A tale of two Jacks

So, my son had lots of fun trick-or-treating as a lumberjack last night! Here he is in his home-assembled costume that I described in my last post.

Wanna closer look at that awesome hand-crocheted beard (scored from Etsy)?

It was a very festive evening at our house last night. My daughter spent some happy time putting up a few decorations to entertain our trick-or-treaters and to dress up our dinner table. My husband even got into the spirit of things while preparing our traditional Friday-night homemade pizza. May I present the "Jack-o-Pizza?"

Hope you had a fun day yesterday!
Emily

Happy Halloween

It has been months since I've been inspired to write a blog post here on My Little Slice of Bliss. Rest assured, all is well here in my little corner of the world--I've just been so busy with work and family that papercrafting and blogging have taken a definite back seat. Autumn has been a whirlwind, and here we are on the last day of October already. Happy Halloween!

My kids are in 6th grade and 10th grade this year. My sixth grader is excited to go trick-or-treating tonight. After masquerading as an Apple iPhone for the past two years, we decided it was time for a new costume for him. I picked up an awesome hand-crocheted beard from Etsy, and we put together a great lumberjack costume for him from items we already had around the house: hiking boots, jeans, one of Dad's old plaid flannel shirts, an ear flap cap, and a non-lethal axe we constructed from cardboard, a paper tube, and aluminum foil. At least he'll be cozy and warm tonight! Sorry, no photos yet!!


Last year my daughter decided that as a high school freshman, she was too old for trick-or-treating. She's opting to stay in again this year to hand out treats to the visiting neighborhood goblins. Because that means she'll miss out on all that yummy loot (and little brother might not be in the mood to share), I put together a little Halloween treat for her, which I'll share once her lil' bro heads out to haunt tonight. The gift bag is a pattern from DeNami Design, and it's the perfect size for two Reese's Pumpkins. Love those!

And speaking of my daughter, she got crafty yesterday and used my DeNami stamps (and my patterned paper and dies . . .) to decorate packets of hot cocoa mix to hand out to our trick-or-treaters tonight. Aren't these adorable? I think she did an awesome job :D.

Well, I hope that you and yours have a fun Halloween. Thanks for dropping by!

Happy Haunting!
Emily

A bit about me . . .

So today's post is a little different! My dear friend Colleen Dietrich, of Dietrich Designs, called me last week to ask if she could tag me as part of a blog hop she is participating in. It seems that the goal of the hop is to learn about other blogger/artists by sharing some details about one's self, one's work, and one's creative process in a fun "interview" style blog post. The posters were encouraged to tag one or two fellow bloggers to share the fun, and I'm so honored that Colleen chose me! Colleen asked me to share some details about myself in this post today, so here goes . . .

1) How do you know Colleen?

My friend and fellow stamper, Colleen Dietrich

I first "met" Colleen on Splitcoast Stampers sometime after I first joined that online community in 2009. She always made the most beautiful cards and left the most wonderful comments. Not much has changed in either area! Before long we were sending PMs (that is, private messages) through Splitcoast, then exchanging our email addresses for more direct access, then snail-mail addresses so we could mail cards to one another, and finally phone numbers so we could chat even more easily.

It has been a wonderful journey building this friendship of ours! To have someone to chat with about our shared papercrafting interests has been a godsend--someone who understands the drool-worthiness of a new stamp set or paper collection, the thrill of finding fun paper punches or dies on clearance at Michael's or A.C. Moore, the joy of being asked to join a design team, the frustration of losing one's creative mojo, the elation of having a papercrafted project accepted for publication, or more often: the dejection of not having a project accepted for publication. Colleen was the one who encouraged me to start this blog in 2010 shortly after she had established her own. And then we had yet another interest in common: the world of blogging! Even more to chat about ;). But we aren't just papercrafting/blogging friends. Over the years, we've discovered we have so much more in common than our shared hobbies. These days we call one another to chat about our families, our jobs, our health concerns, our vacations, our daily triumphs and aggravations, our joys (and frustrations) of motherhood, and more. I am so blessed to count Colleen among my very closest friends!!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Colleen, for your gift of friendship!!!

