Hello friends! I can't believe it's already December 1st. I know many of you are opening Day 1 of your Advent Calendars or starting your December daily's today. This year I wanted to come up with my own special way to celebrate the holidays here on my blog so I am pleased to kick off  my first ever...

25 days of holiday cards! 

Each day I will be showing a new holiday themed card here on my blog created with some of my favorite holiday stamps and paper collections. I hope you'll check in each day and let me know what you think!  Happy Holidays to you all,  now let the fun begin! 

Supplies list: Jillibean Soup Christmas Eve Chowder (frozen lobster tail); Unity Stamp Co./ Jillibean Soup Co-Brand Christmas Eve Chowder. Martha Stewart doily tags, Copic markers, Misc: Ribbon and twine.

Unity Monthly Challenge: Let it Snow

Hello friends! Did you know that Unity has a monthly theme challenge? Come create with us each month and get yourself a chance to win a fabulous prize...Just how fabulous is the prize you ask...

 A chance to win 100 random stamps

and a free kit of your choice valued at $45 or under!

I would say that IS a pretty fabulous prize to win. This month's theme is "Let It Snow!"

For my card I used Jillibean Soup's Christmas Chestnut Soup and the Snowflake from Ippity's Season of Joy. I really enjoy stamping with white ink on craft cardstock. This snowman print sheet of kraft from Jillibean is a fav of mine from last year and I still love creating cards with it. I finished my card off with some bling and a crystal snowflake from Imaginisce.

You have until December 15th to complete this challenge. Make sure you link up your cards to the challenge post here.

Look for a new challenge on the 15th of each month! Now go create!

Thank you for stopping by!

My Little Shoebox Trick or Treat mini

Hello friends, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had such a nice dinner with my husband's family and Lily and her cousin gavin had a blast running around outside after we ate while my brother in law and son were throwing the football to each other. I snapped a few cute shots I'll share later in the week. 

I didn't get out to shop on Black Friday because I was working all day at my local Michaels and it was really busy. 

The newest Cricut was on sale for 199.99 and I sure would have loved to take one home. I was fun to see so many women coming in to buy Cuttlebugs, Sizzix and Cricuts. It's like there is a major crafting movement happening and more women are creating. I love it!

Speaking of creating, I wanted to share my Trick or Treat Mini Album that I designed for a My Little Shoebox assignment with you today. I had lots of fun creating this album with photos from last year's Halloween festivities. 

  Halloween 2010

I had an older Making Memories album from a few years ago and thought it would be perfect for my project. I just added to the embossed bats cover. (click on the image for a larger view and slide show of all the photos)

Here's some journaling I printed right onto the patterned paper. I added some little extra's besides the cardstock stickers I had in my stash.

I love the spider web punch from Martha Stewart.  I used it a few times in my album along with my Cottage Cutz dies. The glittered spiders with twine web are from Michaels.

I love that we have teamed up with Unity Stamp Co to co brand My Little Shoebox sets that coordinate with our paper collections. I used the pumpkin stamp and repeated the stamp to make a fun border. I colored him in with some Copics.

What mini is complete without a little bit of Prima bling. I also used the tag stamp from the Unity Co-Brand, a little Trick or Treat. And for some fun I journaled on a punched strip of black cardstock with a white pen.

OK time for some left overs and a slice of what's left of my pumpkin cheesecake. Thanks for stopping by to take a peek at my album.

Hip Hop Happy Thanksgiving!

Hip Hop Hello and Happy Thanksgiving! If you haven't come here by way of Natalie's blog then head on over to the Unity Blog to get all the Hip Hop news from Angela. I do have something fun to share with you before we get to the Unity creation I have for you today. 

Now available from Unity, Gift Certificates! Now you can tell your friends and family what you want to find in your stocking this Christmas.

 

 Last year we had a small celebration for Thanksgiving (it was just us) and I was feeling really sad about my family not being here for the holiday and things being really tight money wise for us. So I created these Gratitude tags for us to write what we were Grateful for and laid them on our plates.

 Stamp: Grateful You &  Simple Blessings

I won't share what my hubby wrote but I will tell you that it brought me to tears. This year is even a bit harder than last Thanksgiving with him being out of work for the past 6 months but thru it all we have each other and we are grateful again for healthy children, a loving home and each other. 

I'm also so grateful to be a part of the Unity Design Team family. I have been given so many amazing opportunities and blessings from being a part of Unity that I am so very grateful for. This team of ladies and the Unity crew makes my heart SUPER happy!

 Today we'll be heading over to my MIL's this afternoon to have a nice dinner together along with my SIL and her family. I've been up early baking my annual pumpkin cheesecake. The very one I made to impress my husband 7 years ago when he took me to meet his family for the first time. I love baking this dessert for my family and can tell you it tastes as good as it looks here on my Thanksgiving table last year.

Now I'm going to send you over to Stephanie's blog!

My Little Shoebox Winter Wonderland Card Hop

Hello there! Thanks from joining us today for our card hop. We hope you've been able to get a look at each one of the fun papers that make up this fun collection. I chose the Winter Folly and Gumdrop Lane papers to create my card along with the cute snowman stamp from the You melt my Heart Unity Co Brand and the matching Cottage Cutz die also sold as a set by Unity.

