Hey Baby!

It seems to be baby-season. Lots of my friends @CX are having them so I needed a few cards.I used the CB embossing folder for the central panel, SU! scallop border punch enhanced by the Cropodile and a few extra holes with an eyelet set in every other hole.
A simple card but effective.

(PS- speaking of babies- we took Daisy for her first vets visit today- she's up to 16 lbs- heaven help us!!!!)

Holiday Wishes

I am just signing off for the rest of the week here but wanted to wish every one a very happy Christmas!

It's been a few days...

can I post another puppy picture?
Maybe if I can teach Daisy to stamp I will be able to more fully integrate my puppy pix onto a paper crafting blog?!
Check out this sweater- only $2.50 at the Target dollar spot. It was labelled "ugly sweater" but I think that she makes it adorable.

Goodie Boxes

I made these for our bunco group on Monday. I used the little Sizzix goodie box die in The Winter SU! supplement to cut the boxes out of Brenda Walton K and Co. card stock.
They are really a booger to get to stick on the ends so after a couple of them I gave up and sealed the long side seam with my ATG and just folded in the ends such that the ribbon tie holds it in place.
I had a lot of fun making the tags with the Simply Scallops SU! set and putting all my new punches to work!

Sleigh Bells Ring...

I got this lovely retiring SU! set and had to break it in- the image is embossed and water colored then layered over some very ancient CTMH paper (man -did I feel virtuous using that old stuff from my stash!)

I thought I'd also sneak in another puppy picture of Miss Daisy.

Pine Chapel Card

I was really pleased with how this card came out- I received the stamped images (SU!) in a swap and was a bit stumped on the coloring at first but just opted for a light water color crayon color wash over them. I added some crystal lacquer to the chapel window and a little glitter for snow. I found this sparkly green paper in my stash and ran it through my Big Shot w/ the snowflake CB folder. I used a couple punches to make the floral and snow flake embellishments.
I decorated the inside w/ SU! curly label punch and coordinating stamps and my trusty Martha Stewart branch punch.

paper tree

We made these tri-fold trees at a SU! workshop last Saturday- they had cut the green paper with the big Sizzix pennant die. I wasn't too keen on how they decorated theirs at the workshop so I brought mine home to finish. Can I just say how much I LOVE my Martha Stewart snowflake punch-I must have punched hundreds of them since I bought it 2 weeks ago!
I made the little star on top with Basic Grey Figgy pudding paper and a McGill punch- just punch 3 times, crease,fold, and stick w/ red-liner tape.

I really want to do another tree on my Cricut Expression- but I'll use the 12 x 24 cutting pad to make it a real whopper- there are quite a few tree shapes on Christmas Cheer -I am sure that one of them should work well.

Jolly Snow-people Card

I don't know who makes this stamp-I got the images in a swap but think that they are so darling-I colored them in with TomBow markers then did a little shadowing w/ Lyra watercolor crayons.
I used the Sizzix Top Note die for the background and then used the negative space piece to make a frame on the inside of the card.
The PP is from the Brenda Walton K and CO. Christmas stack. CB embossing folder, and Martha Stewart snowflake punch. The sentiment inside is cut with Cricut Beyond Birthdays.
I also tossed on some stickles, sequins,and a few SU! stamped snowflakes for good measure.

Could you deny this face...

anything?!!!
Here she is also lounging on the couch with her favorite big squeaky toy- Uncle Frodo.

Peacock Pupperie

yep- I think that a blog name change might be in order since I haven't stamped since Saturday and all I do now is puppy-tend. But Daisy is so darn cute.
Here she is all cuddled up in Destiny's tail. She loves to pat all Destiny's puffy Pyrennes parts down with her paws!

one more!

I couldn't resist

More puppy pix

Sleeping with my big brother last night .
Exploring the dog run with my new fur family.
Stealing Uncle Frodo's toys
Ahhh life is good!

Introducing

out newest family member...Miss Daisy Grace

Merry Christ-Moose

I made this card using some Hannah Stamps Riley Mooses (meece?) that I got from SCS WishRAK. I colored them in w/ my cheapie BIC markers. Patterned papers are from the Debbie Mumm seasonal Stack at Jo's.I did a little Cuttlebugging on the red layer.I am totally loving my Martha punches- the branch and snowflake. Word stamp & word window punch is from SU!

Cricut Christmas

Here's a project that I did 2 months ago for CreativExpress featuring the Black Letter Solutions cartridge.
The noel card was made using the super sized Cricut paper pad- which is a fun way to really put your Expression to it's max settings. The paper was 6 by 24 inches and then folded up to make an accordion card that was 4 panels measuring 6 x6 inches.
Patterned paper- was Basic Grey Figgy pudding. For further instructions click here.

