Happy New Year Everyone!!

I am actually sad to end this year because I had so many wonderful

things happen in my life.  I was blessed with good health, a great job,

fantastic places to travel and

lots of family to spend the Holidays with!

How much better can it get and I can't 

wait to see what's in store for the next year coming up....  

So to end this year- I want to say Happy New Year to

all of you- and thank you for your wonderful comments

 and a reason for me to share all these fun things everyday :)

I truly love to create things and now that 

I submitted my 2nd Spellbinders project I will 

have time to work on some of the New Valentines

projects that I have planned with my new papers...

Here are just a few pictures from my new camera!

Thanks Santa- you are the Best!

 We have a huge family gathering on Christmas eve

with dinner and gifts for the kids and a white

elephant exchange for the parents.  There were lots

of fun things unwrapped and the kids were all happy

with what they got...

 I bought some new things this year to make for my

dining room.  I made it into a blue and silver-snowy, icy, 

snowman room for the holidays.  

I really liked the way this candleholder

came out and I hung snowy sticks and snowflakes from

the chandelier that looks really neat when the lights

are dim and the tree lights are on....

 It's always hard to get a good picture of the grandkids 

and we snapped lots to get this one of all of them :) 

and my sister and inlaws were out from out of state

so it added that much more fun to the days...

 I love it when everyone shares their favorite ornaments

so I thought I would share some of my snowman collection

with all of you.  Some of them I buy and some of them

I painted myself when I did decorative painting. 

 The snowman below is one of my favorites.  My

mom always said to put on happy faces on all my

characters because they make you smile and I 

think she was right because each year I look

forward to putting out all their smiling faces

and having everyone over to visit.... it was

a really fun Holiday Season this year!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I 

wish you good health and all the best for 2012!!

Lots of Hugs,  Teresa

New Cards with LOTV stamps..

The last release from LOTV was so cute and I couldn't resist

buying a few new ones to make a few new cards so send so

I got out my Copics out and had lots of fun creating...

 I love the new fairies that they have and
the cute ways they are drawn.  This one
can be for anything really but i used one of
the new mini buttons and made it for a birthday!
 I used papers from Lime Twist 6x6 pad on this
and my lg. Scalloped Octagons and the tiny
Scalloped squares in the 4 windows. For the outside
edge of the frame I traced around the edge of the die
and hand cut it so that it would just barely give
me a little bit of an edge for extra color. The coloring
 on the image is with copics and colored pencils and I added
diamond stickles on her wings to make them sparkle.

 Isn't this little puppy so cute?  For this I used
an old 6x6 pad with pet prints on it and my
Spellbinders Lacey Square die to mat behind
the image.  I also added the diamond stickles
on the little bubbles to make them glisten a little too.

 This is just a quick card you can make from
the kitchen paper pad from Bo Bunny.  I matted
all the papers 4 x to bring out the colors in the stripe
and put one of the coffee chipboard images over
the other coffee image to make it pop more.  The
flowers are from Prima and the what's brewin' is stamped
on cream cardstock with Momento Rich Cocoa
 on a small labels Twenty die from Spellbinders...
 I think I am going to add a little steam coming out
 of the cup now that I see it up but
hope you like all the bright and cheerful colors I used :)

and...
Last for today is just a simple thank you card that I made
with my MME paper pad.  I layered the papers across on
an A2 size cream card and added a sheer ribbon to start
and then embossed a simple square 2" embossed image
on a piece of their coordinating cream cardstock.  Lastly
i glued that on a Spellbinders square fleur de lis die and popped it up
with foam dots for more dimension.

Hope you like the new cards and have lots more to share
but I need to do a bit more coloring still so
have a great day and thanks for stopping by...

Lots of happy hugs,  Teresa

Only 6 days until Christmas...

I made a few new things to share today and with only

6 days left until Christmas I am officially

done shopping.  Yay....  And I just need bows on

the wrapping so that is almost done too.  We all went out 

for lunch yesterday, sang some amazing songs at church

 and watched a few Christmas shows so far

and with the rain we had we even got lots of snow up on the 

mountains.  It looks so pretty and makes it seem more like

Christmas is coming now.  

