Weekend of Holiday Decorating

Dec 8, 2014

Weekend of Holiday Decorating

The Christ­mas tree is the first item to go up in our house dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son. Ans­ley designed this “Pep­per­mint” tree a few years ago and we’ve kept it since. It’s a fun tree that is easy to put up and take down and lets face it dur­ing the hol­i­days easy is the key word. Once the tree is all set Ans­ley and I start to plan how we want to dec­o­rate the house. This year it is all about lights. In the den, we decid­ed to hang three wreaths with white lights and some gar­land with red and white lights in the bay win­dow. We added white lights on the fire­place man­tel and I accent­ed it with some of my favorite vin­tage mer­cury glass orna­ments, gar­land and green depres­sion glass. I say “I” accent­ed...

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Happy Holidays Photo Ornament Kit

Oct 31, 2013

Happy Holidays Photo Ornament Kit

  I’m still going through my stash and putting togeth­er mini orna­ment kits for the hol­i­days and last night, I was able to put togeth­er this cute pho­to orna­ment kit. FYI, I have a very lim­it­ed amount of kits. The kit con­tents are list­ed below and as always come with step by step instruc­tions and a col­or pho­to. Please note, Fes­tive Berries Dis­tress Ink used to col­or the chip­board frame and Plat­inum Stick­les used to out­line the chip­board base and frame are NOT includ­ed. Kit Con­tents: 1 — 4″ x 6″ daisy­d’s Snow­man Pat­terned Paper 1 — 4″ x 6″ daisy­d’s Pol­ka Dot Pat­terned Paper 1 — Chip­board Page 1 — Chip­board Frame (Frame will vary see pho­to for vari­a­tions) 1 — Small Bot­tle Brush Tree 2 — Hol­ly Leaves 1 — But­ton 2...

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Delight In The Seasons ~ Giveaway

Jan 3, 2013

Delight In The Seasons ~ Giveaway

With all the recent hol­i­days, I’m hav­ing a hard time keep­ing up with the days of the week. I just real­ized today is Thurs­day and NOT Wednes­day and want to let you know about a book review and give­away that ends TOMORROW. One of my book spon­sors, Lit­tle Yel­low Bicy­cle has a won­der­ful review post­ed on their blog about my book Delight In The Sea­sons AND they are giv­ing away a copy to one lucky win­ner. Lit­tle Yel­low Bicy­cle will pick the win­ner TOMORROW. To enter the draw­ing all you need to do is leave a com­ment on THEIR BLOG HERE so hop on over to their blog and leave a com­ment. You don’t want to miss out on craft­ing a year of mem­o­rable hol­i­days & cel­e­bra­tions. Thanks for being such won­der­ful book spon­sors Lit­tle Yel­low Bicy­cle....

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Give Thanks…

Nov 20, 2012

Give Thanks…

If you have my book “Delight In The Sea­sons” you just might rec­og­nize this project as it’s fea­tured in the Autumn Chap­ter on pages 104 & 105. It show­cas­es one of my favorite tech­niques using Ultra Thick Emboss­ing Enam­el also known as UTEE. It’s no secret how much I love UTEE and just the oth­er day Suze Wein­berg dubbed me the new “Queen of UTEE.” THE Queen, dub­bing ME the new Queen, I will cer­tain­ly wear this crown proud­ly. If you don’t have my book… GASP, well it’s your lucky day because “Cre­ate Mixed Media” is fea­tur­ing my “Give Thanks” project/technique on their web­site just in time for Thanks­giv­ing. Click HERE to view the com­plete project and step by step tuto­r­i­al. And it’s dou­ble your lucky day because I’m offer­ing FREE SHIPPING to any­one...

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My Mom’s Birthday…

Jun 25, 2012

My Mom’s Birthday…

Today, marks my mom’s 70th birth­day!!! Or maybe I should say, today marks the 35th anniver­sary of her 35th birth­day? If you have my book “Delight in the Sea­son Craft­ing a Year of Mem­o­rable Hol­i­days and Cel­e­bra­tions” you know she and I have cre­at­ed all my life. So in hon­or of mom’s birthday/anniversary cel­e­bra­tion, how about a book give­away? All you have to do is leave mom a birth­day wish in this blog post, then when we hit 70 wish­es I’ll have her pick a win­ner for a signed copy of “Delight In The Sea­sons.” This is one of my favorite lay­outs in “Delight In The Sea­sons” of my mom and her moth­er. It real­ly cap­tures both of them so well. Vin­tage inspired pat­terned papers, fab­ric cab­bage ros­es, leaf pins, but­ter­fly and lots of...

