Best Buds!

Happy Thursday to you!  I’m keeping my chitter-chatter to a minimum today (sorry-ha ha ha)!  I have a full day of work and then Riley’s band concert is this evening and JUST yesterday he tells me his dress shirt he wears to band concerts is too small LOL!  So I gotta run out and find a shirt for a TALL MAN apparently – hard to remember that my “baby” is a 6 ft growing boy—ack!  So another day of scattered thoughts, moments, accidents and so on for me.  I’m just praying for Dec 1st—once that arrives all my BIG work and deadlines will be complete and I can BREATHE just a bit LOL.  I’m not complaining in any way—I am so happy to do what I do and I do enjoy it BUT this girl is tired.  When I think about what I’ve done and where I’ve gone this year it makes me feel MORE tired LOL.  But after 11 months I need a few weeks of downtime, no deadlines, no major commitments and just time to enjoy my family and the holidays for a bit.  I know I’m not the only one feeling this – seems we start wrapping up the year and everyone is tired and looking forward to the holidays and the new year yes!?  But I do say that 2011 was a GREAT year in so many ways and I’m sad to see it come to an end for sure.  But I’m hopeful for another great year in 2012 and I’m not even gonna try to IMAGINE what crazy shenanigans I might get myself into next year, hee hee.  Never in my wildest imagination could I have ever dreamed of some of the crazy stuff, experiences and people (umm lil’ lady living large, drunk man, 7 ft cowboy) I’ve met this year, LOL, NEVER!  So I’m not even gonna try to think what could happen in 2012. What I do know is that I will have the opportunity to have fun doing something I love, meeting fabulous friends all over and seeing new places and laughing the whole way and ENJOYING each & every minute.  Life should be fun, fabulous, memorable and sunny each day and sometimes we get so consumed by the stress and bad stuff and forget about all the GOOD stuff (including me on occasions like now when I am super-stressed).  So I’m taking a deep breath, remembering all those special friends I have out there supporting me, my fabulous family that loves me and the fact that I am alive and well on this earth to enjoy the next day and I hope you can do the same!



Me and Anary yesterday—she kidnapped me for a bit from my work to sit and enjoy lunch!  I just love her to bits—she is the sweetest!!

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Best Buds!

Today I get to share a sneakie-peekie with you of some fabulously cute new Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps that will be available for sale this Sunday.  Today I’m sharing a stamp by Cheryl Alger for Kraftin Kimmie—this is from the “Snips n Snails Collection” and its soooo cute!  I know a lot of us have boys in our lives and its sometimes hard to find cute images for them---so this is perfect to add to your collections! 

On Sunday there will be a fun blog hop and you will be able to BUY all these cutie-patooties for yourself (Merry Christmas to you early I say or my motto is "one for you, two for me" LOL)

I broke out my unused (yikes) Basic Grey “Max & Whiskers” paper pad and I loved the colors of teal, oranges and browns—great for boys but bright too!  I used some Spellbinders dies (Pinking circles) and a MS border punch for texture.  The pinking circle got dots of Viva Décor Pearl Pen in copper and then 3 buttons tied off with twine.  He was colored with Copics and YES I added some stickles cuz no card of mine is complete without them LOL!  (yes I even sneak them on guys cards)



So that’s it from me today! BUT make sure to hop over to the Kraftin Kimmie Store Blog to see all the details and goodies that are coming for this release—you won’t want to miss it!

Starlight, Starbright!!

Happy Wednesday to you all today!  Today my BFF Anary (owner/illustrator of Gilli Stamps) is coming to visit me for awhile—yay!  I love her and she only lives 3 hours away but we are both crazy busy so much that we don’t spend enuff time together LOL. But we do have conversations via texting everyday, all day until early morning hee hee---we will start a convo in the morning and chat all day when we can.  We are both busy so I know if she doesn’t answer me right away she will get back to me when she can and vice-versa.  One thing I love about what I do, the internet and blogging is I have made so many friends—great friends that I love, I know they have my back and I have theirs.  I’m so thankful for them all!  But I did warn her that my house is a tad messy at the moment—clean but disorganized in some areas LOL.  I hope to get it all sorted out and put away by the time Dec 1st rolls around as its driving me NUTS!!  I don’t do clutter and I’m moving my craftroom downstairs over the holidays—I won’t even go into what a JOB & a 1/2 that’s gonna be (anyone wanna come help me)!  But I need more space, more cabinets and a walk-in closet for my STUFF!  You know what I’m talking about right?  Here is my hubby (a man who doesn’t craft ok)—he says “why don’t you just put all your “extra stuff” in the back basement on shelves to clear out your room”.  Ummmm yeah NO!  He doesn’t understand that when I want a button, foil paper, or some twine I don’t want to run down two stories to get it---I want it in the room with me.  That’s like saying “well why don’t we put all your tools in the basement to clear out the garage”—duhhh cuz that’s not how you work!  I need my stuff nearby cuz’ I NEVER know what I might need to use day to day.  Geezzzz---Men I tell ya LOL!

