These are variations on the theme "winter". The penguin stamps are from a company called DenamiDesign. The snowman and some of the stickers are from a leftover sheet of winter stickers I had from a project that was finished over a year ago. The snowflake brads and ribbon are also left over from some long forgotten project.

I like them all to varying degrees but mostly, I enjoyed the time I had to make them. Time is such a luxury these days that it has been a joy to slow down and be able to enjoy my family and a bit of crafting, too.

This New Year's, rather than make a list of resolutions that rarely see the end of February, I have started a list of all I have to be thankful for--sort of Thanksgiving in Jarnuary.

Here is part of my list:

For the first time in about five years my mom was able to leave her nursing home and spend Christmas Day with my sister and brother (an ambulance transported her to and from). I was sad I wasn't there to take part in the day but am looking forward to seeing her during Spring break if we can find tickets in the budget.

My dad is doing great after bypass surgery this summer. I talked to him and his wife on Christmas Day and they both sound good.

I have a job I still find joy in after 15 years. There are definitely good days and bad days but as long as no one gets me started about No Child Left Behind I still think there is hope for my students and this country in general.

I've made some awesome blogging friends who have done so much to brighten 2008 with kind words of encouragement about things crafty and not-so crafty.

I wish you all a healthy and happy 2009!

Classroom Craft

I volunteered to put together a simple craft for my son to take into class. This is what I came up with. I've converted most of my music collection to a digital format so I was happy to find something to do with all the cases.

Winter Joy

This card came together late last night. The stamp is from Eat Cake Graphics via Paper Garden. The snowman is a Sizzix die. I had fun with my Copic air brush system on this one, playing with the sky. The ribbon and letter beads were left over from some long ago project.

This little ornament came together with the SU's Deer Friends set. I am providing a craft for my son's second grade class. I'm not too sure what I'm going to do but I have started playing around with my craft supplies to see what I can come up with that 22 seven year olds can handle without driving thier teacher crazy.

Christmas Cards, takes one and two

I need to squeeze in time to make my Christmas cards. I finally got a start today...here are takes one and two. I want to add something else but I'm not sure what. Any suggestions?? I have a couple more cards to post but they will have to wait until tomorrow or more acutately, later today. (It is almost 1AM.)

I picked the angel stamp up at Michael's and the paper is DCWV. The background was created using the Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder and a bit of silver ink to accentuate the whole thing. The black card stock I used had a texture to it so the embossing picked up the pattern in the second card.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I didn't get time to do any crafting over the long weekend. Instead, I headed out way too early (4AM) with a group of girlfriends and did my best to take a bite out of the recession. I've been going out on Black Friday for several years now and must say that this one was the least crowded. There were deals to be found here and there but for the most part, it was blahhh. The best deal I found was in a Wal-Mart ad for the Cricut Expression for $199. There was no way I was going to Wal-Mart on Black Friday so I took the ad into Michael's on Thanksgiving night (they were open from 6pm-9pm) and asked if they'd price match. They did!! I'm going to complete a couple of Cyber Monday orders, finish a few chores around the house then play, play, play!!

LEGO House

My son loves LEGO. I have several pictures of him playing with it so when I ran across some LEGO paper awhile back I bought several sheets with a layout or two in mind. That was not to be. A cheap balsa wood house and the afore mentioned paper along with some adhesive has made my son a happy boy. It took us almost an hour to cover the house but it was an hour well spent. Hope everyone had a good weekend!

November Holiday Party

It is official...the Holiday's are here (at least for me)! Tonight rather than running her usual stamping class my friend Marge held a great get together at her home. She organized a stamped image swap and asked each of us to make a sample of the card we would use the image with, had sweet and savory snacks galore, and had a cute little bag for each of us to make. As if that was not enough, Marge also had a couple of games, complete with prizes. I had a great time!

Here are:

1. the images I got in the swap


2. my sample cards






3. the treat bag I made tonight

Happy Veteran's Day! Thank you to all who have sacrificed for the freedoms we hold dear!

Trick or Treat 2008

We had a great time with another family going door-to-door, looking for treats. My poor son ended up giving about 1/2 of his candy to his friend because he can't eat it with his palate expander in. Nothing sticky for six months. Popcorn is off the list, too. We took him to Hershey Park in the Dark on Saturday so I think maybe this Halloween wasn't a complete bust for him. At seven, he is quite the daredevil. I had to call it quits after the 4th roller coaster. My husband won't go on any of them so I ended up riding with Russ. The one called the Cork Screw about did me (and the contents of my stomach) in.

