New Beginnings!

Happy New Year--2011 to you all!  So today is 1-1-11, hee hee---looks kinda funny and doesn't happen much either!!  Wow it's the new year already and I can't believe the holidays flew by so very fast!  We had a wonderful holiday here at the Dean house and we were surprised to wake up to a white Christmas morning.  It was the kids first white Christmas, it snowed very prettily for a few hours but nothing stuck thank goodness (just the kinda snow I like).  Santa was very good to us all and he brought Riley a new drum set and guess what Santa did?  He dropped it off in large boxes for Mom & Dad to put together on Christmas Eve until 3:30 am, LOL--oh the fun!  They both got their new Ipod Touches so they were excited--Riley said it was one of his favorite Christmases so that's good!  I got hubby Apple TV and we've had fun playing with that.  It can link up to YouTube so just for fun I watched a minute of one of my YouTube videos on our 80" tv, LOL--oh my how I hate to hear or see myself especially that large, hee hee!  I got some nice gifts as well including a gift certificate to take some gourmet cooking classes with hubby which will be fun!  We had Christmas dinner at my brother's new house this time, usually I host as we don't like to travel on Christmas day.  But I made an exception this year since my neice and nephew were in town special and I don't get to see them very often.  I realized that I don't have very many pics of Christmas, I always get caught up in the day and forget to take pictures, LOL! (bad mom)!  But I'm just thankful we were all healthy, had a good holiday and got to spend some quality time with family--that's what its really all about!  We're not real big on doing up New Years Eve so we just watched movies and had some food with friends at home.  Alexa went to a friend's party for the evening as well.  I have some pictures below in a slideshow to share with you all of some of our holiday joy!

The best part of taking time off since hubby always takes off a whole week was spending time together and NO WORKING, LOL!  I got to read bunches and I enjoyed some really good books so if you are looking for a few good reads I'll list what I read below:

-At over 1000 pages Ken Follett's "Fall of Giants" is overwhelming (but on Kindle you don't know how thick it is, lol) but it was EXCELLENT!  So gripping and well written and I love a good historical novel mixed with fictional and non-fictional characters.  I read it in 3 days and it was really, really good!

-Another good book is new by Kate Morton called "The Distant Hours"--historical, mystery & suspense, melancholy and romantic all mixed together always makes her books worth reading.  Really good as well.

-Also great reads are Mermaids in the Basement by Michael Lee West, 1022 Evergreen Place by Debbie Macomber, Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay and A Secret Kept by Tatiana De Rosnay.

Christmas Eve Slide Show:


Christmas Day Slide Show:



 NewsBitz:

-My Holiday Special on all online copic classes at the Color Me Creative Classroom is still ongoing until Jan. 4th!  Check out the deals on the main page HERE!

-My next traveling copic classes will be in Nashville and LA later this month(sign ups are on-going)!  If you want details visit my site www.cmcroad.com!  Nashville Class hotel location will be announced this coming week!

-I will post my winner of the holiday blog candy tomorrow for you all!!

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New Year, New Beginnings!!

Well its been a full 6 months since my term as a Dirty Girl/Dirty Dozen DT member for Splitcoast Stampers so I get to start sharing some of those projects with you this year.  We have to wait 6 months before we can share our work so it's only been on the SCS Fan Club gallery.  And I have a TON of projects to share so it's nice to have a backpile of projects to use during the year, LOL!  I'm crafting today but I haven't been in my craftroom since before Xmas (yikes)!  This is one of my favorite cards that I had done and to me butterflies signify new beginnings, new life experiences and new goals--perfect for the New Year!

This card uses a beautiful butterfly image from a gorgeous Gina K set from last year called "Hope is Faith".  Gina K created this set to raise funds for the disaster in Haiti last year---although I don't think any proceeds go to charity any longer you can still purchase the set HERE!

I love to create WOW cards---white on white with bright pops of color!  I used lots of texture to really make the layers on this card pop more.  The dry embossing was all done with CB Embossing folders (swiss dots, textile texture) and then I used my oval nestabilities for the main image cut-outs.  Three matching rhinestones at the top and a bow made with my bow easy finish it off.  Oh yeah, I got a NEW SB Grand Caliber machine and some of those awesome new Grand Dies and it is freaking AWESOME!  I cannot wait to share a project with you this week done with those new bigger dies--I LOVE THEM!