2) What are you working on right now?

Well, as much as I'd like to say that I'm knee-deep in challenging, meangingful, and creative papercrafting projects right now, that would be the furthest from the truth. In fact, I just noticed that my last post on this blog o' mine was on June 26, over a month ago! I do believe that's the longest lapse in posts I've ever had on this blog. Yikes! I never intended for that to happen, but sometimes everyday life gets in the way of the best intentions, right?

So, since the end of my kids' school year the last week of June, my 11YO son went away to a week of arts camp sponsored by the Boston Symphony Orchestra; my 15YO daughter and I went away on a trip to Burlington, VT, with her Girl Scout troop; my hubby and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary; our family worked together to replace our disintegrating wooden deck with new Trex planks and vinyl-clad aluminum railing systems; AND our family went away for a week to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary! As our gift to them, my sister and I rented a Victorian house in Cape May, NJ, for her family, my family, and my parents to stay in while vacationing for the week. What a lovely time that was for the three generations to hang out together!

Our rental house in Cape May, NJ

That's me in the sunglasses posing in front of a shipwreck just off Sunset Beach. In the background, the cousins are folicking in the waves along this pebbly beach known for its superb beachcombing.

The Dr. Henry Hunt house in Cape May's historic district. We found it on one of our early morning walks and just had to take a photo. We found out later on a trolley tour of historic Cape May that it is one of the most-photographed examples of "drunken" Victorian architecture--known as such because it combines elements from multiple different Victorian styles all in a single "drunken" mish mash!

My hubby and I near Sunset Pavilion at the end of Cape May's Promenade just before sunset. See the Cape May Lighthouse in the distance?

My parents, the happy Golden Anniversary couple!

So I guess that's what I've been "working" on right now! I'm happy to report, though, that I'll have an all-crafting post to share with you soon as part of a guest-designing gig I'm really thrilled about! More on all that later. Stay tuned!!

3) What is your signature style?

I like to dabble in all sorts of different styles! I play around with clean and simple, shabby chic, vintage, bold and graphic, fun and cute, layered and frilly, elegant and classy, punch art, . . . you name it, I've probably done it. I generally use the projects I create for my own purposes (as gifts to give, or birthday cards to mail to friends and family, etc.), so I guess overall you might describe my signature style as "mailable!" I like to make relatively flat cards to make them as USPS-friendly (and low-postage!) as possible!

Here's an example:  the mailable golden anniversary card I made to send to my parents for their 50th wedding anniversary:

Background stamp is from Hero Arts; flower is from Unity; sentiment is from Flourishes

4) What are your favorite types of projects to make?

I enjoy making all kinds of projects! Cards are easily what I make the most of, but I think my favorite projects to make are papercrafted gifts to give. This past spring my daughter and my nephew were both confirmed at their respective churches. I enjoyed making each of them some commemorative gifts to mark the occasion.

I created a framed and personalized piece of subway art for each confirmand using a variety of electronic brushes and fonts I've collected over time and my favorite (and free!) photo editing software, The GIMP

I made each confirmand a papercrafted bookmark perfect for use in their favorite Bibles. Each bookmark was personalized on the back with the occasion and date.

And here are the confirmation cards I made for these special young people:

For my daughter: because I could hand-deliver it, I added a less than "mailable" embellishment on the cross. Stamps are from The Craft's Meow

For my nephew: an elegant, mailable card. Stamps are from The Craft's Meow

If you are interested in seeing more of my papercrafted gift projects, please be sure to check out these "Gift Idea" posts!

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Well, readers, thank you so much for sticking with me through this long post! I think I'll wrap it up here. A huge THANK YOU to the fabulous Colleen for inviting me to post with her today. If you have arrived here outside of the blog hop, I'd love it if you popped over to meet Colleen and say HI! Her work is so beautiful and elegant--I know you'll love visiting with her!!