CX Sneak Peeks

Here are a couple sneak peeks of a very Cricut-i-licious project that I will be working on for the next 3 months for ProvoCraft.
The link to see the fill pages are here. And be sure to scroll down through the posts because there are a couple pages per post.
Enjoy!

Happy Holiday!

I hope that you all had a wonderful turkey day. Our turkey must have been loaded with some serious tryptophan because I conked out at 8:30 last night! (Of course, I did have to sneak out to Mike's and buy a Cricut cartridge after dinner.)I am taking my big brother Pete to Disneyland today.Enjoy your shopping and leftovers!

Cocoa Toppers

I made all these little cocoa toppers for a swap. I am totally loving the Sizzix Top Note die.I folded it in half long ways for these toppers ( I made some little table place cards for Thanksgiving folded short wise that turned out cute too- I guess I'll need to take a pic of those and post that too!)
I also am really digging the coordinating curly label stamp and punch set that I used on this. I am just a sucker for any stamp/punch set. There is just something SO satisfying to me about them.
All products- SU!

Branch Punch Card

Here's another project that I did 2 days ago when I got the Martha Stewart branch punch.
I am really into these pastels for Christmas colors this year -I just picked up the Brenda Walton K and Co. Christmas stack at Michaels yesterday that is all in this same color scheme!
I probably should have layered on another row of branches on to the wreath it's looking kinda skimpy to me now- but I really liked the bling tucked into the branches.
CS- Bazzil Bling, DCWV
Punches- MS, SU!
Stamp- SU!
Ribbon-KI, COD wholesale
stickles
skittles
bling- Michaels
CB Embossing folder

Martha Branch Punch

I admit it-I caved in when I was at Michaels yesterday and saw the Martha Stewart branch punch that everyone is talking about on the Cricut MB on sale for 30% off. I bought one and really like it!
I took my little 2-4-6-8 Thanksgiving treat boxes(directions here ) up a notch with it. I cut the branches out of some Canson copper paper and then glue dotted them on with a Skittle that I had stained a rusty color with alcohol ink.

PP- K and company
organdy ribbon- COD wholesale

update

Things seem to be back to normal for us now. Most of the roads are open again. The winds have stopped. We're just waiting to find out if school will be back in session tomorrow. It's still super smokey out. What was really scary was when I was sweeping up the garden today I found lots of long black cinders along with the white ash. DH said that those had to have been smoldering when they landed.I feel very lucky and so indebted to the incredible fire fighters- there are just no words to describe how hard they work. And they stay on the fire lines until they are too exhausted to work anymore.I feel so bad for all the folks in Sylmar, Yorba Linda, and Anaheim Hills who lost their homes.

Fire Update

Sorry- no pix. Just wanted to let you know that we are ok- we evacuated at 3:30 am when the fire hit the housing development next to ours (Vellano) Very scary to drive down the hill and see the night sky lit up red, flames on the ridge line , and a big fireball sitting in the state park about 2 miles from our house.
My good friend Nancy very graciously took us all in at that ungodly hour- 3 cats and 2 big dogs too.We came home mid-morning and slept and then continued our vigil glued to the TV and going to the ChinoHills.org website for updates. The fire is still burning in Diamond Bar but none in Chino Hills for now- so we are sitting tight but have our cars still packed and ready to go. Thank you all for your concern and prayers- it means so much.
(My friend Simmy has some pix on her blog- she lives about 5 minutes from me right over by the state park.Here's the link if you would like to see.)

Frosty

I adopted this stamp set on Sunday from my friend Simmy and had to promptly press it into service.
supplies- Stamps- SU!
PP-MME
Markers-BIC
glitter
ribbon
CB embossing folder
White Sharpie
Coluzzle

Get Well cards

Here are a few more cards that I did for the Cricut Fairy Army. (There is no cricutting on them but- oh well!)
I got the Farm Fever (SU!) images as a PIF swap on SCS.I colored them in first with Tombow markers then added some darker shading lines with Lyra water color crayons. I then went back over the crayon lines with the same color Tombow to blend out.
It felt good to use some of the ancient Basic Grey Dawson and Black Tie PPs. I suppose that I need to do some BG Sophie cards next!

Morning Glories

I got these beautiful morning glory images (SU!) as a WRAK yesterday afternoon and was so inspired by them I had to dash off to the stamp cave and watercolor them! I used my Lyra watercolor crayons and a little Twinkling H2O's in the centers.Cuttlebug embossed the background,added a little KI satin ribbon, and used the nifty lil SU! corner punch on the edges and eh voila!

Thanksgiving Card

I think that this might have been a sketch on SCS-I have seen several cards there with this LO and really liked it and wanted to put my own spin on it.
I had a ton of these old Sizzix pumpkins kicking around from a cards class. The PP is just a small scrap of BG Mellow. I was really happy to break in my CB pumpkin folder. And a little MS embossed punching along the edge finishes off the card.