Funny Travel Story for you that will give you a giggle and make my daughter grimace (hee hee)—When we arrived at our hotel Friday night in Chicago we wanted to order pizza.  I got in the shower and then was working—had my jammies on and my hair in a ponytail, no makeup.  Alexa got out of the shower and had her jammies and t-shirt on and wet hair.  Well they called up from the lobby that the pizza was there and we had to come get it—I was on a phone call so Alexa had to go (not very willingly I will say). She goes down in her jammie pants, t-shirt, wet hair and socks LOL!  She comes back up banging on the door and her face bright red. Apparently a visiting high school football team was staying at the hotel and they were down in the lobby and some of them got on the elevator with her.  She was MORTIFIED but I had to laugh—it was too funny.  I told her not to worry she would never see them again but it made a good story LOL!

Color Me Creative Classroom NEWS: 

-Class 5 will be done by Nov.29th—I had to move the date back by 4 days and I apologize but the videos are taking longer to edit since they are soooo long LOL.  So if you have pre-registered look for your invite on the 29th!  Thanks!

-If you ordered DVDs from CMC do not panic---the new batch *and hopefully perfect & correct* will be here this week and I will ship them out as quickly as I can!

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Starlight, Starbright!!

Today I’m sharing 1 of 3 fabulous releases this week—yikes—grab your checkbooks cuz’ you are gonna want to spend some money LOL!  Today I Brake For Stamps is premiering & now selling some super-cute Wee Stamps being released from the Whimsy Stamp Line (see Whimsy here).  I am big fan of Sylvia Zet and her work is fabulous and always super sweet.  This stamp is called “Let It Snow" and you can get it at I Brake For Stamps HERE!

I chose to go with a soft-shabby-chic palette for this one and I didn’t use holiday papers.  I actually used the sweet My Minds Eye paper pad called Lost & Found: Portobello (20% off).  I liked the soft mix of creams, blues and browns—any paper can be made into a project for a certain occasion as long as you use appropriate embellies! I used my Zutter Distress machine and then inked all the edges.  The snowflake-like dies are all from Spellbinders “Ironworks Motifs”.  I used the larger and smaller dies, cut them in half ad added then around the image.  Then I added some MS Snow Glitter and pearls to them to finish them off.  The embelly in the center of the bow is from Prima Say It In Pearls line.

I'm entering this cutie into the following challenges:

Sweet Stamps (non-traditional holiday colors)

Make It Monday (anything goes)

Forever Friends (Christmas is Coming/w-animals)

Hooked on Craft Challenge (punches/die-cuts)

The Shabby Tea Room (shabby pastel holiday)

2 Sisters Challenge (anything goes)

She and her furry friends are colored with Copics – BG72,BG11,BG10 / E44,E43,E42,E41,E40 / E25,E31,E50 / C3,C1,C00.  Some stickles on the fur trim of her snow outfit and more MS Snow Glitter.

Alrighty that’s all from me today---hope you’ll stop back by tomorrow to see some more new projects!

Feeling Chilly?

