Merry Christmas!

Waking up this morning with teenagers who suppress their inner delight on Christmas morning.  I used to think it would take all the fun out of the day, but the older they get the more joy at the real meaning of Christmas we find as a family.  I hope this morning finds you all waking with delight as we remember and hope in that first Christmas joy- Christ and His coming to this Earth as a small child to save us all.

Truly a Joyeux Noel for everyone!

Merry Christmas Eve

 Just popping in on the blog to wish everyone a very happy Christmas Eve in anticipation of the big celebration tomorrow.  I've shared here Brandy's Christmas card that she sent to me.  This beauty was created with Spellbinders Build a Wreath die.  For her wreath, she cut 5 separate passed of the pieces using different colors of green cardstock and one base.  Building the wreaths became quite the project- lots of crafty hours with the help of her sister Sherry.  The red holy is Stickles and look fabulous in person.

Unfortunately, my piece lost it's tiny little bell in the middle of the wreath- a victim of machine cancelling at the post office.  Note to the wise- add a little piece of cardstock to reinforce these kind of small goodies when you mail them....









I write this on Christmas Eve with too many items on my to do list.  I've worked many long hours (again!  I find myself here again!) in the past week and didn't get what I'd hope to completed before today.  I thought I would share a small blog post from a good friend, Dale Kiefer, on the subject of Christmas.  He wrote this post describing what he calls the two Christmases.  I'm all for celebrating Christmas 1, but I am working on forgiving myself my faults in the Christmas 1 celebrations.  I am committed to grasping every thought to bring my mind to bear on the celebration of Christmas 2 which will culminate for this year with Christmas Eve service in a few short hours, only to begin again on the next day as I rejoice in the birth of my Savior, Jesus Christ.

May all your celebrations be merry and bright this year!

A Bloomin' Birthday Card

Good day!  It is always a good day when I get to share a piece created by Brandy.  She made this pretty card for a coworker.  The flower is made using the Arianna Blooms stamp and dies.  The flower is stamped in black Archival Ink and die cut out with the zero edge die.  Super easy!  A little shaping and the black centers really make the flower lovely.

The medallion was cut using the Arianna Lace die die Out of black cardstock.  The perfect background for this flower!

The sentiment was Stamped in the center of  tag cut using the Spellbinders Fancy Framed Tags Two.  A few gems and this beautiful card is ready.

Christmas is almost here, are you ready?  Me neither.  Off to get some more done.

Saying Goodbye to a Coworker

Brandy looked to some online inspiration for this card.  Her regular masseuse massage therapist  (excuse me,  I wasn't aware of the proper name) moving to a different city and would no longer be working at the same Massage Envy location.  Isn't this card just adorable?

The image was stamped with black Archival ink and colored with Copic markers.  She then fussy cut the image out and adhered the image to the card with foam squares.  The blue ribbon picks up blue in the flowers of the patterned paper.  I find this card absolutely charming, don't you.

Celebrating 65 Wonderful Years

It seems that big birthday's always come together.  This is the year that my grandfather celebrated 90 years and his daughter, my mom, celebrated 65 years.  Momentous, milestone birthdays call for a fun, pretty card.  This one is my tribute to my mom- delayed in the giving and, thus, in the posting of this picture.  Here's the details:

• The patterned papers come from MME's Kaleidoscope.  I used the background patterned paper, the frame piece and fussy cut the butterflies from a page.  The border piece comes from a pre-cut page in the paper pad.  Brilliant!
• The kraft glassine flowers were in the stash and I simplyshapped to add here.  They work beautifully to blend the various colors in the background and the kraft sentiment.
• The greenery is die cut from green cardstock using my Our Daily Bread Designs Fancy Foliage.
• The sentiment is a wood stamp I've had for years stamped on frame from the pre-cut die page of the paper pad.
• A tiny 65 was die cut with my Quickutz dies- also from the stash and well used after a decade of ownership.
• No mom card is complete without a fair bit of pearl accents in the flowers and on the butterflies.  

The inside begged for a bit of fancy sentiment cut using my Our Daily Bread Designs Elegant Ovals.  The sentiment stamped in brown Archival Ink is from the Simon Says Stamp Tilted Banners Sentiments.    Some more greenery and a butterfly and I think this card is ready for the big day.

