Christmas Photos

Over at My Sketch World we have this photo contest going called "say Cheese"
I didn't take many photos over the holidays, unfortunately I eighter forgot or didn't have the camera with me during some events. So I have only a few of the required photos on the contest's list.
Putting up the tree....
my neice Trina was a big helper this year.
(or so she thought. LOL)
She seems to know what she's doing.








There she is helping out with the decorations as well, what a great little helper,
Truth is I think she tried to eat them, LOL
I don't have any pictures of any of my nieces or family members with a real Santa, but here is one of Trina with a Santa doll that seems to have become her favorite toy.










We don't do much decorating on the outside, but this is a wreath my mom made with lights, they don't show up well on the photo,











Mom did a great job with her winter wonderland display on the fireplace this year. This is kind of a family tradition, each year we buy her a new piece to her collection,

















We love nativity scenes, and over the years mom has made quite a few of her own, here is a display she created on top of a collection of seashell base, and a hand carved decorated egg.

I just love my mom's Christmas tree, almost all the decorations on there are handmade eighter by her or by me,

She seems to have a special talent for decorating it just right.

This is the star on top of the tree and one of my favorite ornaments.















What would Christmas be without a collection of favorite cookies, unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the baking process, and the rest of the goodies, but these are SOME Of the cookies I did bake.

There was supposed to be a big pile of presents but that's another one I forgot to take, so now my big pile is a picture of a little pile of presents.

These are the cards we received from family and friends.














Christmas day came this year quite the storm, We were scared my brother and his family wouldn't be able to come, but the storm died down on the 26th, but left alot of snow, more than I remember ever having had around this time of year. The guys had to shovel the driveway out with the bobcat.

I have a tradition I started a few years ago, making Christmas tree ornaments for my mom, sisters, and sister-in-laws and aunt,
Usually I end up making beaded dangly ornament, but this year I came across these beautiful raw wood cutout words in a dollar store, and the possibilities of what could be created with them made them unrestistable.
first I painted them, then used glue to attach the glitter,after the glue dried I modge podged the glitter so that it not only stuck but didn't leave a mess every time you touched them.
The first one Noel, I decorated with these beautiful little porcelain poinsettias I found, punched leaves that I used enough modge podge on to make them plastic, florishes I created from thin wire, and a jingle and small ornament on a dangle.

Peace has small wooden angel, a large star bead, and also some dangles, Hope is decorated with mirrored snowflakes, bling and a large metal snowflake for a dangler.

I just love how Joy turned out, I used some more punched leaves here, also I created the bird by punching about 8 pieces and gluing them together to get a 3D shape, I used that to create a little nest with bling, Joy has a cute star on its dangle, but it seems that it got cut off from the picture.
I can't wait to out these and see the reactions, these are by far the cutest ornaments I've ever made.

It's Christmas time, and the season for creating Christmas projects,
Here are a few cards I've done for challenges on my favorite boards.
Here I used some of my favorites, Precious Moments clip art, snowflakes, fibers and lots of sparkle.






I love the way this one turned out, I used quite a combination of products and techniques here, I cut the frame with my new silhouette, punched the leaf branches, stamped and embossed the bird on vellum and used a transparenty frame for my sentiment. To finish I used small red bling, and fibers.




I don't really make many shaped cards, but the idea for this one intrigued me and I had to try, I thought it would look cute as a Christmas card with red and yellow cuddlebug cut flowers, I hand cut the holly leaves and added large bling, and the tiny hanging ornament.

Some of my newest cards.

Over at MSW we had this challenge for an extreme shaped card, somehow I got it into my head to create a dress shaped baby girl one, I think I spent over 2 hours searching for a pattern on the net till I found one I liked. I love the way I was able to add ruffled lace and a floppy bow without it looking out of place and overdone, an inked, embossed cuddlebug background gave it the perfect finish.

For this one I used my cuddlebug twice, did I mention I loved my cuddlebug, LOL. Once to emboss the background and then to cut the little stuffed lamb, I recently brought myself the stuffed baby animal sizzix die, arn't they the cutest. I just love the way these turned out.

