Kim Hughes Christmas Cards

Happy Saturday Everyone! I've been making a lot of Christmas cards lately and I'm almost done. I think I have about 5 more to make, and I'll have enough for everyone I'm sending to this year. Then again... I may make extra just in case. Here are three cards I've made using Kim Hughes stamps from Cornish Heritage Farms. This first one uses U R A Hoot and Heart Warmers. I got this layout from someone's sketch challenge, abut I can't remember who. I made it too long ago...
This next one uses Christmas Critters.

I CASED this layout from a card in the SU! Holiday Mini catalog. This Moose took 3 tries!!! I couldn't decide how to color him, or to paper piece him, so this is the third and final attempt and I think it worked out well.

And this last one uses Heart Warmers as well. CHF also offers a few of Kim Hughes' stamps individually so you don't have to get the whole set if you don't want it. This adorable Snowlady is Snowy Sophie.

I CASED the layout for the Snowy Sophie card for the SU! catalog. After I glued the white panel onto the green panel, I stood it up on the table to look at it and it moved! Oh well, it now matched my sideways ribbon, lol!

Today's going to be a busy day. I finished up my cards for the SAR Swap that is tomorrow, but I still have to finish the Secret Santa gift and bake some cookies. Also, my Mom was moved into a new office at her work yesterday and we're going to finish setting up the office so it's all ready for her to work in on Monday. I better get a move on if I want to get all that done before bedtime today! I almost forgot, I want to update my blogroll. If you'd like your blog to be linked on my sidebar, let me know or if you know any blogs worth linking, let me know that too! Thanks.

Until next post, be blessed!

It's Aloha Friday!

Happy Aloha Friday everyone! Aloha Friday is a holiday celebrated EVERY Friday here on the islands... It's celebrated with a smile, and sometimes an aloha shirt! lol!
Anyway, here are the rest of the Christmas Cards that I've made so far. I still have a lot to go in order to have enough cards for everyone I want to send them to. These particular cards are going to Gina K. Designs to be sent overseas (if you don't know what I'm talking about, read yesterday's post). This first one was made a LOOOONG time ago but never sent out. I just added the sentiment on the front and it finally felt "done". This next one was also made a LOOOOOONG time ago but never finished or sent. I added the fram and ribbon, and a sentiment on the inside. This last one is a favorite of mine! I used Kim Hughes' stamp set and paper pieced the trees. It was fun and I can't wait to make more for my personal use.
On a personal note, my oldest is going to be 10 on Monday. I can't believe it. He's such a little (big) man already. Wow, time has flown by! Here he is yesterday after his new haircut. Isn't he handsome? And here's a pic of all three of my rascals playing in the upstairs landing.
I hope you are all having a very happy Aloha Friday and that your weekend is spectacular!
Oh yeah, I still have some stamp sets for sale HERE. There's a free (surprise) gift with every purchase! I really need to sell them so I don't have to move them.
Until next post, be blessed!

