Happy 2015! Looking Forward to a Better (Healthier) Year Ahead

I've been busy with prep for CHA! I'm looking forward to seeing some special friends at the show that is quickly approaching. Lawn Fawn has some amazing new products coming out and I can't wait to share them with you here.

I had some favorite cards and projects from this past year:

I only managed one layout this year, I will have to do better next year considering I've added another grandson!

I'd like to wish everyone a very blessed and happy 2015!

blessings,

nancy

Tags for my grandsons

A couple of tags.

Lawn Fawn - Winter Penguin + coordinating die, Forest Border, Winter Gifts, Stitched Journaling Card, Large Stitched Journaling Card, Snow Day 6x6 paper, Peppermint Lawn Trimmings

For this one I used a very old Stampouri wood block stamp for the message.

Lawn Fawn - Making Frosty Friends + coordinating dies, Forest Border, Winter Gifts, Stitched Hillside Borders, Stitched Journaling Card, Snow Day 6x6 paper, Peppermint Lawn Trimmings

I hope you all had a lovely holiday! I enjoyed spending time with our extended families, lots of joy!

blessings,

nancy

It's Christmas Eve!!

I am sliding in just under the wire with my Christmas cards this year. I finished up my gift tags and gift card holders this morning and the wrapping of gifts will commence shortly!

Here's some more Christmas card designs for 2014:

Lawn Fawn - Snow Day 6x6 paper, Smitty's ABCs, Scripty Joy

Lawn Fawn - Snow Day, Joy to the Woods, Stitched Circle Stackables, Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Peace Joy Love 6x6 paper, Peppermint Lawn Trimmings

original inspiration for this card from Emily HERE

Lawn Fawn - Snow Day, Joy to the Woods, Peace Joy Love 6x6 paper, 

Stitched Rectangle Stackables

original inspiration for this card from Tamara HERE

Essentials by Ellen - Home & Hearth by Julie

Lawn Fawn - Peace Joy Love 6x6 paper, Stitched Hillside Borders, Stitched Circle Stackables, Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Hero Arts - sentiment

These are the gift card holders I made with the handy Zipper Panel die from Ellen Hutson.

Simon Says Stamp Large Circle stencil 

Lawn Fawn Deck the Halls, Winter Gifts, Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Simon Says Stamp Wide Stripes Background Stamp

Lawn Fawn Deck the Halls, Winter Gifts, Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Simon Says Stamp Ugly Sweater; Sweater Words and Appliques

Simon Says Stamp Ugly Sweater; Sweater Words and Appliques

I will share some tags tomorrow!

Happy Christmas Eve! Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

blessings,

nancy

Sweet Birthday Wishes

I had some fun coloring the cute images from Lawn Fawn's Milk and Cookies and got some inspiration for a birthday card. I love how it turned out and I can't wait to send it to one of my sweet friends!

I colored all the images with Copic markers 

and die cut them with the Milk and Cookies coordinating dies.

I created a custom sentiment by cutting the "sweet wishes" stamp so I could stack it with the birthday stamp from Happy Everything and then white emboss it on the Sweater Weather circle. I stamped the tiny hearts on the cookie jar with Hero Arts Raspberry Jam ink, it was a perfect match to the colors in the Sweater Weather paper ("cold snap" 12x12 paper and Petite Paper Pack). I used Circle Stackables Lawn Cuts and Scalloped Circle Lawn Cuts to create the pretty background for the yummy cookies and milk table scene. The base panel of Sweater Weather paper was die cut with the  Large Stitched Rectangle Stackables die; it fits an A2 size card base. These dies are so perfect for me since I can't seem to cut anything straight and the stitching adds a wonderful finish detail.

This card is featured on the Lawn Fawn blog today, yay!

blessings,

nancy

Rustic Birthday Card

My son Andy recently celebrated a birthday, his 31st! I'm sure I'm not old enough to have a kid that old. He worked at Hume Lake Christian Camps in the Kings Canyon National Forest for a few years after high school. He had many, way too close, encounters with bears so I knew he would get a kick out of this card design. Bears, woodgrain, and trees; perfect elements for a guy card. By the way, I've had a number of bear encounters at Hume Lake too, luckily they were not too close.

Lawn Fawn - Love You S'more + coordinating die, Chit Chat + coordinating die, Forest Border, Stitched Hillside Borders, Small Stitched Circle Stackables, Walnut Notecard
Neenah Solar White Cardstock; Bazzill Cardstock; Copic Markers E31, 33, 35

thanks for stopping by!

blessings,
nancy

Tropical Christmas Card

We have special friends who moved to Hawaii this year. I thought I would send them a card with a tropical theme.

