Blog Candy for a Cause

Everyone knows my son was a 7 week preemie who spent 15 of the longest days of our lives in the NICU, which lead me to start Dominic's Donation Project...Pages for Preemies. Well, as I was blog surfing today, I came across this blog, which is offering blog candy for sending cards to this family. Their beautiful baby girl was born on December 1st with complications and is spending time in the NICU.

Please, send this family a card. Not because you will be entered into the blog candy drawing, but because it's something you CAN and WANT to do. I know the family will appreciate this. They need all the support they can get right now.

Thanks!!!
Karie

Teacher gifts

This year, I decided I needed to scale back on the number of cards I make for our 'past' teachers. Time has run out on me this year unfortunately. Heck, with 4 kids, I'm finding time slips away now faster than ever. So, I decided to get crafty! Past teachers will still get gifts, just on a smaller scale.

First, I took a 4 ounce pop top can of fruit I use for the girls lunches and opened the can from the BOTTOM using a can opener.

Then, after draining the can and washing it, I filled it with Rolos and Kisses.

I used Liquid Glass to seal the bottom back to the can.

Cut a strip of PP to replace the label.

Decorate and voila! You have a cute little can of chocolate...and a surprise for the teacher when she pops the lid open!

Digital Designs

If you are looking for a new blog header, or any other digital work, I would highly recomment my GOOD friend Tonya. She is just starting out with her digital work, but THE GIRL ROCKS!!!

She designed thank you cards for me for Pages for Preemies and now she did gift cards for our GOOD friend Melissa.

Please check her out for all of your digital work!!!

Blog contest

Hop over to Paula's blog and help one crafty mama come up with some ideas for her Advent calendar. You can win a crafty, fabulous prize!!!

3D Design Challenge Prize

Do you remember the little coupon booklet I made for the 3D Design Challenge blog contest? Well...I won...and didn't even know I got a prize to go along with it. Imagine my surprise when this GORGEOUS bag showed up on my door step! This bag is made from Daily Window Products. Now, as soon as Pam first mentioned Daily Window Products on her blog, way back when, I fell in love with these bags!!! And, just recently, my GOOD friend Tonya won a bag too. I have to admit, I was totally jealous and called her a HAG for it. ROFL! While she's still a HAG for many other reasons, I no longer need to be jealous about her bag! ROFLMAO!!!! ;0)

Wanna know something else? The inside of my bag is GREEN!!! It's my all time favorite color. I am just totally excited!!! It made my day!!!!!

Napkin Holder

What is a crafty gal supposed to do with the kids when it's cold and raining outside? Make napkin rings for Thanksgiving of course! Hanna made one of these in school for art and I thought it was the cutest thing ever. So today, we cut up all the toilet paper rolls and paper towels we had. YES, I do collect them...just for reasons like this! :0) We are going to two places for Thanksgiving this year, so the kids made 10 for each hostess. I'll just wrap them up in simple cello bags and tie them up with pretty ribbon and attach a cute little tag.

Supplies needed:
Paper towel/toilet paper rolls
Brown craft paint (Mike's 40% off coupon)
Googly eyes (Dollar Tree...big bag for a buck)
Feathers (Mike's...use another 40% off coupon)
Circle punch (I used 1 1/4)
Creamy Caramel paper (Stampin' Up!)
Only Orange paper(Stampin' Up!)
Crafters glue

Simple easy directions:
Cut the empty rolls into desired length
Glue 2 feathers on one side (or desired amount of feathers)
Glue the circle (face) over the feathers and be sure to apply pressure to stick.
Cut thin strips of Only Orange c.s. Fold in 1/2 and cut at a point to make the beak.
Glue beak.
Glue eyes.

Voila!

A simple card

Here is a simple card I just made during nap time. I wanted to make more, but I can't concentrate on anything right now.

I used SU set True Friend and SU Red Riding Hood ink. Ohhh, I'm so love that color and I am NOT a red person!!!

Stamp Club

These are some creations from Stamp Club. The Halloween card and tin was made last month, but the gift card holder and the adorable bag/tote was made last night.

