Valentines anyone?

Once Christmas comes, it seems alot of crafters start thinking Valentine's Day. I have never been one to mail Valentine cards but I made a couple of cards last night since I had found these stamps while going through some of my stamps to sell at the Stamp Shack. This is what I came up with (and these stamps are NOT for sale)

Stamps by:
1st card - Stampendous, Postmark by Great Impressions
2nd card - Tree and greeting by Stampabilities,
Postmark by Great Impressions

Happy New Years Eve eve ... LOL

Its December 30th. Almost 2010. That's going to be hard getting used to. I made these cards. The first image is a digital image from Mo's Digital Pencil Shop. I just love her images!!! I made card #1 a few months ago but I can't remember if I ever posted it. Card #2 - I got this digital image from All that Scraps and I really like alot of their images too. I made this one for someone who has a winter birthday. The little ticket stub is a stamp (but I can't remember by who). I'll probably post something tomorrow I am making for Valentine's Day. My great friend, Traci says I never make Valentine cards but I went through some of my old stamps and I found these so I made a couple of cards. Hmmmm, who will I send them to? Ha ha

PS If you noticed my new watermarks, I got them from Karen Giron. She has some great ones and only charges $2.00 for each of them. I have tried and tried to do my own and it just didn't work so I just pay her and she does them for me for $2. Quite the bargain!!

Time to recycle my Mary Engelbreit calendar from 2009

These are the envelopes I made from my 2009 calendar. Now I just have to remember to use them!!! :)

Time to make some thank you cards

I saw a card just like this at Sams for $3.59! I thought "hey I can make that!" so I came home and did! This is it. Isn't it cute? I used the retired Stampin Up snowman punch (he is my all-time favorite) and voila, total cuteness if I do say so myself! HA

A birthday card for Gaerria ....

Stamp by: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps at www.kraftinkimmiestamps.com

Verse by: Taylored Expressions

Cupcake by: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps

Happy Christmas Eve!!!

Each year on Christmas Eve, the kids and I bake Christmas cookies. This year I decided to try to make homemade Snickerdoodles and wow, are they delicious!!! I will share my recipe with you that I got out of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook:

Snickerdoodles

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

In mixing bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds. Add 1 cup sugar, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Beat until combined. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in flour and chill for an hour, covered.

Combine the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Shape dough into 1" balls. Roll balls in sugar-cinnamon mixture to coat. Place 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375 oven for 10-11 minutes or until edges are golden. Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

We had Linda, Steve, CJ and Mindy over today for our annual Christmas lunch

Here are a few photos of the kids ....

Emily and CJ are both 17. Nicholas is 14 and Mindy is 11. (Notice Mindy is taller than Emily and she's just 11) LOL

Mindy made me this cute Frosty the Snowman at Build-A-Bear. It even has sound and lights up. Thank you Mindy, he will sit next to my snowman tree.

I'm back from FL and had a "free" Just Cards magazine in my mailbox upon my return ...

Had a great time seeing my mom, dad, sister, Mike, Nathan and Cosmo in Seminole. Then got to see Jan, Betsey, Gerry, Sherri and Caryn in Hobe Sound. Weather was a "little" too hot for my liking. Our a/c had went on the blink and I was without air and it was 87 degrees one day (yes I was complaining!). Came back to 22 degree weather. LOL

Here are some photos from the trip. Debbie (my sister) is just "a little obsessed" with the color purple so here are her 2 purple Christmas trees. (I gave her the little one for Christmas this year and let her open it early. Then we got to go shopping for little purple Christmas ornaments.) Notice the little purple tree skirt, isn't it cute? Twix is her Jack Russell who kept me up each night because he likes to snuggle along your back and get under your covers and then I worried he couldn't breathe but he did just fine. Oreo is her black and white cat and I am allergic to him but managed ok with my watery eyes. The last photo is the new Dunkin Donuts out for December (it was a chocolate donut with chocolate icing and broken up pieces of candy cane) and they were delish, as you probably already know by looking at the pics. HA

I got back to find the latest issue of Just Cards and I have 2 cards in that, on pages 43 and 87. I submitted those A LONG TIME ago so don't give up if you have submitted some cards and they haven't been published yet.

Happy Birthday Joanie, a week early!!!

I made this popup birthday card for Joanie. It was real easy to make. I found it on the Hero Arts website and you can see the you tube video here. Isn't it cute???

Stamps by: Impression Obsession, Magnolia, Cornish Heritage Farms, Savvystamps

2 weeks until Christmas ... Are YOU ready????

I am going to FL for a few days to see my mom, dad, and sister so I will be back in a few days. I won't have internet access so I will post updates when I return. In the meantime, I will leave you with this ... I got the "free" sheet music from here. Love it!!!

Stamps by The Greeting Farm

I made some more calendars but made them "my own"

I loved the calendars I did last week but I wanted a different picture with each month so I changed the measurements a little and came up with this:


Supplies used:

8 1/2" x 11" cardstock for the base
3 sheets Melon Mambo Stampin Up cardstock cut to 4" x 8 1/2"
3 1/2 sheets Bermuda Bay Stampin Up cardstock cut to 4" x 8 1/2"
12 months from 2010 calendar, trim around each
1 sheet matching patterned paper 3 7/8" x 6 1/2"
Thread for top of calendar

So this is what I did. First take a piece of Bermuda Bay Stampin Up 8 1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock and score it at 4", 8", 9" and 10". Valley fold the score marks and add a strip of red line tape to one edge to form the base that the calendar will attach to. Then I trimmed 6 1/2 sheets of cardstock to 4" x 8 1/2". I did alternating colors for every other month which means I did 3 of Melon Mambo and 3 1/2 sheets of Bermuda Bay. I then trimmed the calendar to fit onto each page and added them to their pages. Add patterned paper to front page. Using hole puncher (I used my Cropadile), punch holes at 1 3/8", 4 1/8" and 7" through all the pages including the base. Stamp 2010 on white cardstock and add to the front. Using heavy duty thread, attach at top so the pages can turn easily. I tried using ribbon but it was too thick (IMO) to flip the pages over. Stamp 12 different images, (make sure they are small enough to fit into empty space) color the images and add a different image to each month. Voila, its done!! I think this will make an awesome gift!!! Be sure and let me know if you try this.

I thought I would share a few holiday pics with all of you ...

........

We have 2 trees. One has all snowmen on it (Notice the snowman tree topper and the snowman tree skirt too?) and the other tree is our tall tree in the livingroom.

Here are the dogs not looking too thrilled in their Santa hats and another snowman collection by our front door. Notice the cute tiny Christmas tree made of balls of fabric? I found that at Ben Franklins and just love it! At first I thought "hey I could make one of those but with a 40% off coupon, I'm not sure I could've made it as cheap."

My Christmas cards are done

but then I found this cute new stamp at Eat Cake Graphics and had to make this card. I did it first without snow and then added snow. I like the snow :).