Hello all my friends and a very happy week to you all!  I am home from my trip to Chicago and I must say this ole’ girl is BEAT, whipped, LOL!  That was my last batch of classes this year and I had a blast up there in Bloomington, IL and a big thank you to all the ladies for coming out.  And a bigger thank you to Lisa M. the owner of Keepsake Element for hosting me and entertaining us at dinner! This was Alexa's first time to Illinois & Indiana :)  Alexa and I spent Sunday in downtown Chicago spinning around the town.  The weather was beautiful & in the 70’s but the 50 mph winds not so much—my hair was so knotted LOL.  We drove down to the Navy Pier after passing all the tail-gaters at the Chicago Bears football stadium (go Bears right)!!  We got some Chicago goodies (Alexa collects snow globes and I always bring her home one wherever I am), got Riley some Bears goodies and we ate some yummy Garrett’s popcorn.  Then we took a taxi to Millenium Park and walked around, played around with the Cloud sculpture (very cool) and then we spotted a Dunkin’ Donuts. Ok, ok yes I, Suzanne, spotted Dunkin Donuts, hee hee and had to fuel up with some Boston Kreme goodies I know those of you who have been in class with me or know me well know that I am a junk food junkie and live on sugar, cheese doodles & Cherry Coke—gosh I can’t hide anything from y’all huh?  And guess what was on the next block?  Yep a 9-story Macy’s—umm we are two girls who can shop so we had to run in for a bit.  I will say we controlled ourselves and I came out with a fabulous new and black coat and a shirt for Alexa (see I can show restraint).  Then we headed back to Navy Pier and had an early dinner at Harry Carey’s (my 4th visit to this restaurant in different locations, always yummy) and watched some football games.

Then it was back in the car for the VERY LONG drive home, LOL!  I do believe my car levitated off the road a few times in Indiana from the wind, but the weather was clear and not much traffic which was nice.  And Glinda the GPS has NO crack episodes, thankfully --- so there were NO side trips to Canada this time LOL!  So almost 13 hours, 32 roadkill remnants, 6 Walmart spottings, and multiple swerving tractor-trailers later we arrived home at 3:40 am.  I was so tired I could barely get out of the car and up the stairs to bed.  Alexa was out 5 mins after falling in bed and YES I did make her go to school---hey that was our agreement and I’m pretty strict about school stuff.  So all in all Alexa enjoyed herself and would like to make herself my permanent travel buddy but I’m thinking that’s not going to happen hee hee.  But I will try to bring the family on another trip next year---I think it was fun for Alexa to see me working and I think she appreciates what I do just a bit more.  She even joined in and colored an image (she did good too) and I’ll share it with y’all this week I am slammed this week with shooting videos for CMC Class 5, releases and computer stuff---so if you don’t hear much from me on FB and Twitter it may be because my craft room has SWALLOWED me up (yikes)!

Our Chicago Slideshow: (if you are a subscriber click HERE to see)

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NewsBitz:

-SCACD has a new release coming out Friday and there is yummy Blog Candy to be had over at the store blog here starting today!!

-7 Kids College Fund has all kinds of new goodies in stock right now including the new CC Designs stamps and the fabulous new Diamond Range Flower Soft (very cool)!

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Get Chilly!!

Today I’m sharing a brrrrrrrrrrrrr….chilly project with you so I hope you have some hot cocoa and a blankie nearby   This is my project for my current Mix It Up Monday I have over at StampTV—everyone is welcome to join in and you can use any image you’d like!  It’s all about “Making it SNOW”—so any project that makes you feel chilly, cold or snowy qualifies!  I also have an optional sketch up that you can use too!

I used this super cute penguin image from the newest Gina K StampTV Kit “Wishing You Joy”!  The Dean household has two obsessions in the wintertime---penguins and snowmen—we love them, I hoard them and have them in all shapes and sizes LOL!  So this lil’ penguin just warmed my heart <3  My papers are all from my scrap bin (gotta love that), I used my sketch for the challenge and added some MS snowflakes coated with MS snow glitter and buttons tied off with Baker’s Twine.

This lil’ cutie got colored with Copics – C1,C00 / BG72,BG11,BG10 and then I gave his scarf polka-dots with my black Spica Pen.  He got a huge coating of Diamond Glaze to make him nice & shiny!



Hope you got a lil’ chill today from my project, hee hee and hope you’ll join in on my challenge too if you get a chance.  Have a great week and I’ll see you back here this week with some new releases from SCACD, I Brake For Stamps and Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps!

Hey Snow Guy!!

