Tell Me a Story!!

Hi & a Happy Wednesday to ya!!  Halfway thru the week we are thank goodness!  My big chore this weekend?  I have to go to Target & Lowes to buy Christmas lights before they're all gone (red, amber, white & blue) cuz' when you have 10 trees you always need more lights, hee hee!  And yes you all know that by December 1st you will NOT be able to buy any Christmas decorations at all, anywhere.  And why is this?  Well when you put out Christmas decorations out in the stores in July, by the time the holiday gets here there are none left for those of us who actually OPERATE on a normal schedule, LOL!  Just like when I want to buy some shorts in say JULY when it's really HOT there aren't any in the stores cuz' the people who shop in January for HOT weather clothes have already bought them all, you see where I'm going with this!! LMBO!  So I'm hoping to not only buy my Xmas lights on Saturday, but my Valentines Day Candy & my summer sundresses all in one shopping trip, bwahhhahahahhaha--one stop shopping for the ENTIRE year!  And in March I will start buying my 4th of July decorations and winter coats!!  Just saying....LOL--anyone else feel this way too!  Remember, you can vent here on ScrapBitz, heehee!

NewsBitz:

-And on another note, I just want to thank everyone that leaves me such sweet & supportive comments here on my blog--they really lift my spirits & put a smile on my face and I'm so thankful for each one of you that take the time to do that!  I appreciate it more than you can know!!

-Two (2) Fun events coming at ya tomorrow!  A Fun Blog Hop for Mo's Digital Pencil Dream Team and a new Digi Release from Pink Cat Studio!  So make sure to stop by!


-I will continue to keep this up everyday, but I am having a Holiday Crafter's Open House on Saturday, December 5th from noon til' 5 pm (come for an hour or three, but drop by if you can) I will have my 10 (yes 10 this year) Xmas trees up, house decorated, mulled cider brewing & lots of sweets to eat along with lots of fun chatting & meeting other crafters from this area!  Just email me if you'd like to come so I can send ya directions & have a head count! (I live in Leesburg, VA right off of Rte. 7 in the Lansdowne on the Potomac neighborhood) Make it a trip for ya too--the Leesburg Outlets are 5 mins away, Dulles Towne Center Mall 10 mins away, Tyson's Corner Mall 25 mins away!! (and a big Joann's & Michaels too)

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"A Nutcracker Ballet"

So I've been seeing alot of these fabulous shadow box cards around blog land and I just loved them, so I had to try one out!  I had printed out this fabulous digi stamp from Mo's Digital Pencil called "Clara & the Nutcracker" and was staring at it when the thought came to me to re-create the famous Nutcracker scene!  I LOVE the Nutcracker story and love the ballet version as my daughter danced many times in it and we've seen multiple versions by many ballets--I just adore it!  We also do a HUGE Nutcracker Village with all of our Nutcrackers (the kids & I get a new one each December) so they hold a special place in my heart always!  So to do this I had to pull out many different stamps; the tree and sentiment is from PTI's "Tree Trimming Trio" (although I see that Mo has a new one up in her store that would've been perfect too, darn).  The window and presents are Magnolia stamps (taken from a Tilda with Presents stamp & the Tilda cottage).  The dp is by Graphic 45!

I took many different angled pics so you could see the inside of this card (which folds flat for mailing)--you can find instructions for these shadow box cards HERE (I altered the size of mine to make it bigger).  I added gold stickles to the swirls on the tree, some red rhinestones and a jewel for the star at the top!  The main cut-out was done with my Nestabilities Labels 1 along with the red frame!

The window was taken from the Magnolia "Tilda's House" stamp and then I put diamond glaze on the glass panes.  I topped the window with a greenery swag (and sides of banner sentiment) with some branch punch-outs from my MS punch and some more red rhinestones for berries.

Of course everything is colored with Copics and then I added some stardust stickles to her nightgown for more sparkle.  I just love this image of Clara & the Nutcracker--I hope Mo (u reading this Mo?hee hee) does more images from the Nutcracker like the SugarPlum Fairy (oooh, I can imagine the scene now) and the bad Rat King!!  A whole series of shadow box cards I would do then---just for fun! Love it & hope you love it too!

See ya back here tomorrow for more fun!!