I used one of the main butterfly images from the stamp set and colored it with copics and then cut it out.  Then I added 2 layers of Diamond Glaze on top of the butterfly to make it shiny and stiff (let each layer of glaze dry before you add another).  Once the glaze dried I added stardust stickles to the top of parts of the butterfly for pretty sparkle THEN sprayed the entire butterfly with Smooch Spritz (vanilla) for more subtle sparkle.  Because the glaze gives the image some depth and strength, I was able to bend the wings to make it look realistic and then put it on the card front with Scor-Tape.  Ta-Da!  A pretty card for someone special in your life!

So Happy New Year to you and here's to NEW Beginnings, NEW Life experiences, NEW Goals and a wonderful year for us all!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays & a Wonderful New Year!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year to you all! Thanks for help making 2010 a fabulous, successful and wonderful year for me. I cherish your friendship, support and love so very much and I'm always ecstatic that anyone would want to stop by and see what I've done or read some of my nonsense, LOL!  It has been a year of ups and downs, surprises, many trips and new ventures for me and my family and some craziness all mixed in together.  But that's the way I roll I guess, hee hee and this year has been one of the best for me and my family with some bumps and bruises along the way--but that's life right!

I'm happy to say that I and my family are well, healthy and extremely looking forward to the holiday this year.  A little break for us all to really enjoy each other and reflect on the blessings and good times we've had this year!  I hope you and your family & friends get a chance to do the same and I hope it's a wonderful holiday week for you all!

Below in the post is my last holiday card for 2010 that I made---hope you enjoy it as it was fun to make!!

This is our family holiday card is and in my heart I'm sending it out to you all :)

NewsBitz:

-Remember my Holiday SALE is ongoing thru Jan. 4th, 2011 over at my Color Me Creative Classroom for all my online copic classes!  It's a great deal and they make great gifts too!  Go here to see details!

-Want to know where I'll be teaching my Copic Classes in the New Year?  See all the locations at www.cmcroad.com and more will be loaded soon (including Phoenix,AZ)!!  Earliest classes will be in January in Nashville and LA, CA!!

-Hidden Holiday Blog Candy in this post :)

-SCACD has it's carts closed down until Jan.2nd--so you can window shop but Susana is closing the store to take time off with her family :)  The Store will REOPEN on Jan.2nd with lots of NEW goodies!!

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Season's Greetings to you all!!

This is my last holiday card for 2010 sadly--I didn't even get to use all my beautiful holiday papers all up so they'll go in my holiday paper bin for next year's projects!  I have been wanting to use these beautiful holiday papers from BoBunny and this Magnolia stamp to do an all green card -- so I took time out yesterday to make this Christmas card.  I love the way it turned out and it may just be my holiday card to myself this year, hee hee!

I've entered this project in a few fun challenges including "Anything Goes" (to use the letter C for something--so C is for Christmas in my project), Papertake Weekly Challenge (anything goes), 365 Cards (something cute), Paper Playtime (anything Christmas) AND

This image is the "trigger" photo for Moxie Fab World's Trigger Challenge--so my interpretation is a wintry card of course below--except my Magnolia's mittens are just green & not striped :)

This card uses a fabulous winter image from Magnolia-licious from the Merry Christmas 2010 Collection called "Tilda in Winter Light" (she's out of stock right now) but the MINI version is in stock HERE!  But I have one to give away, so see the bottom of the this post for some Holiday Candy!  The papers are from Bo Bunny HERE and I used cs from PTI.  The pearl swirls are Prima and the sentiment is from PTI.  The holly punch-outs are from a MS Jumbo punch, then I inked the edges of the holly with white ink and then coated them with Stickles (stardust).  Do you love those embossing layers?  They are both done with Sizzix's NEW Basic Grey embossing folders which I adore--they emboss nice & deeply and ink up great (I inked them with SU River Rock ink).

 

I colored this cutie with Copics (G29,G24,G21,G20/E43,E42,E41,E40) and then I added Diamond Glaze to her boots.  To make her sparkly I used my Quickie Glue Pen to dot the fur trim on her coat and hat and then sprinkled Glamour Dust on top--love that stuff!  To add just a bit more dimension to the image I double-stamped the lantern and colored it twice.  Then I cut out the 2nd one and popped it up for dimension--the glass windows on it have diamond glaze and while wet I sprinkled more diamond glaze on top for extra sparkle!

