I recently discovered Digis with an Attitude...this super cute digital company not only has cute little "grumpy" images, Cindy-Lynn is from Northern Ontario! I love when I find a Canadian company that I can support!
Here are my Top 10 Cards from 2010. I had a hard time choosing just ten! I had a lot of favorites from this year! These are the ones that made the cut!!
A custom order for a client
From Sassy Studio Designs
Santa Baby published in Scrapbook and News Review Holiday Release
From Sassy Studio Designs
My Doodle Pantry Guest Designer Application card
From Doodle Pantry
I designed this one for a card class I taught! OF COURSE, I had to use the Panda!!
From Doodle Dragon Studios
My favorite image from SOG...I just LOVED colouring her hair!!
From Some Odd Girl
I LOVE these pre-coloured images! This cute caterpillar made for an adorable card!
From Wink Wink Ink
Created for a graduating Army Cadet. Great job Will!!! Congrats again!
From The Stamping Boutique
This card is designed to support Ovarian Cancer with the teal ribbon (the awareness colour ribbon). If you purchase this set from ABS, you will help support the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
From Anita Be Stampin
Again, this set from Stamp Insanity was released to help support Breast Cancer but I coloured this image teal again. That's what I love about these blank images. They can be coloured to go with whatever cause you need it for!
From Stamp Insanity
Created for my cousin who got married this summer. It matches the colours of their wedding.
From Mo's Digital Pencil
Thanks for checking out my cards! And thanks to Suzi for this cool idea!
Okay, so it's Christmas Eve...are you ready? I think I am...I have some goodies to deliver to a few friends and I want to grab some last-minute groceries so that's what my plans are for the day! Then we have a family Christmas to go to.
I've been decorating a bit more seeing the kids are getting older and I can put more stuff out without it them tearing it all down! This is the desk at our front desk for all our Christmas cards...
...and the little tree with our Sesame Street decorations! Thank you Good-Will for my $1.50 tree!
So this year I bought a gingerbread house for the kids to do...well, after about 6 tries, we finally got it put together...and the kids went to twon on decorating it!! Trenton's side is a little more neat than Miss Jocelyn's!!
I did the front! And added the marshmallow snow-fort down the side of the house!
This year for our Jesus Present, we decided to make cookies and deliver them to the residents at Conestoga Crest. The Jesus present was started by my parents and now I do it with my kids. Usually it's a devotion book or a Veggie Tale movie but this year I wanted to start doing service projects with the kids. Eventually one day, I'd like to go to the House of Friendship and do a meal for the homeless people!
So, this is the kids, decorating the bags for the cookies. Trenton is writing his name and Jocelyn's name on each bag (We have 35 to do!). He'll REALLY know how to write his name and Jocelyn's name by the end! Jocelyn got to put the stickers on each bag. And I stamped them with "Jesus is the reason for the season".
I hope the kids will learn that Christmas isn't just about Santa and getting gifts but also for sharing their wealth and helping others who maybe don't have as much as we do. The kids are really on board with this! It's great to see!!
Here's a sample of the bag! I'm so proud of my munchkins!
Wishing everyone a very Merry CHRISTmas! I hope you have a great day with family and friends and food and fellowship!
This is a card I created for one of our students for her birthday last month...she loves Cars so we thought this might be appropriate!!
I coloured it in PSE and popped it up with foam tape. It's pretty simple but cute! The paper reminds me of stop signs! And the colours are "Lightning" colours!
I've had a few requests for this amazing fudge recipe so here it is! You probably won't wanna serve this to the kids...it does have amaretto in it...only a tablespoon so it's up to you! (I don't give it to my kids cuz I don't like to share it!!! My husband's lucky if he gets any!!!!)
(Photo taken from candy-making website - not my image!)
Submitted to the Taste of Home Holiday & Celebrations Cookbook 2006 by Lorrine Kyger.
1-1/2 teaspoons butter, softened
1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1-1/2 cups milk chocolate chips (I use dark chocolate)
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon amaretto
Dash salt
1 cup chopped walnuts, divided (feel free to omit if you have nut allergies)
Line an 8-inch square pan with foil and grease the foil with butter; set aside. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt chips; stir until smooth. Stir in milk, icing sugar, amaretto and salt. Stir in 2/3 cup walnuts. Pour into prepared pan; sprinkle with remaining walnuts. Chill for 2 hours or until firm.
Using foil, lift fudge out of pan. Discard foil; cut fudge into 1-inch squares (feel free to make 'em bigger if you desire!!!) Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. Yield: 2-1/4 pounds.
My mom sent me this music video...it's so touching. It really puts all the hustle and bustle into perspective. It touched me so much that I had to share it with you all. Yes, my kids "believe" in Santa, but they also know that the real meaning of Christmas is Jesus' birthday. What are you doing to celebrate Christmas?
Here’s the story behind the song:
While at the mall a couple of years ago, my then four year old nephew, Spencer, saw kids lined up to see Santa Claus. Having been taught as a toddler that Christmas is the holiday that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus, he asked his mom, "where's the line to see Jesus"? My sister mentioned this to my dad, who immediately became inspired and jotted words down to a song in just a few minutes. After putting music to the words, and doing a quick recording at home, he received a great response from friends. He sent the song off to Nashville without much response, except for a Christian song writer who suggested adding a bridge at the end of the first chorus. My dad then asked if I wanted to record the song to see what we could do with it. I listened to the song, made a few changes to the words to make it flow better, and we headed to Shock City Studios.
It was at the studio where Chris, owner and producer, rewrote the 2nd verse and part of the chorus... with goosebumps and emotions high, we were all hopeful and felt like we had something special. The demo was recorded in just under 2 hours and sent off again to Nashville ... still no response.
Two weeks before Christmas last year, my cousins Greg and Robbie decided to do a video to see what we could accomplish on YouTube. The first day we had 3000 hits and it soared from there. We received e-mails, phone calls, Facebook messages from people all over asking for the music, CD's, iTunes, anything... we had nothin'. After a couple of meetings with Chris following the amazing response, we got serious.
We headed back into the studio this past spring... this time with guitars, drums, bass, pianos, choirs... the real deal..... and here we are today. Getting iTunes set up, a website put together, and loving that thousands upon thousands of Christians have come together.... remembering the true meaning of Christmas.
Out of the mouths of babes come profound truths that many adults cannot understand. Hopefully Spencer's observation will cause people all over to reflect on the love of Jesus, and that one day we will all stand in line to see Him. We are most thankful to our Heavenly Father to have this chance to share our music with you.
(Image by Meljens Designs - Coloured in Photoshop by Amanda Newton)
I'm giving this to my Sunday School class tomorrow...brings a different meaning to the candy cane...and we just thought it was a Christmas treat!
1. The candy cane is in the shape of a shepherd’s staff. Jesus is our Shepherd, and we are in His flock.
2. Turned over, the candy cane is a “J”, the first letter of Jesus’ name. It is made of hard candy to remind us that Chris is the “rock” of our salvation.
3. The red stripes on the candy cane represent the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for each one of us so that we can have eternal life through Him. It also symbolizes Jesus’ stripes, or scars, which He got when He was arrested and whipped. The Bible says we are healed (of sin) because He took those wounds.
4. The white stripes on the candy cane represent Jesus’ virgin birth and His pure, sinless life.
5. The flavoring in the candy cane is peppermint, which is similar to hyssop. Hyssop is of the mint family and was used in Old Testament times for purification and sacrifice.
6. When we break our candy cane, it reminds us that Jesus’ body was broken for us, such as we do with the bread when we have communion.
7. And, if we share our candy cane and give some to someone else because we love that person, we are sharing the love of Jesus.
Suzi, a girl I follow on her blog (who creates amazing cards BTW) decided to host a little blog hop. The objective is to let all the cardmakers/crafters out there in blogland showcase cards they have made this year. You don't need to create anything new, all you need do is select 10 cards/projects you've made this year to share on your blog!
Do you want to take part? If you do follow these simple steps...
Create a post on your personal blog featuring your 10 favourite cards/projects of 2010. Set your post to go live on 28th December.
Link your post to the Blog Hop Post that i will have created on this blog. Suzi will keep the inlinkz open for 24 hours.
Come back on the 29th December, Hop along leaving lots of lovely comments for people
Come back on the 31st December to see if you've won any prizes.
There will be prizes available, and will post full details on the main Blog Hop Post.
