Heartfelt Thanks in Groovy Guava

The New Year is upon us - are you making New Year's resolutions? Anyone going to a party for New Year's Eve or staying home and celebrating?? Tell me, spill all!!

If you read my last post, you know we've had a rough weekend. Our poor little girl is still very anxious each time she coughs - can't blame her, and I'm trying so hard to reassure her that she'll be fine, but she continues to be anxious. She panicked in a store Saturday afternoon, came running and grabbed my hand. I reassured her to go ahead and cough; it was okay. Poor, poor thing, it breaks my heart!!

I haven't been able to find my mojo for stamping lately so I perused several blogs and galleries today and decided to do last week's sketch challenge from Splitcoaststampers. So...here's what I made:

I need to replenish my stash of birthday cards, so I made two of these. See the ribbon on the left-hand side? The card is actually glued together under the ribbon and opens just in front of the ribbon. Hard to explain, but it's different than any I've done before. The ribbon was actually white with polka dots; I ran it through the stamp pad to change the color. Cool, eh?

The base card is actually blush blossom (a really, really pale pink) but stamped using the linen stamp in groovy guava. Groovy guava is the main color throughout the card. I started out with a totally different idea in my head, but that didn't work out at all. LOL That's okay; I like this card!

The center circle (ivory) is actually distressed and edged in the groovy guava. The flower is from the Heartfelt Thanks stamp set.

Thanks for peeking in; I hope you have a marvelous 2008. Celebrate safely please! Hugs, ~M.

Police, Paramedics...Are We Having Fun Yet?

It's 12:30 a.m. and I'm just winding down the day. After a really rotten day at work but a fun evening, we came home to quite the nightmare. Our youngest daughter has been sick with a sinus infection; she's off her antibiotics but has a very productive cough. She got choked and 1.5 hours later, the police and paramedics have left; I'm a wreck - but trying to appear calm and both girls are now in bed.

DH and DS are in Texas hunting, so it's just 'us girls'. That's more stress than I need in one night, let me tell you.

If you'd be so kind as to offer up a prayer for my little tyke, I would appreciate it. Thank goodness for kind, professional workers that don't think "mom's gone off the deep end"; but truly listen and work with your child to help them through the situation. We have a ways to go; but for now, shes sleeping peacefully and I'm right behind her...I hope. Sometimes sleep eludes you under this much stress.

I try not to share too much 'personal' information - well, I should say I share the "fun" a/k/a "good" side, but not the rotten times we sometimes have but tonight...I needed to write.

Thanks friends; hope you had a great week! Hugs, M.

Final Christmas Cards

Merry Christmas friends! I hope you each find yourself blessed when remembering the REASON for the SEASON!!!

These are the last 2 Christmas cards I made; they were hard to get good pictures of due to the embossing.

I LOVE these new ornaments, they're so elegant looking! I used the stem of a flower to make them appear as if they are hanging; kinda cool I thought! For the first card, I embossed the ornaments and "string" with iridescent embossing powder; they're very glittery!

The 2nd card, I embossed the ornaments and "string" with clear embossing powder - these are really hard to get a good picture of; but I love how the clear embossing powder feels so smooth when you run your finger over it!

The first card is done on classic red card stock; the 2nd card is done on a Memory Box cranberry note card. I love these note cards as the color is so rich, but the card is white inside. I purchased these from All That Scraps - love that store!!


I hope you are each having a very merry day! Thanks for peeking in; hugs, ~M.

More Cuttlebugged Christmas

My new word - cuttlebugged! Do you like it? Sounds warm and snuggly, doesn't it? LOL

These are the cards I made as teacher's gifts this year; several colors - turquoise, pomegranate and brocade blue. I cuttlebugged on either white or ivory paper and love how they turned out. I also embossed white/ivory envelopes to match. I gave the teachers mixed colors so they had some variety; I hope they liked them!!

Here's a close-up picture, this one is Ivory and Pomegranate. The one I posted last night was White and Pomegranate.

You can also see the different fancy corner dies I used in the group picture; I love both of these dies!!

DH and I are taking a little trip this weekend while my amazing parents watch our 3 little ones. We are so blessed. My parents live 2 hours away - it'll be a quick trip; but it'll be so much fun!!!

I hope you have a marvelous weekend; and in case I don't get to post before Tuesday...I hope you each have a blessed Christmas!

Hugs, ~M.

Cuttlebug does Christmas

This is the Christmas card I made for my boss; it is TOTALLY CASE'd from "No Time to Stamp". I also made several of these for our children's teachers in several different colors - I'll get those posted soon.

The first picture shows the card and the envelope - the envelope is on the left side of the card; it's embossed to match the card. I used the Cuttlebug Fancy Corners (you can purchase these embossing folders from All that Scraps, or many other local or online stores) and embossed the middle of the card; then embossed again on either side. Then I added the Scor-Pal embossed line to the right of the embossed images. I also embossed the same image on white cardstock, cut out and mounted on Purely Pomegranate cardstock. The entire card is also mounted on Purely Pomegranate, added the PP double-stitched ribbon and ta-da - all done. I think they are so elegant!!