My project to share today is a book that I made

for my niece for Christmas to put her college photos

in.  Fancy Pants made these amazing brag albums that have

places for journaling, pockets for stuff and little

sleeves for photos.  Since she is going to be a teacher

someday I picked this beautiful school themed paper 

from G45 to create this for her.

The inside cover and back cover have some of the 

tags and photo cards on them and chipboard pieces.

I also did this with the G45 Christmas line to make a book

to keep my holiday photos in.  They are quick and 

easy to make and really hold alot of things inside of them.

(Check out the link on the word Fancy Pants if you are

interested in getting one of these).

Hope you holidays are going good and I have

more cards to share tomorrow with my new stamps

from LOTV so be sure and check back ok :)

 Lots of Hugs, Teresa  

only 10 days until Christmas

My daughter and I had a great day shopping at the

 Huntington Beach pier this afternoon for Christmas. 

 We found some really cute stores with lots of the beachy 

clothes we love and had time to have a nice

lunch too.  I miss my old hangout with my friends :)

 And i got my Christmas cards mailed so I should be done 

and ready this weekend with a whole week to spare!  Yay! 

I hope you are all having fun so far and be sure and do something

special each day to make this season a great one to remember...

Still excited today about the Spellbinders knews :)

Have a great day!

Hugs,  Teresa

On the first day of Christmas with great knews...

Today is the first day we are starting to do all the fun things

planned for the Christmas Season and I have some AMAZiNG news

to share and seems perfect for the first day of the 12 days before Christmas... 

I got an email this morning from Spellbinders----BIG HUGE Yay!!

and 

they asked me to move on to the second round of 

the competition so for my first day of Christmas I am 

elated, exited, thrilled, blessed, happy, and smiling

to the heavens and back...BIGGER Yay now
and doing Petra's happy dance too  :)

Oh happy, happy day...

Hugs, Teresa

Relaxing week

I have a few new things to show today since I have

been home sitting with my dog after his knee operation.

Last Thursday my golden went in to fix a tendon that

he tore completely and I haven't had much sleep since then but

since I have to stay with him day and night so that he doesn't

chew threw all the staples and run anywhere then I have

gotten a few things done.  I got my box of Webster's in

the mail and decided to make this chunky flap book to

put lots of photos and memorabilia of the things 

that we do for the Christmas Holidays this year.  We

decided to do lots more family events instead of spending

so much time in the malls and it is really going to be

a special year because of it.  Much more relaxing I think...

and thank goodness for online ordering too :)

 So if you don't know what flap books are then you

are missing out.  These 2 products are from Pine Cone

Press in So.Cal.  They made these chunky chipboard books in

2 sizes this year and you can really do alot of pages

inside of them.  I made 6 sets of the flap pages for

this and the fun part is you can always add more flaps

if you end up with more photos that you need to scrap!!

 Each of the sections opens up to have more

places for photos.  You can also add flaps up 

or down or envelopes that open up with other fun

things inside of them.  It is really fun and makes 

for an incredibly fun book to look at.  You can't just 

flip through fast on this one and the more you add

the more fun it is... I am going to add lots of paper

clips and pockets too as I get things in the days ahead

so I will show it again when the season is over..

 The measurements for this are 6x17.  You can create

your own by cutting a 12x12 in half and scoring it

at 6" and then adding a flap under the right edge by

cutting a piece of 6x6 and scoring it at 1" and then

gluing it under the first flap on the right edge.  It's 

really easy.  The center of the book is a folded 

accordion piece of paper and each of the flaps is

glued in with Scor Tape.  It works fantastic to keep

hard to hold things in place just in case you haven't 

tried it. I love the it and its easy to apply too!

So with that said I am catching up on scrapping some of

my trips this year.  I was going to use this paper to

do a page of all the blue eyed people in my family,

but it worked even better for my snow trip to Zion.

Being from California we don't get snow much so

being in Zion which is one of my favorite places

in the world on a first snowfall day was just amazing!