3D Design Challenge

Here is the box I made for the 3D design challenge this week. I wanted it to match Angie's baby announcements because I'm filling it up with little goodies for the new baby.

I used 4 sheets of 6x12 paper and scored at the 6. Layer the bottom pieces, fold up the sides, tied together. Cute, cute, cute. I was going to add more to it, but ran out of time. So much for me huh?

Angie's baby announcements

OK, so tomorrow...or today depending when you read this (November 11th), my best friend is being induced. They are having their 5th child. Their second girl. She has everything...her fourth child is a girl, so they have clothes, blankets, everything you can think of. I decided to make her baby announcements. I found this set from TAC called Hello Baby. I love it. I think it's just adorable. I knew when I saw the catalog that I had to get it to use on her cards.

Since diapers are white (ha, when clean anyway), I wanted it to stand out. I used Liquid Glass by Close To My Heart and sprinkled Close To My Heart glitter on it. When you heat Liquid glass and it gets hot, it bubbles up...so...I decided to do that on the diaper to give it some dimension.

Ang, if you are reading this...good luck. I love ya and I can't wait to meet our new baby girl!!!!

Sympathy card

I cased this card from here. The original card is much prettier. I fell in love with it when I saw it. Anyway, Angie asked me to make a sympathy card for her, so this is what I did.

SU stamp set: Inspired by Nature
SU: Close to Cocoa, Barely Banana and Certainly Celery PP
SU ink: Close to Cocoa

Stayed tuned...

Tomorrow I have NO PLANS but to stamp the day away!!! I hope to have a boat load of cards and my 3D Design Challenge posted for you all to see. It's going to be so nice. I finally have my craft room set up again! Thanks hubby!!!

Three things on my holiday WISH list....

Three things on my holiday WISH list...

I was tagged by my crafty friend Tonya in a fun little internet meme. I am to list three things on my holiday wish list. Fun!

Now remember...these are only WISHES, not something I would ever get. LOL!


1. A Cadillac Escalade. Yep, that's right. I want an Escalade in White Daimond with Chasmere interior...and TOTALLY PAID FOR!

Hummm, this is hard. I have no idea what else I want. LOL!

2. A mansion that looks like this with 7 bedrooms, an office and a craft room...but it still has to be in the Oak Hills school district and it MUST come with a maid or 2 to clean it.

3. Another baby. Heee heee.


Now it's your turn...if you read this...you have been tagged!!! Bwwwaaahhaaaa!!!

fourth fourth tag!

I've been tagged by my GOOD friend Tonya (wink, wink, Tonya gets it!!!).

Here's what you do. You go to your photo files and click on the fourth folder. Pick the fourth photo and upload it here. Now...go tag your friends!!!

So, in my 4th folder, the 4th picture is of my dog Cinnamon and my beloved English Bulldog Diamond. Diamond is now in doggy heaven, but we have LOTS of pictures of her.


Now...who shall I tag? Pam, Robin, and Lori.

Halloween

Well, this is what John and I dressed up for this year at Angie and Doug's annual Halloween party. He was an old lady...which, was REALLY FUNNY because John refuses to dress up every year and the man will not let make-up touch his face to save his life. So, it was just freaking hilarious that he did this year. Me...well, I was a Harlem Fat Girl. I had the Fat Girl part down, but I needed a fro wig. You see, there is a story behind that. When Gwen Steffani's song Holla back girl came out, I thought she said Harlem Fat Girl and as we were on vacation with Angie, Doug, Leah, Vince, Cindy and Chris, we were sitting at the pool and I busted out singing "I Ain't No Harlem Fat Girl" and everyone there died laughing at me. Since everyone one of these people were at Angie's party, I knew they would all get my costume. It was great! You can't see very well, but I had Grilz on my teeth to go with my fro. We had a blast...er...at least I was told I did...by several people. LOL!

Go on over to the family blog to see more pictures if you are interested.

3D Design challenge

Hope I made it in time. We shall see. We were challenged this week to make a nugget box over at 3d Design Challenge. I did, but I can't show you the inside. The treats will contain the name of the baby (baby shower favors) and as of right now, it's all a secret! Thanks for this idea ladies! I was trying hard to come up with something crafty for the shower favors!

