Kards by Kadie

2012-01-29T06:41:00.000-07:00

This is the SECOND POST for today - I have had lots of request to link you'all to Dawn's video on the bookmarks that I created. Here it is (posted January 23, 2011):

http://www.dawnsstampingthoughts.net/2011/12/christmas-bookmark-video.html

Happy Creating and Keep Living Your Dream!

Birthday Gift For Kris

2012-01-29T01:00:00.084-07:00

Happy Sunday My Blogger Friends! I am planning to spend the ENTIRE DAY not in my studio but in my garage. YIKES - Do I Know How To Have FUN or What! I have been putting it off for several months now - and right now it seriously looks like a BOMB went off in our garage so today is the day to jump in and GET THE GARAGE CLEANED OUT!

My share today is the sweet gift I made for my good friend Kris Holmes for her birthday - which was last Monday.

I started out with this fun little card (like the one I made for Jan). I knew that Kris loves anything new from Stampin' UP! - so I pulled out not only the new SAB DSP packet - but also grabbed the new Ruffled Ribbon to create a super big and super fun card to go along with her gift.

I just love creating these fun 6x6 purses and bookmarks that my fellow Stampin' UP! demonstrator Dawn Griffin shared with her blog followers (http://dawnsstampingthoughts.net). They come together in a snap and pack a real WOW FACTOR to those that are receiving them.

I made a 6x6 purse that holds 4-notecards and used the Designer Series Paper that is in the Stampin' UP! Sale-a-Bration catalog to decorate the purse and the notecards. I also made a matching bookmark for Kris that uses the same DSP from the SAB Catalog. Dawn has a video for both of these projects on her blog - (http://dawnsstampingthoughts.net).

The 6x6 purse comes together with the help of a 6x6 page protector (that is cut down) and a single sheet of white cardstock ..... and after you add some DSP and a couple Rosette's ..... your purse comes together in literally a SNAP!

I purchased the new Stampin' UP! Rosette's die and was able to create both of these super pretty rosette's in a FLASH!

The notecards were just Whisper White cardstock and some of the SAB DSP added across the bottom portion of the cards.

I had purchased this beautiful black journal book for Kris and made one of Dawn's super awesome bookmarks for it.

I just had to add a special little scallop birthday wish to the inside of the journal book for Kris. And that completed my birthday gift for my good buddie Kris.

I had so much fun creating this birthday gift for Kris and I know first hand how much Kris loved every little thing I made for her. Happy Birthday Kris!

I'll be back tomorrow to begin sharing my January Stamp Camp cards with you - Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

January Crafternooners Swap

2012-01-28T01:00:00.016-07:00

Happy Saturday My Blogger Friends!

Today I have a special treat to share with you - It's my Crafternooners Swap project for January.

Here is what I will be giving to each of them this weekend.

Our color challenge for January was Purple and Gold with an optional technique of Stickles. I took the bookmark idea which Dawn Griffin had on her blog (http://dawnsstamingthought.net) and created these super fun bookmarks for my three Crafternooner lady friends.

I wasn't sure what size book the ladies would have - and know that each of them read PaperCrafters magazines and I had several old copies on hand - so I simply used those magazines as my guide for setting up the dimensions for the bookmarks I was going to make for my Crafternooner friends.

I am reading "A Cry in the Night" right now ......... and made my bookmark to fit that book. LOVE how pretty this bookmark turned out!

Here is a shot of the large scallop diecut with the Stampin' UP! rosette positioned right on top.

And all you need to do to open the bookmark is slide up the gold scallop to reveal the black ponytail holder which is positioned under the gold scallop........And then release the purple button from the black ponytail holder........

The two pieces seperate and that will allow you to reposition your bookmark to a new page of the book you are reading.

Here's a close-up of the yummy purple Stickles that I added to each scallop!

Since I was pretty sure I would just be dropping the bookmarks off to each of the gals in my Crafternooner's group ...... I wanted to make sure I wrote up some basic instructions telling each of them how their bookmarks operated. So I took a piece of white cardstock and put it over the cover of each of the PaperCrafters magazine and wrote up instructions for each of the ladies.

I'll be back tomorrow to share a special little gift I made my good friend Kris Holmes for her birthday this past Monday. I hope you can stop back and join me for that share.

Keep Living Your Dream!

January Stamp Club

2012-01-27T01:00:00.002-07:00

Happy Happy Happy Friday My Blogger Friends! YAHOO - we made it through another week - HOT DAMN! It's now time to put your work shoes away and get your Stampin Groove going and let the party begin. WELL......at the very least.....that is what this girl is going to do. I have some serious plans to spend some QUALITY TIME in my studio with MYSELF. Hope you are able to sneak off and do something that TOTALLY makes you smile this weekend.

Today I'm going to share what my Club Gals worked on last Saturday when they came over for Stamp Club. Check these projects out ........

For Stamp Club we always make an A2 Card along with some type of 3-D project and a 3x3 card. This month we incorporated our 3x3 card into our 3-D project and made them as a set. Let me start out by sharing our 3-D project with you.

We embossed the Hello, Doily stamp onto Real Red cardstock - to both the front and the back of our box. We added a small Rhinestone to the center of our stamped image to give a little bling to our box.

On the inside of our box we created these two adorable little 3x3 cards that tucked perfectly into our little box. We used the Delicate Doilies stamp set and used clear embossing powder for the outer image and then stamped it a second time using white embossing powder and then punched out the center portion of our stamped image. We added dimensionals to the white embossed portion to give some dimension to our little 3x3 card.

The clear embossing powder gave our Delicate Doilies image such a pretty shine and then by adding the white embossed image on top just created a whole new look for our stamped image.

We used the Decorative Label punch for the closure to the top of our little box. And with the help of a Mini Library Clip and a tiny piece of 1/8" Real Red Taffeta Ribbon our box closure was complete.

Our A2 card came straight from the Occasions Mini Catalog on Page 7.

We used the new Large Sizzlits Die for our A2 card. Honestly........this die creates the most intricate doily design and help us to create the most amazing focal point for our card.

We die cut out the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die and then used the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder to create a beautiful embossed image on our butterfly.

And here's another close-up look at the Doily image that was die cut using the Large Sizzlits Die.

And one last look at all three of the projects! All three projects turned out amazing and even though there were lots of steps and moments of tension with the embossing and folding of the box - all in all these projects turned out super cute and I think the gals had a good time at our first Stamp Club of 2012.

I'll be back tomorrow to begin sharing some of the cards that we made at Stamp Camp in January - Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Happy Birthday Jan!

2012-01-26T01:00:00.109-07:00

Happy Happy Thursday My Blogger Friends. It's Jan's Birthday today!

Today is my best friend Jan's birthday - and it's an extra special birthday at that. She is turning 60 years young today! (If you are reading this Jan - Head out to your mailbox and you will find your birthday bag hanging on your mailbox ........ Happy Birthday OLD FRIEND!)

I didn't make Jan a card - however, I did make her a tag that hung from the bag that I stuffed all my birthday goodies into.

I know that Jan's favorite color is RED - so I started out with a bright red bag!

The birthday tag hung perfectly from one side of Jan's birthday bag.

On the inside I created two extra special gifts for Jan. I can't take ANY of the credit for the gifts that I made for Jan ....... they were both created by Dawn Griffin at Dawn's Stamping Thoughts (http://www.dawnsstampingthoughts.net/).

The first gift was a fun little 6x6 notecard purse holder that Dawn created a couple weeks ago. She did an amazing video on this project - which made it super duper easy to create. (LOVE Dawn's video Library)

I purchased the new Stampin' UP! Designer Rosette die that is in the Mini catalog and the rosette's for this project come together in a snap using that die.

The inside of the purse holder has four little notecards tucked inside .....

SERIOUSLY CUTE!

I used the "A Word for You" stamp set from Stampin' UP! for each of my notecards.

I even decorated the barrel of a RSVP Pen to help coordinate Jan's entire gift.

Dawn also shared on her blog how to create a super duper fun bookmark. AWESOME AWESOME PROJECT and with the help of some ribbon and diecut/punches this bookmark came together in a snap.

I used the Designer Rosette die again to add a pretty rosette to my bookmark.

Here is how the bookmark comes apart. All you need to do is release the button and the ribbon is released from the scallop closure and you are then able to reposition your bookmark location.

I just love how I was able to coordinate all the pieces to this fabulous birthday gift for Jan and seriously think she is going to love love love her gifts.

I managed to adhere a special little scallop birthday message to the inside cover of Jan's journal book before I wrapped it all up.

Sure hope Jan loves her birthday gift - It was created with lots of love and without a doubt - Is the perfect color for Jan and her new studio. Happy Birthday Friend!

I'll be back tomorrow to share some cards that I've received - Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

CJToo Valentine's Treat

2012-01-25T01:00:00.012-07:00

Happy Wednesday My Blogger Friends and today I have a special little surprise post for you. As you might remember ...... I was planning to post my Stamp Club Challenge idea for you today - but as I was getting ready to post, I had forgotten that on January 25th our fearless leader Tracy at CraftJunkieToo (http://www.craftjunkietoo.blogspot.com) requested that her design team members (that would be me!) schedule a Valentine's Day blog post. Tracy ask me to create a Valentine's Day something that could be made for a class or an easy project that could be mass produce. Well let me tell you ...... I hit this one out of the park ..... with the help of my seven grandkids. Let me explain .........

Aren't these pencil treats just the LIVING END.......

Making treats for my SEVEN Grandkids classmates for all the holidays requires me to ALWAYS be on the look-out for projects during the holidays that are FUN - FAST and PACK a real WOW FACTOR to 'em. And without fail ........ Valentine's Day was the perfect time to give one of my grandkids a super duper fun pencil gift to hand out to their fellow classmates on Valentine's Day.

Knowing that I was going to have to mass produce this project helped me stay on track and basically did LOTS of punching ...... stamping ....... stuffing cello bags ........ adhering ....... and adding ribbon to complete 25 of these little hummers in NO TIME!

I gathered up several different colors of Pink and Red Cardstock and Ribbon - Grabbed my retired "Love You Much" Stampin' UP! Stamp Set and started mass producing these little cuties.

Here's one of the pink pencil cello bags ...... Oh So Pretty!

And it just wouldn't be Valentine's Day without Red .........

Overall - I have to tell you that this is one of those projects that is easy to mass produce and it just SCREAMS for those little ones to help assist in making these. Super Duper Quick and Seriously has a WOW FACTOR attached to it. I just know one of my seven grandkids will really enjoy passing these treats out on Valentine's Day to their fellow classmates.

I'll be back tomorrow to resume my regularly scheduled blog posting. I was going to share my Stamp Club Challenge idea with you - but realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of that challenge so - guess I'm out of luck to share it with you this month. I'm hoping that I have my act together next month and can remember to take some pictures and share that with you in February. SO SORRY for my Club Challenge idea to be on hold for another month. I will however have a fun little surprise scheduled to share with you for tomorrow - Hope you can swing by and join me for that. Keep Living Your Dream!

Stamp Club Gift

2012-01-24T01:00:00.089-07:00

Happy Tuesday My Blogger Friends - Today I want to share the special little gift I made my Club gals last Saturday ..... I have lots of pictures to share with you ...... Let's jump right in ......

I made these adorable Top Note Bags for each of them - and inside held a special NEW Stampin' UP! embellishment treat.

I picked out six new and retired Stampin' UP! colored cardstock and ribbon and just went to town creating each of these. I grabbed my Elegant Bouquet Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and ran each of the Top Note Dies that I had cut out through my Big Shot to add that little bit of ........ WOW FACTOR to my project. Here is a sample of the Rose Red Bag.

The special little embellishment that was tucked inside each of these holders was a bottle of the new Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details. I made sure I didn't just drop the Dazzling Details into the Top Note Bag ....... adding a coordinating piece of ribbon and fun sassy button just added to the "SPECIAL" that I wanted to create for each of my Club Gals.

I grabbed up my "Apothecary Art" stamp set and used this awesome stamp to create the message scallop for each of my bags. (LOVE LOVE LOVE this new stamp set!)

So here is the Brilliant Blue Sample........

And the Sage Shadow Sample........

The Orchid Opulence Sample........

The Baja Breeze Sample........

And last I made a Creamy Caramel Sample........

I had the little brown lunch sacks in my stash - and I'm pretty sure that I had purchased them at Michael's. I just cut the length of each sack down and sandwiched two Top Note Dies between the lunch sacks and called this one done!

As the girls arrived to my house on Saturday for Stamp Club, I gave them each the opportunity to pick which color they wanted ...... and without a doubt ......The gals LOVED their gifts.

MANY THANKS for joining me today, I'll be back tomorrow to share with you the NEW Stamp Club Challenge that I'll be offering to my Club Gals each month. Hope you can come back and join me for that share tomorrow. Keep Living Your Dream!

Valentine's Day Mail Boxes

2012-01-23T01:00:00.002-07:00

Happy Happy Monday My Blogger Friends!

I want to start out my blog post today WISHING MY VERY GOOD FRIEND KRIS A VERY HAPPY AND SUPER FUN BIRTHDAY TODAY! (Kris........Head out to your mailbox and you'll find a special little birthday treat that I made just for you. HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRIEND!)

Today's blog share is a fun little Valentine's Mailbox that I made with Debbie and Melissa last Thursday night down at Real Deals. We had a BLAST. We Laughed ...... We Cried ...... and We Shopped. What more could you ask for when you spend time with good friends. Here is what we created .....

We arranged to take a class that Kimberly Lang was offering at our Real Deals Store last Thursday night. We left SaddleBrooke and headed downtown Tucson for dinner before the class and then drove right to Real Deals to get ready to attend this super fun class and we even had time to do some shopping before the class started - SWEET!

Kimberly allowed us to pick out the color mailbox we wanted to create - and of course - HANDS DOWN - I picked the pink mailbox (in fact Kimberly pointed out to me that she had one pink mailbox that surely had my name on it).

Kimberly had everything we were going to need to create a super stinkin cute mailbox all ready for us - all we needed to do was open our mailboxes and get started. (I LOVE LOVE LOVE instructors that have things ready for us when we show up to class - THANK YOU KIMBERLY for being prepared!)

Check out this ADORABLE little Stampin' UP! gal that we used for the front of our mailbox. Isn't she just the cutiest!

And here are Melissa and Debbie busy at work creating their FABULOUS Mailboxes!

Didn't their mailboxes turn out Just Too Cute?

And the super sweet gal that was sitting next to me jumped up and asked if I wanted to have her take a picture of all three of us........Needless to say I threw the camera at her and jumped up out of the seat in one fast little motion. Not sure she was even ready to take the camera ..... but she caught it and got this amazing and stinkin cute picture of the three of us.

And here are all three of our Valentine's Day Mailboxes. I think they turned out sooo stinkin cute and have mine proudly displayed in my studio. Thanks Debbie and Melissa for spending Thursday evening with me. I had a wonderful time and appreciate all the time I spent with both of you.

I have a little gift I made for my six Stamp Club gals to share with you tomorrow - Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Sweet Treats for Karen

2012-01-22T01:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday My Blogger Friends and thanks for joining me today. I'm SERIOUSLY (and if EVER I said SERIOUSLY - today I MEAN SERIOUSLY) going to take the ENTIRE DAY and spend the day PLAYING in my studio today.

