Mojo Monday 178 Entry

Here's my card for Mojo Monday 178! The card also gives you a little sneak peek of the Don't Stop Believing digital scrapbook kit by Libby Pritchett and Meghan Mullens, coming to Sweet Shoppe Designs on 2/19/2011!

I know it's been a terribly long time since I've updated the blog. I have created TONS of projects but as usual, I am so busy designing and creating things that I don't leave enough time to update the blog with everything I've done lately. :) Here's hoping I can manage to schedule some time to update the neglected blog in the near future because I have SO many things to share!

Christmas Survey

Just for fun! Consider yourself tagged if you want to play along, and leave a comment with a link to your blog so I can read your answers! :)

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Silk soy nog mixed with Tazo decaf chai tea concentrate. I'd totally say egg nog but the whole having to be dairy-free thing makes that an impossibility. Perhaps next year I'll be able to have some again.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? According to my mother, Santa is MUCH too busy to have time to wrap the presents for every girl and boy.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Our tree has white lights and our house has colored lights.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Yes, but since it's hung from the chandelier over our table, it's ornamental only. :)

5. When do you put your decorations up? Whenever we get around to it - we threatened to do it before Thanksgiving but life got in the way. Right now the tree is up, but everything else is still in boxes upstairs.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? My mom's rum cake. Sadly, I haven't been able to have any in a couple of years. I may try to make a gluten-free modification, we'll see.

7. Favorite Christmas memory as a child? Driving around in our 1981 Suburban on Christmas Eve looking at lights while listening to the Muppet Christmas album, then going home and having homemade eggnog milkshakes.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What do you mean, the truth about Santa? My mom always said when you stop believing, he stops coming. :-Þ

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We never did growing up, but my husband's family did. Ours will - it'll be Christmas jammies.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Heavily? It's decorated mostly with ornaments from my childhood as well as ornaments from my husband's childhood as well. The lower 1/3 has plastic ornaments on it.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Since I've lived in Texas and California all my life, I love snow because it's a rarity in both plaecs.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes. But growing up in Texas, I don't associate ice skating with winter or Christmas. Weird, huh?

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My Fisher Price orange teddy bear with a blue bib that had an apple embroidered on it, and it squeaked when you squeezed its tummy.

14. What’s the most important thing about Christmas for you? Celebrating the birth of my Savior, Jesus Christ.

15. What is your favorite Christmas Dessert? Mom's rum cake

16. What is your favorite Christmas tradition? reading the Christmas story in Luke

17. What tops your tree? Right now? nothing. I can't even remember what we have to go on top.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? I prefer giving

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? O Holy Night is my favorite traditional one. I also really love Here With Us by Joy Williams, and Lindsey Lloyd Wallace's This Baby Boy

20. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? meh

21 Favorite Christmas Show? Veggie Tales Saint Nicholas

22. Saddest Christmas Song? Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer. It's so dang irreverent.

23. What’s your Wish for Christmas. That we'll really focus on the birth of Jesus, and keep our celebrations simple.

The {Stamps} of Life New Releases!

Hooray! I'm just a day behind in posting this entry! The first of the month always means a new release of the club member stamps from The {Stamps} of Life. Here are the projects I made using this fun Valentine's Day stamp set!

First up is this card created using the digital brushes from the Hearts2Love stamp set, as well as a few from Holly4Christmas. The background paper is from Memory Keeper by Jennifer Fox at The Digi Chick. The design is based on a Fuss Free: Christmas Greetings template by Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs. The paper roses are made using Paper Roses by The Cutting Files. Now, I have a Cricut (the smallest one, the first one they came out with that cuts 6" x 12", whatever its name is now!), but when I'm just going to cut a few things, I usually end up cutting by hand. It takes just as long as it does to load the software, hook up the machine, cut it out, and then assemble. But having the template still makes it easier to hand-cut the flowers! I added some swirl stickers and some snowflakes I punched out of some pearl paper by The Paper Studio. I cut the scalloped circles with my Nestabilities die and then punched holes in the scallops.

Next up is a re-purposed pillow box that had ribbon I picked up from Target's Dollar Spot. It had the paper inside already, I just traced part of the top onto white cardstock and stamped my design, then adhered it to the paper and reinsert it into the box.

This card uses digital paper from Oh Baby Girl by Basic Grey. The layout is inspired by Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge 134.

And finally, I have another altered treat box. I stamped the heart onto a piece of white cardstock and then used a scalloped circle Nestabilities die. Then I inked the edges with red ink. I created an accordion paper flower using a strip of paper from the 12 Days of Christmas paper included in a fantastic grab bag available at The Digi Chick until December 13. Be sure to check out the blog hop that starts here with Kelleigh Ratzlaff! There are some fantastic freebies and great gift ideas that are inexpensive and still pack an awesome punch!

New Releases at The Digi Chick!

This week is AWESOME for the hybrid paper crafter! There are so many fabulous kits and hybrid templates and cutting files - I wanted to work with everything!!

First on my list is a fun tag template/cutting file set by Geeky Diva Designs. Again, since I was just making one tag, I just hand-cut the tag but would definitely make my Cricut do the work if I were making more than one or two! The papers are from a kit bundled in a fabulous Jolly Holly Days grab bag by Nikki Epperson - for one really low price you get FOUR awesome products! The grab bag is a Black Friday special and will be gone in a flash, never to be seen at such a low price again! The stamps are digital brushes from the Joy2Christmas set by The {Stamps} of Life. I bought the jar through a Frontier co-op in my area and filled it with Candy Cane Hershey Kisses.



