The Last Christmas Post

...Maybe! I have this last Christmas post for you all before the holiday. First up, a beautiful pink and red Christmas card from Adela! This is another card using nontraditional colors, and I love it! She stitched the vellum over the tree for a soft look. It's so pretty. Thank you so much Adela! And here is a little treat I left in the mailbox for our postal worker today.

It's just a little bag full of local-style cookies with an adorable little tag. Gio, from Doodlefactory's Santa's Sweet Shoppe fit perfectly on this tag I picked up at an office supply store. I just stamped and colored with copics. Because the copics bleed through so much, the back of the tag was a mess and there was no where to write on the tag. So I solved that little problem by gluing another blank tag on the back of this one and writing on that! It was so easy that I'm going to be making tags like this for tons of occasions.

Tonight we are headed to a Christmas Eve Football Game between University of Hawaii and Notre Dame. It should be fun and the weather is beautiful for it! I hope you all have the most blessed Christmas. The kids are in for the BEST Christmas gift on Boxing Day! I'll let you all know about that later.

Until next post, be blessed!!!

Christmas Stuff

Oh my goodness, has it really been NINE days since I last posted??? I'm so sorry! Things have been SO busy. I have a lot to talk about, but I'll try to make it brief. First, here are some wonderful Christmas cards that I have gotten. This first one is from Shannon. I love that she didn't use traditional holiday colors! Thanks so much for the card Shannon. Next, this card is from Rina.

Look at all that dimension! She obviously spent a lot of time on this card, cutting out the different parts of the image, embossing, coloring, and even adding fluff (flock?) on the sheep! Thanks so much Rina! This next one is from Liann.

This snowman is so adorable! I love how she cuttlebugged the white layer and then put it askew to the other layers. Thanks so much Liann! And this card is from Curt.

Isn't it elegant? It's all sparkly silver and gold, with embossing, and glitter, and lots of shine! Finally, I have a project that I made to show you.

I made this little stocking holder using one of the FREE My Timeless Templates from Papertrey Ink. It was so much easier than I thought it would be! I used My Sweet Shoppe stamp set from Doodlefactory to decorate the stocking, and put an adorable little snowman (filled with chocolate of course) inside. Isn't it so cute! I loved making this and I will definitely be making more of these socks. Probably for Father's day... I'll have to brainstorm on that.

Well, if you've made it this far into my post and are still reading, thank you! I have some news to share. We finally got our orders!!! It took much longer than anticipated, and when all is said and done, we'll be in Italy just about 8 weeks AFTER we originally planned, but it's all working out regardless! I had originally wanted to give out blog candy in celebration of our orders, but with the craziness of the holidays and our move, I'm going to have to postpone the candy for a little while. Besides, my birthday and blogaversary are coming up! I'll start working on a really good blog candy to make up for not having one now, and then I'll give it away after the move. I hope you all come back soon!

Until next post, be blessed.

Tis the Season...

...For Joyous Mail! I love getting stuff in the mail (who doesn't?) and Christmas time is when people send the most stuff. Even more than getting things in the mail, I love sending things to people in the mail. Well, I don't always know if all my card make it to their destinations, but when I get stuff, I like to let the people know that it got here and it is MUCH appreciated. This is the first handmade Christmas card that I've gotten this year.

It's from my wonderful friend Julie. I love how she made the snowman look like he was made from snow! Thanks for the Wonderful Card Julie, I always love getting cards from you!
Next up, I got an amazing project from my friend Carin!This is the first project Carin has ever made, can you believe it??? It's fantastic! Here is the inside:

I love the different pages. There's a little message on the first page, decorations on the second, a yummy packet of tea on the third page, decoration on the fourth, another yummy packet of tea on the fifth page, and the sixth page is decorated and glued to the cover. I hope you can click on the pictures to see them upclose, they are great! Thanks again for the little gift Carin.

Tomorrow I hope to have a chance to post because I made something that turned out really cute!

