Snow flurries....brrrrr!!!!

   It's another very chilly day here, but the good news is that now I'm seeing is certainly nothing major and it looks almost like a sun snow shower, as the sun is coming out at the same time.

   I'm very happy to be in my craft room and got up nice and early to do all my chores, So that I was done in time to play in the latest Scramble over at the Hero Arts Flickr Group.  It was also a fun challenge, hosted by Cindy where we were asked to create cards using patterned papers, along with Hero Stamps and the fun part is that the idea was to make something other than another Christmas/Holiday card, something it seems like I've been working on for days.

   Both of my cards ended up in a Hugs theme, which is always a favorite for me, because you can use these cards in many ways.  I also used my pad of Hero Arts Patterned Paper on each of the cards, along with a variety of Hero Stamps.

    The first card was done in assorted shades of green and started on a Hero Grass Note card  I then added a piece of the green dotted paper and cut a matching green banner, with my PTI Die, that I stamped in Field Green Shadow Ink, using a new "Canvas Background" stamp.   I then used a variety of punches to create the circles and hearts and also used the "Many Dots" stamp set to add a fun effect to the middle circle.  The sentiment is from the Big Hugs Clear Set and was stamped on Layering Paper and then mounted on the same dark green EP Patterned Paper I used for the largest layer.  I finished off the card, by popping up the little black heart and added the matching bling.

  I used most of the same stamp sets for my second card, only this card was done in a Pink Theme, where I also started with a Carnation Hero Note card.  This time I picked a pink floral pattern from my Paper Pad.   I used the same Big Hugs and Many Dots sets and put everything all together to finish this card just in the nick of time.

   I also have a fun little card to share that I worked on yesterday for my God-Daughter who just purchased her own home this week.   It's also her Birthday tomorrow and I have a card done for that too, but forget to take a picture before I sealed the envelope....OOOPS!!   This little card was inspired by a design I purchased from the Silhouette online store and I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the shapes I used on my little "Housewarming Card".  

And this was the sentiment I

created and added to the inside of the card!!

I used the little red bow and some washi tape

to hold onto a gift check I am including in her card!!

And I even have this cute little matching envelope,

to make it a nice little set!!

  And I also have two new pics of the puppies to share!!  I found the MOST amazing "Weenie Pockets" online and when I saw they were done is an adorable little "Doxie" print, I had to order them for the dogs.   I had planned to only buy two, and give Scout back his original one, which Skye kind of took over -- but, once I had them and felt them...oh my -- I had to get one more for him, which should be here any day!  These are BY FAR the nicest, softest and more comfortable little pockets I have ever bought and I highly recommend if you are in the market to purchase one, (or more) you visit this store - Dog Inspired Rag Quilts, on Facebook and tell Wendy, that I sent you!   I am so impressed and just LOVE the quality of her pockets.   The dogs love these pretty much as much as I LOVE my awesome Polar Fleece Sheets, which are very much like sleeping on soft fluff!  Heavenly!!  

 
   Please stay tuned for pics of Scoutie (the big brother), when his pocket arrives next week!   I had planned to save these for Christmas, but could NOT resist once I felt them!  I also bought them each a new bed for Christmas....yes, they may be a teeny bit spoiled, but I LOVE them!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

   Wishing everyone a very Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving!   May you all enjoy a wonderful time with your family and friends.

    Hugs and love to all my amazing online friends, I am very lucky to have met you all and have you in my life.

Brrrrrrrrrrr!!!.....The chill is on....!!

....and it feel awful!!    I am not sure of the exact temperature, but all is know is it's COLD today and super windy, making it seem far worse.  I pity anyone who has to be outside and can't imagine what it's going to feel like for those heading to the Patriot's Game later  -- Brrrr!   And to think it's ONLY November and things are going to get a lot worse before the warm spring and summer sunshine are back! Oh how I miss Summer ....