Blog Candy:  I've got an extra Magnolia "Tilda in Winter Light" stamp, a Lacey Circles Nestability set (like I used above), and a pack of Basic Grey "Marjolaine" paper!  You can enter by leaving a comment telling me--

"What your holiday wish is for the New Year?"  

on this post only by Dec. 29th to win!  Winner will be announced by Jan. 5th!  thank you!

Have a very Merry Christmas and I'll see you at least once more before the New Year here at ScrapBitz!!  Happy Holidays to you all!

A 3 Dimensional Christmas!!

Hello everyone & Happy December 21st to you all! Only 4 days until Christmas--yikes! Are you ready? LOL! I am ready!! Decorating is done, projects are done, cards have been mailed and shopping is done!  Hubby and I will have our present wrapping party on Thursday night and watch some good movies.  My brother is having Christmas dinner this year as it's his turn and it's kind of a nice break for me :) The kids and hubby are home from Thursday thru Jan. 3rd which is fabulous (really it is, LOL).  We don't travel during Christmas, we like to cuddle up at home and hang out reading, playing and watching movies.  Its a great time to just hunker down and be a family and enjoy the down time.  I know as the kids get older and are now teens that it doesn't happen as often as I'd like but at least a couple days is nice!  I don't like the cold so we're not a family that goes skiing or to cold weather destinations, LOL!  Hubby sometimes takes the kids skiing but its not my thing anymore--if I'm going on vacation its going to be WARM and SUNNY :) and I don't do well in the cold anymore either, my muscles just start shutting down.

We went to see Yogi Bear in 3D at the movies on Sunday evening with the kids and one of Riley's friends.  I LOVE Yogi Bear, hee hee, I always watched those cartoons when I was little.  And the movie is a great family movie and yes of course I laughed wayyyy too loud for my kids liking (hee hee) but it was fun.  Then yesterday evening I had a few of my girlfriends over for drinks, food, chit-chat and laughs--it was really nice.  We're all so buy during the year that we don't always get to catch up as much as we'd like so I really enjoy the times when we do!  It was just what I needed :)

I will have one more post up before Christmas for you all and then it will be sporadic here at ScrapBitz until the 3rd of January as I spend time with my family.  As I'm sure you will be doing the same--the holidays are always a beautiful time to reflect on the year that has passed, our blessings,  our friends & families and our lives in general!  Other than summer it IS my favorite time of the year and I intend to LOVE & enjoy every minute of it!!

NewsBitz:

-The Holiday Special over at the Color Me Creative Classroom is ongoing thru Jan.4th if you are interested in taking any online Copic Classes or gifting them to a friend!  You can check the main site HERE for all the details--but its a great DEAL! :)

-7 Kids College Fund is doing a fun SCAVENGER HUNT from yesterday thru Christmas Day!!  You can find out all the details on the 7 Kids Blog HERE each day--you get a clue and then you gotta go hunt thru the store!  The rules: 

1) get the daily clue from each day's e-mail, the blog or facebook, and figure out the mystery free product
2) spend the daily amount in the store (if it is $50, you will need to have $50 in MERCHANDISE in your cart...does not include shipping or the scavenger/gift item)
3) add the mystery item to your cart
4) use the daily code to get your item for FREE!!!

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A 3 Dimensional Christmas

While I was in Canada teaching Copic Classes this past fall at the stamp store Stamplicity I found these fabulous paper mache 3D craft sheets.  I had NEVER seen them before and of course I had to come home with a few sheets to try out, LOL! They're from Ectasy Crafts HERE and if you see any you like (they come in every season, theme & style not just holiday) then you can email Pauline HERE the owner of Stamplicity and she'll order them for you.  And if you live in the states she'll ship them from Buffalo, NY so it's cheaper & faster!  They come in thin sheets and you just punch out the images.

The Santa sheets I got are called Twisted 3 D sheets because each layer you twist slightly as you place them on top of each other.  I used 1/16th dimensionals (I use these here by EK, I buy 12 packs at a time also of the 1/8th for a bigger pop too) to pop them off of each other.  The images and colors are just stunning and easy to embellish.  For this one above I added MS Snow Glitter and Stickles to the image after I had adhered it together.  I matted the final image and then added a snowflake border around it, added a ribbon loop and then sealed it together on the back with another layer of cardstock.  Quick and easy to do and no stamping or coloring for you to do--I know can you believe it!? LOL!

