonight I was able to assemble a box to present them in. I used the tutorial on SCS, modified to fit this large card size. Then I decorated the top with my Nestabilities and the same J stamp from the card set. I wrapped ribbon around the box so that it ties on the side. Papers are from DCVW Spring Stack and the flowers are Making Memories and Primas. Brads are Sprinkle Brads from Queen & Co.That's all I have today. It was a rather awful few days at work so far this week, and I'm going on only 4 hours of sleep. That's like no sleep at all for me and I'm ready to turn in. Also, I was supposed to attend a fabulous holiday party today hosted by DH's generous boss, but our babysitter called me this afternoon to tell me she's in bed with the flu. So instead of a 4 course gourmet dinner and classy dessert, I stopped at Wendy's with DS. Not quite on par, I have to say! I hope you are all having a better one and are getting holiday To Dos crossed off your lists! Thanks for looking :)

Phew, Now Let's Get to the Presents!

I finished assembling my final Christmas card tonight! Now I just have to write them all out and get them in the mail. Oh, and I'll probably find that I need more when I'm almost done with the list, since I'm always adding someone at the last minute. But here are samples of the 40 that I made with this one design. The papers are a mix from the Provo Craft Holiday Stack V. I made a serious dent in this paper pad and it should be gone soon. I still have other gifts to make that will use more up.The image is Flaky Friends and I used puffy paint on the snow. The sentiment is from Mandarin Pixie before they went out of business. And check out the snowflake in the upper right corner! I used the Cuttlebug Snowflakes 2 die and this fabulous sparkly paper that Angel sent to me. It's from Crayola and is like a disco ball when the light hits it just right.

Well, I'm off to read. I'm almost finished with The Story of Edgar Sawetelle and can't wait to see how it ends. Have a good night. Thanks for looking!

Paper Craft Planet Saturday Sketch

This past Saturday, there was another great sketch posted on the Paper Craft Planet site. I didn't get this card finished until Wednesday night, but luckily yesterday morning was nice and sunny and I could get a decent photo of it. I knew if I tried to use a flash, there would be glare off the acetate and the embossed sentiment.The image is from Angel, and I decided to turn the sketch into a winter shaker card. The "snow" is Martha Stewart coarse glitter. The window frame is embossed with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder and the sentiment is from Mandarin Pixie. I had forgotten that I even bought this set of sentiments, but look how great they are for embossing! Nice crisp bold lettering :)

The ribbon pieces are from my stash and are attached with button brads. DP is last year's Christmas stack (which I am determined to use up this year!). For a final touch, I inked the edges of the card base with red ink. Overall card size is 5 1/2" square.

We have a birthday party to attend this weekend, but other than that I think we are unscheduled and everyone is healthy. So hopefully I can squeeze some time in for crafting. Thanks for looking!

My November Aloha RAK

My RAK partner was Kelly Glover in November, and here's what she sent to me. A fantastic bookmark card. I have never made one of these and I love it. It will move to the top of my To Do list after the Christmas cards are done! She also included these adorable images of snowmen and a couple of Riley's, too! Oh, and some glue dots. I am always in search of new adhesives, so these will come in handy :)Thanks, Kelly! And thanks for looking.