MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR

Merry Christmas to all of you! Laurie and I thank you so very much for being part of our blog family this past year, its been a blast! We look forward to seeing all of you after the new year and we look forward to meeting new friends in 2011. We will start the new year off with a swap and a challenge..so make sure your here for all the fun!

WINTER FUN

Here is a layout that Laurie and I had seen in a magazine. We decided to scraplift it and we liked the outcome. We did it a while ago and I'm embarrassed to say that I don't remember too many deets about this page. Laurie may remember more? I do see that I used self stick ribbon and mine seems to be un-sticking on the right.. lol. Anyway, here's a page maybe you can take some inspiration from to use for all your winter fun pics!

HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS - WEEK 2 - DAY 2

Good afternoon all. Sorry for the late post. We have been busy working and shopping and working and shopping and cleaning and decorating and working and shopping. You get it!! LOL. On Friday night I had the girls over for a Christmas dinner, Kel, Dawn and Susan. I wanted to make place card for the ladies and this what I came up with. I then realized I could use them as a gift card holders as well, so I made some for my nieces.


This is the place card/gift holder. You can't even tell anything is inside (I made this one for my niece Brianna)

Sneak peek of what's inside.

I cut the card holder from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More. Image #31 (sorry I don't know the page number, I re-numbered my pages so I knew exactly where the images are on the overlay). I cut at 10 inches.

I then cut my patterned paper from My Mind's Eye, I Believe stack. This also has a matching ribbon that put across both the patterned paper. The little ticket is also part of the My Mind's Eye collection. The letter is cute from Plantin School Cartridge, and shadowed. I cute at 1 3/4". I have to say I am quite pleased with how it came out.

The one I made for Kel, Dawn and Susan had a Christmas tree inside with Thank you stamped on it.

MY CHRISTMAS CARD by Kel

This is my card for this year.. Pardon the lighting. I didn't check pic before I sent all my cards out..so this is all I got, oops. Anyway, this idea is from the 2010-11 SU catalog on page 37. The stamp set it called Welcome Christmas. I put a bit of my own personal touch to it too, Laurie helped as well. I also added these great ornament brads to it from the

Eyelet Outlet & Brads - Scrapbooking Brads, Scrapbook Eyelets They sent me and Laurie a bunch of fun brads, ribbon and eyelets to put on our projects and show you gals. They also gave us some to give away to our fantastic followers.. We will be having a challenge after the holiday to win some of these awesome prizes! Their selection is great, the quaility is great. I've used a lot of their products over time and have been pleased!

AND THE WINNER IS.......................

Good evening followers,

Kel and I got together this tonight and we put all the names in a hat. We wanted to thank all of those that entered the challenge, you all did an great job!! We do appreciate.

The name we picked was.......Kate!! Congrats Kate, awesome card!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

OK HERE IS #3 CHALLENGE FOR TODAY, Scroll down for 1 and 2

Kate from

Small Bits of Paper sent us this GREAT card for the challenge. Kate says: "I designed the window using George and Basic Shapes and Destinations. I cut the window three times. Between the bottom two layers, I placed piece of transparency which I embossed with a snowflake folder. The wreath is from Joys of the Season.Have a great weekend!"

Challenge #1 by Marijo..Scroll for #2

Marijo says "Here is my entry for your Christmas challenge. On the card, I used Cricut Very Merry Tags cartridge. On the blocks, I used 1"x1" wood blocks, glued some paper to them and used Creative Memories letter stickers. This is the first time I have submitted to one of your challenges"

I love these blocks they are so cute. What a clever idea!!

This card is just perfect. I love the Merry Christmas paper!

Thanks so much Marijo for your submission, great job!!

AND HERE IS SECOND CHALLENGE

Here's one from Rhonda . I LOVE this angelic tag! Blogger is being a PIP... Sorry for the freaky format for today posts..lol

HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS WEEK 2 - Day 4

Good Thursday morning (doing the Thursday dance as this means Friday is soooo close). Kel and I have been so inspired by Tim Holtz' 12 tags of Christmas, http://www.timholtz.typepad.com/ we decided to give a go. We cut the tag at 4" from Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More Cartridge. Ran it through the Cuttlebug using a Tim Holtz Alternation folder. I bought Perfect Pearls from Ranger at Michael's and we used those to give it the vintage look. The stamp of the reindeer is from My Minds Eye, stamped with Quick Quotz ink. The 25 is Grungeboard from Tim Holtz (are you seeing a pattern here?). We do love us some Tim Holtz!!!




Here is a close up of the pretty pink poinsettia's that I had in my stash. I got them from Dawn last year for Christmas. They look perfect on this tag.