This is another Santa image--I love the forest animals coming to eat their treats from Santa's bag!  I added stickles and MS Snow Glitter around each layer this time--it really sparkles and catches the lights from the tree IRL!

Then there are the regular 3 D Sheets that you don't twist, you just stack the layers on different sections.  Like these cuter than cute puppies--aren't they awwwwww cute?  I literally made this ornament in less than 10 minutes--punched out the layers, adhered them with dimensionals and added Stickles to the holly, around their ears and around the boots, and Sparkly Fluff to the furry topped boots.

This is what they look like from the side---so only sections of the image have multiple layers like the holly their ears, paws and boot tops.  So cute and then I added some red/white Bakers Twine double looped to the back for a hanger.

Here's another cute puppy from the same sheet--a little dalmatian puppy.  I did the same thing on this one by popping the layers with 1/16th dimensionals and added stickles to the bells, holly and around his ears and hat.  Then some Sparkly Fluff on his fur trimmed Santa Hat!! 

Here is this cutie hanging on one of my Christmas trees--I just love them and so fun & quick to make.  These would be perfect as little gifts or tags on presents too!  I intend to make LOTS next year, lol!

Hope you enjoyed this post today!  If you like these I encourage you to try them out--I'm ordering some more for the holidays through out the year to use.  You could make these to add to gift bags, books, scrapbooks and other fun paper crafts--think outside of the box!!  See ya back on Wed!

WINNERS-Charity Fundraiser Blog Candy!!

Hello and a Happy Sunday to you all! Hope you are having a fabulous holiday weekend and the snow isn't keeping you housebound. Our snow is still lingering in the grassy areas because the temperature doesn't get very high during the day--still bitterly cold here. The kids are hoping for a white Christmas but I don't think that's going to happen, there hasn't been a white Christmas around here in at least 20 years. (that's fine & dandy with me, lol)

I don't have any projects to share today although I will be back tomorrow with a post of some holiday projects I finished up. I just wanted to let you know how much money was raised/collected for The Fisher House Charity and who the lucky winners are!

So online donations totaled $1825 and I also collected checks totaling $195 which I will bundle up and send to the Fisher House Foundation this week----so that means we raised a whopping $2020!!! 

YAYYYYY!  That is $1420 OVER my original goal and I'm so very thankful and just thrilled to bits by that!  I know it will go to extremely good use at the Fisher House helping provide homes/support to US Soldiers, Veterans and their families.  If you missed the post describing this Fundraiser you can read about it HERE!

Thank you to all who donated to this wonderful charity, every amount donated is appreciated and I'm so thankful that you all were so generous and supportive.  It means a lot to me and even more so for our military families.  And thank you to those who shared their personal stories of using the Fisher Homes or knowing a friend that had used them and how it had helped them deal with hospital stays and rehabilitation.  It was heartwarming to hear those and I am so appreciative that you shared them with me.  We all hear the stories on the news of soldiers that are coming home missing limbs or needing other medical care and rehabilitation but we don't always remember the families that want to be there with them.  Most of the time soldiers are in hospitals that are not near their homes and their families cannot afford the gas, hotel bills and food expenses to be nearby.  So the Fisher House Foundation trys to alleviate that burden in any way they can.  Having a support system of family near you while you are recuperating and recovering can make all the difference and I'm happy that we helped in some small way.  So again thank you to you all for helping me help The Fisher House!


Now lets get to the winners, as I know you all are super excited to learn who won the two fabulous prizes right?  Thank you to the wonderful store owners for the Prize 2 package as well for donating their yummy gifts to the pot--I so appreciate your support!

box of names who donated

I kept an Excel File with everyone's names on it---so if you donated more than $10 you got 2 entries and if you sent me a check you are on the list as well, so everyone got entered!!  Then I printed them, cut all the names into strips (with hubby, lol) and had Riley pick 1 winner and I picked the 2nd winner (see pics at bottom)!  So NO funny business went on I promise!

Prize #1 is a NEW Kindle (E-reader) and $25 Kindle Gift Card from me to thank you!! (if you win & you have a Kindle already, then you will get $120 Kindle Gift Card to buy more books)!