On the cards I made for the teachers, I used 2 different Fancy Corner embossing folders. I'll hopefully get those loaded tomorrow.

Hope you're having a great week and winding up your shopping! Thanks for peeking in; take care!! ~M.

City Divine Does Orange!

Happy holidays friends - how are you?

We're doing great! Nope, not ready for Christmas...I'm kind of ignoring that it's just around the corner - LOL. Think that will work?

I got this stamp a couple of weeks ago and used it for a birthday party our youngest daughter attended. The birthday girl loves orange so I tried to use a bit of orange. :D

The base card is Apricot Appeal; layered with one of SU's blues (anyone know WHICH blue this is? - LOL); layered with more DP from my Nana's Kids 12 x 12 paper pad by DCWV. The girl stamp is "City Divine" by Penny Black. I stamped her on SU's Whisper White; doodled around the edges and mounted on Apricot Appeal. I also doodled around the envelope to match the card.

Finished it off with a couple flowers and a large brad. She is SUCH fun to color. I used Aquacolor Crayons, OMS and SU markers. I also added the orange flower to her hair. My daughter said the card was a hit...I hope so; sure tried to get some orange in there. LOL

Here's a close-up picture of the girl:

I've been busy with a few more Christmas orders; stop back by later this week; I hope to have some new postings.

Take care; have a great week and from our family to yours H-A-P-P-Y
H-O-L-I-D-A-Y-S!!!

~M.

Blue & Silver Snowflakes

I had a request for 18 Christmas cards using blue and silver. Here's the finished product.

These are called tent cards; I got the idea from Michelle Wooderson's blog - she ALWAYS has such wonderful gift ideas!

The cards are very basic and easy; nothing fancy - which is the best way to do it when you have multiple cards to make. I tied silver organza ribbon where the designer snowflake paper meets the blue base card; then I used silver cording to tie on the snowflake shrinky dink (the white circular item in the very front). I love doing shrinky dinks - I need to use them more!!

The circle at the top is a snowflake stamped on a Super Jumbo Circle punch, layered on silver punched from a Mega Circle punch layered on a blue Giga Scalloped Circle punch. I added silver dots to each scallop.

Here's a close-up picture:

I hope she likes them!! I have a few more Christmas projects to get wrapped up; should have those done early this week.

Thanks for peeking in; hope you have a great week!

~M.

Our newest family member!

If you've followed my blog; you've read the story of Patches and Snowball! Well, it wasn't going to be long before we had another addition to our family..."it" arrived yesterday! We don't know yet if its a girl or a boy; but we'll find out this weekend. DH has a friend that used to raise snakes - eeeeekkkkkk - he helped us get Snowball and now he's helped us get STRIPES!!

Here's our newest member!

What do you think??? He's a Leopard Gecko; he's very - um - different looking. He's a pale yellow in color with stripes and his eyelids are blue. Strangest looking thing - LOL!!

Now here's a picture of Stripes and his proud owner!

Yeah, that gecko's cool; but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that little boy holding him!!! Doesn't he have killer eyes - they are a gorgeous blue color (click on the image to see a larger version).

So our fun of a new family member has begun. After church tonight we're headed to the pet store to get a few more things we need for him.

And in case you're curious...no, I don't hold Patches, Snowball OR Stripes! I allow them to have them, but they know the rules. :D

Hope you're having a great Saturday; we have had 2-3 inches of snow today. Thanks for peeking in; take care! ~M.

Oh Santa...I've been good!

L@@K how good I've been? I had a secret elf and she has blessed my socks off!!!

Look at all the cool stuff I got...when you get THAT much stuff; it's hard to get it all in the picture - LOL! AND THERE IS CHOCOLATE!

Cindy is my secret elf and boy what a great elf she is! I'll list everything I got starting from the left bottom corner and working around (also called clockwise - lol):

This fabulous blue card with snow...which it is doing outside our home right now! See that big canister? It's laying on its side and its filled with chocolate covered pretzels individually wrapped - can you say YUM? Isn't that the cutest tag; it's Sandy Claws by Gina K. Designs. A Book in a Box, chipboard sheet, beautiful 6x6 K~ology Hannah Paper Pad, a nugget tin with L-O-T-S of chocolate nuggets - ooooo yeah baby, Mary Engelbreit Dimensional Stickers, epoxy stickers; 3 rolls of ribbon, 3 stamps (tis the season, Merry Christmas and candy cane) and numerous bella images.

Can you believe it? I cannot wait to play with all my goodies!!

And, I was fortunate enough to win some blog candy from Amy Rysavy - look at these treasures too!
A fantastic card by Amy; two stamps by Amuse (lingerie and glasses); an Amuse sucker and lots of bella images!!

I should have a great weekend of stamping and playing; however, I have several holiday orders to finish first.

Hope you have a great weekend! Hope to see you again soon. Hugs, ~M.

Ready for Christmas?

If not, see if THIS puts you in the mood! How do they DO THAT???

Hope you've had a fabulous week! ~M.