Thank you so much for visiting today!! I hope that your summers have been swell thus far and continue to be.
Be well!
Emily

A Happy Hello

Sending out a Happy Hello to all my blog friends this sunny May morning!

I hope you had a great weekend. It was a busy, busy one here at our house. On my personal agenda for the weekend was making a card to send to my aunt for Aunts' Week. She doesn't have any kids of her own, so when my sister and I were growing up, she and some of her fellow teachers declared the week before Mothers' Day as "Aunt's Week." All their nieces and nephews (which included my big sis and me!) were encouraged to send letters and cards that all the aunties could pin up and share on a bulletin board in the teachers' lounge. We still mark Aunt's Week each year! I wanted to make something really special for her, and I think I succeeded. But I'll tell ya, I kept getting interrupted by one or the other of my kids with questions and help requests in regards to special school projects they are both working on, so it took me all weekend just to make this card! But I guess the wait was worth it--I really like how it turned out. Plus, I'm so proud of myself for digging deep into my stash and finally using some trims and papers I bought from Webster's Pages a few years ago. Gotta stop hoarding all that and use it to spread some sunshine to the folks I love!! Anyway, here it is:

I love the fresh look of that red, bright blue, and chartreuse color combo! So cheery, don't you think? The sentiment and dotted circle are both stamps from the Medallion Motif stamp set by Flourishes. The papers and trims are from Webster's Pages All About Me collection.

I've got to run off now and tackle my monster to-do list, so I'll catch you later. Thanks for stopping by for a little slice of bliss with me today!
Emily

Hope you had a Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter here at our house! It was a quiet one (just the four of us), but the weather was beautiful, Easter worship at our church was lovely, and we enjoyed some time together just hanging out. I wanted to share a few photos of our day.

We started with a light Easter breakfast before church. I thought we'd be crunched for time, so we decided to delay Easter baskets and egg hunt until after church. To help ease the "sting" of having to wait, I set a "fancy" breakfast table with pretty paper Easter napkins and my pretty apple blossom glass plates, with a fun strawberry-patterned cake stand elevating our triple berry muffins. That's a bowl of cut fresh pineapple in the foreground and a bowl of colored hard-boiled eggs at the far end of the table.

My daughter's extensive collection of handmade pompom chickies served as our festive centerpiece.

Here's a peek at my daughter's Easter basket, complete with handmade {by me} Easter cookie pops. I was tired of going the store-bought route for Easter treats!

The white bunny head pops are double-stuffed chocolate sandwich cookies {I'd say "Oreos" except they aren't; I went with the more economical store brand ;) } dipped in melted vanilla-flavored white candy melts. I cut pink jelly beans in half for the noses and used some leftover chocolate frosting to pipe tiny eyes. I made the ears from large marshmallows, snipped on an angle and dipped in pink decorating sugar. I made the ears in advance so I could press them into the bunny pops before the white coating set up. I'd seen several different versions of bunny Oreo pops on various blogs and combined the aspects of each that I liked best to create these. They were so much fun to make!

Can you tell that the darker cookie pops are supposed to be the hind ends of bunnies? (Or "Oh, look--bunny butts!" as my daughter put it!!) For these, I dipped Girl Scout Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies in milk chocolate candy melts. The bunny tails and feet are miniature marshmallows (for the feet I snipped a marshmallow in half and pinched the top to form a more longish jack-rabbit's foot shape). For the fluffy tails, I actually snipped off the tops of the marshmallows and dipped the sticky end in white sugar, but it is way too fine to actually see. I tinted a tiny bit of frosting pink and piped on pink paw pads. I came across the idea for decorating these on Pinterest, but the chocolate-dipped peanut butter sandwich cookie idea was all mine. And it's delicious!!!

