New Years Eve

So what are you all doing tonight for New Years Eve? DH and I will probably start watching a DVD, fall asleep about 10:00, wake just before 11:00, and decide that it's bedtime. Woohoo! When the kids were little, we used to make 7-Up and orange juice "mimosas", put them in wine glasses, and I'd make special treats, then we played board games all night long. It was one of the few nights when the kids would beg to go to bed! "But I'm tired mom!" Good memories, those....

As for most of today, I plan to spend it in my craft room only taking time to make some dinner. Don't know if I'll post more cards, but I'm gonna try to get a bunch done today. Starting Wednesday, I will be putting in long hours at the museum for all of January, and may not have much time all month to create or post. I'll be checking in and will try to leave comments, but working full time + hours when I'm used to very part time will not be easy for me.

I started out my morning with the sketch from Unscripted Sketches 191. When I first looked at the sketch, I couldn't come up with anything. Then I saw Anita's entry there, and Ardyth's most recent cards, and voila!, ideas flew round and round my brain. Went back to US191, and my little fingers flew...! First, check out the sketch:

And this is my take on it:

Now, the navy looks a little black here, but trust me, it is navy. And yellow. Sigh. I love blues and yellows together. And the deets are: White, navy, and yellow Bazzill cardstock, TAWS stamp from the Awesome Blossom set, a scrap of yellow polka dot paper from Paper Studio, a button that I think is from Doodlebug, a smidge of cobalt twin from KFD for Scrapper's Spools, a few strips of white ric-rack, some mighty cute daisies from I only wish I knew where, and Spice Tin ink from Jenni Bowlin for Ranger. Happy dances everyone, and Happier New Year to you!

More Time in the Craft Room

Church was wonderful this morning. A great sermon on the 12-year old Jesus. Sun shining through the stained glass windows and a church full of "family". Every time I walk through the doors, it feels like I've come home. Do you suppose that's what heaven feels like, only better?!

So when I got home, I did the few Sunday chores I had to do, then hit the craft room. Whipped up another card for the Retrosketches #44 challenge. If you haven't played along, do check it out.

I've got some grandsons birthdays coming up in January, and figured I had better get on those cards. Keegan turns 3, and I thought the cute little alien was a good choice for him. The colors look really bright in this photo, but IRL, they look really cute.

Bazzill white and turquoise cardstock. A random scrap of orange polka dot patterned paper, striped washi tape, Paper Smooches Little Fella stamps, Stazon black ink, and orange Copic marker. Then just a random clear orange button with some raffia that I split and curled. Happy Dances!

Second Post for Today

With the exception of a quick run to the grocery store earlier, I have spent the majority of my day in my craft room. I won't post all the cards I made, but I needed a birthday card for my stash, and thought, what the heck, why not play along with another challenge?!! I found some really fabulous colors at the Runway Inspired Challenge, and while the lighting has changed the yellowy-greeny color, it looks, IRL, to be a perfect match. Here, I'll just show you the colors...

The skirt portion is where my inspiration comes from. I could almost feel the movement of that fabric, and wanted to capture its essence. Here's my take:

I used a pale, pale gray linen paper from my stash, it's probably years old, and then random greenish and navy papers from my scrap box. Bling is from e., stamp from PTI's Birthday Basics with Jenni Bowlin for Ranger ink. I cut the ovals with my Cricut. That's it. 

