The Good & The Bad News...or Why Being Scarlett is Good When Your Life Revolves Around the Military...

My mom was just asking me the other day what the exact date was that Ben would be leaving for his deployment. I had to tell her that I had no real idea and that even though this was supposed to be happening at the end of Dec or early Jan, that it was too early to think about it.

I

was

right...

The good news is that he was supposed to be going to Qatar early in January. That date has now been changed to mid February. Yay!

But now the location has been changed...to Baghdad...not feeling so happy about that. But like any good military spouse that knows that everything could change until he is on the plane, I am going to look at this like Scarlett and I will think about it tomorrow...or next month... or when he gets on the plane to go...

So let's move on to more fun things to talk about...cards! Here are a couple of my favorite Christmas cards that I created for Issue 23 of Papercraft Essentials. I am pretty sure that this issue came out a few weeks ago in the UK so it should be okay for me to post these. The article was actually about inserts, but of course, I had to make pretty outsides to go with the inserts. :)

Supplies used:

*Cosmo Cricket tag
*green and red cardstock
*red buttons
*black brads
*Heidi Swapp Damask sticker

Supplies used:

*Cosmo Cricket patterned paper and velvet ribbon
*Melissa Frances Christmas stickers
*green and cream cardstock
*Inkadinkado Santa Postage stamp - #95630
*Inkadinkado Merry Christmas Santa stamp - #93146

*black inkpad

smiles,

christi

Sharing a Very Special Project...

I think that it is okay to share this project since it is already online. One of the DT's that I have been working on stuff for has been Heart In Hands. This is a fantastic little site that offers classes on all kinds of altered projects...gorgeous stuff!!! For the DT app, we had to remix one of the classes and Tammy Tutterow had designed a class around love notes using a 7 gypsies envelope album. This was the perfect class for me to remix because this is a project that I have wanted to do ever since Kat was born.

First, a little bit of history so that you can understand the Why for this project. Kat was not a planned event in my life and as such, I am an older mom...I am 37 which on the surface isn't that bad until you start doing the math for the events that will be happening in her life...marriage, babies, etc. The odds are (esp. with my family medical history) that I am not going to be a part of her life when some of those things occur. There are certain things that a girl needs her mother for... I am making this book as a "just in case" I am not there. Hopefully, it will leave her some guidance and information and just a bit of comforting advice/history from mom.

The book is called from Me to You:

For the inside cover, I put a photo of the two of us that my mother took on Halloween night and an intro message, "~for Katherine~As an older mom, I worry about not being there for all the momentous occasions in your life. This book is a "just in case" substitute for me. I hope that it will help guide and advise you to not feel so alone when I am not around. I love you with my whole heart, Little One. ~Mom"

There are 10 envelopes inside and they are all labeled with specific themes:

1. you- this is where I will tell the story of how she came into our lives and a bit of what a blessing she is

2. our guys- info about Jacob and Ben

3. family- family history/stories

4. style- a bit of mom advice

5. art- a bit about the history art/crafts has played with the women in our family

6. love- relationship advice

7. wedding- mom advice

8. babies- mainly stories from me about having babies

9. misc
10. me- bits about me as a person

Supplies used:

*Fancy Pants papers

*7 gypsies ledger paper

*Inque Boutique stamps

*brown inkpad*buttons

*misc ribbons and laces

*Marvy Uchida oval punch

smiles,

Christi

Creating Happening Here...

I am having such a creative weekend. I love it when everything just seems to work right! Unfortunately, most of the projects that I have been working on are for DT applications and I am not sure if I can share them yet...I will have to investigate that...





But for now, all I have to share is another quick Christmas card:

Supplies used here:
*Rhonna Farrer Christmas stamps
*Basic Grey Figgy Pudding paper
*Bazzill cardstock
*brown inkpad
*flat-back gems
*scalloped oval punch from Marvy Uchida

I hope that you are creating today...
smiles,
christi

Testing me...

hehe...you guys are just testing me, aren't you? Happay Scrappay tagged me with the 7 things tag again. I think you all are just trying to see if you can stump me, but I love a good challenge. To see my other lists of seven, see here, here, and here.

