Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I start my 4 day vacation today. Yep! Having Thanksgiving this afternoon with my sweetie, kids and parents. I am doing the cooking. I would say it is the only "Huge" dinner I make all year. Yeah...I cook and make dinner. But never big holiday dinners. Not even on Christmas. Why you ask? Because Christmas is my birthday and I refuse to stand in the kitchen all day cooking. So whatever Christmas dinner is...has to be able to go into the crock pot or it isn't getting cooked. That is my "Happy Birthday" to me.

I do have a layout to share today. Yes...it is another layout of our Christmas picture from last year~2008. I made this layout for the challenge at Practical_Scrappers which was to use stitching on the layout. Hand stitching or machine stitching was acceptable. This was tough for me as I do not use stitching on my layouts. This was the very first time. For one I DO NOT own a sewing machine. If I did it wouldn't matter. I wouldn't know how to use it anyway. My husband says he does so maybe he could teach me, but seriously I just don't. Yes, I am sure my Grandmother would be rolling over in her grave. She was so crafty and always did stuff with sewing. And hand stitching well just always seemed to tedious of a job to put the effort into it. I know...let's say it like it is...I am just plain lazy and I am okay with that.

Again, I made this layout for the stitching challenge at Practical_Scrappers. I used mainly CTMH products. This layout will go in one of my daughter's albums. Yes...I am that far behind. But oh, well. I don't scrap in chronological order. I make layouts when I have the mojo working and the ideas flowing. Yes I know the layout is simple. I am sure if I had any experience with stitching I would have been able to make it a little more creative. I am just excited I figured out how to do hand stitching in a short amount of time. Now that I know I can do it maybe I will try it a little more often. I don't know if I will ever graduate to a sewing machine...but we shall see.

Supplies (All CTMH unless otherwise stated): (Cardstock)~ Creme Brulee, Juniper, (Paper )~ Level 2 Jingle (Accessories)~ Tag Coluzzle, folder coluzzle

Belli Challenge

Happy Wednesday everyone. I hope everyone is having a great day and getting ready for their Thanksgiving Holiday. I know some people get the whole week off. But not me. I worked Monday, Tuesday and Today. I did however take off Friday so that I can have an extra day with my parents and kids. Yeah.

A few weeks ago I got an email from Chris asking me if I would like to be a Guest Designer for Belli_CHallenge_blog. Of course I was very excited to be asked and said yes. Then I receive the details from Robin. This weeks challenge is #79 and it is to use chipboard. This was a real challenge for me because I really never use chipboard. I just never really bought it and never really used it. I did however have some left from a sample I got with my CTMH order. I decided since it was so close to Christmas I would make another Christmas card. I also got a few packs of clear stamps from Michael's the other day so I thought I would try them. I stamped the three circle stamps Noel, the dove and the joy stamp and cut it out with my punch. Then I cut out three circles of my chipboard and glued the stamped pieces on to the chipboard...which helped pop them up a bit. I also did the same for the believe stamp beside the Christmas tree.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Cranberry, White (CTMH)
Paper: Level 2 Evensong (CTMH)
Inks: Cranberry & Sweet Leaf (CTMH)
Stamps: Tree (Hero Art~Michael's) & Sentiments (Hampton Art~Michael's)
Accessories: cuttlebug, swiss dots embossing folder, sickles, corner punch (CTMH)

Christmas Card

Happy Monday! Only a 3 day work week for me! Yeah! I did have to take a vacation day for Friday but I don't care...I wanted a long weekend. Enjoying the week with my parents in town. Mom, bleached my hair on Saturday night for me. Always love when that gets done.

I decided to get out my new stamp set Joy2Christmas from Stamps_of_Life by Stephanie Bernard. I haven't played with them much so I decided to pull them out.

I used the snow globe image as well as the tree and the snowflake. First I stamped two snow globes. One on white cardstock and one on desert sands cardstock. I cut out the bottom base of the desert sand globe and glued it on the white globe. I then stamped the middle tree with garden green ink on the middle of the globe. I then stamped it once on a piece of computer paper and cut it out so I could use it as a mask. I taped it over the middle tree on the globe. I then inked up my tree and stamped it once on a piece of paper then on my image to give it a lighter color. I did this twice. I used red sickles on the middle tree for decoration.

Supplies (All CTMH unless otherwise stated)
Cardstock~Garden Green, White, Desert Sands, Cranberry
Paper~ Evensong Level 2 paper pack
Stamps~Joy2Christmas (The Stamps of Life)
Ink/Markers~Cranberry, Chrystal Blue, Garden Green
Accessories~red sickles. nestablilites circles & Cuttlebug

Two Layouts....

Happy Wednesday everyone! As I am typing my parents are on their drive from Pa to here in Fl to visit. Yeah! Sadly while they are playing at the beach and condo with the kids I have to work...but that is okay. They get the quality time with the grandkids.

Now on to my layouts. I am a little behind in posting. Actually I am a little behind in scrapping too. But anywho...I have 2 layouts to share. Both have the same pictures. Yep...same pictures 2 different layouts. Why you ask? Because I have 2 different albums to put them in. I don't know how everyone else scraps but I have a system...MY SYSTEM! I always have "three" scrapbooks going all the time. One for me and my hubby which I call the "us" scrapbook, it will be the one that I keep througout the years. Right now...I have 7 of them. I then hav one for each of my girls, when I say one I mean I have individual ones for them. Carli is 11, so she has a few more. I think right now I am on her 5th one and I think I am on Madison's 4th. These will be the ones that I give them when they are older. When I scrap, I sometimes make just one layout and put it in the correct book. But if it is something that I feel should go in all three...I make three layouts. Normally I make them pretty similiar. It is easier that way. Yes I know I could go to some company and have them copied or whatever. But I don't. I also don't scrap in chronological order. But I do add them to my albums in Chronological order. I pretty much just scrap when the mood hits me. I look through my pictures and when I see one that clicks with an idea...I scrap it. I know...I know! Crazy right? Well it is just the way I do it. I am sure somewhere out there someone has a better more organized way. But this is my way.

