Paying It Forward with the Stylish Blogger Award!!!

Now that the weekend is here and I'm feeling better (had a cold- blah), I could finally do my Stylish Blogger Award homework!

Here are the rules by the way:
1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this
2. Share 8 things about yourself
3. Pay it forward to 8 bloggers that you have recently discovered
4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their awards

 

So, first and foremost, thank you so much again, Stephanie at Steph Creates for awarding me my first blogger award! What fun!

Here are 8 things about me:

1.  I am a JUNKIE!! A scrapbooking and card-making SUPPLY junkie that is!!! I have far more supplies than I ever would truly need. Instead of making things, I am more likely buying things to make things!! It's bad. Managing this blog was supposed to alleviate that problem a bit by forcing me to make things and post. It's helped a little with the making of things, but I think the buying of things is getting worse. Oops!!!

2.  Like Stephanie, I too love the store, Archiver's (hence #1 above). I have an Archiver's close enough to my work to visit on my lunch hour. Sometimes I just wander around aimlessly like a kid in a candy store. It is definitely one of my happy places.

3.  I love the Dave Matthews Band. I go to at least one concert every summer! My most recent show was at Wrigley Field in Chicago. It was amazing! Not sure what I'll do next year when they take the year off (sniff, sniff).

4. Much like my supply junkie problem, I take WAY TOO MANY pictures. Being a scrapbooker, I think in terms of "telling the whole story," so I take pictures of every event from start to finish. This is good, but it also takes up a lot of my time editing all of those photos. Never could I let a photo go without being edited - what a sin!!

5. I loathe cooking on an every day basis. Making a special meal or baking is fun from time to time, but HAVING to cook is horrible in my opinion. I would love a personal chef!!! I'll keep dreaming . . .

6. My favorite paper-crafting supply is definitely the Cricut. I got the Create in September 2009. Then after seeing the error of my ways, I upgraded to the Expression last December. LOVE it!! And I don't even want to mention all of the cartridges I've managed to collect in that short period of time. Thank you, eBay!!

7. Someday I see myself relocating to the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado. It is amazingly beautiful there to me.

8.  I rarely watch TV, but if I do manage to sit down and watch, it's most likely the Disney Channel with my girls. Otherwise, I'm glued to my PC probably perusing the blogs of you wonderfully talented people! :)


Now onto my Stylish Blogger Award Recipients in alpha order:

Cricut Lvr - Elsa 
Expression by Pinke - Edna
Lauren's Creative - Lauren
Made By Momo - Momo
Scraplifter's Anonymous - Monica
Scrappy Critters - Tammy
Stampin Fabulousity - Kalshelia
Stamping Up North - Laurie (she also has a blog, Cooking Up North that has her great recipes on it - YUM!)

These blogs I enjoy on a daily basis and give me tons of inspiration!!! Thank you to all of you!!!

Happy Holidays everyone!!

My 1st Blogger Award!!!

I had to keep re-reading the comment that Stephanie over at Steph Creates left for me letting me know that she selected me as one of her 8 recipients to pass along the stylish blogger award that she was given!!

What a surprise!! Thank you so much, Stephanie! I will have to get busy and pick my bloggers to pass the award to ASAP! :)

Time to Give Thanks!

Are you ready to give thanks? Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away - Wow! One of our local radio stations is already playing Christmas music 24/7, so I feel like time is going by oh so fast! How many shopping days left??? But seriously, I hope you are all counting your blessings as we get closer to the official day of giving thanks.

Here is my Thanksgiving card that I sent out to close family and friends earlier this week:

Supplies used:

Adorable fall photo of my girls :)
Cuttlebug Victoria embossing folder
Cricut Storybook cartridge (die cut for "Give Thanks" - pg 71 Accent Blackout)
PC for inside wording - Be Safe font used
Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry cardstock & ink
Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry 5/8" satin ribbon
Stampin' Up Soft Suede cardstock & ink
Stampin' Up Very Vanilla cardstock
Stampin' Up Holiday Best Stamp Set "Give Thanks" (previous catty hostess set)
Stampin' Up Ticket corner punch

I love taking pictures of my girls and making them the focal point of all of my cards for the various holidays. And they just love "photo shoots" with Mom . . . NOT! I usually make up for the torture, though. Yes, they can be bribed! Our Christmas photo shoot is tomorrow, so let the torture continue!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Autumn Candle Gift Holder with Card

Have you smelled The Autumn candle by Slatkin & Co
at Bath & Body Works? It has a wonderful scent of a cool, crisp autumn day with a hint of spice! Mmmmmmmmm . . .

Amidst all of my Halloween planning and crafting, my good friend Carol, had a birthday last month so I purchased this wonderful smelling 4 oz candle for her. She is my Stampin' Up demo, so I felt that the card and gift packaging needed to be extra special!

For the card, I used all Stampin' Up products of course! I used the Watercolor Trio stamp set, the famous scallop border bunch, Soft Suede and Dusty Durango In-color cardstock, and Dusty Durango polka dot ribbon from last year's catty.

For the candle gift holder, I used a Bazzill sheet of cardstock that I thought looked similar to the Dusty Durango since I didn't have a 12x12 Dusty Durango sheet. It turned out that I could have used an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of cardstock for the holder, though. I cut the holder out using the cupcake holder creative feature on my Cricut Sweet Treats cartridge using 7 1/2 inches as the size. The candle seemed similar to a regular cupcake after viewing Joy's Life's cupcake sizing post (thanks, Joy!), so that's what I went with and it worked out well! Then after I assembled the holder, I added the polka dot ribbon as the handle, wrapped the candle in tissue paper, and tied it with some matching raffia - Voila! A coordinating gift to match the card!

I am currently working on my Thanksgiving cards, so I will post one hopefully very soon. Enjoy your weekend!

It's All in the Details Part 2

Happy November all! And since it is now November, a blog design change was in order!!

This will about do it for me as far as Halloween-related posts, I think. Here are the remaining details from my big Halloween bash last Friday!

Party favors from "The Witch"

(witch from 'Happy Hauntings' on back of tag

and Affy Tapples in bulk from the factory outlet!)

The sweets table "to die for"

The "blood-dripping" tapers from Yankee Candle

The "Witch Fingers" aka "Severed Fingers"

The party was a lot of fun, but truth be told, I'm glad it's over. Now it's time for the season of thanks (though a mindset that should be had every day)!

Have a blessed day!