{ 2 Sketches 4 You - Laura's sketch # 16 and CPS # 97 }

Hi, I am back. We had a really lazy week around the house. Christmas day lasted for about three days. It took Alex that long to open all the presents...between naps, feeding, playing, sleeping. He had no idea what was going on, but there were all these new toys to play with. I am finishing up my December Daily. Well, it will take some time, all my photos and journaling are complete I am just putting it all in the album. I have been playing with some new stamps from Impression Obsession that are coming out at CHA...I will be able to show you those starting January 15. Tonight I finished my cards for CupCards {to go} January kit that goes live on January 5th. Oh, it is so yummy. Here is my card for 2 Sketches 4 You. I wanted to use my little scalloped punch that I had for a while. I stamped Love Seals by Tammi Potter from Impression Obsession and then I punched them out. Prima and Making Memories felt flower. I stamped the background with VersaMark and then heat embossed. For this card I wanted to use a different assortment of embellishments: Prima flowers and embossed heart, epoxy stickers from Target, Darice jewels, Imaginisce felt brad, buttons....My Mind's Eye patterned paper and a large scalloped punch by Marvy Uchida. CPS sketch #97.Photo of Alex playing with his little house...loves this door, as much as any other door in the house, except this one plays music when you open it. He loves to dance! A photo of our little family on my birthday before we went out for dinner. One more thing, have you seen this? Project 365. Becky Higgins has a ton of information on her blog and is giving away 3 of these kits!!! I figured since I am taking photos every day and journling this would be perfect for me. I started on Monday. The kit goes on sale January 1. Email me or leave me a note and let me know if you are doing this.

{ Merry Christmas ! }

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you are enjoying your day. I had to share this photo of Alex with Santa. He was happy before and after Santa, but cried while in his lap. This was the best one of five!

{ First day of winter and my birthday }

I am celebrating my Birthday today and it's first day of winter. It is really cold here in Texas, but the house is nice and toasty. No big plans for my big day, but I would like to go see the Prairie Lights later this evening. I am enjoying my (late) morning coffee while Alex is taking a nap. Here is a photo of me last year (on my birthday), Alex in my belly. Here is a photo of me now! This is from the other night. I wanted my husband to take a photo of us together to show the matching socks, totally by accident.In the last couple of weeks I received Paper Crafts Gourmet. It has a ton of wonderful projects and recipes.Here is one of the cards I created for this special issue. I can't wait to try some of the recipes in the book. I have to share this magazine from Paper Crafts Card Creations: Quick & Easy Volume 2. My little card is featured on the cover. I am so excited. Alex is awake and I have to go feed him lunch. Have a great Sunday!

{ Hero Arts sketch challenge }

Hero Arts is doing another sketch challenge this week, with sketches and wonderful ideas daily. Kelly Goree is a guest designer. Check out her blog, she is giving away some awesome goodies, including Bittersweet collection from Basic Grey. This first card is for Monday sketch. Romani is one of my favorite Basic Grey collections and then Euphoria...I combined those two for this card. Hero Arts stamps, Sizzix die cut tags and I stamped the little bird and the butterfly on them. Flowers are Prima and Luxe Designs label, Basic Grey brad, Prima red jewel and Imaginisce glitter brad.

Second card is for Tuesday sketch. Urban Prairie patterned paper from Basic Grey and Basic Grey brads. Hero Arts stamps, Hero Arts jewels and clear buttons. I stamped the buttons with a little tree from Hero Arts stamp set. Prismacolor pencils, Gelly Roll pen by Sakura, Maya Road office sheer, Bazzill strip, American Crafts letter stickers. I embossed the background with Cuttlebug embossing folder and inked the embossed part with red ink (hard to tell in this photo). I love that Basic Grey paper has a white core. Did I ever tell you that Alex is walking! I know I mentioned that he was taking his first steps last month...but now he is walking at 11 months. He is so cute. At times he looks like a little zombie trying to balance. He loves to walk drinking out of his Nuby sippy cup with a pop up straw. We went to the playground last Saturday and he had a blast.

{ Oh, Christmas Tree at Embellish-Online }

Have you seen the Embellish-Online Gallery this month yet? The design team has made dozens of cards for your inspiration, all of which can be found in the Embellish-Online gallery for December. Here are my creations all using BasicGrey's new Christmas collection, Wassail, which is available in the store for 20% off if you use code GLITTER. I added sparkle to my projects with plain glitter. Wherever you see glitter I painted (Elmer's) glue with a paint brush and sprinkled glitter. It works the best. House template was printed on the back of patterned paper and then I just followed cutting and folding lines. I cut the "shingles" from patterned paper, curled the tips and added glitter. I hope you are enjoying your Sunday. I am trying to catch up on some work. I hope to have the other 3 tags posted this week.