I die-cut some Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die then used Distress inks to do some really quick watercolor. The colors I used are Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Vintage Photo. The palm tree is from the Lawn Fawn set Critters From the Past and it's colored with Copics,  The stars from Lawn Fawn's Trim the Tree were stamped with Tsukineko Delicata Golden Glitz ink and die cut with the coordinating dies. The sentiment is from the Nativity set by Simon Says Stamp.

Quick and easy with the perfect message!

blessings,
nancy ♥

Nativity Christmas Card

I'm so glad I got the Simon Says Stamp Nativity stamp and die set. I just love how perfect it is for making simple but meaningful Christmas cards.

I did the coloring with Copics. The star was die cut then colored with a Gold Wink of Stella marker.

blessings,

nancy ♥

Christmas Card #2

I love the theme of Christmas trees for making Christmas cards. I combined several Lawn Fawn sentiments from lots of different sets to create this simple card design. I think I like the one without the patterned paper layer best.

I lined up all the sentiments in a tree shape on my Fiskars stamp press and stamped with Versamark ink. Then I added the holly and star before I used Hero Arts White embossing powder and heat set. Some really simple Copic coloring finished this design.

Lawn Fawn products used: Deck the Halls, Winter Gifts, Bows and Holly, Joy to the Woods, Trim the Tree, Snow Day 6x6 paper, Stitched Rectangle Stackables

blessings,

nancy

First Christmas Card for 2014

It's the day before Thanksgiving and I am finally posting a Christmas card. Yay me!

I'm sure you've seen many variations on this theme so I tried to give my card an original spin. The message is the star of this card so I kept it simple with some gold embossing to make it special.

Supplies:

Lawn Fawn -Violet's ABCs; Wish You Were Here; Joy to the Woods, Peace Joy Love; 

Louie's ABCs Lawn Cuts; Stitched Rectangle Stackables,

 Peace Joy Love 6x6 paper

Ranger- Gold Embossing Powder

Copic Sketch Markers- B000; YG03

Happy Thanksgiving!

blessings,

nancy

Art Journal - Psalm 16:11

I've spent the last few months visiting a whole bunch of doctors trying to figure out why I've been feeling so lousy. I had just about given up on life for a while. The headaches, dizziness and blackouts were terrifying and debilitating. Add to that the horrendous pain in my neck and down my back with numbness in my arms and hands and doing anything just seemed so impossible.

There hasn't been one definitive answer other than to rule out really bad neurological stuff for which I am so grateful. Turns out I've been experiencing a storm of unrelated conditions! The neck and back pain is the acute result of way too much repetitive motion. I've been going to physical therapy for a few weeks and the pain relief is such a blessing. I'm also strengthening my weakened muscles so I don't find myself in the same state again.

As for the other distressing symptoms, the consensus is that the headaches and dizziness are partly the result of my allergies getting worse and partly from the mess in my neck. The blackouts appear to be unrelated to the other conditions and have not returned since I started to reduce my dosage of estrogen. Looks like I will be facing life without that little crutch because the very real risk of stroke. Yikes!

While I have been convalescing I decided to get out the art journal that hasn't seen any love for a couple years and just do some doodling. It was good to force my hand to hold a pen. Even though the result is pretty wobbly and imperfect I'm so happy to finally create something again. 

Psalm 16:11 is a favorite Bible verse. I love how it makes our relationship with God clear. He will give us guidance and fill us with joy as we seek Him in our daily lives. And that prepares us to enjoy eternity living in the light of His love.

I did the initial doodling with a pencil then drew over that with Copic Multi Liner pens. I colored and shaded with Copic Sketch markers then added some color in the background with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink using a Mini Ink Blending Tool. I left room on the bottom of the right page to add some journaling later.

My journal is the large Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Journal.

I want to thank everyone for your prayers and kind comments. ♥

blessings,
nancy

Spurious Falls

My wonderful and talented daughter-in-love, Kellie has been super busy this past year writing and producing a full-length movie called The Curious Story of Spurious Falls. I couldn't be more proud of her! It was produced for the Beach Cities Community Church summer KidsGames.

The movie will have a premier on November 13 at the historic Lido Theater in Newport Beach. It's a benefit for the McKenna Claire Foundation supporting research for Pediatric Brain Cancer. If you are in the Southern California area I would encourage you attend the premier! Please visit the Spurious Falls website for all the details and to watch the trailer!

My grandson, Uriah and Kellie even appear as extras!

I hope you will check out the link and join us for the premier!

blessings,

nancy

Beep Boop Birthday Card

I was really inspired by this card by Kelly using negative die cuts with Finley's ABCs. And since I just happened to need a birthday card for a 5 year-old boy I thought I'd make a robot themed card!

