Handmade Christmas Gifts

Wow, it has been almost a month since I have made a card.  Now that doesn't mean that I haven't been crafting.  This year we decided to make a lot of our Christmas gifts for the Grandbabies.  Not to save money, but because in my memory the things that meant so much to us as kids and the best memories that I have of Christmases when I was a child are the handmade items that we received.  When I say we, I always mean my twin sister Rebecca and I.  Because as you can imagine, whatever was made for one, was made for both of us.  So Papa and I have been sewing (OK, that is me), cutting, building, sanding, and painting gifts for the kiddo's,

The girls, (Peighton-5, Kiah-3, Jemma-2) are getting beds for their dolls.  The beds of course need bedding, mattresses, pillows and a quilt. Nova who is 1 1/2 is getting a crib for her baby, which of course will require a mattress, quilt, and pillow.  And Gunner who is almost 3 is getting a gun rack made by Papa, that will say Gun's Guns!!

I was so excited to find fabulous plans over at Ana White Homemaker for beds for 18 inch dolls.  Now Gene did the cutting, I think he is afraid I would cut off a finger or something!! And I did the building.  

I learned a few lessons along the way.  Don't buy a cute little drill that is small and under 10 volts because it is Lime Green, no use the bigger 18 volt drill that belongs to your husband!!  I learned how to countersink screws.  I do really think though that you should have 3 drills so that you don't have to continually change back and forth. ;)  The first bed took me a good day to finish, the next two went so much faster.  The building that is..... not the sanding and painting!!

Now, I wish I could take the credit for the crib that Gene built for Nova.  He did it one day while I was a work, I did however get to sand and paint it.  I think it is darling and can't wait to give it to her! It has a cool little storage drawer underneath it.  You know, for diapers and such!

The plans for this crib can also be found by Ana White. I just love how this turned out!!  The blankets, pillows and mattresses were not made with any plans, just sewn.  Now did I mention I can't wait for Christmas!! I cannot wait to give these gifts to the girls.  I will be back with Gunners gift later!

I am going to link up my projects to:

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Not Just a Housewife.

Todays Creative Blog Holiday projects.

Skip To My Lou Made by you Monday,

Baby Shower with the Cricut

Last Saturday we were able to Bless my daughter Katie and her husband Adam with a Baby Shower.  My daughter Danelle, Adam's mom Tina and I planned a baby shower with their baby room theme in mind.  The theme is Knights and Dragons.  Well, knights and dragons is just not a theme that you can find anywhere.  So, I got out my Cricut and my Paper Dolls Dress Up cartridge.  Silly me, I don't have a pic of the invites.  And to be honest, time got away from me and not everyone got one!!  Gotta love Facebook events!!  We had over 40 people at the shower and believe me, Bryar was blessed.   Here are a few pics from the shower.

For the Knights and Dragons theme I went with shields. We used all black and silver tablecloths, napkins, plates, etc.   I hung the banner with black and white twine and mini clothespins. 

I made a pile of mini shields and stamped each one with a B.

These cupcakes are so YUMMO!!  Who likes coffee????  Well, you all know that I do. 

1. I took a chocolate cake mix and replaced most of the water in the recipe with coffee and a some Kahlua coffee syrup. 

2. I then folded some of the Kahlua syrup into some cool whip and used a tip to put the cream into the center of the cupcake when it cooled. 

3. I made a chocolate buttercream frosting and added coffee to it.  

4. Sprinkle on some toffee Heath bits.

Overkill, nah!!

Wish I could say that I made that cool shield for Bryar's wall with my Cricut.  but no, my daughter Danelle had that made for him.  How cool is that?!!   Baby Bryar was gifted with so many fabulous gifts, so many fabulous handmade items, I was blown away.  This quilt was made by his great grandmother.

And a pic of both of my pregnant daughters.  I will be blessed with 2 more grandsons, bringing the count to 4 and 4.  We are so blessed. 

My daughter Danelle is my fabulous photographer, and here are a couple of my fave pregnancy photos of Katie and Adam. 

Isn't this T-shirt the greatest?  A gift from his mom. I love it!!

And there she is.  

Now, just a note:  I was so busy working on this shower that I skipped out on Guylou's Christmas with a Wreath Challenge this week.  You will want to head on over to the Challenge and check it out. I know she has some new images to play with. 

Anita Be Stampin Blog Hop and Release

It's Anita Be Stampin Digi Release and Blog Hop day.  Are you ready?  All of the new releases are now available over at the Anita Be Stampin Store.  We are celebrating by having a Blog Hop.  There is so much inspiration along the way, you will want to visit every blog to check it out.  One lucky person that comments on every blog will win the entire new release. How fun is that?  Now if you came here from Anita's fabulous blog then you are on the right track.  If not you will want to head back to the ABS Challenge Blog where all the fun starts.  Now time for my creations.  I played with two of the new images. The first one is Sandy Clause.  

