Quixotic Challenge #7

I did it, I finally broke out of the red/pink/black/white mode I was in there for a while. I made this card for a different challenge that I have never tried before. All you had to do was use lace, weeeelllllllll, do I have some lace! The papers are just basic cardstock except for the red scroll under the heart. That was in a "Once Upon A Time" pad I had gotten for my daugter's scrapbook. The antiqued words on the background paper were embossed with my Cuttlebug using the script plate and then shaded with distress ink. The little crocheted flower I made with a little coaching from my daughter as well as the charms. The heart was cut with the Cuttlebug too. I'm really liking the "vintage" style these days. The lock and key charm that is attached to the bow is hard to see so this is a close up shot. I made these out of shrink film. I used my Spellbinders shapeabilities to cut the shrink film and then colored them with permanent markers and put them in the oven for 3 minutes. I think they are adorable!! I just love little mini trinkets, lol! I enjoyed making this card and I think I will duplicate it a few more times and use it to send out to family & friends. Hope you liked it as well and thanks for stopping by. Hugs!!!!!!!!

MoJo Monday #119

Had a hard time getting the mojo started this week. Got a bit of inspiration from Ms. Plum. I seem to be stuck in the red/black/white/pink scenario lately. Anyway, no stamping on this card, just cut the hearts with the cuttlebug and knotted a piece of sheer black ribbon. Not too bad for an evenings work, don't ya think? Hope everyone has a wonderful week and a HAPPY Happy New Year's! Thanks for stopping by.

MoJo Monday #118

Here's my MoJo Monday #118 card for last Monday. Sadly, Christmas is over so it's time to move on. Will have to look forward to the next holiday, which of course is Valentine's Day. I did get some new heart shaped toys with some of my Christmas money so thought I would try them out. The heart shaped border punch is Martha Stewart. The heart shape itself was cut from my cricut and the pink background was embossed with my new floral fantasy embossing folder on the bug. The sentiment is from CTMH.

Hope you enjoy my first Valentine's Day card, thanks for looking. Hope you have a great 2010!!!

Tag Boxes

Here are the tag boxes that I made for my sisters for Christmas. I couldn't put them up on my blog until now as I know at least one of them watches my blog. They are both all hand made from cardboard that I accumulated from boxes of checks from work.

I made the boxes and then I covered each one in Christmas wrapping paper. The poinsettias were cut from the cricut and the sheet music I got online as well as the lamp post. Someone had drawn out a lamp post on graph paper and but it on their blog. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the blog but a huge Thank You goes out to them. That was the coolest thing. I printed it, cut it out, traced it out on black paper and then added some glitter glue to highlight it. You probably can't see it very well but it turned out so cute. The hinges are made from chipboard (some stuff that comes from the check boxes at work) and I just rubbed them with some distress ink and made them look like leather. The original idea I got off of Linda Duke's blog, so thank you Linda for the inspiration. I tried to find the same image she had on hers but was unsuccessful so I kinda went out on my own and I was thrilled with the results. My two sisters were as well, they really liked their boxes. Thanks for stopping by for a look.

Oh, I forgot to tell you the bells on the sides of this one I used a cookie cutter to make the shape and then I just covered it with aluminum foil and some red stickles as the outline. Worked out just perfect!! I have more shots of these so if you want to see more, leave me a comment and I'll

put up some more.

A Christmas Card

This is not a homemade card but one that my daughter gave me for Christmas. It was in my stocking. Since she was little we have been filling our stockings and then when she got a bit older, I started putting a nice Christmas card in every year. It has become a tradition now. And since now I make all my cards, I have really enjoyed making cards for her stocking. A couple of times she has made her card to me but this year she chose to buy one because she said she found one with some words that meant so much to her. It brought tears to my eyes when I read it. It is probably a little hard to read so I will write the verse out so you can see the words.

"Home Is Where My Mother Is"

Home is much more than a word---

it's a feeling of warmth

that neither time nor distance can diminish...

It's knowing that love is never more than a memory away.

Merry Christmas to my mom---

who has given me

the gifts

of family and friendship

and has brightened

my heart

with lifetime memories

of laughter, love,

and a place to call home.

