Christmas 2011

The best gift this Christmas for me is celebrating the holidays together. It has been a very long time since I spent Christmas with my mom and two sisters. I am so grateful to share this special time with my family. Our mom is definitely having "good time" with the grandchildren.

So for this week's post, I used one of my very favorite sets called English Cottage and the sentiment is from Home for Christmas set. They have both been retired. I used water color crayons for the image and just sponged the edges to soften it with Lucky Limeade ink.

Card Recipe

Stamp Set: English Cottage and Home for Christmas (both retired)
Paper: Holly Berry Bouquet, Real Red, Whisper White, Lucky Limeade
Ink: Black Stazon for the image, Lucky Limeade
Accesories: Watercolor crayons, Ruffled Ribbon in Lucky Limeade, sponge

 

This other card sort of happened by playing with the colors. I thought I'd challenge myself and not use traditional Christmas colors and also by using the Circle Circus stamp set (which is obviously not a Christmas stamp set). I sprayed it with the Smooch Spritz in Vanilla Shimmer. It surprisingly turned out quite pretty.

Card Recipe

Stamp Set: Circle Circus (115778), Snow Swirled (111690)
Paper: Whisper White, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade
Ink: Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo 
Accesories: Circle Ice Rhinestone Brads, Smooch Sprtiz in Vanilla Shimmer

That's it for today! We did not do our traditional Noche Buena aka Christmas Eve dinner and opening of presents last night because of the babies. We will do a late lunch today and then open presents.

To those we love and see each day and other loved ones far away. 

To those whose lasting friendship means so much,

and those with whom we're somehow out of touch.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Birthday Weekend

I spent my birthday weekend cleaning and sorting my closet. I have been meaning to do that, but never seemed to have the time (or inclination) to. It's been a permanent to-do list. I have many of those. How fast things accumulate! I am surprised to find clothes I couldn't live without only two years ago, they will now be put in LBC boxes to the Philippines. I would like to simplify. I want to rephrase that, I "dream" to simplify. I imagine less clothes means I won't have to do a ton of laundry all the time. It will also be easier to find things to wear because there won't be plenty to choose from. I dream of having less and living more.

My younger sister and I have this funny memory of watching a TV show when we were kids, which to this day still get us rolling in laughter. There was this show about a girl (Bibette Orteza was the actor) who only had one set of outfit. She wore them everywhere, night and day. They were blue jeans and a maroon collared polo shirt. One day she announced to all her family and friends that she finally went shopping and bought new clothes. They were all so happy and excited to see what she bought. When she opened her closet they were the same outfits she had been wearing, just new ones. Lol. Huh! For some odd reason that didn't sound as funny as I remember. Everything's funnier when you're a kid, I guess.

I made this card to sort of just relax before I went to bed last night. Projects after a couple glasses of wine always turn out nice in my opinion. Hahaha. Anyway, 6 more days before Christmas. My kids are out of school for Christmas break. They don't realize how fortunate they are to get holiday breaks. Oh well.

Card Recipe

Stamp Set: Flores Suaves (from the Spanish catalog)
Paper: So Saffron (retired - currently on clearance), Melon Mambo, Pacific Point, Whisper White
Ink: Crushed Curry, Pacific Point Craft ink and Basic Black, Crushed Curry Stampin Write
Accessories: Heat embossing tool, Clear emboss powder, dimensionals, Pacific Point ribbon, sponge

It's hard to see in the picture, but both the background and the butterfly are embossed with the heat tool and clear emboss powder. I then colored the butterfly with Stampin' Write in Crushed Curry.

Please remember to check out the Clearance Rack Blitz My Online Store! They have sold out of many things, but still many punches and stuff. That's it for now. Have a fabulous week!

Forty Something

I am writing a special post today in honor of my birthday. I am 40 plus 1 today, how cool is that? I still remember being a teenager thinking that 30 was ancient. Here I am in my forties. I never realized the truth in the saying, "Age is only a number" until last year when I turned 40. Geez, forty is a lot of candles! However, when I look at myself in the mirror I see this older version of me, but deep down I feel that I have not aged at all. I still laugh the same, I talk the same, I cry at the same things and when people let me down...the pain is still the same. I only wish whoever keeps sending me the fines lines and wrinkles every year to stop. Hahaha.

One thing I really noticed is that losing a loved one when you're older hurts so much more than when you're a child. I lost loved ones from great grandparents, grandparents to uncles when I was younger and I will always miss them. But losing my dear grandmother recently really threw me off balance. Perhaps it was because she was the one who loved me the most and losing her feels like that's a whole lot of love lost. It is in my list of regret of a lifetime that I didn't go back home to see her when she was still alive and lucid. I kept putting it off hoping she'd wait for me when I'm ready. If there's one thing I learned in all my 41 years, it's that life doesn't wait for anyone. Life moves on no matter how much we grieve or ache. Life moves on whether we are prepared for it or not. Life moves on whether we love or hate. Life just goes and it will keep going even after I am gone. I used to phone my grandma on my birthday so she could greet me. The past couple of years when she no longer knew who I was, it brought me so much pain to call so I didn't phone as often. But there were plenty of times when I'd feel sad or stressed that just hearing her voice made me feel better. She would talk about her plants, what she ate for lunch or who came to visit her and I just sat there listening to the sweetness of her voice. I'd imagine her hand clutching mine as we briskly walked around the market. She loved me the most and I know that I will always miss her in my life. But life moves on no matter how much my heart is breaking or how much I'm missing her. Grandma, I will always carry you in my heart.