This one has a die cut teddy bear from the same set. Here a ribbon threaded border, a tag, and buttons finish off the card.

Enough about baby cards I want to show off another unique card that turned out really well. This one I made for a crop challenge over at Fiskateers, I lifted it from one of the many talented ladies there.

This is another card I created for the ABC crop over at MSW, I tried to experience with a different variety of media than I usally do, I used note paper for the background, which I crumpled and inked. I was really amazed at how well this one turned out, I never expected my odd assortment of supplies I gathered to work, but it did.

Mini Album

This is a Mini-Album I created as a gift for a dear friend and cousin for a Graduation gift.
I used white poster board as a base to cut my pages, and dark blue cover board for the front and back covers. The printed papers are a dollor store find and the blue textured paper I used as background paper is homemade.
On the front cover I used sizzix dies to create the swirl and butterfly die-cuts, corners are stamped and embossed with gold embossing powder. Title is a computer print-out.

All the papes contain an ongoing quote that finishes on the last page set. I decorated the journal blocks and quote blocks with stamps--Scrappycat, Autumn Leaves, Studio G, as well as some I handmade with foam.

I tried to establish each page set a little different but still keeping within the same theme, butterflies, flowers and even some birds, in blues and gold. Each picture block contains a different kind of corner, some are orgiami folded, others are punched or other are purchased photo corners.

This album gave me a change to play with some of my new toys...sizzix and cuddlebug dies, stamps and punchies.

The last few pages contain images of my homemade stamps, (the graduation ones) I really love my new butterfly punch, so I tried to use it as often as possible. LOL.

I kept the back cover simple, with just a die-cut swirl, butterfly punch and lets not forget my signature.

My first Mini Album

I haven't posted for so long, seems like I just haven't gotten around to it. This is a project I created for a Mother's day gift....that's how slow I've been lately, LOL

I created this little album for my mom to carry around in her purse, it's a littly brag book made out of office badge holders,

On the front cover I used some heart die-cuts, distressed with ink and estblished witha pink bow. I stamped a little frame for the words, 'brag book'. and added grandma's in bubble sticker.

The pages are kept together with pink ribbon.

All the pages contain photos of my mom's granddaughters. Yup I have 5 neices but no nephew. lol. (but no pic of the littlest one yet)

Pictures are a bit fuzzy, that's because of the glare the badge holder create when the camara flashes.

and finally the back cover, where I added a little quote

Papers I used and some of the paper establishments are Little Yellow Bicycle. I also used some punchies, ribbons and bling.

New cards.

I love to create cards and lately it seems thats all I have time for, a quick card now and then.

These are pocket cards I created for a memories from the attic challenge. All 3 have cuddlebug embossed backgrounds. I love my bug, embossing and inking backgrounds gives cards such an elegant appeal.

3 more cards, on these I tried out some new ideas for using my favorite punch. I won the Fiskars 'My Funny Valentine' squeeze punch in a RAK at Fiskateers, LOVE it. Sometimes I wonder how I ever managed without it. LOL

These last 2 cards are amoung my favorites of the whole batch, used my Funny Valentine punch again. Here I added some bling as a finishing touch. I love bling, if it sparkles, it's my kind of establishment.

My Shopping Trip in the US. Early March some friends and I went on a shopping trip to Fargo, ND. We had a great time shoppping but the highlight of my trip was the deals my sister and I found at

Joanne's. We found incredible deals on paper stacks, cutting dies, templates, and more. I'ts gonna be so much fun playing with these new toys.

Cards

Cards I created following Robin's instructions for Friday's happy hour over at SoCalscrap. These projects are alot of fun, I only wish I could find more time to participate.

These turned out really cute, I was suprised given the bright color scheme I picked out for the project. I did a little stamping, cuddlebug embossing, and hand cut the large sentiments.

Baby Shoes

I made these adorable little baby shoes from a pattern I found somewhere. They are made from leather and lined with soft fleece. I added bead accents for a finishing touch.

My neices who were gifted with my first creations at Christmas time love them.