Happy New Year!!!

A quiet new years celebration at my home tonight.  Kids in bed at just after 10pm after kids new years that happens at 10pm complete with champagne glasses filled with apple cider.  The last couple of new years were spent with friends and their families eating, playing board games and great conversation while the kiddies played (quite well together) in the finished kid friendly basement.  I was hoping to head over to a friends place this year but alas, a tummy ickyness has hit me and I am not very up to much excitement this evening.  In reflection: 2011 has been an AMAZING year!  New baby, new blog, the whole summer off with my family, travelling, Disney cruise, so many memories.  2012 has some big shoes to fill but my only hope is that it's filled with laughter, love and good health for those I love (and maybe a declutter-my-house elf and a weight loss miracle!)
Here's a card I made to send off 2011 and for great things in 2012! (and I'm also submitting for this week's Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge!)
Happy New Year everyone!

Hitting the Slopes

So it finally started snowing here on the 27th.  We had a green Christmas and I was getting very ancy for the snow to arrive for 2 reasons: 1) Love having a white Christmas, 2) can't go snowboarding without the snow (can't call yourself, "Snowboarderchic" for nothing!).  I finally got my first run out of the season yesterday (After missing last winter on account of being preggers).  It was just a little hill a few minutes away from home but I was meeting up with a friend and her hubby (who are here from jolly ol' England!) who are rookies at the sport so the small hill was just fine for them right now.  The conditions were not the best but enough to get down the hill without muddying up the board or having to walk down.  The bigger slopes were actually quite icy and the snow blowing around from the snow making machines made it tricky to see but I won't complain.  I got to go out and have fun with good friends.  Perfect.  Today it continued to snow and I'm dreaming of hitting the slopes again tomorrow...trying to convince my hubby (the skiier) to leave the kidlets with the grandparents and head to higher ground.  Don't think it's working.  Wahhhhh!  I really wish my 7 year old was up for snowboarding fun.  She's got the excitement and enthusiasm but no skill...yet.  I'm going to have to work on that for sure!
This week's Simon Says Stamp challenge is "Anything Goes".  Perfect!  I've got a couple projects to hopefully win me some smiles.  My middle daughter has a thing for penguins.  When we were in Disney last year she added to her collection and my oldest daughter decided to draw a picture of all of them.  She was 5 at the time of the drawing.  So cute!  The 3 penguins names are Peachi, Leechi and Chichi.

The next entry is a card a made just because I LOVE the stamp so much.  It's by Whimsy Stamps and it's so beautiful and dreamy!

Bingo-Revisited

Hey Blogworld.  I hope you all had a very wonderful Christmas!  I sure did and I can't describe my holiday so far with any better words than TRULY BLESSED.  Family, laughter, smiles and some granted wishes along the way.  What more can a girl ask for?  (*sigh*)
Here's another entry to this weeks Simon Says Stamp Challenge-Bingo.  This time I did the first column (ribbon/punches, die cuts/multifold).  I must admit, I saw this tri-fold card on various blogs and often wondered how in the world to do this.  It looks soooo cool and sooo complicated!  Then finally, a Google search found my teacher of such a cool multifold card.  It was at "Craftiblog".  Check it out!  It was soooooo incredibly simple I think I'm going to make a bazillion more of these cards.  One thing about this card that I do have to mention is that it's not the most intuitive card for people to open or close and I found myself cringing when someone would open it up and then close it again as it never seemed to close the right way and thus I was worried there were creases being put in places where there shouldn't be creases.  I guess it's like closing up a folded road map.  I found myself sneaking back to where the card was kept to re-fold it back properly after someone looked at it.  Oh well.  This particular card I gave to my hubby's brother and his wife for Christmas (I hate referring to them as "in-laws" as there always seems to be some negative spin on this term and by no way are my hubby's family a negative in my life in any way.  They are all truly amazing people and I am so totally blessed to be apart of their family!)  It was also the holder for some tickets we got for them to see "American Idiot".  I hope they enjoy it.  I haven't seen it but I'm a Green Day fan so I'm sure it'll be pretty cool!  Here's hoping for some luck...as always!

You've Got Mail

One thing I love about the Christmas holidays is getting Christmas cards in the mail.  Often these are generic store bought cards with a nice message inside letting you know that they've thought of you during the holidays.  So Sweet!  Sometimes they are photo cards with a sweet family pic or cute kid picture on it sending smiles.  Love these!  And sometimes...if you're super lucky you get a handmade card in the mail.  LOVE LOVE these!  Maybe it's because I know what kind of thought and care goes into a handmade card that I appreciate these the most.  Sooooo a couple days ago I was the proud recipient of a handmade card all the way from out west in Edmonton, AB.  My friend, Carrie V sent me a beautiful card that I just have to share!