I have been on a full run since right after the first of the year. I've been busy with Stamp Camp ...... Stamp Club ...... Crafternooners Group ....... FU Group ....... SaddleBrooke Stampers Group...... SW Stampers Group ........ Ranchette Group ......... and lets not forget the every day Cleaning of the House - Doing the Laundry - Making the Beds - Tackling the Pile of Ironing - Paying the Bills - Taking out the Trash - Feeding the Pets (ooooopppsss.....got a little carried away - I DON'T HAVE A PET!) Well ...... you get the idea ..... It's all those things that we all do automatically - to keep our families and households running smoothly! I feel I just need a day that can be spent just hanging out and not feeling like I have to get something checked off my TO DO LIST. SO TODAY I'm going to time creating in my studio - FOR ME! I do have a fun little share for you today - that my neighbor Karen asked me to make for a birthday party she was celebrating with her golfing ladies group. Check this out .......

My neighbor and friend Karen asked me if I would create a dozen of my Hot Cocoa Cones for a birthday party she was throwing for a friend of hers on Friday the 21st. I was touched and honored that Karen wanted to use a gift that I had given out at Christmas. And honestly ..... I knew all I was going to have to do was change up the color and make the Hot Cocoa Cones into Birthday Party Favors that Karen could hand out to the ladies that were attending her party. PIECE OF CAKE EASY......CAN OF CORN......CERTAINLY A WALK IN THE PART Y EASY!

I honestly just kept them the same as last years Christmas Gift and just switched up the ribbon and tag to make them pretty in pink for her friend.

I just love how they turned out and think they were a big big hit for Karen's friends.

OH.......How pretty.......

And this would be the very reason I'm flipped out crazy over the color PINK - What isn't there to love about how fabulous these looks!

I used two different colors of pink ribbon to close up my hot cocoa cones and added a little tulle and a tag to complete these party favors.

LOVE......LOVE.......LOVE how these turned out. I was so THRILLED how they turned and even remembered that I hadn't taken any pictures of them and was able to slip back over to Karen's house before Friday and get these pictures to share with you. This was HONESTLY one of those creations that I almost HATED to give away! I know that Karen LOVED her party favors and I hope all her guests enjoy them too!

I'll be back tomorrow to share a fun little Valentine's mailbox projet that I made last week down at Real Deals. I went down with two of my girlfriends and we had a BLAST creating our very own cutie Valentine's Day Mailbox. Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Message Board Center

2012-01-21T01:00:00.056-07:00

Happy Happy Happy Saturday My Blogger Friends. Today is Stamp Club and I have six of my favorite Stamper Friends coming over to create some amazing medallion style projects for this months Club. I will be sharing those projects with you early next week ..... but today ...... I have my sweet Message Board Center to share with you ..... so ....... Let's JUMP right in ..........

Last Saturday I attended my first class down at Real Deals and was surprised with what they are offering in the lines of classes. The instructor Kimberly is a charming a delightful gal ...... who honestly can match me toe-to-toe with all the supplies she has available for her classes. We created this CHARMING and OH SO CUTE Message Board Center with the help of an OLD (and I do mean OLD) metal picture that honestly everyone's grandparents had down in their basements.

Kimberly handed us a cute little chalkboard frame and said if we wanted to use it on our creation - to "Go At It". I covered the edges of mine in some of the DSP I selected for my project and then when I got home ...... I used my chalk markers to dedicate my Message Center to my Blog.

I figured it would be useful in helping me prepare and plan for my blog posting and since I had the "Note" tablet and the calendar already for placement on my message center......the rest was just a matter of decorating and adhering some DSP to my frame.

Kimerly gave each of us a calendar to use for our message board and I trimmed mine down and matted it with some coordinating cardstock and will be using that to check off the days when I finish posting on my blog.

The real magic of this Message Board Center was the shabby/distressed look that was all around the outer edges of my frame. All I did was use a sanding block to smooth down the edges and then I was ready to grab my embellishments and coordinating DSP and begin the creative process of creating a real piece of art for my studio.

We were able to create a magnetic with some metal pieces that were available to us. I just added a pink flower to the center of my metal flower and by adding a small piece of magnetic to the back ...... I had an instant embellishment for my Message Board Center.

As you can see - the Message Board Center itself is not very thick (or heavy) so it's perfect to have hanging next to my laptop so I can just glance over to see what projects I should be posting. To me it's all about staying organized and this is just one more way of Staying Organized and Keeping It Pretty (at the same time).

Simply LOVE LOVE LOVE how this project turned out and LOVE even more how pretty this looks in my studio.

I'll be back tomorrow to begin sharing the cards we made at Stamp Camp this month - Hope you can join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Trinket Box

2012-01-20T01:00:00.075-07:00

Happy Friday My Blogger Friends and today I have a special (and LONG) post for you - and that is to share the wonderful Trinket Box I created last weekend. This vintage box was believe it or not - super easy to put together and is honestly one of those classes that you need to have the instructor standing in front of you to walk you through all the steps (which there are MANY) that go to creating this lovely little master piece.

This is the Easel/Drawer Trinket Box that holds three matching vintage cards (I created the cards at an earlier class that Susan offered at my local scrapbook store).

The box itself has a drawer that slides open and holds your matching notecards or other treasurers that you might want to keep tucked away or hidden.

The handle serioulsy brings this whole project together.

And then the easel card on the top of the box just puts this project right over the top!

The drawer component slides right out .......

And tucked inside the drawer is where I am storing three fabulous matching cards.

They each coordinate perfectly with the DSP that we used to decorate our Trinket Box!

We used some amazing and very Vintage looking paper ......

Along with the most amazing and yummy ribbon .........

And let us not forget the awesome lace edge diecut - that is one of the Spellbinder collection dies.

The entire drawer pulls out and you can even remove it to fill it up with coordinating cards or treasures and then slide it back into place if you want.

We decorated the top of our box with a rosette and a glubber flower ......

This honestly was the first time I attempted to make a Glubber Flower and I was so impressed with how lovely my flower turned out.

The ribbon was a super soft and super yummy ribbon that I ended up buying extra so I could make attentional cards to tuck inside the drawer of my Trinket Box.

Now......how fabulous is this picture. LOVE LOVE LOVE that I can say ...... I CREATED THIS!

The entire Trinket Box came together in a three hour class ....... I'm not sure that the more of these you make the faster you become. There was a gal that sat next to me - who was making her second Trinket Box and honestly ........ she was taking it step-by-step and not working ahead of the rest of the class. Our instructor Susan was very organized and kept us all on track and we were able to leave the class with a completely constructed Trinket Box. LOVE IT!

Hope you enjoyed todays share - I'll be back tomorrow to share the Message Board Center I made at a Real Deals class last Saturday. Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Jack's Birthday Cards

2012-01-19T01:00:00.118-07:00

Happy Thursday My Blogger Friends and I'm off to a FULL RUN today as I prep for this coming Saturday's Stamp Club. I need to prep the three projects that we will be making at Stamp Club and seriously I'm running out of time - so ..... I will be held up today in my studio till this evening and then I will be BUSTING OUT OF HERE to take a super fun Vintage Valentine's Mailbox class with my girlfriends down at Real Deals. I can't wait to have some SERIOUS DOWNTIME with two of my girlfriends tonight ...... I'm sure we will laugh till someone CRIES and share some AMAZING stories along the way. SO .... Let's jump right in with three birthday cards that Jack received from my SUPER AMAZING Girlfriends.........

First card up is from Kris - OH MY GOSH - Talk about giving Jack one of his favorite sports wrapped up in a birthday card - AWESOME IDEA Kris! I'm pretty sure that Kris created this fun shaped card with the help of her Cricut ........

Her card actually stood right up - but the most amazing part of this card is it actually took on the feel of an actual football ........ check out this next photo .......

Kris ran her card through the Big Shot and used an embossing folder to create the actual look and feel of a football to her card. Honestly - the texture on this card was just too much! Many Thanks Kris - Jack loved your card!

Next up I have the super fun card that Jan made. She used a Tim Holtz stamp and some Stampin' UP! Well Worn DSP and she created a fabulous and masculine birthday card for Jack. ROCKIN COOL CARD OR WHAT!

Jan created a layer of the Tim Holtz truck image on the front of her card and this seriously gave her card that extra WOW FACTOR that honestly all of Jan's cards have. This was one of Jack's favorite cards that he received for his 79th birthday. MANY THANKS JAN!

And next is the card that Debbie (the birthday cake surprise QUEEN) made. Just the right colors for Jack and the DSP collection is ....... "OH SO JACK".

Check out the extra embossing step that Debbie took in creating the focal image on her card. SUPER STINKIN CUTE! Debbie surprised Jack on his birthday (with the help of her husband and Kris) and showed up at our front door with a birthday cake just a flaming and singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jack when he opened the door. SO FUN and SUCH A SUPER DUPER SURPRISE TO JACK! Many thanks Kris, Debbie and Eddie for surprising Jack on his birthday. HE SERIOUSLY HAD A FUN DAY!

I'm off to go start on my Stamp Club projects - have lots to do and only one day to get 'er done. I'll be back tomorrow to share with you the Trinket Box Project that I made last weekend. Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Card From Gail

2012-01-18T01:00:00.026-07:00

Happy Happy Wednesday My Blogger Friends and today is Stamp Camp and I have two COMPLETELY SOLD OUT sessions booked for today. That means today I'm going to get some help with my post from my good friend Gail. She made this little work-of-art for Jack's birthday and I want to share it with you'all today. Let's get this post started .........

Here is the birthday card that Gail made for my Jack's 79th birthday last Thursday. I have to say that we were both blown away that first of all Gail would remember Jack's birthday but secondly she would make him such a fabulous card. I have NO IDEA what the name of this card is - but if your interested - please leave me a comment and I'll be seeing Gail today ...... and I can ask her...........

The real surprise from this card begins when you untie the pretty plaid bow...........

With the bow untied ....... the unfolding begins .........

AND CONTINUES ..........

Until you have gotten to the center of your card ...... but wait ......there's one more panel to unfold ......

And that is at the very bottom of the card and this gate fold double door opens to reveal a special (and hidden) birthday message. HOW AWESOME IS THAT!

I'm thinking that I will just have to invite Gail over for a "PLAY DAY" and maybe she can teach me how to make this TOTALLY FUN CARD. Many thanks Gail for making and giving this card to my Jack ...... he honestly loved it!

I'm OFF to start prepping for Stamp Camp - but I'll be back tomorrow to share a few more of the cards that Jack received for his birthday - Hope you can join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Valentine's Tree

2012-01-17T01:00:00.004-07:00

HAPPY HAPPY TUESDAY My Blogger Friends and welcome back. Today I have a quick little share for you - it's my spooky Halloween Tree that I brought into my studio for Halloween and decided to leave in my studio and decorate for each holiday. We are fast approaching Valentine's Day and figured I would take the opportunity to get it decorated this past weekend.

You'all know I LOVE LOVE LOVE (oh by the way .... LOVE) the color PINK. I even love to wear a bit of pink every day (and yes......some days you can't see the pink I'm wearing)! So ...... When Valentine's Day rolls around I am like a PIG IN MUD with the colors for this holiday. So when it came time to decorate the Spooky Tree for Valentine's Day it was PINK PINK and more PINK for this girls Valentine's Tree.

I actually kept several of the ornaments that were used from Christmas and added some pink hearts and ribbon to LOVE IT UP in a Valentine's kind of way!

The hearts were punched out with my Stampin' UP! Heart Punch and sandwiched a piece of pink ribbon between two and glued them together. No biggie and actually felt the only thing they needed was some pink gel pen stitching around the border.

There are several different sparkly pink ornaments hanging on my tree along with just a few silver ball ornaments to add just a second color to my tree.

I have it positioned so I get to look at my Spooky Valentine's Tree every time I walk into my studio - and without a doubt ....... It makes me smile!

Many thanks for joining me today. I'm off to finish pulling things for my Stamp Camp tomorrow afternoon and evening. Once again ..... I have two SOLD OUT sessions for my January Stamp Camp. Know the ladies are going to LOVE LOVE LOVE the Valentine's card that we make this month. I'll be sharing those cards with you later in the week. For my post tomorrow I'll be sharing the Message Board Center that I made last weekend - Hope to see you back here tomorrow for that share.

Keep Living Your Dream!

Sw Stampers Swap Cards January-Part Two

2012-01-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday My Blogger Friends. I'm late posting today because I spent NO TIME yesteday on my computer. I attended a class on the VERY FAR EAST SIDE of Tucson yesterday. It took me an hour and a half to get there.......the class was a three hour class (oh so worth it) ...... and then I had an hour and a half drive back home (of which I got myself good and lost getting out of the subdivision that this ladies house was at). SO ....... dinner and clean-up and then movie with Jack ...... seriously left me NO TIME to play on my computer. SO FOR TODAY ...... I'm heading up to the Ranch to scrapbook with the girls and tonight I need to spend time in my studio getting ready for Saturday's Club Girls - Y*I*K*E*S - Once again I'm on the RUN. Let's start with today's share ........

First up is the card that my good buddy Cathy Gray made ..... oh my gosh. Seriously LOVE this card. Cathy took the "Flower Garden" Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and ran that through her Big Shot and with the help of some Cherry Cobbler - ran some ink over the top of her embossed flower to make the flower image POP (and POP it did).

She also stamped the More Occasions Wrap Stamp Set (from the Holiday Mini) onto the Whisper White card base and then framed it using the Peek-a-Boo BigZ die frame in Chocolate Chip. She also added a couple Jewlrey Tag punches that were stamped out using the "Tiny Tag" stamp set. AWESOME AWESOME CARD CATHY!

Next up I have a beautiful card that my SW Stamping Buddy Barbara Phillips made for our swap. (She mentioned to me that she took her inspiration from Jackie Topa - who seriously is one of those SU demonstrators that has more ideas then you can ever image!) OH MY GOSH....How did Barbara know that I was COMPLETELY OUT of Sympathy card ideas. (And I also needed two sympathy cards to send out ...... many thanks Barbara for helping me out with this need). Barbara started out framing her card with the Textured Impressions Framed Tulips Embossing Folder. Then in the center of her Pretty in Pink card she used the NEW Framelits Labels Collections and diecut a beautiful labels die image right in the center of her card.

Barbara used the new Bordering on Romance and Loving Thoughts Stamp Sets for her card and even added some of the new Pear Pizzazz Pleated Ribbon at the bottom of her card. What a PRETTY PRETTY card this turned out to be. Surely going to CASE your card idea Barbara.

And last ..... BUT NOT LEAST ...... is the card that Ginny Tabor swapped. Just looking at it you would think - NICE CARD Ginny ...... but wait ....... Ginny's card is based on a paint swatch sample that you get at the hardware store. YES SERIOUSLY ...... it is a paint swatch! She said she went to Home Depot and picked up several paint swatch samples in Tempting Turquoise colors and came home and stamped one of the Flower Fest flower images on the swatch and trimmed it with our eyelet border lace punch.

If ever Stampin UP was going to do FOUR PACK of Tempting Turqouise colors ...... this is seriously what it would look like. What a fabulous idea Ginny and your card turned out so LOVELY. Surely going to have to check out the paint swatches the next time I run down to my local Home Depot. SUPER FUN IDEA!

Many thanks for joining me today. I have several things to share with you this week ..... I think tomorrow I am going to share my SPOOKY TREE with you. I created a super pretty Valentine's tree and will be sharing that with you tomorrow. The rest of the week will include the Trinket Box that I made at yesterday's class ...... my message board center that I made on Saturday ....... and I have my recipe swap for January to share with you along with the Camp cards that we will be making at this months camp. Will be a busy week - so hope you can come back and join me for those shares. See You Tomorrow ..... and remember (as always.......) ...... Keep Living Your Dream!