Lawn Fawn Products used:

Beep Boop Birthday + coordinating dies

Finley's ABCs Lawn Cuts

Winter Penguin (happy)

Clark's ABCs

Let's Polka 6x6 paper

Thanks so much for your prayers!

blessings,

nancy

Quilted Sweater Weather Card

Happy Monday everyone!

I recently made a card for a sweet friend who was recovering from surgery. I wanted to make something really cheery, something to put a smile a her face, so I reached for my Lawn Fawn stamps, dies and papers! I'm so happy to have it featured on the Lawn Fawn blog today!

I had the idea to use the Stitched Rectangle Stackables die sets to create a quilted-look card. I used the Sweater Weather 6x6 paper because those primary colors just look so awesome together! It took some fiddling and trimming but the pieces all eventually fit together and the stitched detail is so fun!

I stamped, colored and die cut the cute little birds from Chit Chat and the coordinating dies, then I customized the Sweater Weather tree  to serve as a branch for the pair. The sentiment is also from Chit Chat.

Got some good news and not so good news to share. First the good - my grandson has booked his first job! He will be doing a 3 day shoot for a major retailer, yay! They booked him straight from his photos, no audition. He's such a cute little poser, how could they not. Also my DIL has written and produced a movie that will be shown at a local theater! I'll have more info on that soon.

I would appreciate your prayers for my health, I'm still dealing with some scary stuff and feeling like I'm the physician pass-around pack being referred to one after the other. Hoping for some answers soon. The good news so far is I don't need any more spine surgery; just PT and injections to control the pain.

Have a lovely day!

blessings,

nancy

Coffee Smiles

It's National Coffee Day so I thought I would make a quick card for the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.

Lawn Fawn, as one of the sponsors, is giving away a Love You a Latte stamp set so I used the cute little cups and smileys from the set for my card.

I'm a 3-cup every morning coffee lover so I featured 3 smiling cups on my card!

I die cut the journal card from Sweater Weather "blustery" with a Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables die. Then I die cut a row of hearts using the die from Stitched Journaling Card and backed it with a scrap of Sweater Weather 6x6 paper. 

The coffee cups are colored with Copic markers and the fun smile sentiment is stamped with Hero Arts Cup o' Joe ink (I thought that was appropriate!). The simple finishing detail is a length of Orchid Lawn Trimmings tied in a sweet bow.

There are a bunch of great companies sponsoring the Coffee Lovers Bloghop with great prizes so you might want to join the fun today at Cuts, Crops & Creativity! 

Hope you are enjoying a lovely Fall day (or Spring day for my friends in the Southern Hemisphere) and a nice cup of coffee. Happy National Coffee Day and Happy Hopping!

Blessings,

nancy

Uriah is Three!

Oh my  goodness, it seems like just yesterday that Andy and Kellie were letting us know we would be grandparents and now our little boy is THREE! AND he started pre-school this week! Where does the time go? No really, where does it go?

Uriah is very much into monster trucks and Monsters, Inc so when Lawn Fawn came out with Monster Mash stamps and coordinating dies it was a no-brainer that I would use them for his birthday card. I colored those cute little monsters with colored pencils and Gamsol.

I also used Lawn Fawn's Finley's ABCs Lawn Cuts dies, Harold's ABCs and Violet's ABCs along with Simon Says Stamp Wide Stripes for the background.

inside I used Year Two, Harold's ABCs and Louie's 123s Lawn Cuts

This kid has my heart! I love his little pre-school cubby ♥

Thanks for visiting!

blessings,

nancy

Happy Fall

My little corner of the world gets very crowded around Labor Day Weekend! We have our annual International Street Fair and of course the jump in population with all the students moving into the dorms at Chapman University. It's also when I embrace FALL! The weather is pretty hot still but I'm looking forward to that wonderful subtle change in the air.

To celebrate the new Lawn Fawn Fall/Winter release I have a Sweater Weather card to share today!

Sweater Weather stamps and 6x6 petite paper pack; Blue Jay Lawn Trimmings

Now I'm off to Lawn Fawn HQ where we will be busy today packing up your orders and sending them on their way to you!

Hope you have a happy holiday weekend!

blessings,

nancy

A Little Sneak Peek- Falling for You

I'm so excited to have a Lawn Fawn card featured on the Simon Says Stamp blog today! I used a brand new soon-to-be-released set called Sweater Weather to create a fun "changing of the seasons" panel design.
Here's a little peek at my card:

Head over to the Simon Says Stamp blog to see my card and the complete supply list.

thanks for visiting
blessings,
nancy

A Little Halloween Dazzle

It's the last day of the Lawn Fawn + Add A Little Dazzle Blog Hop and I have something fun to share!

I'm not really a celebrator of halloween but Lawn Fawn's Critters in Costume and the new Spooktacular (coming soon) stamp sets are just too cute not to use somehow! I used another brand new product: the Goodie Bag Lawn Cuts die to make this cute little decoration for the Lawn Fawn + Add A Little Dazzle Blog Hop.

