Catching Up

Hiya!  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!  I managed to do a bit of scrapbooking since we didn't travel this year--the family came here instead.

I'm trying to catch up a bit on pages.  And I hope the sun comes out so I can photograph the (almost completed) December Daily album.

So here's a picture I took a while back.  I needed plenty of space to tell the hilarious (to me!) story.

So I see this snake stretched across the trail--a totally harmless little 4-foot guy--and I also see two runners headed for the snake.  I stopped the runners and told them I had passed the snake with no problem, but the ensuing conversation between the two guys was so funny.  It was kinda like..."We should totally act cool and all so we don't embarrass ourselves, but no way I'm walking past that snake...what do YOU think??"  In the end, they took a different trail, but I was trying so hard not to laugh at them.  I mean, they're big, bad runner DUDES and they're scared of a harmless, sleepy snake!!  =D

Ah, trail memories!!  ;-)



Ali Edwards has a blog post on her One Little Word project for 2014.  I've chosen the word NEXT.  A month ago, my church had a 4-week series on the idea of God always having a NEXT for each of us.  My goal in 2014 is to apply that--finding out what's NEXT and going in that direction.  Are you joining in on the fun of One Little Word??


OK, I'm off to work on my To Do List.  :-)  Have a wonderfully crafty day!

~Cynthia

Merry Christmas!

Evergreen Bough

Here's the last of my Christmas cards...I think.  ;-)

I shamelessly copied borrowed the idea from Loll over at Stamping With Loll.  She makes some seriously gorgeous clean-and-simple cards.  I saw this one in her Splitcoast Stampers' gallery and loved it.

I kept it really super simple and streamlined.  I die cut the branch (Impression Obsession)and dotted it with Christmas Red Stickles.  Then I used an old Cuttlebug die cut for the ornament.  I used glossy gold cardstock for those.  Then I die cut the frame using a Nestablitities set.  And then the sentiment is a cute one from a set by Penny Black called Crystalline.  That set has seen LOTS of use!



And that's it for me tonight.  It's late and I'm starving!!  I made those awesome Peanut Butter Blossoms--you know the cookies with the Hershey's Kisses smooshed into them?  THEM.  I may have eaten quite a few!  ;-)  So I guess I had better make a nutritious dinner then, right??  Or is it that Christmas calories don't count??  I can never remember what I'm supposed to do......


~Cynthia  ;-)

It's a Baby!

No, not MY baby!  HAHA.  NO.  :O

My friends had a baby in November, and bad friend that I am, I didn't know!  Gratefully, they sent an adorable photo of the little guy as their Christmas card.

Naturally, I had to whip up a baby card for them.  And here it is:

 

Sorry for the odd texture of the card base--it's really just the glorious morning sun on a regular piece of Bazzill.  ;-)

I used an old Hero Arts baby stamp set with Faded Jeans Distress Ink.  I wanted the lovely blue to be a bit lighter, less intense, so I stamped off the image each time.  The yellow enamel dots are from Freckled Fawn.  The sentiment is from Studio G and I used a Marvy 1-inch square punch to make the banner tails, which I popped up on 3D Dots from EK Success.  I also dusted the edges of the panel and the banner with more Faded Jeans before adhering.

Super simple!  And quick.  Yes, I need the quick part!  =D

 Better get this in the mail before the letter carrier gets here!  Have a crafty day!!

~Cynthia

Oh, Christmas Tree

I needed to make a kinda manly Christmas card for my nephew, so I used the same tree die cuts I used for the tone-on-tone card I posted previously.  I just used a dark green paper and skipped the cute bird.  ;-)

I did add a little gold star on the top.  I hope that's not cutesy!  Teenage boys are so hard to make cards for, right??

I used some polka dotted Bazzill cardstock, die cutting both dies out of the same paper.  I added Christmas Red Stickles here and there and punched the star out of glitter paper.

Done.




I very happily dropped off the last batch of Christmas cards at the Post Office this morning.  YAY!!  How about you--are all your cards mailed?


~Cynthia

And a Cardinal in a Pear Tree-eee-eeeeee

So I took a few liberties with the "12 Days of Christmas" lyrics.

I put a cardinal in a Christmas tree.

I think it came out kinda pretty.  ;-)

You can't really see it in the picture, but I've got Rock Candy Stickles on the tree for a bit of sparkle.  The two tree die cuts are by Dee's Distinctively.  The bird is from Impression Obsession stamped with some Festive Berries Distress Ink.  And the star is a Martha Stewart punch.  The bird's eye is a simple dot with a sparkly black gel pen.