The layout was created using Adobe Elements and a digiscrap set by Marie Cole.

Halloween Challenge

As much as I love challenges, finding the time to get them done is a challenge in itself but I decided to give it a shot after reading Crystal's blog. The idea is simple...1-2 page spread using Halloween pictures. This layout is what I came up with using Adobe PhotoShop Elements on my Mac and a digi-scrap set I picked up by Marie Cole.

Hope everyone has a great week!

October Gathering at Marge's

Last night produced another set of winning cards. It was the monthly class held by my friend and Stampin' Up demonstrator Marge. It is such a great group of women that go. Hope everyone has a great weekend! I am picking my sister up at the airport tonight for a quick visit. I haven't seen her since March so I am really excited!!

When Good Cards Go Bad

I have decided while I like all the elements of this card (except my coloring...it stinks tonight) it just does not work for me. As I was just telling one of my blogging friends, my husband is infamous for telling me "That's nice," when I show him my cards. He broke the mold and asked if I had gotten the images from the SciFi channel when I showed him this one. Go figure. Anyway, I have tomorrow off from school in observance of Columbus Day and with luck, I'll steal away for an hour or two to try again.

Digital Scrap in a Flash

It is truly amazing how fast you can put together a page when using PhotoShop Elements and a few digital goodies. The elements are from a kit I downloaded by Lynn Griffin. I'm working on a page for my cousin now that is taking me a bit longer to finish because for the life of me, I can't find the picture I want to use. Hope you are all having a great weekend. The weather is fabulous here in SE Pennsylvania with another beautiful day shaping up for tomrorow.

Blog Candy at Lim's

I was cruising through my usual blog spots and came to my blogging SBS2 sister Alana's, who shared a link to Lim's great blog candy offer. If you want to check it out, hurry, the winner will be picked on the 11th of October.

http://lim-thevoicesinmyheadlimblog.blogspot.com/

Halloween "Treasure" Boxes

I had fun with one of the new Big Shot dies that creates a 3x3 shaker box--it is just deep enough to hold six Hershey Treasure bars. When I mass produce these in October for a few special people I want to be sure to stamp the bar wrappers with web or spiders to add the finishing touch...they look a little bare right now.

Paper is from DCWV and the stamp is from SU's Tags So Much.

Spammers

I have been getting auto-generated comments of a spammish nature so while I hate to do it, I'll be turning on the mumbo-jumbo letter verification feature for those posting comments. Sorry:(

Marge's August Cards

Had a great night with the girls at Marge's last night. Marge always has great cards for us to make and this month was no exception. I also got a look at the new SU Catalog! It has some really great stamps in it this season. I ordered a Flower for All Seasons and will look forward to playing with it in a couple of weeks. Next month at Marge's is Christmas in July--Revisited. Each girl brings a card to share or a dessert (the Weight Watcher in me hopes there are a lot of cards to share but some of the desserts that have been shared at previous gathering have been de-lish). I'm going to start working on my card now so when school starts, I'm ahead of the game.

Jeepers Creepers

I was looking at the Hurricane Lori induced mess in my craftroom and decided really didn't care, I was going to skirt around the worst of it and stamp. Out of the chaos came this card. It was so easy to put together I should almost be ashamed to post it (notice it is here anyway)! The bat paper is from DCWV and the stamped bat is from SU's Googlie Eyes. The inspiration for this card came from one of my SBS2's cards. Kathleen sent me a birthday card in March that I have had posted on the memory board above my desk ever since. If you haven't been to her blog, I highly recommend it, especially since she started posting pictures of some of her SU Convention Swaps and a few takes on what she saw while at the convention. I have the Pick-a-Petal set and may just give it a whirl.

I have a few weeks left before I have to report to school. Philadelphia still starts the Tuesday after Labor Day for staff and the Thursday after for students. I've already started getting stuff together for my son. His shopping list arrived about a week ago. Second grade, here he comes!

With a little luck and a lot of laundry in between, I'm hopping to have something more to post later today!



This is Kathleen's Birthday Card to me...

