Happy Thanksgiving

Thank you to all those who stop by and visit me 

I really appreciate it 

I will be back soon with more inspiration for you.

A Swirly Tree

Hi Everyone!!!

Recently I purchased a European craft magazine and it contained a free small scroll shaped Christmas Tree die. I really couldn't resist that temptation, since I just LOVE dies. So, I designed a card and used the tree as the focal point.

That little tree is really darling and since I used DP that had holly in it, I used my Holly Dies from Heartfelt Creations to fashion a holly sprig. I also used two Spellbinders dies, the oval shape and the Oval Crown. I used a hand punch to punch out those berries and I used a MS twig punch to make the branches for the holly.The CS I used with the Crown Oval die is a very glittery leftover piece after I cut a card for a friend.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

• A Gem of a Challenge - #107  Sparkles
• Allsorts - #234   Bring on the Bling
• Challenges 4 Everybody - Challenge #34: Anything Goes
• Crafty Calendar -  November  All things Christmas
• Great Impressions - (November) (4th Week) Holiday Card or Tag
• Inkspirational - (W1 of 2) Anything Goes*
• Little Claire's  -  (Nov/Dec) #39  Christmas
• Scribble and Scrap - Challenge #6 (1st Week) Always Anything Goes

Well hope you had a great Monday. Thanksgiving is going to be here soon and I have to make a side dish and some cookies for Thursday. 

Thanks for stopping n today,I will be back soon. 

The Cookie Monster strikes

Hi Everyone,
I'm back. LOL. Yesterday I mentioned cookies that I made using just three ingredients.So let me show you those cookies. Too bad we don't have a way for you to sample these thru the internet. Well I guess you'll just need to try the recipe out for yourself. The easiest cookies I've ever made. And so yummy!!! Thanks Donna and Charlie for the recipe.

Here is a close up of one of the cookies

Is your mouth watering yet??  Click here for the exact recipe that I used and the great thing about making these is you can use any type of cake mix. I pinned this recipe to my Pinterest account, and filed it in my Food-candy/cookies board. The ones pictured here are made with a Devil's Food Cake Mix. Next week I am going to make another batch using a Red Velvet Cake Mix. I think those will be pretty with the red color, so festive looking and in the holiday spirit.

I am meeting a friend for dinner tonite and I am taking a dozen of these cookies to her, just because!!  I have a class tomorrow and then I have two projects on my table that I need to finish and share with you. Hope to get  those done Sunday. In the meantime, have a great weekend.

The Snowflake Hat

Hi Everyone!!

Have you been working on holiday projects?? Maybe getting Christmas cards ready???  Today I finished the components for my last class being held Saturday.

Just as I just finished Saturday's class project, my friend Denise called and asked me to help her put together a hat for tomorrow for a Crazy Hat Day where she works. She mentioned my Derby Day Hat and how she really liked that, so, I made suggestions as to what to buy and she came over tonite to make her hat.

Since we are in the throws of the holiday season, I suggested a snowflake theme. And that's what she went with.

She bought fun foam, a sparkly drink cozie, glass ornaments, battery operated LED lights and a few other things. I had ribbons, and embellishments ready for her to use as well. Let me share with you a few pictures of the finished design . This hat was too tall to fit in my light box so we had to improvise to be able to get some half way decent pic's. My apologies that these pic's are not that great. Poor lighting and a not so good background really make for some below average pic's  but the hat is the main thing.

Here is the finished hat. You may notice the snowman on the top of the hat, he was fashioned from 2 clear ornaments. I even made the snowman his own hat. Denise threaded the lights into the snowman components and it turned out so cute all lit up.(We used that snowflake punch to act as a base to hold the hat while we took pictures.)

The scarf on the snowman is a long piece of glittered ribbon that I braided to make the scarf.

The actual hat itself and is made of a drink cozie and fun foam. I cut the fun foam into a circle and attached to the cozie to make the brim of the hat. Next we added glitter to the base of the cozie,where the snowman is sitting, to act as a snowbank. I also fashioned a hat for the snowman using the ornament hanger cap as the base of his hat. I attached fun foam to that to make the tall part of the hat( known as the side band)  and cut a circle for the brim of his hat. I added seam binding for the hat band and added a snowflake to finish it off.

My Craft-Dee BowZ tool is what I used to make the lace ribbon bow.  We added sprigs and small ornaments to fill in around the brim and I added snowflake ribbon to add to the snowflake theme.

Denise wanted to make this hat for a contest at her work tomorrow,and I sure hope she wins. This hat is not crazy, but in my humble opinion, it's too cute.  I hope she sends me pic's of her in this hat!! If I get some, I will show them here on a new post as an update to this one.

