Hambo Hoedown #44

It's time for another Hoedown at Hambo! This week's challenge was to use the digital image Snowball Fight (which you can find here) and to use dry embossing on your card (don't you love their "punny" challenges? Snow is wet, so use something dry...). If you'd like to give this challenge a shot yourself, head on over to the Hambo Hoedown page, here. It will mean a free digi stamp for you!

I used this cute Sizzix embossing folder as my dry embossing. It reminds me of snow, so it went well with this stamp. I also tied the bells on to my sheer blue ribbon with some twine to give the card a festive appeal.

Notice the nice, straight, pinking shears line? Well, that was made with my new PTI pinking shears die that I got in my last release package. The pearls are from Recollections.

I got a lot of use out of my BG10 Cool Shadow Copic marker on this digi stamp to make the snow stand out on the white background. If you don't own Copics but want to get started, make sure to get this marker first...I use it the most of them all!

All cardstock is PTI, and other supplies were listed above. It has been unusually warm up here in Massachusetts, this year. We're still getting in the 60s in the afternoons and we've only seen snow on Halloween when we had that huge storm that caused so much damage. Most people up here are really thankful that it is so warm and hasn't snowed yet. To me, it just doesn't quite seem like its going to be December tomorrow without the cold.

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Each month with Hambo, I get to choose a challenge from the Splitcoast Stampers forum to use one of the Hambo digi images. I enjoy sketch challenges, so I decided to play along with this one:

And this is what I made with this funny Blind Mice Hambo digi that you can find here.

This stamp cracks me up ;)

I felt like it was too empty on the left side of the card, so I added a big pink bow that was repurposed from a gift and now it looks like a big birthday present :) Sorry about the yellow tone to the pictures, for some reason the camera was really picking up on that and I couldn't find an angle to make it stop.

The border punch is from Martha Stewart. The cardstock is a mixture of PTI and SU. The circle was cut with a Nestabilities circle die.

I don't have anyone in particular in mind to receive this card, so I'll stick it in my stash, but when they do I think it will definitely get a laugh out of the recipient ;)

November PTI Blog Hop

For the November PTI Blog Hop, we were given this photo for inspiration:

There was SO much to go by in this picture, I couldn't fit it all in! So here is what I was able to create with it:

I didn't have a tin bucket, but I thought that this pitcher from Iconic Images would work. The plants inside are also from Iconic Images.

The "wrapping paper" is made with the medallion images from Iconic Images, the bow is from Bells and Boughs. I took the design from the couch and used my Half and Half dies and stamps on the bottom left corner. The sentiment seemed perfect for this photo. It is from Home for the Holidays.

The garland was a lot of fun to make. It was the first time I had used the pine bough dies that I won in the release a couple of months ago :) And I know that the stair railing was straight in the picture, but I couldn't resist using my new quartrefoil die from this release!

Everything on my card today is PTI except for the ribbon which is SU. At first, I wasn't thrilled about this inspiration photo, I thought it had too much in it, but I ended up enjoying making this card, and it really got me into the Christmas spirit. Now to go finish putting up the tree :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just had to share a picture that I woke up to this morning of my niece, Autumn :) Look at her cute little "first Thanksgiving" shirt! I will miss the usual family traditions, but I have pumpkin bread in the oven now, and will make a smaller scale meal for me and Phillip this afternoon. Then on Saturday we were invited to a coworker's house to celebrate Thanksgiving there. Both years we have been here in MA for Thanksgiving, new friends have invited us to share it with them, to which I am ever so grateful.

And I can't post with out cards! This is the first Thanksgiving card I created with PTI's Gobble Gobble set, but it was too complex to make for everyone, so only one of these was made.

The tags are the two SU tag punches. The circle was cut with Nestabilities. The patterned paper is from two PTI fall packs, and the cardstock is all PTI. The large button and ribbon are SU.

I just LOVE this turkey and matching dies. Thanks so much, mom for surprising me with them!! :)

And here is the simpler card that I made to send to my family for Thanksgiving:

Even though its simple, I think it turned out nicely. I had grand plans to make about 25, but I ended at 10. After I did all those tags and pumpkin breads the other day, I was sorta "Thanksgiving-ed Out."

I hope that you all have special plans for today. I hope you are with family and/or friends, and I hope you are all able to reflect on the many things we have to be thankful for. I am so thankful for the new additions to my family this year, for reliable jobs, for new hobbies (knitting and canning), for the chance to be on a Design Team, for new friends, for our new camper, for my furry "children," for celebrating my 8th year of marriage to Phillip, for our wonderful home, for parents that I am truly close to even though we live so far apart, for weekly stamping nights with Suzanne, and for this blog (Suzanne, I'm so glad you convinced me to start it!). Because of blogging I have met so many awesome people who share my passion. I have even been fortunate to meet several of them in person, and I look forward to meeting even more in the future. Thank you all for viewing my projects and offering words of encouragement and support throughout the year. I love doing this and hope to continue for many years in the future. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Hambo Hoedown #43

At the Hoedown this week, the challenge was to use the digital image Computer, which you can find here. They had a cute play on words for the challenge....use our SOFTwares, and put something soft on our cards. You can try it out yourself and be eligible for a free digi image here.

My "soft" item was fabric. The plaid part of the card is actually fabric that I adhered behind my Terracotta Tile Frame that was left over from the turkey tags that I cut for my coworkers (thrifty, huh?) I colored the computer with Copics and then popped it off the page with foam tape.

There was no sentiment given this week, so I used some cool typewriter looking letters off a piece of patterned paper that I've had so long I can't remember where I got it from ;)

The ribbon and clip are both from Michaels. The frame was cut out with PTI's Mega Mat Stack #3 die.