That's it for my Easter photos. Thanks for indulging me! I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Thanks for dropping by for a little slice of bliss with me today! I'll be back on Wednesday with a DeNami Product Spotlight. Can't wait to show you!
Emily

Hoppy Easter

Did you survive April Fool's Day? There were murmurings of pranks being planned amongst the younger crowd at our house, but we managed to survive intact. The weather was glorious yesterday--sunny, calm, and 53 degrees F! It looks like today and tomorrow will be much of the same. It's about time!!!

I finished my work for the day early yesterday and took some time to clean up and organize my stamping area before playing with paper for a while. I'm working on replenishing my thank-you note supply, but I also took a little time to add to my stash of Easter cards. They are so much fun to make! Here's what I created:

All the papers are from a {very old} Crate Paper collection. I thought the colors were perfect for this Easter card, and I love the subtle patterns in each paper. This punch art bunny was so easy to put together using circle and oval punches! I just sponged on a little ink along the edges for depth, dug out a little pompom for a tail, and this Easter bunbun came together in no time. I used a pair of $1 bin alphabet stamp sets to spell out my own sentiment. I like that it looks uneven and "hand-stampy!'

I'm entering this card in my friend Pam's Just Punch It Free for All challenge.

I've got lots on the agenda for today, and this evening our son is performing in our school system's All-Town band concert, so I've got to keep things rolling!

Have a great day, and thanks so much for stopping by!
Emily

Guess what I'm doing today?

I'll give you a little hint . . .

Yes, it's true--I'm getting my St. Patrick's Day cards ready to mail out! I'm working on signing those cards, jotting quick notes, and addressing/stamping/sealing those envelopes in between working on my current freelance project, planning menus for the next week, compiling a grocery list for said menus so I can do our weekly grocery shopping this evening, and snagging my fifth grader from another early release due to parent-teacher conferences this week. It's a full day :).

I can't claim much Irish heritage in my family tree (unless you count Scots-Irish, which fits in there somewhere!), but just as I love to celebrate Valentine's Day, I have an affinity for St. Patrick's Day for many of the same reasons. It's a bright spot in a still frigid March, with festive St. Patty's Day greens promising that spring may finally be around the corner. It's a pick-me-up, a little something to look forward to, and a great excuse to drop a colorful and cheery card in the mail to far-flung family and friends. I love the parade of holidays and seasons that makes our calendar whirl around from January to December each year, and I love how each of these gives me an excuse chance to keep in touch with the folks who mean the most to me.

It's snowing here (again) today. I'm hoping that this will be the last snow storm of the season, but I've lived in New England long enough to know that's not likely. I'm tired of seeing frozen banks of dirty snow piled everywhere. I long to (finally) see something green in the landscape we travel through daily. And if I can't yet see my neighborhood green up, then at least I can enjoy the greens that St. Patrick's Day brings and smile, knowing that spring is on its way, even if it takes its own sweet time.

It's time to keep on moving down my to-do list for today, so I really must run. Thanks for stopping by to visit today and sharing a little slice of bliss with me!
Emily

Happy Fat Tuesday!

It's hard to believe that Ash Wednesday is just about here--even though it is soooooooo late this year. It always seems to sneak up on me! Anyway, that means that today is Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras. My HS freshman daughter's French 2 class is celebrating Mardi Gras today at school. She took on the "culinary expert" role for her group's project (another group member is researching the history of French Mardi Gras traditions, and someone else is reporting on some other aspect which completely escapes me at the moment!). Her assignment: research and bake a King Cake to share with the class. She and I worked together last night to bake the cake and had such a blast doing it! The Gulf Coast-style King Cake that we made is a cinnamon-filled coffee ring, and while it baked, the house smelled heavenly!! She was so pleased with how it turned out. We cut it into small wedges for sampling (as well as to make it easier for her to carry it to school). After we'd cut 36 wedges for sharing and completely filled the plastic container for transporting them, we still had about 1/4 of the cake left. Guess what we're having for dessert after supper tonight!!!!

