I'm thankful for....

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have been thinking a lot about what I am thankful for this year. It seems I am overflowing with so much thankfulness. I am thankful for the friends I have made in cyberspace and the outlet this has been for me. I enjoy sharing with everyone and the wonderful comments I have received have been so encouraging and so supportive. I am thankful for all of you who take the time to read my blog and to leave comments.

I am thankful for my family...
...for my husband, who is my biggest fan and is so wonderfully supportive of my dreams and of me having time for me to do what I love to do. I couldn't ask for a better man to spend my life with. I am so thankful for the love we share.
...for my children--I have been truly blessed with some great kids. That doesn't mean that things are always rosey around here, but they are such a blessing to me and I love them so much.
...I am thankful for my parents and the way they have raised me. My life was not perfect growing up, but I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything. I am thankful for the sacrifices my parents made for me and my siblings. I am so thankful for their love for God and for showing us that God is our provider.

I am thankful for the basic necessities in life that God has blessed me with that we so often take for granted, my home, food on my table, clothes, shoes, a vehicle, my health and for a healthy family, my husband's job, friends, a wonderful church family, the opportunity to homeschool my children, stamping supplies, money to buy more stamping supplies :) You know all the little things that we tend to overlook.

Mostly, I am so thankful that I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not only does He love me, but He cares about ME. He knows MY name and cares about the smallest details of MY life, things that I would never share with anyone else, I can talk to Him about. I have learned (and continue to learn) that He is my everything! When all the world around me is falling apart, when I am feeling all alone, He is always there. He ministers to my smallest needs and knows just what I need and when I need it. I love the Lord so much and I am overwhelmed with His love and compassion and mercy. He is such and AWESOME God, and I am so grateful to know Him.

I pray all of you have a wonderful time with your families and friends this Thanksgiving Day! Take a little time out of your day to reflect on those things you are most thankful for.

Basic Anniversary

Things I used: Stamps-Papertrey Borders & Corners Circles, Wedding Day, Faux Ribbon; Paper-Papertrey Ripe Avocado, Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream, Basic Grey Mellow; Ink-Papertrey Ripe Avocado, Palette Burnt Umber; Other-Papertrey Dark Chocolate satin ribbon, Marvy Uchida Scalloped yellow and blue scalloped circle punches, circle nestibilities, pearl rhinestone stickers (Michaels), Cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder

Have a blessed day,

Super Cute Stamps

The Angel Company is offering the cutest stamps only until November 30. Email me or leave me a comment and a way to contact you if you are interested. I would be happy to place the order for you.

My baby is 6!

Today is Keandra's birthday. I can't believe my baby is 6 already! It seems like I just had her. We were reminiscing last night at dinner about the day she was born. She has brought so much joy to all of our lives.

Keandra's most wanted gift this year is the Cupcake maker, so I thought a cupcake card would be appropriate, made in her favorite color, pink, of course. The stamp is a Dollar Tree find. I stamped it on Papertrey white and "frosted" it with Pastel Raspberry Liquid Pearls and added glitter when it was still wet. The glitter is from the kids craft section at Walmart. I paper pieced the wrapper with DCWV paper from Nana's kids. The "cherry" is a heart rhinestone, also from the kids craft section of Walmart.

The background paper is from American Traditions Vibrant paper pad (Walmart). The ribbon is from Michaels dollar spot and the paper punch is the Martha Stewart doily punch. The sentiment is from Hot off the Press Expressions stamp set.
I stamped the inside with the cupcake tier image from Impression Obsession Cupcake set in Versamagic Pixie Dust and then the sentiment from the same set in Palette Claret ink. I really doing this on the inside of my cards. I love the look of the faded image in the background.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful weekend!

Snow!

Yesterday, in the middle of our school day, we looked out the window and discovered it was snowing! Not just little flurries, but major snowing. Marcus and Keandra were so excited. They ran for their coats and mittens and had the first snowball fight of the season. I just had to grab my camera and capture their excitement. Of course, the snow only lasted until the sun came out about 30 minutes later and now you would never believe it snowed yesterday...but, they had a blast!

A Snowy Christmas Bear

I challenged myself to make my own background paper and I really like the way it turned out. I used Ornamental Snowflakes from The Angel Company, my ALL time favorite snowflake stamps. They are so beautiful. I stamped them in Brilliance Moonlight White, Platinum Planet, and Papertrey Pure Poppy onto TAC craft cardstock. I added a touch of Stardust Stickles to the center of the red snowflakes.

