Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

I can't believe that Christmas is just about a week away!  I sure wish I was ready... but I'll get there.   

Today I have a Christmas card for you using MTME's Beautiful Baubles.  I love how the "O" in "Jolly" is an ornament.  Instead of using circles like the sketch has, I used a snowflake and two ornaments.

For the background paper I used MTME's Mrs Candy Claus and the solid paper is DCWV's Shimmers and Recollections' Holiday Shimmer that I found at my local Michaels.

I cut out the ornaments using Creative Memories 'Tis the Season cricut cartridge and I cut out the snowflakes using cricut's Winter Lace cartridge.

I hope you will play along with us this week as we are taking next week off to enjoy Christmas with our families.  Trust me, I need all the time I can get to get ready for the most wonderful time of the year!  :)

Please stop by the Pretty Patterns sketch blog and see what the rest of the designers have in store for you.  And as always, I truly appreciate your visits and comments.   I hope you each have a HOLLY JOLLY CHRISTMAS!  

Other challenges:

Joan's Garden - create a quick Christmas card
For Fun Challenge: Christmas card - anything goes.

Winter Penguin

I have a treat for you today.  I have two cards in one!  Well... sort of...  

You see, I started out by using Perky Lil' Penguin and then re-sizing one of the hats from Winter Knits.  After coloring it I adhered it to the penguin.

Isn't he cute?  I embossed the white paper to make it look like snow.  I then cut out the frame in red and added x-mas stickles to it.   I used the yellow and green patterned paper from Farmhouse Fresh.  I popped the penguin up on pop-dots and added the hat.  

I had also printed up another hat from Winter Knits the right size for the penguin and wanted to see how this little guy would look with a different hat on.  So viola'! A second card making it two cards in one!  *wink*

I think I like this hat... I added Polar White Flower Soft to the hat making it look fresh and fun!

The hat was also popped up on pop-dots.  Below is a 3-D look.  

I hope you enjoyed your visit.  Thank you so much for coming, I appreciate each and every visit and comment.  

I hope you will join us this week and make a card using our MTME Pretty Patterns sketch.  You can link up here as well as see what the other designers have to share with you.  Have a great day!

I am also entering this card into the following challenges:

MTME Pretty Palette #38 - Daffodil, Green and Cherry

Santa with Cookies!

It's December 1st and the Christmas season is officially upon us!  I LOVE Christmas!  I couldn't wait to use the digi stamp Mr. Claus.  The background paper is Candy Claus.  I love using fun embellishments and I used plenty on this card.  hehe!  

As you probably know by now that I love my layers and pop-dots and this card is no exception!  The picture below shows how even the layers on the tree flip up a little.

The red frame was cut out with Spellbinders and popped up on pop dots too.  I smeared a little Xmas Red Stickles on top of it to add some pretty shine.

I colored dear Santa with copics and then added a mini bell to his hat and Polar White Flower Soft to all the "fluffy" trip.  I also used it for snow on the ground.  I used Buttercup Liquid Pearls for his buttons.

 The tree is made from Taylored Expression's Trim the Tree die set.  I used White Opal Liquid Pearls and Xmas Red Stickles for ornaments. 

I used beautiful snowflake-looking buttons for both the top of the tree and the center of the bow. 

I hope you will stop by the MTME Blog and see what the other design team members have made for you today.  This week is another review so hop on over to see what the 6 sketches are that you can choose from.  

Lastly, since today is the first day of the month, MTME has a new release for you!  I'm so excited about the new product which can be seen right here: New Products  You may want to sign up for My Time Made Easy's email updates  found on this page so you never miss out on a new release or any important news.

Thank you for visiting!  I truly appreciate all comments.   

Happy Thanksgiving!

To all of you who celebrate, I hope you are having a marvelous Thanksgiving!  I wanted to make a Thanksgiving card and I LOVE the new baking digi stamp sets so these cute characters are cooking Thanksgiving Dinner. I used What's Cooking and Baked With Love.

I used copics to color the image.

Aren't these cooking supplies cute?  They are also colored with copics.

Here is a 3-d view.  The designer paper is Autumn Leaves.

I hope you get a chance to play along with our sketch this week.  Don't forget to stop by MTME's blog and check out what the rest of the Pretty Pattern team has for you.  

anything Thanksgiving

Gratitude

"Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul."  ~Henry Ward Beecher

What a great quote especially during this time of year that we remember what we are grateful for.  I printed this quote from MTME's digi stamp set: Bold Botanicals.

I used Autumn Leaves collection 2 for the pattern paper.  

I used Spellbinders "Twisted Metal Tags and Accents" to frame the sentiment.  The flourish is from Magnolias and the leaves are Spellbinders "Nested Maple Leaves".