Riley holding up Susan's name slip! sorry it's blurry

Winner of Prize #1 is........................SUSAN ROWSEY!!!!  

Yay Susan--you will LOVE the Kindle if you don't have one already! Congrats & thanks to you you lucky gal!!

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Prize # 2 is: a $50 gift certificate to SCACD (thank you Susana Magenheimer), a NEW/Improved Scor-Pal and $25 gift certificate from Magnolia-licious (thank you Diana Crick), a $25 gift certificate to 7 Kids College Fund (thank you Tab), and 2 Bildmalarna Stamps from StampingScrapping.com (thank you Cindy Echtinaw).

Riley holding Shannon's name slip

 

Winner of Prize #2 is............................. SHANNON PURVIS!!!  Yay Shannon--you got a great batch of craft goodies coming your way! Congrats and thanks to you too!

Both winners email me at your earliest convenience with your mailing address and info please at sjdean@smartneighborhood.net so I can get your prizes shipped or started to be shipped to you asap!

Thank you to you all so very much for your generous donations--I know you will help put smiles on lots of military families faces this coming year!

Happy Holidays to you & see you back here tomorrow!

Winter Fairy!!

**Charity Fundraiser  Blog Candy will be announced on Sunday-thank you all**

Helllooooooooo & a very Happy Thursday to you!  It is supposed to SNOW today here in VA--DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS????  I AM NOT A HAPPY GAL TODAY, LOL!  Blech, blech, blech!  And it's colder here than in Anartica I tell ya!  Please, please do not let it be a snow day--I NEED my kids to go to school, LOL!  I have errands to run and videos to shoot and I cannot have their interruptions, hee hee--arghhh indeed!  Of course the kids are thrilled, but do you know what happens in No. VA. when it even flurries outside--MAJOR CHAOS on the roads.  People act like that one flurry is going to annihilate their vehicles and prevent them from going wherever they need to go, LOL--its craziness I tell ya and very SCARY!  Which means that if I'm on the roads I will get very disgruntled with these people and the "not so nice words" will come out of my mouth along with some horn honking!! LOL--not a pretty site people!  And I want to stay in a holiday-loving-giving-cheery mood not the GRINCH mode KWIM!  So please come quick snow and leave even quicker!!

Riley had his last band concert last night and he played the Bass Drum solo for The Little Drummer Boy--he did awesome.  I took video and once I figure out how to get it off my Iphone and onto the computer I will put it up so you can have a listen--it was AWESOME (yeah I'm a proud mama, dontcha' know it)!  Here's some pictures of him playing below (he'll HATE that, hee--serves him right for wishing for snow,lol):

 

NewsBitz:

-Tomorrow is the LAST DAY to enter the Charity Blog Candy Fundraiser I'm having for the Fisher House!  The winners will be announced over the weekend--but you can still enter and read about the Fisher House Charity on this POST HERE!

-Holiday Special Sale at the Color Me Creative Classroom thru Jan. 4th!!  If you want to take some online Copic classes or gift them then now's a great time to sign up! You can see all the details HERE!

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Winter Fairy!!

Today I get to share a WONDERFUL NEW stamp release from SCACD with you all!  It's a 3 stamp release, one stamp from each of the exclusive artists for SCACD---Elisabeth Bell here, Victoria Case here and Carmen Medlin here!  It's a fun release and each image is exquisite and beautifully done--you won't want to miss out on these cuties!  I got to use this fantastic image from Carmen Medlin for SCACD called "Guardian of Hearth & Home"--isn't she a beauty?

****Stamps will be up for sale by approx. 9 am today at the store, so don't despair!! ***

I made my card based on an Inspiration Photo for the Dec. Challenge over at my CMC Challenge Group (see here--the challenge is open to everyone, fun challenges every 2 weeks).  This "Guardian of Hearth & Home" image worked perfectly for my challenge.  The papers are by Bo Bunny "Midnite Frost" (SCACD is out of this one, but has other Bo Bunny here) and I love the soft and dark blue mix in the patterns.  To make that border I die cut snowflakes from this Marianne Designs Snowflake die set and cut them in half, then added them underneath the center panel.  The snowflakes are die cut from PTI's Navy Shimmer cs--it is just beautiful in person.  Then I added some of those awesome Zva Designs rhinestone swirls to look like swirling ice and snow coming out from behind her. I wish you could see how sparkly and iridescent this card is in real life---so pretty!

