Happy Thanksgiving!

To all my blog friends.....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! :)

Breaking News...

I don't know how many readers are local and have already seen this but look HERE. That house is my next door neighbor's house. (80 year old Sweet Betty that I always mention here) Ted and I have spent the entire day over there cleaning and you would not believe the mess that this has left. I feel so bad for her but I am so thankful that she is safe and was sleeping in the back bedroom when it all happened. It's funny b/c I couldn't sleep last night and went in my scrap studio late (which is the closest room to Betty's house) and I could hear a car outside rev the engine many times. When I looked out my window, the car was leaving. Little did I know, he was the guy who just ran into her house! I'm happy to hear the police caught him trailing his leaking oil from the car....not the smartest criminal. lol

Anyway, Betty is the SWEETEST lady....please send good thoughts her way. Thanks. :)

Twilight Layout

Wanna see what I made during my scrappin' day with the girls yesterday? .... I just had to document my love for the Twilight books. The journaling reads, "I tried to resist it but I gave in. My friend Jennie told me that I must read these books. I did and now I am bitten with the Twilight craze. I can’t get enough. I read the last book slowly savoring each chapter because I knew I would miss the Edward character. I was right. I’m already having withdrawals. So glad I can get a future fix with the movies."

A closer look...

To create the circles, I stamped them with different Hero Arts background stamps and then sanded/distressed the edges. The title was created with a twilight font I downloaded from the internet.

During my day with the girls I was surprised with a cake as a congratulations on my recent publication. My sister's camera batteries ran out, so I snapped a picture of the half eaten cake when I got home. But you get the picture. lol .....It was yummy. Well, I'm off to spend the day with my sweet husband. He is off all week. Yay! :)

Inky Fingers...

Just got home from an all day class taught by the super sweet Jennifer McGuire. I always learn so much from her. She is just oozing with talent. If you ever take a class with Jennifer, you will always leave with inky fingers. lol I love playing with ink and different stamping techniques and that was what today was all about. :)

Speaking of inky fingers....I thought I would share a few holiday cards I've made lately:

The first one is a swivel card. The brad allows you to swivel the card open to reveal the message inside... Okay, off to pack my scrapbooking stuff. I'm going scrappin' with the girls tomorrow. This weekend if full of creativity! Thanks for stopping by!

Thank You!

First, I want to say THANK YOU to all of my sweet blog readers. Your comments about my last post put a big smile on my face. I could feel the love. :)

All weekend I have been cleaning, purging, and cleaning some more in my studio. I'm determined to get it perfect so I can make a video (or at least pics) to share with you all. I'm excited. Is it just me or when you go through stuff and organize it, it sparks your creativity?? That is what happened last night so I had to take a break and play. Here is the layout I created using some photo booth pics from our Chicago trip...(who would have thought that $5.00 was so well spent. These are my favorite pictures!)

A closer look...

Journaling reads, "Ted and I celebrated our five year anniversary in Chicago. We found a photo booth at Navy Pier and these pictures are my favorite from the trip. Just us slowing down, being silly, having fun, and enjoying each other’s company. A perfect display of our love."

In other random news, I finished the last chapter of this book....The last book in the Twilight series. Sigh. I'm having withdrawls already. lol It's funny because I read this book SUPER slow so that I could make it last longer. I almost didn't want to read the last chapter but I decided to go ahead since the New Moon movie is coming out this Friday. Stephanie Meyer was on Oprah last week and said there may be a fifth book in th future. I hope so!

Okay, off to get some work done. Have a great Monday!

Removed for Publication...

Honestly, I thought I would never put these words on my blog. But today I did just that. I'm so excited to share that a magazine requested some of my cards for a future (April 2010) publication. I am beyond excited. For YEARS I have submitted with no response. I've even vented here before about being frustrated and doubting my creativity. I know that I have many readers who are stars in this industry and may think I am silly for being so excited :) .....but I truly am giddy. (It was also nice to receive the news last night...on my hubby's birthday. He said it was his best birthday present ever. Isn't he sweet?)

