Don't Let it Slip By!

 I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who joined in the Calendar blog hop.  I loved reading all your comments and was thrilled to have so many new followers join me!  I am beginning to think about the prize I will have when I reach 100 followers.  Karel should be announcing the winner of the Designer Calendar cartridge today-good luck!

Now then, time to gift yourself with an end of the year goodie!  Time’s almost up on 2010  and to get this great deal. Spend just $20 or more on my Close to My Heart website, get a free D-sized stamp set worth $22.95 for free! It’s like a surprise gift, you won’t know what you get until you get it, but there are some seriously fab stamps shipping out to customers. Will one of them go to you? It’s the last day of the sale, so Shop Now

2011 Calendar Blog Hop

Happy week between Christmas and New Year 2011 and Welcome to the Calendar Blog Hop!  If you arrived here from Lora at Notes From The Scrapbook Lady, then you are on the right track.  The complete list of participating blogs is below.  Be sure you visit all of them because The Grand Prize Blog Candy is a brand-new Designer’s Calendar Cartridge, donated by Karelj at One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity!  In order to be eligible to win, you need to leave a comment on each and every stop on the hop, along with a way for her to contact you.  She will choose a winner by random.org on the 31^st and announce it on her blog, as well as contacting the winner personally.

The month I chose is November.  Thanksgiving holds a special place in my heart for many personal reasons. It has been a pivotal time in our lives many times.  Someday I plan to write a book called Thanksgiving Through Tears.  I truly am thankful for the life God has given me with all of its ups and downs. My layout page is entitled "gratitude" and will hold a photo of my sons. There's so much gratitude in my heart with the sons God entrusted to my husband and me.  All supplies and stamps used are from Close To My Heart. 

The base page is Vineyard Berry cardstock that I stamped with several leaves from the Flourished Blessings stamp set with Chocolate Ink.  You might not see it well in the photo but it just leaves a nice tone on tone pattern to the cardstock.  The patterned papers are from the beautiful collection Olivia.  I cut the leaves out with the Cricut Designers Calendar cartridge also with the Olivia papers.  I embossed the title box and the quote using  stamps from the "A Little Thanks" stamp set and Versamark ink with gold embossing powder.  I rubbed the edges of the box in Versamark and embossing powder as well then heat set it for the finishing touch.  The 2 gold brads are from CTMH as well.  I roughed up the edges of the mat, sentiment box and the leaves with the edges of scissors after wetting the paper a bit.  Then I scrunched up the mat and leaves and straightened them back out to adhere to the page.  The edges of the page are inked with chocolate.


After making several calendars for gifts using the Designers Calendar cartridge, I learned a great use for the Cricut markers.  It saves so much time to draw the outlines of the grid and the lettering using the markers instead of cutting and gluing.  I used Copic E31 Brick marker to fill in the lettering.  Easy Peasy! You can "print" out several calendar pages in a hurry this way.  I stamped the numbers using the Chocolate Font Stamps in chocolate ink.  The leaves are from two different sets-Flourished Blessings and Timeless.  The words are from Timeless as well.  For the variegated look of the leaves, I stamped first in Terracotta ink and stamped the first inking on a scrap paper, I then rolled the edges of the stamp around the chocolate ink pad.  Love the faded fall leaves this way!  Finally I chose to mark the 2 major holidays (Thanksgiving and Veteran's Day) with leaves and a CTMH Mocha Pearl.  


I really enjoyed this project and think it took me more time to type up the instructions than to actually do it!
Now then, you are in for a huge treat because my extremely talented friend Colleen at www.scrappycol.blogspot.com has also created a delightful November layout and calendar page.  In fact, hers is bound to outshine mine by a mile!  Happy hopping and a blessed New Year!

