Sparkly Birthday Chandelier

Happy Friday!! I'm just about to head out to run some errands, but before I go I want to share a quick one-layer card I made this morning. I've been hoping all week to be able to play in the current EtsyInspired Challenge. There's some gorgeous inspiration at this week's Etsy store! I was taken with some beautiful chandelier motif items, and it just so happened that two new {ippity} sets that I'd ordered (one containing a shabby chic chandelier!!) just arrived in last evening's mail. The timing couldn't have been more perfect!! (The EtsyInspired challenge ends in just a few more hours, so I've got to be quick now!) I'm also thrilled to be able to play in the One-Layer Wednesday Challenge for the first time--the theme this week is Home Decor. I think I've got that covered with this card!

I dressed up this one-layer card with some clear embossing at the top, sponging around the edges, pearl and rhinestone adhesive gems, and a glittered chandelier chain (gold glitter adhered to a length of Glue Line--I've always wanted to do that!). The crinkly gold ribbon was salvaged from a Lindt foil-wrapped chocolate Santa!!

Challenges:

• EtsyInspired Challenge: to be inspired by the wares of the Etsy store Tzaddi Shop. I was inspired by this gorgeous chandelier necklace:
• One-Layer Wednesday Challenge: Home Decor
• Free For All Challenge: F4A43 on SCS, Christmas Break--to take a break from Christmas prep and make a birthday card!
• Ways to Use It Challenge: WT301 on SCS, All That Glitters--to use glitter
  
• Moxie Fab World Challenge: Glitter is Glam

Hey, thanks so much for dropping by today and checking out my little slice of bliss!! I'm especially happy today because DH and I finished signing, stuffing, addressing, stamping, and sealing our Christmas cards last night, and I dropped them off at the post office after delivering kids to school this morning. BIG RELIEF!! Next up: holiday gifts for the teachers. EEK! Time is running away from me . . .

Card Recipe:
Stamps: {ippity} Regal Greetings, {ippity} Just Wanted to Say, SU Very Vintage (jumbo wheel)
Paper: SU pink pirouette CS
Ink: Versamark, Palette noir black
Accessories: CM corner rounder, clear EP, heat tool, Glue Line, gold glitter, salvaged ribbon, adhesive pearls and rhinestones
Techniques: one-layer card, clear embossing, glitter, sponging

Stampin' B's Baby/Toddler Challenge

Today is Thursday, December 16. Already. How can that be? December is just flying by, and soon it will be time to forget to write "2011" on our checks.

But, yes, it IS another Thursday, and that means another challenge from the Stampin' B's DT. This week our challenge hostess is Brenda, and she is challenging us to make a baby or toddler card. A fun challenge!! Here's what I came up with: This is one of two Lili of the Valley stamps that I won way, waaaaaaaaaaaay back during the summer. I've been itching to get some ink on it for quite a while now, and this challenge was the perfect excuse to just do it. I stamped it on some of my best watercolor paper and had a mahvelous time watercolor painting with re-inkers. (It's been waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long since I last watercolored, so this was quite a treat.) It was fun dressing up the fur trim with some white Fun Flock and finishing this off simply with some Caribbean baker's twine from The Twinery.

This card will go to our little 15-month-old neighbor girl and her parents for Christmas.

Challenges:

• Colour Q: #63
• Stamptacular Sunday: Winter Wishes
• Stamps R Us: Anything Goes
• Tuesday Taggers: "The stockings were hung"
• Cute Card Thursday: One for the Kids
  
• Card Positioning Systems: CPS197 (I flipped the sketch just a bit!)

I hope you've been inspired to play along with the Stampin' B's!! If you do make a card, post it on your blog or SCS gallery, and link it up to the Inlinkz tool on the Stampin' B's blog. We'd love to see what you create!! :)

Thanks for checking out my little slice of bliss for today!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Lili of the Valley
Paper: Canson watercolor paper, SU chocolate chip CS, SU bermuda bay textured CS
Ink: Palette noir black; SU inks for watercoloring: real red, chocolate chip, old olive, bermuda bay
Accessories: MS loop corner and edge punches, watercolor brushes, foam tape, white Fun Flock, Zip Dry glue, Caribbean baker's twine from The Twinery
Techniques: watercolor painting

What I've been up to . . .

It's been a while since I posted here on my blog and just as long since I've had time to make any cards or paper projects. 'Tis the season to be super busy!! So this post is just a quick update on what's been going on in my neck of the woods.