So here we go again. {Another} 7 random facts about me...
1. I wish that I was a redhead. If I wasn't so lazy and bad about consistently dying my hair, I probably would be. ;)
2. On the subject of hair, I rarely get my hair cut...I just cut it myself. Right now it hasn't been professionally cut since Kat was born (6 months ago) and the haircut before that, it was 2 years in between haircuts.
3. I love the color red...one of my favorite "things" in my life right now is my red coffeemaker.
4. I love to wear high heels year round, every day if possible. I feel powerful and thinner (which is ALWAYS a good thing) when I have high heels on. My shoe of choice during the winter months are some high heeled boots that are mid-calf.
5. Tonight I found a book that I started once (it's only like 3 pages.) I started it during the Christmas season and I really like what is written. I am really tempted to pick it up and start writing on it again...the story so far is intriguing and I have absolutely no recollection of where I was going with it so it could be an adventure.
6. I have picked up equipment/supplies to start drawing again. I am playing with some ideas of some new areas of crafting for me...maybe I will share more later.
7. I miss being on a Design Team. Since 2005, I have always had at least one (and usually more) where I was doing monthly work. That ended (and entirely coincidentally) when Kat was born when both the stores (one online and one local) that I was designing for closed/restructured. I am still doing mag work, but it's different than DT work. So this weekend, I am working on a couple of DT applications for 2 teams that I would really LOVE to be a part of.

And there is my seven random facts.

BTW, I had someone ask where they can find my magazine work. I work with a UK publisher, Practical Publishing. My most recent articles have been in the magazines Complete Cardmaking and Papercraft Essentials. You can sometimes find these at B&N. I am not sure which issues are out right now...there is a LONG delay time between when they are released in the UK and when they show up in the States.

Today has been a really productive day. So far, I have finished 1 card and 2 layouts, but I didn't get anything photographed before it got dark so I will share a bit of it tomorrow. And no, I never did get a nap, but I have had my muse humming so I haven't even been sleepy. Maybe a lack of sleep is better for my creative muse. :)

smiles,
christi

Black Friday...

Good morning! Were you up shopping in the hours of twilight this morning? I should have been! LOL! Kat has been up pretty much constantly since 1:30 am. Ugh! I was really going to whine about it on here, but then started doing the math. She never adjusted to time change so she is usually asleep at 6:00 in the evening (although it was a bit later last night after her over-stimulation from our Thanksgiving activities), but that is 7 1/2 hours of sleep. I am either going to have to get her adjusted to the time change or just accept the fact that I am never going to be able to watch prime-time tv again because I am usually asleep on the couch by 8:00. I have missed all the good shows this week! I am hoping to catch up via internet today and tomorrow...

So did you have a good day yesterday? We really did until Kat decided to do her impression of the Exorcist last night at bedtime, which only serves us right for asking so much of her, but she was an absolute angel until then so it's all good.

We went to the club on Fort Bragg for lunch. They had a beautiful buffet spread. There was very little that Jacob liked (although they had ice cream with oreo crumbles so it was all good), but Ben was in stuffing heaven. We were sitting where we had a good view of a lit water-fountain which Kat was enthralled with. Between it and the candle on the table, she had lots of things to focus on. She was a little more intimidated by all the people. Unlike Jacob as a baby, she is not too sure about strangers. She tends to hang on pretty tight to me at those times and never shares her beautiful smile (no matter how much they encourage her to.)

Here is a photo of the kids before we went to lunch:

After lunch, we came back to the house to give Kat a chance to nap and Ben went to the dining hall to serve Thanksgiving lunch to some of his troops. I took the chance to go out and take some more photos of the fall foliage...

