Santa - the second visit

Hey yall. I'm currently in St Francisville celebrating Christmas with Jason's family. Last week the boys saw Santa at a Christmas party. This time, unlike the first, Joey was not scared! I thought I'd share some pictures of the boys with Jolly Ole St Nick.

Anthony absolutely LOVES Santa. He ran to the door to greet Santa when he came in. He climbed up in his lap and did not want to get down. There were other kids there who also wanted to see Santa, so he had to get down for a little while. In this next picture, he is daring anyone to make him get out of Santa's lap again!

I hope yall are all having a wonderful weekend. Oh, and how could I forget--Santa came early to my house and brought me the new Cricut Expression!!! I played with it a little when I got it Thursday night, but really haven't had time to do much with it. Aunt Pat also got one, so I'm gonna bring mine down to her house the day after Christmas. We're gonna have a few friends over and play with our new toys! I always figured it would be too hard to get Aunt Pat into papercrafting, but the QVC infommercial did all the hard work for me! She has since bought paper (my personal weakness) and a Xyron. Her first project is a calendar that I can't wait to see. She's hooked, but I don't think she realizes it yet. Anyway, yall better finish up your Christmas shopping--only a few days left!

Yes, I'm still around

Hey yall. Sorry I haven't been posting lately. I've had lots to do to get ready for Christmas. Hopefully I will get on here more after the big day. If I don't get a chance to post between now and then, yall have a Merry Christmas!

Gift card holders

I made 2 gift card holders using this tutorial by GinaK. I didn't do all the layering on these first 2, but I might on some later ones. I was just trying to get the pattern right and didn't go though all the extra steps.

I'm being ridiculed by a 13 year old and by my husband now for having a blog about "how to fold paper" so I guess I need to go do something more useful with my time.

More happenings from yesterday

Here's some more pics of what all we did yesterday. We went to see Santa. Joey is terrified of Santa, but we talked him into standing next to him. We have asked Anthony several times what he wants for Christmas and all he'll say is, "Tigers." Guess what was in the bag from Santa??? Yep, each kid got a stuffed tiger!

Next we went to my grandmother's house. I made 26 placecards for her Christmas party. They matched so well with her gold plate chargers and other decorations.

After nap time, Anthony wanted to go jump on the "jumping thing." I took him out to the trampoline. He looked at it and said, "It too big. I not wanna jump."

Joey was content playing in his room with his legos.

I hope yall are all having a great Sunday and enjoy seeing pictures of my boys.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON!!!

Today is Jason's 31st birthday. The boys made him birthday cards this morning. We gave him a Bible since his was tearing up. I thought it was a surprise, but then found out Joey told him what we bought just hours after the purchase last Saturday. Oh well. Here's Jason and the boys at Chili's for his birthday lunch.

Me and the boys enjoyed drinking his chocolate birthday milkshake. The boys are begging me to take them outside, so I need to go before I lose my patience.

Winner of the Fluffles Tags

Hey yall. Today was the big drawing for my first blog candy. Joey was so excited that he got to pick the winner.

He said he knew who he was gonna pick. I told him first of all he didn't know who was in the drawing and second of all he had to pick a name with his eyes closed.

Of course, he drew Aunt Pat, which is who he wanted to win. I was watching so I know he didn't cheat. Anthony wanted to draw a winner too, so I thought we could have 2 winners just so no one thought it was rigged.

Anthony drew Kerry, one of my SBS-24 girls. I've got your address, Kerry, so I'll be sending you some tags. After I make them. :)

Joey took a picture of me calling Aunt Pat. Anthony never misses a chance to cheese for the camera.

Housework

I HATE housework, but doesn't this Bella make it look like all fun and games? She's even wearing heels and a smile! Yep, she's a swapped image.



Don't forget to sign up for my blog candy TONIGHT BEFORE YOU GO TO BED!!!

Happy Birthday!

OK, it's not really anyone's birthday today, but here are some birthday cards made with swapped images. You knew I was gonna use swapped images, didn't you!

I really like using the swapped images because I already have a pile of them stamped and ready to color! Aunt Pat said I could just stamp my own stuff and put it in a pile, but that's not as much fun as coloring somebody else's stuff!

Don't forget to sign up for my blog candy by Friday night!

More swapped images

Here are a few Christmas cards I made with some swapped images.

Don't forget to sign up for my blog candy by Friday.

More Fluffles & Blog Candy!

Here are some more Fluffles I made last week. I just love this guy!

Joey and I were lucky enough to find the warm and cozy wishes Fluffles at Michael's Saturday. Joey likes Fluffles because I usually color him orange like his cat Tails. I am so excited about owning my first Fluffles stamp that I am hosting some BLOG CANDY! Post a comment on this post by Friday night to have a chance to win some gift tags made with this new stamp.

One of my blue-eyed cuties will draw to pick a winner. Tell all your friends and neighbors!

Notecard Set

I was asked to make a personalized notecard set by my friend Meredith for her little boy's speech therapist. She came over the other night and picked out which papers she wanted me to use for the notecards. I love how the busy flower designs turned out. We were thinking the pattern might be too busy, but I think they look the best.

