I do NOT like this COLD WEATHER..........Brrrrrr!

Not one bit.....please bring Summer and warm weather back to me!  This is too cold for me...and it's ONLY December!  ARGH!  I dread the thought of how I am going to feel once January rolls in, as that tends to be our worst month.  YUK!!  Thank goodness for our wood stove and how fast and warm it keeps the whole house.  It's so much warmer than simply turning the heat up and up!  I LOVE it and can't imagine living in New England without one. 

Speaking of things I LOVE, I have fallen in love the Pink Cat Studio Stamps and I am very  excited that they are now being carried at Cutters Creek.   I think the images are adorable and had a great time coloring some of them with my Copics.   This is a picture of the first card I made with an image of "Itty Bitty Betty"--

 This image is one that is available from the "Itty Bitty Christmas" stamp set and just happens to be one of my favorites.   I colored her with my Copic Markers and as always, I made sure she had a "Purple" outfit, as I LOVE Purple!!    You can find the Pink Cat Stamps  in the store at this link - Click Here!  I have also ordered the "Limitless Limbs" set along with Doodle Garden Set and can't wait to make all kind of cute things with them.

Please stop over at the Cutters Creek Design Team Blog to see what the other design team members have been creating.  There are some really cute "Holiday" projects and we are all working to add new things, so check back often.   Please feel free to leave a comment if there is a project or idea you would like to see.

Other than lots of "coloring" it's been a day of rest for me.   I didn't manage to get any more wrapping done today, but I hope to do some tomorrow.   I still plan to go Christmas shopping with Alex for a couple hours too.  I just HOPE it's not as cold as it was today!  I had originally planned to go with Brian while he went out to shop around for a new vehicle today, but decided it was too cold for me to be outside at the car dealers-- and I passed on that.   I think he may have found an SUV "Nissan Pathfinder" that  he really seems to like.  Hopefully, he make his find decision this  weekend and then will have it early next week.  It'll be nice to have another SUV in the family and between his and Alex's Jeep, we should be all set for snow and getting around,in the worst of the winter weather!  Yippee!!

Speaking of cold...I think it's time to add another log to the fire...so I'm off to do that and make some dinner!

Snowflakes, Gifts and more....

   Woohoo!  We lucked out again and the snow that was due here, turned out to be ALL rain and makes me a Happy Girl.  It's a very nasty, windy and wet day, but I will take rain over snow any day.  The only time I really like to see SNOW is a nice fresh layer on Christmas morning, and if it that was it, all winter.  I would be a happy girl. 

   Speaking of snow and snowflakes, I made some more really cute "Gift Tags" out of some snowflakes I cut with my Cricut yesterday.  I used the  "When It's Cold Outside" for this set --

   And I also used the same cartridge to cut these gorgeous "Purple" snowflakes for two of my Christmas Cards.  These snowflakes, along with some pretty paper and some bling make very easy cards.  I use Bazzill Swiss Dot Card-stock for them all, to give them an extra bit of texture. 

For this card, I also used my Cuttlebug and some A2 Embossing Folders to add another element to the card.   This has quickly become one of my favorite Cricut Cartridges.

   It's from the new line of  Limited Edition Mini Cartrdiges,   I own all three of the Christmas editions, which are available now at Cutters Creek.   Plus, I have already pre-ordered the next set which will be coming our soon and will out in time for Valentine's Day, Easter and Mother's Day.  Those new Minis are available now for  Pre-Order and are only $19.99 each, which is a fabulous price.  If you want any of these adorable cartridges, please hop over to  Cutters Creek and place your orders!  These are really fun cartridges at great prices.

   Once I finished with my Snowflakes, I created some different tags, using my Cuttlebug and some of the holiday-themed Embossing folders.    I added some "bling" -- glitter, ribbon and"Twinkle Jewels", which I adhered with Glossy Accents .  These were also very easy to make and you can create them in a wide variety of colors and styles...it's all up to your imagination!

 

      If you don't have a Cuttlebug, I highly suggest you try one, I think you'll LOVE it and how much you can do with it.  I use mine with Spellbinder Dies to cut shapes and also with Cuttlebug Dies and Embossing Folders.  It's very easy to use and you can do so much with it.  I use mine pretty much every time I craft and I LOVE it.  My hubby bought it for me from my Wish List, last Christmas.  Thanks HUN!!



