WHEW! WHAT A WEEK!!!

WOW!!! This has been some week, I tell ya!!! Working, shopping, baking, wrapping - it's enough to make ya tired!!! And, this last week at work has been pure misery, since nothing seemed to go right at all!! I am soooooo happy that today is my last day until the 11th of January - WHOOOHOO!!!! I am really looking forward to a nice break!!! I wanted to take time out this morning and share with you two more of my Christmas cards for this year. I used last week's Mojo Monday sketch for this first one, and I love the sketch so I have used it for a couple others I will share with you tomorrow. I love the way this turned out - the Bravo Burgundy scalloped circles look so elegant paired with this gorgeous Christmas Cocoa specialty paper! And, of course you can't go wrong with Whisper White satin ribbon. The stamp set I used for this one is called Patterned Pines and it is a Hostess Set available only until the 31st of this month since it is in the mini. I love it!! This second card is one of the main cards I did this year and sent out - I usually have five or six designs and do a few of each so I don't get bored, lol! I used the Delightful Decorations stamp set with the matching punch, and I have a feeling this will be a favorite in MY house for many Christmases to come as I just love how much you can do with it! I cut out the DSP using my Big Shot Top Note Die and sponged the card stock with Creamy Caramel. The ornaments are stamped in versamark, then heat embossed using gold embossing powder - it turned out FABULOUS!!! I added some Whisper White Taffeta ribbon and topped the ornaments with some gold cord. I love this card, I have to say, I think it looks elegant and makes me smile! I have only two more Christmas cards to share with you before Christmas so that worked out well as I won't be stamping any more this year. I will share those over the next couple of days. So, now I am off to work, hoping that the day will go by VERY fast so that I can get home and get started on my vacation! Zach comes home on Saturday so good times this weekend!! THANKS sooooo much for stopping by, I love ya for it!!!!!

ARE YOU READY FOR??

another Christmas card, LOL??! I have been stamping away getting all my Christmas cards in the mail and having a great time!! I got soooo much done this weekend, but it sure flew by fast! My man had his b-day yesterday so I made him a special dinner and we had chocolate mousse cake and he got to watch football all day without me giving him a "honey do" list, so he was a happy camper. It also poured all weekend so it was a good weekend to take care of lots of the indoor things that needed to happen. So, on to the card! I decide to play around with my Old Fashioned Christmas stamp set called Good Cheer because I love the vintage look it has. The Father Christmas image is amazing!!! I am not sure I did it justice; I did not want to add too much to this card since there was already so much detail in the patterned paper and the image itself so I just did not shading with my watercolor pencils. I also colored and cut out the holly leaves in the set and added those as well. I am pretty happy with this card although I would like to play around with the image a little bit more. Maybe I will just have to make another one....heeehee!!! Any excuse to stamp! So, today is back to work, but I am happy it is the last week and it will go fast because I have sooo much to do before the winter break!! And, Zach comes home next weekend too, WHOOOHOOO!! I have so much to be thankful for - I am very lucky!! Have a great Monday all and thanks so much for stopping by and leaving me love, I appreciate all of you!!

Card Recipe:

Paper - Kraft, Whisper White card stock, Christmas Cocoa Specialty Designer Series Paper

Inks - Brown Stazon, Watercolor pencils

Stamps - Good Cheer

Accessories - Bravo Burgundy Wide Grosgrain Ribbon

CHRISTMAS HAS ARRIVED AT THE HOBSONS!

