Brrrrrr!!! A bitter cold New Year....

....for us here in Massachusetts and that's on top of close to 2 feet of snow which has finally ended.   Now the bitter arctic blast is here, at least for a couple of days, so it's not very likely this snow is going away very fast.

   Thankfully, we did well with this storm, no damage and although we did lose power it was only for about 2 hours in the middle of the night and that's not nearly as bad as it can be with a nasty Nor'Easter!!   If you know me, you know that I dread winter and wish so much that I lived in a warmer year round climate, something I do hope to do, sooner than later.  With Fibro the cold weather makes it even worse, and it's hard to feel warm when it's this cold.  Having a wood stove is also something I'm grateful for and today is the perfect day to have it going!!

   Today and the next few days I have NO plans to leave the house, no thanks -- it's MUCH to cold for me.  It's the perfect weather to stay in and I'm still working on my craft room re-organization, as well as some new challenge cards.

     Speaking of my "messy" craft room, I'm sharing one picture from Tuesday, when we have MOST of the furniture in it's new spot, but still have a lot to organize and purge.  As you can see there are still things ALL over the place in this picture and lots of bins of things that I guess I need to go through again...way too many bins and I'm/ realizing more and more that I never even look in them...plus, there are several more in another area (out of this shot). Yikes!!

   After three days working on this (it's looking quite a bit better now), I was very happy to take a break today and focus on some new card challenges.   It's been ages, since I've had time to create for fun, so today was really fun!!

    The first challenge card is for the current FUSION Challenge, which is one I really enjoy.   You have a choice of using the Sketch, the Inspiration photo, or "fusing" them both together, as I did on my card.  First I'll share a photo the  challenge options:

My Card

  As you can see, I used the sketch as the basic design for my card and then found that I was inspired to use some of the colors and patterns in the photo.  I loved the pillows on the bed and tried to pick out patterned papers that had similar looks.  I also loved the look of the large "Poppy" colored headboard and used that as my theme color too.  The patterned paper in Poppy is from Hero Arts, as is the Sentiment.  The card base is also a Hero Hues (Wet Cement) card base and the other patterns are assorted scraps I grabbed out of my scrap bin.   I was quickly able to create the card design with this fabulous exclusive die, a favorite from Simon Says Stamp.  I also own and love the same die in the trio of squares!!

  And speaking of Simon Says Stamp, my next card was inspired and created for the current "Wednesday" Challenge, which you'll find on the challenge blog HERE!!  And with the challenge starting on the first day of 2014, the theme is "New Beginnings" which you can interrupt as you see fit.  I thought of a "New Baby" and that's the inspiration I used for this sweet little card, which featured a sweet little digi image, by Lori Boyd, who is one of my favorite digi artists.

   I adore Lori's images and they are all so adorable including this sweet little baby girl, who is actually one of a set of two, that Lori designed as part of a special fundraiser a while back.  The other baby is a little boy and I think they are both adorable and loved coloring up this cutie with my Copics.   I then simply used a circle Die to cut her out and card a second circle one size larger in pink cardstock, that I embossed with little dots.  I then layered those onto a white doily.  The card I made from the bright fuchsia cardstock and added a pink front, that I also embossed in my Cuttlebug.  The pink and white patterned paper is from Echo Park, Bundle of joy, which was perfect for this card.

  And my final card today, is one that I put together for the current challenge over at Die Cut Divas!   It's a fun group that I also belong to on Flickr and I also was excited to learn that Hero Arts was sponsoring this challenge!   The theme for the current challenge is "Make it Glitter" and that's all I needed to know and I knew it was a challenge I would LOVE!!  I love all kinds of sparkle and shine and also wanted to try out some new "Glittered Paper"!!  WOOHOO!

  This pre-glittered paper (by Petaloo), although not new to crafters is new to me, although I have owned it for a long time, but only re-discovered it during my craft room project.   I'm not even sure if it's still sold, but I can say I like it and found it very easy to work with.  Much easier to cut then the other type of glittered "cardstock" and it's also more flexible!!   

