Secret Santa Banner and Card

My daughter needed a Secret Santa gift idea for a friend at school so I suggested a banner.  Her immediate response was "Great idea mom!  Can you make it for me by tomorrow?"  LOL!  I showed her a few ideas and she loved the Magnolia papers and the accordion fold rosette thingies so we went with those mounted on cutouts using my Spellbinders Labels Four - these may be my absolute favorite nesties!   I cut out the letters using my Silhouette and the Oklahoma font.

She also asked me to make a card.  I showed her a bunch of ideas and she picked one of my Bellas - yippee!  I LOVE coloring these and adding lots of Stickles for sparkle.  I used my Season's Greetings Cuttlebug embossing folder with some gold mirror paper for the background.  Nothing says 'holiday' like sparkly and shiny!

It does make me sad that my daughter is not a crafty kind of girl, **pout**, but she does appreciate what I create and I always get a "You're the bestest mommy!" when I come through for her, LOL!

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Thanksgiving Card

My hubby's aunt had some ankle surgery and has been stuck in a cast for 8 weeks, ugh.  It's coming off this week, (YAY!!) but she may not be able to make the two hour drive to spend Thanksgiving with us so I am sending her a little card.  She's not the kind of person to sit still much so this has been a long two months, and I wanted to put some humor in it for good cheer in case she does have to stay up north.  I don't usually get to make Thanksgiving cards so this was fun to get to use some of the turkeys from Dustin Pike.  Pattern paper is K&Co, border punch is Martha Stewart's Lattice Arch and I popped dotted the turkey on the front a bit to give some dimension.  Nothing fancy, just fun, and I hope it gives her a good chuckle!

Happy Turkey Day!!


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Is it spring yet?

The trees are bare now, no more beautifully colored leaves to look at to help distract me from the fact that I'm already wearing my thermals and it's not even Thanksgiving yet.  So I'm posting a pic tonight from this past spring, when the air was warm and the lawn was growing faster than my hubby could mow it.  He is usually quite meticulous with his lawn trimming, he likes the golf course kind of look, so he may not see the beauty in this field of clover of a lawn that we had at one point, but I couldn't help snapping it.  It reminds me of the Horton Hears a Who story, lol!  And I love that there is only one single purple flower in a sea of white. 

But as pretty as it was, it was a bit dangerous too.  There were so many busy bees doing their thing that my daughter and I had to be really careful when we walked out to her swings.  We would concentrate and carefully watch the ground where our feet were stepping as we walked in a funny zig zag path to avoid them.  The neighbors must have thought we were loony, LOL!

So on this chilly night I'm gonna put my warm socks on,  grab an extra blanket for my lap while I watch TV and forget that it's gonna be down to the 20's this week.  Ohhhhh.... it's gonna be a long winter.  If it snowed it would be easier to deal with, somehow it doesn't feel so cold when there's something pretty to look at.  I guess until it does I'll just stare at my field of clovers. 

Think warm thoughts :)

Get Well Card

I made this card for one of my bestest peeps using a Dustin Pike image that I colored with my BICs.  My idea was that the owl's bed was sitting on a tree branch and the sentiment was supposed to represent the moon.   I showed it to my dear hubby and asked if he 'got' it, and he just kind of answered a hesitant "Sure..." in a way like he was more clueless than usual, lol!  I know better than to show him or ask him about any of my crafting because he really doesn't understand any of it and just gives me a quick glance with a helpless smile and nod.   But every once in a while I decide to toss something out at him just for ha-ha's. 

Oh well, although I'd love him to ooh and ahh over every little thing I make, I guess I'll settle for the loving smile that I do get that says 'Do I have to understand crafting?  Can't you just be happy that I'm happy if you are?', LOL!  And after all, I confess, I really don't understand or want to learn more about some of the sports he watches either - but I AM happy when he is happy too.