My mom really enjoyed the card and her party.  We're hoping for many more celebrations to come.

Wedding Celebration Card

I, ultimately, made this card for one purpose and used it for another.  It is a retread of a card made earlier this year, but I thought it worked so well, I made it for a wedding this fall too.  

The flower is made out of kraft glassine paper.  This paper creates a wonderful texture when wadded up into a ball.  The flowers were cut using my Vintage Floret dies. The panel is an embossed piece of shiny vellum paper.  It really stuns in person and is raised from the cardstock base with foam squares.  A piece of purple ribbon is glued to the edge so you don't see how it doesn't end well.  The sentiment is from my Simon Says Stamp Friendship Messages stamp set.  

Wishing the happy couple a wonderful, bliss-filled marriage.

A Second Girly Album

Another fabulous girly photo album brought to you from Brandy's craft table.  She very graciously sends me the photos to share with all of you.  This face is created with the Prima Paper Doll #9 stamp colored with Copic markers and embellsihed with some blink onto a handmade photo album.  Brandy makes these albums out of chipboard and covers it with patterned paper.  

On the inside, a pocke for some journaling cards and a waterfall photo album.  That corner punch is perfect for this use.  Glitter, bows and butterflies adorn the album created for one of her cousin's children.




This third album was also made for one of the cousin's kids.  Who... who made such an adorable gift?  Brandy, that's who.

Welcoming Baby Girl Miller

My nephews have finally started to have children.  It is slow process, but I think it will grow in popularity as the next few years progress.  This gives me great joy that I can have good reason to make a lovely baby shower card.  Here's the details:


The sentiment is stamped in black Archival ink using my Simon Says Stamp Friendship Messages stamp.

The circle statements were made stamping in black Archival Ink using my Heartfelt Creations Sweet Lullaby Sentiments set and cutting them out with the Once Upon A Time die.

The papers are from the scrap heap.  I cut a few pieces of netting to shape behind the circle sentiments to add a softness to the card.  I like how it turned out.

The flowers, also from the stash, are Making Memories from back in the day.  A small pink enamel dot and they and the card are finished.

I will look forward to many more happy moments like these as I have quite a few nieces and nephews that may enjoy the showering of love that parenthood brings.

More Variations on Christmas Cards

A few more Christmas cards of similar design.  This time I combined my Papertrey Ink Rustic Wreath stamp set and my Papertrey Ink Rustic Wreath die to create the card.  The poinsettia was once again cut and embossed with my Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia die.  The red cardstock was then spritzed with watered down white acrylic paint using an old toothbrush.  A little Good Earth elements from Art Glitter in the center and a couple of stamped and cut Heartfelt Creations Holly Berry leaves finish the card off nicely.

Papertrey Ink sentiments are so cute, don't you think?  So glad to be able to share these cards with you this Christmas season.

Christmas Cards - A Little Peace This Year

I'm not sure what my Christmas card designs say about me other than I love my Our Daily Bread Designs Peace on Earth stamp from their Christmas Mini stamp set and my Papertrey Ink Rustic Wreath die.  The poinsettia was cut and embossed with my Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia die.  A little Good Earth elements from Art Glitter and this card is mostly done.

How are you doing on getting your cards made?  I hope they are coming along nicely.  I'm almost done addressing these to get them sent out.  I typically hold off sending them until later in the month to ensure a timely delivery.  Enjoy the season!

Celebrating a Wedding Day

Just popping in to share a photo from a project Brandy finished.  She needed a quick wedding celebration card and whipped up this confection as a card topper (simply placed on a white pre-made card).  The cake was cut using Cricut's Wild Card cart cut out of patterned paper.  The pearl accents are from a swirl set.  The flowers were made by clear embossing Heartfelt Creations Vintage Floret on pink cardstock and shaping as provided in this video.  Stunning don't you think?

Christmas Cards - It's That Time of Year

It is that time of year.  Christmas cards are on the make and I am joining in the fun.  I made a series of cards and wanted to share them with you.

Each card is made using my Papertrey Ink Rustic Wreath stamp and die.