We finished off the afternoon with our traditional trip to the movies. While the guys really wanted to go see Beowulf, I convinced them that Enchanted was a more appropriate family movie. And I was right...the movie was great. The actress in it is absolutely fabulous!! It was all the movie that I hoped it would be and the guys enjoyed it too. There was enough animation and singing at the beginning that it enthralled Kat too. She took a quick nap in the middle of it and was an absolute angel through the parts where she was awake although she wasn't too sure what was going on (she kept looking at me for reassurance.) Overall, it was a great day!

And because I need to share some art...here is a card that I have made for my niece Emily. While it is going to go with her Christmas present, I managed to skip the whole Christmas theme. LOL! I really wanted to use these darling Kim Hughes stamps and this is what transpired. Sometimes, you just have to follow your creative muse and trust what she is doing...

supplies used:

stamps...Kim Hughes Collection and Inque Boutique

papers...SEI and Rhonna Farrer

buttons...Autumn Leaves

ribbon

Have fun out at the stores today!

smiles,

Christi

Happy Thanksgiving!

A quick share...

Good morning! We are off to a great start here for the day. I have eaten half a bag of chocolate covered pretzels, Jacob has played his allotted time on XBox, and little Miss Kat is trying to get over her shots from yesterday. She was up throughout the night with a bit of a fever and while that has broken, she just doesn't feel so up-to-snuff this morning.

So we are taking it easy around here. I have a couple of quick errands to run this afternoon, but overall, we are just relaxing today. I did get to talk to my dad this morning and he sounds fantastic!! He seems to be doing really well and is feeling really positive about how the surgery went so that is great. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers on his behalf!!!

So here is a layout that I finished off early this morning. I used CP#9 to inspire this one. The base scalloped paper is Narratives from Creative Imaginations. The other papers and the butterfly stamps are Urban Lily. Kat's name is done using the Inque Boutique stamps. The velvet ribbons are MM and May Arts. I don't know if you can tell on this photo, but for the butterfly tails, I pierced their flight lines. It looks really cool in person esp. with the hole-punch detail around the scallops.

I don't know if you have ever noticed it before, but I have a bit of a rubberstamp obsession and there have been so many really cool stamps that have come out recently. My favorites have to be Kim Hughes' Collection, Inque Boutique and Rubber Romance, but just yesterday, I discovered a new gorgeous stamp company...PaperTrey Ink. I am definitely placing an order with them when I have some money to spend on me. :)

smiles,

christi

Tuesday Tomfoolery...

Thank you for all of you well-wishes for my dad. The surgery went well and he is already home recovering. All reports from the family are that he is doing well. :)

I have a couple of projects to share with you today. The first is a card inspired by the sketch this cards #32. While I had the papers out from the layout that I posted yesterday (Marah Johnson for Creative Imaginations), I felt that they were perfect for a card for DH. I am starting a little pile of cards to send him when he is deployed (starting in January) and this little "missing you" stamp from Kim Hughes' CHP collection is simply perfect! I can already see that I will be using it a lot over the next few months.



The second project that I have to share is a layout that I made that was inspired by the Creative Prompt #8.
The papers are from the Samantha Walker Collection from Creative Imaginations. The alphabet stamps are from Inque Boutique.


I have tons of projects in the works so hopefully, I will get a chance to get some of them done today and tomorrow.

Kat had her 6 month shots today so if you don't hear from me for a while, it probably means that she isn't feeling too hot.

smiles,
christi

Counting my Blessings...

Somewhere along the way, I got bogged down in what I was doing and completely forgot about posting my "grateful a day". How truly awful is that? To forget to count one thing to be grateful for in a day... so I am going to make up for it today and post about several things that I am grateful for.



1. First, I am going to talk about that photo on this layout. There is a grateful here so stick with me. Yes, I absolutely will admit it...this photo is totally staged. I took it while holding her, and the camera, while at the same time trying to keep her from actually eating the flowers. No easy task! LOL! But I look at this photo and think about how cute it could be for her to have later in life...you know for wedding announcements, 18th birthday party, graduation, etc. This is the kind of photo that is fun to pull out for those type of things and yes, it was fun for me to scrapbook too!