Until next post, be blessed.

Christmas Labels

It's been too many days since I last posted, but I haven't done much stamping so there hasn't been much to post. I did have some fun yesterday after getting all my Christmas cards filled out and addressed. But before I show you the labels, here's a fun picture of my Angel baby's top tooth.Isn't that cute? She is just cutting the other top tooth, but for now she looks silly with just the one showing through. Well, when I was doing all my Christmas cards, I realized that I didn't have any return address labels so I decided to make some. I had fun stamping them out and coloring them in. I had to cover up the labels above and below whatever I was stamping since the image was bigger than the labels. A few images overlapped, but it isn't too obvious when you put it on an envelope. I wanted to try it so I put one on an envelope:

I also made some others, including this holly one:

I used all the snowflake ones that I made and didn't get a pic first, oh well. Some of you reading this will get to see the snowflake label in person! I have been working on some holiday tags to put on presents, so I'll show those to you when I get them done. And I have three challenges that I am determined to complete by Monday, so hopefully I can do that and even share them with you here. I'm going to get off this 'puter and watch Narnia now, so until next post, be blessed!

I Won!!!

So, I told you all about the 12 Days of Christmas challenge over on Paper Craft Planet (PCP), remember? Every day they randomly choose one of the entrants to win that day's prize, and yesterday I won!!! I honestly didn't think I would win AT ALL; I was just making the cards for the challenges because it's a ton of FUN, but I actually won for the 11th day! WooHoo! I'll show you the card a little later on in the post. I haven't been able to participate every day, but here are some more of the cards I've made for the PCP challenges. This is for "6 Geese a Laying": The images on this card are so soft that it was difficult to get a good picture of it. I used the cuddling flamingos from Cuddles & Hugs. I stamped the image 3 times so that there would be 6 birds all together. This next card was for "7 Swans a Swimming":

I know, there are no swans or swimming or even birds on this card! LOL! Since we had done birds several times, the challenge was to make an elegant black/white Christmas card. I made this "fun-elegant" because I thought the zebra from Jumping for Joy was perfect for this challenge. I missed day 8 and 9 (although I have a GREAT idea for Day 9 and I still want to make the card for it soon!). Next up is the card for "10 Lords a Leaping":

The challenge was to make a card with a boy on it. I didn't have ANY stamps with a boy on it so I used this image from Whiff of Joy that I got in an image swap. I think it's called Santa Charlie. This company is in Europe, so I plan on adding the actual stamps to my collection after we move. Shipping will be a lot less! Since the day was actually 10 Lords a Leaping, I had an idea for the card that I wanted to achieve. Remember on the other post that I mentioned I did some major masking for a card? Well, here it is:

I REALLY wanted to make these froggies from Just so Hoppy into "lords" with the crown from Hip Hop Accessories. My original plan was to make a whole scene on a card with the frogs leaping out of a pond, but I couldn't get it all to fit on a card and still look nice. So they are just Leaping for the fun of it. And see how they are all masked? That was A LOT of masking to do! It was fun though!
And finally, here is the card for "11 Pipers Piping":

This is the card that allowed me to be the random winner of a $25 gift certificate to Embellish-it Scrapbooking! I can't wait to go shopping!!! I used the seal and horn from Jumping for Joy. The challenge was to put a musical instrument, or something having to do with music on a card. I originally though of doing ELEVEN seals with horns, but that would have been the most masking EVER, and it probably would have required a HUGE card! LOL! BUT... I am getting an idea for a board book for my Angel Baby...
WEll, I hope you all enjoyed checking out the rest of my entries the PCP's 12 Days of Christmas. I have one more card to make for today using 12 embellishments, so I'm going to go and get that one done! BTW, did yo notice that I used Melanie Muenchinger's animals on almost ALL of my cards? I promise that wasn't on purpose, but when you love an image or style you go with it, right? If you want to know details on any of the cards, you can check them out on my photo page on PCP. The link is on my sidebar over there----->
Thanks for stopping by today and until next post, be blessed!