    Luckily, I do not have to go out at all today and that makes me a happy girl.   We went out last night for Dinner to celebrate our friend, Mike's Birthday.  It was not nearly as cold and all our dinners were all awesome -- fresh seafood is my favorite and last night every one of use ordered seafood!  Yummy!!  I'm glad that we went then, instead of tonight as I know it would have awfully cold going back into the car after dinner!!   Next, Sunday I also will be hoping for a warmer day, as I'm heading into Boston with Julie and Patty to see Bill Cosby!  Patty and Mike saw him last year and said he kept them laughing for day, so when Patty found out he would be in Boston, she called and invited me to go along, I think it will be fun and who doesn't love to laugh!  We're making it a full day and going out for Brunch first, then taking the train to Boston and the T to the Theater!  It will be December 1st, which is also my God-Daughter's (Julie's Daughter) Birthday!  We are meeting Amy for Brunch and I'm looking forward to see her new house, which she closes on tomorrow!!  Congrats Amy -- I am so happy for you !!

    Oh, and speaking of cold and winter...when I changed our sheets yesterday, I put on a brand new Polar Fleece sheets that I had ordered from the Q last week -- And they are fabulous.   Super soft and comfy and I was not a bit cold last night, which was wonderful!   We can no longer use an electric blanket with the pups around - I would be afraid to run the cords under the bed, especially since they often run under there to hide or play.   I'm so impressed with these sheets that I'm asking Santa to bring me another set for Christmas!   I also ordered a brand new down blanket today and think that be all we need to stay super warm through the worst of the winter!    I like a cool room for sleeping, but with Fibro, my body needs to be very warm, or I ache even more.  Now, with these wonderful fleece sheets and a nice down blanket coming soon, I feel like I'll be all set!  If you don't like being cold at night, I highly recommend these fabulous sheets that are by Malden Mills --- they'll make you sleep like a baby and are so soft and cozy!
    Today is also the kind of day when I love being cozy and warm, spending time creating and that's what I've been doing.  I'm here now to share a few new Christmas cards that I have finished!   They didn't turn out as I had kind of hoped, but they are pretty, especially the two done in lavender and purple.

   This is the first one, which is another Memory Box Die Cut Tree that I cut with some rich purple foil cardstock and then added to a lavender shimmer card base!!  A very simple card, that actually looks better in person!

  My second card is also done in the same colors and both were inspired by the new Dies and Punch Challenge being hosted over at The Outlawz Challenges in the Paper a la Mode Challenge!  

   For the second card I went more with a Snowflake theme and all of these were cut with a wonderful little die set from Paper Smooches.   Not only do I love the wonderful stamps from Paper Smooches, but I've also now grown to love their dies and this set for only $9.99 is a great value!   I also love this wonderful banner die set, which I bought a while back from PTI, another store that carries fantastic die and stamp sets.

   I also decorated the inside of this card, with another matching snowflake and a sentiment stamped in a deep purple ink!  

  I am submitting this pretty card to the challenge over at Die Cut Divas!  I wish al the gals there a very Happy Holiday!!  

  That brings me to my final card today which is the easiest of all and was basically created using 'stuff' that had been piled up on my desk.  The burgundy card base was something I started earlier in the week and was a leftover.  And the red felt snowflake is from a large set that I picked up from Stampin' Up awhile back, when they were on clearance.  The patterned paper, was from an old scrap piece of patterned paper, that just happened to match very week.  I simply put them all together and then stamped my sentiment directly only the paper and embossed it in white.  That sentiment is from one of my favorite new stamps sets, that I bought a few weeks ago from Mama Elephant.  I love the font and the style of the letters too, making it quickly moving into one of my favorite stamp sets for Christmas Cards!   

  

   Heading back to my desk now to see if I can get another one of two done, before it's time for supper!   Hope you are all having a great weekend and staying warm!!

Happiness....

   .... is a day when you feel good and I am sharing my Happiness today by being back to sharing some of my recent cards, as well as a new blog post.    After being hit with a nasty Fibro flare and a winter cold, I am thrilled to finally be feeling a bit better and to be able to create again, which I have missed terribly.

    I'm also happy to be sharing a nice selection of cards to share and I'm going to start with three of the newest, which I created today at a fun "Christmas Stash" building class that I took at my LSS today!!   It's the first of a series of three classes, all designed to help us quickly create a nice little stash of cards for Christmas.  There were actually five different options that "Terri" out teacher had designed and we had to the option of choosing which we wanted to create for our own stash.   These are the cards that I re-created for my stash --

    Being that this is a long post and I have many cards to share, I am not including a lot of the details about each product and design.  But, I'll be happy to let you know about any of the products, or answer any questions you may have.  Please feel free to leave a comment or drop me a little note.

