Mardi Gras

This was just too cute not to share . . .

My DH and I went to a Mardi Gras party at one of our local wineries last weekend and I brought home all kinds of beads, mask, etc. My 5 year old (who LOVES to dress up EVERY DAY - I'll post photos later of a book I made of all his dress up stuff) had to try it all on . . . LOL!!! That's my boy!

Blog Candy!

Ok . . . I went through some of my "stuff" and dug out the following to give away as Blog Candy:

- provo craft stamp
- 2 packs of paper
- 1 book of Winnie the Pooh papers
- 4 sheets of chipboard shapes/alphabet
- SU stamp set "A New Little Someone"



So, just leave a comment on my blog sometime in the next week (on this post or any posts I make after today). I decided that I'll randomly select one winner on Tuesday, February 19 (the 6 month anniversary of my blog!). Be sure to leave me your email address so I can contact you for your address if you WIN!

If you've never left a comment before, all you need to do is click on the highlighted "comments" right below this post. You'll be asked for a username and password (just one time) and then you'll just need to write that down or remember that for the next time you post! It's a lot of fun to chat back and forth with people all over the country and I'd like to know what you think of my work! So, drop me a note and YOU COULD WIN!!!

Thanks for dropping by ;-)

Blog Candy Time!

I just realized I have hit 1000 visitors to my blog - woo hoo!! LOL! Guess I'd better put some blog candy together. Tune in tomorrow to find out what goodies you can win and how! I know I've got some SU stamp sets and some paper that needs a good home . . . hmmm . .what else?!?!? I'll post photos tomorrow and let you know how you can win!

And THANK YOU for visiting my blog! Everytime I log on and see the visitor number has gone up it keeps me motivated to stay current with my posting and my artwork! So, thank you for keeping me motivated to keep creating! I hope some of my work inspires you.

Good night!

Gift Certificates

I made up a bunch of gift certificates last night for my shop (it's a children's and maternity shop -new & used). These were fun and EASY!!! I used all different kinds of papers and ribbon. I love my scalloped edge punch! Now, if I can just sell some gift certificates . . .and the cool thing is . . when someone redeems one they'll bring the whole thing in and I can just remove the inside piece and print off a new one and reuse the cute part - woo hoo!! :-) LOL!

Also used my Basic Grey Notch and Die for the closure on these cards. I love this tool . . .it sure makes a fun closure on a card. . . love it!

I showed these to my DH this morning and, naive as he is (lol!), he looked at them and said (with a joking tone of voice - lucky for him!!) "they're nice, but you got ink all over the inside pieces . . . you've been doing this for a long time, I'd have thought you'd be better than that by now!" I tried to explain the whole "ink distressing" thing to him, but he didn't get it - oh, well!

As promised . . .

here are the 2 layouts I did last night. The first is (obviously) my little boy's first haircut! He had the cutest little curls in his hair . . .it was so sad to get it cut the first time. Luckily those little curls come back whenever his hair gets long enough! Such a sweetie . . .

(These were a set of stickers I bought a long time ago so I wanted to use them!) Sorry this one is blurry, not sure why. I photographed both layouts at the same time and one was blurry and the other wasn't, hmmmm . . .



I love to tuck my journaling underneath something on my page . . . as I did here . .



The second layout was a wedding photo of my DH and I. The picture was taken by my SIL's best friend (a professional photographer). I had to use Silhouette, of course . . it just screams wedding, doesn't it?!



I clear embossed the heart and popped it up and I embossed "side by side" and "hand in hand" in white. Decided to add the rhinestones along the edge (it's a wedding . . . ya gotta have some 'bling'!) and, because I didn't want to 'clutter' the page anymore I just added the dimensional element photo clip, sponged it with cranberry ink and stamped our wedding date on it in black.



I'm real happy with this one! :-) Isn't he a cutie patootie?!?! mwah!

Oh yeah . . and I finally pulled out the current cc reward rubons . . . and used the 2 hearts on the bottom corner of the photo . . .

A couple more!

I actually did 2 layouts last night and got a third one started! Sometimes I get so much done and other times I go days without doing anything . . .hmmmm, go figure! My oldest boy is staying home from school today with a fever (again! - this stuff won't go away) so I don't know if I'll get to finish my layout, but I will get photos of the 2 I finished last night and get them posted sometime this morning. So . . .stay tuned! Check back in about an hour or two!

