Butterfly.......

I was just practicing my coloring skills today. It seems I need to keep practicing! LOL!!

Serenity

This is a stamp from a set that I bought at the bookstore. I have used some of them on my domino's but never made a card. I say this layout in a flyer I got in the mail and knew I had to use it! I love the black and white and decided it didn't need anymore color added. I used my blending foam to blend in black pigment ink around the image.

My challenge continues...

Here are two more cards using stamps that I haven't used before. The first card is two different stamps from two different companies so I killed two birds with one stone on that one!!! The owl one is from Pink Cat Studio and I've had the set for several months. It has a ton of other owls in it too. I used my bic markers to color him. I'm having fun playing with my "new" stamps!!!

I started another blog!!!

Call me crazy but I have started another blog! Angie inspired me to start a 365 day blog. I'm going to take a picture each day and post on the other one. I think in the end it will be fun to look back at my year and see how things went! You can check it out here: http://ayearofmylife-christie.blogspot.com/

I'm challenging myself to use all the stamps I haven't used yet!

I was looking through my stamps and found that I have a ton of them I haven't used yet. It really is a shame! I have decided to challenge myself to use them all at least once! Here are two sets that I haven't used before. The first one is from My Favorite Things and I bought it from a friend. The second one was a birthday gift. I'm well on my way and it feels good!!!!

Envelopes made from old calendars

I can't take credit for this but it sure is a great idea!! It was actually Sherri's idea and I ran with it. I have three old calendars and I just started making envelopes like crazy! It was really fun to see how each one turned out. I made a liner to go inside them since I write on my calendars. If you have yours left from last year I encourage you to give it a try!!! If you need a template just get a store bought envelope and carefully undo it then trace it onto cardboard and you have your pattern. I took my pattern and traced it onto velum so that I could see through it and know where to place it on the calendar. Then traced and cut!!!

Bic Markers are great!!!

There has been a lot of talk about Bic Markers. I had to by myself some and try them out. I must say I LOVE them!!! I have tried sharpies and they are always too dark and then all the other markers are just to expensive for my blood. These are very easy to use with a fine tip have 24 colors and you can get them at Wal-Mart for under $13!!! I used my prismacolor pencils to outline the lines and give it a little depth. I am really glad I bought these!!!

Jiggs first time at the Beach!!!

As many of you know hurricane Ike was a horrible hurricane for Galveston. This is a picture i took on New Year's Eve. The two houses you see are the only ones left on the front row. The yellow one has about 3 foot of sand washed out from under it and is no longer safe. The other one is just sitting where the water left it. It still has furniture in it. It's so sad to know that so many people lost so much. I was fortunate to only have minor damage to my home. Alot of the damage has been cleaned up over the past few months but there is still so much destruction. There are tons of building that don't even exist anymore. I didn't get a ton of pictures because I was driving and didn't pull over to take them but the things I saw were just heart wrenching.


This is a shell I found washed up on the beach. The poor little criter inside had recently passed away but left his beautiful shell for us to see.

The hurricane has washed up millions of shells. I had to stick my camera on the ground to get a picture of them all!

Jiggs!! Thi was his very first time on the beach! It was too cold to let him go in the water but he had fun anyway! He was trying to drink it though...Yuck!!!

Visited a Rose Garden

We went to a rose garden on New Year's Day and these are a few pictures I took. I really loved seeing all the pretty colors and it has even inspired me to buy a new rose bush! I have two rose bushes already but none as beautiful as what's in the pictures here. I was a little sad that it wasn't a nice sunny day...I had to use a flash to get the colors of the roses to show up nice. Maybe one day when we are having better weather I'll go back and take some more pictures. Anyway, I just wanted to share a little color with you all who are having cold weather! I hope you enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year!! I hope it is filled with love and kindess!!!!!!!
Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!

Penguin

This is a little penguin card I made using my nestablities label set. I plan on making the entire set with the santa and all. They are just too cute!!!

My family on Christmas Eve

Me, my two brothers, my nephew and my mom!


Me and my mom!



Me and my nephew. He is 15 and is 6' 3". He had his knees bent in the picture so that we could get a good one!!!



Every year my family come to my house on Christmas Eve to celebrate, eat some food and exchange gifts. We had a great time tonight. I spent the day cooking and getting things ready. We ate then exchanged gifts. We all had a good time!!! It's always great to get everyone together. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Goodies!!!

