SHOEBOX SWAP.....

If you have never been involved in a shoebox swap, you are missing out on one of the most fun times a papercrafter could have. A shoebox swap is where you cut and place everything you need for a project into a shoebox and meet with your talented friends to complete each others projects. My Stampin' Up group does this twice a year. So, since we had 10 in attendance, I came home with 9 cards that I stamped and put together myself that my fellow demos designed. And don't even get me started on the food!!! This group of ladies is just so talented, at crafts & in the kitchen.

I cased my card from --- yes, you guessed it --- Mary Fish. See her card here. I used the Cheep Talk stamp set and the Jolly Holiday DSP. The sentiment is from the Just Believe set. The card is finished off with some Old Olive satin ribbon and a trio of gold brads. The colors are from the DSP --- Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler and Very Vanilla. The birdie squares are raised on dimensionals and are placed on a Very Vanilla panel that is also raised on dimensionals. Easy as pie..............

We also did a gift exchange. I found these photo coasters at Peebles and did a little altering. I added rub-ons to the holder and stamped some simple Christmas inserts for the coasters. My friend Heather chose my gift. I hope she enjoys using these. I think I am going to do the same for some of my kid's teachers. Again, easy as pie............

The gift I received was from my upline, Debbie Naylor. Check out her blog here, she will be posting all of the projects over the next week or so. Now, anyone that knows me knows my addiction to totes --- any shape, any size. The ones with bunches of pockets are my favorite. And not only did I get a small tote with bunces of pockets as part of my gift, it was purple --- my favorite color. It has the two small pockets in front(the ones you can see in the picture below), two large openings (one on either side of the handle), and a large flap pocket on the other side. Visions of organization are dancing in my head........

In addition to the tote, she made this cool treat holder. She used the Petal Cone Bigz L Die with her Big Shot. She ran it through the Big Shot again using the Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder. Notice the shiny flower centers? Debbie glittered up every center of every flower on it. She even blinged up the label she attached using the cool basic rhinestones. She added little white dots all over it, too. I am not sure what treat she put inside, I don't want to mess it up to figure that out.

Thanks so much, Debbie, for the gift and for getting the meeting together in the first place. Thanks to all of the ladies there for sharing your talent with little ol' me. I can't wait until the summer meeting!!!

Thank you for stopping by and have a great day!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!!!

This card is one I made for my mother's birthday. As you can see, I have once again used the Because I Care stamp set. I just really love that flower. The DSP is from the Lap of Luxury pack. The colors are so elegant --- Pretty in Pink, Basic Gray, Very Vanilla and Concord Crush. I wanted to make another Double Display Card (see my first attempt here) and started with the Pretty in Pink base. After cutting and adhering all of the little and big DSP rectangles, I cut out the butterflies using the Beautiful Wings embosslit die. Although you can barely tell it, the little pink butterfly on the left is mounted on top of a Basic Gray butterfly. Both butterflies are embellished with the basic pearl jewels. I also used the pearls on either side of my sentiment, which is from the retired Watercolor Trio stamp set and was punched out with the Oval punch and placed on top of the Modern Label punched piece of Concord Crush. This was then placed onto the card with Stampin' Dimensionals. I think it turned out pretty nice --- better than my dark, dreary picture shows it. And like all good mothers, my mom loves stuff her kids make for her (even if the kid is as old and decrepit as me).

Happy Birthday, Mom!!! We love ya!!!!!!

ZOEY'S FIRST HAIRCUT........

While we had not planned on trimming Zoey, she is a "cow dog" after all, plans can change. The hair around her ears had started to matte up and we don't even want to discuss the issues with the hair on her backend. So, I made an appointment with the groomers my SIL uses for her pup. Keep in mind now --- Zoey is a wimp of a dog. She can bark a good game when she has back-up, but leaving her with people she doesn't know with instruments that make loud noises (she hates when I vacuum and hides in the closet long after I am done) would be a very traumatic experience for her. If I knew what to do, and how to do it, I might would do it all myself, but I am not comfortable with that. I tried clipping her nails on my own, but I am so scared I am going to hurt her. Same with the trimming.