And that brings me to the grateful part...I am so grateful that we have the lifestyle that we have here in the US so that we can enjoy things like this...both the scrapbook and the practice of taking a silly, fun photo. There are so many in the world that have to concentrate on their day-to-day existence that these simple pleasures just don't exist. I hope for my children that this stays this way for their lifetime, although I have to admit that I don't think that it will-- so I try to take the time to appreciate it.




2. I am also grateful for our trip to the Lab this morning. Kat has to have her blood drawn once a month to monitor her thyroid medication. This is usually a VERY stressful event as it usually takes several tries and up to a half an hour of her screaming while they search for a good vessel. This morning, it only took one try and we were in and out in less than 5 minutes. YAY!!




3. Grateful also comes in the form that Kat is finally accepting a bottle with formula. Saturday, we decided to try to out-stubborn her and didn't give her any other options besides the bottle and baby food. She finally relented and has been doing pretty good ever since. Now I just breastfeed her first thing in the morning and before she goes to bed at night.




4. And on to another purely shallow grateful post. I have a new printer! Yay! My other one had been limping along for about a month and a half now (it would print, but not photo quality) and it finally completely bit the dust last week. So I am now the proud owner of an HP Photosmart C6280. While not as good as my old HP, it will work for me and I can print photos again! Yay!




5. Finally the last thing that I am grateful for today...my dad. He is having surgery this morning on his spine for some disc work and while both my parents keep telling me that this is routine and that I don't need to be there, I hate that I am not there this morning keeping my mom company while he is in surgery. I am sure that he will be fine, but if you could offer up a little prayer for him and my mom, I would really appreciate it. He means so much to my entire family...I can't imagine our world without him in it. I love you, dad!!



smiles,
christi

Autumnal Photo Walk

Here in North Carolina, we are suffering from a drought which I felt for sure, would ruin the fall colors. Well, I could not have been more wrong. Our weather this year has made for the most spectacular fall colors that I have ever seen in person. So this afternoon, Kat & I went out to take some photos not realizing that the batteries on my camera were almost completely dead. We only made it around our little block, but I think that you will agree, that even in my backyard, the colors are amazing!

I have just finished charging the camera batteries so we will try to go out tomorrow and take some more.

But in the meantime, I finally finished my layout that was inspired by Creative Prompt #7. I used the image #1 to inspire the layout. The stamps around the outside are all out of an old Stampin Up stamp set. The journaling and title stamps are Inque Boutique.

This photo is one that I found in a group of old scans from mom's photos that I never scrapbooked. I look at that photo of me and hope to get to that size again. That was back when I was a size 8-10...someday, if I stop eating M&M's like I have been the last couple of days!!!

smiles,

christi

Slow production week...

Creatively-wise, I am just not getting much done this week. I have all these plans in my head, but when I sit down to work on them, something else needs my attention so I am not getting very much done. It's getting very frustrating!

But here is one card that I finally completed (I started it 2 days ago and finally got to finish it this morning--ugh!) I am still working on all the images from creative prompt #7. For this card, I was inspired by image #3.

The stamps are all Rhonna Farrer. The bling is Prima.

I have a layout that is getting close to completed from the images of cp7 too so hopefully I will be back later today with that.

And thank you all for your kind words about weaning Kat. Unfortunately, she has a stubborn streak a mile-wide (I have no idea where she gets that from...gotta be Ben) and she has decided that she is NOT going to drink from a bottle--flat out refuses! It's very frustrating and I have no idea what to do now. Next week is her 6 month well-baby appt. so I will see what her Dr. has to say. If you have any advice, I would love to hear it!

smiles,

christi

ETA: I don't know what is up with blogger! It won't let me put spaces in between my paragraphs...

MIA from yesterday...

Hello! All day yesterday, I planned on posting on this blog and the links on the CP blog and the entire day slipped away from me. Aaackk!

We have some big changes going on around here with Kat and I and it has thrown us a bit out of whack. She started eating baby foods last week so I decided that it was time to start weaning her too (before the teeth start poking through). We are trying to do it gradually, but yesterday was not an easy day for either of us.