Thanksgiving Goodies

I hit the mother-load of candy sales at Target this weekend and stocked up for Bunco and T-Day dinner. I knew that I had better make these little candy bags before the candy got all eatten up.
I used the simple 2-4-6-8 template on the scor-pal site. It was a great way to use up a lot of the Thanksgiving papers that I had accumulated this season.

Stepping out For Diabetes

Here are some pix from our walk today to raise funds for diabetes research. I did have a donation from some one whose name I did not recognize and think that it perhaps came from my earlier blog post- THANK YOU Mr and Mrs. Mansfield!It was a great feeling so many people coming together dedicated towards a common goal.
(PS-my feet hurt!)

oh yeah.... how could I forget....

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Get Well Card

I slacked off all week with my blogging so here's another card that I did yesterday using Cricut Wild Card.

I enlisted in the Cricut Fairy Army ( we send out cards as RAKs to those in need) and there always seems to be a need for get well cards -which I hardly ever make so I crunched out a couple of these yesterday. Then I talked to my Dad and find out that he is getting his remaining teeth pulled today so that he can get a full set of dentures-so the first one goes to Dad!

I really liked the little stethoscope that went inside this card- I cut it in black and then colored the chrome with a silver Krylon pen. The only other thing that I could do to jazz this card up a bit ( aside from chalking and doodling it) was I stuck a small piece of clear acetate under the white pad portion so it has more of a "non-stick" band aid look to it.
(See this is what happens when you have a nurse designing a band aid card!!!)

Cricut Black Letter Sneak Peek

Tomorrow is the big day when we get to post our CreativExpress Design Team projects on line (here)
This will be one of my first projects so I am quite excited about it.

Here's a little nibble of one of my projects. I got to work with a new Cricut Solutions cartridge- Black Letter. It's a very cool gothic style font. It also has a neat frame on it-plus a cool book mark (pictures to follow soon!)

So to see the project in it's entirety be sure to hop on over to CX tomorrow!

(I can't believe that I blogged twice in one day- someone take my temperature -I must be sick!)

a Kitty Case

I got a lovely birthday card last July from WishRAK stamper -Oregon Stamper AKA Kitty.
I finally got this SU! set -Always and was able to do my twist on Kitty's card. I changed up the color scheme to pink and brown and added some ribbon to it. The sentiment stamp is from TAC.PP-Sandy Lion

The heart is stamped twice -once on cream CS and once on the pink CS.Then cut and layered. I actually got to finally use my pretty pink embossing powder. I am sorry that it photographed so faintly-It is really pretty IRL.

just a quickie project

I got this totally cool sparkley glitter vinyl at Roberts while in Utah (Don't even bother looking for it- the gal there said that they only had it because it was leftover from a special project that ProvoCraft had done for a trade show)
I used paper doll dress ups, Stretch your imagination and black letter cartridges to cut all the shapes and letters.

Wild Cards

My Cricut Wild Card cartridge came while I was in Utah.Even though my stamp cave is in TOTAL dissarray, I had to whip out a few cards with it.

My honest opinion of this cart. is that the die cuts take considerable dressing to be up to my standards of cuteness- when I first cut the ornament card (blue base w/ Silver ornament over lay) it was excedingly plain. It looked like something that rolled out of the Ellison/Mrs. Grossman's factory.

I cut the ornament again w/ the pattern paper and used scissors to cut it down into a banding piece. There is a lot of Stickles on it but it didn't photograph well. I put the white liner on the inside of the card to break it up a bit visually.I stamped small light blue snowflakes over it- very difficult to see- sorry!

I think that the cart. has a ton of potential but just be prepared to step the designs up a bit from what is cut.

Home Again!

Utah was just insanely fun- it's amazing how many scrapbook stores that they have there and the prices are soooooo cheap I got so many great deals -I really could not help myself. It was so wonderful to meet so many of my CreativExpress buddies in person. They all were just as lovely in person as they are on-line. It was so nice how some of the Utah gals who couldn't come for the crop still just popped in to say "hi"! I am still reeling from the effects of profound sleep deprivation but it was all so worth it. We stayed with dear Scatty (see her blog to get a feel for how cool her house is!) and she and her hubby drove us all over.Highlights of the trip for me were a trip to the ProvoCraft "mothership" to meet all the folks there who run CX and are so wonderful to us design team members.We had a tour and focus group get together at Die Cuts With A View- after which they threw open their warehouse door to us and let us shop at 75% off. (You should have seen the creative packing trying to get all the loot back into suitcases to go home!)
I'll just tack on 2 pix here- the group shot of all the croppers is copyright to Natalie (Scatty) and the pile of STUFF is all my loot that I brought home with me(yes- that really is like 8 inches of paper!)-once I wake up fully I will have some serious reorganizing to do in my stamp cave to accommodate it all.