Welcome Back!!!

  Happy Monday!!  Can you believe that it's Monday already and that Christmas is over?   WOW!  All the work and all that we did to get ready...and it's over with the blink of an eye.   I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that you all enjoyed spending time with your family and friends!   I am very happy and had a wonderful weekend!  I enjoy being with my family and friends and it was a joy!  I admit, I was exhausted by the time it was over, but it turned out to be worth all the work! 

   Right now, (Sunday evening, as I finalize this post), we are in the first few hours of a major blizzard, so I do hope this post works okay and that we do not lose power.  If all goes well, this should post automatically at 1 am on Monday morning, while I'm sound a sleep.   Sounds like we are in for a lot of snow...at least a foot and in some areas close to 2', along with gusty winds, white out conditions and the change of coastal damage at the time of High Tide!  I just want all my family to be safe and sound and as of now, they are ALL home and where they will stay until they venture out to work.  Hubby will be the first to have to leave at 5 AM and I do hope he'll get out.  If you do NOT hear much from me on Monday, it could be that we lost our power....please pray we don't!  It's just brutal without any way to cook or even have a hot cup of coffee! 

   Today, I am very happy to be back online and really excited to have a lot more time back in my craft room.  I'm also here to invite you to hop on over to the StampFairy Challenge Blog and join us for our brand new challenge which starts today!

   Our December 27th Challenge theme is 'Celebrate'.  We want to what wonderful projects you can create to 'Celebrate' something special.   I starting working on my celebrate project just about two weeks ago and the timing for me was perfect as I needed to create a special card for my son Brian's Birthday!  I decided that I would make one card that would be for Brian, but would also work out perfect for this challenge!!

  I created a celebratory Birthday card with one of the adorable 'Lenny New Year' images, that were recently added to the StampFairy Store!     I decided to create an 'Easel Card*' for my project, as I like how they can stand up and be displayed!   I added my 'Happy Birthday' Sentiment to the indisde of my card and it's a die cut, that I created with my Cricut Expression.  I used the same Silver/Gray cardstock to match the front of the card and picked a fun font!   This is the front view of my card opened in the display view.  

And this is looking from the side view show the Easel Card in the open position.   

  

And this is fully opened showing the 'Happy Birthday' Sentiment!

  Isn't it fun!!!  I really enjoy making Easel Cards and they are actually very easy.  If you have never tried one, I am sharing a really good tutorial I found over at Split Coast Stampers.   It was created by Beate Johns and is very easy to follow.  If you want a larger card, you simply adjust the sizes and the scores lines, as need.  My Card is a 5 1/2 inch Square, so my top piece is 5 1/2 X 5 1/2 and my card base is 5 1/2 X 11 inches.  Scored at 5 1/2 and also at 2 3/4!   The video* I had linked to above is also from SCS and can also be found along withe the stop by step Tutorial HERE!

 Card Recipe/Ingredients

Black Cardstock by Bazzill

Silver/Gray Pearlescent cardstock by Wausau

Cuttlebug Embossing Folder - Diamonds 

Sizzix Embossing Plate - Plaid Basic Grey

Spellbinder Nestie - Labels One

White Copic Card stock by Xpress-it

Digi Image - Lenny New Year's by StampFairy

Colored with Copic Markers

3d Crystal Lacquer

Cricut Expression and Gypsy

(Celebrations Cartridge)

Ribbon and Patterned Paper/Stash

Silver Buttons - American Crafts

Antique Brad - From Stampin' Up

  For this challenge you can make any type of paper craft project, as long as it is done in a 'Celebration' theme and includes a Sentiment.  You can find all the challenge rules HERE!   Please be sure to have your project link uploaded to the challenge site by 6 PM on Sunday, January 2nd.  The winners will be announced on Monday morning along with a brand new challenge.

  I hope you will all join in and please be sure to hop on over to the challenge blog and check out the inspiration the Design Team and put together for you!

  To visit and stop at the StampFairy Store, - please click the link below!   Happy Shopping and as always...Happy Crafting!!