Hi y’all—how you all doing this fine November Saturday!  Did you do anything special for 11-11-11? LOL!  Well Alexa and I road-tripped all the wayyyyy to Chicago yesterday (I’m teaching in Bloomington today) and woooowzzzeee what a trip it was.  First of all it was COLD, like windy, 35 degrees cold and snowing from Western Maryland thru West Viginia thru Pennsylvania and some of Ohio—brrrrr.  Me no likey the snow, blech and the wind about blew the car off the road (my baby the BMW convertible made the trip up LOL).  We stopped at a rest stop at Rocky Gap and I thought for sure we might tumble down the mountain top from the wind LOL.  Secondly, it is a looooooooooooooooong drive to Chicago my friends, yes indeed and my bum was very sore LOL!  We had my Ipod going the whole time though and we both sang the ENTIRE way and YES we did some car dancing too—to the delight of all passerbys and truckers hee hee.  You have to amuse yourself cuz the interstate highways are so boring and long and boring and Ohio and Indiana are nothing but flat cornfields I swear to goodness for 80% of the time.  And if you remember my trip to Ohio with Marti & the cornfields…well yeah…it brought back BAD memories LOL!  We did drive right by the Indy 500 race way in Indianapolis though which was cool. And yes Glinda the Garmin (otherwise known as the crack lady GPS) had a few episodes yesterday so we had Google Maps on my Iphone too just in case.  Then she got mad at us and she wouldn’t come on for over an hour (and yes she was charged & plugged in)—I swear she is very tempermental and DUMB..but shhhh don’t tell her cuz I gotta get home ok! So we are driving thru Indiana and its flat and dark and lots of trucks and we are singing Luke Bryan songs (duh but of course lol) when a large DEAD animal is in the road—I have NO WHERE to go so I had to go over it.  It was larger than my car so I hope my car’s undercarriage is ok (I looked and it all seemed fine) and I screamed, Alexa screamed and we both said “Was that a bear?”.  I kid you not it looked like a dead bear w/o a head (yes I am laughing cuz this reminds me of my raccoon incident with Marti but oh so gross) and I’m still not sure what it was.  But EWWWW, we saw so many dead animals—it was like a bad episode of “Swamp People” I tell you. I told Alexa that our “game” going home would be to count dead animals and Walmarts—cuz no matter where you go there is ALWAYS a Walmart LOL!  And yes all my trips are fun and very eventful—if they weren’t I’d be bored and hey I would have nothing to talk about.  But do I sometimes yearnnnnn for boring---oh yeah LMBO!!

So I’m teaching all day today, Alexa is helping in the store and being good LOL.  Then tomorrow I’m taking her into the city for a bit of sight-seeing and then heading home cuz I’m a MEAN mom and she has to be in school on Monday morning.  So she and her silly pillow-pet will be sleeping for a bit of the ride home since we won’t get home until about 3 am.  So if you are in the area, you may see us in the car bopping on by or being blown away somewhere down in the city LOL!

**Check out the HUGE Challenge Magnolia-licious is having at the Magnolia-licious Highlites Blog!  You won’t want to miss out on it!!

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SNOW GUY!!

This is my second week this month as a Krafty Guest for Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps (which I loveeee)!  This week’s challenge is to create a “GUY/MASCULINE” project which I love to do but don’t do very often…hmmm…LOL!  So I used this new October release called “Winter Greetings” by Cheryl Alger for Kraftin Kimmie—isn’t he a cutie!?  Now make sure to go over to the STORE BLOG HERE for all the Challenge details and DT projects!!

So the papers I used are new from Simple Stories "25 Days of Christmas" and they rock for more vintage or male holiday projects (or any really)!  But I liked that they had more “guy” colors like green, tan and black which helped me out a bit.  The fun snowflake/scroll border is by Memory Box and I liked that it echoed the snowman’s branch arms.  The papers all got distressed a bit and the black cardstock was embossed with a CB (argyle) folder. A bow with button/twine topper finish it all off.



He got colored with Copics and I paper pieced his scarf a bit to match the houndstooth dp—just something fun and special for this cutie! (remember to shadow your paper piecing with your copics too).  His nose got some stickles and the snow is MS Snow Glitter (my fave for holiday/winter projects).




Ok I hope you have a fabulous weekend and I’ll see you back here next week!  Stay WARM!!!

Cute Stocking Stuffings!!

