Black Friday's Featured blogger!

Yes, it's true, this is what time I was up and at 'em this morning trying to get a jump on my Christmas shopping. This is the third year in a row that I have been up and running at or before this time. I think my record was last year when I was at GameStop at 330 waiting in line for a Wii! Call me crazy, but I'm addicted, have to make it out and get at least one good buy. This year there is not as much on my list and most of the things I'm going for aren't really doorbusters, but there are a few things I'm trying to pick up for friends who are too smart to get up at this crazy hour to go fight a huge crowd! Well, better get going but before I do, I wanted to introduce today's Friday's featured blogger, my sister Shelly! Shelly has recently started a blog to showcase all her wonderfully creative ideas in scrapbooking and papercrafting. Go check out her blog, you will love the little matchbook she made for her scissor charms, very cute and a great little gift for those on your list that you want to remember but don't want to break the bank on by buying a big gift. I think these would work for about any little thing you could think of like a bracelet, necklace or even a gift card...cute and so easy to make. You will want to check out http://craftyideasforyou.blogspot.com/ often, as all her ideas are super creative, have superb instructions and are really easy to make! Now I am off to shop til I drop and I'll post more soon! Wish me luck :o)

What I am Thankful for...

Here he is, my son, my best Christmas present ever, my biggest blessing and one of the many many many things I am thankful for! I love this picture taken of him in the Omaha airport when we were going on our fall break trip. I look at it and can't believe how much he has grown and how fast time is flying by! He will soon be a teenager, he's almost taller than me, and his feet are already bigger then mine at age 10 !! As you reflect on your blessings today around a table piled high with lots of turkey, stuffing, and all the fixin's don't forget to say a prayer for all those struggling in the world today, those who have lost jobs, are sick, or who are alone today. It's the small things that bring us such joy, the priceless things money can't begin to bring to you, so remember even if your 401K isn't as padded as it was last year, these little joys are our true blessings and what we should stop and remember everyday to be thankful for! Happy Turkey Day folks!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Here's what we were up to tonight...getting ready for Christmas and getting our lights out! It took us about 3 hours and we worked well into the darkness, as with it getting dark so early, it's hard to find time after work to do it, but we found out it was actually easier to put the lights up when they were lit, as you could see exactly where you needed to make adjustments! I am not good at night photo taking, so its a bit dark, but you can get the picture. We spent all night last night trimming the bushes and trees, so haven't done much creating in the last few days. I did work more tonight on my party favor boxes and really like how they turned out. Now I just need to make a few more and I will be totally ready for the party. Just need to cut the paper for the projects we are making (they are cute...so you won't want to miss 'em!) Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow. Tune in Friday for my Friday's featured blogger post!

Christmas is coming...

I've been busy this weekend getting ready for my annual Christmas scrapbooking party. We have so much fun every year and I am sure this year will be no different. This is my invitation for this year. I like how it turned out. The paper is last years Stampin Up Christmas paper and the stamps are all by Stampin' Up as well. I love my new punch, it is so cute and very versatile. This shape is so popular now, wish I had the Big Shot to cut out the larger version of this shape, but the die won't fit in my sizzix and I can't justify buying ANOTHER die cut machine just because I want this one shaped die! I wish I could show you the other stuff I have been making, but it's a SURPRISE! I don't want everyone to see it until the night of the party. The party is December 6th and I will post pictures after that! We will be making a cute scrapbook page, another little goodie as well as having a gift exchange. My gift is all planned and I am working on my wrapping now. I am either doing an altered gift tin OR a gift bag, haven't decided yet. Plus, I have been working on my goodie bags...this year I am doing a bag/box cut out by my Cricut. I have it almost done, but need to do some modifications. So even though I have not been posting, I've still been busy. We hope to put up our tree the night before Thanksgiving, so that we are scurrying around right before the party decorating! I wish I could invite all my cyber friends to my party, wouldn't that be fun! Hey, if you want to come email me, I'm sure we can work it out! For those of you wondering about Friday's featured blogger, let me tell you, I had the post all ready to go and post automatically (or so I thought) as I had a class to attend after work that night and knew I wouldn't be on the computer much. Well, when I checked it Saturday afternoon, no post, guess, I messed it up somehow, not sure what happened. So instead of posting it late I decided to wait until this Friday BLACK FRIDAY! I won't be around much that day either, as I hear some great bargains calling my name, so let me see if I can get it to post automatically then, I'll make sure and check it right before I head out around 4 am!!! So look for my Friday Featured blogger on Black Friday, and my use your stash Tuesday this week. I'll be back up and running again full force after the Thanskgiving holiday!

