Heartfelt Creations Winter Wonderland Debut

Heartfelt Creations has debuted their Winter Wonderland Collection. Although my official Design Team tern doesn't start until October. I had the chance to work with this collection for my design Team Semi Final entries. You will love how the HC custom Spellbinders Dies work with the stamps..Amazing. Go check out what the new design team had created with some of the new collection!! Here are the 2 LO's that won me the spot on their team. The papers I used all come from Swirlydoos. I attended CHA Orlando last year in July, and Krissy and I were given a pack of the amazing SEI Christmas Collection. They truly are beautiful!!

Sneak Peak Swirlydoos October...

Swirlydoos October kit of full of beautiful goodness!!! So are the addons...Dont forget to check out reveal day on the last day of the month to see the debut, and what the design team has created to inspire you. !!! I promise, you will be inspired!!!

Pure Love...

A match made in Heaven!! Swirlydoos featuring Heartfelt Creations stamps.This is a Design Team LO I did for Swirlydoos September kit, the beautiful "Mon Amour" The rich reds, blacks and cream colors in the My Minds Eye paper collection in the kit are just so classic. And go with so many of your photo's. This LO was done as an inspiration piece for Angelicas butterfly challenge at Swirlydoos. I provide butterfly files for your use. They can also be found on my blog. I also incorporated a Heartfelt Creations Leaf stamp. Thank you to Lisa (kaye222) for introducing me to the company. If it weren't for Lisa, I wouldn't have answered their call to try out for the design team...and I just found out, I made it!! I cant wait to start creating with the gorgeous stamps that make a perfect marriage with my Swirlydoos LO's. I will also be doing a tutorial for the cream flowers on the LO.

Meet your new Heartfelt Creations Design Team Member!!!!

OMG...Could my happy little life get any better!!!!!!!!!
Heartfelt Creations has just made the announcement!!!!!
I MADE THE DESIGN TEAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My tenure will be for the next 6 months and I am so excited!!!
With tomorrow being a very sad, but exciting day for me..I needed this!!
My little buddy is leaving me..I will need something to fill my lonely days!!!!
I love my scrapbook life!!!!
Woo Hoo!!!!!!
Congrats to all of the new DT members!! I look forward to getting to know you all!!
My commitment to Swirlydoos is #1..And I will be incorporating Heartfelt Creations in to my Swirly work!! I will have the best of both worlds!!!
and it all started with my love for those beautiful leaves!!!!

♥♥♥~My Grandmother~♥♥♥

There is nobody sweeter than this woman. Honest to God...She never spoke a cross word to me in her life. Never yelled at me, or ever made me feel bad. I must be her favorite (lol)...She is amazing, has taught me so much, and made me look at life with a creative eye..She is my Abuelita!! And I love her with all of my heart...Thank you Grandma...Thank you for being you. ♥♥♥

Leaving for Culinary School

Well the countdown has begun...6 more days...Thats all I have left (for the time being )until Gabrielle leaves for school. To Portland...Oregon...So far away...She was accepted to Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.It is one of the top 10 schools in the world. But the excitement is mounting. And she is getting butterflies in her tummy...(no not my butterflies lol...)But she signed the lease to her apartment, and is looking forward to orientation on Saturday. So here is my Future Top Chef making lunch for us...Stuffed artichokes..And can I tell you they were deliciously amazing!!! Le Cordon Bleu..watch out, because she is on her way!!!

OUR PROM

This is another Design Team assignment for Swirlydoos September kit "Mon Amour". I thought the papers were perfect for my son and daughter in law's prom pictures. They graduated HS in 2005..wow...5 years already. They have been married for 3 years. They were dating since 9th grade..Who am I to stop love...lol...Did some color splashing in Photoshop. I did a tutorial at Swirlydoos.I just love the papers in the kit. They are so vintage with a modern twist. They sparkle in parts and they go beautifully with just about any photo.



I use my new favorite Hearfelt Creations stamp for the leaves. Just Glimmer Misted them in 3 different green tints. I bout these sweet tiny rosebuds from Wild Orchids, painted them with Glimmer Mist and added the floral tape to the wired stems. The red roses were in abundance in the kit and the larger flower is from this months add on flower kit..


More roses and the butterfly is a file I created and shared just for this kit. all I did was use Rock Candy Stickles.


Another butterfly from the same file for the kit and the butterfly trail was done with Stickles that came in another kit. It was Lynn Biermann's tutorial on Swirlydoos


Just another view of the corner flower cluster.

Temporarily Lost...But Happy...

