Something old, something new challenge

Hello blogland!  Today as I was cleaning off my craft desk for the last time in 2012 I had one more project to finish up for the Something Old, Something New challenge at Crafting by Designs.  Our challenge was to use a left over image from a previous project and use it up in a new project, and I knew just what I wanted to do.  I have a box of digital and stamped images and I found this page of colored images when I was making this year's Christmas cards, but forgot to use them:

These were Stampin' Up images were colored two years ago - here they are when I used them as Christmas cards:

  But I needed a thank you card, soooo......

...these cute little snowmen turned into a thank you card.  This time around I used some cardstock from a.muse studios that you can find HERE.  Easy peasy!  Come on over to Crafting by Designs and join us for this challenge and a brand new one every week.
 

An announcement and a blog hop

Hello blogland!  Well Christmas has come and gone and now we're in the last few days of 2012.  I'm so excited and honored to announce that I'll be part of a brand new Design Team at Cuttin' and Stampin'!  On January 4 and 5 we'll be kicking off the new team with a Celebrate Blog Hop which will include a $25 gift certificate from a.muse studio projects.

 

 

 

Be sure to mark your calendars and join us for our blog hop and our regular challenges that will start on January 8.



O Holy Night.....

May the peace and joy of Christmas be with you and your family today and throughout the year!

Quick Tag

Hello blogland!  Today I wanted to share a quick little tag that I made to add to some cookie bags for my neighbors. They took about 5 minutes to make from start to finish and was the perfect touch. Take a look:

 

I used a big snowflake stamp from Unity, some VersaMark and some embossing powder from Lindy's Stamp Gang (love them!), and a little sentiment stamp from Papertrey Ink then heat set it all.  Boom - done!  I tied the tag to a little gift bag filled with some Christmas cookies and hot chocolate and I was done.

Want to play along?  Come on over to Crafting By Designs today and add your tag to this week's challenge.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Heartbreaking day...

Like everyone else in the world I just want to hug my kids today, even they're all grown up.  Praying for all these families!
 

New StampersBest Christmas stamps

Hello blogland!  I've got two cards to share with you today which I made for this week's challenge over at Crafting by Designs that you can find HERE.  This challenge is a CAS one, and that's right up my alley and my favorite. 

I used the Angels Dancing rubber stamp from StampersBest that you can find HERE.  The first I used Versa Mark with blue embossing power and added some stickles to their wings and halos for just a little sparkle, then snipped a few pieces of white eyelash ribbon and added it to their dresses.  For the second version I used red embossing powder and red stickles which were added as polka dots to their dresses and white stickles to make their wings sparkle and just a little red ribbon.  Easy peasy!

Be sure to stop over at StampersBest and check out all their great deep etched rubber stamps, including all their new releases and holiday stamps - love 'em all.  And if you use the coupon code mbs10off you'll get 10% off your order  Then come on over to Crafting by Designs and join our weekly challenges!
 

Memories of St. Nicholas

Hello blogland and Happy St. Nicholas Day! When my daughters were growing up, it was a special day for them. They belonged to a Ukrainian childrens group and every year they put on a little program which ended with all the children singing a special song that asked St. Nicholas to come and leave them small treats.

 

 

This picture is from 1993 and was very special because their Uncle Taras made an appearance as St. Nicholas that year (and they didn't recognize him). He asked the children if they've been good and helped their Mama and Tato, then gave them a small present. They couldn't have been more excited if the real Santa Claus was there! It's one family tradition that we remember fondly and can't wait to share it with their children some day.  Where did the years go, they're all grown up now.... 

Snowman Soup

Hello blogland!  I've always had a thing for snowmen - there are dozen of them in my house right now, all different varieties.  Tonight I've got a new kind to share with you - the snowman soup kind.

Last year I made about 250 of them for a fund raiser that my daughter was doing, and they've made a small reappearance this week.  Inside is a packet of hot chocolate, some mini-marshmallows wrapped in white Bazzill cardstock.  I used a top note die for the top and a piece of patterned cardstock over the front and a Sizzix snowman die. In order to show the marshmallows I used a 1-3/8" circle punch and tied everything with some ribbon.  A little labor intensive, but so cute, don't you think?

Hop on over to the Crafting by Designs challenge blog and share a snowman project.  Toodles!
 

