Too Hot to Handle!

Hi friends and Happy Wednesday-middle of the week to you all!  Our warm weather has flown the coop here in VA and the freezing cold has settled back in, darn it all, LOL!  I'm hoping when I fly out to CHA in LA at the end of this month that it is a bit warmer and sunnier there.  I think other than the cold I just really struggle with the gray--barren landscape and gray skies, depressing for sure!  People laugh when I tell them this but I honest to god do it when I'm in my craftroom--I PRETEND to be in the tropics!  I have my special SAD light (or my happy lite as hubby says) on and all my Ott lites on so its bright, I have a Vornado space heater blowing on my legs, beachy music on my Ipod and a screensaver slideshow full of beach pics!  Then whenever I craft I can be on a beach for awhile--it helps ease my pain, hee hee!  I just need to haul up and move somewhere warm for good and put an end to it---but gosh darn it, I promised the kids we wouldn't move until they graduated high school, lol!  That means 5.5 more years---arghhh :)  But South Carolina, Georgia and Texas are on my list of maybe "home states" in the future!  I was watching HGTV the other night (my fave channel) and the people were somewhere tropical (Belize maybe?) and they said they had 350 days of warm sunshine a YEAR PEOPLE--why don't we ALL live there, fabulous I say!  Maybe I should move to an island, hee hee!  Not fair at all---I wouldn't miss the seasons because you can always VISIT them, LMBO!  And now they're calling for snow later this week AGAIN--THUD, that's me fainting from the cold so blow some warm air to us here in VA if you can :)  We are planning a trip to Hawaii (Maui & Kauai) for spring break and I am literally counting down the days--I cannot wait to go.  It's been on my bucket list for a long time and I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!!  I KNOW it will be warm there!

**PS--I'm reading Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth" on my Ipad because I so enjoyed his new one "Fall of Giants" and I know it was a hit last year and Oprah loved it to but.....  Okay, I really love his writing and flow of story but this one is kinda violent/gory and a bit unsettling and giving me nightmares!  Has anyone read it and enjoyed it?  I hardly ever NOT finish a book but I'm very visual so the gore stays with me and I want to make it to the end and finish it, but I need some encouragement, LOL!  Let me know if you read it!

Hmmmmm...seems I need to give away some blog candy to cheer me up a bit, so make sure to make it to the end of my post today for some "sunshine treats"!

NewsBitz:

-The Holiday Special is still on thru Jan.8th at the Color Me Creative Classroom--if you are interested in copic classes online now is the time to gift them to yourself or to a friend!!

-Holiday Blog Candy Winner is----- Maz of Only By His Grace!!  Congrats Maz--please email me with your details/address so I can get the goodies to you.  I'm waiting on one thing & as soon as it comes I will mail everything out to you in Australia :)

-SCACD has some NEW Yummy paper in the store--even if you don't need any (like me) you will want it, LOL!  New paper by Memory Box, Basic Grey and Kaisercraft HERE!

-Have you subscribed to our magazine "Through the Craftroom Door" yet?  You can find all the information HERE to subscribe and see what we are about.  We've also teamed up with Christian Paper Crafts Group--so if you join & sign up in their group you automatically get a paper subscription to our magazine!  A win-win for those interested in both!  See HERE for info on Christian Paper Crafts--a fun crafty group of wonderful people full of inspiration!

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Too Hot To Handle!!

Fittingly the challenge for the 7 Kids Challenge Blog is "HOT or COLD"--well I couldn't wait to make something HOT, LMBO!  I've had this cutie Kraftin Kimmie stamp called "Mae" for awhile and I just had to use her for this challenge--this is me in my sunny-day dreams (in Maui) :)  See all the Kraftin Kimmie stamps HERE!  My papers are all from Kaisercraft--I loved the mix of sunny colors with the bright aquas--makes you smile!  The sentiment is from PTI stamped in two tones of ink.  All of my paper edges got distressed with my fave Zutter Distress It All tool---if you like to distress this is a must have, it makes it quick and neat.  No more paper dust all over you and your crafting area, LOL!

I used some pretty teal pearls to accent my image and scroll--scrolls were made with a punch (EK Success).  The orange patterned paper got embossed with a CB embossing folder (perfect paisley)  -- its fun to emboss over your patterned paper, gives it a different look.

She got colored with Copics of course (BG23,BG11,BG10/YR18,YR12,YR00/hat-YR24,YR23,YR21,YR20/hair-E25,E31,E50/skin-E15,E11,E00).  The background was done with copics as well---I have shot the new video on how to do this but I need to edit it.  I hope to have it up by the weekend for you all!  And my island gal has to have some blingety-bling--so I added stardust stickles (my absolute fave) on her swimsuit dress and the scrolls as well.

***Sunshine Blog Candy***--Want to win some goodies?  1 6x6 Basic Grey "Curio" paper pad, 1 Flower Soft (baby peach), 1 NEW Ranger Liquid Pearls (buttercup), 1 pot Shimmerz (ballet slippers) and 1 Kraftin' Kimmies stamp (Eleanor)!  To enter just answer the question below on this post only by Saturday, Jan 8th!  

"If you were given a day off to do whatever you wanted and it was sunny and perfect weather outside--what would you do?"

NOW, make sure to hop over to the 7 Kids Challenge Blog to see the rest of the DT's fabulous projects and join in the fun!  You can win a $20 gift certificate to use on the NEW Belle's N Whistles collection that 7 Kids is bringing--FUN!!