SW Stampers Swap Cards January

2012-01-15T01:00:00.019-07:00

Happy Sunday My Blogger Friends. Today I was hoping to post the Message Center project that I made at Real Deals yesterday - but I still have a few things to finish up on it - and will hopefully be ready to post it on Tuesday. I do however have three of my SW Stampers swap cards to share with you - so let's jump right in with the card that Sue made for our January swap...........

Sue's swap card used the super fun stamp set - "Take It to Heart" and the new Textured Impressions Embossing Folders.

I simply love how she used the Adorning Accents Edgelits Die on the bottom portion of her card and then ran the embossing folder through the center of her card and also at the bottom edge of her card. I simply LOVE how this card turned out!

Next up is Karen's card ...... OH MY GOSH ..... SERIOUSLY ..... I went crazy over this card. How fun that Karen threaded each of the hearts with the matching Bakers Twine to create a super fun look.

I love the new colors of Bakers Twine that are available in the Occasions Mini Catalog. VERY NICE CARD KAREN.

And my last card swap share for today is the FUN PACKED CARD that Edna handed me. I actually LOVE every single thing about Edna's card!

But my favorite part of Edna's card is the NEW Textured Impressions Embossing Folders that she used. The Adorning Accents hearts folder is SERIOUSLY my favorite of the embossing folders.

I still have three more swap cards to share with you and I will share those with you tomorrow ...... Hope you can come back tomorrow to see those cards. Enjoy your Sunday and Keep Living Your Dream!

New Year's Resolution (kind of)

2012-01-14T01:00:00.004-07:00

Happy Saturday My Blogger Friends. Hope you are having a fabulous weekend! Today I have a quick little share with you so let's jump right in .........

My Theme Card for my SaddleBrooke Stampers for January was Resolutions - Big and Small. And for those of you who know me ...... you know ...... I don't make New Year's Resolutions ....... but for the good of stamping and my SaddleBrooke Stamper Club ....... I'll make a resolution.

So for 2012 ...........I decided I would eat more veggies (which honestly isn't a difficult resolution to keep - because I love love love veggies and Jack and I make a big pot of steamed veggies every night for dinner). That would cover the small portion of my Theme Card - but what about the "Big" portion of my Theme Card ...........

That's where my tag shape came into play. I created a BIG tag to hold my SMALL veggies. And now all I needed to do was include the "resolution" part to meet this challenge. WELL.....check out the background paper I used. It actually has the word "resolution" on it ....... Did you spot it?

Well ...... come a little closer and check out the background paper I used. I actually put my dictionary onto my copy machine and made a copy of the page that had the word "resolution" on it. I actually used some Crystal Effects to highlight that word on my tag too. CUTE NO?

I stamped and cut up six of my favorite veggies ...... I colored them in with my Copic Markers and added each of these veggies to a small punched tag. Here are the Carrots and Peas .... YUM!

Tomatoes and Corn ....... more YUM!

And EggPlant and Peppers ......... SPICY YUM!

I love how this Theme Card challenge came together and even though I don't like making New Year's Resolutions - Somehow this one was Okay to do.

Thanks for joining me today - I've signed up for a Message Board Class that is being offered at my Real Deals store here in Tucson today. The class sounded SUPER FUN and I thought I could use the break from making all my Stamp Camp packets ...... so I'm off to that class this afternoon. Hope you can come back tomorrow and join me when I'll be sharing that project with you. Keep Living Your Dream!

Dedicated To Opal

2012-01-13T01:00:00.002-07:00

Happy Friday My Blogger Friends!

It's the weekend and that means it's time to KICK BACK and ENJOY yet another fabulous weekend with Family and Friends.

So today ...... I want to start my blog off thanking the many kind things my family and friends did yeterday for Jack's birthday. WOW! He had a wonderful birthday and it was filled with FOOD ...... chocolate cake (thanks Debbie, Eddie and Kris) ......... more cupcakes (thanks Karen) ..... phone calls, mail and email wishes (you seriously all know who you are!) ........ and more food (thanks Nancy, KP and Bob). I was able to spend the ENTIRE DAY with Jack and we had a wonderful day connecting and playing - SUPER FUN!

But now it's back to reality and the everyday grind of it all (don't you just love routine?). So today I thought I would bring you a fabulous card that was inspired by my stamping buddy Opal. Opal gave me a card in December for my Crafternooners swap that used the following card recipe and after I made Opal's December Crafternooners card ...... I knew that I would be using that same layout when I set out to make my January Challenge card for my SaddleBrooke Stampers group. Check out my card for today ........

The original recipe that Opal shared with me was pink and green - and my challenge card for January required me to create a Blue card. I was also challenged to use a pre-stamped snowflake image and Opal's recipe allowed me to just cut the snowflake out and mount it directly to the center panel of my card.

This image was pre-stamped by Ann LaPerre and was given to us as part of our Challenge Card packet. All I did was cut her stamped image out and I added a center circle layer that was stamped with Night of Navy ink and punched out with the help of a 1-1/4" circle punch.

The AWESOME TECHNIQUE that Opal shared with me for this card was the pok-a-dot image that was stamped on Bashful Blue cardstock. All I did was use the eraser end of a pencil and dipped that into some Versamark ink and then dabbed the eraser onto my Bashful Blue cardstock. It created a wonderful watermark image on the cardstock and it was super EASY-PEASY to do. SERIOUSLY FOLKS.......DOESN'T IT LOOKS LIKE DSP? I LOVE this technique and plan to use this technique in many upcoming card projects in 2012.

I love how amazing the snowflake image looked after I cut it out and popped it with some Stampin' UP! dimensionals ....... OH SO PRETTY!

The end result was a beautiful card that met all the requirements of my friend Ann LaPerre's SaddleBrooke Stampers Challenge card for January. AND......I owe it all to Opal for sharing not only the recipe for this card - but also her amazing watermark image technique. THANK YOU OPAL for sharing with me. I hope as you read this - you are enjoying the SUN and FUN that comes with being in Hawaii. You are one lucky duck to be in Hawaii right now - ENJOY!

I'm off to go get my Stamp Camp packets put together for next Wednesday's Stamp Camp. I have lots to get done and starting to feel the pressure of getting 'er done in time. Wish me LUCK! I'll be back tomorrow to share my January Theme Card with you.......Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

It's Someone's Birthday

2012-01-12T01:00:00.113-07:00

It's January 12th and that means one thing ........

It's Jack's Birthday today!

Today is Jack's 79th Birthday - and I plan to totally Spoil my big guy with all his favorite things. I'll start out with a nice big cup of espresso ...... along with the morning newspaper ...... I'll add his favorite blankie that has been warmed up in the dryer to take the chill off him when he wakes up. I also have plans to take him up to Starbucks later in the morning to enjoy a Sourdough roll and an espresso drink . Our lunch will be spent at our clubhouse ...... and then we have plans to have Italian for dinner with my girlfriend and a couple of friends from Wisconsin. Now that sounds like a JAMMED PACK and FUN DAY!

So I knew that Jack's last tag really needed to PACK A PUNCH ....... So I prepared a special birthday wish for Jack with 17-cupcakes that each have been decorated with a special birthday message ......... "Happy Birthday Jack" on chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. SERIOUSLY his favorite cake combination.

Here's a picture of all 12-tags that made up Jack's 12-Day's Till His Birthday project. Is this CUTE or WHAT? I would like to THANK my good buddy OPAL for providing me with this project idea. Even though it was intended to use as the 12-Days Before Christmas - I was able to switch it up and make it into a 12-Days Till Jack's Birthday project with NO PROBLEMS!

This was a fun little project that not only made Jack smile ..... but also reminded Jack that I am THRILLED to be sharing my life with him and that I LOVE HIM to pieces.

Happy Birthday Jack!

It's because of you that ...... I'm Living My Dream.

CraftJunkieTooDesignTeamPost

2012-01-11T01:00:00.112-07:00

Happy Happy Wednesday My Blogger Friends and I have LOTS to cover today so please stay tune.
First up ....... Our fearless leader Tracy at CraftJunkieToo (http://www.craftjunkietoo.com) asked her Design Team Member (that would be ME!) to create a project that represents COLD and use cold colors and images ..... so ...... here's what I created ......

I grabbed my Big Shot and the Box Number 2 Die and cut out two of these boxes with some Brushed Silver Cardstock.

I achieved that look and feel of "COLD" to my Number 2 Box when I grabbed my SnowBurst Textured Impressions Folder and used that folder only on the center section of my box. I used Sticky Tape to adhere both of my boxes together - Creating a fun little tote holder that I was able to fill full of yummy Coffee for Two.

I layered two tags together to create my FUN gift tag!

All that I had left to do was fill my holder with some yummy Starbucks VIA packets and add a packet of shortbread cookies. BUT WAIT ......coffee just wouldn't be complete without a sampling of super yummy "CHOCOLATE" and these chocolate covered cherries were just what I was looking for.

Here's a closer look at my constructed tote. I added a sparkly snowflake to all four sides and finished it all off by wrapping the tote with a retired piece of Brocade Blue Ribbon.

All the pieces combined makes me want to grab some hot water and a couple coffee mugs and curl up on the sofa and pop a movie in and RELAX!

The VIA coffee packets will surely warm up anyone who might have spent a little too much time out in the cold.

I'm thrilled with the way this little treat caddy turned out. It was a Super quick and Super fun project that came together pretty quickly. Hope my favorite friends back in Wisconsin enjoy this little caddy ......... as the weather is getting colder and the only thing that might need to be changed up is to switch out the coffee and make my next caddy with hot chocolate.

Please head over to Tracy's blog (http://craftjunkietoo.com) to link up to all the rest of my fellow CJToo Design Team Members.

With only two days left till Jack's birthday - Today I want to share the Tenth Day till Jack's birthday with you............

Here is Jack's birthday tag for today .......

And I will be surprising Jack with a nice homemade dinner tonight. I plan to make one of his all time favorite dinners - Smoked Sausage and Cabbage - Guaranteed to make him smile BIG!

So that's it for today - Many thanks for joining me today ...... I'll be back tomorrow to share Jack's last Birthday tag with you - and hopefully I will have time to share some Kards by Kadie creations with you too. Keep Living Your Dream!

Third Day Till Jack's Birthday and MORE......

2012-01-10T01:00:00.035-07:00

Today I'm running around like a CHICKEN with MY HEAD CUT OFF! (why do people say that line - SERIOUSLY ..... I'm not a farm girl, but I can only image what that statement might look like and I'm sure it isn't a pretty picture. But wait ....... guess my running around doesn't post the prettiest picture either) ....... So, todays post is going to be all about JACK ...... I'm going to share the Third Day till Jack's Birthday Tag with you .......

With only three more days to go till Jack's birthday I'm putting the pressure on to give Jack all his favorite things. Today ....... I'm leaving him an EGG - because one of Jack's all time favorite things to eat is a Fried Egg Sandwich.

So here's his birthday tag along with his egg. I'll have Jack cash in today for one fried egg sandwich before Trivia ........ I SERIOUSLY know he is going to love this gift.

Before I go - I want to share with you a fun little peek at what I created for my CraftJunkieToo Design Team Post that I'll be posting tomorrow ......

Let's just say ....... It represents COLD (WHAT ..... Isn't that (Kadie's FAVORITE) Starbucks Via Coffee??????) and the project also uses cold colors. Guess your just going to have to pop back tomorrow to see what I've created. Hope you can join me. Keep Living Your Dream!

12-Days To Birthday Cont'd

2012-01-09T01:00:00.021-07:00

Happy Monday My Blogger Friends! I'm back to share more of the 12-Days to Jack's Birthday tags with you. Let's start out with the Eighth Day till Jack's Birthday.......

On the Eighth Day till Jack's Birthday - I wrapped up five little peanuts in a mesh bag and left them with Jack's tag.

The little mesh bag was perfect for securing these five little peanuts for Jack (he loves peanuts and I thought it might be a fun little way to give him this little treat).

And here is Jack's 7th Day till his Birthday tag .......

And on the 7th Day till Jack's Birthday ...........It was a Friday and knowing Jack LOVES LOVES LOVES Friday Night Fights ......... I knew that this tag had to be created to help cheer his guy on to victory.

On the 6th Day till Jack's Birthday I created this fun tag.........

And his treat for today was a couple special apples. Why apples you ask ........To help keep the doctor away!......

That brings us to the Fifth Day till Jack's Birthday and here is his cupcake tag for today .........

And today Jack is received 8-yummy cookies for his special treat.

This is the Fourth Day till Jack's Birthday and I was looking for something relaxing and calm ......

So I gave Jack an hour of rest in the sun........

So ..... here's a glimpse of what the tags look like so far ..........

And with the final three days till Jack's birthday approaching - I'll post those on the actual day that Jack is getting his tag. Since Jack is one of my biggest fans - I just know if I post those final three days now - he will see them and that will spoil the surprise for him. SO.......I'll be back tomorrow to share the Third Day till Jack's Birthday along with a little Kards by Kadie creation. Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Mini Magazine Holder Directions

2012-01-08T01:00:00.309-07:00

Happy Sunday to all My Fellow Blog Friends and a SPECIAL HELLO to all the blog followers of my good friend Mary Fish and StampinPretty. I have been OVERWHELEMED (in a good way!)with email messages regarding the directions for the Mini Magazine Holder that Mary posted on her blog Saturday. It appears that many of you were having some difficulties reading my directions that I previously posted.

So I decided to post this rather LONG blog post today ...... in an attempt to help you recreate this fabulous little Mini Magazine Holder. Since I don't have video ability - I'm going to try to go through these directions Step-by-Step and include some photo's of what exactly I'm trying to accomplish. Hopefully ... the following directions will be all you need to make this project. SO.....Let's get this PARTY STARTED......

REMEMBER: You can click on any of the pictures to make the image LARGER - if you are having trouble reading the details of the pictures.........
Step 1: Start with a 8" x 8-15/16" piece of cardstock. (I started out with plain white cardstock and created a pattern/guide that I'm able to use over and over again each time I wanted to make this little cutie. This also gives me the opportunity to make mistakes on the plain white sheet of cardstock and not use up any of my favorite cardstock or DSP with a ton of mistakes that I might make with wrong measurements or score placements.)

Step 2: On the 8" side SCORE your cardstock at 4-11/16" and 3-5/16".
Below is a picture of what those score lines will look like. Those score lines are marked as black dotted lines:

Step 3: On the 8-15/16" side SCORE your cardstock at 1-1/2" and at 4-3/4". (The black dotted lines below are those score lines.)

Step 4: On those score lines that you just made in Step 3 - make a cut on both ends of those score lines up to the 4-11/16" and 3-5/16" score line intersection.

This picture shows you what those cut lines look like when the flaps are folded up. (Picture is merly making an attempt to show you a little clearer the CUT LINES you will be making in this section)

Step 5: Cut off 1/4" off from both flaps that are in this center section. (You will want to remove this 1/4" section so when you go to fold in your flaps - the ends tuck in and form the side panel of your magazine holder - This will make sense in Step 13.)

This picture above shows where I have cut off 1/4" from each end of this section.

Here's a close-up of what that 1/4" piece looks like that you will be cutting off.

Step 6: You will now make the sides of your holder and these will actually take on the look of flaps when you move on to Step 13 and begin building your side walls of your holder.

