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!