Mom is home and doing great after her surgery. Thank you so much for all the well wishes and kind comments. I had a little stamping time today now that I'm back home. You can see the cards I made here and my adventures in coloring with Copics here.

These next cards are all made with Darkroom Door stamps. Oh, how I love this company. Such gorgeous images and the owner is an amazing photographer. Stop by Rachel's blog here to see all of her beautiful artwork and stamps that she makes down under. I have a long wish list for her stamps. These butterflies that I worked with stamp so beautifully. I can't stop using them and they arrived on cling mount for easy storage.







I hope you had a lovely beginning to the holiday season yesterday. Thanks for stopping by today.

thankful

Mom is amazing. She came through surgery like a champ and even walked a lap around the floor today. By tomorrow afternoon all the tubes should be out. It's very likely that she'll go home on Thanksgiving. Thank you for all the beautiful wishes and sentiments and prayers. It's truly a beautiful day.

mom

Here's my beautiful mom. She's beautiful from the inside out. This picture is from a quilt show we attended in January. Quilts are something we both love and we had so much fun oohing and aahing over them. Mom's partial to the very traditional hand quilted designs and I love the wild artsy quilts. It was fun to share what we loved about all the different types of quilts. I'm feeling very sentimental today. Tomorrow morning at 7:45 Mom goes in for major surgery. It's her best shot at getting rid of this disease that she's had growing for 2 years. We're all feeling very hopeful that after her long recovery period she'll feel better and not have to take all the toxic medication she's been on for the last two years. She'd like to have more energy, more hair, more health, more quality of life. We all want that for her. Please send out some good karma, vibes, prayers, or hopes that her surgeons have a good day tomorrow, and can give her better health. Any positive energy you can send her way will be so appreciated. I'm working on breathing in and out until we get to the other side of this journey. Thanks for stopping by today.

I made these cutie little paper fruit pieces using punches and Basic Grey Papers. I love the designs and weight of Basic Grey. The pear is made with a large scallop heart punch by Fiskars and the pumpkin is made with a large oval scallop punch by EK Success. Each punched shape is edged with distress ink, folded in half, and then glued to the next one. I got the idea for these from this blog tutorial and amended it to suit my needs and supplies. These were a part of an event we had over at SNR using Basic Grey products. They sit on the lazy susan where I keep fruit in the kitchen.

I've been lucky lately on the work front and have worked the last 4 school days subbing at the high school. High school is a whole different ballgame than middle school where I normally work. I survived, but I'm looking forward to hanging here, going to yoga, and getting some things done around the house. I'm hosting our early Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday and I have a small craft show at my friend's house on Sunday afternoon. It'll be an action packed few days. Guess I'd better hop in the shower and get moving. Yoga starts at 11:00. Thanks for stopping by.

more snow babies

These are the two little snow babies that are joining my collection. The guy on the left is made from a parmesan cheese shaker and the one on the right is an old pint milk bottle. I just can't begin to tell you how fun it is to make these. Each one took on a little personality as I worked with them. We used all sorts of goodies to create them including bits and baubles from old jewelry, old cookie cutters, jingle bells, wire, ribbons, safety pins, brads, bottle stopper and lots of glittery goodness. I think my cousin and I have started a tradition we'll long to continue. It's so much fun to get together and make things like we did when we were teenagers before college and husbands and kids and jobs took priority. That's one of the blessings of having teenagers and working part time. We can play again once in a while.



Here's last year's snow babies that were in the Cloth Paper Scissors Newsletter. That was so fun. I can hardly wait to unpack the holiday decorations. For now the two newbies are hanging out in the craft room with me. I haven't figured out their names yet.

snow babies

Here's a peek at the newest crop of bottle snow babies. My cousin came for a visit a couple of weeks ago and we made 34 of these guys. We didn't get to the glitter part while she was here, and I just got to that last week. These guys are all boxed up to take to a craft fair in a couple of weeks. It's been years since I did a craft fair, but I'm drowning in crafty goodness that really needs to find new homes. My friend who makes amazing candles is hosting a quick afternoon holiday open house in a couple of weeks. It's the perfect venue to hop back into the fray and it's before mom's surgery. Perfect. Here's the link to last year's edition in case you missed them.

I'm running off this afternoon to an event called Wrap Up Christmas with some of my stamping friends at the scrapbook shop down the hill. It's a wonderful event with lots of inspiration, make and takes, and yummy food. Can't wait. I hope you're having a beautiful Sunday. Thanks for stopping by.

Holiday Inspiration

If you need a little inspiration to jump start your holiday projects, stop by Scrapbook News and Review for our holiday sampler. New classes posted each hour for the next 7 hours along with lots of inspiration, games, and prizes. I'm teaching two classes today.


This is a little peek at my 2:00 class sponsored by Graphic 45 that might help you contain a popular gift.


Here's a peek at my 3:00 class sponsored by Stewart Superior Ink. It would make a wonderful hostess gift over the holidays.