Some of my friends are depressed, struggling with everyday life..I don't know what to do for them. What to say to make them feel better...Their problems are paramount. And I feel guilty that my biggest problem at the moment is wondering when I am going to find the time to finish painting my kitchen...
I am happy..It takes a lot to get me down. My life is wonderful. If I had to do it all over again..I would do it exactly the same way...No kidding.
My daughter is leaving for school in less than 2 weeks..What is that empty nest syndrome that some people speak of...Empty nest?? I have a husband and a cat...My house won't be empty. I have the best memories in this house...Not emptiness...
You know...some people blog about their lives...they spill it all on the internet for everyone to see. But something comes out of that tell all post...They are human..Human beings with real raw emotion. You learn that no one is perfect when you read these tell all posts. You feel like you are not alone...
Don't kid your self, I myself am flawed...I am a procrastinator, I have a hard time saying no, at the expense of my own needs, I can be selfish at times, I am indecisive, and are almost never happy with what I try to accomplish. I try to hard...Is it for myself, or for others? I don't know. I am always chasing daylight... Wanting to do it all..Living my life in the fast lane as if it were my last day...And in the mix I get lost... Lost, frustrated, worried, overwhelmed. I'm posting this blog entry because I want to remember. Remember the emotion that comes with risk and being on the cusp of success. Or failure. Oh that blurry line I so strongly detest.
I'm tired...
I know there might be a few others who know how I'm feeling right now. Oh, Internet, I get you. I tangibly know the feelings of frustration and worry ... but I also know the emotion that accompanies risk: joy, excitement, and fear. I hope this post makes you feel less alone. Or, really, makes me feel less alone. Because if I was totally being honest, all I really want is for a random blog reader to find me in the street today and say By God I shall never leave you...
Love is all you need...
I am happy..
I've stopped myself and whispered, In this moment...I am happy. It's far too easy to let the gravity of a time slip pass. In light of this, I'm stopping myself--my crazy, spinning world--to remind me of how happiness feels. It feels like a strong wind. It feels like dark chocolate ice cream. My kids laughing. It feels like the palm of Steve's hand. It feels beautiful.I've promised to make note of my happiness. To stop time and remind myself of just how beautiful life is. Because it is. Beautiful.

~~~This Moment~~~

This is a Design Team LO for the September kit Mon Amour. The beautiful new papers from My Minds Eye are just gorgeous. I usually have a problem doing just black and red, but the addition of the gorgeous cream colors and the designs of the papers made it soooo easy!!. My Minds Eye has really done a beautiful job with this line.Union Station. The photo is my friend Tanya on her wedding day. She so graciously let me "steal" her photo's. She is so beautiful. And a sweetheart!!
I stamped the border of the red cardstock with one of my new Recollections stamps. Did some water distressing on the black and cream paper and scaled down one of my templates for the photo mat and backed it with red card stock. I sewed a single outline in red.


I used one of my Spellbinders label dies in 2 sizes. I embossed them and raised them with pop dots between the layers. The tiny letters I created in Microsoft Word and cut them out.


The beautiful spray of flowers is from Prima - Valentine Vine Collection - Heart and Flower Embellishments in red. There was really no need for any other flowers on the page.And with so many other flowers in the kit and add ons and what I can create...I am off to create more with the kit!!!

~~~Sew Perfect~~~

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Reveal Day for Swirlydoos is upon us. This is a Design Team LO done with the new September Kit Mon Amour. Mon Amour is absolutey beautiful. The brand new My Minds eye papers are tres magnifique!! They have such a french flair to them. This pattern inspired paper gave me the inspiration to create the flowers using an old pattern I would never use again. The leafy vines I created especially for this kit and can be found at Swirlydoos. I also created a new butterfly file for the kit. Please visit Swirlydoos to download your free files.
The photo is of my children when they were younger pretending to sew using my antique Singer Sewing machine. i removed the needle, and while Gabbie manually turned the wheel, Nick pushed the fabric through the feed dogs. It was so adorable listening to the two of them working so hard together to sew. Those were the sweetest times.



I created the leafy vines in various colors for the kit. If you don't mind fussy cutting. You could also print them up on transparency sheets like Robin does. Either way they look awesome. You don't have to cut out the swirlies, the leaves alone are beautiful.




I printed out 2 pictures, cut one smaller and layered it right on top of each other to create dimension. I then used pages from my 100 year old Swiss Family Robinson book for the punched photo mat.



I created a sheet of tiny letters using Microsoft Word, then cut them out row by row and saved them for future use when I need them.



I was inspired to create these flowers by the pattern design in the paper. I used one of my old patterns and cut the flowers with my Tim Holtz Tattered floral die and just gathered them up using the beautiful brads that came in the embellishment add on for the kit. I really love this kit!! Grab one while they are still available. they sell out quickly!!

Reveal Day for Swirlydoos is upon us. This is a Design Team LO done with the new September Kit Mon Amour. Mon Amour is absolutey beautiful. The brand new My Minds eye papers are tres magnifique!! They have such a french flair to them. This pattern inspired paper gave me the inspiration to create the flowers using an old pattern I would never use again. The leafy vines I created especially for this kit and can be found at Swirlydoos. I also created a new butterfly file for the kit. Please visit Swirlydoos to download your free files. The photo is of my children when they were little. I removed the needle from my antique Singer sewing machine, and they pretended to sew. While Gabbie manually turned the wheel, Nicky fed the fabric through the feeder..It was to freekin adorable listening to the two of them utilizing Team Work...Those were the sweetest times.








I used pages from my 100 year old book Swiss Family Robinson for the photomat.


I created the tiny letters using Microsoft word. Printed up a whole page of letters then cut them out row by row. I inked them before gluing them down.