Naughty or Nice?

I always bring my friend, Santa Baby, out for the holidays - isn't she adorable? I love coloring her, adding puff paint for her fur and pairing her with My Favorite Things sentiment stamp set. I used the Naughty? Nice? stamp as well as the quote "Don't worry, I hear Santa grades on a curve." I just love it!

The base note cards were purchased at Michael's, I added a white & red layer as well as the stamped Santa girl on a white oval and the green scalloped oval. Nothing fancy, just straightforward stamping and coloring.

The base card says Naughty BUT NICE, on the inside - I let you choose. LOL

Thanks for popping in; I hope you're on Santa's nice list! Hugs, ~M.

Create your own card & tin!

I have worked on this project all weekend long - off and on of course, but I've still spent a lot of time on it! It's a birthday gift for one of our youngest daughter's friends. Our DD missed the b-day party, but hey, we still wanted to get the b-day girl a gift.

This is a make your own card kit! :D

The b-day girl loves pink and zebra print, so I went to work. The kit contains enough for her to make 8 note cards with her initial as a focal point. The cards are made up of pink, black & white card stock, scalloped circles in two sizes and two colors (black & pink). Each of the large scalloped circles have been accented with either liquid pearls or stickles. What fun! And then there are 8 white circles with her initial with 2 different borders.

I included a tape runner and pop dots for her to put all the cards together. AND I found some fuzzy zebra print ribbon - seriously, what little girl wouldn't love putting her own cards together?

In the 3rd picture you can see the fuzzy print ribbon in the upper left-hand corner; it's fab! I then went to work making a tin to house all her b-day goodies. I painted the tin pink and then added flocked zebra print paper to the bottom portion of the tin. I added a strip of light pink/white/dark pink ribbon around the top of the zebra paper, then I added the white pom pom ribbon around the top of the lid. Tied on lots of ribbon to the handle, added a flower to the front and then those adorable swirly pink jewels. Isn't that cute?

This last picture shows the inside of the tin - all she needs to make her note cards AND a little purse which contains scented shower gel and lotion. Both my girls thought the gift turned out great...and if my teen thinks that - then I've been very successful. LOL

Thanks for popping in; I hope you've enjoyed this new 3D creation. Have a great week! Hugs, ~M.

Happy Holidays!

Greetings friends - did you have a great Thanksgiving? We sure did!

I've had lots of crafting time in the studio this weekend, working on lots of different things. At the end of my crafting time last night, I made this one final card. I haven't played with this stamp set much, "Holiday Button Bits", so I decided it was time. I love this stamped image - but it's so big. LOL I used the new Eskimo Kisses paper by Basic Grey and pulled my colors from it.

I could have easily used Pure Poppy buttons, but instead I wanted to pull from the small layer of pink card stock as well as the pink in the DP. Aren't those buttons just the softest color? Notice...THEY ARE NAY-KED! :D

The layout comes from Karen, it's her Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #45 (SSSC45); nice layout. I distressed the top of the Pure Poppy card stock as well as both the top and bottom on the Sweet Blush card stock layer.

Thanks for popping in; I hope you have a great weekend! Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: PTI Holiday Button Bits
Ink: VersaMagic Green, PTI Fresh Snow
Paper: PTI Sweet Blush, Ripe Avocado & Pure Poppy; DP is Eskimo Kisses by BG, GKD 80 lb. Pure White
Accessories: Nestabilities, EK Success punch, buttons, distressing tool

Big Game Hunter!

This is the first time our youngest daughter has gone hunting with her dad. DH took the 2 youngest to Texas to hunt deer over Thanksgiving break, our oldest is in OK with my parents - let's face it, they're all getting spoiled and I'm left home alone - PRAISE THE GOOD LORD!!!! :D

HA - I never get alone time so I'm really going to treasure it!

This is a really bad picture as I transferred it from my cell phone, but that's okay; shows a happy looking girl with her deer!