I like the simplicity of it and the tone-on-tone with pops of color.

And with that, I'm outta here!  Have a crafty one, people!

~Cynthia

A Pile of Leaves

Here's the companion shot to yesterday's page and photo.

For this one, I grabbed a piece of Chic Tags paper--complete with coffee mug rings!  I die cut the leaves from snippets of autumn colored papers.  A cute tag from Chic Tags found its way into the pile of leaves.  Then I made two feathers from washi tape, added a button and some twine and called it complete!  I stamped the date and just added the place name.  I don't think it needs any journaling, do you?  =D

Thanks for dropping in today.  Have a lovely one!

~Cynthia

A little autumn color for you

I'm totally getting this one posted under the wire tonight!  I don't know where my day goes anymore!  ;-)  I get out of bed with such good intentions--and a long To Do List too.  HA!

Here's my make for the day.  I took the photo back in November when the trees were in full color on my local hiking trail.

I used a bit of We R Memory Keepers paper, a piece of Simple Stories paper and a tag from Chick Tags.  The super cute feathers are from Studio Calico.  Then I added a few enamel dots and some splats of Dylusions spray ink, plus a BasicGrey brad.

And that's it for me tonight...or probably morning by the time I hit Publish!  ;-)

~Cynthia

Snowy Tree

Happy Monday to ya!  I can still say that even though I'm coming in under the wire tonight!  ;-)

Here's one of my Christmas cards.  I got the inspiration for it from Loll--she makes the prettiest cards!

It was kind of like working on one of Tim Holtz's tags...I didn't have any of the supplies Loll used so I had to improvise.  Just like Tim's Tags!  LOL!

Here's my MacGyver-ed card:

 

I used a Memory Box die cut for the trees (brown Bazzill cardstock.)  Then I dusted on some snow (Picket Fence Distress Paint) and a bit of sparkle (Gelly Roll glitter pen) and I stamped then fussy cut the bird (Impression Obsession--I think.)  I'm pretty sure that's a KaiserCraft sentiment stamp along with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

I made several of these, assembly line style.  Each time I adhered the bird (using PopDots) to a different branch and moved the sentiment up and down a bit.

The weather here has been dreary for days, so I haven't been able to take photos of my December Daily album yet.  But I *have* managed to keep current with it!  Maybe the sun will come out this week for a bit!

Thanks for visiting today!


~Cynthia

Fuzzy Little Seed

The other day I saw this bit of fluff on the floor.  At first I thought it was a down feather from my comforter.  When I picked it up I saw it was one of those floating, fuzzy seed things.

Naturally I photographed it.

Because I always pick junk up off the floor and take pictures of it.

Like, don't you??

So I did a super close up shot of it and got this.

 

If you look closely, those tiny tentacles have fuzzy BARBS on them!  Who knew!!

I got the idea and layout from Lexi Bridges over on her Two Peas in a Bucket gallery.

The little Chic Tags stamp up there from on the right corner says, "Nerd Alert."

Heh.

Supplies used in random order cuz I really can't remember what I used anymore:

Bazzill (black and cream cardstock); Chic Tags (stamp and journaling tag); vellum; Tim Holtz (tissue tape); Mister Huey's (sparkly mist stuff)

Thanks for dropping by today!

~Cynthia

Tim's Tag for December

It's December 1st and you know what that means!  Tim's Tag Time!!

Woo hoo!!

And of course I had absolutely none of the products Tim Holtz used for his gorgeous tag.

And I do mean none.

So I went all MacGyver, as usual.

Check it out....

I tried really hard to capture the cool layers and the depth of the colors, but the Shrink Plastic I used is too shiny.

That's right.

I used Ranger's Shrink Plastic and didn't shrink it.

Heh.

I stamped and fussy cut the poinsettia and I die cut the leaves.  I used alcohol ink pens to color them.  To make the veins in the leaves, I drug the tip of a kinda dry alcohol pen down each leaf, removing the color.

I used 3D Glue Dots to adhere the flower and flat glue dots to adhere the leaves.

I stamped the sentiment in Versamark and used black embossing powder.




Thanks so much for dropping by today--especially if you're visiting from Tim's blog!  And happy first day of Advent!!  =D


~Cynthia