This was a fun evening, spent with Denise helping her make this unique hat!!! This is the 2nd hat I have put together using fun foam and a drink cozie. They are so easy to make and the designs and themes are endless. Hmmm I wonder what my next design will be. Maybe a steampunk hat!!! LOL

I also made some cookies late this afternoon and I will be back tomorrow with pictures of those and the recipe. Let me just say this, they are yummy!!!!See you tomorrow. Have a great day!!

Holiday Script

Hi Everyone,
I am finishing up on the last class I am offering  in 2013. It will be at Stamping Buddies in Cincinnati on Saturday at 10:00 a.m.

Let me share with you a quick little card I made this afternoon.

I used a stamp called Holiday Script Background  from Heartfelt Creations. I stamped the card stock using VersaMark, covered the stamped image with Sticky Powder ( bought this from Gary Burlin at the last convention I attended.) When heating the powder, it melts the powder and it changes to a glue. Next I covered it with glitter. 

I added layers of lace , ribbon and strings of beads to the side of the card. As I put the beads down the border over the lace I wondered if I could make a bow using the beads. After a few different attempts I decided to remove a few beads where the knot would go. Yep, my Craft-Dee BowZ tool made that beaded bow. 

Here is a closer view of that bow.

I tried to make a multi-loop bow, however I couldn't get it to look right. I want to work at that some more, because I think I can make a multi-loop bow as well.

Well I need to finish up for my last class of the year. Thanks much for stopping by today, I'll be back soon.

Cards for Club

Welcome back,

Last night was our monthly stamp club meeting. Each month at club we are to bring two cards, one is a predetermined theme and the other card is made from items that are supplied by members of club and we call that The Challenge..

Last month Carol gave us a basket image stamped on cream card stock and she also gave us a mask of the same stamped image. The mask was stamped on text weight white paper. We were asked to use the basket for The Challenge card. The theme for the November card was animal.

Let me share the challenge card first. I should have taken a picture of the stamped basket as we received it, but in my haste to get this card done, I forgot to do that. 

Using a paper shaper, I shaped the basket image to give it depth and dimension. I knew how I wanted this basket to look on the card front, with flowers brimming out of the basket. I had flowers small enough that they were the perfect size. I cut the basket image out, added some scor-tape on the back and positioned the flowers so they appeared to be in the basket. I added some green twigs and added a small double looped bow on the side of the basket at the base of the handle. I added dimensional foam down back of the image in the center and adhered the basket to the card front.(I didn't use the supplied mask)

The small double looped bow was made using the smallest settings on my trusty bow maker from Craft-Dee BowZ. The perfect size for this basket image.

For my second card I used a giraffe for the animal themed card. The stamp is from The Rubber Cottage and is probably one of my all time favorites.It's so life like, isn't it. I added a braided ribbon to the side of the card.

Our stamping club is so much fun. We always have a wonderful time getting together each month. Next month we will go out to dinner to celebrate Christmas. We also will bring a card and 9 tags to swap. We will go home with a different card other than our own and the tag swap gives us 9 different tags, one from each of the gals in the club.Those tags will be great for the gifts that we will be giving to friends and family members this holiday season. 

Today,  I finish the ornament project. I will be making a box for each of the ornaments. Then that project will be done, hallelujah !!  LOL

Thanks for stopping in today, see you soon

Ornaments Galore

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for stopping by.Lately I've been super busy and this week I seem to be in high gear!!  I bet a lot of you all are getting projects done for Christmas or craft shows so you can understand where I am at right now. Let me share with you what I have done over the last three days, in between teaching a class and planning for a few holiday open houses at two local stamp stores.

I breezed thru making 26 of these ornaments for a craft fair this weekend. I have about a dozen more to make, but they are gifts for Christmas so the push isn't on for those, I still have time.

These are glass ornaments glittered on the inside. I decided to glam up the ornaments even more so I stamped 3 poinsettias for each of the ornaments, colored them, glittered them and fussy cut the images and cut out the centers and attached them to the top of the ornaments. I have glitter everywhere!! On me, the cats, all my tables, the floor, and everywhere else. LOL

Tomorrow nite is our monthly club nite and I have 2 cards to prepare for that, so I am off to start on those before I go to bed tonite. I will share those with you on Wednesday.

I have two classes Saturday and have to prepare for those as well so I have a busy week ahead of me.

Well my break is over so I need to get back to work, LOL Oh, by the way we are expected to get some snow tonite.

Thanks for taking the time to see what I've been up to. See you soon,

Life is Beautiful

Hi Everyone
Glad to see you've stopped in today!!! Hope everyone had a nice Halloween and lots of Trick R Treaters. I had a fair amount of kids even though it was rainy off and on. At least it wasn't too cold for them.

The next holiday, arriving before we know it, is Thanksgiving. Oh and I can smell a turkey baking right now!!. Mmmmmm!!!