Almost brings tears to my eyes again. We have had a tough year, her and I, and it really made me feel like she really does appreciate everything that I have done for her. Being a single mother is hard and I have done everything in my power and then some to make sure she has had the things that she needs. I have tried to teach her life's lessons and unfortunately, as I'm sure most people can tell you, tough love is hard to dish out. Now that she is getting a bit older, she will be 22 in April, I do believe that she is finally starting to see that everything I do, I have done with her best interests in mind. I Love You Miranda! Thank you so much for the beautiful card, it really made my Christmas! Hugs!

Christmas 2009

Well, it has finally arrived! After planning and primping and decorating and baking and . . . . the big day is finally here. I just love Christmas time, especially getting up early in the morning and flipping on the Christmas tree lights and just sitting there watching all it's magic over a nice cup of coffee. I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and may the joys of the season last you through the New Year! God's Blessings to you all!!

MoJo Monday #117

This is my card for the MoJo Monday #117. I had ordered a new paper pack from CTMH, actually it is an "old" paper pack that they had in their clearance sale this past week or so and I liked it. It's called "Heirloom". The stamp is from Christmas Scripts (C1209), also from the clearance sale. The ribbon is from my stash. It was quick and simple but almost elegant looking. Hope you like how it turned out and thanks for looking!!

MoJo Monday #116

Must have been in somewhat of a romantic mood this evening. This is the card that came out of it. Have been really getting in to the gold lately. Anyway, hope you like it and thanks for stopping by. Happy Monday!!!

Christmas 2009 Tea Party

Our annual Christmas Tea Party was nothing short of spectacular. There were eight in attendance and we had a great time. The table was all dressed out in traditional christmas colors, red, green, gold and white. I had made a poinsettia table runner and some napkins that when folded looked like Christmas trees. A friend's mother had made some for me years ago but I only had four so I made four more. They are just circles of two different kinds of christmas fabrics zigzagged together around the edges. The way you fold them then look like a christmas tree.

I was busy hosting so Beth took most of the pictures. She is the greatest at it so I just let her do her thing. Our menu consisted of proscuitto quiche, cheesy pasta bites and chicken salad sandwiches on crossants. The second tier was gingerbread scone, in the shape of gingerbread men, they were so cute. And the third tier was butter cookies in the shapes of christmas trees (green, of course), poinsettias (red, of course) with a green leaf (made out of a green spiced gum drop), pistachio orange rounds, rosemary pear thumbprints and some good old fashioned fudge. It was alot of work, I started cooking Friday night at around 5 p.m. and didn't shut the oven off until 9:45 p.m. and I was back up at 5 a.m. at it again. (I thought my back would give out before I got done but I managed to take five and sit down after each item). I have to tell you the funniest story too. Somewhere in between cooking the second to last dish and everyone showing up, I decided to take a jet bath. Needed to shower and get ready anyway so I thought I'll just sit in the jet tub for a few minutes (couldn't hurt the ol' back anyway). I also needed to finish cleaning my bathroom, which was mainly just the floor. For some unknown reason, I hate cleaning that floor. It's not like it's so big, it's a bathroom for goodness sake, but I hate it just the same. So I thought I'll just forgo the floor this time, no one will notice. Ha, Ha, the joke was on me. I filled the tub full of water. You have to wait to turn the jets on until the water gets past the jets or, guess what, you have water everywhere. Well, as usual, I was in a hurry and I turned the jets on too soon and OMG!!! Water was spueing (is that a word) every. And I mean everywhere, I was soaked from head to toe because of course I was trying to shield it from the floor with my hands, LOL. Needless to say, I now had to do the floor. I'm like, OK, OK, I'LL DO THE FLOOR!!! It was so funny, I am still laughing as I am writing this. Ok, back to the party. We had three different kinds of tea, vanilla almond, "to life" which was a flowery flavor, and happy tummy tea, my favorite. It's licorice flavored and decaf so I could drink as much as I wanted. I just love that stuff. It has been tradition since I started with these gals and the tea parties that at each one, we get a little trinket of some kind from the hostess. Well, this year I was given some tea pots from a lady that lived below me here in the complex that was moving. She literally had display cases full of them and said she didn't want to move them all. She asked me if I wanted some of them and I told her I would take all that she didn't want. She gave me like 10 or 12 different little tea pots. There were so cute. I washed them all up and selected the ones that all looked pretty much the same, i.e. they were all shaped like little buildings, ya know, like the little snow villages you see. I made gift bags them out of white crafts bags, decorated them with the same stamp set that I did the invitations in and added some christmas tissue paper on top. They were really cute and everyone liked them. YEAH!! We even did a gift exchange with a $10 limit. It was so fun. All in all, IT WAS AN AWESOME TEA PARTY! My daughter's boyfriend even said so. They came walking in just as we were opening gifts. That's what he told me later, that was an awesome tea party, lol. Sounded kinda funny coming from a guy, but it brought a big smile to my face and warm fuzzy feeling to my tummy. Thanks for stopping by and I wish you all, all the joys of the season! Merry Christmas Everyone!