Happy Saturday! I am so excited that it is the weekend and I only have one more week of work before Christmas break, whoohooo!! The advantage to working at a University is that we close down for two whole weeks!! And, I am going to take a third week since Zach will be home so I am going to have a nice stretch of time off which I am very much looking forward to!! Meanwhile, we have been decorating, shopping, wrapping, and hope to get some baking in so Christmas is very much the topic of the day in our home! I have also been stamping alot of Christmas cards and have several I want to share with you! I will share two today - they were so much fun to make, I am really enjoying all my new Christmas stamp sets!! This first card uses one of my favorite sets called Winter Post - these ice skaters really make me smile!! And, the paper is yummy!! I could not help adding some bling, winter just says bling to me and well, they are skating, LOL! It's a pretty simple card but I used pretty ribbons and one of my new giant brads which I just love. This next card uses a set called Cold and Cuddly and I bought him because my daughter absolutely adores penguins and when we saw this little guy, well, that was all she wrote!! I love how fat and round he is and all the little hats that come with the set! I did some paper tearing on this one and then layered them to give the card some depth and I do like the result. The snowflakes are actually rubons in the Holiday Mini called Merry and Bright - they are FABULOUS!!! I did pop my little penguin up on dimensionals because he is small and I wanted him to be noticed *wink*. This was a fun card to make and came together pretty quickly. I have several more that I have completed and I will be sharing those with you all over the next week or so. It feels soooooo good to be stamping again, I am loving my new room and enjoyed reading all the comments you all left me! And, for those of you wanting to come play in my new room with me, come on over, the door is always open *smile*. Now, I am off to work on some more decorating and getting dinner started. It is very cold, windy, and rainy here so I am making my Great Grandma's Hungarian Goulash, YUM! Enjoy your weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Card Recipe:

Paper - Kraft, Taken with Teal, Ruby Red, Whisper White card stock, Holiday Lounge and Christmas Cocoa Specialty Designer Papers

Inks - Close to Cocoa, Basic Brown, Taken with Teal, Basic Black, Ruby Red Stampin' Inks and markers

Stamps - Cold and Cuddly, Winter Post stamp sets

Accessories - Ticket Corner Punch, Large Oval, Scalloped Oval, Modern Label punches, Large White Brad, Silver elastic cord, Whisper White 5/8" satin ribbon, Ruby Red taffeta ribbon, stampin' dimensionals, liquid glue, Dazzling Diamonds, silver brads, paper piercer

BEATES WEEKEND SKETCH CHALLENGE AND MY NEW CRAFT ROOM!

Happy Hump Day all!!! I am actually home from work today since Kayla is not feeling well so I am playing in my craft room - kind of a nice little break during the week although I wish she was not sick! So, I thought I would share another one of my Christmas cards - this one is actually Beate's weekend sketch challenge this week and I really enjoyed having the time to play along! And, sketches are good for me when I am trying to get my stampin groove back, LOL! I had fun with this one although I may have gotten carried away with the glitter *wink* I used my embossing folder Finial Press because it reminds me of Poinsettias. I then added some Ruby Red accents to the flowers and added some green glitter to the leaves - such fun! The flowers across the top are made with my punches and then I added a brad to the center. Of course I had to add some ribbon so I used Sleigh Bells ribbon from the Holiday Mini (can only get this until the end of the month so if you need it, you better order it!) as it had all the colors I wanted on this card. The Santa face with all the Dazzling Diamonds is from the Heritage Holiday stamp set and the sentiment is from the Delightful Decorations stamp set. I really had fun with this one and I hope it shows in the result, which I am quite happy with! My first bunch of Christmas cards are going into the mail tomorrow and I have LOTS more to show you, WHOOHOO!!! Many of you have expressed an interest in seeing my new creative space so I thought I would share a few pics - I adore my new room and expect that there will be many a happy time creating way in it!

These first pic shows a partial view of my room from the door - hard to get the whole effect but you get the idea. The second pic shows my new work space for all my fun tools such as my sizzix, Cricut, BIA, and other things - one of the doors was broken so we are waiting for the replacement but I really love having all that dedicated work space. This third one shows you all the fabulous storage I now have for all the fun things I have accumulated - and now I can see all that I have and it is easy to locate! This fourth one is a close-up of my new Sizzix play area, I am just thrilled about it!! I can see all my dies, easily reach for them, and just have a ball!! The next one shows the storage above my new counter space and this is where I store all my SU! product and of course all those fabulous stamps! All of my non-SU! stamps are stored separately so everything is now really easy to put my hands on. I also have this fabulous storage with all these shelves that contain my chipboard, all my Cricut cartridges, and many embellies by subject - scary, I know but I am so happy to know where everything is now. It was getting so