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Bellie Comes to Visit

Jun 19, 2012

Bellie Comes to Visit

Oh how I LOVE being an Aunt!!! Bel­lie, my youngest niece is vis­it­ing this week. This is her first time to come and stay for a week all by her­self. Alan and I have been wait­ing for this moment for a very long time. Although in the pho­to below that was tak­en on the way back to our house, she informed us she is not Bel­lie… she is a wal­rus. How could we make such a mis­take? As you can see from the col­lage there is some seri­ous spoil­ing going on. But this is our job and Alan and I take our work very seri­ous­ly.  Just a typ­i­cal day with Uncle Alan and Beasie (my old­est niece Aman­da gave me this name years ago and it stuck) Play­ing at the park after eat­ing ice cream from...

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In Honor of Spring

Mar 20, 2012

In Honor of Spring

Since today is the first day of Spring what bet­ter way to cel­e­brate than with a book give­away. All you have to do is leave a com­ment on this post telling me which “Sea­son” is your favorite and why. I will announce the win­ner of my book “Delight In The Sea­sons”, Fri­day. I love all the sea­sons but sum­mer in Texas is my least favorite. The fun hol­i­days and cel­e­bra­tions that come along  like birth­days, vaca­tions, wed­dings, Inde­pen­dence Day etc., cer­tain­ly helps make up for the 100+ degree tem­per­a­tures BUT I still do not like sum­mer. So, leave a com­ment for your chance to win… I can’t wait to read about your favorite sea­son. Good Luck....

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Growing up with Santa

Dec 19, 2011

Growing up with Santa

No mat­ter how old San­ta’s grand­kids are they’re nev­er too old to have a pho­to tak­en with San­ta. This year, Laren (SIL) and Ter­ri my old­est daugh­ter went to Beau­mont for Thanks­giv­ing. This meant they were able to get their pho­to tak­en with San­ta. It’s been sev­er­al years since they’ve been able to make it down for the hol­i­days and Mr. and Mrs. Claus were very hap­py to see them. This pho­to is of San­ta and my sis­ter Belin­da’s kids… from left to right is my adorable nephew Brit­tain (poor boy he is the ONLY boy out of 6 grand­kids), Isabel­la, Paw Paw San­ta, Made­lyn hold­ing Grand-Dog Zeus and niece Aman­da. Believe it or not this pho­to was the first one they took! Talk about a Christ­mas mir­a­cle. Even Zeusy was good and looked...

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Christmas Baking

Dec 6, 2011

Christmas Baking

One of the things Ans­ley always looks for­ward to every hol­i­day sea­son is bak­ing Christ­mas cook­ies… wait, let me rephrase this… me bak­ing Christ­mas cook­ies. Each year, it is not Christ­mas to her unless I bake her all her favorites… Choco­late Chewies, Lemon Cook­ies, Pecan Sandies and Red Vel­vet cook­ies with a Her­shey Kiss in the mid­dle. The girl keeps me busy dur­ing the hol­i­days for sure. But I love it and it makes me hap­py that she loves them so much. So Ans­ley and her cook­ies were the inspi­ra­tion behind this card. I thought the Maya Road Heart Tart Tin Bot­tle­cap was per­fect to start with, then using Jet Black Archival Ink, I stamped the Anti­quat­ed Col­lec­tion Miss­es’ Aprons onto grungepa­per three times so I could cut out the apron from one and...

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Delight In The Seasons

May 13, 2011

Delight In The Seasons

Today is a won­der­ful day… I get to final­ly share with all of you the cov­er of my sec­ond book, Delight In The Sea­sons.   This book is filled with won­der­ful projects, cards, tags and lay­outs for all the mem­o­rable hol­i­days and spe­cial occa­sions cel­e­brat­ed through­out the year. The chap­ters are divid­ed by each of the four sea­sons, win­ter, spring, sum­mer and fall. The chap­ters are filled with projects for major hol­i­days, birth­days, a new baby, wed­dings and so much more. Delight In The Sea­sons includes 40 projects with tech­niques that have been stepped out with pho­tos and instruc­tions, just as in Delight In The Details, then there are 20 addi­tion­al projects in a gallery show­ing you how to use some of the tech­niques in dif­fer­ent ways for dif­fer­ent sea­sons. This book com­pli­ments Delight In The...

