It's a White Christmas After All

I can't believe it is Christmas Eve. It sure did sneak up on me this year. We have lots of fluffy white snow so we can enjoy having our white Christmas here in Minnesota! I have been finishing up the last of the wrapping and quickly adding the handmade gift tags to the remaining packages. I make these every year and enjoy it, gotta have something handmade...right?

I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. May your holiday be filled with PEACE, LOVE and HAPPINESS!!!

New cards

Here are a couple of cards I have created lately. The first one is a gift card holder. The image is not so great since I used my crappy Olympus camera while my other one was in repair which ended up finally getting replaced under waranty YIPPEE. The center image is from Unity Stamp Co.

The next one is a birthday card I made. It was a fun card to do. All stamps are Unity except for the "sweet" sentiment which is a CTMH alphabet set.

We are supose to have a blizzard this weekend so I am hopeing to finish some of my handmade holiday creations, plus I need to make christmas tags and wrap gifts. Then to find time to do some holiday baking. The time is flying by so fast I cannot BELIEVE that Christmas is only 6 days away. Happy Holidays to you and your family!

Thanks for stopping by!

One year later...Wow how fast they grow up

I noticed in my slide show the photo of the kids from last year and now looking at my last post I was amazed how much they have grown since Christmas last year. WOW!

A Wink & A Smile!

Sometimes I take a photo and I have a layout in mind just by looking at the picture. In this case Isabella has learned to wink like daddy and I happen to capture it today so once I develope it I will certainly have the title read "A Wink & A Smile".
Check back later as I will post the creation once finished.

It was AJ's Christmas program at church today so I happened to get a couple of quick snapshots of the two by the tree. Isabella was more interested in arranging the chairs to sit on as our first attempt of sitting on the floor in front of the tree didn't work out as they wanted to play with the ornaments. The chairs worked until Isabella decided she wanted to walk across them and stand on them. It was a breif photo shoot but at least I got a couple good ones to capture the moment!

delightful...the feeling inside when I see my children

Here is the Wednesday Unity Challenge I finished. From the background stamps to the title, journal window, candy jars, and I love you tag all of these are fun adorable stamps from UNITY!!! Stamping on my scrapbook pages is my favorite thing to do and with this page I decided to add some fun sparkle too!.

I enjoy creating my own backgrounds by stamping images straight to the page! That way it's an "original" and unlike anything you can buy! Isn't the title of the page awesome, Angela allowed me to have one of these to add to my collection {thank you} and I have so many ideas to put this "huge" stamp to good use!!!





Thank you for stopping by!

3x3 CTMH card

It has been busy lately so I haven't had too much time to post projects even though I have been creating a lot lately. This past week I celebrated my birthday. Another year older...YIKES! I received roses from my children and husband...gotta love that! We had a sitter and enjoyed an evening out just the TWO of us...so I thought. To my surprise he contacted our friends to join us at the restaurant so that was a treat, it's always fun to celebrate with friends!!! I had a great evening.
Here is a card I made for an upcoming event, I love making 3x3 cards, they are such a fun size! They make a great addition to gift bags which seems to be the trend for gift packaging these days. All products are CTMH and the pattern paper is from the Evening Song paper packet which is a favorite of mine from the current idea book.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Paper Craft Planet & Kim's blog candy

I have been a long time follower of Kim's wonderful blog. She has great tutorials and has inspired my creativity so I was very happy to visit her blog recently to learn she is now a member of their design team...Way to go KIM!!!

If you haven't heard about Paper Craft Planet visit Kim's site and join for a chance to win some blog candy. Visit her site at http://www.clearlyinspired.blogspot.com
there you can enter to have a chance to win. Winner to be announced on Nov 11th then join in on the sketch challenge that will happen this Saturday Nov 8th.

Congratulations Kim.

More Halloween

Here is a couple more photos from Halloween. The kids had a lot of fun this year and it was nice to have warmer temps to go out and about trick n treatin. One house we visited near ours really spooked the kids good. They were talking about that house the rest of the night, lots and lots of cool decorations and music. Every window had something to see from huge cat eyes, a large mummy in the upstair window, strobe lights, skulls and who knows what else.The pictures don't show the best of it but it is my pick as the best decorated house in town.

Bella Bug

Here is our little Bella Bug. Daycare had a Halloween party and so she got to wear her costume today. These are a couple of the photos our wonderful daycare mom captured for us, aren't they so cute! She made a spider during craft time and enjoyed some Halloween treats. She takes after her parents and loves chocolate,this might be her favorite holiday for now!!! It is so nice to get a little peice of her day in these photos and to know while we are away she is happy and well taken care of, what a blessing.
Thanks for stopping by.

Unity's TWILIGHT challenge

Here is my card using the 4 novels as inspiration for Unity's TWILIGHT challenge.
Instead of just one element I chose a little something from each of the 4 novels.
The 4 {in the 4 U} represents the 4 novels in the series of books. It was fun and it came together fairly quick. What do you think?
Thanks for stopping by!

CTMH card idea

Here is a card I made recently for my upcoming workshop. Inside the center has a spot to put a photo, a great little card to send to friends and family for the holidays. The center stamp and border stamp on the belt closure are from the stamp set called "SNOW FRIENDS" by CTMH, one of my favorites. Who doesn't love snowmen??? The paper used is by Close to my Heart.