    And one more bit of fun news before I sign off...I plan to start adding some little contests and challenges for all my friends who FOLLOW my blog.   I also like to find new blogs to follow and this will be a fun way for me to find new blogs that I can follow too.   I  enjoy seeing other blogs and find lots of really cute and fun ideas from following them.    I plan to be posting more often and to keep ideas fun things, so please follow along.  I love having people stop by and visit and love comments.    There will be BLOG CANDY coming soon and you could be the first winner, simply by following me.  Stop back soon for more details! 

   Wishing you all and fabulous day......full of fun, love and happiness!    As always, HAPPY CRAFTING!!

WooHOO! I won Blog Candy Today!!

YIPPEE!!

If you look back on my post from Saturday, you find out more about the Jingle Bell Blog Hop that I was following this weekend.  It ended up being really fun and I found some great blogs and saw some wonderful creations.  I also found out  today that I won some awesome Blog Candy from "Jamilie", one of the Challenge Masters that took part in the blog hop.   Please check out her blog to see my wonderful prize and her awesome creations. - Click Here!   I wanted to post in my blog to personally thank Jamilie for her generous gift.  I'm very excited to have won and will be looking forward to having these new goodies to craft with!  Thank you again, I am very happy and excited to have won your prize!

Jamilie is a Design Master for the Ch{all}enge Masters and is a very talented crafter.  I also belong to this group and enjoy taking part in the monthly challenges.  Jamilie is the Design Master for their Card Group and since I absolutely LOVE card-making I took part in her challenge last month, and will happily try again this month.

This is the card I made for her "Circle Card" Challenge in November -- Click Here -- then scroll down to the second card.  It's also posted here on my blog over the right and a few cards down from the top.

  

If you want to play along the new Challenge for December is already up and you can find it at this link - Click Here!

Happy Friday!

  Another week has flown by and as of today we only have three weeks to go until Christmas.  I can hardly believe how close it is.  I still have a little bit of shopping to do, but I think I pretty much am finally done and know exactly what I have left to do.

  I mailed out all my Christmas Cards earlier this week and I was happy to have that done.  I worked hard on them and I hope every one likes them.  I also started a bit of wrapping, but boy is wrapping tough on Fibro, needless to say, I did too much one day and paid dearly for it yesterday.  From now one, it's a couple a packages a day, so I do not have another pain day like that!  AWFUL!  
   Luckily, I have everything ready and most things are now in big bags and need only tissues and ribbons, so it will move along and it'll get done or get DH and Alex to help out, if I have too!  I did ship out all the things that need to go, so that was another plus! 

  My next task is to do some decorating and then work on making some more 'Hershey Nugget Tins".  Then right before Christmas, I plan to try make some chocolates and I bought a Candy Making Set at Michael's last week, along with some melting chocolate and chocolate molds.    I thought I would try some Chocolate lollipops and maybe some chocolate dipped pretzels.

   I had a terrible Fibro day yesterday and could NOT do a thing, it was one of the worst flares I have had in a long time.  The highest pain level I've had in months.  It was a very rough way to remember to slow down!

  

Woohoo! I finished my Christmas Cards!!

...And what a great feeling that is.  I have literally been working on my cards off and on and of since mid-summer.  It's a lot of work to make all your own cards, and I am already planning ahead for next year and going to make them all year long, so I'm not "swamped" this late again!

  But, my 2009 cards cards are FINALLY all made, addressed, stamped and totally ready to go.  A huge accomplishment and one that I am truly happy to have done.  I also managed to wrap up three special Christmas gifts and also packaged them, so that all ready to ship out tomorrow too.    It did, amazingly, take me the last three days to get this DONE, but I am thrilled that I have finished. 

Now---I can concentrate on wrapping the gifts that need to be hand delivered locally and then finish up with the ones that stay here!  It's still quite a bit, but having my cards and mailing packages done, is awesome. 

I am also going to start looking to see if I can find a new "smaller" tree to buy and give away or donate our big tree.  Its' simply too heavy, to hard to get in/out every year and I think it's time we scaled down a bit.  The kids are older and I'm the ONLY one who does the decorating...and I simply can not do it all anymore.  Having Fibro just make it much too hard...and I am way too tired.

Today, I feel pretty good consider how much I have done in the past three days--I HOPE I can continue to feel okay and if so, I'll manage!    Now...to focus on finding a TREE is my next task!   If not...we may be "treeless" this year and scale back on the other decorations too, which is kind of a bummer!!