And yes the image & background is colored with Copics (B39,B37,B34,B21/E43,E42,E41,E40).  I'm doing a video on how I make these backgrounds & choose colors that I hope to have up before Christmas (fingers crossed).  I did a soft version of the copic feathering technique on her gown and sleeves with the blues and creams for a dreamy look.

TIP: And I found a new obsession---you know I love glitter right?  Well if you put Stardust Stickles on your image THEN sprinkle Glamour Dust (15% off) on top while it's still wet--it will BLOW YOU AWAY with sparkly gorgeousness, I swear!  I love it!!  Then I used my Quickie Glue Pen to add small drops of glue to the background and sprinkled more Glamour Dust on top to look like small sparkly snowflakes floating in the air.  At the bottom of the image I used more of my fave MS Snow Glitter for a snowy ground.  The snowglobe got a nice dollop of Diamond Glaze on top to make it shiny & dimensional.

I hope you like this project as much as I do---I managed to capture the dreamy effect I was after so I'm thrilled with it, hee hee!  And make sure to hop over to SCACD Store to see all the NEW "From the Vault" stamps!!  Also stop by the Store Blog HERE to see the rest of the DT's awesome projects with these new stamps--lots of inspiration for you!

Trim the Tree!

Hello & a Happy Wednesday to you!  The winds are still blowing outside and it's STILL freezing here in VA, lol (sadly)!  Thankfully I don't have anywhere to go today, I'm just working on projects and waiting for the carpet cleaners to come.  Cuz you know they give you a 4 hour window and they'll show up the 4th hour, lol, but I have to have the cats all put in my bedroom before they get here which is a pain in the rear!  Sometimes I can just crack a can of cat food and they'll come running, but I SWEAR they know when I want to coop them up cuz they RESIST the food offerings, LMBO!  Little devils that they are!  Then we're off again this evening to see Riley's last band concert--he's playing the solo drum for Little Drummer Boy and I cannot wait to see him perform!


If you wanted to see my Christmas decorations and 11 trees, I put up a slideshow on yesterday's post below!  Yes, I've been called CRAZY but I do love Christmas and I have 2 adorable shots of my pups with their FAVE Santa hat on (ha ha-not)! Yes I do like to torture the animals by dressing them up!

My big girl "Casey"--she's so thrilled can't you tell!

Baylee--immobilized by the Santa hat, LOL! Look at those puppy eyes :)

NewsBitz:

-Charity Blog Candy ends on Dec. 17th (Friday)--we've raised over $1600 so far and I'm just thrilled for the Fisher House Charity!  You can read more about it HERE!

-Holiday Special on my Online Copic Classes until Jan.4th!  Check out the deals on at the Color Me Creative Classroom HERE!  Makes great gifts too ;)

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Trim the Tree!!

Today is the 15th so that means it's another Copic Creations Challenge for you all!  This challenge is all about SPARKLE--perfect for the season & my favorite thing to add too!  Our fabulous sponsor this week is Just Rite Stamps and they so generously donated stamps to all of the DT for us to use!  I got to use the beautiful "Christmas Ornaments" from their Holiday 2010 Collection--and you know how I love my tree decorations, LOL! 

My papers are from Pink Paislee's "Father Christmas" pack--I love the vintage colors and patterns, perfect with this image from Just Rite.  I matted the ornament with Spellbinder's Nesties (circles and Labels 3).  The scrolls are by Marianne Designs dies and then I covered them with a NEW Glitter product (shhhh I cannot tell you yet)--but it rocks!  The triple bow was done with my Bow Easy and then I added some faux pine boughs using another die by Marianne Designs.

Of course the image was colored with Copics (YG97,YG95,YG93/R29,R24,R22,R20/YR24,YR23,Y15,Y11).  To add sparkle I used a lot of things, lol!  On top of the gold I colored I added Gold Spica pen to it--that's a very subtle sparkle and hard to photograph but so pretty IRL.  I also traced the outside of the ornament with a Gold Spica pen to make it pop even more!  Then I added Diamond Glaze to the bottom and top sections of the ornament AND while wet I sprinkled Glamour Dust (15% off) in it--super shimmery!  The small beads/pearls on the ornaments were done with the NEW & IMPROVED Ranger Liquid Pearls in platinum--they now don't leave a point after you use them, a perfect pearl each time!  A sparkly and elegant holiday card!