I took so many photos and think I will have to do a 

book just for Zion photos now in different seasons.

The papers on this page are from Authentique and I

love the blues.  I would love to decorate my whole house

in this if it were fabric because it is just so pretty.

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what's new

and I hope you are all as excited as I am to celebrate

this year with friends and family...

Card Club

It's time for Card Club again and I am pretty happy

with all the cards this month we are doing.

I promised we would do everyday cards but I 

added a few Christmas and promised Linda I would

use the Gingerbread stamp so they get two extra

Christmas this month.  Yay!!

My favorite this month is this pop up slider card

that I found on Splitcoast Stampers.  I changed it up a little

but its a super cute idea for cards...

I used a flower stamp from Hero Arts for the 

backround and embossed it in white to add more

texture to it.  The coloring is with chalks.

 I used the stripe paper from BG on this so it

looked a little like candy canes and added a cake

doily behind his head for texture. The 

image is stamped on Bazzill Kraft and inked with 

chestnut roan chalk ink.  The white is a gel pen 

and the rest is done with regular chalks. 

 Don't your love his smile ?

Stamp is by: Penny Black

 Last favorite is this gate card made with 2 new Spellbinders

dies that I just got.  I wanted a lacey effect so I layered them

and popped them up with foam squares.  The pink dot

paper is by Bazzill and the adorable dot paper from

the Birthday collection from Doodlebug.

Thanks for checking in and seeing what's new

after Turkey Day!!  

Hugs,  Teresa

Basic Grey Sketch of the Week

The sketch this week is from one of the talented designers from 

Basic Grey ( Nancy Burke).  She did hers of her 2 gorgeous

daughters on the BG blog so I had to find the time this week 

to join in and do one for me too.  I picked papers from the

Mellow line to do this cute picture of my niece away at

college with her friends.  It had the perfect fall colors

and the perfect embellishments to do the sketch.  

I added an extra row of edge cutting on the bottom

and had to move the letters but it was fun and quick

and easy to do so thanks Nancy :)

I used both MS and EK edge punches and a W1 Copic

marker in grey to go around the edges of the flowers 

to make them more shadowed and pop a little more.

Thanks for stopping by,

Teresa

New Projects with Authentique papers...

We got 5 of the New Collections from Authentique

this week so I got to help create lots of projects for the store

to show off the new release of it for us... and was

it ever amazing paper to work with.  The quality

of the paper is outstanding and the colors and prints

are perfect for almost anything you might think of to

scrap or create something with...

My first project is a canvas I did with the Uncommom line.

I love all the pinks and rose colors of this line and 

it has big and small letters to work with. (love this :)

 The aquas, creams and browns of this line were really

fun to create with.  I made the lace doily on this by

cutting a circle with a plate and then by flipping a martha

stewart corner punch upside down you can punch all

around the edge and you have an instant doily!  Thanks

Debbie for the idea and hope all of you will try it soon!

 The flowers I made with a EK punch and layered some

roses on top of them.  I added punched leaves in with it too.

 This photo doesn't do this justice because the colors

are really beautiful together.  The huge orange poppies

on this really caught my eye and they were great to scrap

these fall photos of my niece at college.

Last for today is this quick card I made from scraps from

the page above.  It only took a few minutes but it is

really bright and happy and cute :)

Got to get back to creating again so have

a great day and take care,

Teresa

Bo Bunny Card Sketch Challenge

I just found this card challenge from Bo

Bunny yesterday and thought I would join in and 

make something fun. The Bo Bunny DT always make gorgeous 

projects for their blog, they are always amazing in case 

you want to go check them out, 

and I hope you all like what I came up with for it.

My papers and embellishments are from the "Welcome Home"

line from their last release...  I love all the colors of this line

and all the fun flourishes and goodies they have to work with.

