It's time to CREATE!!!

   I had a wonderful Christmas and my family treated me very well.   I am now the very happy and lucky owner of an iPad and I totally LOVE it.   It was a gift I had on my 'dream list' and I feel very fortunate to now have one.   Special thanks to Hubby and my Boys for making this dream come true.   I still have lots to learn, but it's been fun.  My friend, Patty also received one this year and it'll be fun to learn with her.   I think I might even take one of the free classes that Apple offers in their stores.    One of the best features I've use so far is FaceTime and that was a JOY for me on Christmas because I was able to talk live to Brian and Meghan in Portugal.   I am also very happy and excited to announce that they are Engaged!!  WooHoo!!   I could not be happier for them both and I already Love Meghan, so having her as my daughter, will be a wonderful gift!!  I can't wait for them to be back, so that we can celebrate another Christmas with them and I can give them each a big Hug and Kiss - I've missed them very much!

    I'm also blessed to have had both Alex and Acacia here to celebrate Christmas and they are also a wonderful couple.  Maybe some day they too will get engaged?  They are still both young and have plenty of time.  I really am so lucky that my boys each have such wonderful girls in their life.

    On another happy note, I have been pretty lucky again lately and I won three awesome prizes last week.  The first was from Operation Write Home and it's one of the brand new stamps sets, that Hero Arts created specifically for OWH.  I already own the 'Year Round Sentiment Set', and will now be adding the 'Right at Home' set which is adorable.    I hope to buy the last set, when I hit AE on Friday.

     My second wonderful surprise was part of a Giveaway,  at PoppyStamps website and I won a set of the adorable new PoppyStamps, which you can find HERE!    I totally LOVE Memory Box products and this new line is going to be another favorite.  I'm especially lucky as they are sold at my LSS!!   This set that I won is called Snowtime Fun and I won both the die and the matching stamp!   Sooooo Cute!   Thanks Dave!!

    My third wonderful prize was won from taking part in a wonderful Card Drive that I read about on Jennifer McGuire's Blog.  It's cards Cards that Care and I was happy to do my little part to create some card for such a great cause.  

    I never even thought about winning a thing and had even forgot that there were several sponsors -- so you can only imagine my surprise when I read on Jennifer's Blog that I was one of the lucky winners.   And the best part of ALL is that I won my choice of (6) Hero Arts Stamps, the absolute perfect prize for me, since I am such a fan of Hero Arts.  I've been drooling all over the brand new 2012 Catalog!   WooHoo!   My thanks to Jennifer and Vera for hosting the drive and also to all the companies who donated such awesome prizes!  THANK YOU!!!   I was also excited to see two craft friends also won -- Congratulations to Donna and Dixie!

    Today, I want to get back to creating and have really missed it, so it should be fun.  I do have a few cards that I created last week, but did not have time to post.  I'm happy to share them with you now:

  All three of these card were created for a variety of Challenges and they were all really fun to make.   These will also be the last of my Christmas Cards for this year and I'm very ready to move on and create some fun new themes.

   For anyone who LOVES to create CAS style cards, you still have time to sign up and take the Clean&Simple Card Making Workshop that Jennifer McGuire, Kristina Werner and Julie Ebersole are hosting online.    It starts on January 9th, and you can find all the details HERE!   I am very happy to be enrolled and look forward to learning this style!  I LOVE it, but find it a challenge, so this will be a great class for me.

   Phew!!   Took me two hours to get this done, but I had a lot to share!!  I want to wish you all a wonderful week and hope you all had a Christmas as special as mine!!   Hugs to all!!

   Afternoon Update:   I am back to share two new cards that I created today with the help of my wonderful Silhouette Cameo.  I really love all that I can do with this machine and I find it so much easier to use than my Cricuts, plus I Love that I can be used withe both SCAL and Make the Cut and that's such a bonus.  Now I can use any SVG file and cut it on my machine!!  WOOHOO!!

   My first card today was created for this week's CAS card challenge at The Outlawz and the theme for this week was Baby.  I do not have Grand-kids or young children, so I really did not have anything in my stash that seemed like it would work out for a cute Baby card?   That's when I thought about how easily I could use my Cameo and find a cute 'Baby' image from the Silhouette Store.   I actually added a few to my library so that I would have some on hand for any more baby cards.   The cute image was actually meant to be used as a card base, but I simply loved it as a little baby Onesie, so I changed it a bit and added the little buttons.  In the end, this is the card that I created and I think it's very sweet!

   I also finished up a second card and this one is for another challenge being hosted this week over at "The Outlawz".  This is for the new Color Combo Challenge, which you'll find HERE!   The colors this week are perfect for Valentine's cards and that was initially what I thought I would make.  But, after looking at the colors again, along with the adorable inspiration image (see below), I went back to the Silhouette Store, pick out some cute cupcakes files and made this fun card in that theme.

    I hope I have now inspired you to hop on over to The Outlawz and join in the fun challenges.   I had fun working on both these cards and my next goal today to is create a new Operation Write Home card based on the new Sketch, which I have shared below:

    I have always loved the way banner/pennant cards come out, but admit, I have always considered them to be Hard!  I am hoping I can come up with something that will look good and I'm off to work on that next!! Wish me luck...for this I need a LOT!!

    Woohoo!   I did it!  I found a wonderful pennant banner in the Silhouette Store.  I think it's perfect for OWH cards and is one that I can use again.  It originally had four pennants, so I copied one of them and attached it to the end, to have five.  I also loved that it was created with with Stars and Stripes that that's what drew me to the image.   Once I had it cut, I added some Baker's Twine and use that to tie it onto my card.  Here is the completed card and I hope you'll like it!!

  And that will be it for today!   Tomorrow will be another day spent creating and I can't wait!