Happy Thursday to you all!  Whoooo-whhhheeee did you watch the CMA’s last night? (that is the Country Music Awards for those of you NOT in the know lol)—my fave night of the YEAR (well almost hee hee)!  I was ready in my chair, with my PF Changs and my laptop---laptop?  Yeah cuz I like to Facebook & Tweet during it of course…duh!  Me and some gals (hey Lisa, Bridget, Christine, Tori) were all over FACEBOOK last nite, LOL—good times!! The intro with Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood and Hank Williams Jr got me chuckling—too funny and the Tim McGraw & Faith Barbies (still chucklin)!  BUT OMG DID YOU SEE LUKE BRYAN BRING da’ house DOWN—I was almost past the point of no return.  The cats and dogs evacuated the room cuz my HOUSE WAS ON FIRE I SWEAR—he lit it up!!!  Hubby was a good sport cuz he already knows I’m a NUT---we were screeching and shaking our thangggg in the DEAN house last night!!!  And that Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland can sing, how I do love her (if I went to the other side I would SO DATE her, LOL, no worries though)!  Alexa and I had a good ole’ time watching it (and yep the “boys” just rolled their eyes as I rewinded..paused…rewinded..umm was that Luke Bryan’s bum…umm look its Zac Brown Band…ooh ooh Tim McHottie in black hat…ohhhhh!!)  I just love country music and artists, down to earth, fun and just plain good singing! That was the best CMA’s I ever saw in a LONG time!!  EXCELLENT and yep I watched it 3 times already hee hee cuz I am like a woman obsessed!  And because I like to keep y’all up to date with good stuff’s (hee hee) I’m sharing a song that I am quite enjoying by a newer female country group.  One thing that is lacking in country music is girl groups—no one since the Dixie Chicks (sigh…come back Dixie Chicks..I luv uuuuuu) really have lit things up much.  But these gals from the group “Stealing Angels” are pretty darn good and they can harmonize too—so I’m sharing their song with you today that I am listening to right now   Let me know if you like ‘em too—their song is on ITunes too!



Since we are talking about ITunes and how much money $$ it sucks from me (yep every Tuesday it sucks more from me cuz’ I’m a SUCKER) LOL!  Well Steve Jobs created ITunes along with all my other fave stuffs like my Iphone, Ipad, Ipod, Apple TV, and Mac Air Book (ummm yeah I’m a total Apple techno geek girl) let’s talk about his biography.  I got it the first day, downloaded on my Ipad of course and finished it in 3 days flat and I LOVED it, every line of it and I highlited it to death.  I am a closet techno geek dontcha’ know—yep a computer science major I am and I was the only girl in all the computer science, programming classes & computer bowls (challenges) and proud of it.  So this book appealed to me on so many levels—although my family is glad that I’m done with it so I will stop saying “did you know the Iphone has gorilla glass on it” and more LOL!  They got a bit sick of me but I don’t care of course---I always say that everyone should SHARE their passions, be vocal and show your love of something.  Just so happens that I’m PASSIONATE about a lot of things………………….LMBO…………..bad for them but GREAT for me !! So if you like tech talk, inventions and Steve Jobs then read this book.  If not then read Karen White’s awesome 3rd in the trilogy “The Strangers on Montagu Street” (umm awesomely good) or Nora Roberts new trilogy “Next Always: Inn Boonsboro” which I personally love cuz I lived in Boonsboro and near Nora (its really good too)!

PS—now because a birdie (umm Lisa N) told me that Luke Bryan will be at an outdoor country festival in Eau Claire, WI next summer…WELL Suzanne will be teaching in WI that week ok LOL!  For sure and I’m gonna be at that Country Jam all 3 days too shakin’ my thang—and hey my family is from that area so I am just goin’ back to my roots…just saying! So if you live in WI I’m coming in JULY—whoooootttttttttttttt! (prepare yourselves)

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Cute Stocking Stuffin’s!!

I know, I know this is just about the cutest stocking stuffer evah’ right?  Such a cutie patootie and from the NEW Sweet Christmas Dreams Collection at Magnolia-licious—her name is “Tucked Tilda” (she’s out of stock now but more are coming and the mini one is here).  I love using non-traditional colors for holiday projects—just a bit more fun and modern feeling.  And I gotta get to work on holiday projects cuz I ammmm behind (what else is new right) and not too many more days until Christmas YIKES!!

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

My Mum's Craft Shop Challenge (sugar & spice) 

Papertake Weekly (Christmas)

Top Tip Tuesday (anything Christmas)

There She Goes Challenge (Holiday Projects)

The Ribbon Reel (hot pink, turquoise & cream)

My papers are new by My Minds Eye (12 Days of Christmas) and I loved the fun patterns and colors.  I used one of my jumbo MS holly punches (shaded the leaves with SU ink) and added some Wild Orchid Crafts flowers.  The sentiment is from PTI and I blinged it up with rhinestones & pearls.

