Ellie and Juliette

Oops!  I just realized this was saved as draft and I never posted it!

This is one of my favorite sets, Birthday Wishes from our exclusive line of stamps from Chickengirl Design.  This is Ellie, (stamped in Palette Charcoal) as I’ve named her.  She is colored with Prismacolor pencils.  The DP is from the SEI Juliette line and is called First Kiss.  It is cut with Labels One and wrapped with 1” Satin ribbon.  The brad holding the little tag is from the Bittersweet Glazed Brads and the greeting is stamped in Palette Toile Pink.

So there you have it!  I’m busy getting ready for CHA (that’s why there are about 800 items on sale right now – as they sell out they’re disappearing).

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great day!

Five Minute Friday: Snowflake Thanks

Happy Friday!  I’m back with a Five Minute Friday card after a short holiday break.  I’ve been working on some CAS holiday thank you cards and this is one of them.  I took a scrap of Ivory cs and embossed it with my A2 Snowflake folder.  Then I wrapped a scrap of red faux suede ruffled edge ribbon, finished it off with a die-cut snowflake from the Good Cheer line and stamped my Chelsea Sentiments in Palette Noir.  The rhinestone brad is from my stash.

That’s it!  Easy!  Five minutes!  I’ll have some more styles of these quick thank you notes to show you soon.

Have a great weekend!  Thanks for popping by!

Netflix gift

Hi there!  I’m still having a bit of a hard time getting back into the swing of things after the holidays.  We took the tree down for recycling last night and it reminded that that I hadn’t shared this gift packaging I  made over the holiday.  John gave his grandparents a Netflix starter gift (we {heart} Netflix) and needed a way to give it to them without just handing them a printed out piece of paper.

So…I put together this popcorn box which I cut and glued the stripes onto (because I didn’t have any DP that worked!) and made this card to go with it.  The gift certificate information is pasted on the inside of the card.  I used i {stick} papers redline tape to put the box together and then wrapped it with some red twill for accent.

I’ll be back tomorrow with Five Minute Friday!

One Little Word 2010 (long post)

Where did the time go?? The years are just flying by.  Sheesh. 
Happy New Year my blog friends!  If you’ve been a follower here for about a year then you know last year I joined in Ali Edwards’ One Little Word challenge.  My word for 2009 was balance.  I wanted to make a concerted effort to keep everything in check and learn to say no (or yes in some cases!) more often.  I think I did a pretty decent job in 2009 – at least it feels like I did.  I don’t think I got overwhelmed too much or too often and I worked hard to keep it all balanced without any one thing (work, personal, friends, etc.) taking a huge hit.  I even went on vacation a few times and things didn’t fall apart. (I want to do this more often now – it’s fun!)
So, I think I can keep that going alright and move onto a new word.   But first, an abbreviated (as much as possible) review of 2009…
2009 was a pretty mixed year good and bad.  For many people I   hold dear to my heart there was a lot of loss and sadness.  In March, John and I lost our 12 year old beloved dog, Bandit.  It look us many, many months to open our hearts and home to a new dog but in late October we adopted Mr. Barbo and couldn’t be happier.  We still miss Bandit terribly and I’m sure he’s trying to bite Mr. Barbo from doggy heaven but for now Barbo is safe here with us and has been the perfect fit for us. He’s ridiculously cute, cuddly and just incredibly sweet.  Plus he has a pretty cool and amazing backstory.  You can read some of the news coverage about his rescue here on his Facebook fanpage!
In July John and I took our first ever real vacation together since college, more than a decade ago.  With Bandit being so difficult (when he was alive) he couldn’t be boarded or safely left with anyone but one of us so for many, many years we each vacationed separately.  For my 35th birthday we went to Niagara Falls and it was amazing.  On our way back over to the US we even stopped and met (in person!) my DT Coordinator, Tracy and her hubby for lunch. 
A short time after returning from Niagara Falls I jetted off to CHA with a huge chunk of my fabulous design team and boy did we have a blast.  July was definitely a highlight of my year.
In August the store launched our very first exclusive stamp line from Chicken Girl Design.  And then again in September with our new line from The Petal Press.
In October the store celebrated its one year anniversary with a week long celebration of challenges, prizes and lots of fun.  Thank you to each of you for helping us reach that incredible milestone!
November brought tremendous sadness and unspeakable grief to inaugural DT member Sarah Anderson, who joined with me last year to do One Little Word.  Her word for 2009 was believe and I made her this little frame as a gift.  On Nov. 2, 2009 Sarah’s 3 year old son, Henry, died suddenly of an unknown cause.  They have since learned that both he and his little brother had an undiagnosed immune deficiency disorder.  Henry’s little body had a bacterial infection it overtook his body and he was gone in a flash.  The next few weeks were filled with questions, tears and eventually fundraisers to help build a memorial for Henry at his favorite zoo/park. 
Henry’s passing struck me inexplicably.  I never met him.  In fact, I’ve never met Sarah in person either.  I have no children so it wasn’t a case of a mother grieving for another mother.  I was just so incredibly saddened by her loss and the pain she was in.  And as if grieving wasn’t enough, to learn that her other child had the same deficiency…you can imagine the thoughts going through her mind.  But she’s been so amazing.  She’s got unwavering faith and her strength going through this has been incredible and inspiring and nothing short of a miracle.  
Then, the week before Christmas, a good friend’s father died.  Christmas was subdued, to say the least.
Still with me?  *wink*  There were lots of other things in between this events but I’m trying to keep this short.  All of these things made me think about life, good and bad, its brevity and what we do while we are here.   Last year’s word for me was about doing it all and keeping it all in balance…this year’s word is about taking it all in and trying to enjoy it while I can.
This year’s word is savor. 
To appreciate fully; enjoy or relish;
To derive or receive pleasure from; get enjoyment from; take pleasure in
I strive to savor each event, each moment, each success, each interaction and each hour I spend with the ones I love.  It can all change so suddenly…I don’t want to regret anything or miss a moment!
Thanks for sticking with me if you read all of this.  Are you participating in Ali’s One Word?  I’d love to know your word if you are! 
I wish each of you your best year yet!