Score at 6-1/4" and also at 1-1/2" (only make the score lines in this center panel section. Don't start at the top of your cardstock and make your score line all the way up your cardstock. You will only be scoring in this little panel section that I have the yellow post-it-notes indicated below).

Step 7 : You are now going to cut the angle line for the shape of your mini magazine holder. You will measure down 2-1/2" and put a tick mark with a pencil (this will help you position your paper into your trimmer for cutting purposes) and you will also measure in 2-1/4" across the top and put a tick mark with a pencil (this again will help you position your paper into your trimmer for cutting purposes).

Step 8: Now using a ruler - draw a line from your 2-1/4" tick mark down to your 2-1/2" tick mark. (You will use this as a guide for your next step)

This next picture will show you that I have cut off the right hand side of my holder already and now I'm ready to cut off the left hand side. I have positioned my cardstock in my paper trimmer and I'm ready to cut.

Step 9: Here's what your cardstock will look like after you have used your trimmer to match up your tick marks and you have made your two cuts. You will have formed the angles to your holder.

Step 10: With all the above steps completed ...... Your cardstock should look like this:

You are now ready to begin assembling your Mini Magazine Holder.......

Step 11: Apply Sticky Tape to all FOUR flaps as pictured below. I have marked where your Sticky Tape goes in RED! (DO NOT PUT STICKY TAPE on the middle flap section as this is going to be the center of your Magazine Holder - and ultimately be where your 3"x3" note cards will be going)

Step 12: FLIP your Magazine Holder over and apply Sticky Tape to the two outer flaps on the reserve side of your Magazine Holder. (the picture below has the Sticky Tape marked in RED.)

Step 13: Go ahead and FLIP your Magazine Holder back over so you are working from the side that has Sticky Tape applied to the four flap sections........You will now begin assembling your Mini Magazine Holder.

REMOVE the redline backing off the two left hand side flaps and.........
Start out by folding up your 1-1/2" bottom flap section and begin securing your flaps that have sticky tape to this bottom flap section. Do this one side at a time.

Fold over the last flap on the left side and press the two layers of cardstock together.

By doing this one side at a time - you eliminate your Sticky Tape from being exposed and possibly sticking to something you don't want it to. You have succesfully secured your 1-1/2" flap over and built the left hand side of your holder.

This picture show how the left hand side of your Mini Magazine Holder has been secured and you are now ready to move on to doing the right hand side.

Repeat the process from above and secure your Sticky Tape on the right hand side of your holder.

This picture shows the last flap on the right hand side being folded over and securing itself into place.

You have now completed both walls of your Mini Magazine Holder and will be ready to complete the final steps of your holder next.

Start out by removing the redline packing to the last two Sticky Tape sections that you have on the inside walls of your Mini Magazine Holder. You are now ready to move on to Step 13 - the final step of your Mini Magazine Holder.

Step 14: With your sticky tape removed (again - I would suggest doing this one side at a time - so you don't have Sticky Tape exposed on both sides at the same time - which could cause in error something getting stuck before you intend for it to get stuck.)

Slide your angled top section down to meet the wall that has Sticky Tape exposed and adhere that flap to form the wall of your magazine holder.

Here is what it's going to look like once you have it secured and pressed into place.

Repeat the above process to the Right hand side of your Mini Magazine Holder.

Your Mini Magazine Holder should now have both sides secured and all that is left to do is decorate your Holder.

Step 15: You can now decorate the front......back.....and outside flaps of your Magazine Holder with DSP and Ribbon. The sky is the limit to however you want to decorate this little cutie.

Fingers Crossed ....... This is what your Mini Magazine Holder should end up looking like.

I added four decorated 3"x3" note cards to my holders, which makes for a perefect little gift. Thse are SUPER FUN to make and once you get the first one made ..... you'll have a template ready to just blast these off in no time flat. TRUST ME.......the second one comes together sooooo much faster. Why not make a bunch of these up and have them on hand for when you need a last minute gift for that someone special. They seriously make a for a great gift.

WELL ...... First of all ..... Let me say .... THANK YOU for staying with me till the end. WOW! And secondly ........ If ever there was a reason to investigate purchasing a video camera it would have been after finishing these instructions. I am SO SORRY I did not have a video available - but I think with my written text and the help of some pictures ..... and a good old fashion PRAY ..... I'm confident that you will be able to complete this project with no problem. Give a yell back if you need any clarification on any of the steps I have listed - I'll work with you to get you through making this holder for sure.

Many THANKS to Mary Fish for sharing this project with all her blog readers......and for all of you for visiting my blog - and I'm hoping you come back from time to time and visit - and even drop me a comment to say HI! I'll be back tomorrow to share more of my 12-Days till Jack's Birthday with you ....... Keep Living Your Dream!

12-Days To Birthday

2012-01-07T01:00:00.058-07:00

Happy Saturday My Blogger Friends! I have a super fun share for you today ...... It's a special little treat that I started on January 1st for Jack's birthday. He will be celebrating his 79th birthday on January 12th and I wanted to do something special for him this year and decided to do a 12-Days of Birthday for him. (Kind of like the 12-Days of Christmas.......but do it specific for his birthday.) Here's what I've given him so far........

I started out by pulling 12-tag envelopes that I bought at Hobby Lobby while on vacation last summer (I would like to think I purchased these with a plan in mind ...... but honestly ..... I just thought these were so stinkin cute that I couldn't just leave them behind). I pulled out my trusty Cricut and my all time favorite DoodleCharm cartridge and began making 12-cupcakes to decorate the front of each of the 12-envelopes I was planning to give to Jack. I also pulled out the "Happy Birthday" stamp from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set and stamped that birthday wish on the bottom of each of the 12-envelopes.

I made 12-colored tags to slide into each of the envelopes and printed out on the computer a special birthday message for each day I was presenting one of these to Jack. I began the first day with the 12th Day till Jack's birthday message and each day after I just started counting down to Jack's birthday. As you can tell ..... the first day I gave Jack a loaf of bread and a trip to Starbucks to enjoy a morning cup of espresso along with his yummy bread. HE LOVED IT!

On the 11th Day of Jack's Birthday I decided since the Badgers were playing in the Rose Bowl, I would give him the all time perfect gift .........

He was able to cash in on the house to himself for the entire afternoon (I ran up to the Ranch and scrapbooked with my girlfriends - so he could watch the game without any interruptions).

On the 10th Day till Jack's Birthday I knew exactly what was in store for him ....... It was the first Tuesday of the new year and that meant we were back to playing Trivia ..........

I wrapped up a package of Trivia questions and had him bring those with us when we went up to have coffee at Starbucks.

On the 9th Day of Jack's Birthday it was time to cash in on some chocolate ........

I left Jack four Hershey Kisses to remind him how special he is to me.

I leave you today with a sneak peek of what's still to come as I prepare to share the 8th Day of Jack's Birthday with you tomorrow......Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Thank You Cards Received

2012-01-06T01:00:00.008-07:00

Happy Happy Friday My Blogger Friends. What a crazy busy week this has been - Hope you'all are back into the swing of "normal" and getting settled into 2012. Have had lots of people drop me a line asking me if I heard any news on the Paper Crafter's Library Design Team ...... and it's with much sadness to report that I didn't get accepted for one of the four spots that Andrea opened up. Not having video technology was one of the biggest things that held me up. I would like to give a BIG YAHOO to the four lucky ladies that took home the prize. They each will make a great addition to the Paper Crafter's Library Team and I wish them GOOD TIMES and lots of FUN as the new Paper Crafter's Library Design Team members. WELL DONE LADIES!

For my share today, I have three thank you card I received from my grandkids and from a girlfriend. Let me start out by sharing this thank you card that MY DAUGHTER MADE.......HOLY BUCKETS FRIENDS. She made it. My daughter is a fabulous scrapbooker and now she has crossed over to making cards. AWESOME JOB Cheryl!

She must have made these at one her last scrapbook retreats ....... and I think she did an amazing job with layering a couple circles and adding a center banner piece across her base card - well done Cheryl - WELL DONE!

Next up is my priceless card from my younget granddaughter Brooke (a.ka. Doll Baby). She took a plan storebought card and turned it into a piece of art on the inside...........

and she hand wrote me (and her PopPop) this wonderful thank you message on the inside of her card. Many THANKS Doll Baby for sending me this card - I've got it tucked away in your Baby Book for safekeeping!

And my last (but not least) card is from my dear dear friend Lonnie. I am always blown away when someone takes the time to send me a handmade and handwritten thank you card.......Lonnie gave a WOW Factor to me when I opened this card.

The real magic was on the twill tape that Lonnie had stamped a "thank you" message directly on to the tape and then with the help of a couple mini safety pins - she attached it directly to her gorgeous blue card. TOTALLY AWESOME Lonnie and many thanks for sending it my way.

I'm off to go play with a couple girlfriends this morning - and then I'm going to play the rest of the day with my new product from the Stampin' UP! Mini Occasions catalog. Hope you have a fabulous day and can come back tomorrow when I'll be sharing a fun little treat that I've made for my Jack for his upcoming birthday. Keep Living Your Dream!

New Year's Eve Popper

2012-01-05T01:00:00.025-07:00

Happy Happy Thursday My Blogger Friends. Today I have a fun little project to share with you - It's one that I handed out on New Year's Eve to my neighbors and friends to help celebrate the New Year. Check this AWESOME and SUPER FUN New Year's Eve Popper that I made .......

I realized at 5:30a.m. on the morning of December 30th ....... that I had totally forgotten to make a New Year's Eve treat for my neighbors and friends and went into FULL PANIC MODE! (I actually looked like a chicken with my head cut off as I flew out of the hot tub and went SCREAMING past Jack in an attempt to get into my studio ...... I seriously think that if nothing else ...... Jack stays with me for the PURE ENTERTAINMENT of what I'm going to do next that I provide for him!) Actually - after only a few minutes - I knew exactly what I was going to make for my friends.

I grabbed my Stampin' UP! BigZ Candy Wrapper Die and began cutting out the candy wrapper and constructing these ADORABLE New Year's Eve Poppers. (I'm still not convinced that what I used this die for wasn't what someone was thinking when they constructed this die.......)

With the help of my laptop and faithful printer - I was able to zip the oval tag out in no time. All that I had left to do was add some chocolate to the inside - add some ribbon and tullee to the ends of each of the toppers and ...... well ...... I was DONE (well ..... almost done ..... I only had to make 20 more).

I ended up making three too many of these poppers and realized that they looked super cute all clustered together and hung frm my studio door ...... I was now all set out to bring in the New Year at the Fisher/Labadie residence.

I made three different colored poppers but they all held the same candy surprise on the inside (wink wink). I took off on New Year's Eve morning at the crack of dawn and deliveried these to my neighbors and close friends of SaddleBrooke.

Hope you'all had a fabulous New Year's Eve - It was pretty low-key at our house ...... We ended up watching a couple Marx Brothers movies (what would New Year's Eve be without DUCK SOUP) and some of us were asleep at the stroke of midnight and other woke up from their nap just before the stroke of midnight to bring in the New Year ...... (any quesses who was the one that woke up........).

Happy New Year My Blogger Friends and I'll be back tomorrow to share some Kards by Kadie creations that I've been working on since the first of the year. Hope you can come back and join me for my Friday share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Gail's Thank You Card

2012-01-04T01:00:00.009-07:00

Happy Wednesday My Blogger Friends - Today I want to share a fun little thank you card I received from my stamping buddy Gail. Check out this super fun card ........

Gail took a piece of Whisper White cardstock and with the help of a CuddleBug Snowflake Embossing folder she created an amazing front panel for her thank you card. But the real WOW FACTOR to Gail's card appeared at the top portion of her card - Check this out .......

Gail took mini cupcake holders and flattened them out and layered them across the top of her card to create this SUPER FUN and SUPER CREATIVE accent piece as a card topper. How BRILLIANT was that? Using something like a cupcake holder to create an amazing focal point for a card is truly thinking OUTSIDE THE BOX. WELL DONE GAIL - WELL DONE!

I also was WOW'ed when I saw the cute little snowman that Gail cut out to add as an accent piece to her "Thanks So Much" scallop sentiment. SERIOUSLY LOVE THIS CARD GAIL and appreciate you taking the time to make me such a wonderful piece of art.......Needless to say - Your card has found the perfect spot on my upper cabinet in my studio.

Many Thanks for stopping in today . Tomorrow I have a fun little New Years Eve Popper to share with you ....... I gave these out on New Year's Eve to my SaddleBrooke neighbors and friends ..... and I will share those with you tomorrow. Hope you can join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Couple More Christmas Cards

2012-01-03T01:00:00.056-07:00

Happy Tuesday My Blogger Friends and today I have a couple Christmas Cards to share with you - First up is a fun little card I received from my BFF.

I think my favorite Christmas Cards are those that have traditional colors of red and green. That is what attracted me to this fun little card that Jan made. Don't you just LOVE all the lined up Christmas Trees?

Jan even took the time to run her Whisper White cardstock through a snowflake embossing folder. Totally makes for a fabulous background!

I love everything about this card and can seriously see CASEing this card for next year. Many Thanks Jan for my lovely Christmas Card - I really LOVE IT!

I also want to share with you a few Christmas cards that I pulled together. I got the A2 card idea from watching a video that Dawn from Michigan had on her blog.

The little 3"x3" snowflake card idea came from the tags I created for our SaddleBrooke Stamper Tag exchange this year. I simply punched out the Stampin' UP! snowflake in the center of a 3"x3" card.

I added some silver Krylon Pen to the edge of my card and added some white Organza Ribbon to the top of my card and called this one done!

A small silver glimmer brad was added to the center of the snowflake and I used these for some of my last minute gifts that I handed out.

My A2 card is a CASE from Dawn in Michigan and it's simply a panel of Bashful Blue added to the center of my Whisper White Cardstock. I added the punched out snowflake from the 3"x3" cards above and adhered that to the bottom portion of this card.

Of course glitter just had to be added to the snowflake and a silver glimmer brad was adhered to the center of my snowflake.

A pretty piece of White Organza ribbon was added to the top portion of the Bashful Blue cardstock and I stamped a Happy Holidays sentiment to the top of my card. DONE! These came together so quickly and make for a very pretty Holiday card.

Thanks for joining me today - I'll be back tomorrow to share with you a fabulous little Thank You card I received from one of my SaddleBrooke friends - Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Jan's Little Christmas Gift

2012-01-02T01:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday My Blogger Friends and today is a very special day in the Fisher/Labadie household ....... Today is the Rose Bowl and ........ YOU GOT IT ......The Badgers are playing in sunny California. I will be heading up to the Ranch today to spend the day scrapbooking while Jack enjoys the entire house to himself to watch the Rose Bowl Game.

GO BADGERS!

My share today is a cute little number that my BFF gave me right before Christmas. I arranged to take Jan and her husband Nick down to the airport a few days before Christmas (they were heading back to Colorado for the holidays) and while we were heading to the airport Jan handed me this adorable little package.

Of course the most adorable part (so I thought) was this fabulous pink flower which was decorating the front of my package. OH SO PRETTY - and OH SO ME! But to my surprise - the real WOW was on the inside of the package.

Jan started out with a small brown lunch sack - folded the lunch sack over and stitched the sides of the sack to create a charming little pocket sack. She then stamped this amazing little vintage tag number - which she inserted into the pocket that was created by folding the bag over. The 3-D butterfly is so darn cute and a simple double stamping of the butterfly and some dimensionals brought this pretty in pink butterfly to life.