Git 'R Done Wednesday seeing double edition!

This page is another Git 'R Wednesday edition started well over 3 years ago. The funny thing about it is this title was glued down already and before I started to rework this page or even pulled it out of the drawer it was in I realized that this title was one I had used on a recent page. de ja vue? I can't believe this is a title I did 3 yrs ago and then thought of again last week, thinking how original and cute it was....guess it was floating out there in my subconscious these last three years huh?! To finish this page I had to add some ribbon to separate the two different papers, as I couldn't find the original paper and believe it or not blacks and browns are not easy to match. I then added only the middle envelope which was actually already in with the page as was the picture. I was able to find the original word bubbles and add the word "baby". I then added the journaling on the tag ( kind of copied my page from last week again) and then added the cute little felt heart that I recently got...it is from Making Memories. All in all, I like the end result. My favorite part is seeing these two boys together 4 years ago in this Cousins friends for life page and then seeing them together in the other Cousins friends for life layout. My how they've grown, but Jake is still holding Ryan! Ryan hasn't gotten to big for Jake to still hold him! Plus, you can see how my scrapbooking style has evolved as well. Soon though I won't have any of these old layouts to finish, cuz now when I start a page I don't start a new one til it is finished! Yeah, for me! Have a wonderful Wednesday and don't forget Friday I will be featuring a really fun blog!

More Mr. Campy

Well, I did it, I used up all my Mr. Campy paper on this layout done for use your stash Tuesday. Now, how come I am left wanting more of it? I just love this line from Cosmo Cricket! I didn't know if I would use it or not, so I just bought 3 sheets of it. I ended up using all of it plus the sheet of stickers I got at Hobby Lobby too. I got 3 layouts out of these 3 sheets, plus 2 cards, so not too bad. The store I bought it at didn't have the entire line, so I was limited to these 2 designs, but they are double sided, so that helps a bit. I love the wood grained paper. I also used my star punches and some older buttons and felt on this layout, as well as a journaling card by My Mind's eye I have had in my stash for a long time. The colors look much richer in real life, the green on my computer screen looks like kelly green, but in real life it is more of an olive green and meshed well with the lighter green of the leaf paper. This layout is based on Inspired Blueprints Sketch #3. This is a new blog, with just 4 sketches out so far, but I love all 4 of them. I plan on using #4 soon, as its a double page spread. You can click on the blinkie on my sidebar to go check them out. They have recently added a gallery and it is OOZING inspiration for those of you in need of a good healthy dose. Don't forget to check back tomorrow for Git 'R Done Wednesday, I have another cousins page to show you! I had a hard time getting pictures without shadows tonight of my 2 cards, so I will try and get them photographed in the day light hours tomorrow and upload them soon as well. Have a great night and hope this inspires you to dip into some of your older stash and try to use it all up! Good luck!

Princess Party

Well, as promised here is a picture of little Princess Katie on her first birthday and here is a picture of the card that I made for her to go with the Disney Princess chair that Jake and I got her for her first birthday. As you can see she is really enjoying her castle cake. Now, she didn't really enjoy the gifts as much but she did like her hat. I can't believe she left it on the entire time and didn't get a drop of frosting on it. She did like the sparkle of the sticker on this card and that's what I thought when I picked them up at the Target Dollar spot. I think it looks as if she is wearing some lipstick in this picture! But she is a super sweet little girl and we both love her to pieces! Back to creating...don't forget the deadline is tomorrow for Valerie's sketch challenge over at Got Sketch? I'm started but not done, hope to finish tomorrow! Have a great rest of the weekend!