And the second image is called Elfira. 

Both of these sentiments are from AmyR over at All That Scraps from last years Christmas sentiments.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  The next stop on the hop is Dee's Blog.   Remember to leave a comment on every blog on the hop by Sunday, Nov. 13^th at 12:01 am CST for your chance to win all of the ABS digi images released today.  Here is the list of all of the stops on the hop today, just in case you get lost along the way:

ABS Challenge Blog

Anita

Brenda

Dee

Lelia

Rene’

Tracy

ABS Challenge Blog

Something other than a card!!

My hubby and I have been hitting the little auction on Friday nights.  One thing that I have been bidding on are pictures and frames. I have so many ideas in mind for them.  I have been wanting to make a chalk board for my kitchen wall.  This is what I came up with. 

As you can see I haven't hung it yet, but I wanted to share it!!  So, the question is.....should I add white paint to the frame and distress it?  Or leave it as is?  Want to see how it started?  Well of course you do!! I bought this picture for $5 at the auction.

I tried to rough up the glass using steel wool, next time I will use a fine sand paper.  Apparently the paint adheres better that way.  I cleaned the glass with rubbing alcohol and taped off the frame.  I used spray paint chalk.  And gave it about 3 coats.  After waiting at least 24 hours I cured the chalk board with chalk and then wiped it off.   Yesterday I bought chalk paint in the can, my friend Laurie says that is the way to go.  We will see!!!  

It's Your Birthday

It's your birthday.  Starla, it's your birthday!! 

 Did you come by way of Gina's fabulous blog?  If not you will want to start back at Vicki's blog so you won't miss any of the hop.  Starla is having a bog hop to celebrate her birthday, her 1 year blogaversary, and her belated celebration of 100 followers to her blog.  She has asked a group of blogger buddies to join in the hop and help her celebrate.  I was happy to be asked and happy to hop along with Starla and this great group of crafters.  What Starla doesn't know is that Guylou has created a special image just for Starla.  Starla loves everything fairies and so she has requested that we all use a fairy image.  So happy birthday Starla, what's better than to have an image named after you. 

 Now you will want to check out the rest of the hop.  Your next stop along the way is Tracy's blog.   If you leave a comment on all the stops along the way I know that Starla has some great blog candy for the winners.  If you get lost along the way here are the participants. 

Vicki

Cely

Charlene

Lynn

Sara

Gina

                      Brenda ~ you are here

Tracy

Kim

Guylou

Starla

Thankful with a Turkey Twist

The holiday season has began.  It seems though that Thanksgiving gets somewhat lost between the hoopla of Halloween and the commercialism of Christmas.   I love how Thanksgiving comes earlier in Canada.  It seems there is more time to reflect on what you are thankful for before jumping into Christmas.  Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but it is good for us to stop and be Thankful for what God has given us.  When you walk into stores and the Halloween candy and costumes is just one isle away from the Christmas decorations you wonder where Thanksgiving went.  I think we all need to take some time to be thankful for God's goodness.

 We are having a Thanksgiving Challenge over at Guylou's Inimitability with a turkey twist.  I used the image, Leah cooks a Turkey.

For this card I used some paper from my stash, the Happy Thanksgiving block is from The Cutting Cafe and the Taste and See stamp is from Layers of Color.  

I hope you will pop over to the Challenge Blog and check out all the fabulous inspiration from the Design Team.  You will have until 10:00 PM EST on Novemeber 17th to play along.  And don't forget to have a turkey somewhere on your project.

I am going to add this to the following challenges.
Dutch Dare Card Challenge has a Give Thanks theme.
Moving along with the Times has food as the challenge.
My Mums Craft Shop has with Thanks.

You is Kind

One of the best movies I have seen this year was The Help.  Loved that movie.  Regina over at The Cutting Cafe has brought us a cutting file with those words that really were just so inspiring.   You is Kind, You is Smart, You is Important.  Wow, if we could just teach all our children those things when they are young they would all be self confidant when they grow up!  I got my inspiration from a blogging buddy, Craftdee Donna.  She had found these little notebooks and altered them.  I found the same ones recently and used one for today's project.  We are featuring Large Circles over at The Cutting Cafe this week.

Well now of course, I used some My Mind's Eye paper, my lacy circle and regular circle nestie.  I inked it with some Tim Holtz walnut distress ink.