We were so thrilled, we just had to take pictures (even though the post-sunset lighting conditions in the kitchen were less than ideal). Here's what it looked like:

Yum!! The recipe my daughter found (you can find it HERE) was really simple--it's based on Pillsbury Crescent Rolls!! I think we'll be adding this recipe to the "keepers" file ;).

And while I'm sharing non-crafting photos, I thought I'd share a photo of some visitors we had last week. Last week I noticed that a lot of deer have been hanging out in our neighborhood. One morning I saw about 20 deer amble down our road just before sunrise. Just before bedtime that evening, we spotted five or six deer bedding down in our neighbors' yard. I was stunned the next morning to see them still there, right out in the open! I grabbed my camera for this shot, taken right through the sidelight windows of our front door, not quite 30 feet away. The sun was just starting to come up, and they were just getting ready to move on.

Well, I have tons to do today, so I've got to be moving along. I hope that my daughter's Mardi Gras celebration goes well today--and I hope that you have a fabulous day yourself!

Thanks for visiting!
Emily

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello and Happy Valentine's Day! I'd really hoped to write up this post yesterday (at the latest) and schedule it to go live much earlier today, but between having a husband home sick for two days this week and another Nor'easter winter storm that cancelled school yesterday, I didn't have much alone time to finish my top-secret Valentine's Day projects or get them photographed for a blog post. So, finally, everything is pretty much back to normal at my house, and I spent the morning putting the finishing touches on some Valentines and gifts for my family. It will be fun to surprise everyone at suppertime tonight!

I know that some folks pan Valentine's Day as an overly romantic, Hallmark-fueled holiday, but I really and truly love it! It gives me an event-kind-of-something to look forward to in the otherwise dreary, cold, and frozen month of February. The pretty colors (reds! pinks! lavenders!) are such bright spots in the colorless winter landscape, and the fun shapes/motifs (hearts! cupids! doilies! arrows!) and loving sentiments are true pick-me-ups. And how can you go wrong with a holiday that is rooted largely in chocolate? I say bring it on!!

I love giving Valentines! I give them to my husband and kids, but also send them to my parents, sister's family, in-laws, aunts and uncles, and friends all over the country. For me, Valentines are just such a fun way of sending a little love and letting the folks I care about know that I've been thinking of them. I spent a large chunk of my day on Monday getting my Valentines ready to mail: signing, stuffing and sealing envelopes, addressing, weighing and attaching proper postage, and then heading off to the post office to get them in the mail system before the end of the day. My fingers are crossed that everything will be delivered in time! Yes, it is a labor of love, but it makes me feel good, and I hope that a little something that I took the time to make and send will brighten the day of those I care about.

Over the years I've collected a number of small empty heart-shaped candy boxes, and I decided that instead of buying treats to give for Valentine's Day, I'd upcycle a few of my heart-shaped boxes and fill them with some homemade chocolate candies. Here are the boxes I decorated:

For my dad:

From DeNami Design: Dad stamp, Elegant Oval Frame stamp, heart from Whimsical Valentine stamp set, Chevron embossing folder, and Black Chevron washi tape

What's inside? Some hand-dipped Dark Chocolate Vanilla Creams!

I based these on this recipe from Land O Lakes.

For my mom:

From DeNami Design: Small Valentines Script stamp, Solid Rose Accents stamp set, and Red Heart Lace washi tape.

Wanna peek at what she'll be biting into? Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls!

I based these on this recipe from Parents Magazine (February 2011).

I have a punch art penguin-themed box for my hubby:
 

From DeNami Design: Square Word Bubble stamp, Love Sentiments stamp set, and heart from Whimsical Valentine stamp set.

a punch art owl-themed box for my 15YO daughter (to go with this card for her):

From DeNami Design: Square Word Bubble stamp

and a Despicable Me minion-themed box for my 11YO son:

The patterned paper is from Target's One Spot, and I printed the sentiment with my computer.

to go with the minion Valentine I made for him (I was inspired by this minion Valentine):

From DeNami Design: Small Valentines Script stamp, Love Sentiments stamp set, Small Heart Outline stamp, Small Scallop Heart stamp, chevron border from Modern Borders Set, and two white Boutique Buttons.

