Happy New Year!

To all of my online friends I want to extend to you my greetings and very best wishes for a happy and safe new year! My prayer for each of you is that God would provide perfectly all you truly need, grant comfort and courage where they are particularly needed, and a wonderful sense of peace and security,

knowing He is faithful.

Thank you all so much for your encouragement and friendship!

The card above was made for all of you, but also to honor two of my favorite "places" to shop:

www.stampingscrapping.com

www.mydaydreamdesigns.com

Everything on the card is from those stores:

The die cuts- "Anglaise Lace Circles" & "Card Creator" (rectangles) are Spellbinders, available at SS very reasonably (+ lots of sale items!)

The rhinestones are from there too.

The digital colored images (& sentiment) and digital polka dot papers are all from DD,

and they also are very reasonably priced!

Both stores have a large selection and great products...AND great service!

Well, enjoy your celebrating with family and friends!

Blessings to you all!

Word Art Wednesday...All About Faith

I went to visit the Word Art Wednesday blog and saw that their theme this week is FAITH.

The theme verse is Hebrews 11:1...the one I have stamped on my card.

The stamp I used is from Verve.

One of my daughters, Emily...she is a total bargain hunter like me (!)....found these Christmas/winter decorations on sale and gave me some as part of my Christmas present. It was a package of glitter snowflakes and words that were supposed to be "table confetti" but they are the perfect size die cuts to use on cards. I love how sparkley they are!

For once I am not going to list all of my"ingredients" but if you have a question about something just leave it as a comment.

I am entering this card in the Word Art Wednesday challenge #60:

"Faith/Anything Goes"

http://wordartwednesday.blogspot.com

Thanks for looking!

Warm Winter Wishes...a Birthday Card!

Yesterday was Christmas and for us (hubby & me) it was a nice relaxed day. We had our family celebration on Saturday, so we had a nice quiet day: church in the morning with the little kids doing a wonderful, exuberant Christmas program (!) and a simple, quick brunch afterwards, then friends came mid-afternoon and we played cards, ate supper together and played more cards. SO relaxing!

On Christmas Eve day, however, I was busy creating a tutorial for a DT I am on. It is the StampingScrapping Techniques and Turtoials website : http://stampingscrappingtutorials.ning.com/ . But it is one that requires a monthly memebership fee (small) and has lots of perks BESIDES many, many great tutorials for paper-crafting, such as discount codes for the www.stampingscrapping.com online store, first chance at sale items, and monthly specials just for members.

So here is a card I made for my sister-in-law's birthday next week.

It is made almost completely with items from the StampingScrapping store. The only things not from there are the pearl drops in the flower center and the tiny roses. Those are from my friend MariLynn in Iowa who made them herself and sent them as a wonderful surprise gift to each member of our former DT.

(Thanks again, MariLynn!)

My list of supplies used:

Spellbinders Card Creator A & B

Spellbinders Shapeabilities Die D-Lites “Window Two”

Corner-Rounder from Creative Memories

Sizzix Bigz Die, Tim Holtz “Elegant Flourishes”

Card Creator “Wedding 1” stamp from StampingScrapping

“Sentamints” Stamping Scrapping stamps

“Rose Fleur de Lis” StampingScrapping Spellinders-matching stamps

Memento “Bamboo Leaves” Dye Ink

Stampabilities Pigment Ink “Lime” & Dye Ink “Black”

Colored pencils, various brands

Flatback Pearls, Ivory from Pizzaz Aplenty

Spectrum Noir markers

StampingScrapping “Color Me” flowers

Glue Dots

Redline Wonder Tape & Scor Tape & 3M Adhesive Tape

K.I. Memories metal sticker “Enchanting”

Small handmade roses, leaves & branches- all from my stash

Well, I sure hope you had a blessed, enjoyable day yesterday!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by here. Please leave a little comment to let me know you were here! Then I can visit you too!

  

Happy Birthday, Lilly!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

 One more card before the end of the year...this one a birthday card for my 3-year old granddaughter, Lilly. Her birthday is December 25th...yes, she was born on Christmas day! In some ways that is so very special, to share a birthday with Jesus, but in other ways its not so nice, like getting presents only once a year. And the birthday celebration pretty much gets lost in all the other celebrations. My daughter, Emily, is thinking of celebrating Lilly's half-year birthday in the summer instead.

