Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a

Very Merry Christmas!!

I'm taking a few more days off, but will be 

back creating and blogging very soon!!

Creating for the Children of Sandy Hook!

   I still can not get my mind off of the horrible tragedy in Connecticut.  My heart breaks for everyone who lost a sweet child and a family member that day.  Let's all hope and pray we never ever experience such a day and that something will be done in the hopes of making school a safe and happy place for our children.

   Today, I'm very happy to be sending of a package of handmade cards for the children of Sandy Hook.  When I read about the wonderful plans that Amber has put together, I knew I wanted to do my part to help out.  If you want to be part of her great ideas, please hop on over to her blog Damask Love HERE - for all the details.   She has already raised over $4,000 in PayPal donations and is has had a fantastic response from the crafting community, including many of the companies we all know and love.

Donate Here

    To keep up to date on the activities of "Drawn Together" you may also want to follow Amber's Twitter Feed Here or LIKE her Facebook Page - HERE!

     I am also planning to put together a package of supplies to send out later this week.   You can follow along to find out exactly what the needs are and we hope this will continue for many months.   We want these children and families know how much we all care and we want that caring to continue for a long time!  I'm so proud of Amber for putting this all together so quickly and even more honored to donate some cards. I know lots of wonderful card-markers and I hope I can inspired you to help out too.  You can find all the details and updates, as well as a PayPal donation link on Amber's Blog!   Let's all do a little something to make these sweet children smile again and know they just how much we ALL care!!  

      In the meantime, I'm also trying very hard to finish up my last minute Christmas shopping, wrapping and cooking and have not felt very good this week.  Just my luck, right when I have the most to do, my Fibro always seems to slow me down...but I'm NOT stopping and I can't wait to sit back and relax!   I hope you are already for your Holiday and hope everyone have a Very Merry Christmas!!   

Heartbreaking day.....

 How you can help!!

If you have been touched by this tragedy, 
there is a way you can help!
Please go HERE for more details!!




I made my cash donation today and also will be writing to Amber about a craft supply donation, as well as making a card for one of the children.   I'm so happy that I found her site and am very happy to do my little part to help out!!

Lots to share today!

   When I sat down to type I was surprised to see that I have not made any posts since last weekend?  Wow?  ...Where does the time go??   I can't believe it's already Friday and another week is ending?  It's not as if I was off doing all kinds of fun things...I've pretty much been home all week and haven't done much of anything.

   Today, was my first day out of the house in a couple of days and although it was nice to go to the hair salon, the rest was running errands -- nothing exciting.  On the upside, one stop was at the Post Office and I'm very excited to say that ALL of my Christmas Cards are now in the mail.  I hope everyone has them soon and they all survive their trips all around the country.  Making handmade cards is such a joy, but it sure has become expensive to send them out -- more and more every year, which to me is the only downside fo this wonderful hobby.  When I first started (just over six years ago), I sent out 5-10 cards a week to my friends and family, it was my way of practicing and they all loved getting lots of cards.  Overtime, I started mailing less and less, but still always send homemade cards for Christmas, Birthdays and any special events.  I also love receiving cards and hope to see some in my mailbox soon.  

    And while on this subject, I'm still very happy to be creating cards for Operation Write Home and look forward to continuing this year too.   I'm especially excited about the fabulous new "Interactive Card Project" that Sandy Allnock, designed for the OWH cardmakers and was amazed to see how much time and effort she has put into this wonderful new idea.    If you are new to OWH and have not heard about Sandy's amazing new project, please take a minute to hop on over to YouTube and watch the first video or simply click on the video below.  I was so excited when I watched it this morning and I can't wait to try out one of the many new interactive cardmaking videos she had put together.   As of now, there are over 100 videos full of a wide variety of ideas on how to easily make a wonderful assortment of cards!      Way to go SANDY -- I'm blown away at all your hard work and think this idea is awesome!!

 

    I also can't begin to tell you how nice to feels to read mail from the Heroes who receive our cards and to know just how much they all enjoy them and how nice it makes it for them to keep in touch with their family and friends.   This will be my fourth year or being an OWH cardmaker and I am very honored to be part of the awesome group.  If you would like to join in -- please visit the main paper of Operation Write Home where you'll find all kinds of information on how to get started!  

  And speaking of OWH, I especially love to take part in their Sunday Sketch Challenges and the first couple of cards I'm sharing today, were actually created based on the Sketch from last Sunday.  This is a copy of the sketch, and you can find it directly over at the Stars and Stamps Blog -- Here!