I can't wait to see everyone's reactions!!

Thanks for bearing with me through this long and photo-heavy post :D! I hope that you have a lovely day today.

Happy Valentine's Day!
Emily

My first Embossed Elements winner!

Greetings, friends! I hope you are keeping toasty wherever you are. We woke to yet another frosty morning here, and while it certainly hasn't been as cold here as elsewhere in North America these days, I'm pretty sure I'm done with the cold. Between the low temps and the wind chills, it just hasn't been safe for our regular to/from-school walks with my youngest each day. I miss them!

And speaking of warm, thank you so much for your very warm reception of my new monthly Embossed Elements feature for the DeNami Design blog! I loved reading all of your comments :D.

On my Monday Embossed Elements post I promised to return today with a winner of my embossing folder giveaway, and here I am to do it! I used random.org to pull a winning commenter:

That corresponds to commenter #8, which was Brenda in IN!! Congratulations, Brenda!! I'll be in contact with you shortly to get your mailing information :)

I've got a long to-do list today, but before I rush off, I'll leave you with a little more Embossed Elements inspiration featuring the lovely Layered Hearts embossing folder that Brenda has won:

I almost always reach for reds and pinks when making a Valentine card, so I challenged myself to do something a little different. It's clean and simple for the most part, but I loved letting the heart texture take center stage. And using lavender and celery together makes my heart happy (and hopeful for spring!!!). The stamps I used are from DeNami Design: Love Script and this teeny floral heart from the Whimsical Valentine stamp set.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Keep warm!
Emily

My Brand-New DeNami Feature: EMBOSSED ELEMENTS + a GIVEAWAY

Hi there, everyone! I'm here today with the very first installment of my new regular monthly feature for the DeNami Design blog. With today's post I'm starting a series called Embossed Elements that highlights all of the wonderful new embossing folders being carried in the DeNami Design store. If you haven't checked these out yet, you should! You won't believe all of the variety in this collection: the DeNami store carries an amazing 142 different embossing folder designs!!

Now, I do have a confession to make. While I've been papercrafting for nearly 10 years now, I've only just acquired my very first diecutting machine (thank you, Santa!!). So for the first time ever, I'm able to dabble with embossing folders! I wasn't completely sure that embossing folders would be for me, but in the short time that I've been playing with the embossing folders that DeNami carries, I've become completely addicted to them! I love the fabulous texture that they add to my creations--everything is so crisp, and the designs are deep. They really stand out! And I can't believe how much visitors to my blog comment on the embossing I've been featuring on projects I've posted there lately. It must be really noticeable!!

So whether you are brand new to embossing folders like me, or an old pro, I'm hoping that my Embossed Elements feature will help you learn your way around DeNami's new collection of embossing folders--and maybe even give you some new ways to use or think about embossing!

Today I'm sharing with you two different projects for Valentine's Day, and both feature the very festive Layered Hearts Embossing Folder from the DeNami store. One thing I really love about this embossing folder is that, while many of the embossing folders in DeNami's collection are clearly designed for the portrait orientation, this one is perfect for the the landscape orientation. Let's take a look:

For this first project, I started with a panel of red cardstock and punched the bottom edge using the EK Success Deco Scallop border punch and then ran it through my Big Shot in the Layered Hearts Embossing Folder. I matted this embossed layer with white cardstock and then mounted the whole enchilada on a pink card base.

Next I added a pink cardstock panel that I had embossed with another Valentine gem from the DeNami embossing folder collection: the Heart Embossing Folder. I really like the look of both of these embossed patterns layered on top of one another!

