12-Days To Birthday

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!