Thursday, December 25, 2014

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my blogger friends and family :) Thank you all for the wonderful comments I have received in the past year. It's been a blast crafting when I can and sharing it here with all of you, the ones that truly understand how a paper crafter enjoys the time in her craft-room making all those memories come to life :)
 Bless you all this wonderful season as I look to the Lord for all in my life and thank him for what I have. I have been blessed many times over.
Merry Christmas and thank you to the ones that have to work today, the police, fire and hospital staff.

Have a wonderful day! Enjoy all those goodies that Santa brought and put under the tree for you. Enjoy the family time, friend time and the food this year as well as the fellowship.
Merry Christmas

Monday, December 22, 2014

Around here

Wow it's been almost a week since I last posted! I hope the holiday season is treating you all well
Around here this week has been packed full of Working, Shopping and Wrapping.
Working has been extra hours to have extra dollars $$$$ I was able to finish up a huge project of converting designs for the former business that I embroidered for and got all their files converted gave me what I needed for the hubby's gifts :) Now today I'll finish shopping.
Shopping has been many days in the making started with Black Friday and just about each Saturday after and finally finished up this past Saturday for the family :) We had a blast spending time together and went off track a bit on Saturday to see a train display in Lewisburg, very nice display that you will see in my Dec Daily for this year. Then right back to shopping got done around 8:00 pm :)
Wrapping we have been doing that off and on since we bought the gifts but did finish it up yesterday which we did before I went shopping. It's a tradition for us to wrap gifts together (except for our gift to each other :) It makes it more fun to do together and we keep each other on track with who is who for the gifts,

What's left? Not enough time in the day, lol! But so glad that the plant closed down for the whole week instead of having us work 2 days. Now I got time to finish shopping, wrapping the hubby's gifts, baking cookies and making a dish for to take to the family get together at my Brother's house. Were making a fruit salad for here at the house that needs done yet and we'll be taking some up with us to Tammy's over the weekend. Lot's of traveling to do through the holiday.

Then after Sunday things will start coming back to normal with another week off, should be catching up on what I want to do before December is over ( I know it's just a few days left by this point :) and a week to work on my Dec Daily and a few layouts from the holidays :)

What's left on your list?

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

First Snow 2014 Winter Season Layout

Hi friends and welcome :) Oh tis the season to be busy with preparing for Christmas, but to relax just a bit Friday I got to scrap a Layout, I had to get my scrappy "fix" Just to many lists for this time of the season and just needed to kick back a bit.
I used the current sketch at ScrapMuch? for the layout, just turned it 1/4 of a turn counter clockwise to work for what I wanted for that strip of writing

I used my current kit and enjoying the CTMH Wonderland Paper pack that I had in my stash of Christmas paper box, it was perfect for this layout. I also pulled out my drawer of winter items for all the stickers, rub ons and that snow definition block.
 I finally was able to use that pink doily that has been in some past counterfeit kits :) Cut it in half and layered it with the photo and one of the red snowflakes that I die cut last year and still have on hand
 The title treatment came from various sources: Stickers (flat and puffy) and thickers the royal blue really pops on the page
 Both of the snow man pictures have a label printed journal message about it, also added a snowflake in blue for the boys' and red for the girls'. Added some gold glitter bakers twine too that I got from SU. Some jewels and rub on for fun
 The definition block and the journaling about the photos. It's great to see the grandkids having so much fun during the 1st snow of this year's winter season and love that the pictures were posted on facebook that I was able to grab them and make this fun layout.
I'll be linking this to the Lasting Memories Snowflakes Galore challenge too

Friday, December 12, 2014

Joyful Wishes a Funday Friday Challenge

Welcome back to our Funday Friday challenge this week. 
This is our last challenge of 2014. 
So make sure to check out Jo's Blog.
This week our sponsor is once again the great Bugaboo Digi Stamp.
This week we also have a guest designer Kitty. 
Please stop over at her blog and leave her a comment. 
Hi you all and welcome to a Funday Friday Challenge:Happy Holidays over at Jo's Scrap Shack our sponsor this challenge is Bugaboo and I chose their Winter Goodies digital stamp for my card today:
Isn't this just the cutest winter stamp :) Last night I added stickles to various spots on the stamp to give it some glitter. This morning I colored it with Bic markers and put it together with the CTMH card workshop kit in my December kit for the card. Added a chipboard sentiment I received in a swap box and a glittered MS punched snowflake popped up on foam tape. The glitter gems and twill tape came with the kit also. I inked all the edges with Broken China distress ink.
For the inside I included the same layers from the front with a strip of the reverse side of the green paper as a border. Added a snowflake and used the Broken China ink for the holiday message, using the stamps from the CTMH kit. A fun card to send to one of our friends :)
Thanks for stopping by today and seeing the view from my little corner of the world, I've still got a few things to cross off my list but a day of crafting never hurt anyone, did it ;) Enjoy your Friday!
Now it's your turn to join in:

