Glistening Pink Snow

I just want to say thank you so much to each of you who have lifted me up this past week with your visit and your sweet comments. Last week was a rough one for me - nothing major or chaotic - just some low spirits and your friendship seriously made me smile and feel all warm and fuzzy. I also LOVE IT that you love the bow. Wish I could take credit for it - but I bought it that way. In Walmart. They also have it in a Gorgeous Burgundy color.

Now if you've been here before, you know that my sister fell in love with a purple tree. A few years ago I saw a really pretty pink feather tree and promptly added it to my wish list. It's still there. But I love the color pink and I love how Christmas can be represented in so many non-traditional colors these days. And in a magical world, snowflakes might fall in bright pink and green!

Jami challenged the Pink Papery Studios DT this week to create our own decorative paper using stamps. I used the snowflake from the Catch a Falling Snowflake set. I even stamped and embossed some with this pink glitter embossing powder I have from Judikins. They have the prettiest colors of embossing powders! I had to take a photo to show you since most of it is getting covered up. Can you see the sparkle? Very cool IMO!! (Look close, you'll see a sneak of another card I have to show you too - probably one of my all-time favorites!) ((And yes, I know I say that a lot, but that's what happens when we keep creating right, we love the next project and then the next.))

I also used the tree image from the Simply Christmas set. The Between Us Girls line is one of my favorites!! I have the digital version of this stamp set so it took me awhile to finagle this card. I used the lasso tool in PS to just capture my tree and then pasted so that I had 2 side by side. I printed out a 3rd tree separately. I also wanted to paper piece my trees - you can see a tutorial on digi paper piecing here.I finished it off with even more falling snow on my main panel, a snippet of ribbon and sparkly gems in the corners. I almost left off the ribbon and the gems. Do you think it's too much?

Have a beautiful day!! And stop by the other girls blogs - their cards are A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

p.s. hubby just called to tell me I have to leave NOW to meet the family for dinner (yea, with a baby napping and all that goes to get them out the door....please commiserate with me!) So I'll work on editing my other card later and get it posted.

Happy Wednesday everyone! That means it's time for another challenge for the Pink Papery Studios DT. Lorelie and Lindsay both suggested that we create a handmade gift. I used one of the Sista's images, Cindy Lou, this week. She looks so happy to be vacuuming and she's all dressed up for it too! It totally made me think of those kitchy 1950's images you see with the sarcastic sayings so I wanted to create my own kitchy card! And as everyone who knows me well would vouch, I'd rather be stamping that vacuuming!! But if I had one of those fancy Dyson vacuums, well, I might dress up for the occasion!!

I used a paper bag as my card base this week so I could tuck the cider mix into it. I think this would be a neat card to send to a long-distance friend with an invite to share a cup of cider and catch up; with all the virtual options these days, it could easily happen!! I also think this would be a neat card for a friend who was ill or recovering from surgery - you could offer to vacuum for her and then share the cider afterwards.

ETA: When I started this challenge I was going to make a completely different gift (you'll just have to wait to see it) but I didn't have the shade of CS I needed and rather than brave the cold, I just decided to make something different. Picked my image, had an idea and went with it. When I uploaded my project to the DT blog, I saw - really, re-saw but that's not a word - Jessica's gift - and mine is almost the same. I bet I was subconsciously channeling her!! I hope she doesn't mind!! Stop by her blog and see her cute gift!! And you'll realize that she's so sweet, she doesn't mind how close our projects were!!
Hope you are having a marvelous day!! It was C-O-L-D and very windy here this morning. But the wind has calmed down and so it's not so bad out now.

Something Warm

Thanks for coming back today, my third day of Diabetes Awareness. Did you know that 8% (that's 23.6 million) of the American population deals with this chronic disease every day? It's challenge day for the Pink Papery Studios DT gals and it was my week. I challenged everyone to use red and grey in their creations. Please go see what they've been up to - you'll find all the links in my sidebar!! We'd love to have you join in too!!

Today I have a little treat to share with you. I like to call these "sussies" - they are just little tokens of affection or appreciation that you give to those you care about. I think it's always so nice to just surprise people with something nice. I am a giver who has a budget that doesn't allow me to give extravagant gifts. But I am also a believer in it's not the "cost" of something that touches people.....it's the fact that you CARED. And I give freely, with no expectation of anything in return.....which means when I give, I don't want people to feel bad because they may not have something to give in return. That's why sussies are so great: they aren't so expensive that they'll make someone feel bad (or worse, obligated to return the favor) but they let someone know that they are SPECIAL - and that's an awesome thing to be able to do.

As Christmas approaches, there are even more people that I want to give to this holiday. When I was teaching, I always loved to give little sussies to my teacher friends at Christmas. I taught high school so that was a lot of teachers. This is a perfect little sussie to give when you have lots of names on your list. You can get 6 packets in a box of cocoa mix, add a little prettiness to it and it's such a nice treat for the receiver. As a past teacher, I can tell you that this - or anything like it - will be so appreciated: it's either the beginning of the day and you get a warm, fuzzy all day long or it's the end of the day and it's a perfect pick-me-up to carry you on home and into the evening. What a nice treat to have as a take-home prezzie when you have a holiday party or guests stop by unexpected. Hide one is a neighbor's mailbox. Leave one on the co-workers desk or a basket to put by the microwave at the church for all the staff. I will be making more of these!

I just used my Nestabilities for the all the layers. Some quick and simple stamping, tie a ribbon, use a little sticky strip and it's done. I finished it off with some stickles in the scallops, on the ground to represent snow and even have some drifting down on the sweet little bunny (perhaps you can see it glisten in the first photo?)

My image is from a set called Be Merry at Pink Papery Studios. The new site is almost ready and Amy plans to make it live this weekend!!

Have a beautiful day and I'll see you tomorrow!!