MoJo Monday #115

Yeah, MoJo Monday again! I wanted to make a birthday card for a co-worker so I used this week's sketch for my inspiration. Just scraps from my stash, pre-CTMH days, a Fiskars circle punch for the big circle, a spellbinders for the scalloped one and cuttlebug die cut for the white curly-q on the bottom left. I wanted it to be springy looking since it's so close to Christmas, she probably doesn't want anything christmasy for her birthday. I hope she likes it. Enjoy!!!

It's Christmas Time Again, Yeah!!

Well I'm all decorated for Christmas. I don't normally decorate this early but I am hosting the Annual Christmas Tea Party again this year and the only date every one was available was the 5th, that's next weekend. Had to take advantage of this 4 day weekend to get everything ready. All I will have to do next Saturday is cook. We will be having tea sandwiches of course and I found a gingerbread scone recipe in one of my tea magazines so will use that. Have already made a couple of dessert delicasies and froze them but will make a few more. I love to bake around the holidays, only problem is I eat most of it myself. Have probably gained a few pounds already, lol. Better go to the gym this afternoon to try and keep up with all the holiday goodies. Hope ya'll have a wonderful day.

I trust every one had a wonderful Thanksgiving? We had a very nice one. My daughter and her boyfriend were here, as well as a friend of mine that doesn't have any family here. We all enjoyed our turkey and all the trimmings right down to the delicious homemade cherry pie. Mine even had vanilla ice cream on top, yummy!!!

MoJo Monday #114

This is my card for the MoJo Monday #114 sketch. Again I used old scraps that I had in my stash. The stamp set is CTMH Key To My Heart. I bought some old keys off of ebay a couple of weeks ago and have been wanting to use one on a card. It worked out well on this card. Then my daughter came home and fell in love with the card and wanted to give it to her boyfriend. Well, that certainly worked out well.

November Tea Party

We had our November Tea Party on the 14th at Magnolia's in Auburndale. We went to the Davenport Quilt & Tea Festival first. They didn't have as many vendors as they did last year but there were still some things to see. Then on the way back we stopped at the tea cottage in Auburndale. It was a quaint little place that was well decorated. The food was very good as well. We had another eventful monthly tea. It was so nice to see all my lady friends. They are such sweet, sweet people. I truly look forward to seeing them each month.

MoJo Monday #113

It's MoJo Monday again. I have really enjoyed participating in these . It has given me an opportunity to use some of the older papers and tools that I have. This paper is called Crate Paper. It was a packet I received free at a crop one time and I have never used it. The stamp is CTMH's Life's Creation (D1304) and the ribbon is from my stash. Actually from my new stash. I went garage saling a couple of weekends ago and a lady had this 8 1/2 x 11 tin full of ribbons. She said she was going to sell them for 10¢ each after she told me she'd take $1 for the whole thing. I snatched it right up. There are some really great colored ribbons in it. Anyway, I finished off the card with a Fiskars Lace corner punch and some aqua stickles. I like how it turned out and I hope you enjoy it.

Little Paper Christmas Tree

I saw this little paper christmas tree on the CTMH bulletin board and just had to give it a try. It turned out really really cute. I used the Evensong paper pack (CTHM) and followed the directions that Tracy Mason had on her blog, Thanks Tracy! The cone I bought was 14" so my tree is a bit bigger than hers but it worked out just fine. I added a few more rows to mine as well, to make it look fuller. To get the star I used a cookie cutter to make the shape and cut three of them out of chipboard. Then I covered them in tin foil. I bought some larger paper clips (not the real big ones) at Wal-Mart and curled up one end of it with a needle-nose pliers. I attached the three stars together with glue dots and secured the paper clip inside leaving a "stem" to push down inside the cone. Viola' A little paper Christmas tree is born. I just love it, hope you do to!!!