{ 12 tags of Christmas - Day 8 and 9 }

I know these are not the best tags you have ever seen, but I am running out of creative options. Tim's tag Day 8. I had nothing, but the tag to work with. I made my own ornaments and I thought I would use a wrapper from a chocolate Santa that arrived from Germany last week. I used the gold stars since I did not have any gold flourishes. I was going to use a stamp, but I forgot to stamp it and later it was too late. The background stamps are Stamp Camp and the sentiment "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" is from The Paper Studio. Tim's tag Day 9. I have only ONE Santa stamp and it's not even cute. I thought of everything and couldn't come up with anything so I used the not so cute stamp. When I was completely done with the tag I did not like the stamp so I downloaded a photo from the internet. I cut it out after printing and tried to "blend" it in the tag. It didn't work. The Santa is so much better than what I had originally. Stamp Camp and Impression Obsession stamps (key, branches). I wasn't able to achieve the "distressed/icicle" paint look because I missed a step where I had to wipe it off. I know, it's late. I am still 2 tags behind. I hope I win something in the next day or two so I have some real stuff to play with.

{ 12 tags of Christmas - Day 7 }

Are you getting tired of my tags yet? I am not getting tired of making them, but I am slowing down some. Here is Tim's day 7 tag.

My snowman came from Scrapbooks Etc. January issue (template). Perfect timing. My "snow" alphas are felt, by American Crafts, that melt under the heat gun. I used Liquid Applique for my snow. It puffs up if you apply heat to it. I had it for a while so it didn't work as well as it used to. I added glitter to it before heating. I wish I had that white crackle paint...I only have pink and yellow that my friend Ember gave me.

I have started on day 8!

{ 12 tags of Christmas - Day 6 }

Sorry I didn't get to post this last night. It didn't take me long once I figured out what to do. Here is Tim's tag. I stamped my image on acetate (old wrapper from a stamp set) with StazOn. The stamp is from Michael's dollar bin. I painted it with acrylic paint. My background wash wasn't as bright as I wanted. I did paint the back with white acrylic paint just like he did. I did not have any glitter alphas so I used those orange chipboard ones by Heidi Swapp. I peeled the top layer and painted them with green acrylic paint and while the paint was still wet I dipped them in glitter. I really liked his splatter stamp, but I used one from a Stampin' Up set and white acrylic paint. The stamps on the background tag are by Impression Obsession. I hope to finish day 7 and 8 tonight!

{ 12 tags of Christmas - Day 5 }

This tag was really fun to create. I love, love, love the paint and embossing technique that Tim explains in steps 1 - 12. I think that mine looks like yellow paint, but it is green. I used regular craft paint. I used a make up sponge to apply it. I printed my reindeer on paper, traced it on grungeboard and cut it out. I did emboss it and it was as easy as he says. He has a VIDEO on how to do that. I did not have the flourish so I stamped mine with Impression Obsession stamp in gold ink. The gold wasn't as bright and I used a gold pen to add some more color. I was not happy so I applied gold glitter glue, just like on the stars. They are Tim's grungeboard, I did not have any snowflakes that small. I made my own holly leaves and I had the beaded trim. I stamped "Noel" with white craft ink, but it was dull so I applied 3D paint over it. I have to work on Day 6 tag. This one had so many steps that I did not have time to finish it last night. The one from today is so pretty. Tim's tag. I wanted to share with you some photos of my little helper. We decorated the outside with lights today and worked on the tree last night. Alex loves playing with the ornaments.

{ 12 tags of Christmas - Day 4 }

I was looking for a vintage "photo with Santa" like the one Tim used on his tag. Well, this is the only one I have. I know that Santa has his eyes closed and I know that the girl in the photo is crying...but, it's ME. I scanned the photo and changed it to black and white, cropped it and printed it on white cardstock. As usual, I don't have any of the supplies that Tim uses so I am using what I have. This is my first time stamping on the flower, I really like it. The stamp I used is by Stamp Camp. The little December stamp is a calendar that I have from Purple Onion Designs, and my little alphas are from Michaels dollar bin. I used Heidi Swapp chipboard (orange) alphas. I removed the top layer and applied vintage music sheet and some red ink. I omitted the DEC stencil type since I didn't want to cover ME or the sleeping Santa that is why I added the star to the left side. I think the photo is still awesome. Tim's tag.