Today I have been busy in the kitchen! Jan over at the stamp shack posted these yummy looking Pretzel Treats so I had to make some too!!! They are super easy. Just take some Snyder snap pretzels and put a Hershey's kiss on top of each one. Stick in the oven at 170 for about 4 minutes then take out and push a m&m in the center. Your done!! The second picture is of my spiced pecans and spiced walnuts:

4 cups walnuts or you can use pecans

2 cups powdered sugar

canola oil

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper or to taste

1 teaspoon cinnamon or to taste

salt to taste

Blanch walnuts in boiling water for a few seconds. Remove nuts from water and place in a bowl.Mix the nuts with sugar until you can't see any sugar on the nuts-it should liquefy and cover the nuts Place oil in sauce pan and heat about 3 minutes. Place nuts in oil, do in several batches, and be careful the oil will foam up. Cook until the nuts are lightly brown.Place cooked nuts on a foil covered cookie sheet and let cool.Mix the spices together and sprinkle over nuts making sure every nut is covered!!! EAT!

Hope you all are making some yummy treats too!!!

Going Nuts?

This is one of my most favorite set of stamps. He has a hat, Easter bunny ears and a few sayings as well. I made this atc for a brown themed swap over at the stamp shack.

Cards!!

Well finally I've been working on some cards!! I decided to play with a set of stamps I got for my birthday and haven't used yet. The set is from The Paper Studio and is called Botanicals & Birds. I fell in love with them when I saw them at the store. The set contains about 14 stamps and each are equally as beautiful!!!

Frosty

When I saw this card I knew I had to give it a try! Here is where I saw it. I used my Labels nestablities on mine and had to draw his mouth with a sharpie. This was really easy to make and so much fun!!!

Merry Christmas card

This is one of Tim Holtz stamps. I love his stamps. They are so pretty!!! I used an ink blending tool to distress the edges. That is a wonderful tool to have. If you don't have one and you use distress inks you really should think about getting one. It's made by ranger: http://www.rangerink.com/products/prod_inkssentials_blendingtool.htm

If you have one of the handles for alcohol inks you can use that and just buy the foam pads. The handles are basically the same. Give it a try if you haven't yet!!!

Gingerbread House Card

I found this stamp at M's and thought it was so cute. I copied the layout from one of Pams layouts. Do you like my background? I put a clear plate upside down in the snow and then put my card on top of the plate!!! I love snow!!!!!! I'm sorry it's gone already. I miss looking out the window and the white wonderland.......maybe we will get some again in another four years!

More snow pictrures!!

Well last night we got almost 3" of snow!!! This morning it was still there. I took a couple of walks and took a ton of pictures!!!

Snow Angel

This is me making a snow angel in my backyard!!! It's not often that Texas gets snow, little loan this much!!!!

It's snowing in Texas!!!!!

It's a big deal around here when it snows. It doesn't do it very often!! It's fun to go out and play and listen to all the kids outside. I can hear a bunch of kids laughing and having a good time!!! I had to dig out the gloves to make the snowmen....I tried doing it bare handed but my hands starting hurting. This is really exciting!!!!

Tim Holtz Inspired Tag/Card

I have been oohing and awwwwing over Tim Holtz tag's this past week. I did one of them a few days ago and it didn't turn out so well. Yesterday I went to my LSS and bought a couple of his small stamps and decided to give it another shot. I think it turned out ok this time around. I made my own mask out of cs, wasn't the best thing to use but my swirl die cut wouldn't cut the acetate. I also made my own shimmer mist, which really is easy and I encourage you all to try it. It's a lot cheaper then buying it too!!! Well if you haven't checked his tags out here is the link: http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/ I love following his blog, he always has great ideas!!!

I didn't really have a use for the tag so I decided to make it into a card!! I cased a card from Pam's blog. I think it makes a nice card. I just took the ribbon off the tag and put a brad in it's place. I don't own any border punches so I took my nestabilites and made the scalloped edge.

Christmas Recipe Book

This is the front of the finished recipe book. I hosted this swap over at the Stamp Shack. There were 6 categories and each person had to make 6 cards per category. They then sent them all to me and I swapped them out, made the dividers and the cover then bound them. I did this swap last year too, it really is a great book when it's all put together. .

10,000 Hits!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yahoo!!! I can hardly believe that I've had 10,000 hits on my little ol blog!!!! When I started it I was sure that no one would visit, boy was I wrong!! Thank you all for making my blog a success, now I better get on the ball and make something to post!!!

No muse.......

Well I just can't seem to get into the swing of things. I haven't really made anything for almost a month. I just haven't had any creativity. I went in my craft room yesterday trying to make Christmas cards but nothing came out. I sat there and sat there and sat there. I know in my brain there has to be some ideas I just can't get them to come out. I promise as soon as I make something I'll post it!!! Maybe I will have something spark my creativity in the next few days.