Our sponsor this week is:
 One lucky winner will receive a 7 pack of digis of their choice !!  
 So make sure to play along this week~
  Starts: Friday, December 12th  12:00AM
Ends: Friday, December 19th  6:00PM
(Eastern time)

 Now you need to go to Jo's Scrap Shack for all the challenge details and to link up! We look forward to seeing what you create

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Just Chillin

Hi you all and welcome to my blog :) This is a layout I just recently did and thought it was perfect for the Lasting Memories DT call: What's Your Style??? It's Anything Goes, they just want to see your style.
So what is my style???? I didn't really have to ponder to long to know, just have to look back at this past year of crafting to know. Out of this layout I did, probably the one thing that isn't my style is One Picture :) But everything else with this layout is my style. Don't get me wrong I do the occasional layout with one picture, but it's not my general style, but then my style is to try new things so I guess then it would be my style :)
So back to the original question What is my style???
1) I usually start with a road map per say in other words I usually always start a layout with a sketch or a theme (trigger, story starter, recipe, etc) This layout started with a sketch:

This particular sketch I turned a 1/4 turn counter clockwise to work for me. But I did include journaling below the picture like in the sketch.
2) Next is the paper, embellishments and title. which I wouldn't have handy if it wasn't for my monthly Counterfeit Kit made based on the blog Counterfeit Kit Challenge. This year has been one of the best and easiest years of scrapbooking I've had since I started scrapbooking in 2007 and I have to give that to this fine blog! Nothing makes a scrapbook layout come together faster than when you have the things ready to go! So this monthly blog challenge has helped me with that by giving the challenge to create a kit each month and challenge to use it each month :) So now this has become a basis of my style :) I've come to find out that I love to layer pattern papers and embellishments over this past year.

3) Next is the photo(s) and I'm lucky enough to have a hobby that I enjoy so much that I usually have pictures on hand to scrap with. But there are times when I don't but come to find out when I did layout a day in May 2014 that my local CVS store is fantastic for getting some quick pictures if needed for the theme of the day. I have an array of topics to choose from: kids and grandkids, the boys (our dogs), heritage photos, when I was a kid, trips we take and time together, that I have pictures that will have me scrapping for a long time ahead :) Just about any theme I have crossed I can pull something out of my photos to cover it and get that memory on paper in a creative way.

So I guess that is my style, a style that I enjoy!
I'm glad to have this chance to enter for this DT call, as Lasting Memories is a fun blog with lots ideas and inspiration to help you scrap those photos and it would be an honor to be on their team :)  

Sunday, December 7, 2014

2014 December Daily Covers

Hi you all and welcome, tis the season for a cold I found out :) Feeling a bit better today but yesterday I was recliner bound. I did find out that youtube is a great comfort when your not feeling well :) I started watching the Glitter Girl series (I'm surprised I hadn't watched it sooner she's got some great ideas :) Last night I was finally starting to feel better enough to do something crafty on the small scale so I decided to get my covers done for this year's December Daily.
I try to keep as much of the original gold print on the cover that I possibly could and still did some of my own thing on the cover. So I got this little Christmas kit in an early swap box and made sure that it was in the kit to get used up I had planed to use it for the covers. So most of the pieces had been used for the covers. I added a border of washi tape, a border of that scrap green paper from the card I made last week and a scrap from a border strip that I used in the past week. The alphas all came from my current kit, the bits and pieces came from the little swap kit. I thought the tag would be a nice place to put the year and I wrapped around the green glitter string like you would on a tree.
The back cover:
 So the back cover includes this fun placemat I got over the summer with a bunch of doilies I bought at a flea market (the lady want to get rid of everything in the bag so gave it to me for a couple of bucks, she did not know how big doilies are in scrapping right now) it included these placemats, doilies in various shapes and sizes and some other mats too. You'll see a few throughout making the daily and maybe some layouts too this month. I included more of the tape from the front and the larger card that was in the kit and a few little pieces. The season greetings sticker I put crackle accents on it to make for a flair button, but the crackle does things different than the glossy accents. You can't see the writing but you can see the red and the crackle makes it look like a snow flake so I'm good with the way it turned out. Guess I best just use the crackle for glue to get it out of my stash.
 A close up of the front bottom section. I've got a few more pieces left to the little kit and will use it in the daily or on a layout there is one large block that will be great for a title block on a layout.
and a close up of the top.
I'm so glad that I got to get this part accomplished and looking forward to filling in the inside. I haven't been taking many pictures but have ideas and there are challenges to tackle for the days I don't have pictures for. I've got 3 things to tackle this week and get crossed off my list and then I can start getting really crafty so till then have a fun week and enjoy the season :)
I'll be linkying this to Let's December Daily for their covers link up