I have to say that I adored working with both of these sponsor's products. I fell in love with Graphic 45 papers at CHA in January. Their double sided papers and punch outs are amazing. I love the vintage feel of these and they go so well with all my vintage embellishments that I treasure hunt for and hoard. The Stewart Superior ink is new to me, but it was love at first stamp. So much shimmery goodness in the colors I played with. These are the folks who make Palette inkpads. Good stuff. I hope you'll have time to stop by to play.

joyful

Supplies: Cardstock: Stampin Up; Stamp: A Stamp in the Hand, Stampin Up; Ink: Tsukineko; Alcohol Ink: Ranger; Leafing Pen: Krylon; Glitter Glue: Ranger; Other: Button, Ribbon.

Here's a little joyful pear ATC to share with you this morning. I used just a part of a larger stamp for this one. The original stamp is huge and has three pears on it. I masked the stamp and used cactus green stazon ink to ink up just the last pear in the trio. I wasn't sure if the green would cover since it was a lighter color, but it worked beautifully. Getting the sentiment in that little tag was tricky, but I just eyeballed it. I know a stamp positioner is easier, but I'm too lazy to mess with it. I'm not sure what alcohol ink colors are in the background. This is one of my clean up bases. What I mean by that is when I'm doing alcohol ink techniques that I use the craft mat for, I clean it up with an ATC base. I keep some glossy cardstock cut to ATC size and when my craft mat needs to be wiped off, I add a little blending solution and wipe it up with a base. I do the same thing with regular cardstock and distress inks. Sometimes I use a tag as my clean up base with distress inks. Just spritz with a little water and wipe it up. I do the twirl and lift thing. Lay down the cardstock, then twist it around in the ink and lift. Repeat until the craft mat is clean. These are some of my favorite backgrounds and I try to always include this in my classes. It seems like the best stuff comes out of my just roll with it and see what happens play sessions. I hope you'll find some time to play in the ink this week.

On a personal note, Mom's having surgery on the 23rd. It's been a very long two years of illness for her, and this is her chance at getting rid of most or all of it. We're feeling very hopeful that this will give her the quality of life she deserves. Thanks for stopping by today.

fashion

Supplies: Cardstock: Stampin Up; Patterned Paper: Basic Grey; Flowers: Prima; Crystals: Prima; Stamp: Paper Bag Studios; Ink: Ranger.


Supplies: Carstock: Stampin Up; Patterned Paper: Basic Grey; Ribbon Flower: Offray; Ticket: Advantus; Stamp: Peddlers Pack; Ink: Tsukineko; Embossing Powder: Stampin Up; Gel Pen: Inkssentials; Tools: Paper Piercer, Heat Gun; Other: Tulle, Lace.

These were in a fashion article of the Aug/Sept issue of SNR. I really love how these cards tie into sewing and girly things. There's just something about shoes and gloves that remind me of childhood. Maybe it was those fancy little Easter outfits with matching hats and gloves and new shoes. I know it's almost Christmas, but we had new outfits and shoes for that, too. My mom and my aunt sewed all of our little dresses and we all matched. So much fun.

It seems like there's lots happening around here these days. If you just stopped in for the cards, skip this part, if not then here's the quick rundown.
-My hubby is back home now after spending a week with his family and attending the public memorial service for his mom. By all accounts it was a beautiful celebration of her life.
-My father in law is about to embark on his grand adventure in this new chapter in his life. He'll be here for Christmas after traveling around the country in his new home on wheels.
-My son found his bliss last week as he helped build, paint, and decorate the haunted house put on by the Arts Foundation. Of course the best part was that he got to work in it for 4 nights as the Predator and scare the heck out of all who entered. I can personally attest to how incredibly scary the house was, I was hoarse from screaming after walking through it. The scary clowns sent me over the edge.
-I won a huge pumpkin at the little coffee shop by my parents house when I correctly guessed the weight of 81 pounds. You should have heard that phone call to hubby asking him to pick it up on the way home.
-I taught wood shop last week for 2 days, which was my first full days of teaching this year. It's good to get back in the swing.
-I'm busy working away like an elf for the holiday sampler event at the magazine on Saturday. So many pretty holiday goodies that will be available for all to see. Be sure to stop in on Saturday afternoon and evening to see it all.
-Oh, and I almost forgot about the snow people. My cousin was here for a couple of days for a creative extravaganza. We made 34 new bottle snow people, dozens of stamped dominos, and several button charm bracelets. I'll take some photos to share with you as soon as I'm done with all this elf labor. Here's the link to the snow people we made last year.
-Here's the plan for this week. Hubby's home today and we're installing a new vanity/sink in the bathroom. Taking the kiddo to the dentist on Wednesday to see if the pain in the back of his mouth is wisdom teeth. Going to see the surgeon tomorrow with my mom to find out what they are going to do for her. Teaching a fun distress class on Saturday in Escondido. Oh, and yoga, there's definitely yoga in there. I think I need it! I hope you're having a great week. Thanks for stopping by today.