Sweet Slumber

Here is a 2 page lay out I made this weekend on my scrapbooking get-a-way. I realized...I am NOT a scrapper. I'll stick to making my cards and scrap the important pages only. It was pretty hard for me to sit there scrapping the entire time. I kept thinking of all of the cards I could have been making instead. LOL! I did want to get all of Dominic's NICU pictures scrapped...and I did. Every picture of him in the NICU is in his book. The last page I did was the day he came home and the kids met him for the first time.

These pictures are of him in the NICU. You can see it was close to coming home days...he only had his feeding tube in.

Doug's Card

This is a card I made for my best friend's husband. For what ever reason, this man will ALWAYS love the Bengals. My husband and Doug have a long standing (17 years) battle over which team is better. My husband loves the Denver Bronco's and likes the Bengals, but only because they are our home team. Doug on the other hand...well, he only loves the Bengals. This past Sunday, they lost AGAIN to the Dallas Cowboys. They are now 0-5. Yeah, they ROCK. ROFLMAO.

Sooooo, being the meanie I am, I had to make this card for Doug. The outside says "The Bengals Suck" and it has a Carson Palmer jersey on the front I made with CTMH's sculpting foam. The inside says "Denver Broncos...accepting new fans" and has a Cutler jersey inside made again with the Close To My Heart sculpting foam.

It's a pretty plain card, but it gets the point across!

3D Challenge

This is my entry into the 3D Wednesday challenge. Anyone who knows me knows how much I'm into coupons. With that in mind, I turned my "booklet" into a coupon organizer. Now, keep in mind, I use a 3 ring binder with baseball card sleeves, but the for beginner, this is too perfect. Plenty of compartments to organize by cereal, cleaning, meats, etc.

This month's sponsor is Penguin Pants Rubber Stamps. Check em out...too stinkin cute!

M Jennings Designs

This is the beautiful bracelet Melissa has designed for Pages for Preemies. She is sooo fantastic. $5 of each sale will go to benefit Pages for Preemies.

Stop over and tell Melissa what a fantastic job she has done!

I copied this right from her blog about each charm and why it was chosen. I just love this!

I chose the three charms for specific reasons in this design.

I chose the "I love to scrap" charm because the women who are creating these pages love scrap booking and they are creating pages for the parents of preemies.
I chose the heart charm because of the love behind this special project.
I chose the rose charm as a symbol of strength. Each baby and family member with a baby in the NICU needs strength.

MJennings Designs

Ladies, if you are going to be joining the fun at The Stamp and Scrap Clubhouse to benefit Pages for Preemies, be sure to check out Melissa's blog. She is going to donate a one of a kind, Pages for Preemie piece of jewlery to be raffeled off. Melissa is such a sweet heart of a person and she makes the most awesome pieces. I should know...I have several. LOL!

Melissa, you are such a doll! Thank you very much for your offer. To think...someone as sweet as you can be friends with some mean old hag like me. LOL!

The Stamp and Scrap Clubhouse

The Stamp and Scrap Clubhouse is sponsoring a donation day for Pages for Preemies. If you live in Cincinnati, please come and help out a wonderful cause.

3D Design Challenge

This week, the 3D Design Challenge was to make something 3D that will fit into the window of this adorable purse they are giving away this week. "I ain't too proud to beg". I want that sucker baaaad!

Anyway, here is my creation. It's 3D in 2 places. LOL! This address book would fit perfectly in that pocket. When you open up the blue card, you have your business cards inside. Flip open the cover and put all of your new contacts in there. You are sure to catch the eye of a new customer or two when toting this around.

Just have to share

OK, so I know these aren't craft related and they should be on our family blog, but I just had to share these. I love naked baby pictures! I have a naked baby picture of each one of the kids in our bathroom, and now our set is complete! I took these the other night as soon as our power came back on. I couldn't resist!

The second picture...it looks like D is smiling at me, but I just happened to snap this as he was talking to me. He was saying MMMMMMMMM, you know...like MOM. I don't care what you say...that's what he was saying. ROFLMAO! He looks so big in this picture. I just love em both!!!

