Clarification!!

Just wanted to pop in and let you know that the GCD Studios blog is having a giveaway in honor of Thanksgiving HERE...

AS WELL AS sponsoring a giveaway on my blog (see post HERE)! You have til next Saturday (Dec. 5th) to enter!

So make sure you enter them both. I am probably going to take a few days off from blogging as I REALLY need to make Christmas cards and finish up my Christmas shopping (almost done, yaaaaay!) I love Black Friday, but now I am really, really tired. And I have a lot of wrapping to do. =)


And in lieu (sp??!) of a picture, I will leave you with this happy image (borrowed from the world wide web) of a super cute, versatile little Cricut cartridge that I bought today at Wal-Mart...it has a full alphabet and dingbat set as well as the cut outs for several little stand-up buildings, including a church. I am breaking this baby in today for Christmas cards! =D!! YAAAAYYY!


Enjoy your weekend!!

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you had lots of enjoyable family time and that your tummies are nice and stuffed! =) I am so grateful for my husband, friends and families, and most especially for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

And...in honor of Thanksgiving, GCD Studios is sponsoring a little blog giveaway...this lovely paper pack!

Just leave a comment by next Saturday, December 5th!! =) If you're a Black Friday shopper, HAPPY SHOPPING!! =D

Daily Creativity...

Another quick card and a cute little gift tag -> out for publication!! Featuring...you guessed it...Artsy Urban from GCD Studios!! =D

Check back tomorrow for a Thankgiving giveaway!!

Quick Card

Using my favorite line ever...Artsy Urban by GCD Studios!! =)

Peanut Festival Love

This is another two pager that uses LOTS of photos (all the circles are punched photos) as well as a lot of my favorite scrapbooking goodies (KI Memories epoxy & chipboard stickers, American Crafts Hannah & Henry stickers, Sassafrass, and Martha Stewart, to name a few).

Thanks for stopping by!

Featured Etsy Seller!!

I've been featured as an Etsy seller over at The Everyday Scrapper...check it out HERE!

Card for Saturday

Up today is a quick card I made with leftover bits & pieces lying around.... Hope you have a great day/weekend! =)

Happy News + A Mama Page

I walked into Hobby Lobby on Monday and look what I saw!!! I have TWO Christmas cards in this issue and I was just tickled pink to see them in print! =) Can't wait to get my own copy in the mail!! And up today is a layout about my mom...just about how much I love her...again, this layout is all GCD Studios, except the letter stickers...seriously, I just LOVE this Artsy Urban (by Melody Ross) collection. Soooo delightful and easy to mix and match.

Taylor's Third Birthday!

This is a two-pager with LOOOOTS of photos (which is great, cause I took TOOOONS of photos). It's really bright and happy and simple (maybe 30 minutes top to bottom), which is the best kind of pages to me! =)

Lots of American Crafts letters & cardstock, with some dollar store stickers and Martha Stewart glitter paper thrown in!!Hope your day is bright & beautiful! =)

Michaels Handmade Holiday Contest Update!!

Please keep voting for my Tori Noel canvas...I think you can vote every day! =) I am so thankful for everyone that has voted so far...currently I have over 360 votes! WOW! I have the BEST friends and family!!

See the canvas and original Michaels Handmade Holidays Contest post here!

KEEP VOTING HERE!!

Don't forget to check out my daily post below! =)

Scrapbooking Extravaganza!

So...the rest of the week will be some cute scrapbooking pages. This pages is one I did for a challenge for Scrapbooks, Etc. about why I scrapbook. All GCD Studios except for the Thickers (American crafts).

Have a great day!

Giveaway Alert!

Mama's Holiday Wish List Meme
TodaysMama and ProvoCraft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter, I'm sharing this meme with you.

1. What are five items on your holiday wish list this year? Shampoo & Conditioner (Victoria's Secret kind), toaster, to get my husband to hang up about 20 things in my house (haha!), some new jeans, scrapbooking gift cards/stuff.

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received? Definitely a scarf made by Miss Ariel.

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle? Making a quilt, knitting/crocheting a quilt, making handmade soap - oh, just one?

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child? Probably my bicycle. My brother and I got one at the same time and our parents had hid it outside on the back porch and we were SO surprised!

5. What items are on your kids wishlist this year? No kids...

6. What is your favorite holiday food? Don't laugh...peanut butter crunchies...YUM! But I also am really fond of yeast rolls, and chicken and dumplings.

7. What will you be handcrafting for the holidays? Well, I can't really tell on here...everyone I'm making stuff for reads this blog!! ;) I am making a pretty necklace to go with one of my Christmas party outfits!!

8. What is your favorite holiday movie? It's a Wonderful Life

9. Favorite holiday song? Away in a Manger (really!)

10. Favorite holiday pasttime? Light-looking!! =)
_____________

TodaysMama is having a giveaway for all this great stuff, click here for more details!!