My little Charlie Brown tree

Hello blogland!  I spent yesterday afternoon doing some holiday decorating outside and while I was going in and out of the shed, I kept looking at some of the baby pine trees in the backyard.  I could see just the tip of one little tree peeking out from a pile of leaves and it reminded me of a "Charlie Brown" tree so I decided to put it in a big mug and bring it into my craftroom for a little while. 

It's a little lopsided from the one ornament, isn't it?  After Christmas I'm going to plant her outside the window in my craftroom in the wildflower patch so I can watch her grow.

Crafting by Designs Blog Skip - Your Favorite Season

Hello blogland! 
At long last, we've kicked off our new home for Crafting by Designs and are doing a little blog skip to share our favorite seasons with you.  You should have come here from the super talented Cindy Leek's blog Paper Pads and Pictures - don't you just love her work?

Spring is my favorite season - everything is waking up and turning green again, flowers, birds, warm breezes thru the windows....so here's a few of my favorite cards for spring:

 

This CAS card was made using a Unity Stamp butterfly and StampersBest sentiment, white embossing powder and some Distress Ink blocking.

 

 

I just love when my strawberries start blooming - this little card was made using a StampersBest stamp and colored with some Copic markers.

 

Spring flowers...I can almost smell them!  These were made using white embossing powder then coloring them with some copics.

 

 



And last but not least, little Tilda and some spring butterflies colored with Copics.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed a few of my projects from my favorite season of spring.  Your next stop on the hop is Julia Vasquez over at Paper and Scraps Creations by Julia.  In case you get lost along the way, here's the whole line up - be sure to stop by and see everyone's creations from their favorite season.

 

Crafting by Designs

Beth Pollock at Mossberry Cottage

Chrissie Tobas at Harvest Moon Paperie

Cindy Leek at Papers Pads and Pictures

Doris T at Mom's Been Scrappin  (you're here)

Julia Vazquez at Paper and Scraps Creations by Julia

Rene vanWyk at Life in the Craft Lane

Tammy Smith at Cuttin' and Stampin

Almost done with Christmas cards!

Hello blogland!
Whew - I think I'm just about finished with my pile of Christmas cards for this year :)  Over at Crafting by Designs, we've had a year long monthly feature called "Get Ready for Christmas" which helped us get our stash ready throughout the year instead of scrambling to get enough made.  I've been trying to keep up and have made several versions of all these cards I'd like to share with you:

I loved making this card!  I used a Martha Stewart branch punch on some scraps of green cardstock and layered them on top of a Sizzix die cut then added a few diamond stickles and a Unity sentiment stamp.  It's so dimensional and looks adorable :)

 This year I was determined to NOT buy anything and to use up all the scraps and left overs from last years Christmas cards, and I did just that.  These two cards were made using cardstock scraps and leftover dimensional stickers, and this one has a little bakers twine.

 

One two three and they were done!  I was really itching to buy some new Christmas cardstock but I resisted and used up my stash!!

Be sure to stop back tomorrow for a little blog skip as we debut the new home of Crafting by Designs.  Head over there now and take a peek :)

Holiday Snowmen Snacks

Hello blogland!  Last year my daughter did a big fund raising project for The Wounded Warriors and I had made several great crafty items that helped her meet her goal and raised a lot of money.  I hadn't planned to do it again this year, but earlier this week I decided to make them again and donate the profits the local Red Cross to help victims of Hurricane Sandy.  Since I live down the Jersey shore, it's just one of the ways I can help my neighbors.

Check out these cute little snowpeople:

These cute little snowpeople are wrapped around a Hershey chocolate bar, a bag of microwave popcorn and a box of movie candy, and topped off with a pair of soft gloves.  I planned to make just a few but it's snowballed (no pun intended) and the order list is growing and growing.  Just my little way to help :)

Stacks of Christmas cards

Hello blogland!  The stack of completed Christmas cards is getting higher and that's good news to me.  Here's a few I have to share with you today:

I just love the simplicity of this Unity itty bitty stamp.  I stamped it on a scrap piece of an old Cosmo Cricket paper line and added some stickles - done. 

I've got a thing for House Mouse stamps - they're just too darn cute, and this one is no exception.  Cookies?  What cookies?  I didn't eat any cookies!  All made with pieces of scrap DCWV paper and colored with some markers, finished with a little Stickles and some bakers twine - viola!

Back to the desk to finish up a few more cards.  Hope you're enjoying your day! 

My Favorite Veteran

Hello blogland!  Another Veteran's Day to thank all the men and women who serve and protect us.  My Dad always told me to remember that freedom isn't free, so please remember to thank a veteran for all the freedoms we enjoy.

