Happy Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve and hope you are able to spend the day/night with all those special family and friends that make you SMILE. It's Jack and I tonight along with the Chevy Chase movie "National Lampoon Christmas Vacation". It's a classic and a favorite for us to watch on Christmas Eve night. Here is what I'm going to be missing tonight and Christmas Day: Steven (my little man)......Hailey (my true girly girl).........Madelyn (our oldest).......Brooke (my Doll Baby) and Jared (our Packer Backer) across the back of the sofa. This is a picture of the five of them at my daughter's house in Wisconsin............This is one of the better pictures of all that we took that day where the kids aren't all making faces.

The other three people in my life that I will not be spending Christmas Eve or Christmas with are my son Michael.......Daughter Cheryl.....and Daughter Jenni.

Cheryl and Jenni both have families back in Wisconsin and they have serious traditions that they join in on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

And.....my son Michael.......will be spending his Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with his kids in St Louis.

I will probably web cam the kids on Christmas morning to see and hear all about what Santa had left them............And Jack and I are planning to have dinner at home both tonight and tomorrow.

Merry Christmas to all and to all..........Keep Living Your Dream!

Jot This Down Booklet

Happy Thursday to you......SO GLAD that you joined me today. I'll be sharing with you today another gift that I made for my scrappin friends in Wisconsin for our retreat a couple weeks ago. This gift was a little something that I originally made for my grandkids (to have in the car to entertain them while Mom was driving).......and I thought it might be a nice little something for my friends to slip in their purse. I used chocolate chip cardstock and a stamp set from Paper Trey Ink to create this white board booklet for your purse.

When you open the booklet - it has a section on the top to store a kleenex......and the bottom has a clear arylic sheet attached with two brads and acts as a white erase board to jot down a note. I added a expo pen to the middle of the holder so everything is right there for you every time you want to write a quick note.

Here's a sample of what was written on the acrylic sheet - so all the ladies knew what the purpose of the booklet was for.

And......here's a close-up shot of the booklet.........Too Cute!

And.....one last photo of the front scallop piece that embellished the front of the booklet.

The ladies loved their gift and I know each of them will be carrying this fun little booklet in their purses. I had so much fun making these and loved the look on the ladies faces when they received them.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve ...... and I have some amazing photo's to share with you of my kids. Until tomorrow....Keep Living Your Dream!

Snowmen Hershey Bar Wrapper

Today I will be sharing another of the gifts that I made for my Scrapbooking Buddies back in Wisconsin......I would like to think this was one of my own creations....but.........It's not. This I obtained from Kerry's Paper Craft blog (http://www.kerryspapercrafts.com/) She posted this video on November 7th and I just knew when I saw these little guys they would be coming to Wisconsin with me. These are preprinted snowmen that are wrapped around a regular sized hersey candy bar. You add a fleece hat (that you create with a single stiched seam) and an adorable black scarf........

Here's a close-up of the snowmen's face and his adorable fleece hat.

The file that Kerry's has a link to print out these snowmen....and basically all your going to do is make the hat's. I ended up making 20 of these and plan to share them with my SaddleBrooke Stamping Buddies.

Thanks Kerry for posting these adorable snowmen hershey bar wrappers......my Wisconsin scrappin buddies LOVED them and I know that many of my bloggin friends will enjoy them too.

If you are interested in viewing Kerry's You Tube video post.....check it out here: http://www.kerryspapercrafts.com/?p=1709

Stop back tomorrow when I'll share yet another one of the gifts that I made for my friends at the Wisconsin retreat..........Keep Living Your Dream!

Faux Leather Purse

Today, I will be sharing another gift that I made for my scrapbooking friends in Wisconsin (for the retreat). Check out this embossed faux leather purse I made for each of them...... I used three of the SU Bigz Die and embossed each of them and before heat-setting them....I ran my bone folder tip across the surface to form wavy lines and then heat-set the piece to resemble a faux leather look.

Here's the purses and the three tags that I slipped inside each of the purses.

I added a velcro closure to keep the purse closed....along with a piece of 1/4" grossgrain ribbon to the side and that was the handle for each of the purses.

I made a template for the center (or purse middle) for each purse.....added sticky stripe around the edges and assemblied the center pieces and attached a front and back purse piece to this. This formed the purse......I added a lid to the top of the purse and ended up with this cute little purse creation.

Here's a photo of the three SU Bigz Dies all cut/folded and ready to be attached to the center purse piece.