Wedding Fun & Pinewood Derby

This past Saturday Adam participated in a Pinewood Derby at our church...here's him with his cars...
And this one won FIRST place in the adults category...
Meanwhile, I went to Stacy & Luke's wedding and these two little subjects were oh-so-happy with having their pictures taken (I was happy to oblige!!)

I also managed a quick smile with little miss cutie..

And one with Mama...

They also had a kid's table...which I loved...I definitely have a soft spot for kid's tables at weddings!

It was a fun day!! =)

Michaels Handmade Holiday Contest!

I decided to enter my Tori Noel Wall Canvas in the Michaels Handmade Holiday Contest! I would REALLY love it if you would vote for me here and if you could tell everyone you know to vote me for me! There are weekly winners for a Michaels gift card and the Grand Prize winner gets to go to a Martha Stewart show!!

VOTE FOR ME HERE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!!

Here is the canvas again, with a few close-ups!

I also wanted to explain how I made the flowers for anyone wanting to make their own!! I used several different techniques to make the flowers look like a little garden.

For the crumpled looking flowers, I just handcut varying sizes of circles, crumpled and layered them with little dots of glue inbetween layers. The yellow and orange flower and the large purple with blue polka dots flowers use this technique. If you cut the circles with decorative edged scissors like scallops or pinking shears, it gives the flower a whole different look.

For the large while polka dotted flower and the yellow flower, I just took a strip of patterned paper (12 inches should be plenty, you can cut it down from there depending on how big you want it) and pleated it in a circle pattern. I just stapled the center and added a pop-dotted epoxy circle sticker for the centers.

For the small circle flowers, I handcut two circles in contrasting sizes and cut one slit to the center of each circle. I then gently pulled the top of the slit over the bottom and adhered with glue, then layered then on top of each other with a dot of glue again (it helps if you smoosh the pointy bottoms just a little bit).

Really easy! If you have any questions, please leave me a comment or send me an email!! =)

Random Card Day!

Four super quick cards today...I made all of these and a few more in less than an hour. Not my best work ever, but they do feature some of my favorite products! =)

Have a great day!

Weeknight Winners

Up today is a yummy, super quick meal...marinated chicken, box pasta mix, and yummy Mountain Dew biscuits.

For the biscuits, I just followed this super simple, easy recipe:
2 cups all purpose baking mix
1/2 cup sour cream
6 tbsp. lemon-lime soft drink (Mountain Dew is what I use, but Sprint or something similar would work too!).
3 tbsp. butter, melted

Heat the oven to 425, grease 8 inch square pan. Stir together first three ingredients, flour hands and divide dough into 20 equal portions, rolling in balls and placing in pan as you go. Brush half of butter over the dough balls. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Brush with remaining half of butter....these babies are SOOO good, trust me! =)

After I got the biscuits in the oven, I just followed the directions on a box of flavored pasta (mine was garlic and olive oil flavored) and let that cook, then prepared the chicken.

For the chicken, I just cooked the chicken in olive oil (1 tbsp.-ish, I just eye it) until it was done (I cut mine up for quicker cooking!) and then let poured about a half a bottle of Garlic Herb marinade over it, stirring until it heated all the way through. Serve together and yum, yum! It was a hit! =)

Miss Ariel & Yarn Love!

A couple of Saturdays ago Miss Ariel came over to play with crafty things...yarn, and paper, and cameras, yay!...and taught me how to knit! Double yay! Plus, because she is such a dear she made me and Adam homemade-from-scratch chicken dumplings and they were SOOOO yummy! She is an awesome photographer and a knitting queen...she made me these super-duper cute knitted/crocheted flower headbands that I love! (I will have to take pictures!!)

I had so much fun...I'm hoping to tackle a simple scarf soon! Love you girl!! =)

Peanut Festival: A Photo Review

Weirdly enough, I don't have very many (or very good!) pictures of the Peanut Festival. Sad, I know. We took this little peanut with us and she stayed the night....

And, of course, took some posed photos (sortof!) in front on my mother-in-law's pretty flower gardens...

...And finally, we're at the "big fair!"

The whole joyous group (Adam's sister and her husband, and Adam's distant cousin - and really good friend - Joel, and Adam & Me with Tater Bug).We played a farmer game, visited the petting zoo, rode the ferris wheel and ate LOTS of terribly yummy, overpriced, unhealthy food...and ENJOYED it, haha! =)

This picture just makes me smile! =)

And in scrappy news, I won grand prize in the scrapbooking division this year with my Callaway Gardens page (awful picture, I'm sorry!)...along with another first place, a second place, and a couple of thir places. I was SUPER excited! =)

It was really fun...I wish I had been in a better picture-taking mood!