Soccer Mini-Album

Can you tell I've had a very crafting couple of days? Here is a simple mini-album I made for myself. Last year I coached my son's soccer team and before the season starts up again, I wanted to do something with some of the pictures my husband took.

Purple Daisy

Also at CKC were the people from the Purple Daisy. I bought a couple of new stamps from them that I really like a lot. Purple Daisy creates a line of stamps that have matching punches. I bought the butterfly stamp from them a couple of years ago and remember putting the punch back figuring I could find it at AC Moore or Michael's and use a coupon. In the two years I have looked for it I couldn't find it so I was happy to pick it up this time. The dragon fly on the card is one of their stamp/punch pairs. I colored it with my COPIC markers.

CKC Valley Forge (Spellbinders)

I had a wonderful time cruising the vendor fair at CKC Valley Forge with my friends Donna and Charlene. I can safely say I spent way too much money at the Spellbinder's booth but I can't say I regret it one bit. The two women who were manning the booth were awesome! The owner's mother was there while her daughter and son-in-law were on vacation and then there was Teresa. The Donna, Charlene and I sat and watched her create wonderful cards and other goodies using a wide variety of dies, the Wizard, and to my delight, a COPIC air brush system.

Here is my lastest card using my COPIC air brush system...

Update

Wow, it is amazing how fast time slips by when you are busy.

Since I last posted, my dad is going phenomenally well after a triple bypass in late June. He and his wife are coming here this weekend for a short visit then heading for their new home base in Indiana, where he'll start physical therapy. It looks like he's finally decided to retire at 70.

Husband, son and I spent 8 days in Florida visiting with first my sister and her family then over to Orlando to see the Mouse. I'll have things to post soon...I hope.

VBS is coming up quickly (the first full week of August) and I am working in the craft room again this year. Lots of fun with lots of work as well. All my crafting time is going to the 250 kids that are attending this year with the exception of next Friday, when I'll be attending the scrapbook convention being held in Valley Forge. I didn't sign up for any classes this year but will be fine if I can't get into anything...I'm sure I'll find something to do at the yummy vendor fair!

Have a great weekend!

Traveling with Technology

I am typing and posting from the PA Turnpike using my husband's laptop and wireless card. I think this may be being a bit too connected! We are heading to the Pocono Mountains to see my father and step-mom for the day. He works for a travel park company, moving from park to park across America doing major repair work on the facilities at each location. He was getting ready to head to Texas when he when to the local ER because of a high fever. He had been bitten by a tick a few weeks before and thought maybe Lyme disease. The doctors checked him out and when is blood pressure sky rocketed, they kept him for tests, including catheterizing his heart, which revealed three blocked arteries. He had surgery the following day. The doctor in charge told my dad that if he hadn't come in when he did, he'd probably be dead. He'll be in the area for the rest of the summer recovering from triple bi-pass surgery. I thank God for the opportunity to spend some time with my dad this summer and for my son to get to know him.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Independence Day weekend!

A Summer Swap

I have had little to post in June but I hope that will change soon. I made these cards for a summer swap.
**Special credit goes to Stephanie C. for the flower embellishment**

Three Winners from Marge

Here are this month's creations from Marge's workshop. I really like them all but will admit to wandering the new AC Moore's on Friday looking for a big flower stamp. My wallet was happy I didn't find one.

I'm in LOVE!!

I'm in LOVE!! Okay, maybe just serious like but my new Copic air brush system is wonderful! I used my new Penny Black stamps, the air brush, and my Copics to create this spiffy little card. About the only complaint I have is that I smudge the "smile" a bit. Such is life. I still have to mount it onto cardstock but that's about it. Paper is from my scrap drawer.

****Special thanks to Donna H. for the generous gift certificate from Allegheny Art. I added a but to it and bought the Copic Air Brush system that will use my husband's air compressor or canned air.****

A Pink Departure

I am definitely not Elle Woods from Legally Blonde...pink is NOT my signature color but for this card using a set of stamps from Denami I not only went pink but added flowers and rhinestones to boot. I haven't added a sentiment yet but will wait until I have an occasion other than wanting to play with my new stamps.

Skylar

My sister had an eight year old Boston Terrier she lost to cancer this winter. I saw this stamp out in California while visiting my mom and couldn't resist it as it is the spitting image of Skylar. I made a few cards to send to my sister and will include the stamp, too. Here are the cards...