Happy New Year!

 Wishing you a happy, healthy, safe, fun and crafty new year!

Merry Christmas Peeps!

Warm wishes to you and your families!
{{hugs}}

Dust Covers

Before:

After:

Check out the purty trim I found!

I never realized Susan Winget designed fabric!!  OMG!!  BEE-UUU-TIFUL!!

I've been a little bit crafty lately and a lot bit sniffly and sneezy and coughing.  I think I'm finally shaking it and just in time because I need to finish up several projects for Christmas.   

'Hope all my peeps are being crafty and healthy!!


Thanks for visiting!

Advent Calendar

 I've wanted to make one of these for so long.  This fall when Silhouette released their new advent calendar (which comes complete with downloads for custom fit drawers and amazing boxes) I knew I had to get it.  The hardest part of this project was deciding which gorgeous papers to use.  There are sooo many amazing sets this year that I had a hard time deciding.  But in perfect Denni fashion I gravitated to K&Company.  Oh this Yuletide pad is so purty!  For some of the drawers I fussy cut images from the collage page, and for others I just used bits of design elements on the papers.  I cut the numbers using a Sizzix set so that my daughter could help.  She LOVES using my toys- what a great little crafting buddie she is becoming!!

I decided to use drawers for the calendar this year because some of the box designs that came with the set might be a bit tricky for my daughter to open.  I love the boxes though, and I think I may replace a few drawers each year with new boxes, that is assuming I don't use up all the gorgeous papers from this paper set first, lol!




Thanks for visiting!

Happy Thanksgiving Peeps!

Happy Turkey wishes from me and my little sweetie pie crafting buddie!  (butterflies are for Thanksgiving, right?  heehee!)

Thanks for visiting!

It's A Party!

I've been fighting some brain pain for the last couple days but really needed to get the invites for my daughter's birthday party in the mail so I opted for a simple Print and Cut design that she picked out.

She loves princesses and she loves Olivia so Princess Olivia theme it is.  The coolest part of making these invitations is that I have never tried this feature with my Silhouette or Cameo, ever.  I've purchased a bunch of the P&C designs, but either I didn't use them yet or I just printed them and fussy cut by hand (because I am crazy I know - but I do love doing that).  I just could not hand cut 10 Olivia's though with my headache.  I know that a few folks have had some troubles trying this feature so I was a bit nervous to start, but I held my breath and crossed my fingers and Oh. My. Gosh.  It totally worked like a dream, WOW!  LOVE it!!

Anyway, here is Princess Olivia, all dressed up and ready to party!!  The "It's A Party" phrase is by Lori Whitlock and the banner frame is by Loni Harris.

My daughter wanted me to add Olivia's horse and the little frog that are in the Silhouette store too, but they didn't fit, so I guess we will be making some nice Thank You notes with those P&C's!



Thanks for visiting!

Something Fishy Happened Today

LOL!!  Well, kinda sorta!

I've been looking for a riverbed background picture for my fish tank since August, but the stores have been sold out of the size I need.  I didn't want just plain blue or black, and I finally got tired enough of looking at the cords hanging behind the tank that I decided to make my own picture. 

I used Dustin Pike images - lots of them!  I used one of his designs as a template that I sized to 14" x 24" and then cut the sand and water out of scrapbook paper and added lots of fun characters.  The trickiest part was trying to be sure I was leaving enough room in the right spots for the heater and filter tube so that they didn't hide anyone. 

I don't know if my fish are happier with their new background, but I'm giggling and loving not seeing those dang cords!


Thanks for visiting!

I am Turkey, Hear me Gobble!!

Here is my first project cut with my new Cameo, woohoo!  OHMYGOSH I love this machine!  I love the new blade/housing, I love that I can cut my textured papers with one pass, I love the new control panel, I love the new mat, I love the adjustable rollers, I love the quieter cutting, I love the new sleek design, and of course I love that I can cut a true and full 12" wide!  I've only cut cardstock so far, but I'm hearing about cereal box weight chipboard and shrinky dink plastic being cut successfully...ohboy!