I got Tagged!

***This is the 2nd post for today, so scroll down to read the other post also, k?***

I've been tagged by Bona......to list 4 answers to questions about me.

4 things I like/love about my husband/boyfriend:
1. He plays Scrabble with me.
2. He lets me buy lots of "stuff" to support my stamping habit/hobby (probably does this one so I don't complain about his hobbies! lol!)
3. He has made almost all the choices in his life in order to take care of me and the kids.
4. He wants to grow old with me ;)

4 jobs I've had:
1. Drive-in movie concessionaire
2. Substitute custodian (yes, there is such a thing!)
3. Childcare provider
4. MOMMY!!!

4 Movies I have watched more than once:
1. Labyrinth
2. Peter Pan
3. Cars
4. The Incredibles (can you tell I have young kids? lol!)

4 TV Shows I watch:
1. CSI
2. Charmed (it comes on during nap/lunchtime, so I watch it while I eat)
3. Heroes
4. The Mentalist (pretty interesting!)

4 People who email me regularly:
1. Julie
2. Carin
3. Nicole
4. My Hubby emails me most

4 favorite foods:
1. Del Taco's Ultimate Taco (but I don't even knowif they have that anymore)
2. Cyclone chicken pasta thingy from Outback!
3. homemade tacos
4. enchiladas

4 places I want to visit:
1. All over Europe!
2. Africa would be cool
3. San Diego (for the family)
4. Las Vegas (for the friends-don't care for the strip!)

4 things I am looking forward to in the coming year:
1. Living with my husband again (with NO deployments, hey, a girl can dream, right?)
2. Moving to Italy
3. Finding and setting up our new home in Italy
4. Exploring Italy!

4 people I tag:
1. Krystal (cuz she needs to update her blog already!)
2. Julie (cuz she needs to update her blog already!)
3. Vivian (cuz she needs to update her blog already!)
4. Shannon (cuz she needs to update her blog already!)
SEE A PATTERN HERE??? LOL!

Well, that's it for the tagging. And ladies, if you don't feel like doing this tag on your blog, do it on an email or something, k?
Until next post, be blessed!

12 Days of Christmas on PCP

Hey there everyone! I can't believe it's already the 8th of the month. This month is already going by way too fast. I'm still keeping my faith that we'll be spending Christmas with my husband in Italy and I won't give up hope! (at least, not until the 20th or so!) Well, on Papercraft Planet they are celebrating the season with a 12 Days of Christmas challenge. Every day we are to make a card or other paper project that relates to one of the 12 days. It's already the 11th day today, but here are a couple cards I made for previous days. This is for the 2nd day of Christmas: Since the 2nd day is "Two Turtledoves" our challenge was to use a bird or reptile of some sort on a project. I used these two cute snakes from Melanie Muenchinger's Cuddles and Hugs set. It was the first time I inked up this image for a card! I'm not fond of snakes AT ALL, but in rubber form, I can handle them. I missed a few days of the challenges, but I jumped back on board on the 5th day for "5 Gold Rings".

I decided that 5 golden rings of light from these candles was a good fit for the day! I stamped the candle from Kim Hughes' Heart Warmers stamp set 5 times then embossed them. After that I colored them with my copic markers then covered them up with sticky notes that I use as masks. (in case you're wondering, I stamp the image on a sticky note, cut it out, then stick it right on the image on my card so that they won't get any ink on them, or so that I can stamp over them without ruining the original image-I have another card on day 10 that I'll show you later. It uses a lot of masking!). So, I masked the candles then sponged the "glow" around them. I sponged in a few different colors to make it look like they were glowing in a dark room. Then I just added some pure luxury holiday ribbon from GKD to embellish the card. I kept it simple since the image was so prevalent on the card. If you want more detail on the cards, check out my Paper Craft Planet page. The link is on the right sidebar, over there------->

I hope you liked these because I have some more to show you later!