Thank you for stopping by, I appreciate every visit and each comment.  I hope you will join us in this week's MTME's Pretty Pattern Sketch shown below:

   

TE's Blast from the Past Blog Hop

Welcome to Taylored Expression's Blast from the Past Blog Hop!  I had fun making this card... here in Southern AZ we don't get a lot of leaves changing color so of course I had to put some on this card.  This month our theme is "Thankful".  I used TE's "Much Appreciated" for the sentiment which I inked up in "Brilliance" cosmic copper and then embossed with clear embossing powder.  I then framed with in shinny green paper with QuicKutz "frame" (REV-0090).    

I had a hard time getting a good picture of this card because some of the paper had glitter, some was embossed with fuzzies, other paper was shiny while some of it was just plain 'ol pretty paper.  Also, my lamp that I normally use broke so it was just hard to show all the different textures.  Below is a slightly different angle to show some more textures.

 I used a lot of different dies for this card, most of which are Spellbinders.  The swirls is from Magnolias.  I added a burgundy seam binding bow and there ya have it.  A lovely Thank You card. 

I am thankful for my family, friends, the freedoms I enjoy and for a loving Father in Heaven.  I am thankful to have been the mother of a very special daughter named Jessica who went "home" to heaven last year and who taught me to "Never give up!"... never give up hope, never give up faith and to never give up on myself or my family.  I miss my beautiful girl but I'm also thankful that she is in a better place and free from pain.  I'm so thankful for my dear friends and family members who have helped me through each day... one of which is going to receive this Thank You card.  I think I need to make several hundred if I were to just begin to give out Thank You cards to everyone who has helped me throughout my daughter's 22 years on earth and the one since she left.  I'm blessed beyond measure.   

Thank you for stopping by and don't forget to stop by the rest of the blogs and see what everyone else has made for us today.  :)

MTME Pretty Patterns sketch #35

I can't believe how many of you out there already have SNOW this year!  I'm glad I'm not one of them but we don't get much of that white stuff here in Southern Arizona.  So I have to come up with my own creative ways to get some of that snow for myself.  Today I decided to use the cute little boy elf from MTME's Holly Jolly digi stamp set.  Isn't he adorable?

I used some paper I had on hand this time for the background... I could just see the little elf in a forest of Christmas trees.  I had some shimmery blue paper on hand also and used Lifestyle Crafts' snowflake dies to cut out the snowflakes.  I also cut two out in white and layered them behind the blue snowflakes.  

I used some pearls for the centers of the snowflakes and also for buttons on the little elf.  You can see the buttons better in the photo shown above.  But what is that on his hat?  It looks like white fluffy stuff... could it be???

No, it's not snow but it is Polar White flower soft.  LOVE that fluffy stuff!  It's the next best thing to real snow... or maybe it's better since it's not freezing cold and it won't melt and make a muddy mess.  Yeah... I think I'll stick with my own kind of snow.  :)

I hope you will head on over to My Time Made Easy's blog and play along.  

Here's this week's sketch:

I moved the bottom circle to the top and turned them into snowflakes!  I also didn't think that the three dots went along with the snowflakes so I put one in the center of each snowflake.  See how you can mix it up a little?  Just make sure we can see the sketch in your card. - but most of all HAVE FUN!  

Thank you for visiting - I appreciate each and every visit and comment.  

A Gift For You

I'm so excited about this month's new products release at My Time Made Easy.  

The image in today's card is from the Holly Jolly set.  There are several cute elves and a reindeer in this set.  I can't wait to use them all!  

I used copics to color the image and Spellbinders die to cut it out.  I used SU's  Pink Pirouette to sponge around the edge.

The designer paper is fabulous!  I used Mrs Candy Claus paper from last month's release.  I punched out the top and bottom of the striped strip of paper with a Martha Stewart snowflake punch and then added some pearls for a little feminine touch.. not that it needed it, I think it brings out the snowflakes a little better.  

The flower die is from MFT and the leaves are a MS punch.  I thought it was a little fun to make the flower from a green dp and the leaves from the striped dp.  It was a another fun little touch.

I hope you enjoyed your visit today - I truly appreciate it!  Don't forget to hop on over to MTME's Blog and play along with our Pretty Pattern sketch shown below.   

Lil Sweet Pea

My next door neighbor has a new baby girl!  I made this sweet card to take to them.

I used MTME's digi set Tending the Garden to make the seed packet.  I printed the frame onto light pink paper and then used copics to darken the edges.  I colored the peas and pea pod with copics too.  

I used Spring is Here for the paper.   I popped up the center of the seed packet and the pea pods with pop dots, added some ribbon and a little bling center and I was done!

Thank you for you visit - I appreciate each visit and comment so much!  Please head on over to the MTME Pretty Patterns blog so play along and enter.  I'd love to see you there!

You've Been Boo'd!

I have another Halloween card for you today.  I don't normally make Halloween cards but MTME has such cute ones that I couldn't resist!