Click on the Close to my Heart link to the right side of my blog. A new Art & Soul tutorial is there for you to watch (click on CTMH TV then Art & Soul). I hope it gets you inspired to give Close to my Heart products a try.

Thanks for stopping by!

Simply Autumn

We took the kids out to attempt to get some nice photos of them and the changing colors. They weren't too cooperative but it was fun and they had fun running down the hills and through the leaves. They each collected some "big" leaves to take home.

Thanks for stopping by.

CTMH-Memory Keeper

Here is the memory keeper I finished tonight. I plan to attach a large photo on right side once I decide who's memory keeper box this will be for. The front closure is magnetic so it will close tight and hold many keepsakes inside. This was a fun and easy project to do. I may make a few for holiday gifts and use it for the package with the gift inside that will be a little extra something to keep instead of throwing the paper and boxes!
Interested in making one like this? Go to my Close to my Heart website, you can find the link to the right. Click on CTMH TV for tuorials and there is also a new section recently added called Art & Soul if you go there you will be able to watch the tutorial on how to make a memory keeper of your own.
Thanks for stopping by!

Unity Challenge Wednesday!

The challenge for today is to make a non standard card. My camera was not cooperating for me today so it is not the best photo, sorry. Here is my creation.

Check out the Unity site and join in on the Hip Hoppin fun beginning Thursday at 10am. Lots of goodies and a day filled with fun. Every Thursday is Hip Hop Day at Unity so be sure to check it out!!!

Happy Fall

Here a couple of photos of the kids. They were so excited to get their pumpkins.
We are enjoying the last bit of nice temps before the snow flys, I hope to take more pictures of the kids playing in the leaves I will post more later.

Thanks for stopping by.

So So Loves

Cheers to Sherrie! She makes such adorable cards, I saw one of my favorites...so so loves by Unity Stamp Company (also my employer) and decided to make my version of this cute little card.

Next I will have to try the paper-piecing technique that looks like fun, check out Sherry's blog I have added her to my "fun places to visit" on my blog page. Have fun!

Textured cardstock by CTMH colors bamboo,watermellon and dutch blue.

Baby AJ

This goes along with the post before this, look how much he has grown. This photo was for his first Christmas and he is nine months old. It is hard to believe he is already in kindergarten.

How do you spell LOVE to a child? T-I-M-E !
(author unknown)

Time fly's by so fast...enjoy every minute!

First day of kindergarten for AJ

I am late in posting these photos, they are of AJ on the first day of kindergarten. We also recently celebrated his 5 year adoption anniversary! We are so lucky to have him in our lives.
He looks so grown up! So far he is loving school and likes his teacher. Things have been busy lately new schedules to get use to, Isabella is settled into her new daycare and is doing good. Making the most of the nice weather we have lately by letting the kids play outside a lot, soon they will be playing in the snow! AJ is looking forward to jumping through the leaves again and begging to get pumpkins carved and for Halloween to arrive! To be a kid again...carefree & fun!

Wednesday Unity Challenge

Here is what I created for Unity's Wednesday Challenge. Colors for this challenge... Black and Pink.

It's a friend's birthday coming up so she will be the lucky one to receive this cute little card, hope she likes it!

Thanks for stopping by! Keep Smilin!

Fun new cards...Unity Stamps

After the kids had their "tubby time", bedtime stories and good night prayers I enjoyed spending the evening doing my favorite thing...stamping and getting creative!

These are a few of the cards I completed. All three stamps are from Unity and are so much fun. I hope you like them as much as I do!

It's getting late so I will be keeping this post short and sweet, thanks for stopping by!

Ride 'em Cowboy!

A MOP's (Mother's of Preschooler's)event took place Nov 2006 and this is one of my favorite photos taken that evening. He had a fun time "dressing up" and playing the part. HE'S MY HANDSOME LITTLE DUDE! Love you AJ!

(sorry it is a bit blurry, I should have taken it out of the page protector prior to taking the photo. Was in too much of a hurry, I will remember this for next time)

Quick little card's

Here are a couple of cards I created with my Unity Stamps. For the Thank You card I used liquid glass to add texture, I love this stamp there are so many things you can do with this stamp to dress up the image. On the inside of the owl card I stamped "I Miss You" for the sentiment.

We have had a very nice holiday weekend. Time spent with family/friends and tonight we are going to the neighbors for a "back to school" sundae's. Should be a fun time!
I can't believe how summer is coming to a close and school begins this week. It will be nice to see things slowing down a bit to allow for more creative time indoors.

Thanks for stopping by...Happy Labor Day!!!

More celebrating

This is another anniversary card I made for the occasion. It was a fun filled day of celebration for Grandma & Grandpa.
In the one photo Isabella is sitting on grandpa's lap as she wanted her shoes off and went to him for help. She loves to be barefoot. AJ is grandma's little boy and loves to sit on her lap. He wiped out on his scooter that day and got his first official skinned knee. It was a pretty big scrape poor little guy but he gets going pretty fast on his scooter and bike so it was bound to happen.
I plan to get busy with some new projects so check back soon! Not many days left of summer break and AJ will be headed for kindergarten, we will meet his teacher tomorrow...he can't wait! Bye for now!