North Polar Express....

This is the train I made last week using the svg file from Svgcuts.com.  The file was cut on my cutting machine using craft paper as the base then adding Christmas paper from Graphic 45 (left overs from a previous project). Fun, fun project!

Remove the lids  for a place to add small gifts or treats.

Advent Calendar

This is our darling grandson, Jeffrey.  Yes, he is always smiling and having fun, this is his main goal in life.  Jeffrey is such a fun little person to hang out with.  He keeps us well entertained.  He is holding the Advent Calendar I made for James.  I am in the process of making one just for Jeffrey as well.  

I made this Advent Calendar using an svg file from Svgcuts.com.   I used a Christmas paper stack from DCWV and The Paper Studio.
This was such a fun project and relatively easy to make.   Enjoy!
Would love to hear your comments.

CPC29

Sorry about the poor quality of this photo, it was taken with my phone.

This is the latest card made from the sketch over at Craft Project Central.  Such a simple sketch but I am really pleased how it turned out.  

Enjoy!

Craft Project Central Challenge

I made this card from a sketch on Craft Project Central.  They do a sketch challenge every month.  Normally I don't have the time to participate in the challenge but today there was a loll so decided to give it a try.  

All products are by Stampin'Up.  I love the new Smokey Slate color that was added this summer.  Works so well with most of the colors from Stampin'Up.  Here I paired it with a Halloween DSP from last year.  

Hope you like it!

Allie's Birthday

We celebrated my granddaughters eighth birthday last evening at Julio's in Magnolia, Texas.  This was a big event for Allie since it was the first year she would wear the "BIG HAT" at the restaurant.  

When Allison was a year old, we were celebrating another birthday when the sombrero was brought out, placed on the head of the birthday person as the servers sang Happy Birthday.  It was loud and so confusing to a one year old.  Allison  was so terrified and would put up a fuss every time we mentioned going to a Mexican restaurant.  Last evening she faced her fears, they sang to her as they placed the sombrero on her golden locks, as you can see she was all smiles!  


     HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
              ALLISON

Mini Album

This is the latest mini album I finished for a friend of mine.

Her daughter just celebrated her birthday and she needed a special album to commemorate the occasion.  

The birthday party was held at a local winery so I used a vineyard theme.  Believe me, the papers were hard to find, not much out there when it comes to wineries and vineyards.  

This is basically a tag album with many pockets for your photos and memories.  It has only three pages but will hold so many photographs, it would surprise you.  

The owner of Scrappn'Savvy in Spring, Texas, helped me with the cover.  It is also a pocket with a tag that will hold at least three photographs.  Karrie is amazing at what she comes up with.

Truly a talented lady with a fantastic scrapbooking store.  

My friend will add all the photographs before giving it to her daughter, Laura. as a finished project.   Laura teases her mama that she never finishes any project she starts.  Won't she be surprised when this is presented to her all finished and ready to display?

I had a lot of fun with this project.  Enjoy!

(The photos are not in order here)

 

Christmas Cards

These are the cards I made for the Christmas Card class I am having this weekend.  I am using some of the new products from the Holiday Mini catalog teamed up with some of my old standbys.

 The Snowflake on the first card is from the Festive Flurry stamp set, stamped on Brushed Silver cardstock and embossed with Silver Embossing Powder.  It is cut out using the Festive Flurry Framelets.  The background is the Stripes Embossing Folder.  The card base is Basic Gray.

The second card is made using the new Thinlits, Circle Card.  It is so new that it didn't make it in the new IBC.  You need to check it out on line.  I used Whisper White as my card base, red glitter paper, punches and a stamp from the Ornaments Keepsakes stamp set.  I embossed the ornament using Cherry Cobbler embossing powder and cut it out with the matching framelet.  The ornament is then suspended using fishing line.  The greeting is from the More Merry Messages stamp set. 

The third card was the simplest to make.  The base is Midnight Muse with Whisper White embossed with the Northern Flurry Embossing folder layered on top.  The greeting is Merry Little Christmas (my favorite) from the new mini, inked with  Real Red and Midnight Muse markers.  The edge is inked with Midnight Muse and a red bow is added.  Easy peasy!

Let me know what y'all think. 

RAK....

I made this door hanger for a new friend I met last weekend at the Rivendell Retreat Center.  Rhonda teaches elementary school in Austin and gave me so many good ideas for teacher gifts. 

The hanger is 7"x10".  The paper piecing project was cut from an SVG file designed by Mary over at www.SVGCuts.com and cut out on the Cricut.  It is entirely made of cardstock so is quite sturdy.  It would look good on the front of a desk as well as on the door to the classroom.  It was a fast, fun and easy project to do.  I hope Rhonda likes it.  Enjoy!

Father's Day at the camp.....

This is the view from the deck of my brothers camp.  The view is breathtaking, everything  was so green and lush this time of year.  The temperatures were in the 70's, sweaters were needed when the sun went down.  

I love hanging out with family in my favorite spot. 

This is our family portrait.  It was quite an accomplishment getting all of us positioned just right so all our faces were visible.

