Woo hoo! More time for more challenges! I think Im on a roll!

Above is the lovely inspirational photo from the lovely Melissa Phillips. The photos that she uses each Friday are from A Creative Mint and are always so amazing! Everyday I am truly amazed at all of the amazingly creative ladies out there! I really wanted to do some beading of my own but I couldn’t find my beads (probably still packed away somewhere)!

The sketch used is from today’s Card Patterns, which was perfectly heart-filled for Valentine’s weekend :) Over at Just Us Girls, they are challenging us to use the Split Negative technique. This is definitely a new one for me, so it was fun to try out… be sure to check out all of the wonderful creations from the design team! Other challenges used – Daring Cardmakers: Have a Heart; Belli Challenge: Use Ribbons.

Thanks for visiting!

This card was made for a co-worker’s birthday. She had asked me to make her some of my Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins for her special day — and I just could not pass up the chance to make her some cute muffin toppers. It was a quickie, but still fun and special! For the recipe, go here! Challenges used: Pollycraft Challenge for a Winter Birthday Card; Flutterby Wednesday to use a fairy or butterfly; Charisma Cardz to make a card for Celebrations; Our Creative Corner to make it Clean and Simple.

… I can tell that 2010 is going to be an interesting year. But before we get into that, can I just give myself a pat on the back for keeping my new year’s resolution for 2009?! I am not fond of new year’s resolutions because I never go through with them, longer than the first month of the year. Bummer. But for 2009 I decided to create and keep a blog for the entire year (and consistently). It was fun and I may not ever go back through and read some of the things that I wrote, but it was a blast sharing my life and creations with those interested :) Thanks for being a visitor!

Now for 2010 — it started off with some surprising news — I was laid off on New Year’s Eve. It is ok, we will be ok and I look forward to see where God takes me next. First though, I am getting our life in order and doing a bit of Spring Cleaning and some creating. It is really what I WANT to do with my time. Who knows what will happen next! If this is your first time at the blog, I would love for you to become a follower (over on the right hand column of the blog) and visit often. I will be starting my Scrap or Dare challenges up again soon too — I do my best to share at least once a week and most of the time it will be on my latest creations — fun, I promise!

One day I was shopping at Home Goods, searching through all of their wonderful Christmas goodies and I came across these little tins of hot chocolate. It was one of those light bulbs going on inside of my head moments, for sure. I decided to get a bunch of em for the girls at work. I brought em home and wrapped them with some cute patterned paper, Close To My Heart, of course. I even hopped onto Photoshop to create a quick label for the top — I suppose the receiver of the goodie would want to know exactly what it is! I had a bit of fun with that and loved how it all turned out in the end.

Perfectly fun and easy little gift… everyone loved them! These cuties even qualify for a few challenges this week: Practical Scrappers – Anything Christmas; LaLaLands Crafts – Anything But A Card; Crafty Creations – A Crafty Creation of Any Kind; Crafty Ann’s – Anything but Red and Green; All Sorts – Anything But A Card; Bee-Crafty – Circles!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Just wanted to stop in and share my latest creation with you all! Christmas is all around, so I decided to create something outside of the season :) I absolutely love this paper and the colors! This card was created using the Card Patterns sketch from last Saturday; I know Im a bit behind on posting! I loved the challenging sketch and how the card turned out! Hope you enjoy; and if you like this one… you may want to check out my last post using these papers/colors called, My New Fave!

Originally, I had planned on applying for the Card Patterns Design Team… but things have been so busy around here with Christmas and all, that I just didnt have the time (deadline was today…). So I look forward to applying next time! I will be back to post some more Christmas goodies and recipes :) Have a wonderful day!

Why are gift cards so exciting to receive as a gift from someone?

I remember that as I grew older, all I ever wanted was gift cards, anything to be able to pick out my own gift! Now that I am older and buying gifts for my family and friends, I find that I miss giving an actual gift. I suppose there is a mixture of feelings toward wanting to pick out that fun and perfect gift for someone you love and also knowing what a blessing a gift card can be to someone. Even Garrett and I look forward to the gift cards we traditionally receive for Christmas now — they usually are for the movies, Starbucks and some nice restaurants — these really help us to take more time out of our lives to get out and spend time alone and together :)

Therefore, I have finally made a decision on this week’s DARE! I dare you (and myself) to make a special gift card holder! Feel free to make it in any way, with any template or guide, as long as it is created for the purpose of holding a gift card. For today’s Gift Card holder, I used the new template that Papertrey Ink has released called the Cash or Charge Collection by Lauren Meader. It includes three different templates to create some super special gift card holders; right in time for the holidays! I am SO excited to get started on these special little guys that will help me present my gifts in an extra thoughtful way! Check it out!

Supplies Used:

Colors: Just Us Girls color challenge: Red, Light Blue and Vintage Cream
Papers: PTI In Bloom and PTI Bitty Dot Basics
Stamps: PTI Fancy Flourishes and PTI Everyday Button Bits (sentiment)
Accessories: Large Red Button and Hemp
Tools: Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/4″ Circle Punch and Hole Punch

Thanks for stopping by!