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I stayed inside today ~

And got a few more projects done. I am thrilled to have completed my 2008 calendars. That's always quite a task! I just have to print off 2 pages and bind them. I don't know if I've ever been done so early in the month. I also got our yearly newsletter made. I've addressed the envelopes. So the only thing I have left to do is print off the color copies at work and stuff the envelopes. They will go out in the mail tomorrow. Another yay!!!

I made a couple of cards today. Here is one of them. Don't look Michele!!!!



This next card is for my boss. All of us girls pitched in to get him and his wife a night on the town. There are gift certificates to AMC theaters and a Kona Grill gift card. I played around with Tim Holtz's 12 days of Christmas project on here (day 8). Mine doesn't look as good as his (of course) but it honestly came out better than I thought it would. I made the wood grain look. It really does look much better in person than in this photograph.



Just for fun. I bought several of those Making Memories giant chipboard shapes last Christmas. I covered this one with Daisy D's pattern papers. It might just show up as a giant tag on somebody's present this year.



And lastly I made this tree. I got the inspiration from here. Mine isn't as pretty as hers is, but I think it is very pretty. I recently purchased a styrofoam cone to make a different tree. But I ran across this tree and decided I would rather have it, especially for a lot less work. I tore Christmas songs out of an old hymnal I have. I glued and old wooden spool to the base. I painted an old metal snowflake for the tree topper and put a Creative Cafe brad in the center. I found the "snow" buried deep in my holiday decorations. I have no idea how old it is, but it is old. I think they make better fake snow now. And my tree would probably look better with it, but I used what I had on hand. I'd love to make more of these in varying heights for a forest like effect.



Well I believe that's it.

Have a great week!

I got a lot of "work" accomplished on my day off!

I made this card for my daughter's friend who is having a birthday party this weekend. All papers came from the scrap pile. The stamps are Stampin Up and Creative Cafe. And look....I used the Sizzix too!



I made this card for a friend.



These projects are for my February class at Captured Memories. It's a cone (treat holder) and a card/album.



This card/album is made with an office manilla folder. I love the look and feel of it!



The papers are from Cosmo Cricket's Hey Sugar line. Perfect for my project. Though not quite as bright as it appears in pictures.



I had a fun day with the girls today. Shopping at the new Nell Hills in Briarcliff (plus a few other close shops) and lunch.



Sooooo much eye candy in this store!



I absolutely loved this table! It was so beautiful. And probably oh only a thousand dollars to create this table setting :)



Even the bathroom was pretty. Pretty enough to photograph anyway ;)



Then when I returned to school to pick up Allie, the brownies took a field trip to the marble factory. If anybody needs a marble made just come see me ;)

Another big day planned tomorrow. I teach then we have my husband's work Christmas party. I'll be gone most of the day tomorrow too!

Captured Memories January Layouts Class

I just completed my January layouts for Captured Memories.



It might be kinda hard to see, but the mitten has glittered felt on it.



And on this layout, there is glittered snowflakes on the snowman's hat and scarf. I got this cute idea from this incredibly adorable card made by Rae for CMK's Scenic Route Contest this month. I used my new glue stamp pad with this and it totally rocks! Everybody who stamps needs one of these!



And I hope you can all tell that the letters spelling "cocoa" are actually marshmallows. I think my cup came out pretty good, so I'm excited about that. I was afraid it wouldn't look like much of a cup.

Well I haven't heard from Homegrown Hospitality, so I will probably be able to post pictures of the projects soon (see below post).

Tomorrow is a day for moms. A bunch of us are dropping our kids off at school, then heading out for a day of fun. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

By the way, I photographed the above layouts with my new portrait lens I ordered for Christmas. I ordered it yesterday and it came today! Free shipping. I'm quite happy right now.

It's beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

with all these Christmas projects I have had going on this weekend. I altered the Starbucks Advent Tree that I purchased last year. They are still selling them this year if you want on for yourself. I just used pattern paper, stamps and a white pen on mine. I love the look of flowers and buttons, but I decided to keep it pretty simple. I really couldn't figure out what I wanted to do to the top. Finally I cut some bazzill into strips and sewed a zig zag stitch down the middle and fashioned the pieces into a bow.