My daughter selected my first project to make with my new baby - Kenzie Daley's 3D turkey.  Oh he is so cute!  I never got around to trying this one last fall so I'm really glad my daughter chose it now because it's hysterical, lol!!  I added an extra layer to give a little color to the tail feathers, and of course couldn't resist doing googlie eyes.  I need some larger googlie eyes though, these kind of make him look near sighted, lol!

As soon as I finish cleaning out my craft area I'm gonna be a cutting fool, and just in time for all the holiday gifts I need to make.  I {heart} my Cameoooooo!!


Thanks for visiting!

A Sad Day

I was sorry to see Andy Rooney retire last month, but this morning I'm really sad to read that he passed away.  I've loved that cranky pants forever and I can't remember TV without him.  :(

OHMYGOSH it is on its waaaaaay!!

My Cameo is en route!!  OMG OMG OMG!! 

It was in stock at ScrapyLand this weekend and my loving hubby splurged on it for me!  Tracking says it is scheduled for delivery on Thursday - oh this will be a lonnnnng two days of waiting, ugh!  I need to keep busy and keep my mind off it.  I need to stop staring at pictures of it.  I need to stop Googling it.  I need to stop checking the tracking every hour to see if it is closer or rescheduled for an earlier delivery.  I need to stop searching YouTube for "opening the box" videos.  OMG I need to clear a space in my craft area for it!!

Ain't she beeea-u-tiful?!!  Oh the anticipation is gonna make me craaaazy! 

If you are ready to splurge on one too check out ScrapyLand - I am new to their web store but from word of mouth recommendations and some first hand experience already myself with their customer service, they are one of the bestest around.  Worth a peek!  ;)

ok, is it Thursday yet??


Thanks for visiting!

Happy Halloween!

Weather WOW!

The storm is over and ohgosh what a mess.  After doing 8 days in the dark a couple months ago I really did not want to do it again so soon, and thankfully somehow we were spared.  The storm broke all kinds of weather records with some areas in the state getting over 20" of wet heavy snow.  The number of power outages are close to the unbelievable record breaking numbers we had a couple months ago with Irene.  Something like 2 million customers are out of power just in southern New England and it's not going to be a quick fix with the number of trees down on the wires and roads (and houses).  Wow.  {Hugs} to everyone out there dealing with that.

But in my backyard it is pretty this morning with the sun up and the snow covered trees.  My little pines are so droopy they remind me of Dr. Seuss trees under the weight of the heavy snow!  And my favorite part of the morning is the quiet in the air.  No generators running in the neighborhood.

Peeps - if you are out of power come on over for a hot shower and hot coffee!  (and bring your crafty toys and we will play, heehee!)


Thanks for visiting!

Just another day in New England...?...?...

A typical southern New England day here in late October is known for beautifully colored trees, crisp fresh air, and ... a NOR'EASTER WITH UP TO 15" of SNOW?!?!?!!!  I knew we were in trouble a few days ago when the weatherman started using that word "interesting" to describe our weekend forecast, even before he had any real details.  It's never a good thing when he does that.

I'm not ready to shovel my driveway or my pool cover yet.

I'm not ready to live by glowsticks again.

But at least my dear hubby is here to 'weather' the weather with me this time (unlike the hurricane), lol!  And if this is any indication of the way this winter is going to be, I'm gonna start hibernating now!

 
Thanks for visiting!
 

BOO!

I LOVE my new Eyelet Lace punch set!  I couldn't wait to use it so I made this card to send to my daughter with her Halloween candy.  The spooky eyes are from a Silhouette cut file by Loni Stevens.

Thanks for visiting!

Creepy Candy

I wanted to send some Halloween candy to my daughter at college and this is what I came up with,  Bwahahahaaa!!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE these print and cut label files by Jennifer Wambach that I found the Silhouette Online Store.  They are so fun and my daughter should get a good giggle out of them too - I know I did, lol!  I filled a peanut butter jar with white chocolate M&M's (I never knew they made WHITE chocolate M&M's!!) and a frappuccino bottle with candy corn, and then used a Silhouette candy bar wrapper cut file by Pebbles in my Pocket to wrap a couple Hershey bars.