  

But here is a cute "little girl" card I made using a Daydream Designs image that I colored myself with my Spectrum Noir and Memento markers. I just love the adorable little princess all bundled up for playing in the snow! This picture shows all the sparkle I added (Stickles "Icicle").

And this picture shows the coloring just a bit better.

The edge punch I used is the Martha Stewart "Doily Lace" and the side edge is the back page of the card.

The background paper is a digital design from Daydream Designs called "Peppermints and Snowflakes" from the Sweet Warm Ups set. The little girl is from the Snowbaby Outline Digi set....and the snowballs too!

        



Winter Challenge at SOS

This week at Shopping Our Stash we are having a special challenge...a two-week challenge so we can all take a tiny break for Christmas! This is Challenge #82 and it runs from December 18 through December 31. The theme is Winter...but NOT holiday...just anything that makes you think "winter", like snow, mittens, penguins, polar bears, sleds, a fireplace, hot cocoa, snowmen, etc. I went with snow and pine trees.

The ink I used to stamp the tree (Stampin' Up) and the HB sentiment (Stampin' Up ) is Tim Holtz "Evergreen" distress ink. I actually found the exact same color cardstock for the main card, then used kraft, dark brown and white...all from my stash of scraps. The white background is embossed with the Sizzix folder called "Evergreen"... do you see a theme here? The snowflakes are punches I bought on ebay long ago (brand...??). I added Stickles "Star Dust" to the flakes and the tree. The die cut is a Spellbinders, from the "Pendant Fleur de Lis" set.

My pictures don't show all the sparkle very well, but it IS there...lots of it!

Thanks for stopping by today! Please come play along in the SOS "Winter" challenge that lasts all this week AND next!

Merry Christamas to you all!

Shopping Our Stash- Challenge #81

Happy Tuesday, Everyone! Hope you are having a good week! I finally feel more caught up around home and able to concentrate on Christmas preparations. Christmas cards are ready to go in the mail tomorrow and I am headed out Christmas shopping with my oldest daughter, Kate, tomorrow, too!

So for our challenge this week at SOS we are asking for a card or project that has as its main focus a sentiment...no images allowed...just a sentiment and the usual decorations/bling, etc. If you are not sure what I mean by that, go to our blog and look at the DT examples (or you can find them in my sidebar). And here is mine:

Because the sentiment is a Bible verse, I am entering this in the weekly challenge at http://WordArtWednesday.blogspot.com ,too. The verse from James 1 was one the freebies they offered a few months ago. They have a new freebie and challenge every week. And a very talented DT!

List of ingredients used:

Spellbinders dies- "Labels 20" & "Fleur de Lis Squares"

Tim Holtz Sizzix die- "Elegant Flourishes"

Matching stamp- JustRite "Fleur de Lis Labels 20"

Tim Holtz Distress Ink- "Antique Linen" & Distress Stickles, "Spun Sugar"

The pale pink ink is from Joanne

Patterned cardstock- K&Company "Julianne"

Solid cardstock- from my stash (i.e. I don't know! LOL)

Ribbon- recycled from a gift last year

Flowers & leaves- Pizzazz Aplenty, 1" Cherry Blosom &

Mulberry Open Roses

Lg flower is layered and colored using Spectrum Noir markers- from StampingScrapping.com

The one tiny pink rosebud was hand-made by a friend and gifted to me a while back (about 12 of them)...I have been saving them for something special! This is the first one I've used! (Thanks, MariLynn!)

Pearls- 4mm Lt. Coffee & 4mm Chocolate from Pizzazz Aplenty

Leaf branch punch- Martha Stewart "Frond"

Most of my stash is a few years old now, but some of it is really, really old because I glean things from Goodwill, and garage sales  and estate sales...and when we cleaned out my 87-year-old mother's house I took most of her sewing stuff. For example, the tiny yellow dots in the flower center are from a package of craft supplies that looked to be 30+ years old which I found at a local thrift store.

Thanks for stopping by today!

3 Cards for Daydream Designs DT

Peace, Hope, Joy...that is what I pray you will experience during this special time of year! Christmas is just around the corner...are you ready? It should be such a joyous time of celebrating the birth of Christ, the Savior of mankind...but I know it can also be a very stressful time. May each of you be blessed with the true peace and joy that comes only from knowing the Savior...the Hope of the world!