Christmas in October

Hello faithful blog readers! I got a few emails and comments about the pictures from Angel baby's party and I'm glad you liked them. If you haven't seen them yet, scroll down to the previous post and check out my Smilebox. Smilebox is a pretty cool thing to use to show off pictures. I discovered it through Lauren Meader's blog, but didn't really like the digital scrapbooking idea, and that is what I thought it was. Well, it is a lot more than that. I think I'll be playing with it a little more, and maybe I'll even upgrade from the free stuff, to the paid stuff so I can print some of it out!
And did you see my new blog header? I made it myself! I know it's not all "professional" but I think it's nice. Nicer than the plain one I had before anyway. I got the idea from Cornish Heritage Farms' weekly challenge. CHF is where I get all my adorable Kim Hughes stamps.
Well, I bet by now you are wondering what is up with my title? I've been working on some Christmas cards off and on for a little while so that I can build up my supply before we move. I don't think I'll be able to get ANY stamping done between November 19th (when we fly out of Hawaii) and Christmas, so I need to do my christmas cards NOW! Here are the first few cards that I have gotten done:
I kept them all pretty simple, used the same colors, papers and stamp set and made sure that they wouldn't be too bulky to send in a regular A2 envelope. These first four cards use Heidi Swap ghost hearts and the rest of the embellishments are from Making Memories. Also, this sketch is from a CASED sketch that I used before, but I can't remember who from.
The sentiment and adorable snowman stamps are from Kim Hughes' Heart Warmers stamp set, the paper is a mix of Stampin' Up!, Georgia Pacific, and Daisy Bucket Designs. The Snowman actually has a heart on him, but to make it coordinate with the paper and American Crafts ribbon, I poked a Making Memories star brad through it.
Well, AFTER I made all these Christmas cards (and a few more random ones) WCMD came around! World Card Making Day (WCMD) is an actual holiday celebrated all over the world on the first Saturday of October by papercrafters. Gina K. Designs is one of a TON of stamping companies that is doing an event for WCMD. You can read all the details of GKD's event HERE and HERE. In a nutshell, stampers are going to make simple Christmas cards and send them to GKD. Then the cards will be sent to soldiers who are currently deployed so that those soldiers and can cards home to their loved ones during the holidays. This year, my kids and I will actually get to spend Christmas with my husband! Last year he was in Korea for Christmas and we missed him SO much. He missed Angel's first Christmas and it was not an easy day to get through, but this year we will be all together. And to top it off, we'll have snow! Because we have gone through it, I empathize with the soldiers and their families so I think I'll be sending a few (or more!) of these to GKDs, and I'm going to make a few more with some GKD stamps as well.
Well, if you've read this far into this post, THANK YOU! Will you leave me a comment and let me know you stopped by? I've felt like I'm losing all my readers lately as I haven't gotten many comments. Where are you all? lol!
Until next post, be blessed.

I got some goodies and another Owl peak!

Hi Everyone! Lately, I've been having some happy mail days. First, I got my Stampin Up! starter kit! Woohoo! I still haven't broken in any of my new stamp sets, but I will this weekend. That's the plan anyway. And yesterday I got this beautiful card in the mail! It's from Adrienne; you can check out her great blog HERE. We were partnered up for Jen's August Aloha RAK group. As if the card wasn't enough, inside were tons of stamped images and a stamp! I don't have any of these images so I'm so excited to play with them! And here's the peak I told you about! This is the other set of owl cards that I made for the owl swap that I'm in. I altered a daisy button to make the center a black, sparkly brad and added it to her hair... uh, feathers. I decided that this owl needed to be pink. She is a girl afterall, and this way she matches her red branch! You know what, the owl in the other swap cards are girls too. Did you notice the purple, sparkly eyeshadow on that one? You'll have to go back to that post and check it out! Well, thanks so much for stopping by again.
Until next post, be blessed!

Owl Swap Sneek Peek

Hello Blog Readers! Blogger is letting me upload some pictures now, yea! Tonight is a short post cuz I'm pretty tired. I've been tired a lot lately huh? Anyways, here is a little peek at the owl swap cards that I have been working on. I actually signed up for two spots, so this is my first set of cards. I finished my second set of cards today, but it was too dark out to take a decent picture of them. And because my middle child is such a "middle child" I wanted to share this funny picture of him. He is such a goofball! He loves to dress up and pretend to be other people. He wears his halloween costumes year-round and he'll wear his costumes instead of pj's most nights too! Well, thanks so much for stopping in again. Until next post, be blessed.

My baby boy isn't a baby anymore!