FINALLY!

We have power!!! We have been with out power since Sunday afternoon at 1:00 and it wasn't restored until Sunday night at 8 something! We lost everything in our deep freezer and fridge/freezer, but other than that, all is good. I can't believe how bad the storm damage was. We had winds that were 75-80 mph. Trees were down EVERYWHERE and they snapped power lines. Crazy stuff in Cincinnati!

Stamp club

I love the 2nd Tuesday of every month! Why? Because it's our monthly stamp club! My Stampin' Up! Demo, Karen, is just the bees knees! She never disappoints any of us with any of the projects we work on. This month was no different!

We made this little basket using the Big Shot. And if you didn't already know...you can now get one through Stampin' Up! Get a hold of Karen to place your order!!!

We also made this absolutely beautiful card using the stamp set Inspired By Nature. We used Kraft cs and then markers for the image. The grass is Kiwi Kiss (a must get for me...we all know green is my favorite color) and then I used Old Olive for the stems, Creamy Caramel for the top part of the flower and I also used Bashful Blue, Almost Amethyst and another Purple SU color I can't remember to make my flower. We also used Kiwi Kiss ribbon.

I swore off more flower stamps for this year's stamp club. I was the hostess this month. Guess what stamp set I ordered? Inspired by Nature! LOL! I couldn't resist!

Inkstainers Challenge

Cheryl challenged us to make a card for a size 10 envie and the base had to be white. Here is what I have. Stamp is Lilly from Pink Cat Studio. I am absolutely addicted to The Pink Cat Studio stamps. I need to use them more. They are simply adorable!

Finally some stamping time!

Here is a thank you card that I made for Dominic's baptism. I'm a little behind (wish I had a little behind). I c.a.s.e.d. this from here.

Supplies:
Stamp by Stamp Craft (I think, that's the only tag I could find on it)
Paper: SU whisper white, soft sky
Ink: Stazon in black, used aqua painter with blush blossom and soft sky and sponged river rock on the soft sky where the ribbon goes.

Hope you likey.

Pages for Preemies

Here it is: the launch of my new website for Dominic's Donation Project. Please take a minute to visit. I just started it a second ago, but I'm taking donations and would LOVE for your help! Thank you very much!

2-4-6-8 Box/ 3D Design Challenge

This is my creation for the FIRST ever 3D design challenge.

If you haven't already, get over there and check it out! They even give you printable templates you can print and keep in your files!

Gift Set

Here is a little coaster set I made for my Sister. She has been a WAHM (work at home Mom) for the past 9 years, but decided that she wanted to work in the office now that both kids are in school full time. The box is a pencil cup, then a post it note holder and a pen. I also made a jumbo matching paper clip, but didn't get to get it in the photo. I forgot. I am loving these coasters.

3D Design Challenge

Go...HURRY! Click HERE for Pam's new blog challenge. It's all 3D and all NEW. Pam is also found HERE. She is one talented lady and I wish her well on her new blogging adventure!

Have a coke and a smile and STFU!!!

ROFLMAO! That line just popped into my head as I was posting this.

Here is a gift holder I made out of an empty pop can. Yes, we call it POP here in Cincinnati. LOL!

Anyway, this was NOT my idea. I got it off of the Close To My Heart business board. Yvette is a CTMH demo who, obviously finds inspiration in everything she comes across! I found her blog here.

Anyway, I decided to make this finally and I made a little tutorial to go along with it. Hope it makes sense.

Wash out your can and cut the top portion off using a bread knife. (Hey...in this house, there is no other use for a bread knife! If my bread isn't already sliced, I'm not eating it)

Cut tabs all around your can. I made mine around 1/2 an inch wide. I cut down approx. 1 inch.

Fold the jagged edges of your tabs and pinch tightly so they do not come undone.

Using a pencil, roll the edges of your tabs that you just cut making curls. Do this for each piece. NOTE: You may need to kind of "pinch" them into place after you curl them.

This is how your can should look when all of the curling is complete.