Christmas Pajamas

Hey friends! December first! How do you like that :) Are you a prepared kinda person all finished and presents wrapped if you celebrate, or a last minute kinda dude or dudette?  I'm in the middle.  There's always something I need to get done at the last minute. Oh well :)

So, today I am here with something that made me so very happy!  Em Stafrace owner and designer of Page Drafts, the most amazing sketch blog out there, asked if I would be a Guest Designer for her Christmas release!  Are ya kidding!?! In a heartbeat :) Her collection of sketches for the holidays are nothing short of amazing. Go, go right now and click on her blog and let that second window open up, yeah, that's right I won't go away another window will open, and check it out.  Awesome right?

So I picked my sketch and my layout is about a wonderful tradition we've been doing for many years now. All the nieces and nephews on Christmas Eve put their Christmas pj's on and take a picture.  It is such a wonderful tradition because even though some of them are now in their late 20's, even early thirty as far as my daughter Victoria goes, married, kids of their own, those pj's get put on and they line up. Picking out the pics was a trip down memory lane. To see how big my youngest and granddaughters have gotten made me smile. In one pic Santino is being held because he was so young yet.The inclusion of husband, boyfriend and family visiting from out of state have also been in the pics.

Em gives you a jumping off point and you take off from there, which I did. The paper is from MME's Christmas line "Joyous". This line is stunning and I'll be going back to my lss and grabbing more for sure.  Here is the sketch I chose and my take -

sketch #37.4

I used my cricut to cut the pretty flourish Christmas trees, banner, and the poinsettia flourish, and my big shot for the frames around the pics and my pine cones and green sprigs. If you look at the close-ups you can see some flourishy swirls embossed in the red paper, that was my folder and a brayer and elbow grease rolling as hard as I could since my paper obviously is too big to go through the big shot. I debated using my rolling pin, but I was too lazy to go downstairs to get it :p The twirled ribbon is just the paper scraps cut thin and wrapped around a paintbrush. Some flowers from my stash, both Prima and Petaloo collections, ribbon from my stash, glitter and stickles for sparkle. Hubby said but some gold, maybe bells, so I did :) I always ask hubby before I'm done, his artistic input is invaluable to me.

Here's a couple of pics of the paper line -

These are from what I have already, you can see the whole line here MME

Thank you for visiting, and go see Em and her blog Page Drafts!

Thanksgiving Day Cards

Hi folks!  Hope this Sunday evening finds you well :) Today I'm bringing a quick post of my Thanksgiving Day cards.  Cards really aren't my forte, I don't make that many of them.  I make this holiday and Easter for my mom and two aunts.  Then throughout the year, I will usually make birthday cards for various family members, but not all the time.

These were made with a combo of scraps from Bo Buuny and DCWV's autumn lines. I cut the leaves with my cricut and an EK Success maple leaf punch,  I then smeared some distress stain and ink on my craft resist mat, sprayed water as well and then dragged the leaves through for such a gorgeous effect.  When dry and glued to the card, I then stickled with my gold.  Gotta have that bling :)  Love the silky ribbon in both sage and burnt orange.  So pretty, then some rhinestones and pearls for finishing up.

Take a look -

I found quotes online that I liked and printed them up, then cut them with my nestabilities die, I stacked them with the larger die,  You can see on two I had the saying going horizontal with the die and the larger die cut under going vertical, and on one vice versa.  I really love how then came.  My mom got her's and she loves it too, but she's pretty biased ;) Cards really are a fantastic way to get rid of those scraps.

Working on some mini's I'm giving as gifts this year so I've been pretty busy, and Thanksgiving is at my home.  Lots of yummy food and pies, oh PIES!!!   Coconut cream, and salted caramel chocolate tart are the two new ones on the menu this year. Of course we never leave out the good ole stand by's, pumpkin, apple, pecan and salted caramel apple.  I just like to make at least one new pie each year.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving if you're in the states friends.

Family

Well hello again!  I'm going for a record here!  Today I'm sharing my layout for Swirlydoo Kit Club's Round Robin challenge.  Each week a gal from the team shares their lift from the gal who went before them, unless you're first, then you set the standard. It's all about the family for this one.  I used September's gorgeous Vintage Love kit filled with Prima goodness!  Just beautiful, check out the pic -

So, in the challenge, if you use a Swirlydoo tutorial you get an extra point, using 60% of the kit gets you another.  My technique I used was for Vintage Chipboard -


My picture is of all of us from Desirae and Omar's wedding and I did a teeny step out just to show a couple of steps.  I layout all my pieces to make sure they're where I want them, then I start putting it together.

Some embossing

 starting to glue it all down

I love that Blue Fern chippie!  I used the great treatment to give it such a nice effect.  I curled the burlap string on the tags to give it a bit more fancy look.  The little clock face is scrap from my scrap stash pile.  I just glued it on and kept it plain. The amber rhinestones and the Family rub-on have been in my stash since the wheel was invented ;)

Procuct List (first five from kit)

Prima Time Traveler - "no 70", Love Affair, 
Prima Time Traveler  - Tag Me Ticket Tag Set  
Prima Cartographer Flowers - Roamer
Blue Fern Chipboard - Ornate Frame
Lace Trim - Black
I Am Roses - Roses, Cherry Blossoms
Doily
Butterfly Printable
Stickles - Copper
Distress Ink - Brushed Cordouroy, Rusty Hinge
Acrylic Stamp Flourish
Lindy Stamp Gang Starburst Spray - Icy Primrose Gold, Fuzzy Navel Peach
Lindy Stamp Gang Embossing Powder - Midnight Bronze Obsidian
Rub-on - Family (stash)
Rhinestones - Amber (stash)

Thanks for coming by!

Imaginarium Design Team Call

Hi all, this is a special post specifically for Imaginarium Designs. Trying out for a dt is always exciting. Nerve wracking too, for sure. In this post I have put 10 of my most favorite projects.  Be warned, it is very pic heavy:)

Hope you like them too!