Yes this lil’ sweetie is colored with Copics—RV17,RV13,RV10 / BG18,BG13,BG11,BG10 / YG25,YG03,G20 /E11,E00,R20 / E35,YR23,YR20.  I put some Stickles on the fur trim of the stocking and the heel of the stocking.  She’s so darn cute!!



Make sure to check out all those cute new Sweet Christmas Dreams magnolia stamps at Magnolia-licious!  And don’t forget to join us for the November Magolia-licious Challenge too (great way to win some of these stamps), go here for deets!  See you on Friday!

Sunny Days Ahead!!

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Wow the weekend blew by so quickly and its Tuesday already geesh!  Hubby and I had a good weekend—he kidnapped me and took me to one of our fave places Alexandria, VA.  My mom-in-law came and stayed with the teens & animals while we were gone.  It was nice, restful and the weather was beautiful.  Hubby treated me to a shopping spree (yes I showed some restraint lol) which was nice especially since I’ve lost more weight so my pants were starting to sag a bit LOL.  We had some nice dinners, watched a movie in the room, had room service and walked along the waterfront to enjoy the fall weather.  Sometimes we all need a nice breather and it was a good one, so happy to be married to my hubby—he is the best!!

But back to real life huh?  So more work on Class 5—I’m almost done shooting videos but then the editing has to start.  I hope to finish taping all the videos by Wed and then start the editing process.  Then Friday I am off to Chicago to teach the last of my traveling classes for the year and then I will be done for the year.  After Nov 20th when all the CMC DVDs are sent out, Class 5 is done and release projects are completed I will be SLOOOOOWWWWINGGGG down for the next month and a half to enjoy the holiday season with my family.  I will still be posting on my blog but things will slow down which I am soo looking forward to LOL—I’ve got 13 Christmas trees to put up dontcha’ know



Isn’t that the cutest lil’ blinkie?  My friend Veronica made that for me, she’s awesome (also my blog creator and logo creator for CMC)—you can see her work HERE *and yes she’s for hire & you will love her*!  New dates/locations are up for my CMC Classes including Anaheim, CA (before CHA in Jan), Texas and Florida!  Soon to be announced will be WVirginia, Vancouver and Atlanta!

-PS—due to overwhelming “annoying” (ahem…lol) requests, I will scan my wedding picture in this week and share it with y’all.  Yes it was the early 90’s so my hair was large

-The crafting community has lost a dear friend but gained a beautiful angel yesterday morning.  Katie Renz passed away yesterday from a courageous & long battle with stomach cancer—you can read her story here.  Also if you would like to send cards to her family you can get that info HERE and donations can be made HERE.  I know they appreciate any & all help.  She for one inspired me this year to realize that “the small” things are not such a big deal, showing grace under pressure and to love fiercely!

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Sunny Days Ahead!!

Today I’m sharing a project with you that I finished up yesterday.  This is actually a SNEAKIE PEEKIE of what you can learn in Class 5 at the CMC Classroom---how to color COPPER!  I love to sit and figure out color combos with my Copics, I will sit for hours and play with colors---I will have pictures or the real objects in front of me and just play with my Copics.  So I have a lot of new stuff coming in Class 5 that I cannot wait to share with y’all.  But today I’m just sharing a picture of the copper pot we will do in there.

I'm entering this into the following fab challenges:

Heart Song Inspirations (anything goes)

Make It Monday (anything goes)

Corrosive Challenges (with a flourish)

Dream Valley Challenges (anything goes)

One Stitch at a Time (use a digi)

The image is a digi from Designed 2 Delight and this image is called “Pail of Flowers”.  I used 80% digi images for Class 5 which will make it easier for those who want to use the same images (which is not at all required) to get them quickly. The rest were done with rubber stamps by Lockhart, La La Land, Magnolia, SCACD and more.  All my papers are by Authentique “Blissful” – you can’t but help to be cheered just a bit with yellow and flowers huh?  I distressed all my papers with my fave Zutter Distress Machine and the cream cs was embossed with a CB folder.  The die leafy-scroll is from Cheery Lynn Designs, topped off with a Bow Easy bow and button.