We had an awesome weekend, starting with our homemade pizza and family movie night last Friday. (Have I mentioned that my dear hubby makes THE BEST homemade pizza?) We decided to start the season of holiday movie/special viewing by choosing Home Alone as our movie. We all love that one! It never fails to get us in the Christmas spirit. :)

Saturday morning we took the kids out to do their Christmas shopping for the family, splitting up and then swapping Mom and Dad for some secret shopping. That was fun. After lunch we started rolling out and baking our Christmas cut-out cookies, a family affair! We ended up with over 15 dozen cookies. Wow! Sunday afternoon was spent frosting and decorating them. Here's our spread:

(Go ahead and click on the photo. I know you are dying to see

all that lusciousness close up!!)

Because we were planning to bake so many, we tried to simplify things and stick with only five different shapes (tree, star, bell, gingerbread people, round) and four different icing colors (red, green, yellow, and white). But the kids had a large array of sprinkles and sugars to choose from for decorating, and didn't hold back LOL!!!

We managed to squeeze in a bunch of other holiday preparations over the weekend, and I was pleased to get a start on prepping my Christmas cards for mailing. I had big plans for being productive this week as well (both with Christmas preparations and on two freelance projects that are nearing their deadlines). All was going well until my eight-year-old came down with a nasty stomach bug. My poor baby!! He couldn't even keep water down. He was so sad to miss school, but he got lots of rest and was well enough to return today. Yay!!

I'm trying to get back into my crafting, blogging, and blog-visiting routine again. (So sorry if I haven't been by to visit your blog recently! All of this is why.) I may be light on cards overall this week, but I will have a new card to share tomorrow--my sample for the new Stampin' B's challenge. So, until then, stay healthy and warm. Thanks so much for stopping by!!

CAS Christmas Ornaments

I had a busy day today (OK, who am I kidding? ALL of my days are busy any more!) but managed to fit in making this card this afternoon.
It's pretty straightforward. I used all Flourishes stamps, with white-embossed pine branches, silver embossed ornament caps, and silver ink for the ornament strings. I stamped the tea rose on the round ornament with Versamark ink and applied chalk with a sponge applicator.

Challenges:

• Flourishes Winter White Challenge: FLLCDEC10, make a white card with a little pop of color
• Flourishes Christmas Spirit Challenge: Use Flourishes stamps to create a card, tag, or decorate up a package using any flower EXCEPT a poinsettia
• ABC DT Challenge: Non-Traditional Holiday Colors
• Stamptacular Sunday Challenge: Blue, Blue Christmas
• City Crafter Challenge: Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
• A Spoon Full of Sugar: Christmas Card
• Tuesday Throwdown: Clean and Simple
• Papertake Weekly: Christmas card but red and green must not be seen
• Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Christmas but no red or green
• Delightful Challenges: Embossing
  

I'm so very pleased with how this card turned out! Thanks so much for dropping by to take a look and share my little slice of bliss.

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Flourishes--All That Glitters, Strawberries (sentiment), Tea Rose Background
Paper: SU bashful blue CS, white CS from The Paper Company
Ink: Versamark, SU bashful blue, Encore metallic silver
Accessories: EK 1.5" circle punch, MS nordic snowflake punch, SU 3/4 x 15/16 oval punch, CM corner rounder punch, white EP, clear EP, heat tool, silver brads, Stampin' Pastels, sponge applicator, adhesive pearls
Techniques: Poppin' Pastels, embossing

Monochromatic Thinking of You

I just found out last night that my best friend has received a lot of bad news in the past few days. I wanted to drop a note in the mail to let her know that I'm thinking of her and that I'm here for her in any way that she needs me. But I'm running low on "thinking of you" cards in my stash, so I made this card in her favorite color this morning.
Challenges:

• Card Creations: Favorite Occasions Week All-Occasion Challenge in the Moxie Fab World
  
• Caardvarks: make a monochromatic card
• Card Positioning Systems: CPS 196

It's sunny but cold here today and there were a few snow flakes falling this morning. It was the perfect time to light my balsam and cedar candle and crank some Christmas jazz music while I worked. My heart is happy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: MFP Hearts, Hearts, Hearts and MFP Brick Wall (sentiment)
Paper: Mark's Finest Papers: Grandma's Lavendar Patch and Groovin' Grape
Ink: Palette violette, ColorBox frost white
Accessories: MS loop edge and corner punches, CM corner rounder punch, scissors, white EP, heat tool, foam tape, Momma's favorite purple satin ribbon from MFP, Bow-Easy
Techniques: embossing