Sketch # 149

 

A few more "Owl" themed cards -

created with my Silhouette Cameo!

   I also used the Sketch as my inspiration for this card, which can pretty much be used for any type of card.  All I need to do is decide what type of sentiment I want to add.  For now I left it blank and will add my Sentiment, when it's time to mail out this card.  I think this one would be nice for Valentine's Day too.   I also used my Cameo to cut the fun little Flourish on this card and used the scraps left over from the cards above.

  I actually started these cards last Sunday, but then seemed to off track and I finally finished them up today.  I also have another cute Christmas Card featuring my favorite Hero Arts Stamp of this Holiday Season.  Its' the wonderful Wire Star and I'm sure you have noticed a few cards, I've made with this stamp--Love it!!  This card was created for a fun little challenge over at the Hero Arts Flickr Group.  Barb, came up the fun idea of her own little giveaway to take the place of the monthly challenge, which is on hold for the month of December.   It's open to all and you can find all the details in the Group Discussion HERE!

  This was a very easy card to create and I started it by inking up the stamp in Versamark and stamping it directly onto some Tide layering cardstock.  I then added Verdigris Embossing Powder and heat embossed it.  This color is so pretty and looks wonderful, all on it's own.  Once it was cooled I used a variety of Ranger Distress Stains to color it in.  I used Peacock Feathers, Shaded Lilac and even the new Gold Distress Stain, along with some Perfect Pearls Mist to color my star.  I dried and set it with my Heat Tool and then cut it out!   My card was created with a "Snow" Hero Arts Card and then I layered on some teal Basic Grey (Indie Bloom) paper which I embossed in my Cuttlebug with a Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder.  I add a strip of darker teal cardstock down the center and embossed that with a new Sizzix Embossing folder and then added my star.  The little bow is a Memory Box die and I cut it from Ranger Foil Paper.  

   My next card was one that I was inspired to make after seeing a "Snowman" Themed challenge hosted over at Crafting by Designs new challenge blog.  I LOVE snow-people and actually have quite a collection of them in stamps and digi images.  This cuties is one from Bugaboo Stamps and is a digi image that I colored up with my Copics.  I also added a layer of 3D Crystal Accents, but it's not showing to well in this photo.  I used the same embossing folder as in the card above and the patterned paper on this one is also form Aspen Frost, also by Basic Grey

   NOTE:  If you love Bugaboo Stamps, as much as I do, then you'll want to head on over to the store now and stock up during the 50% off sale.  The sale ends on December 26th!

 And I have one more card to share, which is my "FAIL" of the week and the fail part was adding the Glitter, which was a last moment thought, that was NOT good.   The die cut itself was one I purchased from the Silhouette Store during their big sale.  I cut it directly onto patterned paper with my Cameo and then cut out the ornament and added it onto cardstock.  A super quick card, but a fail and one that won't be send or used. I will save the ribbon and the actual card, if I can easily remove the ornament.   I like to recycle as much as I can before this hits my recycle bin.    Just goes to show that not every idea works out like you might hope!!  The good news is that I can easily cut several more of these ornaments, since I know have it in my Library.  Oh, how I love my Cameo and I'm so happy that it seems to be working a bit better this week.  

  I'm also not sure I really LOVE the look of the little Gold Pearls, which I added on just before the Glitter!   I think the glitter may have worked better if I had chosen a better color.  What do YOU think?

   Tomorrow, I'm going to try to get some more shopping done, something that is such a challenge this year? I did get pick up a gift certificate to the Hair Salon for my Mom today, as we both go to the same place.  I'm also going to get her one for a Spa Pedicure and have a few small gifts done.   But, I still do NOT have a thing for the kids and it looks like they'll be getting money and gift cards, which they do like.   This also will really cut down on my wrapping, which is something I LOVE to do...I love beautiful papers and lots of ribbons too--but it's a back-breaking task, so having less to do, will be a good thing!!     Christmas just isn't the same as when my boys were young and I'm really missing those days....feeling very melancholy this week too!    

   

   Oh, and I bought a wonderful new Christmas Album on iTunes yesterday and love it. It's Michael Buble's - Christmas Album and I think it's going to become one of my favorites!    If you are looking for a new album, I highly recommend it!!   He's not to hard on the eye either...what a hunk!!

Snow Snow...go away...!!

    I am one who would be much happier if we never had any snow and I know I could easily live in a climate where the temps never went much below 60!   Pretty much exactly what it's been like for Brian and Meg since they moved to San Diego!  Oh, how I wish we could all have moved out there together...that would be like a dream come true...maybe in time, we will!   I would be very very happy to live in that climate and I almost most to LA, way back when I was 19.  I often wonder what my life would have been like, if I had made that move?  Hum??

