Vintage Christmas {greeting card kids}

Morning!  I have been wanting to make more cards from the Greeting Card Kids stamp set, so here is the first of 4 I'll be posting...today's is the Christmas one with the little girl.  I just love all these images!  They are so adorable.  I also wanted to play with Stampin'Up!'s new fabric.  Shelli Garder's challenge this month was to use the fabric in projects, so this is my first attempt.  I've been fascinated with the ripped fabric look, so I tried my hand at making my own ripped ribbon fabric...turns out it's easy and fun to do!  Of course, I didn't want to rip up too much of the fabric, so I started with a trial strip of about 3/4" thick.  Wanna see the full card?

I had fun using the new snowflake embossing folder called Northern Flurry.  It's in the new super cute Holiday Mini catalog.  I used the little mini button brads from the Vintage Trinkets pack - it include vintage safety pins, too! Here's a closeup look at the sentiment:

You can see more detail of the embossed snowflakes.  I went over them with a sponge dauber dipped in Whisper White craft ink to give that snowy glow.  Hope you liked the card!  Here's one last look.

And here's the recipe:

{Vintage Girl Christmas}

All supplies Stampin'Up!

*Stamp Set: Greeting Card Kids, Teeny Tiny Wishes

*Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Real Red, Whisper White

*Inks: Basic Black and Cherry Cobbler Classic Ink pads, Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizazz, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake and Baja Breeze markers; Whisper White craft reinker

*Accessories: Northern Flurry Embossing folder, Hemp Twine, Candy Cane Designer buttons, Scallop Square Bigz die, Vintage Trinkets, sponge dauber, dimensionals, Candy Cane Fabric

Have a great day!  Thanks for visiting :)

Elegant Lines {anniversary card}

Hi there blog friends!  I've got a quick share for you today - this is the Anniversary card I created for my brother and sister-in-law for their 10 yr annversary!  I actually created this card before I created the pink one I posted this past Monday, but couldn't be a spoiler and post before it was received!  Anyway, I had fun playing with the Elegant Lines embossing folder.  It really is soo gorgeous!  For this card, I also used the paper flowers and that fun crochet ribbon.  It's such a nice and delicate embellishment!  I hope they liked it {and hope you like it, too!}.  Enjoy the rest of this shortened work week! :)

Toodles for now.

September Final Friday Giveaway!

Hi blog friends!  Here is this month's Final Friday Giveaway!  Aren't these stamps and buttons cute?  Here's what you can win:

• Stampin'Up! Picture this Stamp Set
• Kiwi Kiss Corduroy buttons

For those of you that are new to my blog, welcome!  Each month this year, I'm offering some blog candy and I announce the winner on the last Friday of the month. 

Here are the rules {only enforced by the "Honor System"}:

1. Leave me a comment on this post by midnight Pacific Time, Wed, September 22, 2010.

2. On your comment, please make sure to include a valid email address or a blog URL (where I can leave a comment or have a way of contacting you). For those of you that are uncomfortable with leaving an email in a post, you can write your info like this: yourname at emailaccount dot com.

3. One comment per person please. :)

4. Anyone can play - international visitors welcome!

You can leave me a comment about anything, or you can answer this question.  What's the last book you've read and would you recommend it?  The last book I read was The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.  I really enjoyed it!  Look forward to reading your comments and maybe get a book recommendation or 2 ;)

Enjoy your day!

flowers and lace for 2S4Y!

Hey there blog peeps!  Happy Labor Day for those of you in the US!  So glad we have the day off today..it's been a beautiful weekend here.  The funny thing is, it is just now starting to really feel like summer, and here we are, just a few more weeks before fall begins.  Anyway, I digress.  Today is Monday, so that means it's 2S4Y sketch time!  This week's sponsor is Craftbrulee, who makes these beautiful ribbon flowers and offers this gorgeous lace.  You already got a sneak peek of my card above...how about we take a look at Laura's awesome sketch?

I love this sketch because there's soo much you can do with it.  It's a classic design, so you can definitely reuse and recreate cards in a variety of themes and styles.  With the very soft and delicate flowers and lace, I decided to go with a more vintage-y style that's also sort of shabby chic-esque.  Here's a look at my full card:

So, soo girly!  Hope you like it.  I know I had fun making it!  Here's the recipe for you: 

{Flowers and Lace Anniversary}

*Stamp: PTI

*Cardstock: SU! - Pink Pirouette, Whisper White

*Inks: SU! Early Espresso

*Accessories: Craftbrulee Flower and Vintage Lace, SU! Elegant Lines Embossing Folder, SU! Seem binding and Subtles button

Thanks for stopping by today!  Now, pop on over to the 2S4Y blog..we hope you'll play along!  Enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend!

i see {whales!}

Hey there blog friends!  How's it going?  It's Labor Day Weekend here in the US, and today my hubby and I went whale watching!  This past week, we've actually seen some whales off of the coast just driving down the road, so we decided it'd be fun to go out whale watching on a boat.  It was amazing!  I wish it wasn't so fogged in today, but we were still able to see a good number of these awesome creatures {about 6-8!} up close and personal.  Here are some snaps from our excursion.  The first one we saw actually showed us his tail, but of course, the camera wasn't quite ready for that at the time {total bummer!!}.  We saw most of these whales just west of Pt Vicente lighthouse, which is on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

In the distance, you can see the top of a whale..It was probably an hour and a half into our 3 hr journey before we saw any.  You can imagine we were all getting wrestless in the hopes to see at least 1.  Little did we know we'd be in for a treat. 

This whale and her calf showed up shortly after.  These whales were enormous! We were all oohing and ahhing before we all realized there were a bunch of whales around our boat!

One thing that our crew members told us to watch out for were birds, because they feed on the krill that get pushed to the top by the whales.  Sure enough...visions of whales ensued.

I discovered these whales were tough to capture on camera!  If you look closely, you'll see the spray from the whale's blow hole!  I didn't want to miss it in person, so you'll have to bear with me on these photos.

Here's another one I was able to capture on film!  The pictures definitely don't do the sightings justice.  It really was quite a sight!

Michael and I doing our traditional self portrait shot.  Not gonna lie - it looks cold cuz it WAS!

This is Pt Fermin, just north of the Long Beach Port.

This is the lighthouse at the end of the break wall just outside of the Port of LA.

And we're back at the Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach.  All in all, it was a super fun trip and our 3 hour tour was definitely worth the while! 

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend!

introducing...the Holiday Mini Catalog!

Hello blog peeps!  The new Holiday Mini is now available.  There are lots of cool products that I know you'll love...come take a peek and click on the link below!

Holiday Mini Catalog

There are so many fun products to inspire you to create for the holidays!  Enjoy browsing...I'll catch up with you guys later!

Tote-ally Awesome Opportunity!

Hi all!  I wanted to share an awesome demonstrator promotion Stampin'Up! is having from September 1-October 18th!  If you sign up to become a demonstrator during that timeframe, you'll receive this Tote-ally awesome tote for FREE!  How cute is that?! I would love for you to join my team....and now's a great time.  All you need to do to get started is order either the Demonstrator Starter Kit or the Digital+ Starter Kit, both of which are offered for $175 each.  Here's what the kit includes:

  Contact me today to learn more or to sign up!