Friday, December 5, 2014

Golden Bells for the Funday Friday challenge

Hi you all and welcome to a Funday Friday Challenge over at Jo's Scrap Shack our sponsor this challenge is Bugaboo and I chose this wonderful set of bells, holly and ribbon digital stamp for my card today:
This challenge is Sketch Time so you need to use this sketch for the challenge:

I used the CTMH card workshop kit in my December kit for the card and added washi tape for the sentiment and some glitter tape for an added touch for the bottom section of the sketch. I find that sometimes when I buy something or receive it for a gift I don't always use it. The die cut I used is from spellbinders Beaded Ovals and was surprised that I had to cut it open to use it. I love this die cut and it makes it so easy to ink emboss the beads which I did with SU Baked Brown Sugar stamp pad. I embossed the bells with CTMH Gold Embossing powder ( which embossed very nicely) and colored it with my bic markers. Added the red bling that was in the kit for the berries on the holly. Love the way it turned out :)
For the inside I used the stamp set that came with the kit and embossed 2 of the stamps with that same die cut and embossing powder (it really did come out in nice detail)
brought in the same papers for the card and a little gold trim for an added touch. (side note as I added the trim I was seeing something that would make a fun quick card with some green glitter tape just cut right, you'll see that very soon I think)
Thanks for stopping by today and seeing the view from my little corner of the world, I've seem to hae caught a cold from the hubby he had it over Thanksgiving weekend and now I'm blessed so off to bed I go for a nap to hopefully feel a little better cause I've got the whole weekend planned out for crafting up a storm! Maybe resting today and working on my December Daily will be the right medicine for me. Enjoy your Friday!
Our sponsor this week is:
 One lucky winner will receive a 7 pack of digis of their choice !!  
 So make sure to play along this week~
  Starts: Friday, December 5th  12:00AM
Ends: Friday, December 12th  6:00PM
(Eastern time)

 Now you need to go to Jo's Scrap Shack for all the challenge details and to link up! We look forward to seeing what you create

Thursday, December 4, 2014

My December 2014 Kit

Hi you all and welcome to my blog. Lots going on this month with shopping, baking, checking out the local Christmas events, decorating and visiting. December can be a very busy month and with this year of having a different job than past years I think that I'll have more free time to enjoy it. So there are many blogs, yahoo groups and facebook groups dedicated to the happenings of December (I'll give you the list of the ones I'm following this year at the end of the post:) That I thought the easiest way to get through the month and enjoy it is by preparing a kit to work with all month. (something that Counterfeit Kit Challenge has ingrained on me through following them this past year shows me that I get more done when I have a kit. So this time around I did my own kit:
This is my December Daily kit in a box. It includes a holiday smashbook that I'm looking forward to doing the covers this weekend and try to catch up on some of the pages on Sunday. I've also have die cuts, a stamp set, christmas papers, stickers, bling and some tape to add in with the fun of the book :)
This is a Christmas card workshop on the go set I got from Close to my Heart last year and I'll be putting that to work this weekend creating any other cards I need to send out and tags for the gifts this year. I figure there is NO reason to hoard it and I need to get it used up this year :)
Now it will start getting photo heavy, this is everything that I gathered over the weekend to get what I wanted for my Dec Daily know full well that it's better to have it all available instead of wasting time looking for it when I want it.
 I found this box of glitter goodness when I was digging out my Dec Daily box. It has lots of gold and silver trims that I must have gotten at an auction years ago so glad that it will make it's debut this month.
 I've pulled out some fun 6X6 paper pads and 6X4 mat stacks for some glittery fun this month with die cutting and photo matting.
 I've pulled out all my Christmas embossing folders and looking forward to see what they might do with some of the glittery paper in the above picture.
 As I was digging for the 6X6 paper pads I come across some of this stuff and I also went through my basket of small goodies that I recently purchased just for this month. The lower right hand corner ppack is from SU sensational snapshot PL accessory pack. I liked it so much I ordered it again for next year. Just lots of little goodies with sequins, enamel dots washi tape, flair buttons, photo overlays and 4X6 cards.
 This here is more bits and pieces I pulled out for crafting this month :)