I stamped the Elegant Word Plate on white cardstock with Onyx Black Versafine Ink, and used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to align the pretty Sending You Love sentiment, stamped in Satin Red Versafine Ink, right smack dab in the middle. I decided to glam up my focal point just a bit with some gorgeous Ruby Red Sparklets Glitter adhered inside the loops of the word plate with a Quickie Glue Pen. A quick fussy cut was all I needed to get this ready for attaching to my card. I finished off my design with a simple red grosgrain bow.

My second card is a reminder that embossing folders are perfect for adding texture not only to rectangular panels, but also any precut shape you care to pretty up!

For this card, I started with a pink heart diecut, embossed it with the Layered Hearts Embossing Folder, and layered it on a heart-shaped card base die cut from red cardstock with a larger nested heart die.

Next I built my very own cupid's arrow embellishment with a wooden craft stick, a wooden veneer heart shape, and some bits of chipboard. I colored the wood bits red using a Faber-Castell Gelato and rubbed the color into the woodgrain with my fingertips. I trimmed angled fringe into two bits of chipboard to make the arrow's feathery fletching and colored them with a white Gelato. After gluing all the bits together to form my arrow, I outlined the heart-shaped arrowhead with dimensional dots drawn on with a white Crystal Lacquer Pearl Pen. 

Finally, I stamped the Love Flourish sentiment on white cardstock with Tuxedo Black Memento ink, trimmed out the sentiment, colored in the heart-shaped O with a red Copic marker, and adhered it to the card with some foam tape. Done!

I hope that this opening installment of Embossed Elements has given you some ideas for using embossing on your Valentine cards!

How would you like the chance to win this beautiful Layered Hearts Embossing Folder? I have one up for grabs in an Embossed Elements giveaway! Want to be in the running? Just leave me a comment on this post using the word "HEART." There's no need to be a follower of my blog to enter, but if you are a follower (or become a new follower!), you can have a second entry in the drawing--just leave me a second comment telling me that you are a follower and how you follow. :)

I'll leave commenting open until 11:59 p.m. EST on Wednesday, January 29, 2014, and will draw one commenter at random. The winner will be announced right here on my blog on Thursday, January 30, and if I'm able to find an email address, I'll be sure to contact the winner as well.

Thanks for joining me today!
Emily

Polar Bear Love

I spent soooooooo much time in my crafting space over the weekend--it was awesome! I have a lot of cards to add to my collection of Valentines to send out to family and friends in a few weeks, which has given me a real sense of accomplishment. Yay!

Anyway, the card I have to share this morning is for my friend Pam's very awesome Just Punch It challenge. Her latest challenge is to create a punch art project with a SNOW theme. What a fun one!

The obvious choice for a snowy punch art challenge would be a snowman, but I already entered a snowman card like that in one of Pam's Just Punch It challenges back in December. Sure, I could have come up with a different snowman design and that would have been just fine, but I've really been having fun learning about and playing around with punch art, thanks to Pam's challenge. So I figured that this would be a great opportunity to push myself to try something new, and I ended up cruising the internet for inspiration. I was ultimately inspired by this creation made by Cindy Lawrence to make this polar bear card, which I think will be so much fun to give for Valentine's Day!

I used the beautiful Love Flourish stamp for my sentiment and a Snowflake Swirl embossing folder  for my background. Both are from the DeNami Design store. The polar bear faces were constructed with round punches (1 3/4" for mama and 1 1/8" for baby + 3/4" and 1/2" for the ears) and ovals cut in half for the snouts. Easy and super cute! Both of my kids sent up choruses of "Awwwwww!" when I showed them what I'd made :). I'd have to say that I'm inclined to agree!

Both of my kids are home from school today for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, but hubby had to head in to work this morning (boo hoo). My daughter (HS freshman) has a week of mid-year exams to take starting tomorrow, so it's been a busy weekend of studying for her. But we are going to leave (hopefully in just a few minutes!) for a few errands and a bit of fun before lunch: we're heading to the arcade to use up the 100+ tokens we've had sitting around the house for over a year and a half now. It's time to clear those babies out! Then it will be back to the ol' grindstone (well, at least for some of us).

