Happy New Year, everyone!

We had a quiet New Year's Eve last night - a couple of adult beverages and Chinese takeout that was delicious!

Although I am a tad late posting my photos, we did actually have snow on Christmas! It was the the 1st time in 17 years it snowed on Christmas in Georgia. Although we did not get nearly as much as my friends in Boston, we can say it did snow!

A few last-minute glitter ornaments I made using a tutorial I found on Youtube.










I will leave you with a photo of my granddaughter at her very 1st visit with Santa.











Merry Christmas!

Today's Christmas project is simply my glitter houses. The one on the left I made last year and the two smaller ones were done this year. The small houses are actually paper mache ornaments I found at Michaels and snipped off the jute hanger on top. I removed the window frames, painted them and then reglued them. The snow glitter is Martha Stewart tinsel glitter.












I also made a Santa door hanger for my granddaughter, CJ. I found it on Kim Hughes blog. http://paperhugs.typepad.com/paper_hugs/2010/11/wow-thanks-so-much.html














For my version, I used a Spellbinders Nestabilities die, PTI Holiday Tree stamps, Making Memories key, bells, ribbon and faux vintage pp.

Took a break from blogging for a bit to concentrate on a few Christmas projects.

The most important one was to make my granddaughter's Christmas stocking. Although, I really wanted to make it out of velvet, my sewing machine fought me all the way and the lining kept shifting, so after 3 attempts, I made it out of red felt and used Papertrey Ink dies and buttons to embellish it.

I'm a tad late this week, but, here is the OWH Stars & Stamps sketch posted on Sunday.











And, since the shipping date has already passed for Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah, I made a Valentine's Day card. I know it's early, but this is the next holiday I can create cards for.










Supplies: pp - KI Memories, The Paper Studio; stamp - Stampabilities; dies - PTI tag, Nestabilities; bling - MS gem stickers

I will leave you with a photo of my newest Toland flag.

This week's Midweek Throwdown at Operation Write Home is called "Almost Anything Goes". The almost part means "NO GLITTER". Since cards for the Winter holidays need to be mailed by October 30 to the shippers, I did one last Christmas card:










Supplies: pp - KI Memories; stamps - PTI Holiday Tree & Holiday Button Bits; dies - Nestabilities

It's time for another Stars & Stamps Challenge over at OWH!

The sketch:











And, here is what I did with it -- of course, a holiday card!










Supplies: pp - KI Memories; stamp - PTI Holiday Button Bits (Merry Christmas);Sizzix Snowflake embossing folder and die; PTI Holiday Mix Vintage Button; MS Bakers Twine

This week's Midweek Throwdown challenge at OWH is to make an anniversary or love-themed card for our heroes to send home to their loved ones. This is the card that I created:










Supplies: pp - Imaginisce; PTI Fillable Frames #8; dies - PTI large rick rack, Fillable Frames #8

Today's card was an attempt at the tutorial at OWH. It was a cracked glass tutorial using Versamark and clear embossing powder. It was recommended that you repeat the process 4 times to get the desired effect. I did it 5 times and still couldn't get the dang image to crack, but, I do like the shiny, glossy embellishment it made! However, I thought the sentiment on the bottom needed a little something, so I removed the back of a snowflake brad and adhered it with Glossy Accents. In hindsight, I wish I had left it naked.










Supplies: stamps - Impress, Great Impressions, PTI Holiday Button Bits; Ink - Versamark, Versamark Dazzle, Distress Ink Faded Jeans

TTFN

This week's Stars & Stamps sketch at OWH was a bit of a challenge for me as I don't have many large stamps, but I gave it a whirl!























For my image, I stamped it twice, cut out the 2nd set of leaves and applied Glossy Accents to them. Then, adhered them using foam tape.

Supplies: pp - Fiskars; stamps - PTI Holiday Button Bits; dies - Nestabilities; embossing folder - Sizzix Ornaments; Glossy Accents

This week's Mid-week Throwdown at OWH is simply to create a Christmas card. So, I used a previous OWH sketch to create my card.










Supplies: stamps - PTI Wreath for All Seasons; pp - Heidi Grace Designs; TH Distress Inks - Peeled Paint, Barn Door; dies - Nestabilities; button; MS Baker's Twine

Just a quick posting today as Sweet Caroline is occupying a bit of my time today. She is spending the day with Grammy!