Getting published was a huge personal goal of mine and it feels so good to see it happening. It is also a good time to give a shout out to Laura. For not only being a great source of information about being published but telling me to keep submitting. Thanks Laura. :)

Okay, off to mail my cards in. Just had to share the big news with my blog friends!

Happy Birthday Ted!

My sweet hubby turns the big 40 today! We already went and picked up his present last week. I got him a STIHL leaf blower. Ted's old leaf blower broke awhile ago and when you have a yard like we do....it is a necessity. I think he was extremely happy to have a new toy and not have to rake all those leaves. :) Happy Birthday hon. I love you so much. XOXOXOXO

Off to bake his birthday cake...strawberry...yum!

Be back soon...

Glitter!

The Hero Arts Challenge this week is to use glitter. I don't use glitter that much because of the mess but I do love diamond stickles so I used some on this card on the felt snowflakes....

It was hard to photograph the bling on the snowflakes so here is a close up shot...

I also added more bling by swiping a VersaMark Champagne Ink Pad over the embossed background and then tracing around some of the circles with a glitter pen. Also, the purple cardstock with the greeting on it is a Bazzill bling cardstock. Again, it was hard to photograph.

Speaking of Hero Arts, I participated in a ATC swap awhile ago and received my group's ATC cards in the mail the other day. I was going to photograph all of the cards but Yaneri (a sweet girl in my group) already photographed all of them and did such a great job. Check it out HERE.

Okay, off to watch Oprah that is on my DVR. Can't wait. Ellen was on today. Love her. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Address Labels

Back today with another idea using the tiny Christmas stamps from my last post. I decided to use them to create address labels when mailing out my Christmas cards. I already have a stamp that has our address on it. So I stamped it on a sheet of sticky labels and then stamped various Christmas images next to it. Super fast and easy...Also, I want to tell you about the red envelopes next to the labels. Those are a few Christmas cards I whipped up for Noah. He is a five year old boy that I learned about through blog hopping that is in his last stages of cancer. His family is celebrating Christmas early this year in fears that he will not make it much longer. PLEASE take a few minutes out of your day to send him a Christmas card. You can find more info. including the address HERE. I can not imagine what this family is going through but if sending a card puts a smile on his face, I'm in.

Okay, off to get some of my to-do list checked off. Have a great weekend! :)

BINGO!

Remember THIS post? Well as soon as I was done making the Halloween ones, my mind started to think how cute it would be with Christmas stamps! Well as I am working on that, I see THIS (scroll down to NOVEMBER 1st tweet) post and thought it was funny that I wasn't the only one who thought Christmas stamps would work well. lol

I used the Hero Arts ink and stamp Christmas set that comes with 18 tiny rubber stamps. The images are adorable! What is so great abou them too is the back has the images of the stamps and that is what I am going to cut up and use as the call out cards! I also printed my BINGO cards smaller than last time to make the stamps fit better.
and since I had another ink and stamp set (word fun) on my desk, I decided to make a set for my niece who is now reading and make the focus more on words rather than all images....Are you tired of BINGO cards yet? lol Well, come back tomorrow...I'll have another idea using these tiny stamps and I promise they are not bingo cards. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I know, I know. It's not even Thanksgiving and I am already talking about Christmas. But I am determined to be more prepared this year so I can sit back and enjoy the holidays. I decided to make a mini card set using the Earth Love collection from Cosmo Cricket. I purchased a few of the papers from my Chicago trip with Carla when she took me scrapbook shopping.

This set is for my neighbor, Betty. I love Betty. She is so sweet. She is eighty years old and is always talking about her family and grandchildren, so I thought this would be a great gift since they don't live close by.

I used a glitter pen to highlight images on each card. It was hard to photograph the great shine it gives but you can kinda see it on the yellow birds back on this card...

Thanks for stopping by! Off to clean up my studio. Night!

BFF Kit...

Hi friends. Back today to debut the November Kit of the Month, Best Friends Forever Kit:

All of the patterned papers are double sided with solid colors on the back...
This month Dream Team Artist, Laura Vegas created her magic with this kit. Here are some of her projects...
Aren't her projects awesome? Thanks Laura! You can find more details about the kit HERE and more info. on Laura's projects HERE. Thanks for stopping by!