But SERIOUSLY ......... the real SURPRISE and WOW was when I reached inside the back pocket and pulled out this A*D*O*R*A*B*L*E PINK calculator. OH MY GOSH GIRLFRIEND ....... talk about a real WOW FACTOR. I LOVE IT!

It's PINK ...... It SPARKLES ........ and it's totally ME!

Here's a close-up of the cute little pocket bag that Jan created ........ And all from a plan brown lunch bag. Jan never stops amazing me with her talent and her sense of creativity. WELL DONE JAN!

I seriously love this little number and can't thank Jan for thinking of me and creating this fun little gift for me.
I'll be back tomorrow to share a fun little Christmas card that my BFF made for me...... Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FRIENDS!

2012-01-01T01:00:00.057-07:00

Happy New Year Friends!

It's 2012 and the beginning of yet another year - have you made your new year resolutions?

Mine are the same as last year ......continue to be kind - share with others and ALWAYS do good.

(These are some pretty simple things to live by and by renewing them every year ..... I'm not disappointed that I didn't achieve my goals when I reflect back at the end of the year!)

My card share for today are the cards I received from my Crafternooner gals for December. First up is Opal's card. I have plans to use this card layout to help build up my card stash. I simply LOVE the layout and can see this to be used for many other occasions.

Our challenge this month was to Watercolor on watercolor paper and our colors were PINK (YIPPIEEE!) and Green. So ..... Opal had us watercolor this darling flower and then cut it out and it got adhered to our card. Opal also had us take a VersaMark pad and tap the eraser end of a pencil in the VersaMark and then create dots all over our three green background panels (HOW BRILLIANT IS THAT?).

The sentiment was stamped on a Pretty in Pink oblong piece and mounted onto a Nestability Label and backed with a scallop circle that was cut in half - which allowed us to put one half on the top of the label and the other half on the bottom portion of the label. Simply LOVE this card! Many Thanks Opal for sharing this awesome card with me.

Next up is my December swap card. I stamped the Manhattan Flower onto watercolor paper and then embossed the flower with white embossing powder. The flowers were then watercolored with the help of Rose Red and Pretty in Pink reinkers. LOVE that no two roses turned out alike - Much like no two roses are the same in our gardens.

The white embossing powder allowed the reinker color to stay within each petal portion of the rose when we used our Aqua Painter Brush to deposit the color directly to our rose petals.

Love stamping extra roses and having them on hand to color in - the roses make for beautiful sympathy cards along with every day thinking of you cards.......which you can never have too many of these cards.

Next is the card that Berta made for me. When I opened this card up - I knew without even looking who created this card. It screams "BERTA" to me. Her colors and styles are written all over this card.

The flower image that Berta picked for her card is so beautiful and Berta did an amazing job of watercoloring her image in.

And I love the background patterned paper that Berta used ....... OH SO PRETTY and OH SO ELEGANT. Many thanks Berta for sharing this lovely lovely card with me.

And last I have Jan's card to share with you. Jan did a watercoloring technique on glossy cardstock and her image is like magic when you tilt and turn her card.

Jan also added a sript background image across the front of her card - thus giving her card just one more level of WOW!

LOVE how Jan colored her flowers (the pink is SO ME!) and this card is a perfect example of the amazing work that Jan does. THANK YOU Jan for sharing your card with me - AND - someday soon we are going to have to meet up in your new studio and recreate this card......You set the date and I'll be there girlfriend.

Many Thanks for sharing a portion of your New Year Day with me - I'm off to go play the day away in my studio ........ Have lots of projects I would like to check off my "to do" list and there is no better day than New Year's Day to get those things done.

I'll be back tomorrow to share a few last minute Christmas cards I received - Hope you can come back and join me for that share .......Enjoy Your Day and ....... Keep Living Your Dream!

Santa Pants and Gift

2011-12-31T01:00:00.056-07:00

Happy Happy Saturday My Blogger Friends - Well ...... It's the last day of 2011 and all I can say is ....... Where the HECK did the year go? I remember the very beginning of the year - and a part of the summer - but the rest of the year ...... YIKES ......Is this what it's like to get OLD?

Today, I want to share a fun little project that I made for my Stamp Club gals in December. This project was a direct CASE from someone's blog - but I honestly can't remember where I saw it. (If you know who's blog this was originally from - can you please share it in my comments section - I can then do my best to link this back to their AMAZING CREATION) For my project, I took a plan brown lunch bag and cut it down and aded some Real Red cardstock to the front and began decorating it to resemble the center of Santa's suit. This little gift was my little little way of thanking the gals for being part of my first Stamp Club adventure. It all came to an end in December - but not to worry ...... I lined up six ladies (some repeats!) to join me in January to kick off a new 6-month Stamp Camp.

I covered the front and back of my cut down lunch bag with real red cardstock ..... added some black cardstock to the bottom portion of the bag to act as the belt ...... added a square of silver glimmer paper and topped it off with another square of black ....... and added two 1/2" circle of black to represent two of Santa's buttons. TOTALLY CUTE and totally predictable for right before Christmas. I also added a small little gift to the inside of the Santa Bag .......

I took an empty Stack and Store Container (Page 226) and began decorating it with circle punches and retired DSP.

The little snowman is from a retired set - but seriously is one of those snowman stamps that I will probably NEVER retire from my stash.

The inside of the Stack and Store Container has six of the mot ADORABLE gift tags - all decorated and ready to hand out. The back side of the tag has a "To - From" adhered to it.

I used some dimensional puffy paint to decorate all the tags - giving the tags just one more level of dimension and FUN!

I used my Tabletop Paper Cutter to cut up lots of thin stripes of red and white cardstock and then gathered them up and ran the stripes through my crimper to create some fun filler for these adorable Santa Pants.

LOVE how this project turned out and I'm sure that the ladies loved receiving their gift and HOPE they know how much I appreciate their FRIENDSHIP and Business.

Hope you'all have a FUN and HAPPY New Year's Eve. Jack and I will be getting all snug tonight in front of our TV with our JAMMIES and COMFY BLANKIES to enjoy an evening of movies and (for me) NAPS! Whatever you have planned to tonight - enjoy your evening! I'll be back tomorrow to wish you a HAPPY 2012!

Keep Living Your Dream!

December Stamp Camp Part Two

2011-12-30T01:00:00.059-07:00

Happy Happy Friday My Blogger Friends and many thanks for joining me today. Today I will be sharing the last two cards that we made at Stamp Camp in December - Let's JUMP right in .....

This first card up for today is a cheery little "Get Well" card that is sure to make someone smile (well - unless your my good friend Debbie. She doesn't like Butterflies so we substituted HEARTS for her card and the card turned out with SMASHING results).

We used Rose Red, So Saffron and Baja Breeze for our color combination on this card ...... We ran each of those colors through the Big Shot and using the Embosslits Beautiful Wings folder we were able to create a line-up of three butterflies which were diecut and embossed at the same time. OH SO PRETTY! The "Get Well" wishes was stamped using the Perfectly Penned stamp set from Stampin' UP! Our scallop border is from the Tasteful Trim BigZ die that was cut out from So Saffron cardstock.

And our last card was a fun little "thank you" card that used lots of circle layers and the Easy Events stamp set for our focal image. We added a small piece of Calypso Coral Ruffled Ribbon across the bottom of our card and then with the help of the Jewelry Tag punch and the "GO TO" stamp set Teeny Tiny Wishes - we create a fun little banner that attached to our ribbon with a trinket safety pin.

The ladies colored in their flowers with the help of several matching Stampin' Write Markers.

We are nearing the end of the year and I've been busy getting myself organized and settled back into a clean and organized studio to start the New Year out. With several conventions and WAY TOO MANY ROAD TRIPS with my girlfriends - Let's just say ....... I have my work cut out for me!

I'll be back tomorrow to share a fun little gift that I made my Club gals in December ....... Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Paper Crafter's Library Team Submission

2011-12-29T01:00:00.098-07:00

Hi Blogger Friend! I received news that Andrea Walford over at Paper Crafter's Library was looking for 4-6 new paper crafters to join her design team and I knew IMMEDIATELY that this is one team that I would walk over ground-glass to be part of (okay...maybe not walk over - but would seriously think about walking over it in an attempt to be invited to join her design team).

Today, I will be sharing the three projects that represent my best design style which will allow Andrea and her team the opportunity to not only see my design style ...... but also my style of writing. SO ..... Let's get this party started.

First up is the fun project I made for my Grandkids classmates, which was posted on 12/22/11.
(http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1631178639265827936&postID=4904033414463808452)

Having seven little grandkids that I make holiday treats for allows me the opportunity to create fun projects in a BIG WAY. Making 175 (and YES.....You did hear that correctly .... One Hundred and Seventy Five) holiday treats - for them to share with their classmates also keeps me busy and out of trouble to say the least.

To create this little cutie, I went to the Dollar Store and picked up several pairs of red gloves and immediately came home and cut off the fingers to each of the gloves. (The fingertips were going to be used to make the snowman hats) Next I rolled up the fingertips to form a hat and then popped it on the top of a wrapped hersey nugget. (the nugget was wrapped with a white Avery mailing label) I then added the face to my snowman and a pom-pom to the top of the hat and this project was done (well.....almost done ..... I only had to make 22 more of these little cuties to complete Steven's class).

The pink snowman was for Steven's teacher (who by the way - he is in LOVE LOVE LOVE with his first grade teacher ..... but seriously ..... what kid isn't in love with their first grade teacher?).

I think this was my all time favorite treat that I sent out to my grandkids this year.

My second project is by far my favorite papercrafting love and that is cardmaking. This card was featured on my blog 3/26/11 (http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1631178639265827936&postID=7968286123678511649). It spotlights Stamping, using the Big Shot, and some Creative Details that make this an awesome "thinking of you" card.

This card started out as a challenge card from my SaddleBrooke Stampers group. We were given the stamped basket and told to create something.

I stamped the Stampin' UP! Easter Bunny onto chocolate chip card stock and then embossed him with clear embossing powder and cut him out with my paper snips (just love SU paper snips!). I placed my cut out Easter Bunny in the center of my basket and surrounded him with eggs and grass for that little WOW FACTOR he was needing.

I ran my base card through my Big Shot and used the Framed Tulips Embossing Folder to create a super fun frame for my easter basket to be centered in. With the help of a Nestabilities Label Die, I was able to stamp my "Thinking of You" sentiment directly in the center of my diecut label and simply added some Polka Dot Ribbon to each end of my label and secured it to the top of my embossed frame.

I framed my basket with a mat of Whisper White and Melon Mambo carstock and then added several layers of dimensionals to the back of my basket and centered that piece at the bottom of my card.

And what would an Easter Basekt be without Easter Eggs and Grass? So both of these elements were generoulsy added and secured into place.

This card was sent off to a friend back in Wisconsin that is in a Nursing Home - and I just know it must have brighten up not only her day ...... but also her room.

And my last project was posted on 9/7/11 and was a little something I made for each of my grandkids to give out to their Teachers, Principals AND School Bus Drivers at the beginning of the school year. (http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1631178639265827936&postID=6456540902127947437)

Of course I just had to use the new It's a Wrap Occasions stamp set from Stampin' UP! which is the perfect stamp set for this back to school project. This stamp set is designed to be stamped onto White Avery Labels and then the labels are applied directly to your hersey nuggets. You are then left with the most amazing and fun wrapped candy project.

The bus was created with the help of my Cricut and the DoodleCharm cartridge.

And the hersey nuggets lined up perfectly in the small box that I created for my bus.

Of course my grandkids were thrilled to hand these out on the first day of school this year.

Many THANKS to Andrea for allowing me this opportunity to submit my three projects for a possible spot as one of her new Design Team Members. It SERIOUSLY would be an honor to represent myself as a Paper Crafter's Library Design Team member. I'm going to keep my fingers - toes and eyeballs crossed in hopes my work is EXACTLY what Andrea is looking for.

I'll be back tomorrow to share Part Two of my December Stamp Camp cards with you'all.......Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

December Stamp Camp Part One

2011-12-28T01:00:00.002-07:00

Happy Wednesday My Blogger Friends! Today I will be sharing three of the card projects that we made at our December Stamp Camp last week. The first card up is a little 3"x3" card - Made with the Pocketful of Posies DSP and Baja Breeze Cardstock.

The stamp set we used for this card was "A Word for You" and we used Statz-On black ink to stamp that on to a baja breeze cardstock piece and punched out with the small oval punch.

The real surprise came when we added a small punched out piece of whisper white using the eyelet border punch. We added a layer of white bakers twine around the DSP to give a fun little layer to the center of our card.

Our next card used the embossing textured impressions folder (framed tulips) as the base of our A2 card. We stamped our "Teeny Tiny Wishes onto a piece of whisper white card stock and punched the sentiment out with the large oval punch.......we punched a cherry cobbler scallop circle punch and matted our sentiment and attached that piece to our card.

We used the "Easy Events" stamp set to create our focal image and punched that out with our 1-3/4" circle punch. We then started layering our stamped image on to an Old Olive scallop circle punch .... next up was our So Saffron piece that was punched out using a 2-1/2" circle punch ...... and our last layer was a 3" Cherry Cobbler circle.

Next up we made a fun little birthday card. We created the base to our card by running a piece of Brushed Silver cardstock through our Big Shot using the Perfect Polks Dots Textured Impressions folder.

We used the Pretty Postage and Turtle Company stamp sets for our birthday card. The Happy Birthday cake was stamped in Real Red and punched out with the 1" Square punch. We also used the Postage Stamp punch and Scallop Square punch to layer our birthday card image on to. The little party hats were punched out with a 3/4" circle punch and then layered with a 5/8" Circle Punch in Real Read cardstock. We added a small piece of Red Baker Twine around our card and called this one DONE and FUN!

Thanks for joining me today - I'll be back tomorrow to share the last two cards that we made at our December Stamp Camp with you - Hope you can come back and join me. Keep Living Your Dream!

December Stamp Club Projects

2011-12-27T01:00:00.055-07:00

Happy Happy Tuesday My Blogger Friends! Today I have the projects that we made at our December Stamp Club to share with you ....... Let's get started .......

First up was our fun little 3-D project. We used the Candy Wrapper Die to create this fun little Thank You gift.

We used the Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer punch to create a fun flower for the top of our wrapper. And we added the Jewelry Tag punch with a "Thanks so much" message stamped on it

The wrapper itself was secured closed with some pretty 3/8" ruffled ribbon in Calypso Coral.

And we wrapped our Crumb Cake Candy Wrapper with an Old Olive belly band. Our project was stuffed with a mini hersey candy bar (well ..... it was suppose to have a candy bar added ...... but most of the gals ended up eating their candy bar - and I think it was to keep their strength up to continue making the rest of the card projects).

Our 3"x3" card was made with the Build a Blossom stamp set and stamped in Cajun Craze ink.

The Thanks so much flag was created with the Trendy Trees stamp set ........VERY FUN!

To create a little dimension to my flower - I stamped the top layer of the flower with Cajun Craze ink ....... and the bottom petals were stamped off and then stamped onto Whisper White card stock.

And our A2 card was created with the amazing flower stamp set "Flower Fest" We stamped the largest flower onto Rich Razzleberry cardstock with Statz On ink ....... and then we cut out each layer of the flowers and popped each layer up with dimensionals.

We added three different groupings of flowers to our card - and that litle bit of WOW came from using Glimmer Paper and the circle punch from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack.

We used the Scallop Edge Border punch to create a fun little border at the bottom of our card - and we used the Rich Razzleberry DSP from the Bright Collection pack.