I used MTME's "A Spooky Surprise" for my card.  I grouped the pumpkin, ghost and jack-o-lantern together and added the sentiment, "You've Been Boo'd" together and printed them up.  I printed up 3 more jack-o-lanterns and cut them out.

I used copics to color them and popped them up with pop dots.  I used a Martha Stewart punch to make the border around the card.  It is actually behind the orange card.  See how it is partly open in the photo below?

You can see the dimensions of the jack-o-lantern in the photo below.

The spiderweb was a little tricky.  I didn't want to have to use black in but since printers don't have WHITE ink it's all I could do... I made a black background and then turned the spiderweb white and placed it on top of the black background and then printed it up.  No matter what color I used to print onto the black cardstock, it just wasn't going to show up.

The orange with white polka dot paper is from some old Creative Memories paper.    I added some orange brads and put some star dust stickles on them so they will shine and I added some ribbon.  I used clear glue dots to hold the middle of the bow and the ends in place.

I hope you will join us for this week's sketch challenge!  Go on over to My Time Made Easy's blog to check it out!

Other challenges:
Stampylandchallenges - Halloween
Stamping Scrapbooking Challenge Central: Halloween

Trick or Treat, smell my feet!

My oldest son, Justen, used to say "Trick or Treat, smell my feet!" every Halloween when he was a little boy.  He would laugh and giggle thinking it was the funniest thing ever.  I laughed at him enjoying saying such a silly little saying and then hearing his little sister trying to repeat it was priceless.

Here is my version of the cute Trick or Treat saying:  

I used MTME's digi stamp set:  A Spooky Surprise.  It was fun to line up the witche's feet with the words and the spider.  I colored the feet (and shoes of course) with copics.  The MTME digi paper is from Traditional Halloween.  If you click on either photo you can see that there are little spiders in between the orange and purple diamonds.  

This week we are having a sketch review.  You can choose from sketches 12 - 18,  I chose sketch #13.  I rotated the sketch to the right and instead of a flower I added a bow.

Don't forget about our design team search going on right now!  It's not too late to enter!  You can go here to read all the details.  Even if you aren't applying for the DT position, come and play along with us.  You can go here to choose which sketch is your favorite!

Thank you for your visit.  Each visit and comment is greatly appreciated.  

Other challenges:

My Craft Challenge: color challenge

Stamping Scrapbooking Challenge Central: Halloween

Sympathy Rose

I made a sympathy card for the parents of a young boy who passed away from several congenital diseases.  The father works with my husband and we want to reach out to them since we can sympathize.  It was one year ago (Oct 4, 2010) that my own daughter passed away from her heart & GI congenital diseases.  It's going to be hard but we want to reach out with love and support.  I wanted this card to be feminine mainly because I will be reaching out to the mother and she and I haven't met yet.  I wanted this card to express my appreciation to her for all she did for her son over the years.  I understand the sacrifices that a mother of a special needs/chronically ill child makes... and I also understand the bond between that mother and child.  

I used MTME's new digi stamp set Well Rounded and the digi paper Wildflowers.  

The white paper is a shimmery white stripped paper.  I took a couple of pictures to show the pretty stripes.  I don't remember what it is called but I've had it on hand forever.  I also used light pink lace and white flower trim from my stash.  

I love the rose in the digi stamp set I mentioned above and I wanted to color it with copics so I took the time to reverse the effects of the rose stamp which is a black silhouette and outlined in white.  I used the eraser tool and erased the black areas and then used the paint bucket to color the white outline to black.  That way I could print up the black outline and color it pink with shading and highlights.  

I first tried using the color bucket to color the different parts of the rose in 3 shades of pink and I really like how it turned out.... but that is for another project and another sketch!  (Are you curious?  I hope so - then you'll just have to tune in next time to see it!  mwuahahahahaha!)  

I hope you enjoyed the card even though the occasion is a sad one.  I hope to make the day just a tiny bit easier for the parents by letting them know that they aren't alone.  

Hope you stop by the MTME blog to see what the other designers have made for you!  And don't forget about the DESIGN TEAM CALL!

~Design Team Call~

The sketch team is having a Design Team call.

• Requirements: Participate each week (having your card ready the night before the sketch goes up).
• Pay off: Access to MTME digi images & digi papers! (I LOVE THIS PART!)

Easy as pie!  If you think you’d like to be a part of our sketch team all you have to do is participate in each Pretty Pattern Sketch Challenge over the next 4 weeks (9/28 – 10/19), linking your entries up to the appropriate post!  Oh yeah, don’t forget to leave us a comment letting us know you are interested.  It’s that easy!!

Please link your projects up to the MTME Pretty Patterns Sketch challenges on the blog here.

Other challenges:

First Annual Link for Pink (Breast Cancer Awareness) - use PINK