So, that's it for now. I hope you'll take a minute to check out Pam's Just Punch It challenge--it's really a lot of fun! She has some great prizes to offer! It's a relatively young challenge, so she doesn't have many players yet and I know she would welcome more folks to join in the fun :). I know, for one, that I'm having a blast!

Just Punch It challenge

Thanks for sharing my little slice of bliss for today!
Emily

Count Your Rainbows

Before we head off for church and Sunday School this morning, I'm posting another card that I made during my marathon crafting session yesterday.

The latest stamp release from DeNami Design included some really awesome new sentiment stamps! I've been waiting for just the right time to try out this new Count Your Rainbows sentiment, and I found the perfect sketch for showing it off. I'm playing along with this week's Tuesday Morning Sketches, where my sweet friend Jessi is this week's sponsor with a prize of her awesome crocheted mats! The challenge's "twist" this week is to make a monochromatic card, in addition to following the sketch. Done!

All of my stamps come from DeNami Design: the aforementioned Count Your Rainbows sentiment, Rainbow, and Small Cloud. I kept my rainbow monochromatic by coloring it with Copic markers from the Red family: R20, R24, R27, and R29. The patterned paper comes from an old, old DCWV mat stack. I made the fishtail banner  by covering a long piece of white cardstock with strips of red chevron washi tape that I picked up in the Target One Spot a couple of weeks ago.

Well, that's all for now--gotta run to get breakfast and herd everyone out the door on time!

I hope you have a fantastic Sunday today. Thanks for dropping by for a little slice of bliss!
Emily

Dots With Love

It's been a long time since I posted on a Saturday! It was a snowy day, and I was feeling crafty. So I stayed indoors and got busy in my crafting area. Yay for me!

I've been intrigued by this week's CASology challenge: DOT all week long. An idea had been forming for a couple of days, and I finally got a chance to get it all arranged on paper.

All of my design elements come from DeNami Design: dotted heart from Hearts stamp set, Large Dot Swirls, "with love" from Love Sentiments stamp set, Ruby Red Boutique Buttons, Red/White Dots washi tape, and White cardstock.

Well, my snow removal crew has just returned from their outdoor duties, so I've got to wrap this up and help get snacks and hot cocoa--and then concentrate on getting some supper on the table. I've had some chicken in the crockpot all day, and boy, does the house smell good!!!

I hope you've had a lovely Saturday! Thanks so much for dropping by,
Emily  

How to survive those college football bowl games . . .

My brother-in-law is one difficult guy to shop for. So this year instead of shopping for him, I decided to craft instead and came up with the idea of putting together a College Bowl Game Survival Kit.

I gathered up some of this favorite snacks (a big bag of Skittles and some smaller bags of barbecue and salt & vinegar potato chips) and packaged them in an upcycled acrylic box that formerly housed a pound of fancy salad greens.

Decorating the kit's lid was super easy with some fun sports-themed stamps from DeNami Design. I used stamps from both the Sports Balls stamp set and the All-Star Greetings stamp set. The stitched letters are digital elements from Design by Dani's I Like Love You digital kit, and that fun font that I used on the label is a Creating Keepsakes font called CK Sports Football. Perfect for this project! And I just happened to have that gridiron patterned paper in my stash.

I completed the collection of bowl-game goodies with a score card pad I designed myself in MS Word and printed out, four to a sheet. Then I simply cut the score cards into quarter sheets and bound them together into a rip-off pad with some PVA bookbinding glue. Now he'll have a way to keep up with all the scoring action with each college bowl game he watches!

Well, whether you are planning to spend your day firmly planted in front of a TV to catch your New Year's Day college bowl games or penning your new year's resolutions, I hope you have a fabulous day today!

Thanks for dropping by! Happy New Year!
Emily