For her roomates I decided to make a few of the coffin treat boxes by Kenzie Daley.  I had some real fun with these!  On the covers I used some Dustin Pike colored digis and a cool font called A Charming Font and then outlined the edges with some distressed Stickles.  The inside sentiment is a Silhouette print and cut file and the cute spider is a Creative Memories punch. 

Creepy sweets for my sweetie!  She's gonna laugh for sure!


Thanks for visiting!

Halloween Glass Block

I finally tried working with a glass block and I loved it!  I made this for my daughter's dorm room and although it is a bit late in the season, she still insisted on taking it anyway, yay! 

I combined (and slightly modified) designs from Lori Whitlock (house, bats), Sarah Bailey (trees) and Silhouette (ghost) to create the spooky scene and I added my own moon and background border.  Yep, all I had to do was draw a circle and a square, LOL!  I didn't have any kind of glass paint so I used tissue paper for the bottom layer to color the moon.  A wired sparkly black ribbon is wrapped around the sides and a yellow flickering flame battery powered tea light provides the spooky lighting.

A fun decoration, day or night!

Thanks for visiting!

Google Gumby, LOL!!

Google did it again!  You have to check it out, click around and see the animation - too funny, LOL!!! 

Thanks for visiting!

Butterfly Garden Card Set

I recently bought a few of the Pink Paisley Butterfly Garden 6x6 paper pads that I've been admiring all summer and ohgosh they did not disappoint!  The colors are beeeeautiful!  I love the tiny scale of the patterns for smaller projects and decided to first make a set of cards. 

I am trying to learn to make cards to have on hand like my scrappy peep Lisa.  I usually make cards on an as-needed basis because I like to have the recipient in mind for my inspiration, but lately I've missed several important occasions and have been caught off guard so I've decided to try and stock up.

I cut papers into squares and tried to mix them up in an easy random pattern, but I have commitment issues and I've decided that I do not do the random thing very well because it took 2 days of moving them around like puzzle pieces before I was happy enough and got brave enough to glue anything down, lol!   I finally held my breath and glued and stitched them onto white cardstock, distressed the edges and then matted onto more white cardstock that I had trimmed with my scallop scissors.  This helped hide the slightly uneven and not quite square shape that I ended up with. 

Good thing I didn't know I was gonna add the butterflies or it would have taken another few days of rearranging squares to coordinate them into the design, lol!  I wanted to add a little sparkle so I punched them from pearlescent white cardstock that has a nice soft shimmer to it.  Purdy paper!

Oh I love this Pink Paisley paper set!  I have to practice my "random" though because if I can decide on a pattern for the remaining squares that I have already cut, then I'll have a few more cards on hand, ready and waiting for the next occasion that sneaks up on me!


Thanks for visiting!

I'm Baaaacckkkkk!

And my luggage arrived with me this time, yay!  I spent a week in Southern California and I figure Tour Guide Deb covered almost 1000 miles while showing me San Diego, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Palm Springs and lots of unintentional "scenic routes" that we will be laughing about for a while. 

I've never been far from the east coast so this was quite the adventure for me, and one I won't ever forget.  Thank you so much Deb for being such an awesome buddie - you are truly one of the bestest evah!!  I may be back home now, but a little piece of my heart will remain in Southern California remembering all the fun times and all those amazing sights that made me go "WHOA!"  Just beautiful.

Big {{hugs}} to you sweetie, missing you already.

Santa Monica Sunset



ps.  Did you get a replacement chew toy for Darby yet?  My arm is healing up nicely btw, LOL!!   ;)

Where in the world is Denni??

It took me 8 1/2 hours to get here (my luggage took another 8 hours) and here are five more clues...

any idea? 


Thanks for visiting!