Yes the image was colored with Copics but yikes can’t share the color combo just yet---you gotta take Class 5 to see how to do this   I did add a coat of Diamond Glaze to the pot for even more glassy shine.  Each flower got some stickles and fun pearl centers for more bling/texture.



Wishing you all a beautiful & sunny day!  See ya later this week!

Happy Anniversary!!

Happy Saturday to you all and a Happy Weekend to you all!   I apologize for my lean blog this week and yep sorry next week too but I am knee deep into so much work that I may NOT reach the other side LOL.  Trying to finish up Class 5 for my CMC Classroom, dt work and next issue of the magazine I co-publish.  Yikes! But one day at a time yes? LOL! Yesterday was me and my hubby’s 17th wedding anniversary---whootwhoot!  Some days it doesn’t feel that long at all and then other days I look at our 2 teens and say Ohhhhh Yeahhhhhh it has been a looooooong time LMBO!  No really I’m a super lucky gal who married her best friend, someone that can put up (and handle) my nuttiness, my excitedness, my loudness, my dancing, my late nite hours and my gypsy spirit!  I know there are NOT a lot of guys out there that would put up with my strong independence and smart mouth LOL so I am a lucky gal and I love him to death, more now than 16 years ago.  I also appreciate him more now than I did when we were first married—he’s a rock, my calm in my crazy storm and yep he does irritate me on occasion and he does need to SPEED up sometimes (ughhh he is so very slow when I need to get somewhere or do something). I tell Alexa all the time that she needs to pick a guy with the qualities of her dad (and yes she elicits the word “ewwww”) but its so true.  Someone that will allow you to be YOU like James allows me to be me without trying to change you.  He loves me for ME and not for what I pretend to be (bwahahaha yeah me pretend to be something other than I am, yeahhhh riggggghhhht). I can hear hubby chuckling now as he always jokes “I never have to worry how you are feeling cuz you just let it all out there”---YUPPP I do cuz that’s the way I roll LOL (lack of filter & diarrhea mouth as my friends say)!   But I love, love him and so happy to have spent all these years with him and our 4-pack family---Love You!!!!

And nope our wedding didn’t cost us $10 million dollars like some “K” celebrity LOL—but it was perfect in every way and one of the best days of my life!!

NewsBitz:

-CMC Class 5 is up for pre-registration at the Color Me Creative Classroom and I am working like a looney trying to shoot videos. It will debut on Nov 18th (I may be dead at that point but its all ok lol)

-New locations for early 2012 for my CMC Copic Classes on the Road!  California, Texas, Florida and soon to come West Virginia!  Check them all out at www.cmcroad.com

-BookEndz--like to read? like to craft? Well we'd love to have you join us over at BookEndz--everyone is welcome!  We just announced our Nov book selection and its the fabulous "Emily & Einstein" by Linda Francis Lee! At the end of the month we always have a fun, live chat with reviews, questions and prizes!  AND you can enter a project for another fun way to win!

-The CMC Challenge Group has a new challenge up and its "All About Boys"--so come enter a boy project for a chance to win, everyone is welcome to join in.  While you are there check out the DT's awesome projects using Mo's Digital Pencil images and our guest designer too!  New challenge every 2 weeks!

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Go SHOP til you DROP!!

So lucky me I get to be a guest designer this month for my friend Kim Reid’s awesome stamp company “Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps”—which I loooooveee!  So today is a fun Kraftin Kimmie Saturday Challenge #103 and its called “Pin It Down”—you have to use a pin of some sorts on your project!  I’m using a super cute stamp released last month called “Sara Shopper”—hmmm she mayyyy be a tad like meee LOL!  Make sure to stop by the Store Blog HERE to see the challenge details, dt cards and how to play along!!



The pretty papers are from My Mind’s Eye “A Beautiful Life”—love the mix of plums & blues together!  The border was made with my MS border punch and I added a bow, some Primas and pearls to finish it off.  I wanted to add the sentiment on the front but it was too busy looking so I put it inside and FORGOT to take a picture—geesh LOL.  Anywho it says “I prefer to call it HELPING the Economy!!” hee hee—yep I use that one alllllllllllll the time!




She was colored with Copics and I used my violet Copic Spica to create stripes on one of the shopping bags and then coated it with stickles for BLING!!!!  Her eyes got a coat of Diamond Glaze for shine along with the hat box.  My hat pins I created myself, I like to make them to match whatever I’m doing—super easy to do too!

