Taking some time off to spoil my loved ones!
I'll be back after the new year with some exciting announcements.
Have a wonderful holiday!

To "die" for gift box

Here's a fun gift set that I made for one of my favorite people in the whole world. She's got a bit of an owl "thing" going on lately and she's always been a fan of felt flowers. She puts them on headbands, sweaters, purses and basically anything else she can get her hands on! I decided to combine her two favorite things, with some of her favorite colors and make her the perfect gift set.

When I saw the rolled rose die that MFT recently came out with, I had to get one for her (and me too!). I use the die to cut three roses out of felt and then adhered them to the top of the box.

I finished off the roses with half-back pearls and then added some Kiwi Kiss ribbon around the sides.

Her new die fits perfectly inside this 4" box.
(Tutorial found here)

Here's a shot of the matching card...

The owl image is by Sassafrass Lass and the sentiment is by Pink Cat Studio.

I added some black pearls to his eyes to up the cute factor.

To finish off this little beauty, I added some purple jewels and glittered leaves. They just so happened to be sitting on my table waiting to be used on something.

I can't believe that I have to wait ten more days to give this to her!

Better late than never!

Wow! Seems like forever since I've been able to sit down at the computer and post on the ol' blog. I've been scrappin' like a mad woman for the last few days. One of our December traditions is to sit down and look through my scrapbook before the new year starts. Usually I'm pretty up to date, but this year has just flown by and I'm a bit behind.

Anywhooo....I finished August and I'm working on September. Here are the kids on their first day of school this year. My local scrapbook store totally came to my rescue and had a bunch of extra page kits for sale. Being the lazy scrapper that I am lately, I picked up 8 more over the weekend!
I've never used a "kit" before, but I'm loving them right now. They included all of the cardstock, patterned papers, embellishments, etc. All I had to do was put everything together and add my photos - yay!

I hope you're able to squeeze in some time to do something that you've neglected lately. I'm off to build gingerbread houses with twenty-four 2nd graders - wish me luck!

I'm on a roll...

Christmas shopping? Done.
Christmas cards? Done. (Thanks to CSAYL!)
Christmas tree? Up.
House? Decorated.
Cookie swap invitations? Sent.

Wahoo! I'm on a roll people!
I decided to reward all of my hard work with some goodies, and they arrived in the mail yesterday. One of which was this uber-cute "a' la mode " image by MFT.Of course I had to ink her up right away.
I'll be enclosing a gift card in this one and giving it to a fellow caffeine addict.

Thanks for stopping by!
I'm off to hang out with thirty 4th graders!

A week of ups and downs

The last week has been full of ups and downs, and I'm looking forward to getting back into the ol' daily routine now that the kiddos are back in school. Yesterday I spent the afternoon making a gingerbread house with my daughter and a gingerbread train with my son. I'm really trying to cherish each and every moment with my family - even the daily stuff.

During Thanksgiving week, a very dear family friend died in a horrible fishing accident. It was a total shock, because he went fishing practically every week and was in familiar waters. I'm horrible at making sympathy cards, but wanted to pop something in mail to his wife and son.

I always seem to reach for this tulip set by Stampin Up when I need a sympathy card.I used a pattern from SU's "Urban Oasis" pack and paired it with some Riding Hood Red cardstock and grey ribbon.

I used black ink for all of the tulip images and just stamped off on scrap paper when I needed a lighter shade.
I finished it off with a sentiment banner and some half-back pearls.

In brighter news, I have a couple of fun announcements that I'll be sharing with you in the next few weeks, so stay tuned :-) Thanks bunches for stopping by my corner of the world today - it means a lot! Have a super Monday and go hug someone you love.

Hoppin' Into The Holidays with TGF

So is everyone having fun hop, hoppin' around?! If you want to start at the beginning of the holiday hop from The Greeting Farm, click here.

I know you've got lots more hoppin' to do, so I'll keep it short and sweet.

Using Santa as my inspiration, here's what I came up with...
I popped up Miss Anya's face on dimensionals and paper pieced her gift bags.
Then I embellished my little heart out with gold cord, music paper, a gold marker, chipboard, a Santa hat and Stickles!

More is more right?

Thanks SO much for stopping by today!
Have fun on the rest of the hop!

Pink Cat Digital Release Day!

Lots to share today!

This is my 2nd post - if you're looking for my Christmas Stampin All Year Long post, just scroll down.

Today is Black Friday, Pink Cat style!
This entire 6 piece digital set is yours with any $5 purchase today!!

The design team is also hosting a holiday challenge! You can read all of the juicy details and fine print right here. I can't wait to see what you all come up with!

Let's get to the new release, shall we?

I had so much fun playing with all of the new images this week! My first card uses the new gingerbread baker and the gingerbread Christmas tree images.To make the large star background, I shrunk down the gingerbread Christmas tree image, copied and pasted it four times, and arranged them into a star shape.
Then I printed it out onto Kraft cardstock and trimmed around the edges.

Next up is sweet Billy on a circus train...

This image comes with three different sentiments to use on the flag.

And here's Lily with her fresh baked cookies...

I did some paper piecing on her apron and oven mitts and added jewels for a little holiday sparkle.

Peek-A-Boo!
Here's Sweet Pea...

That pretty red ribbon was just screaming for velvet flock...

I hope you enjoyed my samples today. Be sure to check out the digi shop and the PCS blog for details about the challenge! Thanks for stopping by today.

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long

Today is our last challenge of the year from CSAYL! Our sponsor this week is Soft Pencil Stamps and the challenge is very simple...
Make a Christmas card.

Here's what I came up with... I decided to go with a soft neutral color scheme and some Stickles.

Stop by the CSAYL blog for all of the details.
Hope you play along one last time this year!

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long

Today's challenge over at CSAYL is to use this sketch... and that's not all - Pink Cat Studio is our sponsor this week!
One lucky winner will win 5 digital images of their choice!
I used "Itty Bitty Bobby - Gingerbread Man" and popped him up on a cookie sheet die cut.

You can check out all of the other samples over at the CSAYL blog and be sure to leave a link to your creation, so I can stop by your blog and check it out! Have a fantastic weekend! I'm off to host a Medieval Feast and jousting tournament for my sons class. Wish me luck...