Boy Thank You Cards

My newly minted 8-year-old son worked on writing thank you notes for his birthday presents today. Once he got started, I realized I didn't have quite as many "boy" thank you notes ready as I had thought!! So I threw together a few more for him to use. He has started to show an interest in the Boston Celtics, so I thought he'd like a some basketball-themed thank you cards and made a couple of each of these. I drew the lines on the basketball by hand using a ruler and some oval cutting templates. This 4.25" x 4.25" card was based on this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge.
I went totally CAS for this next card. The basketball image is a retired stamp from The Angel Company. I made these with the Moxie Fab World Card Creations: Favorite Occasions week Thank You challenge in mind and used this week's Get Sketchy sketch 67.
I'm happy to report that my DS had smooth sailing for his thank you note writing and everything is ready to be sent out tomorrow!! It's always more fun to write thank you notes when you have fun cards to write them on. I think my son would agree!

Thanks for dropping by for today's little slice of bliss!

Card #1 Recipe:
Stamps: SU Four Square
Paper: SU pumpkin pie, MFP natural, The Paper Company scraps
Ink: SU pumpkin pie
Accessories: CM circle cutting system, SU photo corners punch, SU large tag punch, black pen, oval cutting template, ruler, basketball brad

Card #2 Recipe:
Stamps: The Angel Company, MFP Thankful Mums and Pumpkins (sentiment)
Paper: MFP natural
Ink: SU pumpkin pie
Accessories: EK 1.25" circle punch, CM corner rounder punch

Christmas Car Thank You Note

So today we finally got to celebrate DS's 8th birthday in earnest!! I got up early to bake bread and start on some cards I needed to make, while the kids worked on homework. Then all four of us headed out to lunch at Fuddruckers, chosen by DS for his birthday celebration meal. Yum, yum!! We stuffed ourselves on mammoth burgers and hot dogs, french fries, and milk shakes (for the other three in my family; I stuck with light lemonade. Gotta fit into my dress pants for church tomorrow morning somehow!!). Oh, and the kids got freshly baked cookies with their kids' meals. I don't think any of us will need to eat again until Monday!!!

After our lunch out, there was a pile of birthday presents waiting here at home for the birthday boy. He has been waiting very patiently since his actual birthday on Thursday for the presents part of his celebration!! And he was just thrilled with everything he received from us and his extended family. He and his sister are having a ball right now playing with some of his new stuff. He will have thank you notes to write tomorrow, so I had fun making this one to add to his stack: He will just love that there is a car on it! I was inspired by this adorable Santa car ornament that I found on the Bronner's Christmas Wonderland website as part of today's Inspiration Challenge IC261 on Splitcoast Stampers.
I incorporated these challenges into this thank you note:

• Simon Says Stamp Challenge: sketch (I had to rotate this 90 degrees clockwise and then reflect it in the y-axis to make it work with my image, so the little car would be driving into the page, not heading right off the edge!)
• Card Creations: Favorite Occasions Week Thank You Challenge in the Moxie Fab World
• Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge: red and green
• Challenge Up Your Life: Advent/Christmas creations
• Stamp Something: Christmas color combo

Thanks for checking out my little slice of bliss for today!!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers Thankful Mums and Pumpkins (sentiments), Studio G
Paper: SU old olive CS, Little Yellow Bicycle Christmas Delight DP collection, various scraps
Ink: Palette noir black, SU old olive, SU bashful blue
Accessories: MS nordic snowflake punch, SU modern label punch, sponge, Prismacolor pencils, OMS, paper blending stump, foam tape, red brads, SU blender pen
Techniques: sponging, Gamsol Magic

Wreath Gift Card Holder

Happy Saturday!! I needed a gift card holder for the gift card we will be giving my Aunt Jay and Uncle Bill for Christmas. This is what I came up with:

{outside}
{inside}

I was inspired by this beautiful holly wreath ornament from Bronner's Christmas Wonderland:
I used a 1-inch scalloped circle punch (with a 1/2-inch circle punched out of the center of each one) for the little wreaths on the front. Some red glitter glue dots became the holly berries. The wreath image on the inside was from the $1 bin at A.C. Moore. The sentiments are both from Mark's Finest Papers.