Ahhh...this is better

  

...And this card is definitely better than yesterday's card. I'm thinking I really need NOT to craft with migraines... It affects my vision and judgement more than I realize.
My craft room is right next door to our family room. My DH is retired and tries to watch sports as often as there are good games on TV. He's not one of those multiple TV set-up guys, or the kind of fan who has both cable and a dish in order to catch every kind of sporting event -- thank goodness, but he does like college basketball, the Yankees, Cubs, Dbacks, Bears, Packers, and the Bucks when our granddaughter is playing the drums at the game. What's relevant about this, you may ask...well, it seems that fairly often, I'm listening to some game while crafting, and sometimes, it seems that my mojo disappears if there isn't a game on! Go figure. Must be the rhythm of the sport, or maybe my subconscious thinks all those fans are cheering my cards! LOL!
Onto better things! Have you seen the way cool sketch over at Retrosketches, or the super fun color palette for this week's ColorQ Challenge? Well, check them out:

 

I decided to put them together and make some cute little thank you notes. And this is what I came up with:

The stamps are from a Christmas present - Clear & Simple's Sweet Tooth. Bazzill white cardstock, a Bo Bunny scrap of red polka dot, a scrap of striped, green polka dot Washi tape, SU red and black ink, with Memento's London Fog for the sentiment, a bling from Pure, and a snippet of red and white baker's twine.  I pop-dotted the candy up from the sentiment and angled the whole creation on the card base. I think it's fun, and hope you like it too. Happy New Year, and happy dances everyone!

US190, 10 MCD, CFC83

Quick post before the migraine escalates to the "please just shoot me now!" stage. Wanted to pop this very fast card into three challenges. First, Unscripted Sketches - 190, which has a really great sketch. Desperately wanted to play along as soon as I saw this, and today is the first day I've had to get into my craft room and play with paper. Love the DT over there!



I also wanted to get in on the 10 Minute Craft Dash, where Paulina has hooked up with CAS-ual Fridays #83, in a double-ish challenge. This card took me 9.38 minutes to make. Once I had all of my supplies at hand, I set the timer, and crafted like crazy! While the Cricut was cutting the little frames, I typed and printed my sentiment. I then took my scrap of white, trimmed it to just under 1 1/2", and stamped my snowflakes and snowman. I added a touch of green to his scarf and buttons. Cut them apart and adhered them to the frames. Trimmed my sentiment, inked the edges, adhered it to the green patterned paper, then the red and then onto the card base. Next it was the little frames, and finally the 3 blings. Viola! As my four-year-old granddaughter says, "easy-peasy, lemon squeezy." I highly recommend checking out these challenges and playing along!

Bazzill gray, white and red cardstock. Paper Studio green patterned paper, SU stamps. Memento London Fog ink. Lemon Chicken computer font. Crystal Stickers bling. Happy New Year and happy dances everyone!

Merry Christmas

The presents are under the tree. The food and treats are made. The house is clean, and I'm just waiting for the floors to dry before I get in the shower, and get ready for church.

All the little Sunday School kids are practiced. And our beautiful service begins at 4:30. We have one daughter and her lovely family here in town, and by the time I get home from church, they will be here and ready to have a few goodies and gifts.

The week continues with more family arriving and a few more Christmases.

I just wanted to wish everyone a Blessed Christmas, and to give you a sneak peek at some of my blessings. This crazy looking group is a very large part of my family. Missing a few family members, but for the most part, we managed to gather in one spot for a few hours. How blessed am I, how wonderful is our God.

So from our family to yours... Blessed Christmas, blessed life.

Blessed Christmas

To everyone out there in 'blogland', Blessed Christmas! All the busy work of the holidays is done, and I might even have time to do a little baking. ALL presents bought, wrapped, and where necessary, mailed. The true meaning of Christmas has been in the forefront of my mind, and because I've emphasized that, the other Christmas duties have gone awesomely well. Feels really nice. Later tonight, we will get some snow for our white Christmas, though not nearly the amounts that have been falling west of here. Still getting rain here.

I need to thank the super DT over at CASology. My card got an Honorable Mention, for which I am grateful and pleased about. So many fantastic cards made by so many talented ladies. Be sure to head on over to check out the winner and other HMs, as well as playing along for the next challenge.

Onto this card...I made a special card for my most wonderful, bff, Jennifer. I was very inspired by the Sweet Dreams photo over at Moxie Fab's Tuesday Trigger. Some of my favorite colors here:

And who doesn't like gingham??!! I knew I had the perfect paper in my hoard (yeah, I saved this piece for just the right project....)