Fond memories . . .

Before I became a CTMH consultant (one year ago!) a group of us used to have regular SU parties. We would take turns hosting a party and did about 4-5 a year, sometimes doing cards and, as we started to wind down our parties, we were doing more layouts. A friend put together a layout for me at a party I missed (going on 2 years ago!!). I never knew what to do with it . . partly because the heart on the layout used to look like this . . . (it's not bad . . . but didn't go well on the layout at all - IMO!!)



I never liked the look of it. So today I was thumbing through my photos and found some engagement photos of my husband and I from summer of 2000 (we married in Sept. 2000). I RARELY scrap anything other than my kids . . . so this was going to be fun! I started off by tracing the ugly blue heart onto CTMH sweetleaf cs and then ink distressed it and sanded the heck out of it (and slightly wrinkled it in the process) . . .voila!!! Here is the layout . . . it's one of my new favorites!




It was the perfect opportunity to use my new word puzzle stamps (friendship and soulmates) from CTMH (I LOVE THESE STAMP SETS . . . they are sooo versatile!) and . . . my husband gave me this ribbon as a stocking stuffer 2 years ago . . . who knew it would all come together?!?! :)



I am soooo happy with this layout. It is so unlike anything I would have done. I really need to branch out more . . .get out of my box every now and then. I also think it's fun to come back to photos after a long time . . . it makes you see them in a whole new light! I love these photos and these memories!

My Life Is So Blessed . . .

was a labor of love! If you knew how long it took me to get those letters colored you'd understand . . . whew!! LOL!

This is my oldest son. I took the photos almost a year and a half ago (Sept. 2006) and they've been sitting on top of a stack of photos ever since . . . he is always picking flowers for me (dandelions are his favorite because they always grow back - LOL!!) and I always put them in this little blue vase. I finally sat down last night to scrap these photos and they seemed to fit perfectly with the CTMH Serendipity papers . . .



I wound some hemp around some of the letters . . .



and had fun playing with the center for this flower

Bunch o'cards

I've been purusing different websites and getting some fun ideas. I've really enjoyed looking at Stampin' Kub the last couple of days . . .his stuff is so clean and simple. It's kind of refreshing since you see sooooo much "busy" stuff out there. Check it out if you get a chance, I've added him to my list at the right. Anyway, here are some cards I did a couple of nights ago (some ideas scraplifted from the Kub) . . . and one I just did tonight with a new (to me) technique called Faux Silk.

I've been trying to use some of my "other" product . . . so most of this is non-CTMH. Enjoy . . .

This is a blank card base I've had for years but the color matched my CTMH Twilight ink PERFECTLY!!! Butterfly is stamped in twilight . . .


I LOVE the colors in this one . . .


I thought this one was really nice . . . the purple color is actually the reverse side of the green . . nice combo, huh?!


Had a lot of fun with this one . . . one of my favorites of the batch . . I used my Weathered Background (CTMH) stamp for the first time to do the cheesecloth look . . . I really like the way it turned out! Gotta play with that stamp set more often!


Real simple . . . wanted to play with red and pink and had to add a little "bling!"


And . . . the new technique . . Faux Silk. I think I'll have my Hostess Club make a card using this technique at our next meeting . . . what do you think, ladies? This one, by the way, uses ALL CTMH products.



Here's a close up so you can see the texture better . . .

Do you know what this means?

This is what we woke up to this morning . . . my backyard . .



I'm sure it doesn't seem like much if you live anywhere east of Seattle, Washington . . . but it's enough in our little town on the peninsula to close all schools in the area. I think we have about 3 inches in our backyard. It's our first real snowfall of the year.



The funny thing is that yesterday morning we woke up to the ever-so-slightest dusting of snow . . . it was just enough to make everything look white . . . and as soon as my kids woke up they donned their snow pants, mittens, hats, coats and braved the elements! They played in that dusting of snow for over an hour. As soon as the sun came up it was gone! They scraped the 'snow dust' off the picnic table to make a snowball, they made snow angels on our back patio, which actually turned out great considering there was not even enough snow to measure!

So, they're really happy this morning. They just got up and are already outfitted and playing outside with the neighbor girls (and it's only 8:00a.m.!!)!



So . . . . do you know what this means? Yep . . . it means the kids will be playing outside ALL day in that wonderful white stuff and I can scrap!!!!! Thank you, Mother Nature!!