Deck the Halls Birdbrain

I am cutting it close to get my card posted for the From the Heart Stamp of the Month challenge. I made this last week but just haven't had a good chance to get a picture and edit it.  So... here it is!  Isn't that bird hilarious?!  He is loving those ornaments.   :)   I am enjoying this progressive challenge, so I can't wait to see next month's stamp!

Laila didn't quite get the 6-7 foot rule when picking a tree for the house.  lol  This one was her first choice!   She had a blast at the Christmas tree farm and loves our decorated tree.

Bloom Wildly

I am so behind on stamping and posting.   I have been so exhausted lately.  I think it's to the point that I need to go have some blood work done to make sure nothing is off.  I did manage to use this gorgeous watering can from the last Two Paper Divas release.  It is called Bloom Wildly and I think that's just a perfect name and a great motto for life. The sentiment is from Everyday Sentiments 3 and there are so many great ones in that set!

Laila got to ride in the car cart at the grocery store when we went to get all our Thanksgiving fixings earlier this week.  Can you tell how much she LOVED it?  lol  So silly.

Off to get a coffee so I can stay up until a reasonable hour.  I don't think 4pm is a time for bed even though I could easily go to sleep!

Freshly Made Polar Bear

Hello!  Sorry it's been a week between postings.  This time of year is my rough time with missing my Eli and hating the holidays.   I am just not a fan at all of October-January.  I did get Laila to play with a train set I put in my stamp room long enough for me to make this card today.   Sorry for the bad picture; I finished in the evening and the sun was mostly gone.   This is for our new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.   Jen T is our sketch maker this week and if the design team examples are any indication of the cards made from it, the gallery is going to rock this week!  (Doesn't it always though?)  

I used a set that had been neglected in my stash, Cool Day from My Favorite Things.  It's the most adorable polar bears and I just love it.  They are fun to color too even if it looks like a lot of it isn't colored.  ;) 

We had Santa pictures yesterday and Laila did so much better than last year.   This was a sneak peek that Debi posted and I knew I would love this shot when she snapped it.  Laila had to show Santa her Hello Kitty tattoo and I love their expressions!   He's such a great Santa.  I can't wait to see all our proofs and pick our Christmas card picture! 

Moon Cat for FMS

Happy Wednesday!   It's Freshly Made Sketches day and I'm sharing my card with the fabulous Amy's new sketch.   It's a great one again and I think you'll enjoy creating with it.   I know I did.  I had this adorable Penny Black stamp for a while now and decided to ink it up and color it for the challenge.  I love cat stamps almost as much as coffee stamps, so this one makes me happy!

There are many ways to interpret this one and the design team has some great ideas for you!  Be sure to check those out!   Happy Stamping!   

Blue Truck for TPD

Happy Sunday!  I hope you're having a good weekend.  We are a bit low-key here and that's good for me.  I colored a bit last night and made this card for Two Paper Divas.  The newest release had some great sentiments like this one from Everyday Sentiments 3 and this awesome old Truck.  It's a fun image to color with Copics or to paper piece if that's more your thing.  :)

We found this cute hat at Target this week.  She says she looks like Sadie.  lol   :)

Freshly Made Poinsettia

I'm still here.   lol  Finishing up Hope You Can Cling To must have broken my brain because I've had a headache most of the week and haven't been able to stamp.   It finally eased up a bit yesterday and I was able to go make my Freshly Made Sketches card...a bit late of course.   I really loved Narelle's sketch so I was happy I felt like playing.  Hopefully she's not disappointed in my lack of layers.  :o)   I did layer my poinsettia bit just for her.

Big thanks to my friend Mindy who sent me this set for my birthday last year.  It finally saw ink!  Yay!

Isn't that a great sketch?   The team did a great job showing how versatile it can be so be sure you go check out the rest of the cards.  I hope to see you in the gallery.  

Sadie thinks she and Laila are sisters.  lol She always like to bring a toy (or in this case, a leaf) and lay beside Laila and play.  It's very cute.  

...and DONE! Yay!!!

So happy!   I stayed up last night and managed to finish my last three cards!   I almost gave up around 9, but one last episode of Private Practice helped me stay and finish.  :)   I had to do fussy cutting, a new technique, and even managed to use an image I colored ages ago but hadn't used.   Whew!  Another year in the books!!

Yvette's challenge was to use construction related materials or stamps for a card.  I looked but we must not be very handy because I couldn't find anything.  I did have this awesome set from Two Paper Divas called You Are a Handy Guy that was perfect! I enjoy coloring these images a lot and cutting them out doesn't bother me at all because I love the look of them.  

This was my card for a try a tutorial from the SCS resource section.  I've been wanting to try the Iris Twist technique for ages, so I went with it!   It wasn't as difficult as I thought and I think the result is so neat!

And finally, Lydia asked us to cross the finish line.  We were to draw a line on our card and have something cross it.   I had colored this crazy bird back at the beginning of the challenges and hadn't had a chance to use her on anything.  I decided she was perfect for the finale.

Thanks for visiting and seeing all the cards from the past five weeks!  I hope they inspired you and I hope you will join in next year and make some of your own!

Four more...three to go!

I'm still working on my Hope You Can Cling To cards!  Down to the wire!  lol  I have until noon tomorrow to finish my last three, so I'm thinking that MAYBE I'll make it.   Here are my last four that I did.  I've been playing around with watercolors and watercolor paper and just having fun with it.  Have a great weekend!   

And oh, if you are interested in getting an occasional card in the mail, leave me your address here.  :) 

 Challenge:  Rainbow

 Challenge:  Orange

 Challenge:  Pink Thank You card

Challenge:  Roses