    These next few cards, were put together yesterday, all pretty much from a variety of designs and images I had sitting around but had not quite finished.   The first two are fun little whimsical cards, both created with digi images I colored with my Copics.

  And this next card is a very simple and easy card that was created using a pre-colored image that I simply enhanced by rounding the corners, adding a green mat, adding lots of sparkle with Glitter and a Wink of Stella marker.  Easy Peasy! 

   Next, are two Fall themed cards that were my favorites cards from the November Card Club, another fun class that I take each month at AE!    

    That brings me to two more Christmas/Winter cards that I created yesterday, using one of my Memory Box Tree Dies.   I wanted to use both the positive and negative of the same die to create two different cards and I love how both turned out.  

   

   That brings me to this cute little Baby Card that I had started some time ago and never completed.   I think the image is adorable and it made me smile simply to color it!!

  And speaking of cute, I had to share a few new pictures of my precious little Fur-Babies, in particular the two puppies, Skye and Zeva--who make me SMILE every day!

  

  For anyone who may be a new follower, these two little pups are sisters and are both Dachshund Mixes.  I adopted them both through Furever Dachshund Rescue and I love them both to pieces.   I actually adopted Skye, back in April and sweet little Zeva joined our family on September 20th, the day they both turned nine months old.   Zeva was the only puppy from the litter that had not found her forever home and I just could not resist her another day!   I'm also very grateful and thankful to her Foster Mom, Arleen, who raised her since April.  She's one amazing lady and still loves Zeva very much.  I'm so lucky that we were able to adopt both sisters and just love having them in our home.   Yes, three dogs can be hard at time, but they bring you so much joy that they are well worth it!   If you are looking to add a wonderful dog to your home, I strongly suggest you look for a Rescue Dog, there are so many wonderful dogs who need a loving home and I am so happy that's how I found these two girls!  

    Now that I'm finally on the mend, I'm more excited than ever to get back to creating because of all the awesome new things I have learned from two fantastic Classes that I have been taking for the past three weeks.   Even though I was not well enough to participate daily, like I normally do, I did have lots of down time, and that gave me time to watch many of the fabulous videos that each provided. I also have all the PDF files printed out and already know some of the projects I want to start now.   I'm excited to start on batch of cards using my Silhouette, using the awesome new ideas I learned from the latest class I took from Kerri Bradford, in her online classroom.    The latest was an intermediate 'card themed' workshop called -- "Hello There"!!    I am amazed at what can be done with this fabulous machine and Kerri is a wizard at teaching and sharing all kinds of fabulous designs along with many valuable hints and tips on all the projects that you can create with a Silhouette!  WOW!!   I have taken several of her online classes and loved them all, but this one, being focused on cards, is a favorite for sure!  If you own a Silhouette and want to learn all the in and outs, along with so MUCH more, then you definitely want to takes some classes from Kerri.  She Rocks and her classes with teach you more than ever even imaged you could do with your machine!!   The card and envelope below, are just ONE of the ten cards that you'll learn how to create from scratch when you take this class!   Awesome, with a Capital "A"!

Photo from Kerri Bradford

"Hello There" Class Preview Page

    

    When it come to card-making and all type of Paper Crafting, my all time favorite Online classes are those that are hosted over at the Online Card Classroom, which is the creation of Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner, who are two of my favorite designers.   They offer a wide variety of craft classes and I'm fortunate to have been a student in every one, including the current -- Holiday Card Workshop-2013, which I am loving.   I plan to spend my weekend working on cards from both the wonderful classes and also can tell you must how much I have LOVED every class I've taken with Jennifer, Kristina and all the fabulous designers who also provide fabulous instructional videos for each class.   

   Phew!!!   And that brings me up to date and I can't wait to hit my desk again and catch up on all the I have missed in both of these awesome classes.   I tend to LOVE being in the classes during the "Interactive" time, when each lesson is first posted and you can interact with the other classmates, talk in the forum and add cards to the Galley, that's extra fun for me.   But, it's okay, because all of these classes have Lifetime Access and I can go back to any of them at anytime, and re-watch a video, print out a PDF or simply browse the Gallery for a new idea!  They are the best!!