Our son missed a monster buck - the guy they are staying with has been seeing this buck on a regular basis. You could tell our son was nervous - he missed the buck 5 times. Poor guy. That's okay, they have the rest of today and all day tomorrow to find him; I pray they do. Our little man will be beside himself!!!

I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving; hope to see you again soon, thanks for visiting! Hugs, ~M.

Thank You!

Happy Thanksgiving my friends & family - we have so many things to be thankful for. At the end of this post, I'll leave you with 2 of my very own special blessings so stay tuned!

Recently a friend asked me to make some "thank you" cards, she likes blues & greens in springy colors - mind you, we're definitely in the middle of fall, but it sure was fun to create in such pretty colors!

And no need to be shy - that flower has some serious glitter on it!!! LOL I love the sparkle IRL. Little "Daisybella" from stampingbella.com also has a sparkly flower on her shirt & in her hair.

These cards were such fun to make; the inside sentiments vary, but all are 'thank you' related.

All the pants & shirts are colored in various blues and greens to match the DP; the layout of the card comes from I {heart} To Stamp but for the life of me I cannot find the link to the sample layout - sorry!

See the ribbon on the outside of the card? I purchased it at Michael's over a year ago - can you believe how well the colors & flowers match the DP? Amazing! I tied on a button with twine to the ribbon - just love the way it looks. And last is a group shop - there are actually a total of 6 cards.

I hope you take a few moments on this special holiday to remember all the things you are thankful for; then take a moment and hug those around you - life is much too short, they may be gone tomorrow.

I'll leave you with a picture of 2 of my most favorite men in the world!!! They, along with one of our daughters, are hunting in Texas this Thanksgiving - I hope they have a BLAST!!!

Thanks for popping in; enjoy your "turkey legs" day! Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Stampingbella.com Daisybella, various Thank You stamps
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: DP by SU!, SU! Certainly Celery & Bashful Blue, GKD Cream
Accessories: Spica AtYou glitter pen; Copics, ribbon, buttons, twine, Martha Stewart Glitter, punch

Altered Notebooks

Hello friends, how are you? What a crazy work week I had, glad it's the weekend! I love, love, love altering Jr. Legal Notepads - one of my all time favorite things to do. The original 'recipe' came from Mish Mash and I've used it ever since - haven't chanced a thing!

I made 3 of these for a recent open house and every one of them sold. I also did some small notepads using PTI's new signature notepads - I'll post those later - they all sold immediately too.

The paper, 3D items, rub-ons, etc. were all things in my studio just waiting to be put to good use. In fact, this first one you see which says "CUTE" has NO stamping on it whatsoever. It's all 3D goodness and rub-ons - oh yeah, lovin' it! I also love to decorate the inside of the notebooks; they have a little pocket on the left-hand side where you open it up and then a little decorative piece at the top of the notepad. I just think they are so cute.

Hopefully you can see the inside pocket there and each flower was accented with a rhinestone - lots of rhinestones on the outside of the notebook also - a girls dream right? A little 4 yr. old bought this one, she COULD NOT wait to get her hands on it. Pretty cute!

The next one up is a Holiday Planner, this one uses PTI's "Take Note" stamp set and will help anyone stay organized for the holidays. Jot down the Christmas gifts you need to pick up, notes regarding your crazy schedule, the pocket can hold your receipts - oh the possibilities are endless!

All the circles are layered with dimensionals so there's lots of pop to this one. The beautiful satin red ribbon is layered over some cream lace ribbon, so delicate. A few dew drops that I deepened the green color by using Copics finishes the notebook. Love this one!

And last is a "dainty" little notebook. I think it might be my favorite to date. If you read my blog much, you KNOW how much I love to change the color of items by using my Copics - kind of like the dew drops above. Well on this one, see that beautiful big green flower? It was originally yellow and orange - seriously! But yellow & orange sure didn't match my project, so I colored the flower green! Tied on a little button and it's scrumptious. I know, odd I use the word scrumptious for my creations huh? Oh well, I just really like this one!