The image is also by The Angel Company, it is called Christmas Bear. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils and OMS, my favorite go-to coloring tool. I went over the star with a Spica Lemon glitter marker. I wasn't happy with it and thought it needed something, so I asked my husband what he thought and he said I should add snow. I thought, "Great idea! Why didn't I think of that." I went off to get my kids chunky snow glitter and added "snow" around the bear and on his feet and a little on his head. I pulled out my glitter snow writer and "wrote" on the tree.

The ribbon is Papertrey pure poppy stitched grosgrain and the snowflake is another steal from my kids craft box--a foam snowflake that I added Diamond Dust glitter to. The button is from my button stash.

Thanks for looking. Have a blessed day!

A Snowy Challege Card

I made this card to cover two challenges. I needed to make a card for my SCS Blogger group challenge hosted by Tiffany and I also wanted to play in the Papertake Weekly Challenge. The blogger group challenge required us to use four pattern papers on a card, the Papertake required us to use a snow theme.

The image I used is retired from The Angel Company. It is called Once in a While. I paper pieced the scarf, hat and glove from the same paper that I punched the snowflake from. The pattern paper is from DCWV and the base is Prism. The image is stamped on Papertrey White and colored with Copic markers. I am not really pleased with my coloring job, I still have so much to learn with these markers. I used white liquid applique sprinkled with Diamond Dust while still wet on the jacket. I used my Quickie Glue pen to add glitter to the snow, and added stardust Stickles on my snowflake.

The corner of my paper was pierced using the Victorian Corner Frame template from American Traditional.

Thanks for looking. Have a great day!

Thank You!

I received the Kreativ Blogger award from Jackie. Thank you, Jackie. Jackie always makes me feel so special.

I am passing this award onto the following amazing crafters:

Sherri-who recently became a designer for FireCracker Designs and is doing an amazing job
Kryssi-a very talented cardmaker from my SCS Blogger group
Melyssa-another very talented cardmaker from my SCS Blogger group
Julie Brooks-whose blog always inspires me
Jeannie Phillips-who uses the Cricut to make the most amazing cards

I never know what to say when I receive these awards. I am always amazed that someone chose me. I have never been very good at expressing myself, even when I know what to say. Blogging has been a real challenge for me, but I have met some amazing people. Thank you to everyone who has left me comments and befriended me. It means so much!

Pink Butterflies

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday and I made this card for her. I hope she likes it as much as I do. This was one of those times when I got so wrapped up in making a card that I lost all sense of time. When I finished it, I realized I had worked on it for over two hours. Does that happen to anyone else, or am I the only one? It's crazy, but I was having so much fun.
I used the Basic Grey sultry paper pack as my inspiration. The paper is so pretty. I matted it on Bazzill cardstock and then onto Papertrey White. I cut the label with a Label One die (Spellbinders) from Bazzill cardstock and then used my Quickie Glue pen around the edges and added diamond dust glitter. I stamped the butterfly onto my label in Versamagic Pixie Dust then stamped it with Versamark onto vellum. I embossed it with Pink glitter embossing powder and then punched it out with the EK Success Whale of a Punch butterfly. The stamp was designed to fit this punch. Really convenient!
The ribbon is Papertrey Sweet Blush satin ribbon. I stamped my sentiment from Garden of Life with Palette Claret ink onto a ribbon slider I cut from a Cuttlebug die. I inked the edges and stamped the butterflies in Versamagic Pixie Dust. The corner is a Cuttlebug die and the rhinestones are from K & Company and Michaels Brides collection. The butterfly stamps are from Purple Daisy Designs.

Have a blessed weekend!

And More

More simple Christmas cards.

Supplies:

Chickadee card- Stamps: Sweet Chickadees (Great Impressions), Ornate Christmas (Inkadinkado); Paper-Papertrey Ripe Avocado, Curious Poison Ivory, Bazzill; Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black, Papertrey Ripe Avocado; Other: Shimmerz Sagebrush, Rustic Red, Beeswax, Angels Wings, giga scalloped oval, hemp twine, button, corner rounder

Whimsical tree card-Stamps: Whimsical Christmas trees (Great Impressions), Merry & Bright (unknown); Paper: Papertrey Ripe Avocado, Aqua Mist, Curious Poison Ivory; Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black, Papertrey Aqua mist; Other: Lyra watercolor crayons, stardust clear glitter pen, giga scalloped oval, cropadile, Papertrey Ripe Avocado satin ribbon, corner rounder


Have a blessed day!

More Simple Christmas

I plan on using this layout for my Christmas cards this year, so you will be seeing more of them from me. I just love how easy they are to make, and as Katy mentioned they are very cost effective. I am able to make four cards from one sheet of cardstock, and as long as I am careful with my embellishments they will be cost effective to mail as well.