 Some papers from last month's kit that never got used that will be perfect for this month :)
 I also pulled out my glitter and foil 12X12 papers for any extra die cutting or for scrapbook layouts layering and bordering :) Yep located some old Christmas pictures that I want to scrap this month while the paper is out (I'm off that final week of Dec so I can see that being a catch up week for any scrapping I have missed :)
 My iris box of Christmas embellishments. Looking to put in a good dent in this box over the month.
 My iris box of Christmas paper already to be used.
 Stickles that I want to use this month and I found this wooden arrow on my craft desk so I added that too the kit.
 Some stamp pads, washi and glitter tape, some embossing powder (I've pulled some red and blue since this photo was taken) and a pack of snowflakes I found to use on some cards or layouts.
 My Christmas Stamp collection ready to be used
I also remembered a box of Dazzles kits I had and I pulled out any that referred to Christmas so I'll be using that also for cards this month, layouts and maybe in my daily. I've decide that next year I will grab at least one of those kits each month and get them used one way or another in my crafting. Just have way to many kits to be hanging around and not being used so I think next year will be heavily kit scrapping for the year to get them out of my stash :)

So that is what my December entails :) These are the groups that I'm following that have many challenges with Dec Dailys this month:
FB: Smash your Stash has a Dec daily list to smash each day
FB: December Daily Smash is what it's all about and an event on facebook for the month to keep us accountable for doing it
FB: Simple Scrappers Holiday Focus to keep you focus on your December Daily/Scrapbook crafting
Counterfeit Kit Challenge has have a month of card making and from what I seen so far the girls have out done themselves with lots of inspiration.
Let's December Daily: A fun blog that I just come across this year and talk about lots of December Daily inspiration, I'm in awe with some of the things shown
I've joined a new group on FB: nicolejones911 and it's a fun crafting group to get it done and they are focusing on the December Daily this month
Lots of scrapping challenges over at Scrappin n Chattin yahoo group
Then there are all the challenge blogs that I follow for lots of challenges this month :)

So I expect that this is gonna be a fun crafting month and I hope it slows down just a bit to enjoy the holiday festivities too. This weekend looks like a small town close to use is having an Olde Time Christmas festival taking place and I'm looking foward to checking that out and next weekend is the Polar Express train ride that certainly looks like fun :) So I'm off to work, but will be back tomorrow with a card. Enjoy your holiday season and remember why we do celebrate it as we enjoy the Christmas lights of the year, we have to look forward to that one light that guides us through our life now and forever.....

Monday, December 1, 2014

Christmas Card Challene over at Creative Cutting Challenge

Can you believe today is the 1st day of December!?!! Good Morning and back to work we go! Darn that holiday didn't last long enough but was glad for the time off and got a few layouts done. But today it's all about the Card! Christmas Card I made for the Creative Cutting Challenge with Creative Pointe's Merry Cardinal Charger file:
This file was for an 13" charger plate but I was able to simply size it down for the 6" square card. The file I used:
Merry Cardinal Charger - Click Image to Close
I cut this out prior to the holiday, but just recently put it together and I seem to lost 2 pieces but was able to cover the losses well:
I colored in the black neck of the cardinal with a black sharpie and the A in Christmas was replaced with a snowflake.
 I stickled up alot of the cute pieces with Holly and Christmas Red.
 I added a couple more snowflakes from the K&Company very merry snowflakes layered accents package.The papers I used was the cardstocks from last month's counterfeit kit and the background papers are from teresa collins Christmas Home 6X6 pack.
I also dressed up the inside a bit with that same green paper and the same diagonal border paper and a couple of snowflakes. All from my current Dec Daily kit.
 Off you go and give a try to the challenge we hope you all play along with us:
Rules are simple the project must be new works and  Each project must contain at least one SVG (SCUT, MTC or similar) file die cut and that file must be clearly apparent or you must state what piece of the project is the SVG (or similar electronic) file.  A file name or creator link would be helpful to those viewing your project. NOTE:  A project using only a Cricut Cartridge file is not eligible.  SUBMISSIONS WITHOUT ANY MENTION OF AN ELECTRONIC CUTTING FILE WILL BE DELETED.  Blog owner reserves the right to delete any submission deemed ineligible without notice to entrant.
For more details about the rules you can go here