For her, she just plain doesn't understand why mom is being mean and keeps shoving this bottle at her when that is clearly not what she wants. The adjustment is esp. hard for her because she hasn't taken a bottle the entire 6 months of her life (she's been purely breast-fed) so half the time she feels like she is drowning when she is drinking from the bottle, but she is starting to figure it out.

She is also starting to gain some mobility so I started trying to baby-proof the living room and move all the English china stored at her level in there and the dining room. This required cleaning out/organizing kitchen cabinets to find a place to put it all. I feel like we have been doing spring cleaning around here. The good news is that I was able to re-organize my scrap supplies into the vacated spaces that the china left and now my dining room looks like we can actually eat there again and not just papercraft.

You have to understand something about this house. When we moved in, it was the PERFECT size. I had EXACTLY the right amount of cabinet space, bedrooms, etc. Exactly, as in there was not any (NONE!) extra space for bottles, baby food, sippy cups, baby beds, changing tables, diapers, etc. Another person was not supposed to invade our lives here. LOL! It has been a serious challenge to my re-organizing ability to make room for Kat here. In that, our move to Illinois cannot come fast enough!

But enough on that. Here is the card that I planned to post yesterday. I used the CP #7 (image 2) to inspire this card.

The stamps are some of the gorgeous new stamps from the Kim Hughes collection at Cornish Heritage Farms. They are so much fun to work with and I have some more cards planned in my head whenever I find the time to create them. The papers are all Tres Jolie from MME.

I have a couple more projects planned from the CP#7. Hopefully, I will get to at least one of those to have to share with you tomorrow. I am also in the brainstorming stage of a very fun advent calendar project which I hope to share soon.

I hope that you all are creating this week. Remember the holidays are coming (and soon!)

smiles,

christi

Monday Creativity...

Hello! Wow, blogger has some new settings on the blog today. I may have to have a play with those later...


Have you been over to the Creative Prompts blog lately? Remember, new prompts go up every Monday and Thursday which means that today was a new prompt day. I LOVE today's prompt, but I had to do prompt #6 before I could have a play with today's and that is what I have to share with you...my layout inspired by Prompt #6.

This layout features a photo of me when I was about 5 playing with one of the cats out at the family ranch in Colorado. Recently I have printed up a bunch of our heritage family photos so you will probably be seeing more of these old photos.
Supplies used:
*Amy Butler patterned paper
*Bazzill white cardstock
*Prima flowers
*MM bling brads
*Heidi Swapp bling borders
*Autumn Leaves buttons
*Inque Boutique journaling stamp

Now I can spend the rest of the day playing with CP #7.

Which brings me to what I am grateful for today. I finished my article (finally!) this morning which means that I can create guilt-free! :)

I hope that you are creating today!
smiles,
Christi

Part 2 of today's blogging...

Welcome to blog post #2 for the day. If you didn't see my blog post from earlier today, take a look at it down below. It is still quite astonishing!

Today's post is a bit random, but hopefully you will bear with me. I do finally have some art to share, but first I must confess...I broke my rule on Friday...I did not finish my article. Kat decided at 10:30 am that her napping was through for the day so I flat didn't get a chance to get it done on Friday (because it is hard to type with a little one trying to help.) And since I didn't get it done Friday, there was no rush to get it done over the weekend since I doubt my editor will look at it until tomorrow. So I have completed some art without first completing my article. BUT the article is next on my list of things to do today (after I finish this blog post!)

But back to the art. It isn't anything too astounding today. I was definitely in a blue and brown mood. First, my card.

This card features another one of the Rubber Romance stamps. I also used one of the Inque Boutique stamp sets to make the Relax sentiment. The papers are Prima and the brad is Making Memories.

Now to talk about gratefulness. Yesterday I never got the chance to post what I was grateful for so I have two things to post about today.
Grateful #1:
Yesterday I was grateful that DH is here right now to do things like watch Kat while I go to the store. Starting in January, he is deploying so I try to really appreciate those things while I can.
Grateful #2:
My SIL, Alison, started a blog a few months back and all of us siblings tend to have way too much fun in her comments section. I am so grateful for that connection to my family who all live about 1500 miles away. Thanks, Alison!