Here is a chipboard album for my Nestabilities dies I made after seeing a posting on 2 Peas. I wish I could remember who posted it so that I can give proper credit.

Anyway, I used my Bind-It-All tool, chipboard and cd pages to assemble it.









TTFN

It's time for another Stars & Stamps Sketch Challenge from OWH. The sketch:















And my holiday card:













Supplies: pp - The Paper Studio; stamps - Penny Black, Hero Arts; embossing folder - Basic Grey/Sizzix Snowflakes; dies - Nestabilities; button - PTI Holiday Mix Vintage; embroidery floss

On Saturday, we went to the Cotton Pickin' Fair in Gay, GA, and were expecting to see, maybe, 20 or 30 different booths set up with artisans and other vendors. What a surprise to find at least 150 different booths. Got a few cool items - a hanging candle holder crafted from a recycled wine bottle, a handmade puzzle for Caroline, and some Apple Salsa, which was, surprisingly more spicy than the Chipotle salsa! And, to top it off, the Shady Days Fair was going directly across the street where I found the best hair ties.











And, best of all, I got the web address so I can buy more!

This week's Midweek Throwdown Challenge at OWH is to make a "for the girls" card. These cards would be used for our soldiers to send home to their female loved ones.

My creation:















Supplies: pp - so old that I haven't a clue; stamp - Indadinkado; dies - Nestabilities

Today, I had my follow-up visit with the surgeon -- all is well. Of course, he may need glasses, 'cuz he said I looked great!

TTFN

This is a card I made for my daughter-in-law's birthday this weekend. Inside, she will be pleasantly surprised when she finds a gift card to a nail salon. I get a lot of my ideas and inspiration for cards during the Papertrey Ink new releases. This idea came from Heather Nichols when she introduced Fillable Frames #8 this month.










Supplies: pp - Imaginisce; die - PTI; stamp - PTI; ribbon - American Crafts; button -PTI Vintage Raspberry Fizz; MS Bakers Twine

Yesterday, I finished this book by Jason Wright. It was quite good - very thought provoking!

Here is this week's card sketch for Operation Write Home:











For my card, I decided to create a birthday card:










Supplies: pp - Sandy Lion; stamp - Hampton Arts; dies - Nestabilities; embossing folder - CB Polka Dots

Right now, we should be winging our way back from California after having attended my brother-in-law's wedding. But, alas, we had to cancel our trip. The day after coming home from the hospital after my appendectomy, my husband started having pain, swelling and severe redness in his left calf. So, Dr. Jayne immediately got on the internet and decided he had a blood clot. No sleep that night! He is not a doom-and-gloom-type person, but, even he was quite concerned. When he got to the doctor's the very next day, they, too, thought it was a blood clot. After an ultrasound, they decided it was cellulitis. He was started on antibiotics -- no change. Then, he had to go in daily for shots. The swelling just started to go down today, but they are concerned that it is taking so long to clear up.

What else happened? Oh, yeah, my less-than-2-year-old, apple green Dell laptop's screen went black on Saturday -- dead!! Peter took it to see the Geek Squad at Best Buy, thinking just to look at it would be almost the price of a new laptop. They opened it up, took out the board, put it back in and it works! Best of all ---- no charge! We couldn't believe it!

TTFN

This past weekend we were planning on doing our last-minute running around before leaving on Thursday for California to celebrate my brother-in-law's wedding. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans!

Last Thursday, I started getting back aches, and eventually abdominal pain. By late evening, the pain had shifted to my right side and by 2 a.m. we were leaving for the emergency room. After waiting 2 hours before being seen, they did a CT scan to check for kidney stones -- nope, acute appendicitis. Within 2 hours, the surgery was over and I came home the following morning. As of today, I feel like I'm back among the living.

I was able to make a necklace on Sunday to wear to the wedding. I used Swarovski crystals and pearls strung on 3 strands of crinkle wire:















And, these are the earrings I made to match:

The Midweek Throwdown challenge at OWH is a simple one -- make a birthday card for our soldiers to send home to their loved ones!

