Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all that Jazz

What a busy time it's been at our house as of late! Christmas has come, and it has gone. It's amazing how fast it seems to fly by each year. We had a really awesome Christmas. We spent Christmas eve with Tim's family, and we spent Christmas day with my family. There were special things about each day and I will always cherish those memories. We weren't able to go to church for Christmas this year, but we were able to celebrate the birth of Christ with each family and were able to honor Him as our Lord and savior through Christmas carols and the reading of the Christmas story.

This week I will be able to spend time with family and friends that are in town! I am so glad that I am off work all week so that I will have the time to visit with everyone. I'm looking forward to it :)

Today I am going to post the last 3 Christmas cards that I made this year. I duplicated these and most people I sent Christmas cards to received one of these.

The stamps used on this one are $1 stamps from Michael's! I love the $1 section...you can really find some great stuff!


I originally started with the green and brown pictured below, but I thought, hmm..maybe I should try red and brown! The ribbon I had just bought from Hobby Lobby matched perfectly. This is one of my favorite color combination's this year, and if I had more Real Red paper, I would've made more of them!


And here's the beauty. I came up with this card on a whim because being the procrastinator that I am, it was the week before Christmas and I still had a ton of cards to make. This card is elegant and simple all at once. It's easy to duplicate and was a life saver. It's one of my favorites! Once again, I used Stampin' Ups Snow Swirled set. It's a beautiful set and I am so glad I purchased it.

Thanks so much for taking a look! I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas and has a Happy New Years!

*love*

Masculine Cards

I have to be honest and say, that ever since I started stamping, I have had a difficult time with masculine cards! Maybe that's because I'm such a girly-girl, but man...that's when I really have to dig deep into my creativity. Thank goodness for good ideas from splitcoaststampers; what would I do without that site? :)

Tim's birthday was on November 2, and he turned the big 3-0! This is the card I finally came up with and I like how it came out! Lots and lots of distressing...I did a lot of sponging. The best thing is, that he really liked and appreciated the card, so that makes me happy :) We had a really fun day. We went to the Joe Pool Lake dam to go walking and enjoy the gorgeous weather! I was able to take some good pictures of the fall foliage here in Texas.

We also went out to dinner at Red, Hot, and Blue, which has amazing bar-b-que. We ate way too much, but of course, we had to go have dessert. So we headed to the cheesecake factory where I ordered the ultimate sinful dessert out there -- Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake. Holy cow...it's amazing. If you are a chocaholic like I am, you have to get that dessert. You will fall in love! It is sinfully rich. Tim got the Turtle Cheesecake, which he said was also amazing. Needless to say, we had to get to-go boxes, so we were able enjoy them the next day :)

One last card to share with you...still working on those Christmas cards! I've really become a fan of the simple cards -- minimal layers, not too much fluff, but still looks good. Sometimes I feel if I go to over the top, it just does'nt end up looking as good. Still learning, learning, learning! And having fun doing it :)

Thank you for taking a look, and hope you have a blessed weekend. We're going to spend time at a friends house this evening battling it out with a game of Settlers of Catan. Oh yeah!

*love*

Snow Swirled Christmas

Just a quick post for tonight to show you what I worked on. SCS had their Sketch Challenge today, so I decided to play :) And here is what I came up with!

This was a fun one to do, especially since I got to try embossing again. It just adds a whole other element to card making. Once again, the picture does not do the card justice. It's too bad I can't photograph all the sparkles very well. If you have a tip on how to do that, let me know!

In other news, Tim and I did our duty and voted today. I'm very glad to have it done early, and am anxious for next Tuesday! We shall see what happens...... Also, our cat, Garbanzo, is VERY pregnant. Every day I come home from work expecting there to be a litter of kittens. I'm very...very afraid. I'm sure I will love them and adore them, and then as they get older and destroy my house, I will want to wring their little necks :) We're planning to keep one of them and then do everything in our power to find homes for the rest (and Garbanzo's getting spayed!) Ah...life with a kitty!

*love*

Allow me to introduce myself....

So I did it. I finally started a blog! I've actually started one before, with not much success. This one will be different (haha...). No but really, I hope that I'll be able to keep up with this one :)

I picked up the wonderful art of card making about two years ago, but got more serious about it within the past year. I am a follower of all things on splitcoaststampers and continue to be amazed and inspired by all the lovely ladies on there. I have so many techniques to learn and I am enjoying every minute of it! This blogs purpose is to share my designs, and my life, with others who happen to come across it. I hope that it will be an encouragement to those who feel they are not 'crafty'. I truly believe that everyone has creative abilities, whether it's used in paper crafts, photography, cooking, stick figure drawings, whatever! So, if you're one of those people that thinks "oh, I could never do that..." but deep down inside, you really want to, then I say "Do it!" (been there!)

As far as the personal life goes, I am married to Tim, the love of my life! We reside in Dallas, TX with our fairly new cat, Garbanzo (or callie, or garby's, or party taco.....really, she has a variety of names). I currently work for a non-profit organization as an office assistant. I do anything and everything from organizing and sending out mailers to assisting with the finances. I'm kinda the go-to-gal of the office. I have my Bachelor's in Christian Studies with a focus on Educational Ministry from Dallas Baptist University, and one day I hope to go back to get my masters in Counseling. Tim runs his own candy machine business and is also a courier part-time. We attend an awesome church and young adults group at Grace Community Church. We just love it there, and the people are amazing. Um...what else do we do? Tim and I enjoy walks at the Joe Pool Lake Dam, keeping up with our fav shows (the office, 24, and LOST!), listening to music, theological discussions, and making each other laugh on a daily basis. He's my favorite :)

Well, I'm sure there's plenty more to say, but I will leave you with this card that I created over the weekend.

I absolutely LOVE how this one turned out. Christmas is right around the corner, and guess who isn't even CLOSE to having her Christmas cards done. Yup. This girl. But, this set (which I just got last week!) really got me excited about making Christmas cards, and about Christmas in general! 'Snow Swirled' is a beautiful set by Stampin' Up! and I can't wait to experiment with different designs.

Thank you to all of you who have come to visit my little corner of the world!

Until next time....
*love*