Anyway, here is the before shot:

and here is the after:

Check out the bandana --- that lasted to just after this picture was taken.

Ain't she purty????

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

Here's wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!!!! I hope you are able to spend it with family and friends.

Oh, and to those who will be venturing out for the Black Friday sales ----Good Luck to ya!!!!!

BECAUSE I CARE......

I love the Because I Care set so much. It is a set that I don't think I will ever let go. I would have never considered myself a "flower person", but if you look at my stamp sets, probably 75% of them are flowery in some way. There is something about a pretty little flower image that makes me just have to have it.

I unfortunately needed another sympathy card and chose to use this set again, but wanted a different layout from the ones I made a few posts ago here. So onto Splitcoast Stampers I went. My card is cased from this one here by Mimikitty. I used Marina Mist with the black trim and a vanilla base for the flowers. The black really makes this pop. I watercolored the flowers with the Marina Mist and the leaves with Always Arthichoke. After punching out the layers for the sentiment (from the Thoughts & Prayers set), I placed it on dimensionals on top of the strip that is accented with a length of Marina Mist ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by and have a Great Day!!!!

MY LITTLE GIRL...........

Well, not so little anymore. My DD turned 12 on November 12th. One more year and I will be the mother of a teenager. YIKES!!!! Although, I think she is practicing the teenage attitude part already. This is what 12 looks like:

BTW, she is trying to let her bangs grow out --- and I am trying to be patient while her bangs grow out. She is growing up soooo fast. I really miss my little girl, but I look forward to the young lady she will become (fingers crossed for good luck).

Happy Birthday, Sweetpea!!!! I love you!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CINDY!!!!!

A good friend of mine is celebrating her BIG 4-0!!!! And the cool thing is that her birthday, November 12th, is the same day as my daughter's. Pretty neat, huh? This is the card I did for her. I Case'd it from Mary Fish at Stampin' Pretty, but for the life of me I cannot find it on her blog to link it direct (but here is the link to her home page). The card itself didn't take very long to make after I finally figured out what images I wanted to use and where I wanted them placed. Each square is punched out with the 1-1/4" punch. How much easier can it get?

I used soooo many new and retired sets to come up with this. The stamp sets I used were Beary Best Friends (the gift bag - retired), Aviary (the birdy in the cage - current), Just Believe (the flower circle and the leaves - current), Priceless (the butterfly - current), Hip Hip Hooray (the balloons - retired), Every Little Bit (the gumball machine - current), Bitty Birthday (the birthday cake - retired), Word Play (the "Wish Big" sentiment - current) and Punch Potpourri (the flowers that were punched out and placed on Stampin' Dimensionals - a current Level 1 Hostess set). The "C" was stamped with a non-SU! stamp, but it worked "Just Rite" for this. The DSP used on a couple of the squares (the numbers and the stripes) is from the Celebration pack. That is where the colors I used are from - Real Red, Pacific Point, Pear Pizzazz and Bashful Blue. The base is Bashful Blue with a Pear Pizzazz layer that holds the squares. You can't really tell from the picture, but the "i" in "wish" is dotted with a sparkly rhinestone --- cause every girl should get some bling for her birthday.

With all of that on the outside, I wanted to jazz up the inside a little, too. It has a Real Red and a Pacific Point layer underneath the Whisper White layer that has a sentiment from the It's Your Birthday set (retired) with a few flowers punched and added to the bottom corner. The sentiment was placed using my handy-dandy Stamp-a-ma-jig. I tried to keep the card as flat as possible, since it needed to be mailed, but I added an extra postage stamp just in case it was a little heavy from all of the layers. I really needed to do a WOW project, because Cindy is one of the most talented stampers that I know. Check out her blog here.

Cindy, I hope you had a great day and will have a marvelous year!!!!

Here's to you!!!!!