I’ve been finishing up more Cards and Goodies for friends and family here at my house. Carrying on with the pink Valentines theme and adding some paper dolls and hearts! First, are my paper dolls featuring the Birds & Bees Gown no.10 from Character Constructions. I stamped the gown and then embellished with chalk, glitter and paper scraps. I then got to make a Barbie paper doll bookmark out of a Barbie catalog, covering the image with contact paper and adding a pink bow on top! The stamped cards of mine were made using the Art Blast collage images, you can see more cards like these on my BLOG, and Close to My Heart stamps and ink. So many fun ideas to make, so little time!

Just had to share a few things I have been up to lately, especially since Valentine’s day is right around the corner! First, are 2 cute books my Mom gave me, Memories Sew Sweet by Sandy Berry and Somerset in Love 2009. I love all of the pink used in both of these books as well as the mixed media. One of Sandy Berry’s quilts from this book is actually featured on pg 136 of Sew Somerset 2007. My quilt is on pg 134! So cool to see her in there with me. I also adore chapter 5 of Somerset in Love, lots of pink and green in Kimberly’s book. The cards I’ve been making lately are from a Martha Stewart Glittered Botanical card kit, so easy and pretty, I changed them up with stamped images on the cards. I also got to go to a Stampin Up card class offered by Kerrie Lightfoot. My daughter and I loved making these together. The blue card was my fav and I changed up the design from her original card to suit my own style. I hope you are inspired to make some sweet stuff of your own!

Our big blue recycling bin was overflowing and we were stuck inside for a rainy day, what better thing to do than open a Martha Stewart Kids magazine and get to crafting! I adored the Papier mache article in the Kids summer 2005 issue, and my kids adored the cars and rocket ship. For the Car I used a big sturdy box and for the rocket we used a Capri sun box, it’s also really sturdy. This craft seems to be a Big process as it takes a few days to dry, so it lost my 4 year olds attention after we taped the box! It’s probably better to pick 1 or 2 things to make as a whole family or 1 for older kids to make by themselves. Cover the area you will be crafting on well with plastic or a paper.

Fo Supplies You will need:

Scissors

Painters tape or packing tape

Boxes and left over cardboard

a Newspaper torn into 1" to 2" wide strips

a Big Bowl with 1 cup Flour to 1.5 cups water stirred

some of the supplies

Newspaper Strips

Big Bowl of Flour Paste

STEP 1: Tape together Boxes and Cardboard to make your Car or Rocket

STEP 2: Place one strip at a time over the shape

80% covered & Starting to see the rocket

Stay tuned for Part TWO

This month has definitely been busy and exciting for us in Texas, December started out with snow that lasted for a few hours right here in Friendswood! You can check out some of our snow pics from last Christmas HERE. We also had a children’s choir and party at First Baptist Church Friendswood on Dec 6th. My son got to sing in that and make some cute Crafts. This year for our Tree we decorated in Star Wars style using Gold, Silver and Blue ornaments and the Clone Wars toys from McDonalds really made a fun and beautiful tree! I am on a themed tree kick every year and I’m even planning next years already! Thursday was a fun cookie party for us we even got to have a friend over to help with the gingerbread cookies. Thank you Natalie! After this weekend I doubt I will have the time to post more so for now I hope this will do!

The month of December is almost over. I can’t believe that Christmas is just upon us and it still feels like it is Fall. I’m thinking of the soldiers that are deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq right now while we are free to celebrate Christmas here in the US many aren’t free to express religion around the world. Thanks to those men and women that fight to protect what isn’t ours for free but is bought by the price of their sacrifice and lives. These soldiers defend our freedoms every day. Some we even take for granted like the freedom to say "Merry Christmas". Well, this Christmas we are giving back thanks to AnySoldier.com anyone can get in touch with service men and women around the world to share our appreciation for all that they do. I thought I would share some of the cards that I got to send this year and also the ones I’ve made for family and friends. I hope you feel inspired to share the Christmas spirit this year. Merry Christmas!