Happy New Year's Eve Day!

Happy New Year's Eve Day. We got a little snow today but nothing like the last storm so the NYC activities should go on as planned.

I also wanted to wish DT member Kendra a very happy birthday! How cool is that? The whole world celebrates your birthday? :)

I thought I'd show you another Christmas project I made. I got a Keurig gift certificate for John's parents and made this little thing as a holder. I used some JR stamps (stamped in Palette ink of course), Christmas Cheer foil paper, gold string and some Liquid Pearls and Matte Accents on the mug.
Here is a close-up of the mug.

I hope you have a wonderful day! I'll be skipping Five Minute Friday tomorrow. I haven't had even 5 minutes in the studio this week to throw something together between all the hustle and then being sick.

So have a wonderful, safe night and I'll see you next year!

Sick...

Hi friends! I hope you had a wonderful holiday. Mine was nice and full of lots of food. Santa brought me a wonderful new camera that I need to learn how to use. So, bear with me over the new few weeks as I learn how to use it!

I also picked up a cold of some sort though so I'm trying to take it easy a bit so it doesn't progress into anything more. But I thought I'd share with you a project I made as some gift packaging using the All Around Town My Time template.

This is a packaging for my vegan friend. I got her some vegan hot cocoa mix and vegan marshmallows. The paper is Starry Eyed. I love the glitter on this paper. I used some left over ribbon scraps including some glimmer pastel blue. I stamped my Just Rite image in Palette Seascape and colored it in with Prisma pencils. I used my Rock Candy Stickles for the whipped cream. It's all held together nicely with i {stick} papers, our very own redline tape.
Thanks for stopping by today. I've got over 800 items on sale now to help make room for new CHA goodies and to make less to inventory for taxes! So hurry up because a lot of these things will not be reordered. Once they're gone, they're gone!

Have a great week!

Store Update

Just a quick note to let you know that:

New Basic Grey is in! New Unity is in! Oh, and I just went CRAZY and marked over 830 items on sale. Once they're out - they're out!

I'll be taking a short break from blogging for the holidays. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! And, if you have a chance on Christmas day, be sure to pop over to Cathleen's blog and wish her a happy birthday. It's got to be tough to have a Christmas birthday so drop by and send her some love.