Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

To everyone who reads this blog regularly and to those who stop by once or twice, I hope you have holidays filled with love and joy, family and friends, lots of good things to eat and amazing memories to carry you through the year.

Ho-Ho-Hooome Depot for Christmas!

Sorry, no pictures today, --- but! imagine this: ten feet of counter top sitting atop four 2-door cabinets and two 3-drawer cabinets just waiting to be installed in my studio! And the big bow on top of all this? We found the counter top at Lowes (Lowes is good for Christmas, too) and it is slightly damaged so we got a smoking deal on it. Then my adorable hubby was wandering around his favorite craft store, Home Depot, and found bathroom vanity cabinets on c-l-e-a-r-a-n-c-e, I'm talkin' practically give-away! So, for $220 I have the basics for a wall FULL of work space and storage for organizing the paper cutters, Score-pal, Cuttlebug, Cricut, and Xyrons! Woohoo!

Merry Christmas to me! I can't wait to get it all put together.

Whiff of Joy Challenge #12

The WOJ Challenge this week is to make holiday cards in contemporary colors -- no red or green. This year I made many cards in non-red/green color schemes. I couldn't make up my mind which one to show, so here are just a few examples:

Christmas Cards Declared Officially Done --- Part Two

As I wrote last night, I have finished the Christmas cards for this year. I have did a rough count and shocked myself when I realized that I made nearly 140 cards, which include note card sets. OMG! Unfortunately, I sold very few of them. It seems people think cards like these are too special to give to just anyone. During a cyber-conversation with my friend Nancy I suggested that we should make "anyone feel special with a handmade card", thus my new logo was born! (Thanks, Nancy, for being my inspiration!) It seems the craft business requires constant reinvention. Creativity must go beyond the physical design.

On the other hand, I had plenty of cards to send out to family and friends. So here are a few more samples:

And that's a wrap!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!

Christmas Cards Declared Officially Done --- Part One

I've been a b-a-a-a-d blogger for the past 11 days, but I've been a very g-o-o-o-d card maker! Having lost count at 50, my guess is that I made close to 75 cards in the past week. The latest batch was quite a creative challenge as I decided to use just the scraps of the previous projects, but it was fun. So, tonight and tomorrow I am showing a sampling of this week's work.

As you can see, I love my Cuttlebug embossing folders and my Nesties! I still have so many materials and designs I want to use, but must close up the Christmas shop for now. I did learn a valuable lesson, though --- I need to start much, much earlier next year. So I'd say that in July 2009 you'll see some new winter wonderland cards! For now, on to Valentine's Day and Easter!

Whiff of Joy Guest Design Team Call --- Update

The results are in and Katharina of Whiff of Joy announced the new guest designers. She actually chose three rather than one and I don't know how she was able to narrow it down to just three!! There were so many incredible cards submitted. Katharina is so gracious and left very encouraging comments about my work. High praise, indeed!

And the winners are....... (drum roll)...... Tina from Germany, Jen from Hawaii, and Dawn from the UK. Click on their links to see their beautiful cards.

Thank you, everyone, for your kind and supportive comments. They mean so much to me! WOJ presents these opportunities every two months and I'll be ready!

For fun camaraderie, creative challenges, and networking, I invite you to come take a look at Paper Craft Planet --- then join us! I'll bet you find some friends already there!

A Beautiful Award from Nancy

I have been truly blessed with awards and tags and kind support from so many wonderful new friends in the blogosphere! This beautiful butterfly is from Nancy at Windstar Creations. She is a very talented paper crafter and I am happy to know her. It is very difficult to choose, so I wish to pass this on to everyone on my "List of Talented Papercrafters". I check in with all of you because I love your blogs and admire your work. So, please, take this award as your own and pass it on to whomever you wish! This butterfly loves to fly so send her all over the world!

Hugs to all!

Whiff of Joy Guest Design Team Call --- Part 2

I just had to add a few more cards to the Whiff of Joy Guest Designer Call. Since the deadline is in just a few minutes, here they are, very quickly:

Charlie and snowballs, colored with Copics

Willow with Silver Poinsetta, colored in water color pencils.

Willow with Hot Chocolate colored with water color pencils.

Angel Melinda Merry Christmas, colored with water color pencils.

Angel Melinda Hello colored with water color pencils.

Details of the Whiff of Joy Designer Call can be found at the Paper Craft Planet.

Wish me luck!

"Whiff of Joy" Guest Designer Call

I am very excited to be doing this post! The talented designers at "Whiff of Joy" have put out a call for a guest designer. I absolutely love these stamps! Willow and Oakley, Charlotte and Charlie, Angels Melinda and Matthew, and new friends Herb and Lizzie have all stolen my heart. While I await delivery of a bunch of stamps, I've been having so much fun coloring Willow's beautiful gown in so many colors, making Charlie's cap in various team colors, and deriving a sense of peace just working with Angel Melinda.

Here are just a few of the cards I've created for the designer call. There's not much time left and I have more cards in various stages of assembly, so for my first presentation:

Willow is so beautiful in this flowing gown! I love coloring the draping folds. For this one I visualized red velvet and colored with Copics.

Willow enjoys her hot chocolate on a cold winter day. She also loves hot pink! I colored her with water color pencils.

Charlie loves to build snowmen and I love to color Charlie using my Copics.

Angel Melinda loves books as much as I do! She's a sweetie with a thing for bling! She is colored with water color pencils.

Here is Willow again in lovely lavender colored with SU markers.

Charlie again with his snowy friend. This time he is colored with SU markers.

Angel Melinda spending quiet moments with her favorite books, which also double as a cozy stool. She is colored with water color pencils.

I am having so much fun with this layout and the WOJ kids. As much as I'd love to be a guest designer, creating these adorable cards is very gratifying. To see more about the guest designer call click here. This will take you to Paper Craft Planet where you can see all paper crafters from all over the world!

Thanks for stopping by and wish me luck!

Catching Up!

Before Thanksgiving I made a bunch of cards but didn't get them in my gallery before now. So now I am catching up --- not a lot of words, but a lot of photos! In fact, I actually sold some cards before I got photos! Yippee! Without further ado, here are the latest cards. I hope you enjoy.

I love Cuttlebug and designer paper, especially when it is coordinated!

This dp had the most beautiful angel medallions, perfectly suited to Nesties and CB embossing folders.

One of my favorite CB embossing folders is the Lace Tree and the possibilities are endless!

More dp and CB embossing.

Thank you for stopping by! I have many more cards to make plus trying out for a couple of guest designer spots, so there will be more photos to come. Your comments and feedback is very important to me..... hint... hint!