{ 12 tags of Christmas - Day 3 }

This tag was a challenge. I really had to improvise. No Santa Stamp or oval fragment or any of the inks. What do you think? Tim's tag. My background Santa is patterned paper from Die Cuts With A View. I had this square acrylic embellishment from One Heart One Mind. I traced the square on the part of the paper I wanted to color/highlight. I colored it using Prismacolor. I stamped my background with stamp script from Stamp Camp and flourishes from Autumn Leaves. The green stamp on the left side (if you can see it) is Fontwerks. I added a brad to the acrylic square because it had a hole at the top and that is how it's attached to the tag. I hid a glue dot behind the "believe" tag to hold it in place. I did have the trinket pin and I applied white paint to color the word...cool technique. I needed something red at the bottom so I added Making Memories flower and button. I hope you are enjoying my tag creations. Make sure you visit Tim's blog for awesome prizes.

{ 12 tags of Christmas - Day 2 }

Here is my tag for day 2. You have to see how awesome his tag is. Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas. I did have glossy paper and I love it. I bought it at a stamp show and I think I used one sheet since then. I do not have black embossing powder so I stamped my trees by Fontwerks in Walnut Stain and embossed with iridescent embossing powder. Background snowflakes are Martha Stewart and The Paper Studio, Tinkering Ink white rub-ons, Sizzix die cut tag, Impression Obsession "peace" word stamp, Inkadinkado bird stamp. The top of the tag looked bare so I added KI Memories lace cardstock. Have a great Wednesday!

{ 12 tags of Christmas - Day 1 }

Tim Holtz is doing 12 tags of Christmas. Each day he shares a new technique and is giving away daily prizes. This time I am playing along. I do not have any supplies that he uses except couple of his ink pads. I am using what I have in my own stash. Here is my Day 1 tag. I am using Avery large tags. Heidi Swapp mask and alphas. I peeled the top (orange) layer of the chipboard letters, inked them and then applied glitter glue. The Sheet Music and the branch are from Impression Obsession. Let me know if you are doing the tags so I can come and see. Big sale going on at Impression Obsession --- receive 25% off your entire order just by entering the coupon code "8SALE" at checkout. Remember that this sale runs one week only and will end next Sunday, December 7 at midnight. Friday free for all challenge at Embellish-Online is leftovers - Make a card or layout using scraps you would normally toss. Everything is from scraps, some I even picked out of the trash. Stampin' Up cardstock, Paper Salon and Teresa Collins patterned paper, Autumn Leaves stamp, Making Memories mini alphas. Here is my little family on Thanksgiving. I made a huge meal and my first turkey. It turned out great! December Daily by Ali Edwards started yesterday. My little album is ready to go. I am going to be doing my pages late at night or the next day...but I want to do them daily. Who else is doing one of these?

{ 2 Sketches 4 You - Kazan's sketch # 14 }

I wanted to post this before I get too busy baking and cooking. We are staying home and it's just us this year. I will be making turkey for the first time. I am a little nervous, but I am sure there will be something to eat on Thursday. This card was made for 2 Sketches 4 You with scraps of paper that I found while cleaning my table (Making Memories). The flourish stamp is a foam stamp by Making Memories that I had for a long time, I found a box of them the other day. The bird stamp is by Inkadinkado and the pearls and the brad came in my CupCards {to go} kit. I haven't posted any photos of Alex in a while. He is 10 months old and is taking his first steps. He is so much fun. Last year I had a huge belly. This is Alex's first Thanksgiving and I wanted to do something special . I am working on a Gratitude album by Melodee Langworthy, 12 things I am grateful for. I only have 3 pages left. It was so much fun. Now all I have to do is add photos. I am looking forward to starting my December Daily album on the 1st. Tomorrow, I am baking pies, Apple and Pumpkin. Happy Thanksgiving. If you want to win some awesome goodies go visit Embellish-Online blog. The goodie kit will include the following: 1 sheet of each of the Sweet Cakes collection by Pink Paislee 2 sheets of American Crafts Tropical Pink 2 sheets of Tropical Orange 2 sheets of Tropical Green 2 yards of Maya Road ribbon some MM chipboard 1 package of giggle white thickers some daisy flowers from Prima various buttons! Don't forget Black Friday special - 75% off - at Tinkering Ink.

{ CupCards{to go} December kit - Holly Tree is available }

Check out the CupCards {to go}. This kit is packed full with awesome goodies. You can see photos and details HERE. DESIGNER GALLERY is full of inspiration. This first card was created for a sketch. You can see what the other DT girls created HERE. Each designer creates one card each month with step by step instructions and photos. When you view the gallery there will be a link for the cards with step by step instructions. To see instructions for this card click here. I added Pink Paislee glitter, that comes in the kit, to my "JOY" overlay.