Shhhhh...can you hear that??!??

.......it's Q-U-I-E-T here! NO KIDS!! Now, don't get me wrong, I totally *heart* my kids :o) but a day off of school and the whole house to MYSELF is such a treat these days hahaha...both kids are at friends houses for the day and so I will do some laundry up and create - either in my craft room or I'll work on some afghan projects I need to complete...or BOTH! HA!

Scrapmaster's Paradise has a very "masculine" color challenge this week so I decided to make a birthday card for a good friend of ours. I had to find a sketch to go along with it, so I hopped on over to Friday Sketchers.



This is the sketch challenge from Friday Sketchers Challenge Blog. I knew I wanted to use Lovely as A Tree as my main image (my good 'ol manly standby stamp set lol)....

...and this is what I came up with.....hope you like it. I'm not too sure about the pearls on there, but I guess they are on there now :) Hope he enjoys them too HA HA HAHA...:o)


Recipe:

Stamps: Lovely as A Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Basic Grey, Naturals Ivory
Ink: Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Sizzix embossing plate, sizzix dots embossing folder, grey satin ribbon, paper piercer, dimensionals, oval punches, scallop oval punch, scallop edge punch, spiral note punch, dimensions, adhesive pearls

Masking in Burgundy...

...more masking done in burgundy....fun!

Masking fun!!!

The big day is over and I hope that everyone survived the holiday without too much stress! I am here in my craft room once again after such a nice, relaxing day it was almost scary! Something I'm not used to at all...LOL. We have my niece and nephew for a week or so as of today, and that is our best Christmas gift we could ask for. We haven't seen them since they lived with us 1.5 years ago (and they only live 25 minutes away) due to a social services order and my kids were just pumped today! It's a long story, and one that I won't get into today - just know that we are so excited to have them for the week and my kids have just been jumping for joy all day and giddy with excitement and happiness! :o) I cried and told them I missed them so much and man oh man, have they grown!!! Crazy!

Today I decided to CASE these cards from Dawn at Dawn's Stamping Studio. Please be sure to check out her wonderful tutorials she posts...she's a great source for help and techniques! Thanks, Dawn - these cards are so easy and soooo pretty! I am going to do the same as Dawn and make them in Burgundy, Artichoke and Hunter next....then I will have my Christmas cards all done for January in Splitcoaststampers Christmas Card Challenge! Yay me!!!

Recipe:

Stamps: Lovely As a Tree, Winter Post, Best Yet
Paper: Night of Navy, Whisper White
Ink: Night of Navy
Accessories: Photo corner punch, large oval punch, dimensionals, glue pen, dazzling diamonds, sponge dauber, dotto (repositional adhesive), scissors

Chocolate Thank You....

Good afternoon crafters! The snow has been *gently* falling all day here in central Alberta creating a beautiful white dusting on the ground! I'm so happy to see some snow...I was starting to get worried that a brown Christmas was in store for us this year. Today I wasn't feeling the "stampin' bug" until I went and checked out Julee's BLOG...I saw her sketch challenge and knew exactly what I was gonna do...Julee's Mojo Monday #64 is as follows:



and this is my creation using the above sketch:



In the photo, the tree looks really red, but it's not - it's a mahogoney brown embossing powder. I really like it...looks better in person! LOL...

Recipe:

Stamps: Lovely As A Tree from SU!, Thankful Blossoms from Verve Stamps

Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze

Ink: Chocolate Chip, VersaMark

Accessories: Mahogoney Embossing Powder, heat gun, Martha Stewart border punch, dimensionals, baja breeze ribbon, swiss dots cuttlebug embossing folder

Thanks for looking! I'm off to fold some more laundry...I'll try and come back later to complete a few more challenges! Toodles!