I hope you have a great week, and don't put off that Christmas shopping, lol!

Until next post, be blessed.

A Random Sunday Post

Happy Sunday all! We've all caught a bug that's going around and it's keeping us home on this Sunday. I don't have much to say so here are some random pics. Ashton "surfing" on Andrew: Angel does NOT like mashed potatoes:

A card for THIS funny lady's son:

I used Kim Hughes' "Little Guy" stamp set from CHF.

Some random things that are happening at home:

~The mini Christmas tree is up and decorated. It's up on a table so Angel Baby won't mess with it.

~Our PCS orders are still not complete.

~It's officially winter in Hawaii, which means we have grey skies and lots of rain.

~Yesterday's yard sale was a success, and there are a few less pieces of furniture in the house.

That's about it for this lazy Sunday. I hope you are all well (and NOT sick) and I hope to hear from you all (leave me a comment!).

Until next post, be blessed.

Birthday Cupcakes!

Back in January, I made a New Year's Resolution. Well, actually I made a few, but one of them was to send birthday cards to all my friends and family all year long. So far, I've done it! I may have been late on a few, but they have all gotten a card from me (I hope). Because we planned on moving during the month of December, I decided to get the rest of my Birthday cards made and ready to send out on time for the remaining birthdays of the year. I'm warning you, there are 12 photos on this post! I used the Stampin' Up! stamp set Crazy for Cupcakes for all the cards.
I used scrap papers for all the cards too. I wanted to use up as much of my papers as possible before I pack them up for the move. These first three cards use scraps from some of my Stampin' Up papers.

I colored all the cupcakes with copic markers on Whisper White card stock.

I added a few self-adhesive rhinestones on some of the cards.

And I used ribbon from Offray (a Walmart brand I think) and the orange ribbon is Stampin' Up.

Some of the cards needed rhinestones, but I didn't have the right colors...

So I colored the rhinestones with my purple copic. It worked perfectly!

On the card above, I used a teal colored copic marker to color the rhinestone and they ended up matching the teal paper just right.

The DP on those last five cards were scraps from my Walmart stash of paper. I don't remember the brand because I've had them for so long.

These next four cards use scraps from more Stampin' Up! paper.

I used up pretty much all of the leftover Summer Picnic DP on these cards. Some of the cards are already sent out and a few more of them are ready to be sent when the birthdays come around. I even had a couple extra for the Birthday RAK club that I'm in.
The week is almost over. Do you guys have any big plans for the weekend? We are having another yard sale on Saturday. It's going to be the last one before the move, so I hope I sell all the big stuff I need to get rid of.
Thanks for stopping by again today. Why don't you leave me a comment and let me know you were here?
Until next post, be blessed!

A few more...

A few more Christmas cards that is! I told you I couldn't stop making them. I love Christmas, and sending a little happiness through the mail is my way of spreading my Christmas-ness! (I know that's not a word, lol.)

This is a little Gift card holder I made. I used the same template as the card I made at one of the last Stamp-A-Ramas I went to. Remember the card holder I posted HERE? This is the same thing, just done in silver and red instead of green and red. Here is the inside of the holder.
And here is the back of the holder. I embossed the sentiment in Silver ink and stamped white snowflakes all around it.

And remember those stamped images I showed you the other day from an image swap I was in? These next two cards use some of the adorable images. This is Charlotte in the sleigh.

I am not completely satisfied with this card, but Andrew decided how the layout was going to be, so I went with it. Next up is Charlie!

Isn't he cute? He reminds me of my Ashton. The green eyes and all! I cut out the cardboard with my Top Note die because I love the way it looks with the green card stock.I have a few more I plan on using with some of my Riley Moose images.

I hope you all enjoyed checking out some more of my Christmas cards! I promise the next post WILL NOT have Christmas cards on it... actually, it's going to be all about the cupcakes!
Until next post, be blessed!