I hope you all have some wonderful Thanksgiving plans! Enjoy yourselves :)

Tags for Thanksgiving

Turkey Tags for Coworker Gifts:

Last year after Thanksgiving at Michaels, these cute mini ceramic loaf pans were on sale for like .10 each! I bought 10 with my fellow management team at work in mind. Last night I had to experiment since I have never baked in such small pans. I doubled my pumpkin bread recipe and then just filled them about 1/3 full because I know when I usually make pumpkin bread it has a tendency to overflow. Then I just kept an eye on them checking after 20 minutes, then 10, then 5 and they looked pretty done to me. The little pans are microwave and dishwasher safe, so I baked the bread right in them. And then, of course, I had to make a tag. I used my new (to me) PTI Gobble Gobble set that my mom gave me as a little Thanksgiving gift :) The Gratitude paper is from the First Fruits patterned paper pack, the cardstock is kraft for the turkey and Terracotta Tile on the Mega Mat Stack 3 base. The punch around the sentiment is from SU and the sentiment itself is from the fall tag set that PTI came out with. The ribbon is from Michaels.

Hambo Hoedown #42

This week's challenge at the Hoedown was to use this cute Wee Henry Turkey image and to use a tag anywhere on our project. Head on over to the Hambo Hoedown to try the challenge out yourself and be eligible for a FREE Hambo digital image.

I colored Wee Henry with Copics and then cut him out and stuck him to an SU Old Olive piece of cardstock that I cut with a SU circle punch. Then I stuck that on to one of PTI's tag sale dies that I cut from the fall patterned paper pack.

The neat wooden button I actually won in a blog-o-versary contest with a bunch of other great do-dads, too. I tied twine from the Twinery in it. I punched the Hambo sentiment out with the SU curly label punch and layered cardstock and more PTI fall patterned paper to get the whole effect of the card.

So what are your plans for the big day next week? I asked for Friday off, too, so I am really looking forward to an extremely rare 4 day weekend! Plenty of time to get some crafting done, which is good because I have to make 24 handmade ornaments for my mom's yearly ornament exchange which is always the first Thursday in December. We're going to stick around the house, but on Saturday one of my friends/coworkers invited us over to her house for a Thanksgiving feast, so that should be fun. This weekend I just have to get to work finishing up all my Thanksgiving cards, then on to Christmas! Whatever you've got planned, I hope you get some nice, delicious, relaxing family time :)

Proud Aunt

As promised, here are some photos from my quick trip to FL. Here is baby Autumn Grace wearing the hat and booties I made her. Yes, the booties fit! Although it took her dad, Alex, about ten minutes to get them on and I think that will be the last time she can wear them, lol

I love this totally relaxed picture. She almost doesn't even look real!

These are the very first shots of me holding my niece:

I just LOVE the face she's making in this one, hehe :) And if you notice in the background on the wall is one of the cupcake frames I made for her that I showed on the blog awhile back. After I passed Autumn to my dad, I was thrilled when she held on to my shirt and smiled as she was passed :)

Here we are as we went out to breakfast...where I also got to see my 6 month old nephew, Liam.

Can you believe the difference?! I just LOVE how expressive he is now. Each time you take a photo he has a different facial expression, so its so fun to look at each one :)

Here he is with my dad:

And here's another of the many faces of Liam :)

His bear hat that I made him at the beginning of this year no longer fits his head as he now weighs 20 pounds and has the cutest chunky legs, and of course has to have a big head to hold all those brains :) So while I was at the airport, I started making him a new one...a dinosaur this time! This day was wonderful. I got to see both kids, siblings, their spouses, and my parents. We had fun, played games, and ate...a lot, which is why when I woke up that night feeling queasy at midnight I figured I just ate too many sweets. I soon realized, however, that that was not the case.

I became sick as a dog! I got up 5 times that night, and by morning I had lost 3 pounds....it was the most unpleasant thing. And we did not know if I had the flu, or food poisoning, so in the morning, I was immediately quarantined from the biggest reason I came to Florida....the babies. We had such big plans on Monday, too. It was my mom's birthday, and the girls were going on a shopping trip and to lunch at Olive Garden, then to my brother's for games and dinner. I spent almost all day in bed (completely exhausted from not sleeping the night before). Then when we decided that we should definitely go to their house, because we thought I was better and I wanted to see everyone again before I left the next day, I got up to get in the car, and got sick again :( I was okay enough the next day to fly home, which is good because I had to be at work on Wednesday, but even today I still don't feel like Jessica, although I'm so much closer to normal. The thing is, I NEVER get sick! And the one time I do is when I'm trying to visit my family. So my trip was not as planned at all. I'm still so thankful that I got to see everyone for one day, at least.

Hambo Hoedown #41

This week's challenge was to use the Camera Guy digi stamp and to use a frame somewhere on your card. The challenges at the Hambo Hoedown are a lot of fun, and you get a free digi stamp out of them! You should definitely try playing along. Check it out here.

I knew right away when I saw a person behind the camera that I wanted to give this card to my mom for her birthday, because she is always attached to her camera! I colored the camera guy with Copics, and made the frame with four thin sheets of cardstock glued together and popped off the page with foam tape.

These arrows are from a SU punch. The patterned paper is from PTI's Men of Life pack. The twine is from the Twinery. When she read the sentiment, she totally loved it!

I made this card larger than my usual A2 size. Its actually 5 1/2 by 5 1/2. When she opened it, it was funny, she was like "this is big!" She really liked it, though. I just got back last night from my trip to FL to meet my niece, so check back tomorrow to see pics and to hear how my trip did not turn out at all as planned.