And here's a picture of my favorite veteran - I still get goose bumps when I look at this picture of my Dad.....still miss him bunches :)  Enjoy your day!
 

Shakin' the dust bunnies of my little blog :)

Hello blogland!  I'm shakin' the dust bunnies that have collected on my little neglected blog and am ready to get back into the swing of things :)  The move is over, the new craft room is all set up and organized, and I'm in full holiday card mode.  Over at Crafting By Designs, we've been trying to build up our card stash with two monthly features all year: A Year in Cards and Get Ready for Christmas.  But today I've got two quick little cards I finished for Thanksgiving to share with you:

This first card was made using some scrap paper for the background, some and a Unity Itty Bitty stamp on some kraft cardstock, then colored with a few copics, and tied with a little raffia ribbon.  Love this new stamp!

 

This second little card was made by cutting out an image and sentiment from an old piece of a mat stack and just popping up the sentiment - took about 60 seconds, but isn't he cute?

Now one quick Christmas card I finished today:

This was based on one of the cards from the Holiday Card Workshop Online Class and was sooo simple.  I used some washi tape to mask off a section in the middle where the greeting would eventually go, and used some Martha Stewart snowflake stamps and ink, then added the sentiment and two small scrap strips of DCWV patterned paper, and a few little dabs of Ice Stickles for some sparkle.  Two dozen cards done, two dozen more to go.  Thanks for stopping by!

Remembering...

Remembering and praying for those lost, those who rushed in, those who were saved and those who serve.....never forgetting!

Crafting by Designs - Let's have a blog hop!

Hello blogland!  Remember me?  I know it's been a while and my poor neglected little blog has dust bunnies and cob webs all over it, but today it's time to dust things off and have a little blog hop!  Crafting by Designs is celebrating it's one year birthday with a mini hop today and our theme is

Patriotic/Colors of Your Flag

The first three cards were already sent to Operation Write Home, hope they made someone smile.

I have to admit, I have a soft spot for House Mouse images, and this is one of my favorites.

These two cards were really fun to make using some scraps and a little dollar stamp from Michaels.

And my last little card was used for a picnic yesterday - and is actually the second time

I've used this design (used it for last year's July 4th picnic too)

And now on to the rest of our little hop!  We've a great line up of design team members and Crafting by Design members.  In case you get lost along the way, here's the whole line up:

Doris  (you're here) Moms Been Scrappin

Tammy at   Cuttin' and Stampin'  

Rene at Life in the Craft Lane 

Tammy at Whimsically Me  

Julia at Paper and Scraps Creations by Julia 

Chrissie at Harvest Moon Papiere 

Cindy at Papers Pads and Pictures 

Margaret at Cats and Cards 

Gwen at Windchimes and Lilacs   

And when you're done hopping to these wonderful blogs, come on over to Crafting by Designs and join us!  We're a friendly little group with lots of new challenges and features each week, and would love to have you join us, so pop in and play :)  Your next stop is the wonderfully talented Tammy Smith at Cuttin' and Stampin'.  Happy hopping!!

A Fantastic Giveaway

Hello blogland!  Just a quick post to share an opportunity to win a My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Suite over at my friend Beth's blog Mossberry Cottage.  They've given her a brand new version to give away to one of her lucky followers, and I usually don't share things like this, but I was very impressed at the projects she made. This software is great for not just scrapbooking, but for cards and other types of mixed media projects.  Here's one of Beth's layouts:

There are also other digital kits you can by from the My Memories  store.  For all the details on how get a chance to win, visit Beth's blog HERE.  Thanks Beth for the chance to win this :)

Clearing Away the Cobwebs

Hello blogland - remember me?  It's been such a busy month getting the house ready to go on the market and house hunting for our new home.  I've cleaned out closets and found things I'd forgotten all about or don't remember buying.  And in doing this, I've also packed up and cleaned out so much in my craft room.  I did have the time to make some labels for some candy bar labels for a sweet 16 party for a very special young lady and they were just adorable:

I'll be back soon with a few more projects I've completed before the packing!

It's a Blog Hop - Wings and Blooms!

Hello blogland!  Welcome to the first stop on our first blog hop at Crafting by Designs!  Since we're so close to the first day of spring, our theme is Wings and Blooms, so get ready to see some fantastic projects of things with wings and all kinds of flower blooms :)

I made two projects to share with you today - here's my first project made with one of my favorite stamps from StampersBest that can be found HERE.