   My special thanks to everyone who has been wondering about me and left comments or sent me nice little notes.  It really means so much to know you missed me and believe me, I have missed my creative time more that you can imagine.  Spending time in my craft room is my favorite thing to do and it really is very rewarding and therapeutic for me.  I'm grateful for each and every day when I can create.   It's again served to remind me to cherish EVERY day when I feel good and my Fibro if under control, because you never know when it can changed and good health is truly a gift.   Something I know even I took for granted for many years...!  Oh how I wish I could have ALL those good days back...to wake up daily without pain and fatigue and never have to think about living with a chronic illness.  Life can change for any of us in a heartbeat and I'm thankful that I'm learned to accept my illness and to have found this amazing hobby that I love!!

   Happy Friday and have a wonderful weekend!

I'm Alive.......and struggling???

   It has been days since I have had any free time....no time to create or do much of anything....and I miss it SO much!!

   But, I did want to say I am alive ---just crazy busy---too many appointments and now a Fibro Flare from doing too much!!    Hoping for Happy and Healthy days very very soon ---

Color Creativity....

    If you know me, you already know that PURPLE is my favorite color and a color I use often in my cards.   But, I also love other bright and vibrant colors and one of my newest faves is Teal or Aqua, in all hues and shades and that's what I am using for both cards today.

    After receiving so many wonderful comments about the color combination I used on this card, I decided to use it again, but kind of flipped the color and the polka dots today!!

    Today cards were both created for challenges and the first card I actually made work for two of my favorites.

 The new "Cas(E) This Sketch" challenge, which you'll find HERE, which provided me with the design idea for my card, as shown on their sketch below:

   

  And the second is over a Simon Says Stamp, where the challenge is "Anything Goes", and I chose to use two of my favorite new Snowflake Dies, from the Exclusive line, which I happen to LOVE!!

  

    I started this by creating a black card base with some Hero Hues Layering Paper and then added a layer of Teal (Hawaiian Shores) Polka dotted cardstock which is from Paper Trey Ink.   I then used more black paper to cut a banner and added the matching dotted paper down the left side (the opposite of the Sketch card!     Next, I used some "Pool" Layering Paper to cut my Snowflake, which is the gorgeous Eliza Snowflake Die from SSS.  That was layered onto the two circles that I cut in black, using this die set, also from Simon Says.   I punched a 3/4" black circle to add to the center of my snowflake and then finished off my card with the sweet "Tis the Season" Sentiment Stamp Set, also from PTI, along with some teal sequins I bought on eBay!

    My second card was also created in the same color combination, but I used some of my favorite black cardstock, which is this amazing Laser Lustre Cardstock that I buy from The Paper Temptress.  It's has a stunning glossy finish and a lined look, although it's a smooth as can be.   It's even more gorgeous in person.  On this card I also used it for my card base, as well as the snowflakes and in person, they look awesome.  The Snow die is new and that is from Paper Trey Ink, as is the little "think" sentiment, which is from this "Wonderful Words" set which goes perfectly with the die.   The second smaller snowflake on this card is another from the Exclusive line at Simon Says Stamp.

  

  This card was created and inspired by the new "Black" challenge over at CASology!

   You can see a bit more of the Lustre of the cardstock in this photo and on the SNOW die cut, which I coated with a "Clear" Wink of Stella Marker!   The perfect easy way to add extra sparkle and shine to any project.

   And before I go, I thought I'd share a couple of updated pics of my two puppies! Scout, was napping downstairs at this time, but both of the girls were in my bedroom, which is right next to my craft room.  They love that room, because it is a lot sunnier, from the skylights and they'll often nap, directly where the sun shines in.  Scout, likes to have some quiet space and will often stay in my craft room right at my feet.    I think the puppies are a bit much for him at times too, she he prefers to be away from them and have some space of his own! 

Skye

Hanging in "Scout's" Snuggle Sack

And her Sister,

Zeva

Snoozing away in a little Puppy Bed!

   They are both now ten months old and will celebrate the First Birthday on December 20th!  Just one day after my son, Brian, who will turn 27 on the 19th!! He was my Christmas Baby and that Christmas will forever be the best one I ever had!