Now make sure to hop on over to the Copic Creations Challenge Blog to see the rest of the DT's fabulous projects and join in the contest as well for a great prize for Just Rite Stamps!

Presents Galore!!

Hello friends and Happy Tuesday to you all!  Are you having a wonderful holiday season so far?  I'm just loving it so much (not the 20 degree weather and winds though, lol)---it is a beautiful time of year!  The house is completely decorated inside and out and this week I'll do a bit of baking with Alexa!  Last night we went to Riley's band concert and then he has one more on Wed.--he's in the percussion section but his love is playing the drums.  In fact he asked Santa for a drum set for Christmas (oh my moley, help my ears if Santa brings that), LOL---but he's really gotten good and he enjoys it!  Other than making projects and going to band concerts this week is kinda easy breezy for us which I like!  I am planning on trying to get a few videos done this week and I have the carpet cleaners coming on Wed--it's a 4 time a year kinda thing when you have animals KWIM, lol!  They're just doing our basement and the kids bedrooms this time--most of our house is hardwoods.  I'm hoping to have our basement done in hardwood this coming spring---I'm tired of cleaning carpet all the time down there with boys running around (they play video games down there) and its the cats main area.  You know ho-hum house maintenance, LOL!

Anywho I have a LONG Slideshow of all our house decorations below for you to enjoy!  I hope they bring a smile to you today and you can think of how tired my arms are from lighting and decorating all those trees, hee hee!  (if you get my blog by email, you must come to the website to see slideshow):

Holiday Decorations Slideshow Pics! Click on the slideshow to see in large size and then you can also slow it down with the +/- buttons on the player!

NewsBitz:

-Only a few more days to enter my Charity Blog Candy Giveaway--its a great cause and there are fabulous prizes!  It will end Friday at midnight EST and winner will be announced this weekend!  Read all about it HERE!

-Holiday Special still going on thru Jan 4th for my online Copic Classes at the Color Me Creative Classroom---great deals and makes a great gift too!  Check it out HERE!

-My friend Teri has an AWESOME DEAL on COPICS at her store Stamps Alive! right now---BUY 10 Copics at $5.15 each and GET 4 MARKERS FREE!  If interested email her with your selections by this Friday at midnight (PST)!  Copic Swatchbooks are $4.95 too!

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Presents Galore!!

Today I have a fun card for you that is totally "ME"--lol!  I love anything black and white with elegant patterns like brocade or toile AND pop it with some hot pink and it's LOVE at first site!  I made this card with today's NEW Magnolia-licious Challenge Blog challenge in mind--it's to use mostly white either in your image or on your whole project!  Well I did a little of both along with some pops of color too!  I wanted to show how you can use this beautiful Magnolia "Secret Tilda" from Magnolia-licious for many occasions---this card would be perfect for Christmas, Birthdays and Valentie's Day (or any other celebration)!!

Isn't "Secret Tilda" a super cutie--I just love her!?  **And this Tilda comes in the MINI size too here ** I used last week's Friday Sketcher's Sketch for my layout and the patterned papers are all by My Minds Eye "Lush" collection. The black brocade paper is flocked so it's really pretty IRL!  I embossed the white paper on the background with a CB folder (hard to see) and the oval behind her with a different (lined) CB folder.  The black matting behind the oval is a Spellbinder's Nesties Label 6 (25% off )!  A ribbon tied with my Bow Easy wraps around and then I added a mix of paper flowers to the center of my bow.

TIP: The scroll like designs behind the matting was done with hot pink cs and a Marianne Designs frame die (see here)--I cut the ends off of 2 frames and added them around the oval.  I like to look at my dies and find different ways to use them and sometimes those frame dies have beautiful edges, so why not use them in a different way!  Gotta get your money's worth right!!