I incorporated these challenges into my project:

• Caardvarks: Gift Card/Money Holder
• Crafty Creations: Gift Card Holder
• Get Sketchy: Sketch #67

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers Bells on Bobtail (sentiments), Studio G
Paper: The Paper Company CS
Ink: Palette jardin moss, Marvy LePlume II black marker
Accessories: EK 1" scallop circle punch, SU 1/2" circle punch, MS modern garland edge punch, SU 2-3/8" scallop circle punch, scoring tool, Studio G red Sparkle Writer, Prismcolor pencils, red photo turn, brad
Techniques: punch art

Stampin' B's Color Challenge

Happy December 2nd! Today my dear son, my baby, turns 8 years old. Wow! It seems like it was only yesterday that he was born four weeks early (better than the 12 weeks early he originally seemed intent upon; I spent those last eight weeks, a majority in the hospital, on bed rest trying everything possible to keep him "in the oven" until it was safe for him to make his grand entrance into the world). We have delighted in watching him grow into a loving, bright, curious, sweet, sensitive, and hilarious boy who loves to laugh, read books, build with Legos, push buttons, play with computers (see "push buttons" entry), ride his bike, help people, and be a Cub Scout. He likes to be just like Dad, play with his sister, and cuddle with Mom. We love him to pieces, and we hope that he has a fantastic birthday. :)

So to celebrate, I have been invited into DS's classroom to read a favorite story to his class. The Scholastic Book Fair is at his school this week and today happens to be the day for his class to visit the Book Fair, so I'll meet them at the Book Fair so we can shop together and then head back to his classroom for the story. We also have some winter pencils that he will pass out to his classmates as a birthday treat (because edible treats are no longer allowed at his school).

At some point today (when I'm not at his school but while he still is), I will be baking him the chocolate chip cake that he requested as his birthday cake. There won't be time for a full-blown birthday celebration tonight (both kids have gymnastics tonight after school, and then DS has an evening Cub Scout meeting tomorrow which will leave us short on time for celebration then, too), so the birthday cake will have to suffice as celebration for today. But we'll really do it up right on Saturday with presents and lunch out at the restaurant of his choice (looks like he's decided on Fuddrucker's) and maybe even a little surprise outing. We're looking forward to fun day!

Well, it's time to meet my card for today!! It's Thursday, so you know what that means--another challenge from the Stampin' B's DT!! This week it's time for me to host my very first Stampin' B's challenge. My challenge to the team, as well as anyone who would like to play along with us this week, is a color challenge with a twist: use purple and turquoise on your card and add something shiny or sparkly. Here's what I came up with:
My "DP" for this card is actually a piece of calico fabric from my stash. I've always thought this is the most beautiful shade of purple! After stitching it to my card base with my sewing machine, I frayed the edges (or at least as best as I could manage). The butterfly and sentiment are a sneak peek from a new stamp set called Take a Peek that will be released by Mark's Finest Papers next week. Just wait until you see the cute lil' critters in the rest of this set!!

My mother-in-law loves to quilt and sew. We will be sending this fabric-bedecked card to her for her birthday next week. Hope she'll like it! Here's a close-up of some of the sewing details that I hope she'll flip for:
I incorporated these challenges into my card:

• Card Positioning Systems: CPS195 sketch
• Tuesday Throwdown: Embellish It
• Everything But the Kitchen Sink: Textures (I've added texture both with fabric and with grosgrain ribbon)

I hope you've been inspired to play along with the Stampin' B's!! If you do make a card, post it on your blog or SCS gallery, and link it up to the Inlinkz tool on the Stampin' B's blog. We'd love to see what you create!! :)

Thanks for checking out my little slice of bliss for today!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers Take a Peek
Paper: The Paper Company CS
Ink: Palette violette
Accessories: SU large oval punch, SU decorative label punch, dimensionals, scissors, grosgrain ribbon, sewing machine, turquoise rhinestones, buttons from my stash, lilac baker's twine from The Twinery
Techniques: machine stitching

Busy, busy, busy

It's been far too long since I've posted on my blog, and I think I may have gone into withdrawal! Our Thanksgiving weekend was busy, busy, busy and kept me away from papercrafting for far too long. Here's what I've been up to:

