Almost 2008!

Where has this year gone? It's hard to believe that New Year's is almost here. I'll be sad to see '07 go, it's been a good one.

Not much new going on. Fran has been off all week. We've been pretty lazy. I did finally make it to Longwood Gardens. It's one of my favorite places in the world. And Christmas time there is pure magic. The trees outside are beautifully lit and the Conservatory is filled with poinsettias and decorated trees. It was packed! I took tons of pictures and had to scrap a few right away. Here's my layout. I used my Studio Calico kit (love it). I used a piece of Noteworthy paper as a template and traced it onto cardstock. Then I added a glitter border. The stars are sprayed with Glimmer Mist, another new addiction!




Well, that's all for now. Enjoy the last couple of days of the year!

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

I'm finally done. The gifts are wrapped, the cards have been sent, the groceries bought for Christmas meals! Now I can sit back and relax. Tomorrow, Christmas Eve is also Fran's birthday. We have lots of exciting things going on. And of course, Christmas day will be spent with family. What more can you ask for? So, here's my Christmas wish to you. Have a wonderful, blessed day and may the spirit of the season be with you all year long.





All the best.... ;)

Cards for a Cause

I recently came across a great idea that was posted by one of the Paper Crafts editors, Brandy, on their blog. You can send cards to those recovering at the Walter Reed Army Medical center. At this time of year, a word of thanks or a happy holiday wish would certainly make a difference in their lives. Even though it's getting close to Christmas I'm going to get a couple of cards in the mail! I'm sure they'd even like New Year's ones. This is definitely an address I'll be saving for holidays later in the year, too.

Here's the address:
We Support You During Your Recovery
c/o American Red Cross
P.O. Box 419
Savage, MD 20763-0419


And Brandy added the following note of interest:
"There are several incorrect addresses for the Walter Reed Army Medical Center floating around, as well as news stories telling people not to send in cards. I called the hospital directly and was informed that sending cards to the American Red Cross address above will guarantee that your cards will be delivered to the soldiers at this hospital."

These are the two cards that I'll be seding over today. This is one of my favorites that I made a while ago. I stamped with paint and then added Hambly transparencies and a BG rubon to the cover.



This one uses one of my favorite Christmas lines, Cosmo Cricket Wonderland.




Finally, here's one of my newest creations. It's for this week's CPS blog. The patterned paper is Paper Trunk, this week's sponsor. Also used some glittered chipboard and some fun silver cord.



That's it for today. I'm off to bake my Christmas cookies and finish wrapping my gifts. Have an awesome day!

Saturday Stuff

We've had a wonderfully lazy day today. I made some cards this morning. I cleaned and put a TON of laundry away. We went bowling. Just lots of mundane things. But I love it. Ryan is now watching Scooby Doo (what else is new?) and we're waiting for takeout from Hibachi. YUM!!!

Anyway, here are a couple of new cards. This was my CPS card for the week. I used mostly Melissa Frances stuff and some Inque Boutique stamps.




This is a sympathy card. I came across this quote and thought it was really appropriate to send to someone who is grieving.


That's about it for now. Gotta go write Christmas cards. Have a great weekend!

Peace and Good Wishes

I've really been having fun making Christmas cards this year. Here are a couple I did this week using Paper Salon stuff.

This one is really gittery in real life. I used the glitter snowflake paper from the Snowday paper line. I added some glitter snowflake rubons, too. After cutting the letters on my Cricut, I ran them through the Xyron face down then added a mix of white and silver glitter to them. The bling and sparkly ribbon add to the festive feel of the card.







On this one, I stamped the trees and added jewels. The sentiment was heat embossed with white embossing powder. I used paper from the Ornamental Holiday line.I love pink and green on Christmas cards. I also added some of my favorite Queen and Company scroll felt for a little texture.







Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day. ;)

Holiday Cheer

Ugh. I've been sick the past few days. Just can't seem to get ANYthing accomplished. Not the best time to be feeling tired and listless. I did, however, make our Christmas card this morning. Last week it snowed here and I captured this adorable photo of Ryan outside by the berry bush. I had a lot of fun doing the digital thing....



In keeping with the Christmas spirit, here's a card I made for the CPS Blog We decided that we'd do all holiday cards this week. Each designer picked their favorite sketch and redid it in a Christmas theme. Here's my first card for the week. I used a gorgeous Inque Boutique stamp with white embossing powder. The papers are Fancy Pants and the rubon is K and Co. I added lots of bling, too. (as always). The little pink flower came in an awesome RAK from my dear friend Kim Hughes. I love the texture it adds to the card.