These purses were a LOT of work......but .... the end results were that they turned out SO CUTE that it was worth all the work that went into them. The ladies LOVED them and that was all I needed to know.

Hope you can stop back tomorrow.....I'll be sharing a cute little snowman candy bar that I made for each of the retreat ladies. Until tomorrow......Keep Living Your Dream!

2-More Gifts from Dawn

Happy Monday Friends........Hope you are back into full swing after a great December weekend. Today, I'm going to share two additional gifts that my scrapbooking buddy Dawn made for me last weekend at our retreat. What could this envelope with a one inch circle be........ It's an amazing skating elf card that Dawn was making for her son's hockey team. I was admiring Dawn's great coloring job and this little elf just stoled my heart............

Check out how cute these gift card holder turned out..........

Dawn's hockey team was going to receive these gift card envelopes filled with quarters for an outing they had planned last weekend. The next thing I would like to share is this amazing holiday gift tag that Dawn had made.......

I thought this tag was so reflective of Christmas that I think Dawn felt she would give me one just to SHUT ME UP..........How cute is this tag?

And here's a close-up of the tag and all the bling that Dawn added to it. LOVE IT!

I'm planning to share with you over the next couple of days the projects that I made for my scrapbooking buddies from last weekend. I had made gifts for each of the ladies and got up super early to have them at their work station when they got up......HOWEVER.....I didn't take a picture of all the gifts.....so......I'm only going to be able to share a few of those gifts with you. Stop back tomorrow and I'll begin sharing those gifts with you. Until Tuesday morning.....remember.....Keep Living Your Dream!

Gift from Kaila

It's Sunday and hope your weekend has been jammed pack-filled with FUN. Today, I'm going to share with you a gift that my scrapbooking friend Kaila made for me at our retreat last weekend. Check this out...........Can you even guess what these are?????? Kaila took a single sheet of glue dots and made HAND-MADE embellishments for each of the glue dots on the single sheet.......can you stand it. I think this is one of the most BRILLIANT gifts I have ever received. Talk about amazing.........

This is what Kaila presented to all 15 of us at the retreat last weekend. A dozen embellishment circles that are all ready to be placed on a card or scrapbook page. I am talking......LOTS OF WORK on this project. She hand stamped........punched and assemblied each of these circles. WOW..........

Here's a close up of some of my favorite pieces........

And here is what the back side of the embellishment sheets looks like. They are ready to be peeled off the plastic sheet and can be stuck directly to my project

And here is one last final look at Kaila's creations.

I am SO BLESSED to be surrounded by such talent as these dozen scrapbooking ladies tht I spent last weekend with......their work is so detailed and so professional........I only wish my scrapbooking pages and cards looked as good as what they do.......YOU ALL ROCK!

So tomorrow I'll share a few more things that I received from last weekends scrapbooking retreat.........So ........ hope you can return back here tomorrow and be WOW'ed. Until Monday morning........Keep Living Your Dream!

Gift from Dawn

Happy Saturday.......YAHOOOOO.....It's the weekend. Hope you are making it a great day! Last weekend, I spent the entire weekend with my Wisconsin gal pals at a lovely retreat out in Mt Horeb, Wisconsin. There ended up being 15 of us who got together and scrapped.......ate......laughed......ate some more........watch movies.......drank........and all around had a BALL. Several of the gal pals bought gifts for us and today I want to share the gift that Dawn made for each of us........ Dawn made this amazing picture frame that she hand stitched and paper pieced this christmas tree along with.............

This really fun JOY stitching in the center of what could honestly have been a christmas card. Dawn put so much work into making these gifts for us..........then she topped it off by framing her creation. I've got mine proudly displayed in my studio.

Here is a close-up of Dawn's creations........LOVELY Dawn.....simply LOVELY.

I know first hand how much time and energy goes into making gifts for 15-ladies and I appreciate all the hard work that Dawn put into creating these for us. I also want to let Dawn know that I've been thinking of both her and her sister (who happen to have taken a fall and broke both her knees and ended up in the hospital over the weekend). I'm hoping that her sister is home and rehabing now. Just so you know Dawn......I'm sending good energy your sisters way.

Hope you can stop back tomorrow......I'm going to be sharing a little something something that my scrappin friend Kaila made for me last weekend. I guarantee you......You are going to FLIP OUT when you seen what she made. Until tomorrow......Keep Living Your Dream!