'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.

Christmas Cards- 2014

Back in the summer, on vacation I began making the pieces to my Christmas cards.  On this eve of Thanksgiving as the Christmas season officially begins, I thought to share a sneak peak at some of the preparations made months ago.  I ultimately made 50 of these cards as well as a few straggling others to send out in the coming weeks.

One of the first elements was this window created for a sentiment.  The patterned paper came from Hobby Lobby and has words in another language written on them.  This is good because I might have actually placed these pieces upside down.  No one will notice ;)

I cut the window with an exacto knife in an "X" shape.  Then, I curled each of the edges back to reveal the window...

Next was some holly swirls for accent.  I stamped with green ink and die cut using my Heartfelt Creations Holly Berry stamps and matching dies.  After cutting all pieces out, I shaped the leaves by pressing in with a stylus at the center of each leaf.

Ladies and gentleman, I shaped two different swirls and three different leaf clusters for each card.  That is a total of 250 shaped die cuts for this card set.  Fun times.  Well worth it!

I'll wait to reveal this final creation for Christmas day, however I do have some other Christmas cards to share with you soon.

I wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving feast tomorrow.

Shining Like the Sun

My daughter, Katie, has been in the high school marching band for the past two years.  I've worked alongside many others as we parents toil to help the band do all the work and effort of performing at football games, competition and even participating in out of state competitions.  One tradition is that the students are all given a tchochke of some type to memorialize the show.  This year, I had just the thing in this layered die cut.  The cuts all come from Cricut's Tinkerbell cart.  The color inspiration comes from the marching band show:

The show starts with the band "hidden" behind these panels.  Any guess as to the inspiration?

My daughter leads the group out from behind the sun panel.

Marching across the field in a stunning show.  They took 5th place in the state marching festival.  The football team has made the playoffs.  We eagerly await the final standings in the state championship- to be determined later this month.

Go wolves!

A 65th Birthday Celebration

It's a party and it's on the way.  My mother celebrated 65 years of youth last month.  We felt this needed a party, but wanted to wait until my grandparents could join the celebration.  The big day is later this week.  I made these simple invitations for everyone to cherish.

The flowers are clear embossed and die cut using my Heartfelt Creations Arianna Blooms stamps and dies.  The flowers were then spritzed with water and accordion folded using the technique described in this video.  This creates such a unique flower- I'm really pleased with my flowers for this piece.  the greenery is my go to Our Daily Bread Designs Fancy Foliage die.

The patterned paper is two sided paper that coordinates.  I just thought the lacey effect of those borders worked perfectly with the sentiment.  I printed the circle out on the computer and matched it with a cream cardstock Lacey Circles die cut.  


On the inside, more information about when and where the celebration is to take place.  We'll be having our shindig later this week!