I used my cropadile to place eyelets for my brown dotted sheer ribbon to tie through.   That butterfly is from a set from Close To My Heart that I stamped with Stazon onto a piece of plastic packaging then cut it out. 

Now, my pen doesn't quite match. Before I give this away I will find a pen to match it.  

I am going to add this to the challenge over at Cooking it up with Katie it anything but a card. 

Anything Goes at Anita Be Stampin

It is time for another challenge over at Anita Be Stampin.  The challenge is the easiest of all challenges. It is an anything goes challenge.  For this weeks challenge I used an old favorite.  I used Rosie's Sweets.  Every time I use these stamps I just want to tell you how high quality they are.  I just love them!  And you get so many stamps in the package.  I pulled out some gorgeous papers from the My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Collection.  Of course my Copics and some seam binding.  

I also pulled out one of my favorite tried an true tools, the cropadile and put an eyelet on both sides of my front open card to pull the seam binding ribbon through.  

Sometimes you have such gorgeous papers that you just don't want to cover them up.  That being said, I really let the paper showcase this card.  Here are the Copics I used to color Rosie up.

You will want to head on over to Anita Be Stampin and check out my teamies creations.  While you are there you may want to scroll down and check out the Design Team Call Anita is having.  

This is today's second post so you might want to scroll down and check out the Challenge over at the Outlawz.    

November Novelties Color Challenge

It is time for a new month of color challenges over at the Outlawz.  November brings us November Novelties.  What is this, you ask?  This is the twist that goes along with our Color Inspirations.  November we are sponsored by the fabulous Paper Shelter.  I had SEW much fun coloring this image Cute Dressmaker.  She is just SEW cute!!  I used some of my favorite My Mind's Eye papers, some red ric rac and of course my sewing machine.

What is the color inspiration?  These gorgeous colors were brought to us by Sara this week, just wait til you see all the teamies amazing creations with these fun colors. 

 

The November  Novelties is to use twine.  Do you ever go through a challenge and get your card all done and then remember there was a twist. Umm yeah, even when it is my own challenge I forget!!  LOL, well I was lucky cuz the twist was TWINE.  Love when you luck out like that!!

I had fun with the inside of this card too.  I used a Tim Holtz die cut for the inside with more of that MME paper. 

Now, our sponsor, The Paper Shelter is sponsoring us with a $20 gift certificate.  You could get your own Cute Dressmaker image!!!

Of course I want to add my card to the challenge at the Paper Shelter for their Anything Goes challenge. 

Free December Daily Sets

Who loves free?  You have got to run on over to The Cutting Cafe.  Regina is offering her December Daily sets free through Wednesday, November 2nd.  If you have ever wanted to try out the Cutting Cafe digitals, here is your chance to try some for free!!!

We are back!!

Our summer vacation is over!!  We took a little break over at Anita Be Stampin, but we are back with a new challenge.  We are ready to start seeing your fabulous projects again.  We have a brand new challenge for you with the release of Broomhilda and Frankenbride in digital format.  The challenge is to make a Spooky Halloween themed project.  I played with Broomhilda this week. 

I don't have any Halloween themed paper so I used this black and cream paper, sewed along the edges in orange, added some orange paper, ribbon and button and a sentiment from The Cutting Cafe.  Now I would love to see what you have for us!  

Anita is starting the challenges back up with a Bang!! This first challenge will have a $25 ABS gift certificate for the winner.  The challenges will now require you to use an ABS image on your project.  You will want to check out the rules in the side bar of the challenge blog. 

Don’t have any ABS images yet, but you want a chance to win? No worries! You can always join the Anita Be Stampin Papercraft Planet group where members have access to a free digi image.

Also, for a very limited time you can snag the Batty digi image absolutely FREE at www.anitabestampin.com.  This cute bat image is perfect for this week’s challenge! ;) 

Now I am going to add this to the challenge at  

iCopic has orange and black

Octoberfest with an Oddball Twist

It is Tuesday and time for another Color Challenge over at the Outlawz.  The Oddball twist this week is to recycle something onto your card.  I used cardboard to cut out my gears with my Tim Holtz sizzix die cut.  And of course I used his distress ink to ink up the edges of everything. 

I used this darling image from Bugaboo, our October sponsor.  The prize for the month of October is 7 digi stamps from Bugaboo. How fabulous is that?!!  I used Deacon Wings and cut him out.  I didn't want the heart on my card. The background is from The Cutting Cafe, Monster Love Background and the sentiment is fromSpooky Square Sentiments.

 And here is your color inspiration for this weeks challenge. 

You will want to take the time to play along this month for your chance to win.

I am going to enter this into the following challenges:

Craft your passion has use Kraft paper.