This is the folder we used for the background on I love the Music Sheet. Perhaps we have a problem here. We are NOT stalkers!
















This is what the Perfect pearls look like. It comes with a glue pad and Kel just put the glue all over the tag and we just started painted on the different colors.

JEANS CRAFTY CHALLENGE ENTRY

Here's Jeans entry for the challenge. She says :
I started out with a plain blue sheet of paper as the background. I used the Christmas Solutions cart to cut the Santa and the moon. I then printed out the sheet music to the song Up on the Rooftop and used Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress Ink to make it look aged. I used some gold foil paper from a paper stack called winterberry to matt the picture of Kaylee with Santa. To finish it off, I took a yellow glitter pen and hand drew some stars around the page. Please check out some of her other super creations at

Jean's Crafty Corner

ANOTHER CHALLENGE ENTRY!

Here is a challenge entry by Sharon C. These are great Sharon, thanks for joining the challenge!

Please visit Sharon at .in the big blue house She's very talented!

JANETS XMAS CHALLENGE ENTRY

Janet, great card! She says: "I have only stamped and colored one card before this one and was not really happy with the results. I've avoided stamping and coloring since. I have had this Santa stamp for a couple years now and wanted to use it but was reluctant to try, I finally got up enough nerve and did it, the results aren't too bad. Let me know what you think!"Check out Janets blog at: LadyLuvBug: Santa Christmas card

QUICK Vid on doing a Xmas card using Photoelf

Lau and I did this a while ago and I meant to get it up on here..Enjoy! If you need clearer directions.. let us know! Head on over to Photoelf and check out the program

SNEEK PEEK! GET YOUR CHALLENGE IN!

SHHHHH, don't tell, but here is a peek into part of the xmas prize challenge...It's 1/3 of the prize.. if you know what it is...don't tell. Hurry..one week to get your layout, tag or card in!

CARRI'S CHALLENGE

Carri's submitted this cute xmas tree card into our challenge as well as a few other challenges. Please check her site for more deets! Good luck Carri!

Snowflakes Cuttlebug embossing folder
Tree from Create A Critter
Snow from Deco Art
I hand stamped the little snowflakes on the tree and used glitter embossing power

HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS - DAY 5

Day 5 that only means one thing, FRIDAY!! Woohoo!! I have to say I am a bit behind with Christmas this year. I still need to buy my tree, my kids keep asking when are we going to get it. Even the 15 year old is asking. I say, please boys I am busy scrapping pictures of last years tree!! I have had this string of lights for a long time and have been dying to use them. I finally did! Not too much going on on the page, but I do love it. I didn't even need to do a title, the patterned paper says it all!!






Here is a close up of the string of lights.











This is all of decorating the tree, even the 15 year old, well he was 14 then.

















These adorable presents were cut from Doodle charms.

Ok, I guess I better get going and buy that tree, pushy fellas I got!! LOL!! Have a great weekend!

HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS - Day 4

Here are two more layouts from our BFF Dawn (she is a good sharer isn't she). When we get famous she will be the first on our design team, lol! Dawn says "Jingle All the Way uses non-traditional colors for a Christmas LO, plus, I actually broke out the little craft sewing machine and stitched on the LO! (Many bad words were said!)

To Be A Child is probably one of my fave LOs. I used the picture in my holiday cards that same year. All the digital elements were added to the picture in Photoshop Elements 8 prior to printing it out. The "stitching" on the circles are rub ons. "


I love both layouts. She did an awesome job on both! Thanks Dawn for sharing!!!

I won a mini!!

I am so excited that I won one of Rhonda's mini albums. If you haven't check out her blog you have to! She has such fun projects and AWESOME mini albums that she gives away. Please check out Rhonda @ SCRAP HAPPENS
Rhonda was also kind enough to give Kel and I an award. Thanks so much for thinking of us Rhonda, it really means a lot. Check out the award on the sidebar. Kel and I will post the eight things about us and the eight blogs we will pass it along to very soon.

Thanks again Rhonda for EVERYTHING!!

HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS, Day 3

Here is a great card and layout done by Dawn. As you can see, she used the same pic for both the card and the layout..great idea! Dawn used PhotoElements 8 to add the swirls to the picture before printing. The papers are from Minds Eye! Loving these Dawn!

HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS WEEK 1, Day 2

Here's a layout I did that I will use on some pics I have of my kids when they were younger on santa's lap. I CB the mats with stripes.. I kinda grabbed all my papers from stash . I got the gold sleigh brads from Eyelet outlet. I got the digi stamps free from the internet somewhere..I forget where. Sticker from stash..Boy, I am a plate of information today huh?? LOL. Anyway, my coloring has a bit to be desired because I'm just starting my COPIC collection and am limited in color choices. Enjoy your day! DONT FORGET ABOUT CHALLENGE..See side bar

HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS - Day 1

It's Monday and will be honest, Monday is NOT my favorite, besides the fact that I woke up 33 (that is right I said 33 minutes late). In Mom land that equals 4-5 days! What we accomplish in 33 minutes is crazy!! I am impressed that no ONE was late for school or work, so all is good. It will take me the day to recoup!!

Here is cute little house card I did using ONLY the Christmas Cheer cartridge. For the house I used the Recollections paper and sanded it down to get the weathered look. For the snow on the rooftop and snowman and the snow on the bottom I had glitter paper that I bought at Target, it is great paper, it is so thick. It was 59 cents for 2 pieces. The xmas trees, on page 92 cut at 2" and 3". The snowman was on page 122 3" (I cut of his arms, poor Frosty), they didn't fit! Snowflakes are cut at 1.5" and are on page 106 and the wreath cut at 1.5 on page 124. I added some glitter to the trees and tried to make my own snowflakes with the glitter as well. Didn't turn out as I would have liked, but no two snowflakes are alike right? I am going with that!! Make a great Monday!!

ANYTHING GOES, Sunday edition..LOL

Here's a layout I did a bit a ago.. again with the tearing! LOL. I figured a few of you liked the picture tearing, so I'd stick with yet more tearing.. This was fun actually I had seen that little rocky path done in a book somewhere so I gave it try. YA, it's a path.. LOL. Anyway, I also thought it was fun to take the mat frame and tear both the inside and outside. I hope you like it.

ANYTHING GOES WEEK - Day 6

Good Saturday morning! I hope everyone got to sleep in today. Well as much as Mom can sleep in. I did a few projects last night that I wanted to share. The first is layout for a challenge over at http://frosteddesigns.blogspot.com/2010/11/sketch-along-tuesdays-11-30-sketch.html It is a sketch design. I had this picture of my brothers and sisters and decided to play along.

I inked the edges of the paper with Quick Quotes chalk and a crafters paint brush, I wanted a thicker look. I also inked the rhinestones and the hearts and flowers. The rhinestones were clear and the stood out too much and the hearts and flowers where to bright so I muted them. Brothers and sisters are cut from the Heritage cart, Pg 33 & 34, I used my design studio to get the exact size I needed.



This is close up of the rhinestones and flowers


















Here is a card I whipped up for my girlfriend. I used the Celebrate Flourishes for this pretty Happy Birthday. I love this cart, so many cute things on it.

ANYTHING GOES WEEK - Day 5

That is right it is day 5 and that only means one this it is Friday (doing the Friday dance). Friday is my favorite day of the week!! Woohoo!! Ok, this little 6x6 layout is done by Dawn. This is in retaliation to Kel's Team Edward. As you know I am not into this whole vampire thing, but this is amazing. Awesome job! Obviously Dawn is Team Jacob!

The paper is from Rusty Pickle (I am loving that paper). The die cuts are from Dawn's trusty Silhoutte and she embossed Wild and Be Mine. The bling is from her stash.

Here is a funny, funny "commercial" Dawn sent me. You have to go and check it out. I would LOVE to live in this wearhouse (just sayin').

http://www.scrapbook.com/pages/sunny.php?utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Christmas+Music+Video&utm_content=dcoelin%40comcast.net&utm_campaign=DAY+1+-+2010

ANYTHIN GOES, Day 4

Day 4..thank goodness, cuz that must mean it's Thursday!! lol. Anyway, on the lo. Here is same daughter, same house...no poker face.. LOL. I went to go take a pic of this and I look and the zero was missing, so don't mind my lame yellow polka dot zero, I'm not awake yet.. LOL. This was done on glitter paper...I forget cart used for the 2010.. I actually ripped the photos on this. I had seen it somewhere and thought it was a fun technique to use. Having great, easy photo software at home.. I wasn't worried if I messed up..just print another! I used a dollar paper stack from Target for the rest of the papers. I just had fun with this page and stepped outside the layout! Oh and I alcohol inked these brads I got from The Eyelet Outlet.. Honestly.. I'm shaking my head and laughing at that zero! LOL

ANYTHING GOES, Day 3

Here's a pic I just love of my daughter. It was poker night for the adults over at Laurie's but we let her fill in a few games.. it was fun. We told her to get herself a poker face..this was it.. LOL. The swirls are THICKERS and the brads are from EYELET OUTLET.. both have been inked with Tim Holtz!