Creatively, I seem to be in a bit of a rut; all my cards tend to look the same. But anyway, here is my card:











Supplies: dies - PTI, Sizzix; brad - Doodlebug; felt; not a clue as to the pp I used, though!

Using this sketch posted on OWH by Teresa Kline of Enjoy the VA Sunshine ...













... I created this winter card:















Supplies: stamps - PTI; pp - KI Memories, Rusty Pickle; dies - Nestabilities, PTI; felt

My husband and I are travelling to California next week, so I knew I needed reading material. I took a trip to Books A Million and purchased 3 books. This is the 1st one I have started to read. I've read other books by Jennifer Weiner, so I was pretty sure it would be a good choice.

It's Monday and time for another OWH Stars & Stamps Sketch Challenge.















For my card, I flipped it and went with an all-green theme:










Supplies: stamps - Savvy Stamps, PTI; CB Embossing Folder - Polka Dots; pp - Daisy D's

With a bit of inspiration for yesterday's Madison Avenue blog, I made this card for my husband, since tomorrow is our 34th wedding anniversary.











Supplies: embossing folder - CB Polka Dots; dies - Nestabilities, Slice Animal Crackers; crochet lace; MS Bakers Twine

For this week's Midweek Throwdown at OWH, the challenge was to create a fall-themed thank you card for our heroes to send home to their loved ones.

Here is the card that I created:










Supplies: very old Chatterbox pp; stamps - Heidi Grace, Inkadinkado; die - Nestabilities

After spending Labor Day weekend in Atlanta with our son, daughter in law and granddaughter, I finally got around to this week's OWH sketch challenge.

the sketch:











and, my card:










Although I followed the sketch, I did stray a bit from the challenge. It was supposed to be a thank you card using the color yellow. As you will notice -- not a thank you card and no yellow!

My supplies: stamps - Magenta, PTI; CB snowflake embossing folder; dies - Nestabilities; clear embossing powder

Sat down yesterday and completed another layout of our granddaughter, Caroline. This layout was inspired by a design I had seen on Sarah de Guzman's blog, Red Oak Lines. She does great layouts, quite often centering around her two dogs Maui and Hilo.

Anyway, here's my layout:













Supplies: paper - Coredinations, The Paper Studio; die - Slice Noteworthy; buttons - PTI Holiday Mix Vintage; bakers twine - MS; title - Foam Thickers

I'm off to do a companion page, now.

Having just finished packing a large box of cards for Operation Write Home, I thought I'd do a few layouts to get back into my scrapbook routine. This is a recent layout of my new favorite subject - Sweet Caroline:










Supplies: pp - K&Co, KI Memories; die - Nestabilities; chipboard letters - Heidi Grace

I wish I knew how to photograph them better!

Off to start another layout!

Had a pretty low-key weekend -- boring grocery trips, lots of grilling, and managed to, finally, watch the Netflix movie we've had for a couple of weeks. We watched Extraordinary Measures with Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford. It was very good!

And, here is this week's sketch from OWH:











And, my card:










Supplies: stamps - Magenta, PTI; pp - Heidi Grace; dies - Nestabilities

This week's Midweek Throwdown at OWH is a recipe challenge. The challenge is to create a card using a die cut or punch, ribbon and heat or dry embossing.

I chose to do a holiday-themed card:










Supplies: pp - KI Memories, The Paper Studio; stamps - A Muse Artstamps; dies - Nestabilities; embossing powder

That's it for now -- we have a doubleheader today, due to a rainout last night. They may not make it to the playoffs, but, being a die-hard fan, I still watch 'em!

I'm a tad late with this week's Operation Write Home sketch, so here it is:














And, here is my card:













Supplies: stamps - PTI Holiday Trees, Savvystamps; pp - Fiskars, embossing folder - CB Polka Dots; die - PTI Scallop; bakers twine - MS

I'm probably out of the loop, but I was delighted to fall upon the larger size Cuttlebug embossing folders at Hobby Lobby this past weekend. I picked up the Polka Dots and Clockworks folders - just perfect for card fronts!

This is the book I am reading right now. It is an older book, but one I had always planned on reading after spending 5 years in Savannah -- and missing it terribly! I'm half way through it and am enjoying it thoroughly!