Happy holidays friends! :)

Hello friends! Just want to thank you for visiting my blog in 2014 and leaving me such encouraging comments. :) Hope you are enjoying the holiday season with your loved ones. 

And getting lots of happy mail from your friends from all over the world.:)

I'll be taking my annual bloggy break to recharge my batteries and work ahead on some creative projects. Happy holidays and see you back in 2015! :)

An awesome day....and some giveaway winners!

Back in October, I had one of those awesome days. You know, when the stars are somewhat aligned and everything goes your way. :)

It started with an awesome breakfast. Now, for me, an awesome breakfast is always Eggs Benedict done right. :)

Then we chanced upon an awesome Mac sale. Possibly the best sale I've been to. My iPhone got a lot of new "clothes". *winks* Did I mention that they served Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee at the sale too? Yep. All the awesomeness before lunch.

Playing along with Stuck?! Sketches.
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A big thank you to those who took part in my little Christmas giveaways!

The winner of this mixed media canvas is....Lizzy C!




The winner of the black box filled with embellishments is....Jelissa Mei!

Congratulations Lizzy C and Jelissa Mei! Please send me an email with your mailing details.:)

Pastel colours and floral clusters...

Hmmm...I think I am actually getting the hang of pastel colours and the floral clusters. :)

Oh yes, that would be an 8x8 canvas panel on a 12x12 canvas. As always, overzealous colouring and stamping on the background patterned paper requires serious coverup. *winks*

And then of course, I really got into the whole layering of embellishments. 

You know how it is....the brain says "Stop wasting embellishments!", the heart says "Just one more here...and here...and here..." and before you know it, there's glue on the embellishment and you just have to glue it down. *LOL*

Lots of fun textures...lace, satin, metal, wood, plastic...

I love the shimmer from the Wink of Stella brush pen....

I also added more sparkle with glass bead gel and glitter paint.

I went in with some Crackle accents on the Prima wooden ATC.

It was a lot of work but I had fun...and now a valid reason to buy more embellishments...you know, as replenishments of course. *winks*

Playing along with the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge...I went with Stencil, Glitter and Patterned paper.

*Edited* This layout earned an Honorable Mention at The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge.

The one with a lot of brads

If you don't already know, I love brads. I try to sneak them on every layout. *winks* 

Yep. This is certainly a layout with a lot of brads. 32 of them! [Sadly, they aren't enough to make a significant dent in my brad stash though...]

And here are the "non-staged" photos of my sister and her scooter. In the first photo, she was like, "Seriously?", then came the reluctant smile but eventually she caved and totally posed for me! *yay!*

Love that I managed to use little bits and pieces to embellish the layout. Check out the red ribbon...not quite long enough so I just added a bow! I think it works...*LOL*

Playing along with Let's Get Sketchy.

Can I stick to the supplies I pulled out?

I'm always amazed at how much stuff there is to clean up after making a simple project. So I decided to challenge myself to pick out the stuff I wanted to use on a card and just stick to those supplies.

Yep...a lot of supplies just for one card, eh?

But while making the card, I wished I had MORE supplies of course! *LOL*

But the end result isn't too shabby eh? *winks* [some ego-boosting comments would come in handy here...hehe]

This card was created for The Crafter's Workshop.

A Christmas wall hanging for Xyron...a tutorial

Hello friends! Today I want to share an easy-to-do and lightweight wall hanging that you can add to a corner of your home for a little festive cheer! Read on for the tutorial. :)

I started off with this empty DVD container. The lid was covered with some MT washi tape.

Using a roll of washi tape as a template, I wrapped some Maya Road paper twine cording to form a wreath.

Then I glued my ribbon and the Santa ornament from last year's Christmas cake using the Teresa Collins Clear Hold Adhesive.

Next I punched some stars out of American Crafts glitter cardstock.

Then I ran the punched stars through the Xyron 3" Sticker Maker which I adhered to the paper twine cording.

I used my Crop-a-dile to punch two holes on the lid so that I can string the cords of stars.

I needed something to anchor the ends of the cords so I ran these festive leaves [thanks Mitra Pratt!] through the Xyron 3" Sticker Maker.

And adhered them to the ends of the cords.

I finished the project by adding some bling, Golden Gold Mica Flakes and colouring the washi tape with Wink of Stella brush in clear for a shimmering finish. :)

Hope you've enjoyed the 30 days of holidays brought to you by the Xyron Design Team.

How to scrap the "not-so-great" photos...

So I had these "not-so-great" photos of the nephews playing a board game with grandma. The bright yellow board game was really very distracting. *winks*

Well, you've heard the expression, "Fight fire with fire." right? So I threw on more bright colours!

For instance, the bright red patterned paper mat gave the photos an "insta-lift" and made them appear a tad more interesting, right? [That's my story and I'm sticking to it! *hehe*]

Then I finished with a mix of different textures to add to the illusion of interesting photos. Did it work? *LOL*  

Playing along with My Creative Sketches.