Happy New Year My Friends!

Well I hope you all had a fabulous holiday this year!  I know I have enjoyed it very much and I’m still “technically off” until Monday.  That is why you haven’t seen much of me on my blog lately—when I take off for the holidays I REALLY take off and try to stay off the computer and away from my craft table.  I know a lot of you have time off and you GO to your craft room to get away BUT for me that is considered “work” even though I enjoy it…I still gotta get away from it to recharge my mojo.  I know…I know…this energizer bunny DOES need to recharge her batteries now & again…shocker! LOL!  Plus I’m getting ready to start packing up my studio for a move downstairs to my new room that is much larger…still lots to do before that happens but I’m excited. I hope to be done by middle of February with it & then I’ll share some photos and yes it will STILL match my blog LOL!  But more cabinets and shelves, a new table/desk and a new chandelier!

We had a fabulous Christmas and Santa was good to the kids of course!!  They got lots of cool prezzies BUT their biggest presents they were sent on a Holiday Scavenger Hunt for.  I always do this for the largest present as I think its more exciting and builds up the anticipation for them!  They always get 5 clues…all done in limerick/riddle by me and they each are labeled with their initial and a number (the order they should be found) so they don’t accidentally pick up the other’s clue.  Then hubby and I hide them in the places that coordinate with the riddles the night before.  Riley struggles a bit more with the limerick but he finally figured it all out LOL.  Alexa’s big prezzie was a new Apple Mac Pro laptop (her Toshiba of 6 years had literally died 2 weeks before).  The funniest thing is that after she opened her gifts and there wasn’t a laptop under the tree…she says “oh well maybe next year I’ll get a Mac” LOL!  Then I handed them both their first clue and asked if they accepted their mission hee hee---yes we videotape the whole thing.  Riley’s large present was a case for his Warhammer game pieces---if you are NOT in the know its an EXPENSIVE fantasy/war game played by teen & adult boys LOL all over the world.  Riley has always been into wars (of all ages) and battle strategy so him & his friends play this every weekend at our local hobby shop.  I don’t understand any of it but it uses lots of math & thinking so I’m all for it LOL!  So he was thrilled!  And yes they got lots of NFL gifts that they asked for…I told you we were a HUGE football family   Below is a slideshow of holiday pics for you.  We spent Christmas day in our pjs at our house just hangin’ out & enjoying the day.  Then the next day we went to my parents house to celebrate with my entire family—good time, nice & relaxed & fun. 

I am off thru Monday to celebrate the New Year with my family.  We are headed to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore today—they do lots of fun New Years Eve events along with fireworks over the water so we are looking forward to that.  Then back to the grind for 2012 and I have LOTS & LOTS planned for the new year so just wait---I’m super excited about the things I have coming this year.  Whoo hooo and happy to have you all with me along for the journey!  So a very Happy New Year to you all—may it be blessed and fabulous all year long!

Slideshow of pics for ya: (if you get my blog by email click here to see)

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Gina K Release Hop!!

Today the Gina K DT is having a fun blog hop for the NEWEST stamp releases for Gina K including “Stately Flowers 2” by Melanie Muenchinger and “Mountain Wilderness” by Theresa Momber.  So make sure to hop around (see list at bottom of post) today and leave comments for your chance to win a Grab Bag filled with stamps!

I love to color flowers, I love to look at flowers, I like to grow them outside…but alas I can’t have them inside because my one cat EATS them all to shreds LOL.  So I will settle with all my paper versions and the ones in this second set "Stately Flowers 2" (sequel to the first “Stately Flowers” ) and just as beautiful!  I chose to do the Kentucky Camellia (the smaller flower version from the set) for my project.  I love pink Camellias so I colored mine pink and used papers from Authentique for a very feminine card.  The bottom I punched with a MS border punch for an elegant edge.



The doily die around the image is very delicate which I loved---went along with the softness of the flower image.  The image was colored with Copics R22,R20/YG95,YG97 and the edges softened with SU ink.  Then a nice coat of stickles of course to bling that flower up a bit!



My second project uses Theresa’s “Mountain Wilderness” set which is fantastic for those nature lovers and masculine projects!  I used 3 of the stamps to create a mountain scene for this card.  I distressed all the edges, used a CB emboss folder, brads and some buttons & twine to round out the “wilderness” look.  I used some Copics softly to just highlight the stamp images a bit (W3,W1,YG95,C3,C1,BG32) and then added some stickles to the water to make it sparkle.

Now continue hopping along today and leave comments for a chance to win Big!!!  Happy New Year everyone!

• Gina K
• Melanie Muenchinger – Illustrator Stately Flowers 2
• Theresa Momber – Illustrator Mountain Wilderness
• Michelle Woerner
• Sharon Harnist
• Suzanne Dean (that’s me—thanks)
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher
• Carolina Buchting
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Donna Baker
• Giovana Smith
• Jennie Harper
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy