A very special Blog Hop!

After years of waiting -- a little on purpose, a little not -- my husband and I welcomed our sweet son into the world!

My DT sisters at IAAS surprised me with a blog hop in Ramesses Richard's honor! Be sure to check out their beautiful cards -- we're especially enjoying receiving the real things in the mail! You know we'll treasure them forever!

• Chriss
• Debbie
• Hazel
• Josephine
• Sall

I don't have a lot of crafting time these days (I'm typing with one hand with the little guy in my arms!) but I enjoy keeping up with my crafting friends!

Thank you for visiting!

Pilin' On the Shaped Cards and/or Add a Charm

The themes this month at Pile It On are Shaped Cards and/or Add a Charm. You can choose one or both themes, and you may enter the challenge as many times you like, as long as you are inspired by at least one other Challenge theme. We're sponsored by Crafty Sentiments Designs. I used their Mr & Mrs Snow digi stamp and with a metal window charm to create this shaped card.

I used the "Gingerbread House" Fold-a-long die set from Jen Long/Sizzix, my favorite new die! I've had the "Happy Holidays from our House to Yours" sentiment stamp for years & it's one of my favorites. I backed the window charm with vellum & a gingerbread man that I fussy-cut from patterned paper. I colored the image with Copic markers & added some mica "snow."

Inspiration/Challenges:
A2Z Scrapbooking Linky Party: (P1) Winter Wonderland
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper: (P1) Anything Goes with Patterned Paper
Dies R Us Challenge: (P1/15) Christmas + Metal Die 
Dragonfly Journeys #130: (P1) Handmade Holiday Magic
Happy Little Stampers: (P5) Anything Christmas Goes + optional twist Snow
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: (Wed) Christmas

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,

Glittery Skull Birthday -- Sparkle at International Art & Soul

Our theme this fortnight at the International Art & Soul Challenge is Add Some Sparkle. A good friend of mine enjoys Day of the Dead-inspired art, so I made this birthday card for her with skulls & glitter!

The digi stamp is "338-Day of the Dead Frida" by Dilly Beans, and the Dia de Muertos patterned paper is from Reminisce. I colored the image with Copics & different glitter embossing powders.

I created the sentiment inside myself in SCAL3 & cut it from gold glittered vinyl on my Silhouette Cameo.

Thank you for visiting! Hope you'll join us at International Art & Soul,

Ugly Christmas Sweater Weather -- Local Christmas Traditions with the Unstampabelles

Our theme this month at the UnstampaBelles challenge is Christmas theme/tradition for your Country, with the optional twist of explain the theme in your blog. You need to follow the twist to be considered as the DT Favorite, but you only have to follow main theme to win our prize. And remember, no stamps!

Living in the United States of America, most of our traditions are imported and then exported via commercialism! I'm not sure if this is a solely American tradition, but in recent years Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties have become popular. A few of my crafting friends and I have picked up the tradition, although we tend to be a bit vain and choose cute sweaters! We've also started the tradition of making Ugly Christmas Sweater cards...and, of course, collecting Ugly Christmas Sweater crafts!

I filled the shaker with tiny sweaters cut on my Silhouette Cameo with a file from Pretty Papers, Pretty Ribbons, along with gold stars & gold microbeads. The shaker cover is from a Shake It set by Impression Obsession. The sweaters are all stickers from my stash.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas #414: (Sat) Anything Christmas Goes + optional theme: Use Sticker(s)
Creative Sketchy Girls: (P20) Sketch #30



Be sure to check out the fabulous projects by my teammates the UnstampaBelles this month!

Thank you for visiting,

No Place like Home -- Pilin' On the Shaped Cards

The theme this month at Pile It On is Shaped Cards. The only really rule is to be inspired by more than one papercrafting challenge. We're sponsored by Crafty Sentiments Designs.

I used the "Gingerbread House" Fold-a-long die set from Jen Long/Sizzix and paper from Graphic 45 to make this Magic of Oz-themed card.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper: (P1) Anything Goes with Patterned Paper
Happy Little Stampers: (P15) Always Anything Goes with Dies
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: (Wed) Anything Goes
World Wide Open Design Team Challenge: (P15) Always Anything Goes for a member of a Design Team

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,

Warm Coffee Wishes -- Coffee Loving Cardmakers' Winter Blog Hop

It's time for the Coffee Loving Cardmakers' Winter Blog Hop, and I always enjoy playing along.

I made a quick but cute dimensional card using the Tree Fold-a-long die set from Sizzix and coffee cup dies from the Hanging Charm Pull Tab die set by Karen Burniston/Elizabeth Crafts Designs.

I cut the coffee cup and sleeves from scraps of Xmas paper and adhered them to the card with star-shaped brads.

For the inside, I used my favorite winter sentiment stamp, heat-embossing it in red. I heat-embossed the stars on the tops of the trees in glittery white powder.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Coffee Loving Cardmakers: Winter/Holiday + Coffee/Tea/Cocoa
Scrapy Land Challenge #102: Anything Goes with Die Brand SL sells (Sizzix & Elizabeth Craft Designs)

Thank you for visiting!