OK, back to the real world for right now. LOL

I want to share a card that I just finished. I used some card stock in my new favorite color, orange. LOL (Seems that I have used quite a lot of orange in my October posts.)

I was looking thru my stamps to see what jumped out at me and the set from Cornish Heritage Farms spoke to me. There are so many stamps in this set it was hard to choose something. But I finally decided to use the medallion image.

I used brown CS and embossed the medallion image with Cayenne Star EP. It has glitter added in the EP powder and it really makes the image glisten. I thought the rosettes made a nice addition to the medallion

I also used some of paper flowers from Prima and I added rhinestones to the centers. The rhinestones were not the right color,(They were a topaz color) so I used a Spectrum Noir alcohol marker to change the color from a yellowish to this reddish orange. They are a perfect match now. The sentiment is also from the CHF set.

The bow..... well I used the Craft-Dee BowZ tool to make this fluffy bow. I use my Craft-Dee BowZ tool for virtually all my bows. Easy to use to get those fabulous looking bows every time. Click here to order one for yourself.

The rich chocolaty brown ribbon, used for this bow, is a fav of mine. The bow is a multi-loop bow and I wrapped the ribbon three times around the pegs to make this fluffy bow. This ribbon has lightly wired edges and that is my favorite type of ribbon. It makes fluffing the loops easy and if you are going to send this to someone, the ribbon can easily be re-fluffed.(hmm, .... is that a word LOL)

I added a beaded hat pin that I made and that finishes the card.

Products used:

Card stock and paper: Orange CS, Brown CS, White CS, DP 

Stamps - Cornish Heritage Farms - Ornamental Beauty LL-6018

Dies: Spellbinders Circle - S4-116, Sizzix Paper Rosette

Prima - Paper Flowers

Embossing Powder - Sparkle N Sprinkle Cayenne Star EP435

Rhinestones

Spectrum Noir- Alcohol marker  CR10

Corsage pin and beads and pearls to make the hat pin

Well, that's it for now. I have a huge project waiting in the wings and it has to get done for a craft show coming up very soon and I have 2 classes this weekend so I have a few things on my plate. LOL

I am also entering my card in the following wonderful challenges:

• 4 Krafty Girlz -  Anything Goes (W1 of 2) + DT Call
• Cute Card Thursday -  - #293 Sparkles
• Paper Crafting Journey - - (W2 of 2)  Anything Goes
• Sarah Hurley Challenges - (W 1 of 4) Bonfire Brights
• Sister Act Card Challenge -  No. 31 - Anything Goes
  
• Wags 'n Whiskers - No. 116 - Week 1 - Fall Colours
• Amusing Challenges -  - Autumn Colors
• Challenges 4 Everybody -  (2nd Week) Challenge #32: Anything Goes  (Ends Nov 9th.)
• Penny Black and More - (November) (1st Week) Anything Goes.

Thanks so much for stopping in today. Have a great week and I will be back soon,

November Challenge for Craft-Dee BowZ

Hi Everyone,
I'm so glad you stopped by today.
If you are looking for the Sparkle n Sprinkle November Reveal post, please click here.

WOW do you believe it's November 1 already. Halloween is over and it was a rainy one in our area and now we will all be preparing for Thanksgiving and then Christmas. The end of the year and the start of a new year will soon be here also.Where does the time go??

During the holidays, birthdays still occur, and you probably know someone whose birthday occurs during the holiday season or falls directly on the holiday. Sometimes those birthdays are not given the attention that birthdays at other times in the year are given.So I decided to made a birthday card with a fall theme and it could be a great card for a guy, too, even with the bow and the added bling.(OK you can leave some of the bling off it the card is going to a guy!! LOL)

I made a multi-loop bow for this card and decided to add a little handmade hatpin, just to add a little more pizzazz to the card. I also seem to have become a convert to the color orange. LOL  Seems like I have used that color a lot lately and I have grown fond of this warm fall color. I used some orange glitter, some rhinestones and pearls for additional eye candy.

I love this image and even though it's no longer available, it's a perfect image for the fall season. I stamped those pumpkins on orange CS and cut them out and used a paper shaper to give them a more definitive shape and I used pop dots to make them stand out. Adding some orange glitter really finished these pumpkins off. (See, I really am getting into this orange color!!) 

Don't forget to stop over at Craft-Dee BowZ to check out the October challenge winners and we'd love it if you'd submit a project and enter the November challenge. You could be the next winner of the ever so easy to use, Craft-Dee BowZ bow making tool. It's really a winner and it's easy to use no hassles, no wrenches needed to tighten anything. YouTube  videos available to walk you thru using the tool if you get stuck, which I am sure you won't. There are other YouTube videos for other other types of bows and creative ideas. Click here and scroll down on the left side bar for all the different video links.

Have a great weekend, I will be back Tuesday with my regularly scheduled Craft-Dee BowZ post. Hope to see you then