A Happy Holiday Heart!!

Hi friends and a happy Tuesday to you all!  Did you all have a great Halloween yesterday?  I have to say as much as I enjoyed Halloween when the kids were young—dressing them up, putting makeup on them, and decorating the outside of the house—I also enjoyed being “less” involved now LOL.  Now that the kids are teens they go trick-or-treating with their friends in our neighborhood and dress themselves hee hee.  And this year I was too tired and too busy to haul out the Halloween stuff and get the outside done up---especially since we had that awful snow and its been freezing here (I don’t go outside when its below 50 degrees lol).  So we turned the yard lights off, made sure the kids were good to go with their friends and hubby and I went out for date night   Awesome I say!  We have so enjoyed the kids when they were young but I HAVE to admit them being teens and us being able to do things alone (on occasion) is super nice too (and quiet hee hee).  Well my family would tell you that its mostly “ME” that’s loud but its only semi-true cuz my kids are LOUD too!!  No James isn’t really so much, he just kinda absorbs it all and puts up with us!

Anywho, if you missed yesterday’s post you can scroll down to see the pics from San Francisco and the Luke Bryan concert along with some of my stories LOL!  I’ll leave you with a couple pics of my children ready to go trick-or-treating last night!

           

Yep those are my kids LOL!  Alexa and her BFF Maddy were dressed up as football-something or ‘nother with a princess crown & Minnie Mouse ears LMBO!  The boys on the other hand were a mix of scary and hoodlums LOL—Riley was a IRA terrorist (don’t ask cuz he LOVES Ireland but likes to study about battles/war).  There was a group of about 12 boys and 4 girls in his group terrorizing the neighborhood—actually they are all good kids so I wasn’t worried.  Alexa and her friends did some candy grabbing and then watched scary movies at a friend’s house and had pizza.  Then they came home and we watched “Hocus Pocus” which is a tradition & my fave Halloween movie EVER (I don’t do horror or scary stuff).

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Holidays with Heart!!

Today is November 1st (wow already) and that means the Magnolia-licious DT girls have a new fun challenge for you all to join in on!  Angie Hunt is the hostess with the mostess this month and she’s challenged us to create projects using 2 holiday inspiration photos.  You can see them and challenge details at the Magnolia-licious Highlites Blog along with the other DT’s fabulous work!

I’m entering this into the following fun challenges:

Make It Monday (anything goes)

My Grafico Challenge (out of the box)

Paper Playtime (anything goes)

Come & Get It Challenge (anything goes)

One Stitch At A Time (Christmas)

I chose to create a holiday box that you could put sweet treats in or a present and then display during the holidays.  I haven’t made one of these in awhile but they are fun & easy to put together.  The base and top of the box were done with the large Spellbinders “Nestabilities 8” cut out of kraft cardstock then inked with white inkpad.  For the box part I just make a simple box form in the dimensions of the die I use (in this case the box is 1.5” thick so I could put some good treats inside)—then added a hinge from the box to the lid all scored with my Scor-Pal & using that awesomely strong Scor-Tape!  For that cutie pie image I used “Something for You Tilda” (my personal fave from this Sweet Christmas Dreams Collection at Magnolia-licious).




My dp is actually older from my collection but I love the grayish blues and creams in it so I always pull out some each year!  To decorate the top I used my MS snowflake punches, MS snow glitter, and Prima roses.  The swirls are done with Heartfelt Designs “Bella Rose” die.  The sentiment is from PTI and cut out with another Spellbinders die then I pierced it with my paper piercer for more texture.  Cutie Tilda was colored with Copics—B99,B95,B91 / E11,E00,R20 / E35,YR23,YR20 / C3,C1.  I used Silver Stickles on the fur trim, roses and present bow.




On the inside I decorated the top similarly but with a different sentiment from PTI that reads “Love & Laughter, welcome here at Christmas and all year.”  Loved that and perfect for the holidays.  I just laid some simple tulle inside all ready to cuddle up a gift or two for someone special.



That’s all for me today, hope you all have a brilliant day and are inspired to be creative.  Make sure and check out the NEW Christmas Magnolias at Magnolia-licious AND stop by the Magnolia-licious Highlites Blog to join in on the fun with us!!