All you have to do now is decide on your Top 10. I have mine picked out! It was HARD to decide on just 10!!
This hop is purely for fun, to let us look at the awesome creations that have been made this year. All winners will be picked randomly from commenters on participating blogs.
If you've any question they please leave a comment or email me at mrsweyremaster at hotmail dot co dot uk.
On the 12th day of Christmas, the design team gave to me...
A Tag made with 12 letter stickers!
I had a hard time coming up with a Christmas saying that had 12 letters in it! I finally came up with Feliz Navidad! I tried out some shading in Photoshop when I coloured this image but it's kind of hard to see.
Go check out the Sassy Studio Designs blog to see the contest posted there. It runs till December 23rd!
My fellow TSB (The Stamping Boutique) design team member is offering some superb blog candy for her birthday! Yes, it's HER birthday and she's giving presents! :D I like this kind of birthday!!!
AND - a few surprise candy bits that I've gathered together!!!! And so, how do you get your hands on the sugar sweet candy??
You must be a follower.
You must post about the candy (with a link to this post) on your blog
Lastly, leave a comment and include your name and blog addy.
The candy will run until 30th December. Check out her blog and get your name in the draw!!! :D I'm off to post a comment on Marie's blog! Thanks for the giveaway Marie! I hope your son pulls my name!!!!!!
On the 11th day of Christmas, the design team gave to me...
A tag made with 11 buttons!
I thought I should get here to post this before the day is done! I've been knee deep in Christmas shopping and cleaning but I wanted to post today's tag!
I used the mini buttons from Basic Grey for my embellishments for this tag...these buttons are so cute! I sometimes lose them very easily but they make for cute, little additions to my projects.
Hope this inspires you! Watch for tomorrow's tag! The last one in the reveal!! Thanks for checking them out!
Here is my day 9 tag for the 12 Days of Christmas event going on at Sassy Studio Designs. Day 9 is using 9 brads. They are under the watermark and my images is "Hanging on the Wreath".
Here is Day 10's tag. I have 7 teal jewels along the edge the tag (under the watermark again!) and three black ones on the snowman's "coat".
This is for a sponsorship! The challenge was USE A DIGI STAMP! :D That's pretty much it! Plain and simple! This one is on it's way down to Florida to see the in-laws!
The reindeer girl was just PERFECT for what I envisioned this card to look like!
And lastly, this one is for the Dare to Be Thursday challenge...we were supposed to do a non-tradition card and put it on Mr. Bee's desk.
Thanks for letting me share! Now I'm off to bed! Night Night!!
Day 7 - Using 7 ribbons...not hard to see how I did that one!!
Day 8 - Using 8 colours. Colours used: Brown, Orange, Green, Red, Blue, White, Black and Salmon. I added the logos to the bags she was carrying! Thought it might be fun! :D This is for my step-niece! I hope she likes it! I'm getting an Old Navy gift card to go with it :D Happy Shopping Sam!!!!
It's Day 6 at Sassy Studio Designs for the 12 days of tags! This is mine. Today's prompt is using 6 patterns. I've got the five pattern papers and the embossed tag for the 6th pattern. Don't you just love this image? She was a lot of fun to colour with all that hair! It was fiddly with the PSE but I figured out how to get zoomed in and colour the small spots!
Also, Sassy Studio Designs is having a design team call! You can find all the details here. Don't hesitate to get your application in. You will love working with these images!!
I'm applying for the design team over at The Stamp Fairy and these are my new Stamp Fairy creations.
The poinsettias were coloured in Photoshop Elements (yes Mom! I FINALLY played around with it and it's AWESOME!!) I printed them all out and then hand-cut them and created the wreath with the different sizes and layered them with foam tape to give some dimension.
This one is for my grandfather for Christmas. I wanted to colour him teal because I LOVE red and teal together for Christmas creations. He's a pretty cute little bear! I printed it off twice, then coloured it grey for the "shadow" (it's hard to see from this angle of the photo). I popped it up with foam tape too. (I love foam tape!). The poinsettia was a little addition when I saw a mark on the card. There are no mistakes in cardmaking! Just cover-ups!