That's all for now. Check back later in the week for some more holiday inspiration!

New York Trip

I was so excited to take Ryan to New York for the first time! We went up and visited Enrique's family and had such a wonderful time. This was the first time Ryan had met his NY cousins, too. We went to Sabrina's Nutcracker performance on Saturday. She was great, so graceful and sweet! On Sunday, Mom, Ryan and I braved the cold weather and the crowds to see the tree. It was spectacular. I do think I was more excited than Ryan was to see it, though. He got really sick of me taking pictures!

Here are a few:

This is Ryan and the girls. They have the loveliest courtyard garden in their building. Ryan's favorite part of the trip was playing in the snow there.



Here's the tree. It's so gorgeous in real life. I just couldn't capture how sparkly it was. BUT, I could zoom in on it really well using my brand new 70-300 lens that Enrique gave me! Yes, Christmas came early. He just happened to have an extra one and let me have it. Can I just tell you how excited I am???



Here's another shot of the tree.
Check out the look on Ryan's face. He was not a happy camper at this point.




But then, he cheered up a bit!




He also got to see the beautiful window display at Saks. He loved that.




All in all it was a magical trip. We can't wait to get back for another visit.
And it really got me in the mood for Christmas. So here are a couple of cards...

This is an older one, but one of my all time faves. Everything is Paper Salon. I painted the chipboard with Stickles.



And here's one that I thought would be a great holiday Thank You. I used Inque Boutique stamps and Creative Imaginations paper.



Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Something New...

This week over at CPS we were lucky to have Paper House Productions as our sponsor. When I received my pack from them a couple of weeks ago, I thought the products were lovely, but was kind of stumped as to how I would use them on a card. Well, as soon as I started creating, I knew I didn't have any worries. The papers were a lot of fun to cut up and distress. The die cuts worked really well, too. I really like how these turned out. It was a lot of fun seeing how the other designers used the products, too! So, if you haven't yet checked out Paper House Productions, I say give them a try!


I added some paint and jewels to a Heidi Swapp butterfly and adhered it over the PHP butterfly for a 3D effect on this card.





This one is for my mom. Her birthday is next week. She absolutely loves sitting down with the New York times in the afternoon. So, I thought this die cut would be perfect for her card.





Thanks for stopping by! Have a great Thursday!

My Son, the Athlete

Ryan fell in love with mini golf this past year. Maybe we have the next Tiger Woods on our hands. But from the looks of these pictures, maybe not. I recently got some new KI lace cardstock and played around with it on this layout. I love this stuff.

The journaling goes along with what he's doing in the photos and is 'Golf According to Ryan'

"Push it all the way to the hole. Put it in the hole with your hand. Use 2 balls. (better odds). When all else fails, use your soccer skills and kick it in! Just be sure no one sees you!"

In all fairness, my boy definitely improved his game by the end of the summer. I was actually quite impressed! He even shot a couple of holes in ones! Maybe a career in pro golf ISN'T that far off.

Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome day!




( I went a bit crazy with the Doodlebug jewels..love them!)


(Lots of layering on the title)

A Few New Things...

I spent the last few days making cards. Thought I'd share a few of them.

This first card uses two of my new favorite things. Inque Boutique stamps and glittery embossing powder. The powder gives the card such a shimmery look.





This card uses another one my new favorite things....white embossing powder. My friend, the talented Betsy Veldman had been using it on some of her cards and I fell in love with how it looked. White ink just never looks as vibrant as this.




Finally, I tried my hand at a digital card. This one was done with an Anne Langpap kit from 2Peas. (Click on the link and scroll down a bit...the kit can be downloaded for free!)I created the whole card digitally then printed it out. I stitched around the edges and attached the Queen and Company brads and flowers before mounting it on cardstock. It was a lot of fun to do, and got me back into trying digi stuff.






That's about it for now! Thanks so much for stopping by. ;)

I'm a Cover Girl!!

Well, maybe not me, but my card is! I'm so excited to finally see it in person. I got my issue yesterday. That's my little stamped 'Joy" card there. Can't believe it's hanging out on the cover.
Thanks for sharing in my excitement!



We are off to the Villanova/Delaware game today. Ryan and I are going to be the only Blue Hens in the midst of a sea of Villanova fans!

Have a great weekend!

We Have a Winner

Wow! I was overwhelmed with how many people left comments for the giveaway. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. Ryan picked a winner this morning. Congrats to:



Debbie Harris!!! Debbie, I'll email you for your address and get these out ASAP!

Here are a few layouts. This is one I did of Karen and I at her wedding. It's about being a bridesmaid again at 42! (Loved doing that again!)