In addition to MLS Winter Wonderland I used the Spellbinder die Fleur de Lis, some misc ribbon from Joann's, Martha Stewart's snowflake punch with vellum paper and misc bling. I accented my snowman with the new Martha Stewart glitter glue. This stuff is amazing! The tips are fine and make it easy to control the glue. 

 B.e sure and leave me a comment and share our card hop with your friends on Facebook. There are 3 chances to win our Winter Wonderland collection!  Now head on over to Melinda's blog.

Have a creative day!

Paper Posies December kit

Hello friends! It's pouring rain here in So Cal and I absolutely love it! It's perfect weather for paper crafting and today I have some crafty things to share with you.

Every month I really enjoy designing for Paper Posies kit club. Every month, owner Michele Applehans picks amazing manufacturers to mix and match in each kit and always ends up with a fabulous mix of the latest goodies and includes a special project. Here's a look at December's kit that went live Friday!

Click here to see all that's included in this month's kit. Here's a look at my design work that I created for this month's Paper Posies gallery.

Here's a fun gift card holder idea 

You melt my heart sentiment from Unity/MLS Co Brand

I created both these cards with the new Snow Day collection from Pink Paislee. I absolutely love these papers and embellies. They are so cute!

Here's a pic of how I created the gift card holder with the Snow Day label. 

This month's project was this adorable vintage star ornament so I used some Maya Road chipboard from a previous kit and created something fun to hang on our tree. I am kinda addicted to white ink these days.

 Santa Baby layout featuring Jillibean Soup and based on a sketch I saw at my friend Julie Bonner's sketch blog, 52 Sketches.

A closer look at the tag and twine. I love this color twine.

And last but not least a layout with some yummy October Afternoon.

Thanks for visiting today. I hope you too are getting your craft on today . This week is going to be full of super crafty fun here on my blog. Tomorrow I'll be showing you some more Winter Wonderland  inspiration in the My Little Shoebox Card hop and later in the week Imaginisce is showing of the new and improved iTop with a bunch of fabulous projects including a look at the new extra large brads!

Have a great day!

Holiday Card making at Two Peas

 Hello friends. I was featured over at Two Peas for Unity stamp company as part of their Holiday Card making event yesterday! I had so much fun creating my cards with the new My Little Shoebox Winter Wonderland collection. Here's a look at the new catalog where my cutie patootie Lily is featured! 

Here's a look at my cards I created with this beautiful collection.

This little guy is so cute! The set is called You Warm My Heart.

I wanted to show how easy it was to create a holiday card using the cardstock stickers from the Winter Wonderland collection

This snowflake from the Winter joy peace love set is a must have for your collection.

And finally, this card is my favorite. I love these detailed trees from the Warmth and Winter Wishes collection.

You can purchase all of these dies and matching stamps from Unity's website.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger

It's the end of a busy weekend of hosting Crop Night at Michaels, watching both my kids soccer games and sample creating for my upcoming classes. I have spent my Sunday afternoon/evening creating with some new My Little Shoebox products and creating a card for this week's Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger. Here's this week's Trigger 

And here's my take.

I was inspired by the colors of the bracelet.

 Supplies: Patterned paper Crate paper, Unity Co Branded Marah Johnson Thank You stamp, Close to My heart ink Cocoa, Stickles and Copic markers. Misc: ribbon.

Thanks for coming over to take a peek!

Celebrating Creative Imaginations and Unity week!

Hello friends! Thanks for stopping by today! It's another fabulous Unity Hip Hop Thursday and I am excited that we are celebrating Creative Imaginations all week long on the Unity blog. Creative Imaginations has so many amazing designers and products! I was so excited to recieve some of their amazing Marah Johnson products to create with for this week's Hop. Here's what I created with them.

 be you

Supplies: Paint It with Luminarte * Marah Johnson, Twinkling H20's,

Unity/Marah Johnson Co-branded Dare to fly set.

 

 I really enjoyed creating with this paper and the Twinkling H20's. It was fun to color this paper to my liking and really easy to do. After I finished coloring the paper the way I wanted to I simply wiped the excess color with a paper towel.  I really liked that this paper also worked well with colored mists.

 

I also used some MFT flower dies to create coordinating flowers to embellish my layout and color them with the Twinkling H2O's.  

Don't forget to leave a comment over at the Unity and Creative Imaginations blog to be entered to win a wonderful prize!!

 Now it's time for you to head over to Stephanie's blog to see what she has to share with you!

Have a creative day!

Paper Posies November kit

Hello friends. I caught that terrible head cold last Tuesday and have been MIA ever since. I am so lad I was able to bundle up Monday night and get out with little girl for her first real Trick or Treating experience. She hasn't stopped talking about it since Halloween. Since I wasn't feeling that great I really didn't snap that many pics (insert sad face) I know...but I did get a few I will share soon! 

Paper Posies revealed the November kit last week on the website here. I always love getting every Paper Posies kit in the mail! Not only does Michele pick the best products to mix and match but I always love the little project included!

To see the complete list on contents in this month's kit click here.

Here's a look as some of the layouts and cards I created with the November kit.

I loved using this Be You butterfly Co Branded stamp by Unity Stamp Co/Samantha Walker for my card. I also used one of the new Sizzix embossing folders.

 

My husband loves to make a special lunch for Lily. We call it "Lunch by Dad".

And here's my take on this month's project. I made a cute magnet for our fridge!

I really enjoyed creating with this month's kit. Order your today before they're gone!