I pulled out my Word Play stamp set and stamped the "Imagine The Possibilities" Stamp onto Whisper White cardstock with Rich Razzleberry ink. OH SUCH a LOVELY LOOK for this already FUN CARD!

My Club gals loved these projects and even though it was just a week before Christmas - I think the time we spent together was RELAXING and MUCH NEEDED during the busy holiday season. MANY THANKS CLUB GALS for allowing me to be part of your busy holiday season.

I'll be back tomorrow to begin sharing my December Camp cards with you - Hope you can swing back and join me for that card share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Gift for Opal

2011-12-26T01:00:00.079-07:00

Happy Monday My Blogger Friends! Hope you had a FABULOUS Christmas! I spent the entire day with Jack and my favorite chair in my studio. It was an AMAZING DAY!
Today, I will be heading out with my two good friends Kris and Debbie to do some serious after Christmas shopping.  We are heading to both Joann's and Michael's to see if we can score some deals on any of the new Cricut Cartridges.
As for my share for today ...... I have a sweet little gift that I made for Opal when our Crafternooner group met last Friday.  Check this out ......

My Crafternooners group meets on the 4th Friday of the month. This month .... It was just Opal and myself that met. SO ...... I just couldn't resist making Opal a little something somthing. Here is the fun little bag I handed to Opal when I walked in the door. I actually thought I was being CUTE by re-using the bag that I thought she used for her "Secret Santa" gift exchange with our SaddleBrooke Stampers Group. Turns out it wasn't Opal's bag ...... so the joke was on me (this time)!

I pulled out one of the extra tags I had made for our tag exchange and used that for Opal's gift. The tag was super fast to make ...... I just punched the Stampin' UP! snowflake punch in the center of a Night of Navy tag and ran chunky glitter along the outside edges of my tag and matted it onto a piece of Whisper White cardstock for the base!

The actual gift that I made Opal was designed by Andrea Walford (http://sunnystampingstudio.com) over at Sunny Stamping Studio. Andrea shared how to make this super cute and super fun tag portfolio on her blog about two years ago and I love love love making this portfolio and giving them out at Christmas time. Check it out .......

The portfolio closes up with the help of a scallop flap and a tiny piece of velcro - which secures the flap closed and helps to keep the tag inside the clear envelopes that are on each side of the portfolio.

When you open the portfolio ...... it exposes two pockets that holds the dozen matching tags that I made for Opal.

I mixed and matched the tags to coordinate with the retired DSP used for my portfolio.

I was able to tuck six tags into each of the clear envelope pockets.

And since the envelopes are side loading envelopes ...... the tags stay inside the portfolio instead of falling out the top (which would happen if I had used clear top loading style envelopes).

I had so much fun creating this portfolio for Opal and just know that she will enjoy it.

Please head over to Andrea Walford's blog to find out how to make this amazing little portfolio. If you do head over to her blog ...... allow yourself PLENTY OF TIME to visit ..... I am serious when I say ....... everything she post is worth reading and her "How To" videos are AMAZING!

Tomorrow I will begin sharing the 5-cards that we made at Stamp Camp last Wednesday - So I'm hoping that you can return tomorrow to check those projects out. Keep Living Your Dream!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T04:30:00.026-07:00

Merry Christmas All!

Today is my final day of the Countdown to Christmas Tag gift I made for Jack - Check this gift out.

Today I am planning to make Jack a fabulously YUMMY Christmas Breakfast with all the trimmings. I know this is one breakfast that we both enjoy eating and the rest of the day will be spent hanging out - recovering and watching LOTS of football. GO PACK GO!

I have to say that this Countdown to Christmas Calendar was a super duper gift for my Jack - He waited each morning to reveal that days gift - and loved every single one of his gift.

I'm planning to repeat this gift next year - and hopefully I won't wait till the last minute to begin putting this together ....... Like I did this year.

Thanks for letting me share Jack's Countdown to Christmas Gift with you - I'll be back tomorrow to share a couple more Christmas cards that I receive from some very special friends - Hope you can come back and join me for that share. Merry Christmas Friends and ......... Keep Living Your Dream!

Day 24 and my Christmas Mailbox Gift

2011-12-24T04:30:00.140-07:00

It's Christmas Eve and that means we are nearing the end of my Countdown to Christmas for Jack.

Today's gift is an entire day of watching College Football with not even one single interruption. ENJOY this gift made especially for you Jack!

My post today is a special delivery that I made early this morning to several of my favorite SaddleBrooke neighbors and friends. I created these super fun "Hot Cocoa for Two" pouches and hung them on my neighbors and friends mailboxes as an early Christmas gift for each of them.

The pouches are filled with Hot Cocoa ...... a layer of Chocolate Chips ...... and topped with a final layer of marshmallows. All my friends need to do is open their pouch up and divide the ingredients into two mugs ..... add some hot water and POW ...... instant Hot Cocoa for two.

This scallop circle layer was created to cover the Watson advertisement which was printed on the side of each of the bags. I simply stamped the mug image onto Whisper White cardstock ...... I then added several layers of chocolate colored cardstock to create a scalloped image and then added that scallop circle layer to the side of my bag.

I printed out the instructions onto some Close to Cocoa card stock and then with the help of my trusty Big Shot ....... I was able to die cut out my labels in this fun Nestability label shape.

All I then needed to do was pop the scallop label directly on to the bag with the help of some Stampin' UP! dimensionals.

And here's my treat bags waiting to have their pretty red bow and tag attached to the top of the bag.

It took only a few ingredients to create these fun treat bags ........

The bags were filled with one cup of hot cocoa mix ..... a half cup chocolate chip pieces ..... and a half cup of marshmellows. That's all the ingredients it took to pull these treat bags together!

And here are all twenty treats lined up waiting for delivery!

I just love how this project came together ...... and it reminded me of days gone by. I had actually made this project about seven years ago for my co-workers at the hospital that I worked for back in Wisconsin. The treats were a HUGE HIT back then ...... and I'm sure that my SaddleBrooke friends will be smiling today when they head out to their mailboxes and see this fun little Christmas gift that I made for them. Merry Christmas Friends!

I'm off to enjoy a FULL DAY of PLAY in my studio. I have completed all my Christmas projects and I have met all my Christmas deadlines ......... so for the next 24 hours ....... I plan to RELAX and PLAY!

Hope you have a FABULOUS Christmas Eve and I'll be back tomorrow to share a special Christmas Post with you ....... hope you can come back and join me for that.

KEEP LIVING YOUR DREAM!

Day 23 and Gifts from Sandy and Jan

2011-12-23T04:30:00.063-07:00

It's Day 23 of my Countdown to Christmas Tag gift to Jack .... and today I have an invitation to take Jack over to the Mesquite Valley Growers Nursery.

Your probably thinking it's the middle of Winter and who is going to be heading off to a nursery at this time of year. We live in Arizona and EVERY MONTH is basically a good month to go to a nursey in our state. ENJOY JACK and just tell me when you want to leave and I'll have the car warmed up and ready to GO!

First up for my share today is an AMAZING creation that my friend Sandy made for me (and for all my Club Gals). It's an fun 3-D christmas tree package that hold kisses or nuggets on the inside.

Sandy has embossed all four sides and also added on two of the sides a fun colorful santa image which is popped up with dimensionals.

As you can see from this view - the tree stands on a base - and the opening to the tree is located at that spot. Sandy has added chocolate to the inside of my tree ..... OH WHAT A FRIEND!

This project will SERIOUSLY find it's way to my upper cabinet ...... along with the OTHER projects that Sandy has made for me! MANY THANKS Sandy for thinking of me during this busy holiday season (I know you are babysitting your grandkids and staying busy with the holiday - I'm not even sure how you managed to get six of these project done ...... BUT ..... I thank you for making this fabulous gift for me!).

And next up is a SUPER FAST and SUPER CUTE little gift that my BFF made for me (and my Club Gals last Saturday). She took a Mary Englebright (I know I'm spelling that wrong......) nail file and tucked it into one of the Stampin' UP! cello bags ...... so far so good!

What she did next was add this SUPER AWESOME and SUPER PLAYFUL bag topper to the top of her project. It seriously made me SMILE and I immediately thought ..... "How am I going to copy this ..... and for what holiday will I give it out for"....and yes......my wheels were turning fast enough that I figured out how to copy this for next year!

LOVE how this project turned out - such a simple little gift - but it packs a serious punch ..... because - who seriously can't use a nail file - and one as pretty and cute as this one is without a doubt one that every busy women wants tucked inside her purse. (THANK GOODNESS my daughter isn't close enough to take this away from me - because if she saw it ...... She would be wanting it)

Many thanks for joining me today. I'm connecting with my good buddy Opal today! This is the four Friday of the month and my Crafternooners group gets together today. Even though Jan and Berta are gone ..... Opal and I decided to meet today - which will FORCE us to take a much needed break during this busy holiday season. Should be FUN TIMES with Opal today!

Tomorrow, I will be sharing my Christmas gift that I made my SaddleBrooke friends and neighbors. I'll be out BRIGHT AND EARLY Saturday morning making my mailbox delivery to all of them - can't wait to share that gift with you. Hope you can come back and join me for that share!

Keep Living Your Dream!

Day 22 and Grandkids School Treats

2011-12-22T04:30:00.083-07:00

Today is Day 22 of my Countdown to Christmas gift to Jack .... and today I have one of Jack's and my favorite things to do in the morning ....... I will be taking Jack down to Beyond Bread for an Espresso, Sourdough Roll with Brie Cheese Breakfast. SERIOUSLY his favorite breakfast made for champions!

As MANY of you know ....... I have seven school age grandkids that I make holiday treats for. I started this when my oldest grandson was in preschool and he is now in middle school .... and LONG LIVE the tradition. All is fair in love and grandchildren ..... and my oldest grandson is now joined by six other grandkids that I just can't disappoint not making treats for. SO.....while the kids are still interested in me doing these treats for their classmates ..... I will continue making holiday treats and driving myself half crazy doing it (OH BUT WHAT A WAY TO GO!). That means I make a minimum of 175 treats at each holiday for the kids and typically I try to make a different treat for each of the grandkids. Let me share what I made four of my seven grandkids for their Christmas Treats.

First up is my oldest grandson Jared's treats. Jared is in Middle School and he is SO OKAY with me only making the treats for his teachers. I typically make something BIG for him (as I only have to make 9 treats for him). These are snowman covered full sized Hershey bars.

They are complete with a white cardstock wrapped body (Kerry offered this print out a couple years ago and I still have the template) ..... and I made a red stocking cap out of felt along with a black scarf from felt. SUPER FAST and SUPER CUTE!

Next up is Steven's classmates treats. This project came from my friend Kris - who showed me how to take a $1.00 red glove and cut off the finger tips and fold that piece up and fix it over a hersey nugget to create the snowmans hat.

By adding a pom pom to the top of the cap and wrapping the hersey nugget with a white mailing label - all I need to do was add in a face for my snowman and BAM ..... I called this one done! The pink snowman is for my grandson to give to his teacher (which he is in LOVE LOVE LOVE with).

I made these cello bag candy gifts for my grandson Bodie in California. I put candy treats in a Stampin' UP! cello bag and added a scallop topper and this project was together in NO TIME!

I stamped a Santa image and punched out a couple different cirlces and added those to a scallop circle and adhered those pieces to the top of the cello bag. TOTAL WOW FACTOR which took me VERY LITTLE TIME to create.

And last is my youngest grandson from California Zev. His school does not allow for food treats to be brought into the classroom......so.....this requires me to head down to the dollar store and pick up something like pencils or notepads to create gifts for him to share with his fellow classmates.

I picked up some Christmas/Holiday pencils and put each into a cello bag and created a bag topper for each of the pencils - making for a fun little treat for Zev to share with his fellow classmates.

I got SERIOUSLY LUCKY with my three granddaughters ....... each of them requested I make my Magically Reindeer Food treats for their classmates. This was simply adding oatmeal and red sprinkles to a small bag and adding a bag topper that has a "Magical Reindeer Food Poem" attached to it. The kids sprinkle the reindeer food on their front lawns Christmas Eve night and the red sprinkles help Santa and the reindeer find the kids home on Christmas Eve night. I'm not sure why I didn't take a picture of all 77 of those ..... HOLY BUCKETS ...... at one point I was up to my eyeballs in MAGICALLY REINDEER FOOD.

I'll be back tomorrow to share a couple Christmas gifts I received from some of my club gals - hope you can come back and join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

Day 21 and CJToo Post

2011-12-21T04:30:00.061-07:00

Today's tag for Jack's Countdown to Christmas reveals a full day of relaxing and reading for my BIG GUY. Know he's going to enjoy a full day of reading and relaxing (i.e. means NAPPING) with no explaining why his eyes are closed as he is sitting upright in his rocker recliner.

ENJOY YOUR DAY BIG GUY!

Now for today's share ...... As a design team member for CraftJunkieToo, we were asked by our fearless leader Tracy to share a last minute Christmas Gift Idea that was something simple, easy and fun to put together ..... Here is what I created .......

I made this amazing picture frame hanger for my studio door!

I started out with three small square picture frames from the dollar store ......

I sanded down the frames and then painted them with white acrylic paint ......

I added some sparky (PINK) DSP to the center of each of the frames .......

I then pulled out my Cricut and spelled out J O Y ......

I used the Mickey Font Cartridge to cut out each of my letters ........

And cut each letter out at 2-3/4" in Melon Mambo .......

And selected the blackout feature for the background of each letter.

LOVE how this project turned out .......

And SERIOUSLY - It all came together in a SNAP!

Thanks for joining me today!

I'll be back tomorrow to share some more Christmas cards with you

Hope you can come back and join me for that share.

Keep Living Your Dream!

Day 20 and SW Stampers Gift from ME!

2011-12-20T04:30:00.071-07:00

Happy Tuesday My Blogger Friends and we are counting down Day 20 of Jack's Countdown to Christmas Calendar. Today I have a tag that Jack will seriously appreciate - It's Movie Night at the Fisher/Labadie Household.

Jack LOVES to watch movies in the PM so this one is right up his alley. He can pick the movie and I will supply the blankie!

For today's share - I want to spotlight the exchange gift that I made for my SW Stampin' UP! demonstrators Christmas Party. I made this adorable gift card box that I learned from my fellow SU demonstrator Di Gibbs.

This box has a magnetic closure under the large button and then that flap fold up and the side closure opens to expose a pocket on each side of the inside of the box (which holds the envelopes and the cards).

The pocket on the left hand side is where I tucked the envelopes and the right pocket holds the four matching cards.

And I coordinated the cards with the DSP I used to decorate the box.

Here are the four cards that I made to coordinate with this box.

The right hand pocket is larger than the left hand pocket to accommadate the thickness of the cards. The left hand pocket only needs to hold the four envelopes - so that pocket was made just a tad thinner than the right hand pocket.

Matching DSP was added to the front of each of the inside pockets ...... Making the inside Oh So Pretty!

Here's a look at the inside of the box as it is completely closed up........

And one final look at this charming little card box. Many THANKS to Di Gibbs for offering this amazing class to me - This project turned out SO NICE!

Tomorrow will be a CraftJunkieToo Design Team Project share day. We were asked by our fearless leader Tracy to provide our blog viewers with a Christmas gift that is simple, easy and fun to put together as a last minute Christmas gift giving idea. I am so excited to share what I created with you - Hope you can join me for that share.

Keep Living Your Dream!