1. January and April: Celeste at Touched by a Butterfly at   http://touchedbyabutterfly.blogspot.com/

2.  January and September:  Jessica at  Overjoyed Scrapper  www.overjoyedscrapper.blogspot.com

 3. February: Christel at Scrappin' Sista  http://onescrappinsista.blogspot.com
 4. February and March: Karelj at One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity   http://karelj.blogspot.com
 5. March and July: Diane at Crafting This Moment  http://www.craftingthismoment.blogspot.com/
 6. April: Bonnie at A Scrap Above  http://ascrapabove.blogspot.com
 7. May: Michelle at Peanut Butter and Jelly Designs  http://peanutbutterandjellydesigns.blogspot.com/
 8.   May:  Natalie at Timeless Legacy Designs  http://timelesslegacydesigns.blogspot.com
 9. June: Lisa at Lisa's Paper Butterflies  http://lisaspaperbutterflies.blogspot.com
 10. June: Jamie at Glitter, Paper, Stamps, Oh My!    http://jamieisacraftymomma.blogspot.com/
 11.  July: Summer and Jennifer at Cricut Diaries  http://cricutdiaries.blogspot.com
 12. August: Denise at Starlight Scrapper  http://starlightscrapper.blogspot.com
 13. August: Gina at Gina Thornton Stamping  http://ginathorntonstamping.blogspot.com/
 14. September: Deb at If It's Groovy http://ifitsgroovy.blogspot.com
 15. October: Rebecca at Creations with Becka  www.creationswithbecka.blogspot.com
 16 . October: Lora at Notes From The Scrapbook Lady   http://scrpbooklady.blogspot.com/
 17. November: Belinda at Queen Bee's Musings  www.queenbeesmusings.blogspot.com **YOU ARE HERE**
 18. November and December : Col at Col's Creative Corner at www.scrappycol.blogspot.com
19. December: Deb at Tidbit's Place  http://tidbitsplace.blogspot.com

I will be participating in a Calendar Blog Hop for December 28, 29 and 30, the week between Christmas and New Years. The premise is simple: Every blogger has designed a colorful, 12 inch by 12 inch, two page layout for a 2011 calendar. The first page will be a cute layout, which will include the month and some mats for pictures and some adorable embellies. The second page will be the days and weeks, with sweet embellishments for special days. Each blogger will post her (his?) creation for the hop---along with the detailed how-tos of making it. Every person who hops will then have all the instructions for making the entire year's calendar just as they need it! And, since we all like different styles and themes, there are two blogs featurning each month so you can choose your favorite for every month!


We'll be giving the Cricut Cartridge Designer's Calendar as the main blog candy. Hope you'll join us for some New Year's Joy!

Valentine Sneak Peek

So I should really be working on more Christmas gifts but I got my new January CTMH products in and just had to play!  This card has been in my head since I saw the "A Sip" stamp set earlier this year .  I've seen loads of Christmas cards made with it but I thought it really fit Valentine better.  When a coming product and stamp set that you will see in January arrived, I paired them up with "A Sip" and voila!  The cardstock is Vineyard Berry and Colonial White.  Ink is Vineyard Berry and Versamark for the silver embossing.  The Mocha Pearls topped the whole thing off.  Now, back to Christmas projects!

A Gift Challenge

The challenge at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com this week is to make a gift.  Since my DIL asked me to make a name photo album for her friend, it worked out great.
Here are some of the inner pages.  Because I had to make this in a hurry and get it mailed, I did not do any stamping.  It was easier not to have to pick my stamps:-)  I used papers and stickers from the CTMH Grace paper packs as well as a few others I had left from past projects.I bound it together with my Bind It All.  I used Tim Holtz tissue tape on the binding to reinforce it.  I really like how the "e" and "a" turned out.  I used cocoa cardstock and ran through the Xyron.  I then sprinkled CTMH gold embossing powder on and melted with the heat gun.  Then I used the sanding block to scruff it up. 

Elegant Angel Card

I wish I could have taken a better photo of this card but it just wasn't working out tonight!  I think I have made over 100 cards this season and have failed to take photos of most of them because of my haste.  However, I loved this one so much that I had to stop and photograph it.  This is for my very elegant Aunt Gennie.  She loves victorian things and this fits the bill.  I started with a turquoise card base from my stash and then added a layer of the gorgeous Magnifique paper from CTMH.  The torn music is actually torn out of a Messiah score that I've had since college days that's been in the closet for 25 years.  I was hesitant at first but figured Handel would forgive me!

The angel is cut from a little book of images that I had on hand.  The ornament (from All The Best stamp set-CTMH) was stamped in Versamark ink and embossed with gold embossing powder from CTMH.  The flower was brown and I just gussied it up by pressing into Versamark and embossing with the gold powder as well.  I added more glitz with a few gold rhinestones.  I need to pop her in the mail before I keep her!

Christmas Canvas

Let the Christmas crafting begin!  Truth be told, I have actually been creating Christmas gifts, cards, etc for months.  However, some items required appropriate holiday photos.  When www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com announced a sketch challenge this week all the pieces of this gift came together.  This photo of me and my 3 sons (loved that show!) was taken on Thanksgiving and I knew my mom would love to have one.  What else does an 83 yo need? She loves photos of all her kids, grands, greats and great-greats.  So, when I saw the sketch challenge, I pulled out a canvas I'd had for a while and my CTMH Mistletoe papers and it all came together.  Now I need to make another for my MIL! 

Close To My Heart Supplies:  Mistletoe paper pack, cranberry and New England Ivy inks, Versamark ink, gold embossing powder, Everlasting Life and All the Best stamp sets, Mocha Pearls.  Other Supplies:  modge podge, canvas, ribbon and tiny bow from Michaels.  Thanks for stopping by!