For this card I also used 2 Spellbinders dies to give it

a more lacey victorian feel. (Fleur de Lis Motifs and 

Lattice Rectangles) I made my own stickpins by adding 

some crystal beads to the simple pearl ones I had 

in my stash.  I love the little saying "You make my heart smile",

It just seemed perfect for the title....  Hope you like it :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Teresa

Best Day Ever

 Here is a new page I did for the store today.  I am

using the New Basic Grey Little Black dress line

and is it ever fun to work with!  There are so many

patterns that you can mix and match and all the neutral

tones make it perfect for just about any kind of photo..

 I love the lacey patterns and flowers on this paper

and I am going to have to get more to do some other

projects I have in mind to do soon..

I am trying to use up my scraps by making

cards right away and here is just one of the cards I did doing

just that.  If you do them right away you don't have to store

more bits of paper and you can add another card to your 

box of ready to give away cards for everyone!!  Yay!!

Thanks for looking in on me and have a great day :)

Teresa

Fun Trip in North Carolina

I had a really fun week traveling last week to 

North Carolina on business with my DH

 and have some pictures to share today.  We spent

most of the time in Charlotte, Matthew's and Monroe

but got to travel to the Biltmore on the Vanderbilt Estate

for a couple of days. And was it ever fun!! 

 The timing was perfect for all the trees changing colors 

and even though we see some of it here it is nothing

like the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.  All we kept

saying was Wow everytime we turned a corner :)

 I opted for seeing the historic sites of the town this

trip and found this beautiful old plantation nestled

among all these gorgeous old trees.  It was really neat

to see this up close and personal and it wasn't really what

I imagined from the history books I read.  My DH 

says there are more of the bigger ones in Miss. where 

his mom is from.  Sounds like another reason for 

a fun trip to visit relatives next spring...

This is actually an old estate that they saved and

made into a hotel.  It is the Duke Mansion and

was part of some amazing Victorian Houses built

for the wealthy aristocrats in the area.  I got to go inside

and look around and it is really beautiful.

 I am trying to take some time in life and drag my DH

to see some amazing things in the US and this is going

to be scrapped as one of my favorites!  George W. Vanderbilt

built this gorgeous 255 room home for himself and his 

family on 126,000 acres of forest.  He had farms, a dairy,

his own lake, a huge river running through his property, 

and the most amazing garden you can imagine with a green

house too.  Puts mine to shame actually :)  They had

flowers everywhere and the estate.... It always amazes me
to see these homes in the victorian era of our country
because they are all so beautiful!!

 This is the hotel on the estate so people can stay

over and have time to relax and do some of the fun

things they have on the estate to do.  The rooms

and the inside of it was just gorgeous.

This is me on the steps on the back side of the house.

 This is a picture of the place we ate for dinner.  

The cooks are amazing here and the food was sooo 

good.  It is called Cetric's Tavern after one of his

pet St. Bernards.  They loved animals and had lot

of dogs on the property.  

 This was my DH's breakfast and was delicious!

Cinnamon streusel pancakes with ham :)  Yummmm!

 I love old cars and they had this rare Motel C that

belonged to Mrs. Vanderbilt at  their winery on display.  

It fits 7 people but I am sure it was crazy windy

 when they went for a drive!! (No windows except 

on the front and back of the car)

My last photo was one of the trees in

the shops at the house.  They had just

decorated for Christmas in the Biltmore but we

were not allowed to take pictures sadly.  They

still have a big family Christmas with all the people

that work for them in the house and it sounds like

it would be fun to go to.  But back to my house I

am in the mood for Christmas now and am rested and

ready to have a fun holiday season!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Hugs, Teresa

Basic Grey Sketch Challenge

There was another really cute sketch up this week

at the Basic Grey blog and with all the paper I have

stashed it was another good reason to get some photos

out and scrap! Yay.... I had to print my photos smaller for 

this challenge but I like all the festive colors of the Jovial

line and it matches my decorations in my house too :)

Products used for this were:

Jovial element stickers, Merry Maker,

 Snowball Fight and rosemary papers. 

I tweeked the title placement a little but it made the

red letters stand out more and I really like the way it came out.

Can't wait to do the rest of the pages for this....

Thanks again for a great 

sketch this week and thanks for looking! 

Hugs, Teresa