Day 19 and SW Stampers Exchange Gifts

2011-12-19T04:30:00.049-07:00

It's Day 19 of my Countdown to Christmas Calendar for Jack ...... and today ......it's all about one of Jack's favorite dinners........

The old saying ...... the fastest way to a mans heart is through his stomach ......TOTALLY TRUE with Jack. And I know ALL of Jack's favorites. This seriously has to be his all time favorite dinner (next to Pork Chops). ENJOY your special dinner dear!

Today, I will be sharing the exchange gifts that my VERY TALENTED SW Stampin' UP! demonstrators made for our Christmas Party last Tuesday. First up is the AMAZING gift that Sue made. Talk about WORK - This is one of those pieces of art that you can just look at OVER and OVER again and be amazed at the work that was put into it. WELL DONE SUE!

I THINK (?????) this picture frame collection was done by Barb - (if one of my demonstrator friends out there knows I've messed up - PLEASE CORRECT ME!). When this frame came out of the bag I just fell in love with it. LOVE this stamp set and think I might just have to make this project one day.

This Tissue Box was made by Karen and the extra special of this gift is that she has embossed all four sides with one of the SU Textured Impression Folders - and I have to tell you ....... You seriously have to see this one in person to appreciate it. She used White Ink over the embossed spots to help make them stand out .....OH SO PRETTY Karen!

I have to say that the theme last Tuesday night might have been picture frames - and this frame was the most sparkly of them all. I also have to admit that I'm totally BLANKING on who made this gift. The lattice and the bird were both die but out using the new Glimmer Paper and the WOW FACTOR that both of these elements packed is SO AMAZING. Nicely done!

Next up was made by my good buddie Mary Fish. She made this adorable notecard and candy holder (3x3 note cards on one side .....envelopes on the other (which the flaps were embossed) and three wrapped pieces of chocolate in the center). Mary used new SU product that will be released in January - and the entire project turned out AMAZING - Mary.....Your work always makes me SMILE!

Next up is this AWESOME picture frame that Cathy Gray made. I seriously have the PERFECT SPOT for this little number to go - but - I didn't win this one. Cathy did an amazing job of lining everything up and adding all the extra little touches (embossing the trees and using vanilla velvet ribbon with bakers twine across the top) to bring lots of texture and dimension to this project. BEAUTIFUL Cathy - simply BEAUTIFUL!

And finally I have this very charming cookie canister that Linda made. She decorated this canister and then made homemade shortbread cookies to stack on the inside of the canister. LOVE how this project turned out and I know for sure that Linda put LOTS of work into decorating the canister and even MORE TIME making the cookies. Know this gift will be appreciate by many Linda.

Thanks for joining me today - I'm off to go play with my girlfriend Debbie today. We are taking a class down at our local scrapbooking store today and then running up to the Ranch to meet up with the Ranch gals to play this afternoon. Our good friend Kris is even going to join us for an afternoon of FUN.......Can't wait! I'll be back tomorrow to share more with you - Hope you can join me.

Keep Living Your Dream!

Day 18 and a GIFT from Mark ......

2011-12-18T04:30:00.041-07:00

It's Day 18 of my Countdown to Christmas Calendar for Jack and today we have UNINTERRUPTED Sunday Football ...... NEED I SAY MORE?

Today I want to share an amazing gift I received from Mark Gray ..... A fellow SW Stampin' UP! Demonstrator friend. We had our Christmas Party this past week and I received Mark's gift in our annual gift exchange - and let me tell you ....... I was BLOWN AWAY with how awesome a gift I receive - Check this out .......

When I reached inside the gift bag, I pulled out this amazing and OH SO CUTE embossed box. BUT WAIT ...... There's more .......

The top flap pulled back to reveal some embossed cards on the inside ...

There were a total of 6-OH SO BEAUTIFUL gold embossed cards along with 6-matching embossed envelopes.

And if all the embossing done on the cards and envelopes wasn't enough ...... the top and sides of the box were also embossed .......

Here's a close-up of the beautiful cards that Mark created. I only wish the picture would have captured all the shine and beauty of these cards - UNBELIEVEABLE!

And just when I thought this gift couldn't get any better ....... Mark also embossed the inside bottom of his box. Now that's what I call a real WOW FACTOR!

Just one more quick look at the cards and envelopes of this amazing creation.

I just love my exchange gift - and appreciate all the hard work that Mark put into creating this very lovely gift box with matching cards and envelopes. Won't be using ANY of these cards - they are going to take a front and center spot on my "SHOW AND TELL" bookcase for all to enjoy. MANY THANKS Mark!

I'll be back tomorrow to share a few more of the gifts that were made and exchanged at our SW Stampers Christmas Gift Exchange - Hope you can come back and join me . I'm spending the entire day preparing for Stamp Camp on Wednesday ....... Have two full classes to prepare for and plan to get 'er done today ...... WISH ME LUCK! Keep Living Your Dream!

Day 17 and a S'mores Gift

2011-12-17T04:30:00.065-07:00

Happy Saturday My Blogger Friends - YIKES - WHERE IS THE TIME GOING! There are only SEVEN more shopping days till Christmas ...... Hope you are winding down and finding some time to relax and enjoy this busy holiday season.

Todays Countdown to Christmas share is a pretty simple and much appreciated gift to my Jack. He LOVES Football and really appreciates the gift of UNCONDITIONAL/GUILTFREE football. Here's my gift to you today dear! Merry to You!

Speaking of Merry Christmas - Check out this ADORABLE Christmas Gift that my good friend Gail gave to me. OH MY GOSH ..... It's the most amazing little "Holiday S'mores" container for TWO!

What Gail made for me is a charming little container that has all the ingredients stacked in a jar that will make Holiday S'mores for Jack and me. The ingredients get emptied into a bowl and mixed together and after adding a 1/2 cup butter and 1 tsp of vanilla, I will spread all of that into a 8" baking pan and bake for 15 minutes at 350degrees.

The only thing I need to do is snip the ADORABLE Snowmen Peeps into little pieces and the rest is just MIX and GO (seriously .... MY KIND OF COOKING!).

I love how Gail has layered all the ingredients into this fun little jar

OH SO PRETTY!

They say that the art of presentation is EVERYTHING ..... Well .....Gail hit this one out of the park!

I love this SUPER FUN little card that Gail attached to the s'mores container - and the card doubles as a Holiday S'mores recipe guide .... Check this next pic out!

Isn't this Holiday S'mores Poem the most adorable thing you've seen?

Without a doubt - GAIL NAILED this one. LOVE LOVE LOVE your gift Gail and only wish I had thought of it first. I know that all the ladies that you deliveried this little treasure to are SMILING BIG and doing a SERIOUS HAPPY DANCE around the Christmas Tree.

Many THANKS Gail for thinking of Jack and me .......

and we will be thinking of you when we enjoy these on Christmas Eve Night!

I'll be back tomorrow to share more Kards by Kadie creations - Hope you can join me!

Keep Living Your Dream!

Day 16 and a Gift to My FU Gals

2011-12-16T04:30:00.063-07:00

Happy Happy Friday My Blogger Friends and today's tag in my Countdown to Christmas will be a super great gift for Jack.....

I have been promising to decorate Jack's office space and it seems like it has fallen to the bottom of my TO DO LIST ...... so now I have committed to getting this project done and hopefully Jack will love the end results. Merry Merry Dear!

Now ..... on with my share for today. I made these fun Tag Portfolio's for my FU group gals and gave them out yesterday at our FU Chritmas Party. We enjoyed some amazing food that was prepared by our one and only Chef Debbie ..... We did a super fun card project ....... and even had time to share our recent Blue Moon Scrapbooking haul with each other. WHAT A BLAST!

This first Tag Portfolio I made was for my friend Kris. I know that her favorite color is red and made this portfolio especially for her. It was originally shared at Andrea Walfords blog last December and is put together with two pieces of cardstock that have two clear envelopes on the inside to hold the tags.

Here's what the inside looks like. I secured two clear envelopes to each side of my portfolio (making pockets that hold the tags) and slid the tags into each of the envelopes. SUPER SIMPLE and SUPER FAST .

And here's a close-up of the tags that were in Kris's Portfolio.

Here's Debbie's Portfolio ........ I know that two of Debbie's favorite colors are Blue and Green ..... So I combined those two colors and came up with a Turquoise color for her portfolio.

Here's the inside of Debbie's Portfolio ......

And here's a close-up of the tags that were in Debbie's Portfolio.

And my last portfolio was made for Ann. I know that Ann likes the color Red .... so this red little number was perfect for her.

Here's the inside of Ann's Portfolio ......

And here's a close-up of the tags that were inside Ann's Portfolio.

Loved making these little Tag Portfolio's for my FU Gals - and want to wish Ann, Debbie and Kris a Very Merry Christmas!

I'll be back tomorrow to share an amazing little gift that I received from my dear friend Gail ..... Can't wait to share this fun little number with you. Please schedule some time to join me tomorrow - You won't be disappointed. Keep Living Your Dream!

Day 15 and a Card from Mary Fish

2011-12-15T04:30:00.134-07:00

Happy Thursday My Blogger Friend!

Welcome to Day 15 of my Countdown to Christmas Calendar to Jack.

Today's tag is an skype session with the grandkids .... And I know you'all might be thinking this is a pretty simple gift to be giving Jack - but as I mentioned a couple days ago - COMPUTERS are the very thing that challenges my Jack - and if I have Skype all ready for him to just sit down and start chatting with the grandkids - NOW THAT'S A GIFT.

Today's card share is from my dear dear friend Mary Fish (http://www.stampinpretty.com). I have to say that Mary Fish is one of those people that is TRUE to her own work ..... And that is mainly because she is uncomplicated and always turned out clean and polished work. SO ..... when I received this card in the mail this past week ...... I knew immediately .... it was a MARY FISH card!

Mary has a way of combining the most untraditional colors and patterns and bringing together LOTS of texture and dimension to her cards. And this Christmas card is yet another excellent example of all of those things.

Love how Mary has taken three different shapes (Circle - Banner and Rectangle) and three different elements of texture (Embossing Folders - Glimmer Brads and Dimensionals) to bring together this one KILLER CHRISTMAS CARD. Many THANKS Mary for making me this Festive and Fun Christmas card. I LOVE IT!

Today is my FU Christmas Party ....... These gals seriously know how to HAVE FUN - so can only image how much fun this Christmas Party will end up being. I'm looking forward to an afternoon of GREAT FOOD (made by Debbie) and FUN STAMPING. WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE!

Tomorrow I'll share the little gifts that I made my FU gals with you ...... Hope you can join me on Friday to check out those gifts. Keep Living Your Dream!

Last Christmas Card

2011-12-14T04:30:00.031-07:00

Happy Happy Wednesday My Blogger Friends and Welcome to My Blog!

Today is Day 14 of my Countdown to Christmas Calendar for Jack and I thought it would be SUPER FUN to take time out of our VERY BUSY schedule and have lunch together. Not sure where we will be going - but do plan to spend some FINE TIME with my guy.

The rest of my day is going to be spent running to Eye Doctor appointments .... Errand .... and my SaddleBrooke Stampers Christmas Party is this afternoon. That means a full day of playing will require me to spend the entire evening checking off things that need to be done on my TO DO LIST in my studio .... TIS THE SEASON!

Today, I have the last card I made last week at my local scrapbook store. I think this "front door" card is probably my favorite card that we created. SUPER EASY and SUPER FAST (and at this time of year .... who doesn't like FAST?).

The panels on the door are just cardstock cut into two different rectangle sizes .... and they are stacked on top of each other with dimensionals.

And the door knob is just an antique brad tucked between the spacing of the two sets of panels.

LOVE how we created this wreath with a super fun Nestabilities die cut and popping the little cardinal into the center......SUPER SWEET! Will probably not send this card out either ...... Will use it as my sample card for my Christmas Cards next year.

Thanks for stopping in today - I'll be back tomorrow to share some of my Kards by Kadie creations with you - Hope you can join me. Keep Living Your Dream!

Another Christmas Card

2011-12-13T04:30:00.022-07:00

Happy Happy Tuesday My Blogger Friends - Today will be a super fast post - as I have a class I'm taking down at my local scrapbook store today .... along with getting my nails done ..... and a fabulously fun Stampin' UP! Christmas Party to go to tonight. It's going to be TIGHT DAY today. Let me start out with sharing my Countdown to Christmas Calendar tag for today:

It's a free ticket to act as Jack's I.T. support person. Now if you know my Jack - You know he's not computer savvy - and he has a fuse that is about an inch long ...... so when things go wrong with his computer ..... he typically makes enough noise that I come a running. This free ticket will encourage him to start yelling SOONER and with less intensity. Merry Merry Honey Bunny!

Today I'm going to share a super fun card I made last week at my local scrapbook store. Check out this Saloon Door Christmas Card.......

The shutters on the front of this card was super easy - basically just stack the slates on top of each other and call it DONE! (Of course it seriously helps when everything is cut up for you and someone just hands you a packet of materials!)

The card opens up to reveal a super fun window frame that has a clear window sheet in front of the frame - giving this card a seriously great look.

I seriously would use a Holiday set from Stampin' UP! next time......and believe me ...... there will be a next time with making this card.

That's it for today - I'm off to get things checked off my list. I forgot that I also have to make a cheesecake for my Christmas Party tonight ....... So I had better FLY and get that done. Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow to share the last Christmas Card I made with you. Keep Living Your Dream!

More Christmas Cards

2011-12-12T04:30:00.007-07:00

Happy Happy Monday My Blogger Friends! Hope you'all had a fabulous weekend - I surely did!
Today I'm going to share a Christmas card I made at my local scrapbook store...but first...It's Day 12 of Jack's Countdown to Christmas Calendar....check this out....

I am giving Jack a complete Pork Chop Dinner (which by the way is his FAVORITE DINNER in the universe.....). I will be cooking up this goodness tonight for him. Merry Merry Honey Bunny!

Now on to my quick share with you......One of the three Christmas cards I made last week at my local scrapbook store. This fabulously cute window card was super easy to make. We used all product found at our scrapbook store - but seriously....I can see using my Stampin' UP! product line for this entire card.

I think my favorite part of this card HAS TO BE this totally over-the-top satin bow!

The window die was a Nestability die and we added a window sheet under it to make it look even more like a window than I had expected........

Have to say that this card is simply beautiful and it probably won't be leaving my studio ..... at least not this year!

Thanks for joining me today - I'll be back tomorrow to share the second card that I made at this card class - I'm hoping that you can come back and join me for that share.

Keep Living Your Dream!

More Christmas Cards

2011-12-11T04:30:00.096-07:00

Happy Sunday My Blogger Friends - It's Day Ten of my Countdown to Christmas and it just wouldn't be a Sunday without a Packer Game playing in our house.

Today Jack has a date with his favorite team ...... In his favorite chair ...... doing what he likes to do on his favorite day of the week ........ WATCH THE PACKERS! Enjoy your Day Honey!

My first card share is from my Stamping Friend Liz. OH MY GOSH Girlfriend ...... what a fabulous card you made for me. You SERIOUSLY put a TON of WORK into this card (with all the embossing you did) and all the gold makes this card a total WOW FACTOR type of Christmas Card!

LOVE how Liz embossed the snowflake with gold embossing powder and created a lovely focal point with a scallop die and even cut the larger scallop out with some beautiful shiny gold cardstock.

And even though it's difficult to see - Liz used a snowflake embossing folder on her white cardstock to create a beautiful snowflake background for her card base. THANK YOU Liz for making me this BEAUTIFUL Christmas Card!