The poinsettia were made using my Layered Poinsettia Shapeabilities.  The center was made using some Good Earth Elements Earth Textures.  The red cardstock is spritzed with some white acrylic paint using an old toothbrush.

The patterned papers and kraft cardstock are literally from the scrap heap in the stash, bits and pieces from other projects over the years.  I guess these cards are the reason I keep those pieces!

The Peace on Earth sentiment is from the Our Daily Bread Designs Christmas Mini stamp set.      

I hope this finds you happily crafting for the season yourself.  Wishing a little Peace into your portion of the Earth this holiday season.

'Tis the Season

It really is the season of giving and sharing and enjoying fall things.  I had such an occasion to celebrate on Friday.  Here's a list:

1. Birthday breakfast for my daughter - she turned 16.  She woke up cheerful (!) and ready to help get the house and food in order so that my mom, grandma, sister and nephew could join us for a scrumptious breakfast.  Celebrations later in the day were not to be and this was a solid compromise to make that fun happen.

2. I received a kind, thoughtful bundle of gratitude from a blog friend, Karon from Karon's Krafty Korner.  Karon and I met via the Cricut website message board in 2012.  We first started following each other's crafty exploits, then we connected via email and exchanged the chatty email.  Recently, I read a post where she was wishing for some Heartfelt Creations tools and I picked the flower set up for her.  Viola, a thank you gift such as this was delivered.

One can't say thank you for a thank you gift.  However, I can point out the lovely homemade card set, the beautiful Christmas card and the so thoughtful thank you tag.  Check Karon out (link above).  She's fascinating to watch and a lovely blog friend.  I decided that just the right thing to squeeze into my day was to use those note cards for their intended purpose.  I just had a birthday and joyfully sat down to write out thank you cards with my gift.  There's quite a bit of fun in that package and I look forward to completing a few Christmas projects so that I might play around with what's there.

3.  We needed to finish 116 cupcakes to celebrate my daughter's birthday with her band family.  See at Thanksgiving dinner with my husband's family we each had to say what we were thankful for.  Katie was thankful for the family that surrounds her- on both my family side and my husband's family side.  She was also thankful for her high school marching band family.  Well, family isn't family without sweet treats for your birthday so...

Two 1/2 full boxes later- were ready for the end of the night (which wouldn't happen until 11 pm).

4. Next was a trip over to Arizona Cardinals stadium in Glendale to watch my daughter march at the beginning of the state high school football championship game.  They did wonderful!  My son, a senior at the same high school was able to cheer his team after watching sissy march her little heart out in a major NFL domed stadium.  The dome was open- it was a beautiful night!

5. Well, folks that high school team, which had not won the state championship in football since 1949, went on to beat the in-district rival Hamilton High School to will the state championships.  It was all fun to watch from a distance (no parents allowed in with the band!) as my daughter played to cheer on the crowd and the team to victory doing a few dances of celebration along the way.  

6. It was a rush to the East side of town, pick up the boxes of cupcakes where they were safely tucked at home and meet the band back on campus to hand out cupcakes.  The band family sang a very lovely Happy Birthday to Katie and we all went home exhausted, happy and full of joy.

I'll stop with the six best things about Friday night.  They are all, by themselves, quite lovely.  We got to get them all at the same time.  My son is a senior who can claim to have won the state championships in football his senior year.  I think even this stoic 18 year old man was pleased with the day!

Thanks for tolerating my gratitude counting.  I love that we can share such things through the blogosphere.  In this world where community sometimes seems to shrink it is encouraging to connect across the miles and the bytes of data.  

A Girly Album

Brandy has been back at crafting for a while.  I don't always get photos to share with you, but here's a creation that she recently finished and sent photos to me.  I think it captures the colors of the seasons.
The lovely young lady was created with paper piecing and Copic marker coloring using Prima's Paper Doll #4. The flowers are from a pre-made set and the butterflies punched out of patterned paper.





For the inside, Brandy made a pocket to hold a few jjournaling cards and created a waterfall photo holder on the opposite side, all in coordinating patterned paper.

Finally, a quick thank you card to go with the gift- I just love the coordinating paper.  The daisy and the amber gems simply make this card work.  Isn't it wonderful?  Brandy stuns again with such a beautiful creation.  Whomever is the recipient of this lovely card and album set will certainly feel special.