   I started by picking out a sheet of purple and then chose a die from my Memory Box Collection, which I can assure you will be growing again soon!!  Have you seen their new 2014 Collection?  If not, here is a link for you!!  I browsed it this morning and LOVE so many of the new dies.  Memory Box makes the most amazing thin dies and I've been a fan since they first started.  I also LOVED many of their papers, including the one I used on this card, which is from the Viola Collection.   I'm wondering now, if they still are making new papers as I don't recall seeing any in some time.  Maybe because the dies have become so popular, they just have shifted the focus to them!!   I am happy that I still have some of my Viola stash and very pleased that I stocked up, when it was easy to find!!   I'll miss it when it's gone, as it is so pretty!!  

   I created my own card base with some deep purple cardstock and then cut the Hollyhock and a scalloped circle for my sentiment, from the Purple Glitter sheets.  For some extra sparkle, I added some Hero Bling to my little flowers and also stamped my sentiment (also by Hero Art "Anytime Messages"), in Grape Juice Shadow Ink another Hero favorite!!   Yes, in case you didn't already know I'm a huge fan of Hero Arts and own many of their products!! 

   And these are my first three cards for 2014!  I hope that there will be hundreds more by the end of this year and look forward to spending more time in my craft room!  Now, if only I can get myself back on the task of organizing it, along with all my stamps and dies!  Phew!!  This is a lot of work, but I know in the end, I'm going to love it!!

Happy 2014!!!!

   I wanted to take a moment to wish all of my friends and family and very Happy, New Year.  May 2014 be a year full of Happiness, Good Health and lots of LOVE!!

   

   One of my goals for this year is to be more organized and that began this weekend with major changes in my craft room.   My son, (thank you Alex), volunteered to help me rearrange the room, so that I would have more space and one of the first things I wanted to go was the big old TV that I rarely even watch. I think it's more for background noise and I'm finding I like my iTunes music, much more, not to mention it will also save us from renting that silly box from DirecTV.   

   With Alex's help, I have moved around ALL the furniture (all from IKEA) and am now in the process of purging (yes again), and also putting everything back in my bookcases as well as still working on organizing my stamps and dies!!  

    Santa brought me an amazing new Brother Sewing Machine for Christmas and I know have a space for that, as well as a new work area.   This is the same exact machine that Kristina Werner owns and had recommended on her blog.   I added it to my Amazon wish list and was very happy to see it on Christmas morning.  Now, I simply have to learn how to use it, but have watched a few videos and it's seems very user friendly, which is a big plus for me.   

     Alex also had rearranged his room and ended up have a really nice long white table (another IKEA piece) that he no longer was using and that's what gave him the idea of giving it to me for my room.    That nice table is now a new work areas and will be where I do my sewing, die cutting and even some stamping and embossing, freeing up my other table for my colors and card assembling!!    It will take time to get it all totally organized, but I'll be sure to share some pics in the end!!

     In the meantime, I'll share a couple pics of the pups from Christmas morning!  They all the cute little Christmas outfits, they girls had Red Velvet "Lil Diva" hoodies and Scout has an "Ugly" Santa Sweater, which he did not wear very long.  I've quickly learned that Scout is not a "Fashionista" like the girls!!  LOL

Despite trying to get a few different pics of Scout, 

he was not happy with his Santa Sweater and kept running away from me??  

This is the best I was able to come up with :( !!

Clearly he did not want a picture posted of him in this sweater???  He's trying to get away, while Skye was trying to eat the Pom Pom from the Santa's Hat!!  Bummer, because it really was an adorable sweater...not one bit "Ugly"!!

   That's it for today!  I'm off to keep on working on putting everything in a new place and trying very hard not to KEEP anything I really do NOT need or USE!!   I have already filled an entire recycle bin with craft magazine and wish I knew of someone who wanted them.  It's a shame that I read them the week they arrive and never seem to look at them again.  That's also why I'm not longer subscribing to any magazines, as this is always what happens.....!!    Such a waste of paper and not very Green, on my behalf!!

Are you ready???

   I know I'm not and I'll bet I am not alone.   I've had an awful week as far as my darn Fibro goes and that has put me even MORE behind, but this will be okay and I'll do what I can and will not worry!!

    Hubby offered to do all the final grocery shopping today and even dropped of my meds for refills, thank goodness.  I did not sleep well and had a lot of hip pain. Also had new Xrays on Tuesday after Chiro and learned that there is no degeneration in the silly left hip, and of course, it's basically arthritis and not much else I can do, other than the things I already do!!  UGH!!