I used textured Wausau paper for the "branch", Devine Swirls cuttlebug folder for the "sky", and the font in the "moon" is called Boring Showers (how funny is that?!!).  I also pop dotted the owl and moon to add some dimension.

Have a happy Veteran's Day, and a sincere Thank You to all those who have or are serving our country.

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Two Birthday Cards

I have two sisters with birthdays today (twins) and one with a birthday on Thursday - three family birthdays in one week just should not be allowed, LOL!  So, unfortunately, but predictably, my cards to them will be late.  I mailed two of them today so at least the postmark is on time, lol!

I used some awesome Dustin Pike images, my BIC markers and my Copic markers.  I'm liking the Copics a bit more each time I use them, and loving my BICs every time.  I even played a bit with my blender to give the dinos and turtle some texture, loving that too!

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Copics and BICs

I'm still trying to get the hang of my new Copics, but when I was making this tiny note card I decided to use my BICs instead.  I really love all the 36 colors in my set, but even the pastels are pretty saturated so I decided to do a little teamwork between my BICs and my Copics. 

This worked great for me!  I was able to warm up a few areas by going over the BIC colors with my Copics, and I used the colorless blender to clean up one spot that got a little more outside the lines than I wanted.  

This may be the perfect way for me to ease into Copics and not get too discouraged!  :)

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Copics

If you know me, then you know that anytime somebody starts talking Copics that I put my fingers in my ears and start singing "la-la-la,  I caAAaan't heEEear yoUUuu!"  I do this because I know me, and my addictive personality, and if there are hundreds of colors available, then I would feel the 'need' for every one of them.  The less I knew about these markers the better.

But, funny thing about friends, and especially crafty friends, they feel the NEED to SHARE, and I've reluctantly learned enough about those Copic critters to finally cross the line and here are the newest additions to my crafting tools:

My LSS became a Copic retailer this summer, and after selling some unused items at their tag sale earlier this month I used my profits to invest in some basic shades to try using on my House Mouse and Hedgie stamps, along with a couple of greens, but I still need to get a red for some Christmas images I want to color.  My buddie Deb also sent me some pretty colors and the blender one - I really appreciate your kindness Deb, even though I still can't help thinking that you are trying to help get me hooked and drag me down with ya!  LOL! ;)

I'm practicing but stumbling alot with them, trying hard to figure out the highlight thing mostly.  Without an "Ah-Ha" breakthrough soon though I don't think these things will get me into too much trouble and I'll stick with just a couple dozen colors.  It has definitely given me a new appreciation for the talent of all of you that use them, I was an admirer before but now I am just totally amazed!

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Tree card

I made this note card last month for a Yahoo Group swap that was titled "Anything Trees".  We could make tags, inchies, cards, whatever we wanted as long as we used a tree theme of some sort. 

I had lots of ideas but had been so busy at the time I decided to keep it pretty simple.  I rarely heat emboss my projects even though I really love the look, and it seems that every time I use this technique I find myself wondering why I don't do it more often.  To add a bit more pizazz I also used my trusty Sew Mini for the stitching.

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Castle Card

What kind of birthday card does every preschool princess require?   A pink and purple royal palace card of course!  LOL!  I used a super cute and super easy Silhouette design by Samantha Walker, then added some ribbon and Star Dust Stickles (my absolute fave).  This was for my peep Diana's daughter, but my daughter liked it so much she requested the same card for her next birthday!

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New England Autumn

I've been a New Englander my entire life, but I'm still amazed when I see the gorgeous fall colors.  I find myself driving around town with a silly smile on my face, admiring the trees.  On sunny days the leaves look like tiny stained glass windows with the light behind them, and on cloudy days the trees still have a subtle glow to them with the yellows and oranges and brighten up the air.  Simply breathtaking.

These pics are for you Deb, my desert buddie, a little peek at the last couple weeks in one corner of my world!  ;)

 Sept 29

Oct 10

Oct 12

Oct 18

Oct 21

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