I die cut the Goodie Bag 2 times from Black Diamond Craft Metal to construct my Goodie Bag decor. 

Tip: to use the metal as a treat bag you will want to line it with cardstock to help it hold it's shape.

I was surprised how easy it was to white heat emboss on the metal! Be sure to use an embossing buddy to cut down on the static. The web and sentiment are from Lawn Fawn's Heebie Jeebies. I used scissors to cut out the image after I embossed; the metal cuts really nicely. I layered this piece with 2 small tags die cut with Tag, You're It one from Lovely Lavender metal and the other from Let's Polka Freshly Cut Grass Line Dance 12x12 paper and tied them with some Silver Sparkle Lawn Trimmings.

Stamps and dies are from Critters in Costume and So Thankful

Today is the last to enter for a chance a win the Blog Hop Giveaways!

Visit Lawn Fawn blog and Add A Little Dazzle to enter.

So glad you stopped by!

blessings,

nancy

Lawn Fawn + a Little More Dazzle

Okay, so I can't get enough of this Add A Little Dazzle craft metal! Here's another card that's featured on the Lawn Fawn blog today for the Add A Little Dazzle blog hop!

I used a We R Memory Keepers Triangle embossing folder on the Perfect Peacock metal panel; looks pretty awesome!

I stamped the paper airplane from Flying By with StaZon Jet Black ink on a Lovely Lavender metal sheet and die cut it with the coordinating die. The clouds were die cut from Wondrous White using Spring Showers. I just love how the stitching looks on the metal, so cool! It's easy to stamp on the metal too, you'll need to use a solvent ink like StaZon.

Be sure to visit both blogs to enter to win the Giveaways: Lawn Fawn and Add A Little Dazzle

Thanks for stopping by!
blessings,
nancy

Lawn Fawn + A Little Dazzle

Lawn Fawn is sharing a fun hop week with Add a Little Dazzle! Lucky me, I got to play along and create with Add a Little Dazzle's fabulous craft metal sheets!

I made a super easy Fall leaves card by die-cutting Brushed Bronze, Pucker Me Pink and Perfect Peacock metal sheets with Stitched Leaves Lawn Cuts. This metal cuts like butter with scissors, paper trimmer and dies.

My sentiment is from So Thankful. I finished this CAS card with a bit of brown Lawn Trimmings from the Retro Triple Pack.

Don't you just love that shimmer and shine?

Be sure to visit the Lawn Fawn blog and Craft Ideas by Add a Little Dazzle all this week for great inspiration and to enter for a chance to win one of the Giveaways!

Thanks for visiting!

blessings, 

nancy

Bright Eyes Scrapbook Layout

When I first laid eyes on the new Lawn Fawn Sweater Weather paper collection I knew that I would make this layout. Sweater Weather is part of the new Fall/Winter release that will be available August 28th. I have the privilege of designing and making retailer sample cards for Lawn Fawn so I get to play with the new products early. Yay!

My adorable grandson, Uriah. has sparked a new interest in scrapbooking! These photos were the ones that caught the notice of the talent agency. Uriah had his first audition yesterday for a commercial, fingers crossed!

I love that the background paper, "Chill" has the look of a knit sweater!

I used Argyle Backdrops to create the colorful diamond border. The tags were stamped with the new Thank You Tags and die cut with Tag, You're It.

To get the look of the long banner I die cut the large Stitched Party Banner, cut it in half then arranged each piece behind the Large Stitched Journaling Card.

New Lawn Fawn products for this layout (available August 28):

Argyle Backdrops

Thank You Tags

Sweater Weather 12x12 paper: Chill, Crisp, Gusty, Brisk, Sunny

Blue Jay Lawn Trimmings

Thanks for your visit!

blessings,

nancy

Stitched Party Banners Lawn Cuts dies	large stitched journaling card	stitched journaling card	Louie's ABCs Lawn Cuts dies	#awesome - lawn cuts	my silly valentine
scripty hello	tag, you're it	*Hero Arts Shadow Ink Pad NAVY Blue Mid-Tone 2013 af234	*Hero Arts Shadow Ink Pad PALE TOMATO Mid-Tone 2013 AF233	*Hero Arts Shadow Ink Pad TIDE POOL Mid-Tone 2012 AF223	*Hero Arts Shadow Ink Pad BUTTER BAR Mid-Tone 2012 AF207
*Tim Holtz Idea-ology TINY ATTACHER Stapler Tool Mini Staples TH92800	*Xyron TAPE RUNNER Permanent Adhesive Dispenser	*Xyron REFILL Tape Runner Permanent Adhesive Dispenser

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