    Speaking of JOY, I am very happy and excited to say that I have finished up all of my Christmas cards and will be mailing them out very soon.  I have them all stamped and addressed and ready to go and that's a good feeling to have it done.

    Today, I have quite few new cards to share and all of these will be put away for next year, or sent off to Operation Write Home for next season.  There are still many challenges being hosted with a Christmas or Winter theme and that's what inspired me to created most of these cards today.

    My first card was colored and created for the newest "Copic Coloring Challenge" over at The Outlawz, where the theme this week is a easy one -- Anything Goes!  I decided to color up this sweet little "Dress Up for Christmas" tree image, which a fun digi from  A Day for Daisies.   I colored it with my Copics and then added a light layer of 3D Crystal Lacquer over the top to give it extra shine.  My papers are a variety from my stash and my Sentiment is from a Hero Arts set.

  My next two cards were both inspired for the newest challenge at The Outlawz, which is today's Paper a la Mode Challenge.   Our theme for this week is "Birds" and while I did think about using the card above, I decided to make something fun and whimsical, so I put my Cameo to work to create these fun little Owl Cards, which I designed using the Print and Cut Feature after importing some of my favorite Christmas digi backgrounds into my "Pattern Files".  That way I could use the Fill feature and color in the owls with fun Christmas designs.  

   I also used my Cameo to create many of the die cuts you'll see on the next few cards, starting with this one, where I cut several snowflakes.

  And on this card, where I cute the snowflakes and the banner and then cut them directly from patterned papers.  I created my own background using a new stamp from Impression Obsession along with some Field Greens Shadow Ink and and a matching Hero Hues Foliage Cardstock.  

  And next I have a super quick and easy card that I created with one of the adorable pre-colored die cut images that I purchased from Lili of the Valley.   I simply trimmed the image a bit and layered it onto some black cardstock.  I picked out more matching papers and printed out a cute little digital sentiment -- put it all together and had this sweet little card.  I added a hint of glitter to the image and highlight the sentiment in red, with a Copic Spica Pen.  I also embossed the card base with a snowflake embossing folder!   I find these images are perfect when you are lacking MOJO or when you don't have time to color!   You can make several cards quickly and easily and they are all as sweet as can be.   They have a wonderful selection and they are very reasonable and also ship FREE!    Each sheet of six little images if just about $1.65 USD and you can create six different cards, which I think is awesome!    I also recently bought some of these amazing Mini Masterpieces, which are equally as wonderful!   

 My next two cards were also cards that feature a variety of die cuts, some I cut with my Cameo and others were cut using Dies from Memory Box and also from Sizzix.  There are so many amazing and wonderful die cuts now available and they make such nice cards!!  This first card contains a fabric type die cut that came packaged from Bazzill as well as the banner, which I cut on my Cameo.  

  This one features the Holly Vine and Crisp Bows, both from Memory Box, along with the two stars which I cut on my Cameo.   This card is actually pretty much a case of a card that Jennifer McGuire created and shared with us in last year's Holiday Card Bootcamp 2011.    Whenever I feel like I need some new inspiration, I will often go back to one of the workshops I've taken and review some of the Videos and Files for new ideas.  I think it's fabulous that we all have "forever" access to all the class content.    It's also fun to go back and look at the Gallery, especially when my MOJO is missing!  

     Today was a great day for me and it's my favorite kind of day.   I'm feeling pretty good, my pain level is controlled, I'm comfy and warm and I had lots of time in my craft room.   I could have easily stayed in ALL day and the only reason I even went out, was to take little Scout out, for a little walk.   He also doesn't like the cold, snow or even cold rain, so he's very content to skip our longer walks for days when the weather is much better.  He's a perfect dog for me and likes to come in and enjoy the warmth of the woodstove, or his his cozy blankets.   He's sleeping right next to me on his blanket and that's how he spends most of his day.  Happily lounging on his blanket, going out for walks or playing with his toys!  He stays very close to me and you can almost always find him, in whatever room I'm in.  He does also LOVE Alex and if Alex has been gone for a while, then he LOVES to be with him in his room and even sleeps in there every so often!    We are lucky to have him and very thankful that he's adapted so well to his new home.  He's a wonderful little dog and makes us all happy.

   

      I'm also happy that the snow is not sticking and can't wait for the mild air to move in.   Woohoo!!  Think SPRING!!!