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Working on something fun…

Nov 23, 2010

Working on something fun…

For the past few days in between last minute book stuff, pack­ing projects for ship­ment, a Dr. vis­it for Ans­ley (poor girl is sick again) and every­day life I have been cre­at­ing a sim­ple “Count­down Ban­ner”. This year, I am deter­mined to keep it sim­ple for the hol­i­days and I am hop­ing this ban­ner will remind me of this each day in Decem­ber. This will be anoth­er cute project fea­tured in my “Tips, Tech­niques & Tuto­ri­als” work­shop. I will have the mini flash­card PDF for you to down­load as well as the sup­ply list and tools need­ed. Now I am off to ship a box full of book projects to my sweet edi­tor Jen­ni. I am tru­ly blessed once again with a won­der­ful edi­tor. F&W Media has the best staff ever… Man­ag­ing Edi­tor, Edi­tors,...

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Holiday gift card holder…

Nov 21, 2010

Holiday gift card holder…

As you all know I LOVE the hol­i­days espe­cial­ly Christ­mas. But the one thing I real­ly don’t like doing is giv­ing gift cards even though I know that is what my nieces and nephew real­ly want. I must get this from my mom as she does not like giv­ing gift cards either. It just feels so imper­son­al. But we both end up buck­ling at the knees every year and grant them their wish­es. So I decid­ed this year I will make per­son­al­ized gift card hold­ers for every­one. It will make me feel a lit­tle bit bet­ter about hand­ing them out. Those reg­is­tered in my Tips, Tech­niques and Tuto­ri­als work­shop will have access to the PDF of the tem­plate I used to cre­ate the gift card hold­er shown above. I will post it tomor­row in...

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Christmas Memories…

Oct 21, 2010

Christmas Memories…

While at CHA store own­ers expressed inter­est in a Maya Road Retail­er Kit Pro­gram and I am pleased to share with you their first Christ­mas Mem­o­ries Mini Album Kit designed by me. Maya Road part­nered with Lily­bee Designs to bring you a kit which is per­fect for the Hol­i­days! And guess what? They are offer­ing these kits at whole­sale price so store own­ers can teach them in their stores or sell them to their cus­tomers! To find out more about the kit read below! Get ready for the hol­i­days because they will be here before you know it. Once you com­plete this album all you will need to do dur­ing the busy month of Decem­ber is attach your pho­tos because every­thing else will be com­plet­ed. This album can show­case your hol­i­day sea­son using 3.5”...

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Open Call for Layouts…

Jan 17, 2010

Open Call for Layouts…

If you set a goal this year to get some lay­outs pub­lished here is a great open call for you to sub­mit to. I feel Mem­o­ry Mak­ers Books is a won­der­ful place to start. As you know all kinds of won­der­ful things have hap­pened to me in the pub­li­ca­tion world with this com­pa­ny (Pet Pages Unleashed, Orga­niz­ing Your Scrap­book Sup­plies (Ask the Mas­ters!), Mem­o­ry Mak­ers Mas­ter’s 08 and Delight in the Details. Remem­ber this, you can’t get pub­lished if you nev­er sub­mit. If you have any ques­tions please feel free to email me or post a com­ment in this entry as oth­ers just might have the same ques­tion.  Believe me I did­n’t wake up one morn­ing know­ing how to do all this… peo­ple gave me sug­ges­tions, a slight push and many a word of...

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Favorite Blog Posts of 2009

Dec 31, 2009

Well we are all back home safe and sound. It was nice get­ting to see the fam­i­ly over the hol­i­days but it sure does feel good sleep­ing in your own bed. Since it is New Year’s Eve and I can­not help but reflect on all the things that hap­pened in 2009 I thought it would be fun to post all my favorite blog posts over the past year. So below you will find a list of my favorites. I hope they are some of your favorites too. A Lit­tle Valen­tine Tuto­r­i­al Be Mine One Lit­tle Text 100 Com­plet­ed Fab­ric Flower Love You Tag Vin­tage But­ton Bou­quet Pho­to Hold­er using Sewing Pat­tern Flower Book Page Flower Faux Vin­tage Millinery Pin Tis­sue Paper Flower Sewing Pat­tern Flower Scal­lop Paper Lace In Antic­i­pa­tion Sim­ple Leaf Pick Lot­tie’s...

