Grateful for You....

Good morning and happy Thanksgiving Eve to you! My house is quiet at the moment, but soon the kids will be up. Cort will head to school, Kyle is hanging out with friends, and this mama has to cook and clean for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I am so lucky to have the rest of this week off though, so I am happy to do the things I need to do!

I have a card that I made two years ago for the Cricut Circle.  For the life of me I couldn't find my cut info, so I can't remember the cartridge I used.

But hopefully, you can draw inspiration from it anyway. ;)

I love the leaves backed with black paper to really make them pop.  I added a few vintage touches....lace, twine, rhinestones.....

I am off to finish my coffee and then rally the troops!

Have a great day my friends!

Fall Pumpkins-Before and After!

I love taking little dollar items and altering them.  I found these white pumpkins at the dollar spot at Target. Since my living room has deep browns and a bit of red, I decided to paint them to coordinate with my decor. 

I love this dark bronze paint and decided to go with this color.  

After painting the pumpkins, I added various flowers and leaves. The flowers were cut using Spellbinder's dies. I cut several with paper and some using felt. I found these Prima felt branches and added those as well. 

 For my other pumpkin I used some book paper leaves, and a red felt flower. 

I am not good at making multiples of anything.....I think I have a touch of ADD because I get antsy and want to change it up all the time! ;) 

I am thinking next time of doing some funky fun colors, like hot pink or lime green!  Maybe for Cortney's bedroom? 

One of my pumpkins is sitting on my fireplace mantel next to the turkey.  :)

I wanted to give you a quick update on Cort's dental appointment.  Her molar did indeed crack but thankfully it was her last baby tooth!  Apparently I missed the conversation with her dentist about it (I'm such a great mom).....because who at 18 still has a baby tooth? ;)  

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Blog Candy Winner!

Thank you so much everyone for playing along in my giveaway!  I loved reading what you were all thankful for.  Some of you have had much adversity in your life and yet you still seek the silver lining.  I admire that so much! So thank you for sharing a part of yourselves with me!

And now for the winner...........
Random.org selected number 45!
Sabrina is the winner of my giveaway!

Loving Color....

I love color.

It shows in my paint choices in my house.  I have a cranberry red kitchen, navy blue/white bathroom, golden yellow living room, hot pink craft room, lime green accents in my basement. 

I'm not afraid of color.

It is cozy and warm and makes me happy. 

Maybe it's due to the many apartments I've lived in growing up, with those plain white walls. 

Boring.

Drab.

I've embraced color in my card today!

I used a Crafty Secret's set called, Home Sweet Home. I colored it with Copic markers.  I matted the image twice. Once with a plain Spellbinder's circle die, and again with their new Vintage Label's Six die.  I gave it a bit of color by airbrushing it with a yellow Copic marker. The striped paper is by My Mind's Eye.  I matted it with a turquoise blue for a bit of pop. I tied string vertically instead of ribbon because I didn't want to overpower the image. I added a couple of orange posies to the center of the bow. 

I added a bit of glossy accents to the sun and flowers. I love glossy accents! It adds just the right amount of dimension. :) 

I am off today to take Cortney to the dentist.  She cracked a molar and I am praying that the dentist can fix it.  If he can't, then we have to go to an oral surgeon.  This will not be an easy task.  So I am a bit stressed.  Wish us luck that we get good news!

Tomorrow is the last day for my giveaway, so be sure to click HERE to enter! :)

Have a wonderful Thursday my friends!

Get Well......Vintage Style...And a Giveaway!

Whew! What a whirlwind this past weekend has been!  I have been a taxi driver for much of it and hiding in the basement during our recent storms here in Chicago.  Fortunately, we had no damage and our area was not affected greatly.  There are parts of Illinois that were not so lucky.  Prayers are needed to help these people get their lives back together.

I have a Crafty Secret's card to share with you today.  This little gal is from the Feeling Yucky set.  I colored her with my Copic Markers.  I used the Spellbinders' Resplendent Rectangle's     die set.  I added subtle coloring while the die was still in place and Tim Holtz Distress Ink. 

I added rhinestones to the corners to bring out the red. 

I bought mini silverware pieces awhile back and was excited to use the spoon on this card.  I mixed red paint and glossy accents to emulate cough syrup. ;)

I colored her tray and cut it out by hand.  I popped it up with a dimensional circles. 

Since Thanksgiving is around the corner and it is the time of year to reflect on what you are thankful for, I wanted to take this time to thank all of you. 

Thank you for visiting me and leaving such sweet comments.

I am a total slacker in the comment department. 

I have intentions of leaving comments and them somehow time gets away from me.

The day just isn't long enough lately.....

I apologize for that.  I will try and be better!

So what do you have to do to win ALL of this?

Just leave a comment telling me what you are most thankful for.

If you pin my giveaway to Pinterest, your personal blog, or post about it on Facebook, come back and leave a second, third, or fourth comment to be entered two, three, or four times depending on how many places you post it.   :)

If you are new to my blog and become a follower, leave a second comment letting me know, so you can be entered a second time also!

I will pick ONE winner on Friday, November 22nd at 10PM CST.

Good luck and have a great week!!

Wild & Free.....

I love sifting through old photos, especially when I find gems like this.  Kyle was probably around 4 years old. I was taking a photography class at the time, and film was still being used.  I learned how to process photos in a dark room. It was magical standing there in the dark room watching the glossy white paper suddenly produce an image.  I remember being exceptionally proud of this photo.  My love for photography has just grown even more since then.  

I used my Cricut and the First Few Years cartridge to create my layout of my little cutie pie.  (Who is still cute but is now a 16 year old young man.....) 

I wanted to make the rocking horse special, so I added yarn to create the horse's mane, vintage ribbon, twine, and a rhinestone.  

I have created some new things this past week but by the time I get home to photograph them, it is already dark! So it may have to wait until the weekend. ;)

Darn daylight savings time!

I also wanted to share a link to something I was lucky enough to contribute to, All Free Papercrafts e-book.  ( My card is the silhouette gal on the cover! :)

That's it for me today!

Have a great Thursday!

Baby Girl Pop-Up Card

I was lucky enough to spend part of this past  weekend with girlfriends.

 We crafted, chatted, shopped, went to dinner, and laughed our butts off!  These are times I treasure and feel blessed to have such great friends in my life. I had yesterday off and it became my sort of "catch up" day.  I got a lot accomplished and got to things that had been nagging at me for weeks.

:)

I have a card to share with you today that was published in Northridge Magazine. It uses the Everyday Pop Up Cards cartridge. 

I used paper from Papertrey Ink and decorated the pram with bits of lace, pearls, paper fringe,and glossy accents. 

The best part of the card is when you open it and the sentiment pops out at you. I added glitter to the letters and some red line tape that was sprinkled with glitter as well. 

It is back to reality for me today........work.  But I think I can handle this 4 day work week thing. ;)

Have a great day my friends!!