MoJo Monday #112

This in my rendition of this week's sketch. I used the Aspen paper pack and the Christmas Melodies stamp set (D1324) from CTMH. The snowflake in the circle is an old stamp I purchased years ago, actually it was the first stamp I ever bought. It is still a favorite to this day. The hardware is CTMH and the gold ribbon was from my stash. I sprayed iridescent gold glimmer mist on the colonial white rectangles but you can't see it in the photo. Am very pleased with how it turned out. I think I will use this design again. Hope everyone has a wonderful week. We have our monthly tea party this coming Saturday. We are going to the Quilts and Tea Festival in Davenport and then catch Magnolia's Tea Cottage in Auburndale on the way back. It should be a great time. Will post some photos afterwards.

Christmas Tea Party Invitations

I will be hosting the Christmas Tea Party again this year. It will be my second year. I had such a great time last year that I decided to do it again this year besides I have all the "stuff" now. Had to order some tiered serving dishes to match my china last year, actually, I asked for them for my birthday last year and my family graciously complied. Had to get a few other little odds and ends like little tiny tea spoons with tea pots on the ends of the handles. God forbid if we had a tea party without those, lol. Anyway, here is my invitation to the tea party. I have room for 12, no let me re-phrase that, I have place settings for 12, so I made 12 invitations. We will all be squeased around a table made for eight, oh well. No one seemed to mind last year so we will run with it. The invitations turned out so adorable. I used the Ms. Holiday Cheer (D1374) stamp set from CTMH and just plain ol' white cardstock. The fur around her dress and the snow on "the mantle" were done with liquid applique and a heat tool. The colors were Holiday red and New England Ivy with a little yellow thrown in for hair color and some peach for facial/hand color. The holly berries are red sticles and I threw some red glitter on the "snow" before I heated it. Hope you enjoy it, it was fun putting it together and I was really pleased with the outcome. Hope you all have a great weekend!!!

October 2009 Tea Party

We had our 3rd annual "Black Hat Society" tea party the afternoon of Halloween. All participants are required to wear a black hat. I borrowed one from my daughter that she had gotten at Necranomican (that's a convention where people dress up like dead people and whatnot). It's a little hard to see because it was very small but oh so cute. Ms. Kathy (Special Thymes chef) put out quite the spread with all the decorations to match. It was a gala affair for certain.

MoJo Monday #111

This week's MoJo sketch was fun. I used all scraps. Found this little seahorse in a box of junk, I mean treasures, so added it in the center. The CTMH ink I used was Petal and the brads are CTMH also. Hope eveyone has the mojoest of Monday's!!!

Birthday Card

Here is a birthday card I made for a dear friend. I used the CTMH Treasures stamp set (D1375) and some Debbie Mumm scrapbooking paper that came as a calendar last year. The "happy birthday" is chipboard and the ribbons are CTMH. If you make a wish and blow on a dandelion, the inside of the card is what happens to the dandelion, right? Happy Monday!

MoJo Monday #110

The MoJo Monday #110 gave me the perfect opportunity to make a retirement card for a male co-worker. Had to go a bit on the masculine side this time. Friday will be his last day so, good timing! Will have all co-workers sign it before we give it away.

All the paper and stickease are CTMH. It's an old packet, so old that the identifying card that comes in the front of them is gone, can't even tell you what it was called. Ok, I lied, it's on the back of the stickease, lol. It's called Simple Pleasures. The ribbon and brads are generic and the little blue frame is a slide frame from some old slides I've had hanging around for a long time. It was fun putting it together. I really like how it turned out, hope you do to!!!

Pumpkin Pots

I just loved Jeanette Lynton's (CTMH) pumpkin pots that she had on her blog the other day so I tried my hand at them. I think mine are a bit smaller because I had to cut the paper strips down an inch or so to make them look right. The one with the green bow is the first one I made and it looks bigger because I used longer strips of paper. The other two were #2 and #3. They turned out really cute. They were a little tricky to put together. A couple of the strips are crooked. They start to twist as you go along and I wasn't paying attention on the first one. I used glue dots to attach them to the clay pot so where they were stuck the first time, was where they were going to stay. I was a bit more precise with the strips on the second two. She said to attach a baggie to the inside of it first if you were going to use it for edibles so I took a snack baggie and cut the recloseable edge off and then I cut that piece in half. It made like a cone shape and I rounded the corners and it fit in those little clay pots just perfectly. I had fun creating these, hope you enjoy the photos!