I colored my image with some copics then fussy cut it and popped it up with some dimensional dots on a pretty piece of DCWV paper and finished it off with some hand died crumpled seam binding.

For my next project I pulled out another favorite stamp from Flourishes in honor of St. Patrick's Day tomorrow.

I decided not to use traditional colors for this project and accented the clover with pink cardstock and ribbon with some flat back pearls.

And now for some blog candy!  We will pick one winner, chosen at random, from all the comments left on all the blogs in the hop that are left before midnight on Monday March 19.  So the more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win!  Just be sure to leave your email addy so we can contact the winner.  Want another chance to win a prize?  After visiting the last blog, hop on over and join us at Crafting by Designs, and show us your Wings and Blooms project!

Now it's time to hop on over to Tammy's blog at Cuttin' and Stampin'. 

In case you get lost along the way, here's the whole blog hop line up:

Doris at Moms Been Scrappin  (you're here)
Tammy Smith at Cuttin’ and Stampin’  (your next stop)
Cindy Leek at Papers Pads and Pictures
Julia Vazquez at Papers and Scraps Creations
Sharon Duff at Sharons Scrappin
Chrissie Tobas at Harvestmoon Papiere
Rene van Wyk at Life in the Craft Lane
Aletha Jane Williams at AJ’s Designs
Tammy Martinez at Whimsically Me
Suzanne Russell at Beauty and Blessings
Beth Pollack at Mossberry Cottage
Berni Cuttino at Chasing the Dream
Deb Fortin at Paper Arts and Other Crafty Things
Gwen T at Wind Chimes and Lilacs
Theresa Gerber at Crafts Friends and Angels
Susan Janicki at StampersBest
Gloria Suave at Globug Ideas
 
Enjoy the rest of the hop and don't forget to leave your comments!

Who's ready for a blog hop?

Hello blogland, long time no see!  I'm slowly catching up and after this week should be back to my regular crafting time.  I'm in a clean and purge mode in my craft room and am just about done - I actually saw my desk today :)  And that's a good thing, because I've got to get two projects finished for a blog hop with my crafty friends over at Crafting by Designs this Friday!!  Want to hop along with us?  Sure you do - hop on over there now and sign up before noon tomorrow and you can get added to the blog list.  Or stop by on Friday March 16 for the complete list of hopping blogs and play along with us.  Hope can join us :)

My poor little blog

Hello blogland!  My poor little blog has been neglected for two weeks, but I've been super busy with things in the house, two daughters birthdays and some health issues.  My craft room has been turned upside down, but it's a good thing - I started to look for something I knew I had and ended up finding some great treasures I'd forgotten about, so it's been clean and purge time for me and lots of items added to my Etsy store so they don't go to waste! I've gotten some layout pages done, and here's one of the pages - this is one of my favorite pics of the girls when they were little, looking for Santa on Christmas Eve:

I used some Simple Story elements to make this page one-two-three :)  And have you stopped by Crafting by Designs lately?  Fantastic challenges from fantastic guest designers, so be sure to stop in this week and join us.

Day Two of Scrapbook Throwdown

Hello blogland!  I'm a day behind, but wanted to share my project from Day two of the Scrapbook Throwdown.  Our challenge was to use a color theme, and I found my inspiraion on Pinterest.

I chose the inspiration picture because of the graduated shades, which I love, and thought of a new paper collection I just picked up from Paper Crate - and they matched pretty well.  I made the white twisted ribbon flower and added some Prima pearls and added a pink pearl brad in the center.  For the hearts I just used some scraps from the collection and a Martha Stewart heart punch.  Day two - check! 

Scrapbook Challenge Throwdown

Hello blogland!  I was a lucky winner of a spot in the Scrapbook Throwdown that started today, and I'm soooo glad!!  I'm so far behind on my scrapping and this is just the push I need to get back on track and get those creative scrappiness going again :)  Today's challenge was to create a layout using 4x6 pictures - check!

I kept my layout pretty simple, not too many layers.  What I did do was reuse the outline that I cut out from the photo mat on the left and used it on top of the two photos on the right.   I used Simple Stories Year in Review on top of a  piece of Tim Holtz cardstock for the layout - just love Simple Stories!!

Day one down, can't wait for day two :)

PS - I forgot to add, this is my daughter Amy who did her SECOND Tough Mudder event with a group of friends (Team Gooney) and raised money for The Wounded Warrior Project.  Twelve miles thru mud and water and hills and electric wires and under barbed wire, but she finished!! So proud of my little Tough Mudder!