So, for this birthday I want to remember and honor those who are no longer with me and cherish those who are. I am truly grateful for my family. I am grateful for my job that allows me to have this amazing hobby of creating beautiful cards.

I love this set and still sad that it has been retired by Stampin' Up! I wish they had more Asian themed stamp sets. It's hard to see from the picture, but I heat embossed it with black craft ink and iridescent ice. It really turned out beautiful.

Card Recipe

Stamp Set: Dream Garden
Paper: Crushed Curry and Real Red, DSP
Ink: Black craft ink
Accessories: Big Shot Embossing folder in Lattice, Iridescent Ice embossing powder, heat tool, Very Vanilla Satin ribbon.

Happy birthday to me!

Serene Snowflakes

My baby sister and her family are finally back in the US from the Philippines. We stayed up late just chatting and visiting. It was wonderful to see them all again. BTW, here's my post for this Sunday. I didn't realize how much pressure came with having a blog and making the commitment to share a project / creation every week. I have so much admiration and respect for those bloggers I subscribe to. They are truly amazing and generous! Coming up with new ideas is hard work and time consuming. I love the challenge though, and once I see it published I feel this unexplainable feeling of accomplishment. So, if you are one of those very few people who visit my blog, thank you.

Card Recipe

Stamp Set: Serene Snowflakes, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Whisper White, Pool Party, Riding Hood Red

Accessories: Embossing Folder in Snow Burst, Modern Label & Word Window Punch, Riding Hood Red 1 1/4 Grosgrain Ribbon (cut in half), Basic Rhinestones, Smooch Spritz Vanilla Shimmer.

Ink: Pool Party, Riding Hood Red

I really like how this card turned out, considering I really didn't know what I was doing at first. I just kept on adding things. Hahaha. I sprayed it with the Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz and that just made it fabulous to me. The photo didn't show the shimmer as good as I'd hoped, but it is gorgeous! Hey, I am getting good at this. 

BTW, my son took this photo for me. He got a nice camera as a very early Christmas present from his grandma and he was more than happy to do it for me. Bye for now and have a wonderful week. Thirteen (13) more days before Christmas.

TGIF

To say it was a busy and stressful week is an understatement. Thank goodness, it's Friday. I just want to write a quick and short post today by sharing this cute baby card I made for my friend in Arizona who just had a baby girl. My camera's been acting-up lately. I took three shots and they all seem to be blurry. So, this will have to do.

It was a very simple card and didn't take much time to put together at all. Thanks to that really cute Nursery Nest DSP (122347), Pretty in Pink (100459) and Certainly Celery card stocks (105125).

This weekend is packed for me. My baby sister and her family are finally coming back home from the Philippines. I am so excited to have family nearby. See you soon!

Traditional Christmas

Here are a few of the cards I've been working on. I need to find a way to use non-traditional colors for holiday cards, but I seem to be set on my ways.

Such a simple card with just DSP Holly Berry Bouquet from the Holiday Mini Catalog and the sentiment from Bells and Boughs.

I just love this card. Making it made me feel like I was one of the carolers from Charles Dickens' Christmas Story. I used Christmas Collage (121279) and Bells and Boughs set. I aged it by using More Mustard ink (103162) and a sponge. I colored some of the background with Stampin Write markers. I also like the Glass Stampin Glitter in Champagne (120997) around the bells.

I sooooo adore this paper and I have been trying to control my impulses to hoard it. I tend to do this with pretty papers and ribbons. Auuuughh! I need help.

That's it for this weekend's post. My chores await. Happy stamping everybody!

Christmas Stocking Stuffers and Giftables

I had two classes yesterday: Christmas cards and Giftables so I would like to share what we did. Aren't they just so adorable and perfect for little sweet gifts to family, co-workers and friends?

 Gift Card Holders

 Hershey Bar Sliders

 Wrapped Ghirardelli Chocolates

I learned how to do this from the really amazing Frenchie. Here's her site to watch her tutorial.

 Post it Notes Pad Holder

I learned how to do this from Kerry. Here's the link to see how awesome she is.

  Hershey Nuggets Treats

I am so thrilled about the upcoming Occasions Mini Catalog 2012 and the SAB (Sale-a-bration) catalog. I have been literally looking at them for days. It's so great to be Stampin' Up! demonstrator, because I can preview the new catalogs before everybody else and I can order before the release. You can, too! You can find out more details by going to this site.