that I was spending more time hunting for things than I was creating, which really made me not want to create at all! But, not anymore - just check out my new workspace where I do all my creating! I love the big work area and with so many things right at my fingertips, I can really do everything I need without getting up unless I need to die cut something which is fun to do anyway. And, of course no creative space is complete without the computer so I now I have a shiny new laptop in my space that is all mine and I don't have to share with the kids or the husband - just all mine!! They are also happy as they have the desktop for homework and whatever else teens do on the computer (not too much since I have it all locked down with parental controls, LOL!!) This last pic is to show you just how sweet my husband is - he surprised me with some beautiful flowers for my new craft room! I walked in and there they were, so bright and cheery...I just love that man!! So, there you have it, my new little piece of paradise, all set up and ready to go! I am having a ball in this room - I may never want to come out again!! And, for those of you who stuck with me through this long post, thanks so much! I am sure you are not nearly as excited as I am, but I wanted to share :-) Have a wonderful day and I will be back tomorrow with some more Christmas cards to share!!!

CHRISTMAS CARDS!!!

Hi all!! WOW! Did NOT mean to take such a long break, but we finally got my whole craft room moved to the other space and all set up and I am soooooooo excited!!!!! I just love my new creative space and I have just made some Christmas cards at my brand new work desk!! I have just a few finishing touches to do and it will be PERFECT!! And, then I will post some pics of the new space. But, I was so happy to have completed some cards that I wanted to share one that I made last night. The lighting was NOT the best, but I love this card!! It is made with the single stamp reindeer at the very back of the catty and I truly think it is my absolute fave Christmas stamp - and I really enjoy playing with lots of the others!! I also used some of the Christmas specialty paper that feels like flock and it just makes the card look warm and rich!! And, of course I could not resist adding some bling so I used Dazzling Diamonds on the antlers and chunky glitter for the snow! So much fun - I CANNOT wait to play more tonight when I get home from work - who needs sleep???LOL!!!! I hope you are all doing well, I sure do miss you all!! I actually think I have time to blurf again now that the room is done so I plan on doing some catching up this week. Thanks for stopping by - MWAH to you!!!!

IT'S SWAP TIME!!

***CALLING ALL SWAPPERS***

This post to remain on top until December 1st

***Limit 10 swappers***

Hi all!!! I wanted to host another swap this year since we had such a great time doing it last year!! So, if you are interested in doing a Christmas card swap, just sign up on this post. Here are the deets:

(1) Full cards only with no recipes needed
(2) No restrictions on products
(3) Your best work so people can use them to send out to friends/family
(4) Get them to me by 10 December(I will mail them back the next day!)
(5) Include a SAS envie with postage to get your swaps back to you!

So, who's game? I will close the sign-ups on Tuesday, the 1st of December so that people have time to get their swaps done and in the mail! Can't WAIT to see them all - last year they were FABULOUS!! I will add the names as I get them!!

1. Alex
2. Diane
3. Stacy
4. Dana
5.

A CHRISTMAS CARD!

Hi all!! WOW! It sure has been busy around here! I have been cleaning out my craft room, moving to a new room, painting, putting in new furniture, etc. so I have not been making much of anything at all BUT will have a beautiful new creative space this week and plan on hitting it hard for Christmas!!! My son is home for Thanksgiving so we have lots of family time planned! In the meantime, I thought I would share a card I made for a contest - it did not win, but I like it anyway, lol! It uses one of my favorite sets called Holiday Lineup, which I tend to reach for alot when making cards. And, these elves just crack me up! And, I love to sure Dazzling Diamonds on their beards, I think it looks fabulous! The contest was to create a simple card with glitter - this was my sample. This is a variation on a similar card I made during a workshop I recently held and it was a hit! I hope to share some more cards this week, AND some pics of my brand new creative space! Thanks for stopping by, I love to hear from you!

Card Recipe:

Paper - Kraft, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White card stock, Thoroughly Modern Designer Series Paper

Inks - Stampin' Write Markers, Basic black stamp pad

Stamps - Holiday Lineup, Teeny Tiny Sayings

Accessories - Top Note Die for Big Shot, Chocolate Chip Taffeta ribbon, Modern Label Punch, Vintage Brads, Corner Rounder punch, Dazzling Diamonds, Two-way glue