The Last of the Christmas cards, for now.

Here are the rest of the Christmas cards that I made just before Thanksgiving. I needed to finish up the cards so they would be ready to go on time, because I have no idea if I'll have stamping time closer to Christmas. It feels good to have them all done, but I'm still in the mood to make more Christmas cards! So, you may be seeing a few more here and there.
Well, want to see the cards? I had so much fun using Funky Christmas by Gina K. Designs on these cards! I also used the sentiment from Snow Swirled on some of these cards. They are all pretty simple, but elegant at the same time. I used the wonderful Pure Luxury 120 lb. cardstock that GKD sells to make these cards. I stamped right onto the front of the card, and colored with my Copic markers. If you know anything about Copics, you'll know that they are alcohol based and they bleed through almost all paper. Well, they didn't bleed through this paper!

After I colored the images, I used some piercing templates that I got from GKD also, and pierced different shapes around the images. I did this on most of the cards I made, but on these next two cards, I didn't like the way the colored image looked, so I covered it up with a different image.

It was an easy, and effective way to save the cards! I decided that these ornaments didn't look quite right hanging in mid-air, so I drew in a little line for them to be hanging off of.

This next image is my favorite! I love that little elf that got himself stuck in the chimney! He was probably trying to be like Santa, but didn't have the proper magic to get down the chimney and got stuck! lol! This guy also looked like he was floating in mid-air so I drew in a little rooftop for the chimney to be on.

I'm sure by now you've noticed the fantastic ribbon on most of these cards. This yummy stuff is from GKD too! It's called Pure Luxury ribbon and it is wonderful! There are many different colors and textures. I love it. I've used almost all of it up, but that's ok, just gives me an excuse to buy more! lol!

I made several of these cards, each a little different, but all the same general design. I hope you liked them.
I've got lots more projects waiting in the wings to be posted, so come back sometime to check them out, ok?
Until next post, be blessed!

The Ray of Light Concert

It's Monday, how are you all doing this week? Was it hard to get back into the grove of a regular week after the holiday weekend? It was for me! I did not want to get up this morning! lol! Well, Saturday my Mom and I took the kids to their very first concert. They had a blast! We saw a few different Christian artists including Brandon Heath, Building 429, and Third Day. It was so fun, even in the rain! I made a Smilebox of the pictures that I took. They aren't all that great, but it was raining, and we were outside in the dark, so forgive the bad photography.

Make a Smilebox photobook

Andrew was so excited that he got to meet and get an autograph from the two guys from Third Day. The rest of the band didn't make it to the concert for some reason, but it was still great to watch and listen to their accoustic versions of their songs.
Tomorrow I'll be posting some more Christmas cards that I've made recently. I was able to finish up ALL my cards before Thanksgiving!
Until next post, be blessed!

Well Hello! How is everyone doing today? I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving weekend. I did up a little Smilebox slideshow of our little Thanksgiving celebration. You can click below to see it.

Make a Smilebox greeting

Continuing on the thankful theme, I am incredibly thankful for some more people in my life. One of which is my dear friend Julie. I met Julie through a series of coincidences when we were both at Nellis, and I know we are meant to be lifelong friends. She still sends me some of her handmade creations. Here is the last one she sent:

This card is so elegant in real life! Thanks so much for sending it Julie.
Also, I have met so many wonderful "stamping people" through SCS and blogging! I swap images with some people on SCS, and here are a few of the wonderful images I have recieved lately:

I've already made a couple Christmas cards out of some of those images above.

See those adorable winter Riley images? I can't wait to play with those tomorrow!

And that owl is Pirate Ollie! He's going to be turned into a few great birthday cards!

Well, this long holiday weekend has worn me out. I'm going to try to "hit the hay" a couple hours earlier than usual. Thank you all so much for stopping by once again.

Until next post, be blessed!