Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my friends out there in blogland! Here is a sampling of the Christmas cards I made and sent out this year. I had fun making them all and it was nice to get out my much neglected stamps, dust them off and just play! I forced my self to use some of my retired designer paper by Stampin Up (I have WAY to much of it) and though I like it, it seems like the newer ones are always more appealing lol! I also did not buy any new stamp sets this year, I figured I already own enough and made myself pick and choose from them to create my cards. So proud of myself for using up some stash! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day with family and friends and I want to take this time to send out my Christmas wishes to you, my blogland friends. My wish for you is that you may be filled with joy, touched by His love and believe in the Miracle of the manager! Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday to my baby!

Seems like just yesterday I was singing Christmas carols to him in my hospital room on Christmas Eve! Today my baby turned 14! He is the best Christmas gift I have ever received! Happy birthday son! I am so proud of the wonderful young man he has become. He is thoughtful, caring, kind and considerate of others. He is a talented clarinet player, lover of games and puzzles, tall enough to get things down from high places for his mother so she doesn't have to climb up on a ladder or step stool(which is a big irrational fear of mine) and most all he laughs at my jokes (well most of the time anyway!) It won't be long before he is driving, or so he tells me. He has lofty goals for his life and I am going to be right there beside him helping, watching and guiding him to those goals. And while I am not ready for him to grow up just yet, I am also excited for him and all that the future holds. Can't wait to see where his journey will take him in the next 14 years!

Race to the finish line!

Well, the end of the year is looming and so is the end to this year's 52 week challenges over at Personalscrapper! This is a layout I quickly created tonight for the "Use stamps" challenge. This makes my 27th layout done for the 51 challenges that have been issued so far. As you can see I am lagging behind by almost 1/2 a year lol! But I still have a little over a week left, think I can do 25 more? Now that is what I would call a "pipe dream!" So since my time was limited to around 2 hours tonight to get this done before my Pilates class I decided to use some inspiration from my early Christmas gift to myself- my Scrapbook and Cards Today 2012calendar with sketches by Beck Fleck of Page Maps! This layout is based on a sketch by Becky included in the calendar and is also almost a direct lift of the sample page for this sketch, of course, I have altered it a bit to fit the supplies I had on hand, but it is definitely inspired by this AWESOME calendar! I am so glad I spent the $12 or so to get it, WELL worth it! Becky has the most awesome sketches out there in my opinion! These pictures are some of the less desirable ones from our trip to the Pumpkin Patch this last October. I decided shrinking them down this small lets me use them without the flaws being so noticeable. Papers on this layout are by Bo Bunny, Stickers from Bo Bunny, sticker letters by Basic Grey, cardstock Bazzill....and then stamps are from the set Fantastic Foliage by Stampin Up and here is the neat part, are you wondering how I get the image to look like this? Well, I stamped on the rust cardstock with BLEACH! The image bleaches out the color of the cardstock, it is so cool to see what color it will bleach too as you can never tell til it completely dries! Helpful hint: use the "gel" bleach for best results as liquid bleach is a bit to runny. Also these stamps had almost too "detailed" of an image making them look a bit "blobby", the less detailed the image the easier it will be. However, this is my only leaf stamp set, so I had to use it. If you decide to try stamping with some bleach, please link up your project in the comments section so we can all see your results! This is a fun fun technique and really simple too! Well, off to wrap up some gifts, gotta get going on that front so I won't be up all night Christmas Eve! Look for my holiday card share coming soon, I just mailed my cards yesterday, but hey, they should arrive the day or so before which isn't too bad right?

Sharp Dressed Man!

Who out there does not just LOVE Basic Grey? I know it was one of the first manufacturers I LOVED when I first started scrapping! I have liked almost every line they have come out with. At first I really wasn't sure of this Out of Print line, I liked it but thought it might be a bit "girly" for boy pages...but since I just really liked the colors and prints I went ahead and got some...and boy do I LOVE it! I think it was perfect for this layout! This layout is boyish, yet kind of formal, just the look I wanted for this picture of my son in his concert band outfit before his big performance at Bass Hall this last spring! Isn't he handsome? This layout is a lift from a lift challenge at Personalscrapper of my cyber and IRL friend Kelly, you can see her awesome layout HERE. All papers are by Basic Grey, stickers by Basic Grey, journaling spot by Janna Wilson, letters by Cosmo Cricket and I used the cricut to cut out my giant bracket (note to self: USE CRICUT MORE!) Hope everyone has their shopping done! I hope to finish up my Christmas cards this week and get a few more last minute items (going to order at Amazon as I am THROUGH with shopping at the mall for the rest of the year!) and then if all goes as scheduled have some scrappy time to myself this weekend! Have a nice week everyone!