Handmade Ornament Swap

I've always made handmade ornaments for our family Christmas tree with my mom. Here's a picture of our tree.



I LOVED that shiny, tinsel tree!!! I still have it. Maybe I should put it up this year...

I've happily continued that tradition with my babies. "Babies", of course is a relative term, as they are now 14, 12 and 6! Each year as we unpack our ornaments to decorate our tree, we spend time talking about the years we made each one. Each of them has their favorites, and with boys, hanging ornaments sometimes comes close to a wrestling match!!!

All things considered, I think my crazy and eclectic tree, filled with handmade ornaments from years gone by, is the most beautiful thing! It's everything I hope my "baby's" childhood should be...

SHINY and filled with MEMORIES.

Here's a few pictures of the first ornaments of 2011...





Paige and I had such fun creating these little paper clay birdie's :-)



If you love creating ornaments, you should check out this wonderful swap hosted over at An Artful Adventure. There's still a couple of days to join in the fun!!! For more info, check out Cassandra's blog post HERE!

I'm In Stitches!

I gotta say that I'm a fan of my sewing machine :-)

So, when Saturated Canary Challenge Blog's second EVER challenge was to stitch up your project, I can't say that I was disappointed!

Challenge #2 is open until Wednesday, October 26 @ 12:00am EST.

Here's my take...

For my card, I've used the gorgeous Ragamuffin Violet. Which, by the way, I WON in the FIRST EVER challenge...just sayin'...I love when my stars are lucky!!!



I wanted the overall look and feel of an old photo, so I've colored her up in mostly black and white with just a bit of pink. I just love the pink!!!

I've layered vintage dictionary pages, sewing tissue and torn bits of white tulle on top of kraft and black cardstock for the base and finished it off with a bit of black stitching. I really like the contrast of the black stitching on the white paper :-)



And the cute little flower? Yep. I hand-stitched those beads on there. It is a stitching challenge, after all!!!



Thanks so much for stopping by!!!

A Bit Of A Challenge...

I've recently fallen in LOVE! I found a new digi store and I LOOOOVVVEEE everything!!! It's called Saturated Canary Digi's and is the brainchild of one Krista Smith.

Said shop has recently started a challenge blog and I'm SO playing along!!! Challenge One is open until Wednesday, October 12 @ 12:00am EST.

Here's the sketch...



Here's my take...

When I saw "Vampire Rose", I couldn't resist the optional "Halloween Theme" clause in the challenge. She's super sweet with a BITE!



I've added some hand-dyed seam binding in a blood red. What's a vampy card without a splash of red??? Oh! And some glitter bats. Ya gotta have bats!!!



And, once again, I've flexed my Copic muscle with some more black and white coloring. Gotta exercise to beef up my skills!!! Practice, practice, PRACTICE!!!



Thanks for stoppin' by!!!

{CELEBRATE}

What's the best way to celebrate October 1st, otherwise known as World Cardmaking Day??? Why, with a card, of course!!!

I host a local group of ladies in a quarterly card swap, and tonight's the night! Imagine my surprise, when I found out that today is World Cardmaking Day!!! Boy, oh boy...It's kismet :-)

I have it bad for polka dots. In fact, the only thing better than dots, is black and white dots! So, after finding this paper in my stash, I knew I wanted to go black and white.

I've also been stalking quite a few different banner stamps for awhile now. I say stalking, because it's been a bit of an obsession! I finally decided to go for the Hero Arts "Friendly Flags" set. Oh, man does this stamp set make me happy!!! ***LE SIGH***



And what's a card without stitching??? Lots of stitching. Lots of messy, fun stitching!



I finally pulled out my Cool Gray Copics and got to coloring! It's my first attempt at a black and white image and I'm pretty ok with it :-)



I hope your taking some time today to get your craft on!!! Go make a card and share the love...

Thanks for stoppin' by!!!