I've only filled a few boxes with notes. I need to get some candy and trinkets to fill up the remaining days. The papers are made by imaginisce. The stamps are Stampin Up.

I made this wall plaque for my friend who had a baby at the end of October. I made her a set for her daughter born about 18 months ago and she wanted another one for her new addition. Luckily I still had some of the paper left to make one. I really like the ones I made for her daughter though - but I didn't have enough of it all.



This weekend I was busy creating projects to submit to Homegrown Hospitality. It's a very cute magazine jam packed with ideas of gifts to make. Such cute stuff in there. Anyhow, I'm not sure if I can post the projects I submitted, but here are a few peeks. I love how my projects turned out and I have my fingers crossed that they will too.







Today I started working on my January layouts class. I've only completed 1 so far. 2 to go. Plus I'm hoping to have my February class (gift cone and mini card/album) ready to go by Saturday too. I need to get to work on this stuff.

Have a great week!

Holiday weekend is over!

Here are a couple of shots today I took for my next Photography Club meeting on Tuesday. I missed last month's meeting because of vacation. So I'm not really sure what this month's assignment was, except to photograph a person. Who better to photograph than Allie?

We had planned to head to the arboretum on Friday to shoot some "leaf" photos, but it was just too chilly for this whimp!

I realized today was my last opportunity before the meeting to really get a shot. I covered a board with wrapping paper (to use as the background) [I got this cool tip from Holly of Pink.Sugar.Pop]. I tried to make Allie's too long bangs gracefully cover her face. I sat her next to a window for optimal natural light. Then I put Clay holding white posterboard opposite the window to reflect light back onto the dark side of Allie's face. I took a couple pictures with a candy cane, but that just wasn't exciting me. So I made Allie a hot caramel apple cider and put it in a festive holiday cup. I told her to have fun drinking it and that a face full of whipped cream would be cute. She was plenty happy to oblige. Check out the results for yourself:





I had to convert the photos to black and white because Allie's pink camo pajamas clashed with the tan and red Christmas tree background. I can't wait until I can get some constructive criticism from the class. It's always helpful to hear other's suggestions.

Here are a couple of layouts I never got posted:



The above layout was created with mostly Daisy D's papers and embellishments. But there are a few other products thrown in there for good measure.

The below layouts were created with Doodlebug. I just couldn't stop working on these layouts. Finally I had to step away from the pen and call the layouts complete.





We went to the in-laws this weekend. Every year I make a digitally scrapped calendar for myself, my mother and my mother-in-law. The great news is that I've finished 7 out of the 12 layouts! It's always so much work creating these. I don't have any of the layouts on this computer, so I'll have to post pictures of those later. Like maybe after Christmas since my mom reads this blog.

Well off to finish dinner. Have a great week!

Did a little scrapping this weekend

and I did a little shopping too!

First here are my finished layouts for my December 8 layouts class at Captured Memories.







While there, I finally got to shop the Creative Cafe. I love the product. Danelle had such a great idea with this concept. I couldn't buy everything that I wanted because of pricing questions but that's probably not a bad thing since I spent plenty of money already. I'll hit the other items next time I go in.

Today I had 4 of my bunco buddies over for the afternoon to make cards. They were whipping out cards left and right and I finished a whopping "1" card while they were here.



Of course there was quite a bit of detail with this card.



It's my submission for CMK's Scenic Route Roxbury card contest this month.



Win or lose, I love it...even if it took me over 3 hours to complete!



There are a couple of tags, and a pocket for goodies.



Somebody will likely get it for Christmas...but it just might have to be Clay if I can't part with it!

So I finished this card and Allie did 16! And they are quite cute. I sure which I could work at her pace.


And she even had sayings/sentiments in many of them. Aren't the cotton ball snowmen cute in the back. But both of our favorite is the one in the front row on the left with the fireplace and the stockings.

Well off for dinner and maybe even clean up this mess a bit.