The gingham, blue, and gold papers are SU. White is from Bazzill.  Some SU snowflake stamps, as well as Stampabilities, and Paper Smooches. Making Memories stick pins. Gold Stampabilites ink. Random ribbon. I like it, and I hope Jen does too. She's been warned not to peek before she gets it! Happy Dances and Christmas Blessings to everyone! 

CASology 23

Another fast post today. And I may not be able to post again for a weekish. Besides the Christmas things, I will be travelling north for at least three days. Wanted to share what I consider to be the greatest gift of all time. It fits well with this week's challenge over at CASology.

This is what I made

I free cut the manger scene, and both the black and white papers are Bazzill. A dab of  SU's Barely Banana ink, a computer generated font, and one little bling from a random sheet I found in the drawer. The top white is pop-dotted against the black. Happy Dances everyone.

CAS & 10MCD

Another gorgeous day here, but the weatherman says that there is snow in the forecast...Now, I don't mind snow, but I need to make the two-hour drive to watch three of my grandchildren tomorrow and would rather not have bad roads.

Today, however, I made a card for CASology and the 10 Minute Craft Dash. This little card really did take under 10 minutes to make. The key is to be very organized. have everything ready to go, then craft like crazy!  While the Cricut machine was cutting my circles, I made my "star" and measured the center where my first circle would go. Then it was just a matter of gluing those circles on, and adding a "trunk". Just made it, time was 9:47 seconds!!! Whew!!!

All Bazzill cardstock, and random bling. I purposely left the sentiment off the front. There is a verse inside. It was difficult to capture the red in the photo, but it is a bright, lovely red. Happy Dances

US187 & CAS22

Quick post today. But I have some good news to share. My card was chosen as the winner of the 10 Minute Craft Dash, week #7. I'm quite delighted! Wow. There were some very lovely cards, and I am very honored to be among such company. Check out the site on the link above and feel free to leave those wonderful crafters some comments on your favorites!

Today's card will be uploaded to CASology #22, Sparkle and to Unscripted Sketches #187. Another great cue card at CAS, and another really fun sketch at US. Be sure to stop by both places, and play along!

Bazzill white & black cardstock. Random scraps of glitter paper, and a random ribbon. PTI's sentiment from Birthday Basics with SU ink. Santa has promised that there will be a light box under the tree for me this year. I have been very, very good.  ; )

RS40

Good Monday morning.  Even though southeastern Wisconsin is blanketed in fog, the temperatures are in the 50s, and we have no snow to worry about for now.  A couple of years ago, as of yesterday, we were hit with a huge blizzard. I'm grateful we haven't been hit as of yet. Almost done getting my Christmas together. Just waiting for the cyber items to arrive then wrap and mail. A few cookies to bake, and then I'm done. Sorry if that sounds like I've really got things together, but I have to travel mid-month, and am unsure exactly when I'll be home. BIL needs some cardic care, and I am going to help my sister. Prayers for good outcome are sincerely appreciated.

I'd like to say thank you to the DT over at Unscripted Sketches. One of my cards made the Top 3, and I am honored and humbled to have been chosen. You can see the sketch and my card here: US Top 3. This is a very fun place to play; I highly recommend it, and you can bet I'll be playing there again soon!


I'm not sure about you, but I really like sketch challenges. This week over at Retro Sketches, there's a really fun sketch:

Thought I'd play along and here's what my take looks like:

Once again, I've used all scraps except for the white Bazzill cardstock base. The blue snowflake paper is from BoBunny, and its reverse is the red polka dot. SU ink, stamp, blue polka dot, and cardstock. Random red cardstock, a scrap of striped. Random button and mini-skinny ribbon. The center square is pop-dotted above the rest of the card. I do like this, and I hope you do too! Happy Dances everyone.