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And here is Day #5 for the Sassy Studio Designs daily tags. This one is done using the new Driedal image. (I apologize to any Jewish viewers if I've spelled "driedal" wrong). The challenge is using 5 cardstocks. I cut out circles from cardstock in 5 different cardstocks. I embossed a couple of them to give them different textures.
On the third day of Christmas, the Sassy Studio Designs design team gave to me....
A tag using 3 pearls!
If you've been following my blog, you've seen Day 1 & 2's tags...today is a tag using 3 pearls. I made a tag set. Hopefully my mom doesn't look at my blog today because this is for her for Christmas! (Sh! Don't tell!)
The set I made has 3 pearls on the actual tag and I made a matching gift bag with the new "Nutcracker" image. Don't you just love the Sugarplum paper? It's from a digital freebie I got a long time ago and I've been WAITING to use it! It's PERFECT for this image!
I've been colouring my images with Photoshop this month. Just makes it simplier for printing out this many images! I put a pearl on her dress to collate the tag and bag.
Hope you like it! Thanks for checking out my blog today!
So 2 of my friends who just happen to be scrappy friends as well started a challenge blog called Hazzard County Card Challenge!! I don't think you need to channel the Dukes or wear short shorts (feel free to if you want though!)...I think you're supposed to step out of the box and get creative!! Be HAZARDOUS in your creations!
I learned how to colour using Photoshop...let me say it saves me some time! I had at least 12 images to print off for the 12 days of tags at Sassy Studio Designs so I needed to get them coloured FAST! This was an extra print-off! Hope you like it! The background paper is the freebie from last month's release created by Larisa Hohman...my fellow Sassy Sistah on the design team!
We will chatting on the party blog from 6-8pm PST (that's 9-11pm for us Eastern Standard Timezone girls!!) on the party blog. (Watch for the link posted later on today!)
Hope to see you all there!
I almost forgot to post our family tradition. We have a manger scene that we set up every year when I was a kid. Now I've inherited it and I've started doing it with my kids!
It's pretty special because my dad built the barn. And it's still together after how many years (I won't tell you how many!)
************* And we're also doing the 12 Days of Christmas of Tags this month and we're starting off the list with Marilyn!
On the first day of Sassy-ness, the Design Team gave to me, ONE BORDER PUNCH!
Don't you just love this??
Marilyn, you did a great job!
Watch the blog these next couple weeks for the rest of the days! You won't want to miss them!
Christmas trees, bows,Santa,snow, reindeer, cocoa,shopping, woes, laughter, family,memories that grow, children, elves,parties, candles all a glow. I know we can all name thereindeer that pull Santa's sleigh, know whattreatsmake his day. Naughty or nice? Mistletoe hangingfor you to sneak a kiss from your sweetheart. The smells of mom's special pie baking in the oven.Cinnamon and pine trees.Ornaments hanging on the treethat capture and reflect the light and twinkle enough to make you escape away into the fantasy of all the wonderful things Christmas brings.
All of these things are a part of Christmas. We love to laugh, share, spend time together, buy presents for one another.. and every year it seems the world gets busier and busier and busier and Christmas becomes less and less important.
We do not take the time to spend with our family, we do not take the time to think of those less fortunate than we are. We do not take the time to sit on the couch and read books and share stories with our children. Why? Oh it is a very simple answer. We have taken our focus away from the REASON. The reason of Christmas is Jesus Christ.
ALL of the things I listed are wonderful things. I am not trying to take the FUN out of Christmas. But the key, the key to it all, is that we focus FIRST on this: One day a mother, Mary, gave birth to a very special baby boy. That boy, God's son, Jesus, was given to us as the most perfect gift. I know as Mary held her little baby boy, she did not think of all he would have to do, endure, or face. She just loved Him. And continued to love Him and know that God had a plan for Him. A mighty and great plan that is above all I can imagine. He loves us so much.
This Christmas a few friends are hosting a blog hop. A not so ordinary blog hop. We want to spread the love of Christ and reach out to as many people as we can. If you want to take part and share the love of Christ, please plan to join us. The hop will be from Dec 1 ~ 3. There will be 3 sponsors for this hop - Fresh Brewed Designs, The Stamping Boutique, and Simply Betty Stamps.
Your first stop will be Heather's blog at Fresh Brewed Designs...so start there and you will directed where to go from there!
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. --Luke 2 8-14 KJV
