CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS 2013

 My family decided to have an ornament swap this year. Usually we each bring a gift for a Yankee swap, but it was nice to do something a little different this year. We were all supposed to make 11 ornaments of our choice. I decided to make mine on 2 x 2" tiles. I found a sheet of these little tiles in Home Depot and then went searching for holiday suitable images small enough to stamp on these small tiles. The snowman images I used are by Stampin' UP and the rest of them are Amuse stamps. I used black Stazon ink and colored them in with a variety of permanent ink markers and then added glitter to each of them. They didn't look quite finished, they looked like they needed just a little something extra, so I bought some small Christmas décor and snipped pieces of the greenery and holly berries to glue to the tops of the ornaments. I added the hangers and then covered the backs of each ornament in red felt.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.



 Wishing you all a very safe, healthy, Happy New Year!

SMILING LEPRECHAUN

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Cross stitching is another hobby of mine that I love to do! I thought today was the perfect day to share with you something that I recently made for my sister. I enjoyed making this cute little smiling leprechaun for her, and she really liked it, so I guess it was a success all the way around.  :)

May the road rise up to meet you

May the wind be always at your back

May the sun shine warm upon your face

May the rains fall soft upon your fields 
and until we meet again,

may God hold you in the palm of his hand.

HAPPY EASTER!

I needed another Easter card for a challenge in an online stamp group I belong to called Card Camp. I dug through what I had for Easter stamps and knew right away this was the one I wanted to work with. Isn't this the most adorable little bunny???  The image is called One Good Egg and is made by Penny Black. Partnered up with a sentiment from Hook's Lines & Inkers, I knew it was going to be a perfect combination.

Brocade Blue and So Saffron by Stampin' UP! were my paper choices, along with a couple of different patterned papers I had by them as well. Copic colors used were B000, B02, B12, B14, RV02, R20, R22, E50, E31, E55, Y15, C1, C3, and YG17.  I tried all kinds of embellishments to finish off my card but nothing was calling out to me..... then I found a package of felt flowers and leaves (retired SU) in my stash and I knew it would give me the look that I was searching for.  I just love it when things come together.  :)

STAMP OF THE MONTH CHALLENGE

Quite some time ago, I used to participate in a digital stamp of the month challenge and really enjoyed it! Now that life has slowed down a bit for me, It's time to join that monthly challenge again and get my creative juices flowing. Your completed card needs to be posted by the 20th of each month, there is plenty of time left this month to play along. If you are interested, just click here and get all the particulars to play along! www.designed2delight.com and check out the store for lots of cute digital stamps at http://fromtheheartstamps.com  I decided to pick the Easter basket digi to create my card as Easter is early this year, but this delightful basket image comes in a series of three....a spring basket, Easter basket, and one full of cute little shamrocks.

I started off using Wild Wasabi card stock by Stampin' UP along with patterned papers from the Brenda Walton collection from K&Co. The two punches, the scallop trim border and the word window punch are also SU products. The large ovals that I used are from Nestabilities. Copics used to color it up were BV02, BV31, R20, R22, G40, G24, G21, Y15, Y11, along with E55,E53, E51, YR24, YR21, YR20 and YR00 to color the multi colored basket. I used a Spica clear pen to give a light glitter shine to the eggs although you really can't see it in the picture. To finish it up, I simply stamped the words Happy Easter using the Teeny Tiny Wishes set from SU.
Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

JUICING!

Several years ago I had an inexpensive juicer, one that didn't extract the juice very well, leaving me with a small glass of juice, and a whole lot of really wet pulp! It wasn't long afterwards that I gave up on it and got rid of the juicer.  BLAH....
About a week ago, my UPS man delivered a big, heavy, package. I had no idea what was in the box because I hadn't ordered anything.  To my BIG surprise, inside was this juicer, an awesome gift from my son and daughter-in-law. Come to find out, they had bought one exactly like this for themselves and loved it. They thought I would like it as well, and they were right!  It is the Breville Ikon Juice Fountain BJE510XL. Every morning I've been making freshly made juice with it. No more wet pulp....this baby extracts the juice right out of the fruits and veggies, leaving the pulp like sawdust! It's amazing.... There are so many healthy benefits from juicing!  Thank you Vin and Kat for this awesome gift!

THE BIG SHOT!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and that Santa was really good to all of my stamping friends!

Wow, die cutting machines have come a long way. I had the original heavy, red Sizzix machine then moved on to the Cuttlebug. As much as I like my little bug, the Big Shot has earned it's name! It's a great machine and does a great job embossing as well as cutting. Santa brought it for me, along with a few new embossing folders to try out, and I plan on doing just that!