And now for my second art piece to share. Back when I started the 21 day challenge here, I created a small journal to keep my daily lists and food journal in. I have continued doing that ever since and my current one is about full so it was time to make a new one. This is my new journal:

I used my new Cornish Heritage Farms/Thomas Kincade stamp. I also used a Rhonna Farrer snowflake swirl stamp, another MM brad, and Basic Grey Figgy Pudding papers.

And that is where I am going to have to end today's post. I have more to talk about, but this post has already taken me an hour and a half and the guys are home now, so I probably should go spend a little bit of time with them before Sunday is over.
smiles,
christi

How is this even POSSIBLE?!?!

For the sake of my newer blog readers, you may not realize, but in addition to the baby, we have a son. We have a 12 yo son (does that help explain why I was so shocked at Kat's arrival in our lives? LOL!)

He's a fantastic kid, even as a pre-teen. He has always been small though. Throughout all of his childhood, he rated in the 10% category for height, so it has always been a given that he was not going to be the tallest kid in the class. Well, at the beginning of summer, that started to change. At first it was subtle...outgrowing clothes. Then we started noticing that when he was in groups, he wasn't the smallest anymore. And just recently, when he stands by me, it truly gives me a shock.

So on Friday, we decided to start really tracking this phenomena and made a mark at his height on the wall. This morning, he and his dad were getting ready to go and he was standing by me again and I remarked upon the fact that it looks like he has grown again so we went to the wall and this is what we found...


OMG! That first mark is from 11-9-07 (not 06---as in TWO DAYS AGO!!!) and then today's mark. That is over 3/4" in TWO DAYS!?! How is that even physically possible?!?! At this rate, he is going to be over 6' by the end of the year! Aaackkk!

I will be back later with art, gratitude, and talk of weight loss. BTW, Carolyn, I adore you! Thanks sweetie!
smiles,
christi

Grateful...

I don't have any new artwork to share today. I am right in the middle of writing an article and have a personal rule that I can't play with creating until I finish my work (it had better get done today because I seriously have a project that I want to dig into!)

But I did want to post about my thing that I am grateful about today. Kat!

There is a discussion this morning on one of the message boards about Thanksgiving traditions. One of ours is going to a movie Thanksgiving afternoon. It was last year at that movie (I was about 13 weeks pregnant if I remember right) that I really felt Kat moving. And it got me to thinking...last year at this time, I wasn't exactly thrilled about her...certainly not grateful. But you know what, my days are amazing now because of her. I spend the day smiling and playing and just enjoying her life...it's wonderful and I am so grateful that she is here.


These photos were taken yesterday before and after Jacob's final soccer game (they lost). It was so cold and we were seriously bundled up. I love her little hat. Between the cold and the time change, she was tuckered out after the game.

And just because today's post is so serious...another thing that I am grateful for...I AM WEARING MY SIZE 10 JEANS TODAY!!! Shallow enough for you? :D After being able to slide my size 12's off last night without unbuttoning them, I thought that it might be time to move down a size. Yay!!!
smiles,
christi

Cardmaking...

Good morning! Yesterday was crazy around here and I just did not get much done, but I did get a couple of cards made so the day wasn't a total bust.

I have shared before how much I love the Rubber Romance girl stamps from this Etsy shop. I had a couple of them that I hadn't used yet, so my goal yesterday was to create some fun cards using them.


Supplies used:
*Santa girl stamp from Rubber Romance
*Tis the Season stamp from Rhonna Farrer
*Prima flowers
*Basic Grey pp
*flat back gems
*Making memories eyelet
*cardstock

This second card was done using a sketch by Janelle on the Card Studio Designs message board.

Supplies used:
*Rubber Romance Shoe girl and Girly girl stamps
*Chartreuse Dream papers
*MM ribbon
*Prima Bling
*cardstock

There is a new Creative prompt over on the CP blog today. This one is a little bit different so I may be playing with some ideas for it today.