I am on the DT at Daydream Designs, a wonderful digital image/paper store online, that has amazing new stuff coming out almost every week! The first card (above) has a base layer of red print called "KBsnowflakes8-red" from the Elegant Snowflakes set; also from that set is the next layer, the green print called "Flakes-SL-MdGreen", which is die cut using Spellbinders "Pendants- Fleur de Lis". The next layer is also cut from the die using a recycled piece of a gold foil box. The top layer, white cs from my stash, is the die cut called "Labels 4"; distressed a bit while still in the die using Tim Holtz "Antique Linen". The sentiment I printed from my computer using the Daydream Designs set called Christmas Blessings. The 4 little gems are "5mm Red Rhinestone Squares" from Pizzazz Aplenty.

My next card features 2 brand new digi sets that just came out called Sweet Warm Ups -one is Digi Papers and the other is the Color Digi set (images + sentiments). So pretty and fun to work with!

I like the warm colors...nice and cozy for a cold winter day, don't you think?

The bottom layer of paper on this card is a piece of pink foil gift wrap (!); then the next layer up is two digi prints from the Sweet Warm Ups set, they're called "Cocoa Mugs- Cream" & "Stripes- Diagonal"; the layer behind the "Let's warm up together" is called "Coffee Words"; the sentiments are, of course, from the Sentiments set.

Once again I've used the "Pendants- Fleur de Lis" die along with "Labels 15". And I distressed the edges while still in the dies again. I like the soft, yet clean and crisp look that gives. The brown cs, brown ribbon, and cream twine are all from my stash. The bling is "3mm Dk Chocolate Pearls" and "2mm & 4mm Pink Rhinestones" from Pizzazz Aplenty. Those I adhere with glue, but for the ribbon I use Glue Dots.

Ooooooo...I just remembered something I have in my craftroom and haven't used since last Christmas: scented oil! I have a Christmas scent, a mint and maybe a chocolate. Hmmm...might have to add that!

Well, on to the the last of the three: a simple Merry Christmas card. This one uses a digi image, nicely pre-colored, called "Holly Wreath" from the Deck the Halls Color Set.

The set has a nice variety of wreaths...some with bows, some with poinsettias...all ready to resize and print for a very easy, elegant card.

The sentiment is from the Christmas Blessings set (shown above). For my background I used plain white, embossed it with the Sizzix folder called "Dots, Circles & Stars".

The wreath is attached with foam dots so the scalloped edge shows up better. That die is the Spellbinders "Scalloped Circles Lg". I added a dark red ribbon and, of course, the finishing touch: Sickles "Star Dust" on the holly berries!

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my little showcasing of these amazing digital images and papers from Daydream Designs.

Have a peaceful, hopeful, joyful week, my friends!

SOS Challenge #80 "Snow/Winter"

Sorry I have been away for a bit...very busy time of year and we are in the process of becoming "empty-nesters"! We moved one of our boys into his own house a week and a half ago...first had to do LOTS of cleaning! But OUR house is actually looking a little bit emptier....now for son #2....he will move into his own place hopefully in January. More packing and more cleaning. Yikes! I'm getting just a little sick of it! But it is really fun to see how excited they are. I will miss them though...they are great guys and we get along SO good. You know, its nice to feel needed! But, yes, my hubby will still need me. Its all good!

So this week I made a quick card for the challenge at Shopping Our Stash...I AM still on their DT. 

I say "quick" because of the digi images and papers I used...made it super easy to coordinate everything! The digis are from Daydream Designs by Diane Noble and her co-designer, Kris Breach. The image set is called "Snowbabies Color Digi Set" and the matching digi papers are from the "Winter Chill" and "Winter Flakes" sets. The sentiment is from "Snowbabies Sentiments" (of course!). The punched snowflake I got on eBay and I'm not sure of the brand. They have a nice coating of Stickles "Star Dust" on them too. The snowballs are hand-drawn (by me!) but there are some included in the digi sets. I knew I wanted to draw the "splatted" snowball on the inside so I just drew all of them and fussy-cut them.

The border punch is a Martha Stewart..."Doily", I think.

Well, now that its done, I'm not sure who to send it to...some people I don't want to encourage to throw snowballs because I have a good idea who they'd throw them at!

I hope you can join our challenge this week at SOS: you have two choices, either the one I used, "Snow/Winter" or "Christmas/Hanukkah".

Thanks for stopping by today!