Ashton turned 5 years old yesterday, and Spongebob party to celebrate! On Saturday we had a bunch of neighborhood kids over for cake, ice cream, a water balloon toss/fight, a pinata, and a great big Spongebob Jumpy House! Here you can see Ashton in the front window of the jumper, he has the yellow shirt on. (Yes, we all wore yellow and blue; Spongebob colors!). It was a great day. Everyone had fun, even though Ashton got a little emotional and needed a break in his room (I didn't send him there, he went on his own!). Before the party, Ashton tried one of his party hats on Angel. She didn't really care for it .Angel's still in her pj's here, yes she wore yellow! When I asked Ashton what kind of cake he wanted, he said Chocolate cake AND cupcakes! So, I made both! You can never have too much cake or cupcakes. I made white cupcakes also, and it was a good thing I did because some of the kids didn't like chocolate! I know! I couldn't believe it either!!! LOL! One of the sweetest things about the day was that Andrew wanted to make Ashton's birthday card himself. I guess I'm rubbing off on him! He colored one of the owl images that I had stamped for an owl swap I'm in. He thought it was so cool that I let him use my Copic Markers! I watched him like a hawk though, and I kept telling him, "Now don't push too hard! Be careful with the lid! Ok, that's enough of the eraser marker!" (We call the colorless blender pen the eraser marker). He did an excellent job with the markers and with putting the card together! He went through my papers and picked out Spongebob colors, decided what layout and layers to use, and after I cut them all to his satisfaction, he glued it all together. Then, I showed him a little ribbon looking button and the birthday hat, so he colored the hat and glued the button on. He made a little mess with the glue, so ignore the glue spots! I think he has a real future in the card-making business. I swear I didn't coach him! That adorable owl is from Kim Hughes' U R A Hoot set at Cornish Heritage Farms, btw. Isn't it adorable? Then, I needed to make Ashton a card myself. So, the morning of the party, with Ashton coloring right beside me, I made him this card. I had to use the monkey from Melanie M.'s Just so Hippy set because the monkey reminds me of Ashton so much. I got the idea for the balloon bouquet from Melanie herself. She SENT me the card she made! You can see it HERE. Yes, I own this card! WooHoo! The heart balloon is popped up on a dimensional. The black frame was drawn in with my zig pen, and then I went back and scored along the lines to make the frame actually pop out of the card. You can't tell in the pic, but it looks cool in real life. I also drew the balloon strings with my zig pen, then I put some shadow under "Ashton Monkey" with a copic marker. It's funny, Ashton opened the card and said, "Hey, I saw you make this upstairs!" and then said "I LOVE it Mom, Thank you!" But honestly, he loved the $5 in it more! LOL!
So, that it's for the birthday post. Tomorrow I'll be posting about the tee cards I made, and maybe the next day I'll show you all the Owl Swap cards that I mentioned earlier.
Until next post, be blessed!

Happy Birthday to You...

Today is the Birthday to two very special people! Happy Birthday to my Grandpa and my wonderful friend Carin! I wish I could be with both of you today. I know that Carin has already received her birthday card (I already posted it in a previous post), but Grandpa hasn't. This is the card that is somewhere in the postal system today: I used stamps designed by Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms. Kim's designs have a specific style to them that I really like. These owls are from her stamp set "U R A Hoot!" I used Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketch for this card, and it worked out so well with these buttons and images. I also decorated the inside of the card because it needed a little extra "specialness" for my Grandpa. The sentiment on the outside is from the same stamp set, but the sentiment on the inside is from a Gina K. Set (her owl one, maybe). I added glitter to the polka dots on the birthday hat with my Sakura glitter pen and I colored the rest of the image with my Copic markers. The designer paper is My Mind's Eye, the solid white is Georgia Pacific, the light blue is Paperbilitiesm and the buttons came from Wal Mart. They are some of my favorite embellishments because brown and blue is one of my favorite color combos! Oh yeah, and the ribbon is Offray.

Well, since I didn't post a picture of angel Baby yesterday, here's a picture of her in her pretty new dress. Doesn't it look like she was trying to do the Cha Cha? LOL! She was actually just trying to balance herself. She is learning how to stand on her own. I hope you all have a Great Thursday and Happy Birthday to Carin and Grandpa again! Until next post, thanks so much for stopping by and be blessed. Oh yeah! And Happy first day of the Olympics!