Today is also Jacob's last soccer game. Yay! I am ready for soccer season to be over! And they have had a pretty good year...hopefully they end with another win today.

Jeanne had posted on her blog about an idea to post about a thing that you are grateful for every day until Thanksgiving. I think that this is a fantastic idea so I am going to do this.

Today's thing that I am grateful for:
Christmas music that, yes, I have already started listening to...it just makes me happy!
smiles,
christi

Creative Prompts #4 and #5....

I have finally caught up using the Creative Prompts.

Here is the layout that I did using the CP #4 as inspiration:

Supplies used:
*Crate Paper Samantha papers
*Inque Boutique Savoir Faire stamps
*black inkpad

And here is the layout using CP#5 as inspiration:

For this layout, I used the Create My Keepsake November kit. The only thing I added were just a few more flowers and the button brads (that I added glitter paint to) in the centers of them and the Heidi Swapp journaling tabs placed behind the photo.

I hope that you are taking some time to create today!
smiles,
christi

Getting back into the routine...

Good Morning! I am slowly getting back into my routine after a fun week of having my mom here. I have missed you all out here on the Net, but it is so much fun having mom here that it is worth the sacrifice of my computer time. So this morning, I am luxuriating in my computer time and blog-hopping.

I do have several things to share this morning...

Is there any doubt where Kat's blue eyes come from? This morning when I went and got Kat out of bed, she was looking around the corner watching for my mom... She misses you, Mom!

Here is a card that I created using Creative Prompt #3.

Supplies used:
*Prima papers
*Inque Boutique stamps
*Rhonna Farrer stamps (the sentiment)
*Heidi Swapp bling

I just received the latest issue (#7) of Complete Cardmaking. I had a section of 3 thank you cards using transparencies. Although this issue is the best yet (LOVE the new format and everyone's cards are just GORGEOUS!), I was dissappointed to see that the photo of my 3 cards was blurry. This card that I made for the article is one of my favorite cards that I have ever made and it just didn't look that good in the mag so I thought that I would share it here.

The Eiffel Tower photo is one that I took while in Paris a few years back. For this card, I changed it to sepia tones and then printed it on the transparency and then overlaid it onto the patterned paper. I just love how this card turned out...it's very ME! :)

I haven't talked about Halloween. All I have to say is that thank goodness mom was here. Trick or Treating on base was 6:00-9:00 and we easily have 100-300 kids come through in that time (although this year was a little more calm compared to last year), but it was smack-dab down the middle of Kat's fussy time and bedtime so it was a bit crazy. Add that to the fact that DH didn't get home til almost 7:30 from work and that means that mom handled most of the candy duty. She also took the only photos that we have from the night.

Kat in her Texas Tech cheerleader costume.


Almost bedtime, so Kat was in her pj's and winter hat while handing out candy. I actually think that this get-up was cuter than her real costume.


The only pseudo-photo that we have of Jacob's costume taken two nights before Halloween on his way to the Scout Halloween party. But in my defense, it is just a recycled costume from last year's Halloween and we already have photos of that which you can see here. I know, bad mom. Thank goodness Nana was here or we wouldn't have had any photos at all. I am thinking that we may have to re-create Halloween so that I have some photos for perpetuity.

That's it for this morning. I hope to do a bit of Creative Prompt catch-up today and get some layouts done so I should be back soon!
smiles,
christi

A Little Bit of Creative Fun...

I downloaded this class a couple of weeks ago from Heart in Hands. The project is designed by Linda Albrecht.

I thought that it would make a fun project for mom and I to do together this week. Her version is done in blue's and she wants to do some things to make it versatile for the different holidays so she is taking it home partially done.

My version is using:
*Daisy D's French Market paper (the red)
*7 gypsies Harlequin paper and enamel plaque
*misc. buttons
*slate board
*BE large clothespin
*easel from Michael's

I only have two more days with mom so I probably won't be back until then. I hope that you all are doing some creating though!
smiles,
christi