Supplies: stamps- Papertrey Silent Night, Holiday Wishes (sentiment on red card); paper-Papertrey Ocean Tides, Curious Cryogen White; Ink-Papertrey Ocean Tides, Berry Sorbet (for pink card), Pure Poppy (red card); Other-Berry Sorbet grosgrain ribbon (pink card), Pure poppy twill (red card), cell phone bling, corner rounder

Simple Christmas

I am running out of time to make Christmas cards this year, so I have been playing around to find a way to make simple and quick cards. This is what I came up with yesterday. They were fun, easy and I like them.

The Joy card-Stamps are from Papertrey Snowflake Serenade; Paper-Papertrey Pure Poppy, Curious Cryogen White; Ink-Palette Ballet Blue, Prussian Blue (stamped off once), Encore Silver, Papertrey Pure Poppy; Other-Pure Poppy stitched grosgrain (Papertrey), Silver embossing powder, snowflake brad (cut the prongs off and used a glue dot to adhere it to my ribbon), rhinestones (cell phone bling). The Joy is stamped in Encore silver and embossed with silver embossing powder.

The snowman card-Stamps-Ornate Christmas (Inkadinkado), Holiday Wishes (Papertrey); Paper-Curious Cryogen White, Papertrey Pure Poppy; Ink-Palette Ballet Blue, Papertrey pure poppy; Other-pure poppy stitched grosgrain ribbon (Papertrey), button, red Scrapper's Floss

The snowman shows up better in real life than in this picture.

I'm sorry, Sherri

Sherri gave me these awards back in September, right before I took a little break from stamping and my blog and I completely forgot about them. I am so sorry! It means alot to me when someone recognizes my work and I don't want to seem cavalier about it. Thank you Sherri for thinking of me! Please forgive me for taking so long to acknowledge them.
Check out her blog (click her name above). She does great work!!

A Christmas Card!!

I am so excited to finally be making Christmas cards. I love Christmas! I just got this new stamp set from Inkadinkado and have been dying to play with it. Since I wasn't sure where to start, I thought I would make a card for the Blogger Group Challenge hosted by Sara. The challenge was to use polka dots and ribbon.

I just love this holiday vintage paper by Papertrey. I thought it was perfect for this stamp.

I added Glitz Stickles to the bird. I just found this at my LSS yesterday. I never knew about the Glitz line before then. They are very sparkly. I also traced the letters with a clear Stardust Glitter pen.

Stuff: Stamps-Ornate Christmas (Inkadinkado); Paper-Papertrey White, Ripe Avocado, Pure Poppy, Vintage Holiday Prints; Ink- Papertrey Pure Poppy, Versamagic Spanish Olive; Other-Ruby Slippers Glitz Stickles, rhinestones (Me & My Big ideas), clear Stardust glitter pen, Ripe Avocado grosgrain ribbon, curvy rectangles nestibilities

Have a blessed day!

A little something

Today is the birthday of a very dear friend, so I wanted to make her something special. I chose to alter a candle. I loved Lauren's idea to make a topper for the candle. Lauren has a great tutorial here on her blog. I have altered candles in the past, but have never made a topper for them. I think it adds such a nice touch to a gift. I didn't think to take a picture before I added the topper. I was in too big of a hurry to see it completed, so the ribbon covers the sentiment. It reads, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." I love this saying.

I used Beautiful Blooms stamped in Palette Sunflower, Raw Sienna and Moulin Rouge. I also continued this theme on the card for the background and on the bag and the cute little tag.


I used Curious Poison Ivory, a nice shimmery paper, for the cardstock. I love the subtle shimmer. I thought this would be a great opportunity to use my new Spellbinders dies, Curved Rectangles, that I just received yesterday. I had so much fun with these. When I ordered them I wasn't sure how much I would actually use them, but I really like how versatile they are. Notice I used them to make my gift tag.

The images on my card are from Unity Stamps September Kit of the Month-friendship, Love, miracles. You can now purchase the previous months kits even if you were not a member at the time of the release.

Supplies: Stamps-Beautiful Blooms, Birthday Basics (Papertrey), Unity Stamps Sept KOTM, Simple Thoughts-Memories (Cloud 9 Designs); Ink-Palette Burnt Umber, Sunflower, Raw Sienna, Moulin Rouge; Paper-Curious Poison Ivory, Dk. Chocolate (Papertrey); Other-Pure poppy ribbon (Papertrey),brown ribbon (Offray), button, hemp twine, Spellbinders Curved Rectangles, candle and gift bag (Walmart)


Have a blessed day!