It's soo gorgeous it inspired me to use the same idea on a holiday card I made for my daughter's teacher.  I didn't have double sided Christmas paper so as per Carrie's suggestion I stamped on the white side to snaz it up on the inside of the cones and added some glitter to boot!  I'm submitting it for this weeks Simon Says Stamp Bingo Challenge where I used the top row of items.

Here is my version.  Her's hoping I'll get lucky this week!

 

A Little Sketch-y to Me...

I can't believe Christmas is only days away...less than a week!  Yikes!  I spend the afternoon (and into the early evening) with my mommy, shopping.  Fun stuff...and not as crazy as I thought it would be.  We didn't hit the mall but went to a Power Center and Toys R Us (luckily not the death wish I was expecting!).  We found pretty much everything we were looking for...except for this Girly Train Set by Imaginarium called "Downtown Shopping Fun Railway Set".  My daughter (C2) had cut it out of a flyer and put on her wish list but apparently it doesn't exist!  It's not online, Toys R Us has never heard of it and it's not even Googleable (is that a word?).  How in the world my daughter managed to find this and cut it out is quite amazing (and utterly frustrating).  If anyone has every heard of this and know where I can find one, please share!

On another note, This week's Simon Says Stamp Challenge is to follow a sketch.  Here is the sketch:

And here is my take on this sketch...(do you detect a theme?).  Wish me luck!

The penguin is from Darcie Stamp set and the snowflakes are from Inkadinkado.

I'm a Christmas Card Making Machine!

Okay, maybe not a big machine. I know I'm not churning the cards out as fast as I'd like to but I'm definitely in a groove!  I used to have all my winter/Christmas stamps all scattered about since much of my stamps are organized by manufacturer (I have a "database" on my iPhoto where I take a picture of my stamps, put them in a "scrapbook stamps" event and attach keywords to them to help me search for them later.  I name them based on their Manufacturer name and stamp name/Title).  I realized that it's much easier get more done when I just have to go to one box where all my stamps are...sooooo I moved all my winter/Christmas stamps to one box and I just keep pulling them out and getting inspired and then letting the creative juices flow (not to mention it makes for a less cluttered desktop since I only need one box out!).  Here are a couple of my Christmas creations!  I'd also like to submit them to this week's Simon Says Stamp challenge.  Yay!

This is a Cuttlebug emobossing folder that I used the debossed side of and filled in the center snowflake with Stickles.

This is another Cuttlebug empbossing folder to which I added patterend paper to accent some of the ornaments.

Another Cuttlebug embossing folder (detecting a theme here?) and an adorable Penguin stamp from Wild Rose Studio.

From Across the Pond

So I made a card a couple of weeks ago for a friend of mine who lives just across the Atlantic pond in Liverpool, England.  I used to work with her a while back until she moved on to bigger and better.  I was quite excited to hear she was coming down this holiday for a visit and even more excited that she wanted to spend some time hitting the slopes or our snowboards.  The card I made for her was an attempt to share with her my eager anticipation.  The inside of the card reads, "snow much fun!".  It just came in the "post" for her this past week.  So exciting!  This card was fun to make and most of it had to do with the inspiration!  See you soon, Snowboarding buddy!  Maybe this winter theme can also land me some luck with this week's Simon Says Stamp Challenge.

The awesome snowboarder is a digi stamp from The Greeting Farm. 

The Social Calendars of a 5 and 7 Year Old!

So as December kicks off, Christmas shopping in full swing, holiday planning on the mind and even some sprinkling of snow has arrived...top all that off with 5 birthday parties to attend for which my little 5 year old was invited and another 3 of which my 7 year old was invited to (Luckily 2 of the parties between C1 and C2 are the same party).  My goodness!  The social calendar of the SK and 2nd grader is busy busy!  2 of these parties have already come to pass this weekend.  So much fun for the parent to even just come and watch!  The first party was an all girl party with about 6 SK kids at a place called Creative Kids.  What a fun place!  The girls got to pick, stuff and dress their own little animal (kinda like a "Build A Bear" but wayyyyyy less crowded or stressfull (for the parent)).  My girls had a great time!  Today was a party at the local grocery store where the kids got to make their own pizza and decorate their own cake to take home.  So much fun!  My hubby and I were hoping to leave the kidlets at the party and head to the grocery store to do some shopping...but the party was so interesting I didn't want to miss out on the fun the girls were having!  With this busy weekend in mind, I made 2 cards for these parties which I hope would land me some much needed moola to splurge on myself from the Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes challenge this week!

The embossing folder is from Creative Concepts, the stamp is from Belles n Whistles, patterned paper: DCWV, Martha Stewart deep edge punch, Spellbinders scalloped circle, Copic Markers for colouring.

Sizzix embossing folder (Tim Holtz collection), gear dies from Tim Holtz/Sizzix, patterned paper from MME, stamp from The Greeting Farm, Copic Markers, Greeting Stamp from Inkadinkado.