• We met my parents and my sister's family (big sis, her husband, plus their two kids) last week for Thanksgiving. All of my family lives in Ohio, where DH and I both grew up, but we live in Massachusetts. Now that all four of our collective children (that is, my two kids plus my sister's two kids) are in school, it is really hard for either family to travel the entire way for Thanksgiving on the busiest travel week of the year. So my mom had the bright idea of all of us meeting in the middle. She made hotel reservations for all of us in Geneva, NY, in the heart of the Finger Lakes region. So on Thanksgiving morning, the Ohio contingent drove east and we Bay Staters drove west, a six- to seven-hour drive for everyone. But waiting until Thursday morning cut down on the traffic and congestion considerably!
• My parents treated everyone (there were 10 of us altogether) to a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner (7 p.m. reservations on turkey day) at historic Belhurst Castle, overlooking Seneca Lake in Geneva.
• This was the menu of our ultra-fancy, all-inclusive Thanksgiving dinner:
  

Caramelized Sweet Corn and Salt Potato Chowder
Seasonal Garden Tossed Salad with Buttermilk Dressing and Toasted Bacon
Chef-carved Turkey: White and Dark Meat
Dressing with Fresh Herbs
Marsala Pan Gravy
Whipped Red Skinned Potatoes with Buttermilk and Sea Salt
Smashed Yams with Maple Walnut Butter
Assorted Winter Squash Poached in Riesling Syrup
Whole Cranberry Sauce
Warm Semolina Bread
For Dessert: Choice of Pumpkin Pie, Apple Caramel Pie or Mincemeat Pie

It was all amazing and exceedingly delicious. We definitely feasted!

• We spent Friday at the hotel (a Hampton Inn), enjoying the continental breakfast, swimming in the pool, playing games in the lobby, eating cheese/crackers/bakery bread/fruit for a light lunch (after that huge meal, no one was really all that hungry!), chatting, and visiting.
  
• Saturday morning, everyone headed out around 9 a.m. to their respective homes. I was exhausted by the time we returned! But there was unpacking, bill paying, and grocery shopping to do. No rest for the weary.
• On Sunday, after church and Sunday School, we were on a mission to fix our Christmas tree. We have always had an artificial Christmas tree. Eight years ago we bought one of those (at that time) new-fangled pre-lit trees. The putting-on and taking-off of the lights was our least enjoyed task when it came to our Christmas tree! We were thrilled to have a tree that we could set up "like a beach umbrella" already lit--just like that scene in the animated Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! But last year we noticed that after seven years of use, some of the lights had burnt out. When enough burnt out on a single strand, the whole thing would overload and an entire layer of branches would be unlit. Not cool. We made do last year, but knew that this year we would have some serious engineering/surgery to do on our tree. I made a note on the calendar to buy 100 or more replacement bulbs as soon as the Christmas decorations hit the store this fall!! So Sunday afternoon was spent preparing a space in the living room for the tree (this involves quite a bit of rearranging, and DH insisted on some not exactly pertinent cleaning as well), hauling down all of the Christmas decorations from the attic, and then spending quite a lot of time and team effort finding burnt out bulbs and replacing them in situ. A major operation, but well worth it. Once we had all the lights fixed, we had a wonderful time decorating and reminiscing about all of our keepsake ornaments.
• And all of this brings us back to our everyday, back-to-school/work busy-ness!

Yesterday, I managed to make a card combining this week's Splitcoast Clean and Simple Challenge (which was to use flower accents) and this week's Splitcoast color challenge: to use real red, old olive, and river rock. Here's what I came up with:
This card is also a sneak peek of a new Mark's Finest Papers stamp set called Hearts, Hearts, Hearts that will be released next week. I clear embossed this pretty flower-filled heart on red four times and then cut them out to create my big red flower. I definitely kept it simple, but couldn't resist the color challenge dessert option and tied on some of my favorite red/white baker's twine!

I was invited to lunch by a dear friend yesterday and she stuffed me with a homemade panini (homemade pesto, fresh mozzarella, and sliced tomatoes--yum-MEE!!), a wonderful salad, a cup of hot tea, and some Ferrero Rocher. So this note will go in the mail tomorrow morning to thank her for a lovely lunch.

Thanks for bearing with me on my long post today! I'll be back tomorrow with my sample card for this week's Stampin' B's challenge, this week hosted by yours truly. :)

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers: Hearts, Hearts, Hearts and Thankful Mums and Pumpkins (sentiment)
Paper: SU old olive CS, various CS from The Paper Company
Ink: Versamark, SU old olive, Palette haystack (for sponged edges)
Accessories: CM corner rounder punch, clear EP, heat tool, button from my stash, sponge, red/white baker's twine
Techniques: sponging, embossing