And my last card share for today is from my good friend and fellow FU Crafting Buddy Ann. I have to say that I can only image how much time it took Ann to create this card - It SERIOUSLY is a PIECE OF ART!

LOVE how Ann added a little sparkly look to the brushed gold cardstock for the base of her card - but the real work started with cutting out the light pole image that Ann put on the front of her card - AMAZING WORK just on that piece alone Ann......but it doesn't stop there.......Ann stamped a beautiful winter scene - colored it in - and then cut out the window for the winter scene to peek through on the front of her card. NOW SERIOUSLY ANN......that is beautiful!

If ever there was a card that spoke TRUE WISCONSIN ...... This card did just that. It covers every little thing about Wisconsin ...... The Season ....... The Spirit ...... The Thrill of the Holiday and especially The Joy that comes along with Winter in Wisconsin. MANY THANKS Ann for creating this beautiful card for me - I honestly will treasure this one for a long long time.

Thanks for joining me today - I'll be back tomorrow to jump start the new week - I have more Christmas Cards to share with you - Hope you can come back and joinme for those cards.

Keep Living Your Dream!

Christmas Cards From Friends

2011-12-10T04:30:00.124-07:00

Happy Happy Saturday My Blogger Friends. Today is Day 10 of Jack's Countdown to Christmas Calendar and here is what his gift is for today...........

Being as it's Saturday - it's tradition in our house on Saturday to watch the college teams come together and play football. Today, I have reserved a front row seat for Jack to watch as many college football games as he wants and I'm hoping his favorite teams WIN BIG!

So today I have two cards to share with you ...... First up is a card I received from my dear friend Sandra. She made me this super cute pengiun card and it seriously makes me think of Wisconsin and all the burrrrr and cold that we don't necessarily get here in Arizona.

I love when you open Sandra's card ...... the two pengiuns are looking like they are doing a HAPPY DANCE on the snowflake paper she has put on the inside of her card.

Sandra even added some glitter to the inside of her card........

The real WOW FACTOR was this GIANT snowflake that was die cut out on the front of her card ....... making her card a kind of see through type of card. And I love how Sandra has positioned her two little pengiuns to look like they are peeking out of the center of the snowflake ...... OH SO CUTE! Many THANKS Sandra for sending me this super cute Christmas card.

One of my favorite cards I've received so far is this card from my good Crafternooner Buddy Opal. The attention to detail that Opal gave this card is UNBELIEVABLE! I love how Opal embossed not ony the Stockings ..... but also the frame of her card. The embossed stockings are SO BEAUTIFUL and I simply LOVE the color of green Opal used for her card. I also love the four red brads that opal added to the corners of the frame - this seriously added a beautiful punch of color to her card. I have to say ....... this card made me SMILE BIG when I opened it up.

I love how Opal sanded spots of the stockings and frame to give a special little textured look to her card - It takes on a very aged and distressed look ......... Something so unexpected and something so beautifully done!

And as if the texture of the sanded stockings and red brads weren't enough ....... the sentiment that Opal placed at the bottom of her card is atually made from a tiny piece of metal. Thank You Opal for putting me in the HOLIDAY SPIRIT ......... I LOVE LOVE LOVE your card!

Hope you have some amazing plans for today - I'm going to get the first batch of my Christmas Cards done today - so please wish me luck! I'll be back tomorrow to share round two of the Christmas Cards I've been receiving ..... Hope you can stop back tomorrow and join me. Keep Living Your Dream!

Card from Mary Fish......

2011-12-09T04:30:00.005-07:00

Happy Friday My Blogger Friends and YAHOOOOO it's the weekend!

Hope you'all have some amazing plans - I'm hosting a 31 Purse Party today - YIKES....what I thought was going to be a big old bust....turns out that 15 close friends said they were coming. HOLY BUCKETS FOLKS........Don't think I've ever hosted a party with that many folks coming.....Can't wait to see all the gals and have some FUN on the other side of the table for once.

Let me starts todays share out with Day 9 of Jack's Count Down to Christmas Gift......Check this out:

It's Friday Night and Jack loves to watch Friday Night Fights.....so....Let's get ready to Rumble! Know he will like this one.

Now let's get on with my share for today. One of my dearest friends here in Arizona is the one and only Mary Fish. OH MY GOSH Friends.......She is such an inspiration to me (and many others) and I view her as being a MASTER at paper crafting and she SERIOUSLY can turn an ordinary piece of cardstock into a "WORK OF ART". I also know that EVERY SINGLE TIME I receive a card from Mary - I am going to be WOW'ed with her techniques and her attention to details. The card I'm about to share with you today is NO EXCEPTION.....Check this out.......

Last Tuesday (12/6) was Mary Fish birthday ....... We met up at one of our favorite bakery shops in Tucson for coffee and a roll and when we met, I gave Mary a little gift for her birthday. A couple days later.......I received this amazing Thank You card from Mary.

Mary's card designs are always very crisp and clean......and she ALWAYS turns out the most amazing card design. This card is no exception. Mary used the "Berry Blossoms" DSP Packet (P.185) along with the "Lighthearted" (P35-Mini) Stamp Set. Just love how Mary added several of the "Basic Pearls" (P198) for that little "something something" to make her card a true "Mary" card.

And in true Mary Fish fashion.....the inside of her card was dressed up with a small piece of DSP to add a little WOW factor that Mary Fish is known for.

Many thanks Mary for sending me this amazing card....I LOVE IT! I have it displayed on my studio bookcase....and every single time I walk into my studio, I see it.....and.....It make me smile!

Thanks for joining me today! I'll be back tomorrow to share some Christmas Cards that my talented friends have been sharing with me. Hope to see you back here tomorrow. Keep Living Your Dream!

Did Someone Say PINK?

2011-12-08T04:30:00.004-07:00

Happy Happy Thursday My Blogger Friends! Today I want to share with you my spooky tree that I have in my studio ...... but first, I want to share Day 8 of my Countdown to Christmas Calendar that I made for Jack.

Today's tag is one of Jack's favorite things to do (next to watching football).....and that is reading. Today, Jack will indulge himself and have an entire day of reading ...... reading ....... and more reading! Know this will make him very happy today!

Now....On with my share. TAAAAAA-DAAAAAA.....it's my spooky studio tree - all decorated and looking "Oh So Pretty".

The last time you saw this spooky tree was for Halloween and that was seriously decorated with a spooky look.......but for Christmas.......I did a 360 degree change and put a pretty in pink spin to my tree and mission complete with my Pretty in Pink Christmas Tree.

I hung several different sized pink bulbs along with some tiny white and silver bulbs and added several pink bows directly to the branches of my tree.

Here's a super close-up of my pretty pink bulbs........LOVE 'EM!

And here you can see some of the tiny silver and white bulbs along with the darling pink bows that I made for my Christmas Tree.

It's hard to pick which of the pink ornaments was my favorite......I think this one just might be my most favorite ornament.......

BUT........I also think this one might be my favorite one too.......

I kept the black base for my spooky tree and removed the Halloween scallops that were on the base for Halloween.......And I added pretty pink bows to each of the sides of my black base. Totally keeping the Pretty in Pink theme for my studio Christmas Tree.

I'll be back tomorrow to share a fabulously yummy card from my good friend Mary Fish....Hope you can join me for that share. Keep Living Your Dream!

CJToo Christmas Card Share

2011-12-07T04:30:00.001-07:00

Happy Wednesday My Blogger Friends! Today I have an awesome Christmas Card share with you - but first let me reveal Jack's Countdown to Christmas share for today.....

Today's tag is probably one of my favorite tags that I made for Jack. I simply love my date days with Jack (done at least once a week) and this tag is perfect for those date days. He can cash in this tag for coffee and a danish at Starbucks or Frogs with me. I seriously know that the fastest way to Jack's heart is through his stomach and I know he's going to LOVE this tag!

Now....on with my Christmas Card share. When Tracy (http://www.craftjunkietoo.com) asked her Design Team to create and share a Christmas card with our viewers......I knew the card I wanted to make and share. These actually are going to be one of the three cards I'm designing for our Christmas Cards this year.

Living in Arizona - I couldn't think of a more appropriate card to send out this year. A card with cactus and a setting sun is a perfect card to come from Arizona.

How FUN is this card! There was a TON of sponging that went on with this card........

And I was able to find a Cricut Cartridge that cut out perfectly the window with six window panes......

I also was able to create ther PERFECT sunset that is setting into some of the amazing mountains we have out here in Arizona.

Using dimensional foam to lift up the window allowed for lots of dimension and layering so the cactus image really was able to come to life.

I will probably change the "Season's Greetings" message and put "Greetings from Arizona" on the front of my cards.....Other than that......this card turned out perfectly.

I Love how my Christmas card turned out and know that all those family and friends that receive this card will surely apprecite it.

Many THANKS for joining me today........Hope you can link back to Tracy's blog http://www.craftjunkietoo.com and check all the other post that my fellow design team members created for this awesome Christmas Card blog post.

I'll be back tomorrow to share my Pretty in Pink Studio Christmas Tree with you. Hope you can join me. Keep Living Your Dream!

Christmas Decoration 2011

2011-12-06T04:30:00.056-07:00

Happy Tuesday My Blogger Friend....Today I will be sharing my Christmas decorations with you at my Arizona home - but first up I want to share Day 6 of my Countdown to Christmas gift for Jack....

Today I made Jack a tag which gives him a full night of Moving Wactching with me. I absolutely know this will be one of Jack's favorite tags.

So on December 1st I worked at getting our home decorated for the holidays. Here's our Christmas Tree all lite up and looking pretty amazing!

One of my favorite decorations that I put under the tree every year is this charming little train that my grandson ADORES! I filled up the two cars with some red sparkly bulbs (being as there are no little fingers handling it anymore) and my heart just skips a beat remembering all the wonderful memories that this little train holds from each of the grandkids.

This year my ornaments are Gingerbread Men. I started a tradition YEARS AGO that I make my ornaments for my tree. This year is in honor of the time we decorate our gingerbread houses (which will be December 18th this year in Wisconsin) with the grandkids. Because I'm not going back to Wisconsin for December....I will be missing the annual gingerbread house decorating party and felt like the best decorations I could make would be these adorable gingerbread men.

I traced a gingerbread cookie and came up with a template....and then I cut these little babies out of Creamy Carmel Cardstock. I ened up making over 100 of these little cuties........and all I did to embellish them was use some puffy paint for the white zig-zag and three buttons down their front.

LOVE LOVE LOVE how these turned out......and for sure when I skype the kids on the 18th - we will be doing a walking tour of all our decorations . Know the kids are going to LOVE this years ornaments.

This is my second favorite part of decorating for the holidays.....and that is hanging each of the grandkids Christmas Stocking. Each of our grandkids have a Christmas stocking hung above our Christmas Tree and YES.....I even have one for my GrandDog Trinity!

Here's a close-up of three of the families ....Jared, Hailey, Steven.....Brooke.......Levi, Bodie, Delilah!

Our Dining Room table is very simple this year and very few decorations (mainly because I have camp and club and I know I'm going to have to move things off this table two to three times in December)........I have a tall container that I added silver and white bulbs to and added some sparkly trim to the table and called this one done!

My chairs have a piece of silver garland hanging from the back with a Red bulb hanging at the end and pretty white bow at the top.

We put our Chistmas Village up in the Bar area...........

And my snowman village collection made it's home on the top of my sideboard in our dining room.

And one last final look at our decorated Christmas Tree.

I have a special share planned for tomorrow........I was asked by my fearless leader Tracy at Craft Junkie Too (http://CraftJunkieToo.blogspot.com) to share a Christmas Card with my viewers on December 7th. I was so excited to prepare a special Christmas Card especially for Tracy and can't wait to share it with you tomorrow.

Hope you can join me tomorrow for my special Christmas card share - Keep Living Your Dream!

November Crafternooner Cards

2011-12-05T18:46:00.076-07:00

Happy Monday My Blogger Friends.......I'm heading down to my local Scrapbooking Store today to take a Countdown to Christmas Card Class with my BFF......I'll be sharing those cards with you later this week.......But Speaking of Countdown to Christmas....Let me share Day 5 of Jack's Countdown to Christmas Calendar with you.......

For Day 5 - I will be offering Jack a homemade cake for his 5th Christmas gift. He gets to pick the flavor......and I will be making it for him whenever he is ready.

For my card share today, I will be sharing the cards that my Craternooner friends made for our November swap card. First up is Berta's card. Our color challenge was maroon and green and our optional technique was embossing on vellum. Berta's card certainly met all the challenges.

Berta embossed her "Christmas Greetings" message on the vellum and added an adorable christmas tree accent piece along the bottom edge of her vellum piece. Very nicely done Berta!

My second card is from Opal. Opal nailed all the requirements for this card challenge. LOVE LOVE LOVE the stamp set she used and her embossed vellum piece is so beautiful.

My picture does not pick up all the shine that came from the stamped image that Opal embossed. It is such a lovely stamped image and by embossing the vellum piece the end result was so sparkly.

And my last card is from my BFF Jan. She created a serious masterpiece (as usual). The maroon and green colors work so well together....and the embossing just hit this one out of the park.......

Jan added a piece of vellum to the inside of her card and embossed her "Celebrate Today" message across the top. Awesome Awesome Job Jan!

And my swap card I stamped the "Hello Doily" (P.127) stamp set onto a piece of vellum and embossed that with some deep red embossing powder.

Here's a close-up of my Hello Doily image embossed on my vellum panel. I don't emboss much and when I do I tell myself to bring out the embossing powder and do this technique more often.

Thanks for joining me toay - I'll be back tomorrow to share with you my Christmas decoration at my Arizona home. Hope you can join me.

Keep Living Your Dream.

Even More Thanksgiving Card

2011-12-04T04:30:00.034-07:00

Happy Sunday My Blogger Friend and Thanks for joining me today. I have several more Thanksgiving Cards to share with you today....but first......Day Four of my Countdown To Christmas gift I made for Jack. Check out what his gift today is......

Jack's ALL TIME FAVORITE day of the week for football is Sunday - and a totally AWESOME Sunday is when the Packers are playing. SO....today......Jack will have ZERO interruptions from me for his Packer Game (in fact....I'm going to go shopping with one of my girlfriends today so there will only be the sound of football in the Fisher/Labadie household today. ENJOY your game today Jack.

My first card share today is from my good friend Berta......She sent me this amazing and OH SO CUTE Thanksgiving card......It even got "best card ever" thumbs up from Jack when he saw it.

Berta got every detail for this card......and my all time favorite part of this card has to be the awesome "Happy Thanksgiving" message that was stamped on the front of her card. SO PRETTY Berta!

My next card was actually the first Thanksgiving card that I received.....and that was from my Stamping Club Friend Liz. I was so thrilled to have received a card from Liz and her card just screams "HAPPY FALL".

The best part of her card is this amazing maple leaf that was stamped and then CUT OUT! Nicely done Liz!

And my last Thanksgiving card share is from my good friend and fellow Wisconsin friend Ann. I was totally blown away when I opened Ann's card.......talk about some bling factor....This one just totally wow'ed me. Love the shape of the card and all the glitter that this card has is SO MUCH better looking in person........

Many THANKS Ann for all the hard that went into making this card......It totally speaks to me of "Fall in Wisconsin". LOVE IT!

I'll be back tomorrow to share my November Crafternooner swap cards with you.....hope you can come back and join me for those.

KEEP LIVING YOUR DREAM!