Next up is a simple card using the same papers and the gorgeous digital stamp Christmas Wish by Arty Pants. I just love the look of this stamp and it's so versatile! The sentiment is from the Christmas2Build set by The {Stamps} of Life.

Finally, I have the piece de resistance. I LOVE how this card turned out. I don't usually do these types of cards because they take me a really long time searching through my embarrassingly extensive stash of stuff looking for the perfect pieces to cluster onto the card. That dragonfly? Came from my jewelry box, believe it or not! Yes, folks, I raided my costume jewelry looking for pieces for this particular card. Anyway, the paper is from the Season of Thanks collaborative kit created by the designers at The Digi Chick. Yep, I used a Thanksgiving kit for a Christmas card! I embossed the pink paper using a Cuttlebug envelope. The brown distressed paper has that same Christmas Wishes stamp by Arty Pants, but instead of making it bold, I blended it with the paper for a more subtle look, and I also only used part of the stamp instead of the whole thing. I LOVE how it turned out and how versatile that stamp is! After printing and cutting, I tore part of the paper, and then crumpled it up. Then I distressed it using my Desert Sand ink pad by CTMH.

I added some pink ric rac ribbon and then ruffled up a different pink ribbon on top of that. Lately it seems as if no card I create is complete without a Prima Marketing flower or two, and the finishing touch on this card is of course a flower center by Prima as well. Additional touches are the rhinestone swirl, small layered cream flower with a pearl center, and small Sizzix scalloped tag die cut with the greeting on it, which is from the Holly4Christmas set by The {Stamps} of Life. The pink ink is Blush from CTMH.

Well, that's it from me for now - be sure to check out The Digi Chick to see ALL of the awesome new goodies available this week!

Blue, Cream, and a Little Bling!

I've been crafting like crazy lately - so much so that I haven't managed to make the time to update the blog! Today I want to share with you a sweet little card that ended up absolutely NOTHING like I had planned in my head - I actually started out using kraft as the base for this card!



The patterned paper is from the Winterland digital scrapbook kit by Nikki Epperson. I used my Nestabilities labels die for the sentiment paper and the border, as well as the butterfly, which is from Butterflies Set 1 by The Cutting Files. Since I was only using one butterfly, I didn't bother dragging out my Cricut and fighting with my Sure Cuts A Lot software - I just clipped the digital paper to the butterfly template, printed it out, and cut it by hand. If I were making a hundred butterflies (or even just 10), I'd definitely make the machine do it for me! After I cut the butterfly, I added some crystal glitter by PK Glitz to the edges and center of the butterfly to give it a little bling factor.

The base paper is from a pearl paper pack by The Paper Studio. I embossed it using a Cuttlebug folder. I added blue ribbon and the little silver charm from my stash of random stuff. The flowers and center are by Prima Marketing.

The sentiment is from the Friends4Ever set by The {Stamps} of Life. I originally stamped it with light blue ink, but couldn't get a good photo of the sentiment so I restamped it using grey and I like how it turned out.

Check back on Thursday when I show off some of the stuff I made for the new releases this week at The Digi Chick. There are SO MANY awesome products coming out and I've had a blast playing with them!

More TSOL Projects & Cards!

Here are a couple more projects and a card I created with this month's special release stamps from The {Stamps} of Life!

First is this Christmas card in non-traditional colors. I have this thing for pink and green on Christmas cards. I used the candy canes from the Christmas2Build stamps to make a heart. I added some crystal PK Glitz glitter on the alternating stripes. The mats are cut from a Nestabilities label die. The paper comes from Libby Weifenbach & Tracey Howard's digital kitFra Gee Lay.

Next is a simple sour cream treat container I made as part of a set of six for a tutorial I wrote over on Penny Springmann's Blog. The stamps are from the Monogram2Build and Alpha4Monogram. The circle is either a Nestabilities scalloped circle or else a 1.5" scalloped circle punch, I can't remember now which one I used! Isn't this paper GORGEOUS? I love it. It comes from Penny Springmann and Amanda Heimann's collab kit, Autumn Rhapsody.

Finally I have a simple initial tin that also uses the Monogram2Build and Alpha4Monogram stamps. I stamped using Color Box pigment ink in scarlet, then dumped red embossing powder on top and heat set the whole thing. I love these little boxes, and was thrilled to find a set at Michaels in their Sold-As-Is section marked 75% off, from $19.99 to $5! There was only one tin missing from the whole set so of course I snatched them up! They're perfect for holding a few chocolates or other small treat.

That's it for now! Stay tuned, as I'll have some more before the end of the month!

Battle of the Creative Teams, Week 2!

This week's challenge was MUCH easier! It was another two-part challenge. The first part was a scraplift train, where we listed the members of our team and then had to lift a layout from the person ahead of us and behind us in the list. The second part was to choose one of these three words: yesterday, today, tomorrow in our layout or project.

Our team chose "Today" as our word.

My project for this week's battle:



You can read the credits here.

And you can vote for Libby Weifenbach http://www.esurveyspro.com/app/polls/DirectPoll.aspx?id=6928 once per IP address! Hurry, the voting ends at 11:59 pm EST on Sunday, October 24!!!

Thanks!