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12 Day Advent Pocket Calendar #6

Dec 7, 2009

12 Day Advent Pocket Calendar #6

We are so close to fin­ish­ing up this 12 Day Advent Pock­et Cal­en­dar. I find this a fun way to keep the hol­i­days going dur­ing Ans­ley’s win­ter break and it helps with the sting of hav­ing to go back to school… just a lit­tle some­thing to look for­ward to each day after Christ­mas.  And I decid­ed to give you a peek at how I am arrang­ing the pock­ets. This is far from being fin­ished as I need to add some trim and oth­er embell­ish­ments but at least this way you can see the method to my mad­ness. Just two emp­ty spots left to fill. I love how today’s pock­et worked out… the lit­tle jester doll looks as though he is throw­ing a snow­ball.. too cute! Stamp image onto heavy weight white card­stock, ink on...

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Want to see some pages inside my book…

Nov 28, 2009

Want to see some pages inside my book…

Oh I love hav­ing a techy DH. Alan added pho­tos of the inside of my book to this post. If you want to see them check it out. I love see­ing the pages in col­or as pret­ty much all I have seen is black and white. I can hard­ly wait to get my two advanced copies… I am count­ing down the days as it should be some­time in Decem­ber. You will all here a huge scream when they arrive. I tell ya my Edi­tor Kristin Boys (love, love, love her so much… seri­ous­ly she is the sweet­est per­son and such a plea­sure to work with… I’m so glad my book land­ed on her desk) Design­er Cor­rie Schaf­feld, Pro­duc­tion Coor­di­na­tor Greg Nock, Pho­tog­ra­phers Chris­tine Polom­sky (it was a BLAST get­ting to work with Chris­tine in...

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Workshop Coupon…

Nov 20, 2009

Workshop Coupon…

These past few days I have been busy work­ing on an adorable orna­ment (if I don’t say so myself) for a project a friend of mine is doing on her blog. I can’t wait to show you but you’re going to have to wait until some­time in Decem­ber. I think it will be worth the wait. And those cre­at­ing the pock­ets along with me for the Advent cal­en­dar, I will be post­ing more soon… I am lov­ing how this project is com­ing togeth­er. We have been hav­ing a blast cre­at­ing in my hol­i­day work­shops. I can­not believe we are fin­ish­ing up week 3 in my “A Very Vin­tage Christ­mas” work­shop. The time is fly­ing by but there is still time to cre­ate for the hol­i­days if you are inter­est­ed. Remem­ber, you have the same...

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Online Holiday Workshop Enrollment Begins Tomorrow…

Oct 28, 2008

Online Holiday Workshop Enrollment Begins Tomorrow…

The 12 Days of Christ­mas is a month long online work­shop of hol­i­day cre­at­ing. Each Mon­day, Wednes­day and Fri­day for the month of Novem­ber I will post new projects that will include a sup­ply list, tools need­ed and step by step instruc­tions to com­plete each project. There will be a total of at least 15 tuto­ri­als. Some projects will come with a tem­plate to make the cre­ative process a bit eas­i­er and each fea­tured project has close up col­or pho­tos. All the projects are designed so you can use items you already have on hand or cre­ate them exact­ly like the sam­ple. The cost for this online work­shop is $19.95 and will be avail­able from Novem­ber 1st – Decem­ber 15th. Once pay­ment is received you will be sent a pass­word to enter this pri­vate...

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Home for the Holidays…

Oct 20, 2008

Home for the Holidays…

Check out the Home for the Hol­i­days con­test Maya Road is host­ing… if you like to alter projects and love Maya Road prod­ucts here is your chance to win lots of Maya Road good­ies. With the Hol­i­days around the cor­ner, we here at Maya Road are proud to present the Maya Road Home for the Hol­i­days Con­test! Take one or more of our Maya Road chip­board hous­es and dec­o­rate them for the Hol­i­days to enter our con­test! We are look­ing for the best look­ing hous­es on the block filled with inno­v­a­tive tech­niques and more! This con­test will be judged by the tal­ent­ed Maya Road design team. Maya Road will be offer­ing over $500 in prizes for this con­test to be giv­en to 5 win­ners. The prizes will be divid­ed up as fol­lows: Grand Prize...

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So what do you think…

Sep 11, 2008

So what do you think…

Yes­ter­day I was won­der­ing how a small brown paper bag would emboss using an emboss­ing fold­er well… I used the tex­tile emboss­ing fold­er (seems to be my favorite) then cov­ered the embossed bag using Ranger Dis­tress Inks in Vin­tage Pho­to and Spiced Mar­malade.

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