Crafty Cardmakers has Cute with a dark twist. 

iCopic has black and orange as its challenge.

Make it Monday with the Kraft Journal has Anything Goes.

Make My Monday has black and orange as its challenge. 

FALL Recipe Challenge

This is my favorite time of the year.  I love when the green leaves are changing colors; from green to yellow, to orange and even red.  I just see God's masterpiece everywhere I look.  It amazes me how many colors of green that He created and then how those greens can change to other colors.  Amazing.  Over at Guylou's Inimitability Gina has brought us a real challenge this month.  She challenges us to make a FALL project.

F-Fabric

A-Amber

L-Lace

L-Leaves

I took G's image Thanksgiving Goodies and printed it on fabric.  I took a piece of cream fabric, used my ATG to apply adhesive to my cardstock and attached the fabric and then ran it through my printer.  I worked really well.  I used some AMBER colored thread to make a border and then pulled the threads from the edges.  I then sewed it to the other material, added some leaves, added the backing and sewed a border.  It really is more square than my pic looks!!

This really is a fun little project for some easy Fall decorating.  I hope you will head on over and check out the other FALL projects by my teamies.  There is some fabulous inspiration on the challenge blog. 

I also know that we are having a design team call right now, so if you would like to be a part of this fabulous team check out the deets on how to apply.

Boxes, Boxes, Boxes

Over at The Cutting Cafe this week we have lots of inspiration using the Bags and Boxes cutting files.  I used the Halloween Pillow Box file to create a little Spider pillow box filled with treats.

These little pillow boxes are so easy to use. I went a bit simple with this one. This is the reason you save packaging materials.  I cut out a piece of plastic from one package and attached to the inside of the pillow box so the treats won't fall out!  You will want to head on over to the Cutting Cafe and check out all the fabulous Inspiration projects from my teamies.  And did you recieve the email from The Cutting Cafe this morning?   Regina is having a great sale. 

Our special this week from today until Friday at midnight October 21th 2011, you can choose ANY increments of 5 BAGS OR BOXES for $5.00

Head on over and check out all the fabulous files to choose from. 

Happy Birthday Guylou!!! Surprise!!

Welcome to the Surprise Birthday Party of our friend and digital artist, Guylou.  Today is her birthday and she is such a SPECIAL lady that we just wanted to share it with everyone.  I have been a friend to Guylou for about 5 years now and feel so blessed to have her as a part of my life.  She is Uber~talented and just a sweetheart.  We, her design team and friends have decided to honor her with a blog hop for her birthday.  I am so excited to be the beginning of this hop with a card using one of her earlier images.

Bernadette is from her Retro Ladies line.  She is a very elegant lady, just like Guylou!!! 

OK, now we know that you like to find an awesome RAK at the end of a blog hop, so Gina has graciously provided an amazing prize (one pack of 4 copic multiliners, one pack of 2 stardust pens, a black memento ink pad, and a $5 gift card to Guylou's Inimitability) for one winner that will be chosen by Random.org at the end of this hop. 

 You will have from now until Sunday

 October 16th at 11:59 PM EST to complete the hop, leaving comments on all blogs along the way and ending at Guylou's blog to wish her a happy birthday. 

You will want to head on over to Carmen's blog now and see what she has created to wish G (as we call her) a very Happy Birthday.

And if you happen to get lost along the way here is a list to get you to all the stops.

Brenda ~ You are here

Carmen 

Kim 

Sara 

Tracy 

Trina 

Gina

Guylou ~aka the birthday girl!

The Deets of my card:

I used some of my favorite Echo Park paper from the "For the Record" collection. I thought it fit will with this image.  Happy Birthday comes from the AmyR Elegant Greetings stamp set.

Tuesdays with the Outlawz

Would you like a chance to win 7 digital images by Bugaboo Stamps?  Our fabulous sponsor over in the Color Challenge at the Outlaws is offering one person 7 images in October.  I used this fun image called Hween Brat Pumpkin for my card.

Isn't she just too cute?  Here is your inspiration this week. 

The Octoberfest with an Oddball twist is to add a leaf or leaves to your project.  Or have one somewhere on your project. 

Now, I want you to take a closer look at that background paper.  It is from the Cutting Cafe and is called Monster Love background.   I printed it on kraft paper.  Love how that looks.  I used a CuttleBug folder to emboss the orange, a little pumpkin ribbon, my leaves and voila, there you go!!  I hope you will take a moment to check out the other design team members fabulous creations.  

Breast Cancer Awareness Challenge

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women and the second leading cause of death. Your best weapon against breast cancer is EARLY DETECTION through two common methods of breast screening: breast examination (self and clinical) and screening mammography. Your health is important; you are important. Take good care of yourself.  I had mine last month.  When was your last one? 