     Today, I just felt like crafting and did actually make three new ... very clean and simple cards...but I assure you none are Christmas cards...I'm so done with them and sad that I only have about ten cards here and not one is handmade, which is kind of sad to me!!  Oh Well -- such is life, but I should have one coming when my Secret Santa package from my Hero Arts Swap arrives and I'm sure it'll be really awesome.  I was kind of surprised that two friends who always make their own amazing cards, sent something different.  One was a very pretty store bought card and the other is a photo card, which I admit are NOT my favorites...I love see pics of family, friends and the kiddos, but prefer to see them inside the card.  Even Kim, my friend who sent the card, wrote on it, that it was "Not" her idea, which made me laugh.  It was a cute family shot of their family getting ready to "Zip Line" and I'm sure they LOVED it, so the kids may have chosen the card for this year.

    Oh, and I also have a wonderful gift that is sitting here from another Secret Santa swap that I was part of with another group of friends.  I'm saving it for at least another day and may wait until Christmas, but will be sure to share pics with that group!!   My gifts to both swaps have now safely arrived, as have my gift to Brian and Meg...who I am missing very much!!

   So that's about it....we never did any Christmas decorating and when hubby came in the ladder today I just gave him that look, like NOW...you thing is a good time to start...No thanks....I'd rather give it up for this year and hope next year is much better.   I am so not into this year and that's due to illness more than anything else, so I really need a break.  I also miss the kids and it's just not the same, without your entire family, especially when it's as tiny as mine is!!

   Anyway....these are my three cards...and all will soon be put to good use!  They were ALL inspired by the newest sketch at Cas(E) This Sketch and I'm submitting to the the challenge today!!  It's about time that I finally played and I've missed all my challenges very much, so I'm looking forward to a new year and more time to create!!

CTS #58

My Cards

  As you can see these were both done in the same colors (Pool and Aqua) which I love and I used a simple digital sentiment on the first card and then used a fabulous new "thanks" die, one of the SSS Exclusive that is actually the handwriting of Kristina Werner, which I happen to think is fabulous!!

  And my last card, which is another Thank You card also features another style "Thanks" die that is again from Simon Says Stamp.   I love almost every die they have designed and also am a huge fan of the thin dies, in general.  I first started my collection when Memory Box started coming out with them, and I have never stopped!!

  It's at this time I want to Thank YOU, all of my friends and followers for being part of my blog and for taking the time to stop in and leave so many wonderful comments.   I do hope that 2014 will have me back to posting a lot more frequently and also more importantly spending more time relaxing in my craft room.

  I also want to wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and hope that you all enjoy special times with your family and friends!!

Fun in the SUN !! Birthdays!!!

....After the days of bitter cold, it was so nice to see the sun back out yesterday and even more fun to see how the puppies played in it.

   Typically, they don't like the cold at all and they run out and back in a seconds to do their business.  But, with this fresh new coating of snow, they had a blast running, jumping and playing.  It was also the first day that the temps were up on the 30's so it actually felt so much better.

   I thought I'd share some pics of them having fun.   I haven't had any free time to create (and I miss it like crazy), but have been working hard to finish up my Christmas Shopping and getting the gifts wrapped and mailed.  

   For now -- I hope you'll enjoy the latest pics of my crew --  Scout, Skye and Zeva.

They ran and ran and playing and jumped and had 

a lot of fun....!!   They also love eating snow!!

Zeva...she was so fun to watch!!

After a while, they little coats were so full of snow, they wanted them off, but 

were still very Happy in the warm sun!!

This is my Senior Boy -- Scout!!  

And the two Sisters!!  Zeva in Purple and Skye in Pink!

   And I have two more pictures to share on this very special days, which is the day my first son was born.   Brian turns 27 today and the year he was born, he was the best Christmas Gift I ever could have asked for.  THis picture, is him and his very first "Teddy" and was taken on Christmas Morning, 1986, at six days old!  

   I LOVE YOU Brian and wish so much I could Hug and Kiss you today.  This is the second year that I could not do that and I miss it.   I can't wait to see you again and will looking forward to coming back out to San Diego sometime in 2014!!  Have a wonderful birthday, so happy I talked to you today!   XOXOX!

    And tomorrow, we will be celebrating another birthday -- the puppies will turn one.   They were born on December 20th and I can hardly believe they are already a year old!!   Two more wonderful gifts in my life who bring me lots of Happiness and Love!!

