Don’t you just love Christmas time!

So far, my hubs and I have gone to two Christmas parties and this week it all goes a little crazy! Each day is filled with something fun and Christmasy! I have FINALLY found some time to make some Christmas cards — aside from the personal orders through Etsy, I have not made anything for Christmas yet! So here is one of the fun cards I made using Papertrey Ink’s Banner Builder stamp set! This set is going to be used…. A LOT!

I used Versamark Ink to stamp the polka dot background on the Kraft cardstock and popped up the little lettering up with some pop dots for a little added dimension. Sometimes the traditional Christmas colors are just sweet to work with; I always TRY to use untraditional Christmas colors but I just can’t do it… just too much for me! I love Red, Green and White so so much.

Challenges Used:

• Belli Challenge: Christmas Embellishments/Paper
• Creative Stamp Friends: Traditional Christmas Colors
• A Spoonful of Sugar: Christmas Cards

Another favorite part of Christmas time is trying out a new recipe or two! This year I couldn’t resist this Butter Toffee recipe from the Pioneer Women! It is easy, melt in your mouth delicious and looks pretty darn good too! Try it out, using this recipe!

Enjoy! …and don’t forget to come back tomorrow for WW Wednesday! I have a great new recipe to share!

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Just a little project I wanted to share with you all! A cutie little cardboard Baby album! Love the purple and the kraft together…. *Challenges used at the end of the post!

Above is the album all put together {in case you couldn’t already tell} and below are most of the pages in the album. I kept it fairly simple with some ribbon accents and dollies. My only complaint with this album is that I couldn’t fit all of the pages I made in it because it wouldn’t close properly — big boo to that! Other than that, it turned out adorably and I am pretty sure my sweet friend who received it for her precious little one coming in December would agree!

Challenges Used:

• Anything Goes – Animals
• Flourishes (Bring back beautiful/BBO4) – Ribbon
• PaperCutz challenge anything goes

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HAPPY FALL!

There, I said it! It is fall and yes, I took some time out of my schedule (and early excitement for Christmas) to celebrate fall. We aren’t too  familiar with fall here in Southern California; perhaps it would be more exciting if we had more of a change. Fall usually consists of the Santa Ana winds (hot, dry winds), fire season and brown leaves. See? not so much to look forward to.

But this year has been extraordinarily different for each season so far! The summer was beyond beautiful and not much hot weather — we are talkin’ 75 to 85 degrees with lovely breezes all day long. Now for fall, we have actually had quite a bit of rainy, cool weather with some gorgeous lightning and thunder! That is pretty exciting for us! Looking forward to what else God has in store for us the remainder of 2010.

My cards for today were inspired by Embellishment Magazine’s color challenge. Green, Yellow and Rust with a Vintage twist — how could I pass this up!?

I used the 2 Sketches 4 You sketch and played around with my new stamp set from Close To My Heart — Many Thanks D1371 — which features lovely fall leaves as well as the thin swirl border stamp that I used for my center strip. I took a small 4″ doily and sponged it with Goldrush and Paper Bag (CTMH) until I got the rusty look that I wanted… I also used Paper Bag to sponge the edges of the card and the sentiment to keep with the rusty theme. Aren’t doilies fun? You can’t tell so well from the photo but I also embossed the card base (except where my strip down the center is) with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.

My second card uses Papertrey Ink’s Damask Designs, one of my favorite stamp sets! Using Paper Bag ink (CTMH) I again sponged over the doily, but very lightly for a speckled distressed look and around the edge of the card base. I wish I had a die to use for this damask but I had to cut it out by hand. It takes some patience but is so worth being able to pop it up off of the Garden Green circle for dimension. Topped this beauty off with a tan pearl from Close To My Heart’s new pearl set (mocha set).

Thanks for visiting and I hope that you are enjoying your Fall time, wherever you may be!

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Four years of amazing blessing.

Today my husband and I are celebrating our 4th Anniversary! It is amazing how quickly things go the older you get. Seriously, how did four years happen already? All I know is that we have been so blessed!

My husband brought home some of my favorite roses — yeah, I can’t resist a lovely peach rose! And we went to a nice restaurant for an amazing dinner. Can you say yum!? Because the Seared Ahi Tuna that I had was heaven in my mouth (no joke!). Not to mention the delicious creme brulee that they surprised us with on the house for our celebration! It was extra special since that is exactly how Garrett proposed to me four years ago!

Okay, okay, I will share the story! :)

Garrett took me to a sweet little restaurant in Malibu that overlooked the ocean. When we finished our meal, the waiter came out with dessert (creme brulee) and it had “Will You Marry Me?” written in chocolate around the plate and the ring box open at the front.  It was an amazing surprise… I was speechless! But of course, I said YES! :)

And now for MY CARD!

I am proud of this precious little guy. I knew that I wanted to use the Woodgrain background stamp from Papertrey Ink because it has a sort of manly feel to it. Plus I wanted to keep it fairly simple. This week’s CPS Sketch was perfect for what I wanted to do. I hope that you enjoy my interpretation of the sketch! I can say with confidence that my hubs did!

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Hi lovelies,

I am hoping that the Summer weather is treating you all as well as it is treating us here in Southern Cali! We are truly blessed with beauty every morning, afternoon and evening. I will not take this lovely Summer for granted; it is the first time in my entire life that I can remember it being so perfect for the majority of the summer. Shouldn’t it be in the hundreds already?! I’m a happy gal!

With this amazing weather comes much inspiration and that is where today’s card set was born. I am not quite ready for the Autumn colors to return and this weather truly reminds me of the lovely Springtime. I stumbled on over to the Mojo Monday challenge and fell in (true) love with this week’s sketch! Oh my, it is so elegant and special! I also joined in on the added challenge of using embossing on my cards over at Our Creative Corner, and guess what!? I used my new Cuttlebug! I hope you enjoy the result — and if you like it enough, maybe head on over to my Etsy Shop and purchase one of the cards or even the whole set!

To purchase the above card CLICK HERE

To purchase the above card CLICK HERE

To purchase the above card CLICK HERE

Or to purchase a set of all three CLICK HERE

Thank you all for your love and support! And for stopping by! I hope you always love what you see….

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