She's colored with Copics of course and I made her shirt white using my Cool Gray Copics (C9,C5,C3,C1,C00/RV17,RV10/YR24,E31,E50).  I use the grays to create the illusion of white--you only color the shadowed areas with your grays, in my case I used C3,C1,C00 to shadow the folds in her shirt.  Then I used the darker grays to create the look of black pants as well!  TIP: To create the hot pink accents I used RV17 as my darkest color and RV10 as my lightest--then I picked up color FROM the RV17 WITH the RV10 to create the middle color.  This technique is known as bridging and is a great way to get the middle color you need if you have a dark and a light color on hand!  I gave her present polka-dots with my white sharpie poster paint pen (extra fine tip) and added stickles to the bows and her lacey trims.

Hope you enjoyed this post today and I hope you'll pop on over to the Magnolia-licious Challenge Blog HERE to see the DT's awesome projects and join in on the fun too!  Have a great day and see ya here tomorrow!

Nordic Blues!!

Happy Sunday to you all!  Only 13 days until Christmas--are you ready?  I'm almost done, just a few more gifts to run out and get today with hubby.  We had a great day yesterday at the Grinch ICE Show at the National Harbor.  BRRRR---9 degrees inside and yes everything is made of ice even the slides, but it's so much fun!  We had dinner at the harbor and visited the Gaylord to see the Christmas Tree lighting, caroling and indoor snow (I call it snoap--cuz the snow that falls is made of soap, LOL)--I wouldn't recommend eating it, LOL!  And it wouldn't be complete without a stop at the PEEPS store, you know the yummy marshmallow treats--we like the chocolate covered ones, YUM!!  Then we headed home and watched "Fred Claus" and had some hot cocoa--yum with the COOL WHIP on top, lots of it, hee hee!  We have a busy week getting finished up for Christmas festivities, band concerts and other social activities--yikes!  You can see the ICE slideshow pics below and I'll share our house decorations with you on Tuesday :)

Slideshow Pics: (if you get this by subscription you must come to the website to see these)

NewsBitz:

-Don't forget about my Holiday Special going on at the Color Me Creative Classroom--if you want to take some online Copic Classes then now's the time to sign up.  You get a year's access to the classes and regular feedback from me to help you along--see the special on the main page HERE!

-If you haven't had a chance to read about my Charity Blog Candy, it's running until Dec. 17th HERE!  We've raised over $1500 so far and rising so I'm so thrilled for the Fisher House Foundation Charity!

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I've got the Holiday Blues!! (no not really, lol)

Today I'm sharing some fun holiday tag cards I made on Friday!  I call them tag cards because they work as both a tag and they open up like a card--cool huh?  LOL!  And I used some more of those yummy cute MINI Magnolia stamps from Magnolia-licious--they are super addictive once you use them I tell ya!  So quick to color and so many fun ways to use them!  Check out all the NEW MINI Magnolias HERE--there are new ones that aren't holiday related that are fabulous out now too!!  I seem to be having a BLUE obsession lately, sorry but I love the tones of blues for the holidays--so soft and pretty!  All the papers I used are from my scrap pile including the pcs of cardstock--a good way to clear off the desk, lol!

The first tag card uses two Mini Magnolias "Mini Tilda in Winter Light" and "Mini Santa's Bench"--I colored both with Copics.  Then I cut Tilda out and added her on the bench with a thin dimensional.  The snowflakes were inked with Distress Ink and then I added MS snow glitter to make them super frosty!  The background blue cs was embossed with a CB embossing folder.  I embellished with some twine and Prima flowers.

The second one uses another Mini Magnolia called "Mini Christmas Morning"--one of my favorite holiday stamps to use either big or small!  This time I used a different scrap of patterned paper and made a border trim with a MS border punch.  Then I added my Marianne Designs dies scrolls (love them) and some Primas and Wild Orchid roses/rosebuds.  The background embossing folder is a NEW one by Basic Grey for Sizzix.  I inked and distressed all my papers as well--I like the vintage look.  The mat behind the image is SB's nestability "Beaded Ovals" and I added small blue pearls to it for some pretty bling!

Even though these stamps are super small and mini you can still add product on them just like you would with the larger images.  I added stickles and diamond glaze to both of my images--it just adds another element of beauty to them me thinks!

This is what they look like from the side---I punched a hole thru the top corner of each card and knotted some twine thru it so you could tie it to a bag or package.  And it opens up so you can add a nice sentiment and message for your recipient!  These card tags measure 3.5x5.5"!

Hope you enjoyed this post and hope you are having a fabulous Sunday!  For those in Wisconsin and out west, I hope the snow lets up and you're keeping warm!