And here are a couple using the newest Paper Salon lines. This one uses Sorbet along with some chipboard.



And this one uses First Blush. I added in some of the green from Ornamental Holiday.



Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

Monday Morning Giveaway

It's Monday!! I had a pretty good weekend and was able to get a good bit of scrapping done because Ryan was sick. Poor little guy was running a fever for most of the weekend. :( All he wanted to do was lay around. So, while Fran worked on his paper, I worked on some projects.

Last week on the CPS blog, we had a wonderful sponsor - Gina K Designs. Here is the card I did using her stamps.



The picture really doesn't do it justice. I made it on a transparency. I stamped the image and added color with markers. The snowflakes are punched from vellum and I added glitter with a glitter gel pen. It's really sparkly IRL!

When Gina sent us our stamps, they were on a large red rubber sheet. There were a couple of each image and she invited us to give away the extras. So that's what I'm doing this morning! Here is my little RAK...



You will receive a set of 7 of Gina's stamps. (I've already cut them out for you.) You'll also get a set of acrylic blocks to use them with. You can check out examples of cards using these stamps on the CPS blog . We used them for Sketch 38. Be sure to scroll all the way down to the November 4th post to see all of the cards. ;) All you need to do to win is check out Gina's site and leave a comment here saying which one of her sets is your favorite. You have until midnight on Wednesday, November 14. I'll draw a name from all of the comments.

Thanks for playing and have a great Monday!!!

Think Pink!

Yesterday, I went for my mammogram. Thank goodness all looks well with the girls. :) Having lost someone I loved dearly to breast cancer, I've been careful to make sure I get my yearly mammogram done. A couple of months ago, the girls at Paper Salon had the opportunity to help the Young Survival Coalition in Duluth, MN, with their fundraising efforts. We all created cards for a silent auction they held. Well, I got a letter yesterday sayting that they raised over $8,000. (Isn't it wierd that I got the letter as I was coming home from my mammogram?) I'm so excited that I was able to play a (very) small role in that success.

So, if you are someone who needs to get a mammogram, but haven't done it yet...GO! It doesn't hurt and it's very quick!

I leave you with the cards I made for the YSC.







If you'd like to see even more breast cancer cards, check out the Paper Salon blog. Everyone of them is beautiful and definitely a source of hope!

Have a great weekend!!!

A Few New Cards

I was so excited to get some time to play with my Kim Hughes stamps. If you haven't checked out Kim's blog, you have to. Her stamps are so cute and whimisical and she's always posting the most wonderful cards that she's made with them. I love being able to have a bit of her handwriting on my cards!! Her collections can be found at Cornish Heritage Farms.

This card uses her Cute Curls set.


The cute owl on here is from her Pretty Birds set and the sentiment is from Cute Curls.




And this one uses the sentiment from her Fall Silhouettes collection.



Hope you can see these well enough. For some reason I couldn't get them to post any larger. I'm still getting used to all of this 'blog stuff'.

Thanks for taking a peek and have a great day!!!

Halloween Pics...A Bit Late

I figured I'd post these pictures of Ryan, even if they are a bit late. This year's Halloween costume selection process was quite problematic. How do we go from being Humpty Dumpty, a Race Car Driver and Buzz Lightyear

to......




THE CUT THROAT PIRATE?????? Well, it was by process of elimination. This one was the least gruesome of the ones he wanted to be which included the Grim Reaper, the Devil, a Zombie and the Ghostly Traveler. (someone's been watcihng too much Scooby Doo)

In the end, he did look really cute. Here's a better photo of him in all glory...



He ended up not wearing the mask because 'It smelled in there.' Good call, I say.
We had a blast trick or treating with the girls and baby Ryan.

I'm just dreading what he might want to be next year!!

As for scrapping, I've been really busy. I submited several to the BHG call for the Make It Your's bookazine. My layout is in this month's issue and I'm really hoping not to be a one hit wonder with them . I also sent a couple to Memory Makers. This 'no posting allowed' rule really stinks. I hate not being able to share.

Anyway, here is one that I can share. I used the October Self Addressed kit for it. It's Ryan at Milburn Orchard.



Have a great day!!!

OK, Let's See if I Can Figure Out How to Post a Photo

Here are some cards that I made with Self-Addressed's October kit. I love this BG Mellow and Recess paper. Thanks for taking a peek...


Here's a back to school card. I cut the stars with my Cricut and added some MM letter stickers.



I glittered some Deluxe Designs chipboard on this one and added the jewels.



And this one has handcut flowers layered over some rubons. I added the BG Mellow stickers, too. Love the font on these!



Thanks for taking a peek!!