So last week I realized I hadn't yet made a layout of Madison when she went to get tubes in her ears. So I pulled those pictures out and these are what I came up with:


This first layout is for Madison's album. These pictures were actually taken before the surgery. She was so upset and sad and uncontrollably crying afterwards that I really didn't even think about grabbing my camera and taking pictures. For this layout I used Sketch #42 from 52Sketches. I just love their sketches. Yes I am so far far behind on them. I used that sketch for this layout.

My second layout, yes same pictures as I stated before is also based on a sketch from 52Sketches and is sketch# 36. This will be the layout to go in the Us album.

Supplies used are all Close To My Heart unless otherwise stated:

Cardstock: Juniper, Desert Sands, White

Stamps: Chocolate Alphabet Large, Dasmask,

Ink/Markers: Desert Sands, Juniper

Other: Embellishment squares (unknown), scallop circle nestabilities, martha stewart edge punch

Christmas Cards

This week mom and dad are coming to visit for their annual week vacation. The girls spend the week with them at the beach. Well Carli usually spends the night. Madison is a home body and likes to be home with her Daddy at night. So she will spend the day with them at the beach and then come home with me after work if she doesn't want to spend the night. It should be a fun week. Playing on the beach....shopping...eating out. All that fun stuff.

Now on to my cards. I have made two new cards with my new stamp set from The_{Stamps}_of_Life by Stephanie Bernard. I just love her. Of course I have never met her, but she has videos on her blog and on the Stamps of Life site that I love to watch. Anyway...my new November set is call Joy2Christmas which you can see here.

I only used Cardstock and stamping products on this card. I felt like doing something simple. All products are CTMH unless otherwise stated. I know...I can't help it. I love their cardstock and their Paper packs. It is an addiction. I know! And no I don't need a 12 step plan. Some people may think I do after seeing my hoard of supplies. But it is an addiction I can live with. I figure as long as my husband doesn't problem with it...then it is all good.

My 2nd card I pretty much used the same supplies. I figure if I had everything out and my table was a mess already I might as well use what I had out. Trust me....you don't want to see my scrapping table when I am making cards or layouts. It is sad I tell you. But then again I never ever claimed to be a neat, organized person so it works for me.

Supplies for both cards: Olive, cranberry, desert sand & white cardstock~cranberry & Olive Ink~Joy2Christmas stamp set (The Stamps of Life by Stephanie Bernard)

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Christmas Cards

Good morning! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I had to work Saturday. But Sunday was spent lounging around the house, playing outside with the girls and of course the never ending laundry. I did also get to make some cards and a do a little scrapbooking.

This first card is a 4x4 card. I made it using challenge #2 over at Crazy4challenges. I have had the sketch printed for a while but never got around to making it. I used my label nestability to cut out the middle white piece. I left it in the nestibility and used my sponge dauber to add juniper in to the image. I then stamped over it with December Word Puzzle orniment and the Merry Christmas Sentiment.

This card I also decided to use the same sketch. Figure I was already working with it I might as well do another one. The stamp set again is December Word Puzzle from CTMH.

Supplies: All products are CTMH unless otherwise stated.

Cardstock~Juniper, White

Paper Pack~Jingle

Ink~Juniper, Tulip

Accessories~Nestablilities and Cuttlebug

Christmas 2008

Happy Monday Morning! I am finally back to posting some work. I have now been a couple weeks pain-free! Yeah! Of course I am not thrilled that I have more than one herniated disc, however I am glad that is all it is and can deal with the pain. I have had that herniated disc well for about 18 years. I can honestly say in 18 year that is the worst it has ever been...so I guess I really can't complain too much. Heehehee.

I have finally done a layout for our Holiday picture from last year. Well this is one of the layouts I made for the girls. I have one more to go.


I did layout for the challange over at Practical_Scrappers which was to use white core cardstock. For me that was a given as that is pretty much all I use. I buy all my cardstock from CTMH, and their cardstock is all white core. The difficulty for me was I don't usually try to show the white core. For my project today I just ripped the cranberry cardstock to reveal the white. I also did take sandpaper and sanded the edges of the layout however that really doesn't show in the picture. All my supplies are CTMH unless otherwise stated.

Supplies: Cranbery, Olive, White Cardstock~Olive and White Ink ~ December Word Puzzle and Typewriter alphabet stamp sets ~ Martha stewart punch.

My New Sorento

The pictures aren't great....but I had to share. My BRAND NEW RIDE! My new Kia Sorento. I LOVE it. It drives great...it is easy to get in and out of...and the seats are great and give me great support for my back. I LOVE IT. Oh, wait I think I already said that. (WINK, WINK).

So long story short...my husband said we needed a different car...maybe a little bigger. And...well here you go.

Oh, and on another note. Thanks for all the love and concern about my back. Even though...herniated discs are not great news...for me that is good. I now know it is nothing more serious and can live with it for a while. Heck I already have for 18 years. Hopefully the next time those things act up in won't be three weeks...but at least now I am for sure what it is. Thanks again.

Results Back

Well I think that everyone is happy and relieved. Well I know my wonderful husband and my mom are anyway. I know they were really worrying about my back problems. I had my MRI and X-Rays and the results are in. I have 2, yep count them 1....2....herniated discs in my back as well as another one that is "bulging" which in turn will become herniated disc #3 at some point. But it is a relief to know that is what it is and now when I have the pain I know just to suffer through it.