Quick Valentine Candy Bags

Hello blogland!  How did it get to be February already?  I was busy, busy today - I was asked to make an assortment of candy bags for Valentine's Day which was fun, fun, fun :)

All I can say is I need a new bag of M&Ms.....I also took a trip to A.C. Moore today and was surprised to find that their paper pads were all 40% off and they had a TON of new My Minds Eye 6x6 pads which I ended up paying just over 2 bucks each.  Sa-weet!  I was really happy to see that many of them mix so well with the Simple Stories line that I'm using for several scrap projects and I can't wait to get my hands on some of their new lines being introduced at CHA.  More scrappy goodness......

Just a little Love

Hello blogland!  I have one more valentine's card for this week made from the scraps on my desk:

The scraps were from a Crate Paper valentine collection, the heart stamp is from StampersBest and the love stamp is from Unity.  Tie it up with a little bakers twine from Martha Stewart and I was done in no time flat :)

Next up, Crafting by Designs has two great Guest Designers this month for our new features A Year in Cards and Get Ready for Christmas.  Take a peek:

Heide Dronchi  challenged us to make a sympathy card based on this card - sympathy cards can be hard to make, but this this is a gorgeous card.

Gwen T. challenged us today to make a few Christmas cards based on her  card - simple design with just the right touches.  Want to join us?  Sure you do - there's still time to make some projects for our January challenges at Crafting by Designs - go HERE to join.

Operation Write Home Deadlines

Hello blogland!    I've been working on a box of cards for Operation Write Home and I thought this would be a good time to remind my bleeps of some deadlines coming up FAST:

Easter - due Feb 15

Bunnies and chicks, as well as religious cards are welcome! Please separate "spring" from "Easter" in your packages, as we want to be certain anything for Easter specifically gets mailed in time.

Mother's Day - due March 31It's not too early to start thinking about Mom and Dad cards! Consider sending in a half dozen of these while sending in your other spring cards, just to get our stash built up for the first Moms Day boxes! Also - if you can separate your cards out so that the ones that say "Happy Mother's Day" are separate from the ones that say "Love you Mom", that helps us be able to get the Mother's Day cards targeted to mail first, and fill in with the general ones!

A few special notes regarding holiday cards:

1. With the reductions in overseas deployments, we need fewer cards. (We still need a lot, but much less than before.) Therefore please take your time, and focus on quality over quantity. We get a lot of cards tossed together as multiples - speed is no longer an issue, so we can take time to play and really get creative now!

2. If you're making a lot of cards for any season, multiples OR just a large number, remember to get your cards in TWO WEEKS BEFORE any posted deadlines; sending a couple hundred cards right at the deadline really makes it nearly impossible to get your cards mixed in the last couple boxes!

3. Make "general" cards that can also be used for a holiday - those are the MOST useful to our heroes. Love cards during Valentines season, spring flowers at Eastertime, snowmen at Christmas. No sentiment gives the card a longer shelf life and makes it more flexible for our heroes' use.

Remember, just because the military is finally out of Iraq doesn't mean that OWH doesn't still need cards!  Please consider making some cards for this wonderful organization!  Go HERE for all the details.

A birthday card from scraps

Hello blogland!  I've been catching up on my scrapping and was on a roll this weekend!  I got three layouts finished yesterday in no time using the "Happy Day" collection from Simple Stories - love it!  Today I wanted to clean off my desk and decided to make a birthday card for my next box to Operation Write Home from the scraps sitting there and here's what I came up with:

I distressed the edges to make it a little more vintage looking and popped up the sentiment and banner with some pop dots to give it just a little bit of dimension.  One-two-three and it was done and is already in the box ready to go to one of our heroes.  Don't forget to stop by OWH and check out today's sketch challenge HERE.

More CAS cards and fun techniques

Hello blogland!  I had another fun day at Day 8 of the On-Line Clean and Simple class and have two new cards to share with you:

This first card is from Jennifer McGuire's  Mirror Image Stamping technique and was tons of fun.   I'm not crazy about the stamped images I chose and think I'll be re-doing this one.

This second card is a cut-out shape on the front page and masked that image on the inside of the card.  This was very quick and easy to do but tomorrow I'll be adding a large stamped image onto the front of the card - just too plain like this. 

Can't wait for Day 9 of class - this has been so much fun and given me so many great ideas for CAS projects.