You really can't see it in the picture, but the squares have designs embossed around them with Cuttlebug folders. The H's are from the Cuttlebug Olivia alphabet set. I'm hoping to make several more sets for Christmas. Thanks for looking!

Coasters

Hey yall. I hope you're having a great Sunday afternoon. Here's some pics of the coasters I made last night.

As you can see, I only have purple and green Stazon, so right now I'm limited in color. I am very pleased with how they turned out.

Thomas Kinkade Christmas card

I couldn't bear to color the Thomas Kinkade images yet, but I really wanted to use one. I used the most detailed image and made this Christmas card.


I'm happy with how this came out. I still want to color one of the TKs, but I'm just not ready yet. I still need a little more practice. I hope you enjoyed looking!

It's the Christmas season!

Good morning all my imaginary friends! I wanted to share a Christmas card with you today. I love Fluffles and recently received several Fluffles images in a swap. Here's one of the Christmas images.

It's kinda hard to see but the underneath layer is green so that the shorter top layer shows off the scallop edge. I used the Creative Memories fancy corner rounder for the image layer and matting layer. Thanks for looking!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I am very thankful today that I have family and friends who care for me and support me. I hope everyone takes a few minutes today even if you are not in the USA to think about what you are thankful for.

I got a really cool tree stamp at Hobby Lobby not too long ago and used it on this card. I am very pleased with how it turned out. I had learned a while back the technique of stamping the 2nd time without reinking to make an image look further in the background. I think it worked well on this card. Thanks for looking and I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

One last fall card

Here's a fall looking card that I guess doesn't have to be for fall. It's actually a masculine birthday card. This is one of the images I received in one of many image swaps I've done lately. I colored it with Prismacolors & OMS. It's a Stampin' Up set that features this covered bridge during each of the 4 seasons.

Meet Tails

OK--I finally have pictures of our new family cat, Tails. He likes to stay under your feet, so it's hard to get a picture of him.




Tails was named by Joey after one of Sonic's friends. Tails has 2 tails (duh) that he spins really fast to fly.

I hope you enjoyed getting to see our little family friend!

SBS24 Challenge from Last Week

Hey yall. I'm a little late on this one. This is not yesterday's challenge, but last Sunday's challenge. Our inspiration challenge was a cute bedroom with purple and turquoise. Here's my WreathABella.

I'm posting with a cutie pie wearing Scooby-Doo jammies in my lap. He's very excited because I loaded pictures of his cat on the computer. You'll see those tomorrow. Joey's got strep, so he's not feeling too good. Anyway, yall have a good evening!

Home Alone!

Hey yall. Just a quick post before I go to bed. Jason will be home late tonight after going to a ballgame and the kids are staying at my grandmother's house (Thanks Marty!). I really wanted to stamp the night away, but I have a headache so I think I'm gonna call it a night. I have this really fun Holter monitor I get to wear until tomorrow, so I hope I can sleep. It has 5 sticky things holding wires to various parts of my chest/stomach to monitor my heart rate since the old ticker has been running too fast lately. I'm sure if I take something to help me sleep through having this thing attached that it will skew the results and I don't want to have to wear this again. I looked like a freak in Hobby Lobby today judging from all the stares. Anyhow, have a good evening. Hopefully I'll post some of my cards tomorrow.

Goodies in the Mail!

I got some swapped images in the mail! These are my first Bellas and Thomas Kinkades.

I'm afraid my coloring is not up to par for the Thomas Kinkades, but I got 2 each of the 2 images, so I'm gonna try to color one.

Cards to Recycle

Yall have gotta check these out--my co-worker Suzette picked these up for me from her friend's grandmother's garage sale last weekend. The dark blue set in the middle still had the year on the box - 1967! I can't wait to play with these old cards and make new ones!

These are not just cards, they are card sets. Each one has anywhere from 10-20 cards. They have that wonderful old paper smell.

From Courtney's Closet #23

Hey yall. I finally got a chance this week to play along with Libby again. This is week 23 and this one was the most fun I've had yet! First of all, I've got pictures of Courtney and Carter.




I told Libby this was really gonna be a challenge for me since I didn't have any monkey stamps. I was able to improvise with what I did have. I actually made 2 monkey cards!

This first one is so cute! I used a monkey sticker I had buried in a drawer.


The picture quality on the second one is horrendous, but I think it's cute IRL. The sentiment is "driving by with a birthday hi." I love my camera for taking regular pictures, but I have a hard time with cards because I can't turn the flash off. I've never heard of a camera that didn't have a way to turn the flash off. I may have to switch to another camera for my card pics. Anyway, I hope yall enjoy!

My baking disasters

Hey yall. I thought I'd post pictures of the food I made for Monday night's Heart 2 Home meeting. The truffle cookies kinda tasted funny. The biscotti got good reviews.

I also wanted to show yall the card I made Friday night. I found a cute acrylic stamp set at Wal-Mart for only $2.47!

Yall have a wonderful Tuesday evening!