We were challenged by Sara to make a project that is mostly Pink.  It must include a pink ribbon on it somewhere.  I used Leah and Breast Cancer Ribbon for my card.

I used a nestie to make my shaped card as well as for the image and sentiment.  The Get Well Soon sentiment is from AmyR Elegant Greetings stamp set.  This gorgeous ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon.  I won this gorgeous bunch of pink and brown ribbon from a blog hop and I have been hoarding it but finally found the perfect card for it!

My family has been touched by cancer quite a bit this year and I just really want to reiterate to get yourself checked.  The key is to find it as early as possible!


Don't forget to head on over to Guylou's Inimitability Challenge blog to check out all the Design Team's projects!!


Now, you think you don't have an image that fits?  No worries,

Guylou designed a new image in honor of the Breast Cancer Awareness program and for reaching over 250 followers on her blog. Gabrielle and ribbon is available for free between October 7th and 14th at Guylou's Online Store. Please use the code BCA-GABRIELLE at check out to get her free.

For My Little Pumkin

This week over at The Cutting Cafe we are sharing treat boxes.  I used the Pumpkin Treat Box this week.  Have you been to The Cutting Cafe yet and checked out all the fun boxes?  Have you ever tried to cut and fold your own boxes?  Regina's files have all the instructions for cutting and folding.  Takes all the work out of it!!  

Instead of using the paper handle that is provided I used some twill ribbon.  I will make a suggestion.  Don't print on white cardstock!!  I am going to make more of these for my grandbabies, but first I need to make a trip to the craft store for some cardstock that will fit in my printer.  :)  And, well I don't live close to any craft stores so will need to do that this weekend!  Here is a close up of this fun little treat box.  It is the perfect size for little ones.

I used some of my YR copics to give a little dimension to the pumpkin. I forgot how this kind of paper will suck up my ink!!  Thanks for stopping by.  Don't forget to check out the newest Case it Tuesday with the Cafe Challenge.  

Are you ready to Party?

The design team for the Outlawz have been working pretty hard putting together some great tutorials and inspiration to share with you in a fun Blog Hop.  We have 7 challenges over at the Outlawz, a different one for each day of the week.  So for our big 1000 member party we thought it would be fun to do a blog hop.  Nope, you don't have to hop to 32 different blogs, just one for each challenge team and of course we are starting with our fearless leaders blog.  So if you came here Anary's blog then you are right on track.  If not then you will want to hop on over to Colleen's blog.  That is where the fun starts.   At each site you will see a tutorial as well as creations from all the design team members.  Let's get started! The color team has decided to give you a tutorial on a flip flop card. Here is my card. I used the Welcome Fall set from the Cutting Cafe on my card.  They are one of the many sponsors for the party!

And here are all the design teams creations. 

Rox

Guylou

Sara

Wow, are you all still with me? Now I want to share the tutorial for this type of a card. 

You will want to start with a piece of cardstock size 6.5 X 5.25.

You will want to score at 2 3/4 and 3 3/4 down 1 inch on both sides of your cardstock lengthwise.  Then you are going to cut from 1" to 2 3/4 and 3 3/4 to 5 1/2 on your lengthwise cut. Leaving your scored lines intact.

Then you are going to cut from 1" to 4 1/4" on the width side.  Clear as Mud?  I hope not.  The idea is to leave an inch on all sides and then fold on your scored lines. 

Each of the design team members then decorated there cards differently.  Now for your color inspiration, we are after all the COLOR team!!

I really hope you will hop on over to the Outlawz and check out the fun we are having.  There is over $800 in prizes to be won this week.  We have the most fabulous sponsors and they have all outdone themselves this week.   Now you will want to hop on over to Sandi's blog. I for one can't wait to see what she has in store for us all!!!
But before you do, you will want to make sure that you leave a comment here and on the other blogs to be eligible to win the prize.   If you become a follower of my blog you will receive 2 entries.  We will be checking!!  Then head on over to the Color Challenge to add your very own fancy fold card.  Make sure you add it to the 1000 member folder.

Don't forget to check out the 1000 member folder.  There is over $800 in prizes!!

Now just in case you get lost along the way here is the blog list for you to come back to!

The Outlawz Host: Colleen Holmes

CAS Host: Maureen Merritt

Greetings Host: anaRy Baumgarth

Color Host:  Brenda Ogle

Sketch Host: Sandi Huggett

Twisted Thursdays Host: Sharri Steffens

Copic/Promarkers Host: Jo Ham

Paper Ala Mode: Rona Mallard