Setting up the camera was new to us also.  Christel did an excellent job making everything work. 

We had a fried chicken dinner earlier in our day but when the sun starts to go down in the hills of Pennsylvania, the fire is lite and out come the hot dog sticks!

I look forward to this part of  my vacation at home more than anything else.  The wiener roast at the camp with smores for desert is my most favorite thing ever.

Making Memories

 It's been awhile since my last post.  It has been one busy summer for us.  Tom and I took an extended road trip to visit family in Pennsylvania and Nebraska.  It was great catching up with family members that we see once a year.  Our trip took us through fourteen states, five audio books and temperatures ranging from the 50's to the 100's.  

 A week after we got back to Texas, I was off to the Stampin'Up 25th Anniversary convention in Salt Lake City.  It was non-stop believe me!  I had a wonderful time meeting new friends and catching up with old friends.  I have so many photos to share but we are getting ready to entertain our four grandchildren for a week, so this will come at a later date. 

Well, back to the unpacking, cleaning, laundry and catching up with what is going on here in Katy.  It's been a great summer but we still have a lot planned  for the weeks ahead.  Making memories is what summer is all about!

Until next time, stay cool!

April Card Swap.....

There were nine of us at the card swap this month.  For this swap we had to use vellum somewhere on the card.  It was amazing to see all the different ways vellum can be used.  We had some elegant cards and some whimsical, all were beautiful!  Thanks for taking a peek. 

Beach Album

Awhile back I took a class at Scrappn' & Savvy from Terri Burnette.  This is the album class where we made this suitcase that opens into an album.  I think I posted the suitcase but not the insides.  I have been working on getting it completed for many months now.  Seems I just couldn't get back into finishing it once I came home from the clas

I have taken this project to many day crops and retreats but just couldn't get it finished.  Well, yesterday we had our Scraptabulous Day Crop and it was the number #1 priority on my to do list for the day.  I finally finished the project.  It did take several hours to complete but it is done!

The suitcase is made from two 5 x 7 art canvases which we painted with distress inks to make look old and worn.  We build a shelf on the inside to hold some beach memorabilia, shells, sea glass and what nots. 

The paper line we used is Authentique called "The Open Sea."   The mini album uses all the embellishments that came with the paper line plus a few sheets of matching card stock.  This little album holds a lot of pictures.  I also embellished the front of the suitcase with some of the post cards from the collection.

A trip to beach is in order to fill in the pages.  Hope you enjoy this cute album.....

March Card Swap

We had our March Card Swap at the Red Robin restaurant last evening.  There were nine of us swapping and the cards are amazing.  We had a sketch for this month and it presented a challenge for most of us.  No sketch for next months swap but vellum has to be used on the card somewhere.  It will be interesting to see what we all come up with.  If you are interested in joining our swap, visit our Scraptabulous Crops & Swaps on Facebook.   Until next month, happy crafting!

Tea for Two Album pages.......

 

 These are the pages I've done in my sample album, Tea for Two

I used different sections of the paper line to pop up and give dimension.


 When adhering the flower trim, I used glue dots on the sides so photo could slide under.


Be creative & fill the album with your memories.
 

I apologize for the bad lighting.  :-(

Album class....

I will be holding an album class next week to make this mini album designed by Terri Burnette.  I love this album and have made it several times using different paper lines.  This time I am making it using all Stampin'Up supplies.  I  will be using the Tea for Two designer series paper.  It has minimal embellishment as I layered the paper patterns.  I did use the Flower Trim (new in the Spring Mini), ribbon and the closure will have a Tea Time Trinket charm.

The album has only six pages but Terri made a built in WOW factor on each page, its the reason I just love it so much.    I will post more photos after my classes.    

Card holder with cards......

I came upon this very cute card holder with three cards while surfing the net this morning.  It was designed and made by Kimberly Morris using the Feeling Sentimental stamp set in the Sale-a-Brations catalog.

Sale-a-Bration goes through March 22nd and with every $50.00 Stampin'Up order you get a free stamp set such as this one used on this project.  

This was such a fun project and went together quickly and easily.  I stamped the envelopes also to add just a bit more.  I hope you enjoy this card project by Kimberly and get in on the Sale-a-Bration before it is gone for another year. 

Inspired by Pinterest

I attended another class over at Scrappn'Savvy in Spring last evening with a few friends.  The class was a photo box Inspired by Pinterest and given by Terri Burnett.  The box can be used to display your photographs or just hold them until you are ready to use them on a scrapbook page.

We used  paper by Authentique.  The box was primed and sanded, the panels were cut and inked then applied to the sides of the box with liquid glue.  The legs were added last.

There are four dividers in the box to separate the photographs.  Both sides of divider is covered with paper and inked.  Flower embellishments added to front to add interest.

 The top of the box wasn't wasted as we made a small shadow box decor item.  The back is lined with patterned paper and decorated with a banner, umbrella and flower embellishments.  A punched bird is added to the top and a small removable card held in place by the flowers.  A great piece to announce the coming of Spring.

Terri's projects are always so fun, what an awesome instructor.