I added small pearls to each flower and then 2 larger pearls around the sentiment "This & That" which also comes from PTI's "Take Note" stamp set. Such a versatile stamp set!

All paper on this one is from MME's - another all-time favorite of mine. The "This & That" is highlighted with a clear spica glitter pen, can't really see the effect in the pictures, but it adds a nice sparkle.

And last is a picture of all 3 notebooks - nothing pretty about this picture, they don't "go together" at all, but it let's you see them all at once.

If you would like to purchase an altered notebook for the holidays for a girl, a boy, your mom, your grandmother, etc., just send me an e-mail, whimsicalexpressions@yahoo.com - the price is BEYOND reasonable. And since each one is handmade, no two will EVER look alike, in fact, no two even resemble each other! Something special for each person!

I'm so glad you popped in, I love when you visit! Hope you have a great weekend! ~Hugs, M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: PTI's Take Note
Ink: SU! Old Olive & Real Red
Paper: MME, PTI, SU!
Accessories: Spica AtYou glitter pen; Marvy punches, pearls, ribbon, dew drops, punches, 3D accessories

Sympathy - SFYTT

As I mentioned on my Twitter account this weekend, we lost a very dear co-worker Sunday. We got the call October 2 that he wasn't feeling well and followed his journey from there, a journey that took him from one end of the USA to the other...but never for a minute did we think his life would end! Just a little over a month and he's gone; lots of heavy hearts. My boss, a great Christian man, held a prayer meeting Monday via conference call during the lunch hour - lots of people called in and lots of people from the office joined in the meeting; many spoke of what a great human being our co-worker was. He was such a joy-filled man! It was my pleasure to call him a co-worker, but more importantly to call him friend!

I made this sympathy card Sunday evening using Jen's Sketch For You To Try. The DP is from Basic Grey's Granola paper pack. I used Verve's "Forever in our Hearts" stamp set - one of my 'go to' sets for sympathy cards time and time again!

The only stamping on the front of the card is the "with sympathy" which is highlighted with a clear spica glitter pen, the small leaves from the "Forever in our Hearts" below and around the circle and then also stamped on the elongated panel in Vintage Cream.

We mailed the card today to our co-worker's mother; I hope we were able to convey how much her son meant to each of us.

Thanks for checking in; I hope you're having a great week! Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Verve Visual Forever In Our Hearts
Ink: SU! Chocolate Chip, PTI Vintage Cream, SU! blue
Paper: Basic Grey Granola, GKD Pure Luxury 80 lb. Cream
Accessories: Spica AtYou glitter pen; nestabilities

Texas Motor Speedway - November '09

What a great weekend? My BFF and I went to Texas Motor Speedway to watch the Nationwide & Sprint Cup Series races - we love NASCAR!!! Here are some pictures I took with my brand new camera - love that camera!!

In case you can't see the captions, I'll give you some highlights. ZZ Top was the pre-race concert...k, I think these dudes are old! LOL Very interesting; the tall skinny one had purple shoelaces. LOL Their guitars were sparkly orange on the front and bright purple on the back.

They played 1 or maybe 2 songs with fur covered guitars - too funny.

During the Sprint Cup race there was a vulture that landed on the wheel fence - he landed once and then flew around a bit and landed even closer to us...he stuck around awhile. Many were worried that he would fall down onto the track - those cars are going up to 170+ mph....but he finally flew away. I got some pretty good shots of him.

You'll easily guess my favorite driver - he's the only one I took pictures of - HA!! I wasn't sure how the pictures would turn out since the camera was totally new...I should have gotten more pictures; our children all have favorite drivers - should have got their cars too. There is one picture of Tony & Bobby Labonte's car - Bobby is my BFF's driver.

We had such a great, great time!!! Thanks for popping in - it's so great to see you! Hugs, ~M.