Me + Baking = Disaster

Hey yall! I didn't get a lot of crafting done this weekend because I went to Aunt Pat's house and then to a family reunion. I do have an entertaining story for you. Those of you who know me are already well aware of the fact that I do not operate well in the kitchen. Jason is a much better cook than I am. On the way home from the family reunion, I took the boys to the grocery store. I have my monthly Heart 2 Home meeting tomorrow night and we are doing a cookie exchange. Heart 2 Home is an awesome women's ministry in which some of the older ladies of the church guide us younger ladies in small groups. Also, when we make cookies (and by we, I mean Jason bakes if I need them) we make the chocolate chip cookies from the roll of dough at the store. In this cookie exchange we are supposed to bring our recipe. I wanted to look competent, so I figured real chocolate chip cookies can't be that hard. We bought some chocolate chips, eggs (we were running low), butter (I didn't know how much we had), and flour (I didn't want to run out). We get home and I put the boys on the counter. I melt 2 sticks of butter for the cookies. Then I measure out the flour. The boys are fighting on who currently has the cooler bowl -- Anthony with the butter or Joey with the flour. I get out the rest of the ingredients and discover I have no brown sugar. I searched and searched and searched as I yelled at the kids to chill out cuz Mommy was stressed out. I finally decided to find a recipe that doesn't require brown sugar. Of course, all the GOOD recipes call for brown sugar. I finally find a recipe for Chocolate Nut Biscotti. I've never had biscotti, but was desperate. After our biscotti logs get in the oven, I decide there's a good chance they are gonna taste less than great. I find another recipe, Chocolate Truffle Cookies. They are round, do not rise, and also do NOT look desirable. Oh well, I tried. I can also prove I tried because I made 2 recipes, which is twice as many as required. I clean up the kitchen and as I am putting the last of the ingredients up, guess what I found??? Yep, the brown sugar. It seems I had put it in a tupperware container so it wouldn't get hard. Can I make the chocolate chip cookies now? Well of course not--I've used all the chocolate chips on the other 2 batches of second rate recipes I've made. I really did not set out to make this such a rant like last Sunday. After all, this is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it. Which means I better go craft to help me get in a better mood. Anyhow, does anyone else have a disaster story? If so, please leave a comment and tell me. There might be a prize for whoever can make my story look better by having a worse one. I'll be looking forward to reading your comments. And no, the prize will NOT be baked goods of any type. I've got some more interesting stuff to tell you this week, so stay tuned!

Happy Hoppers

Happy Friday faithful readers! I'm very excited about the card I have to share with you today. It features one of the Happy Hopper images I received in an image swap recently. I've been working really hard on learning to color and add dimension to my images. I really like how this one turned out. I put red and green apples because my favorite apples are Granny Smith apples.

I hope yall have a great weekend!

Happy Anniversary!

I want all of you to know that 9 years ago today I married my best friend, an awesome guy who has always treated me like the most important person in the world. Through sickness and in health, for better or for worse, after all these years he still thinks I'm beautiful. When he looks at me he smiles as if nothing else exists in this world but us. Happy Anniversary Jason! Thanks for all the wonderful memories we've had so far and the promise of a great future. I love you!

My first Fluffles card

Hey yall. I've done 5 one-on-one image swaps over the last 2 weeks. This has been a great experience because it has allowed me to get some images that I really only want to use once or twice. This is not true with the envelope full of Fluffles images I received. I want to buy ALL OF THEM!!! I showed my fellow stamper Debbie at work all my new images. I actually left them for her to look at and came back to get them from her a few hours later. She said the Fluffles images were the best. She was disappointed that I only received one of her favorite image. I told her I actually got 2, but I already made a card out of one of them because it was my favorite too! Enough talking about it, here it is!

Isn't he adorable!!! Anyhow, this paper is some that my friend Cherie picked up for me in the Target dollar bins the other day. The ribbon matches better IRL. Thanks for looking!

Found the camera & SBS-24 challenge

Ok, so Jason had the camera at the Cub Scout meeting. Here's a picture of Joey being on his best Tiger Cub behavior.

Now, finally, here's my submission for this week's SBS24 challenge - a sympathy card. This is one of the new images I swapped.

OK, so now I gotta schedule yall some posts so you don't get bored over the next several days. Oh yeah, check out my new thingy on the side of my blog--it's a traffic feed!

Slowly getting better

Hey yall. Thanks for all the well wishes after my monologue on Sunday. I'm still not as better as I wish I was, but I think I'll make it. I would LOVE to show yall some pictures of my latest creations (latest meaning several days ago) but I can't find the camera. I've taken pictures of the cards I made, but didn't upload them yet. I'm pretty sure I'm the one who lost the camera, but maybe Jason took it to Joey's Cub Scout meeting tonight. So anyway, yall are stuck with the recent pics that have been uploaded (my kiddos).

Here's Joey at his last flag football game. I don't think he's real sad it's over.

Here's Anthony with his latest school art project. His teacher said he really enjoys craft time and does great on all his projects. I wonder where he gets that from???

Hopefully I can get back on here later to show you my cards. Yall have a good evening!