Skye joined our family, at four months in April and we decided we had to adopt Zeva too and she joined us in September!  On the 20th, they day they both turned 9 months old!    Tomorrow we will PARTY!!!

Joy!!!!

 .....Joy!!  The word of the day and a word that makes a wonderful sentiment for Christmas Cards, including my last several that I finished up today!   It's also a JOY to know that I am done with creating Christmas Card for 2013 and that the last batch will be going out in tomorrow's mail.

      If you are a crafter and love to make you own cards, as I do, you know that you really need to start early and build up your collection over several weeks, even months and while I did have some done, I was behind this year and it made this task take a lot longer than normal, but I sure did enjoy it!  Many of the cards I'm sharing today were created while taking some fun new card classes, as well as making more at the monthly Card Club I attend at my LSS!

      With so many to share, and such a long time since I have even had time to blog, I'm not going to give you too many details on each card.  However, I'll be happy to answer questions if you would like to know about a certain image, technique or product.  All you have to do is ask.

       I'm starting the several cards that were part of this month's card club, which I attended on Tuesday.  I love this group and it was especially fun at this meeting as many of the others had taken a Friday night class and there were only three of us in class, giving us lots of space and time to chat -- a shout to Ellen and Diane for being such great classroom partners this month!!

      Out of all the cards were created in card club, the first card below, is one of my favorites.  Not only did I like the fun technique we used for the background, but I also love how using simple die cuts can really make a nice card.  I'm a huge fan of die cuts and found that I used them often in many of my cards this year.  I hope you enjoy them, as much as I do!

This next card, is also another one I adore.  I think the sweet little animals of winter make it extra special.  Don't you?

  And this cute little square card is simply a matter of cutting a variety of "frames" and then adding a simple sentiment, which I did with this cute little felt -- JOY, which is from Hero Arts.

   Another card that I never would have thought about making, was this one, where we simply cut out the "Song" from some 12" Paper, added it to a card base and then added on some Embellishments.   And while it may now be my style, it turned out to be a very nice "traditional" card!!

  The next several cards were more that I created in the "Christmas Stash" classes, where the basic idea was to build up a nice Stash of cards.  I took all three sessions of this class, taught by Terri and really LOVED it.  One of my favorite things was that you had a choice of the cards you wanted to make, based on some samples that Terri had put together and they you could choose to make all, or say two of each and so forth.  I picked my favorites and these are some of those I have left over!  Many are in my last mail batch, because I loved them so much.

   As you can see, this first one, is not even quite finished!  It still needs a sentiment that I'll be adding on the top in a rich red ink.  I loved this stamp from the first day I saw it, and it too is from Hero Arts.  I also loved using the Hero Arts Paint Dabbers to actually color the sweet little wreath --- super easy  and a great results!

And once again, some of my favorites from these classes, also were cards where die cuts, were the perfect idea!!  I really loved how simply it was make to a nice card using this fun new Merry Christmas die, which is from Memory Box and has now made it's way to my collection!!

   Combining dies with Embossing folders also is another fun idea and that's exactly what we did for this card!!    

Next is another favorite and it's also a truly CAS style card.  We simply picked out two pieces of matching Patterned Paper, cut it down and adhered it to the card on an angle.  We finished it off by cutting a matching "Merry" sentiment, in this case in red!   Love it!!

   

    And last, is another super easy card, that looks even better in person and it took only minutes to make.  It's a deep blue Bazzill Cardstock, embossed in a snowflake embossing folder.  And the best part of this fabulous idea that Terri shared for snowflakes, which is actually a roll of Ribbon.  We simply cut three in a row and adhered them to our card and then cut a sentiment of our choice in Silver Foil Paper!   A wonderful card that I actually will make again.  It's perfect to do at the last minute and you can make it in basically any colors to match the silver snowflake ribbon!!

   And now I am officially done with creating and mailing our my cards for this year and that makes this girl very JOYFUL and happy to have that task done!!  Tomorrow we shall start on wrapping gifts and HOPE that I have everything I need!!   I hope you too are finishing up your cards and also hope you are one of those who still loves to send them.  It's another JOY for me and I only wish that more people kept up the tradition.  Seems I get fewer and fewer cards each year and to me, a cardmaker, that's a bummer!!