New Year, New Me

I'm not into "resolutions" that start on January 1st and seem to end around January 10th. For the past 5 years I've come up with a one word theme for the new year. I let the theme guide me as I make daily choices. My theme for 2009 is "courage."

I do have a few goals that I'm working on this year too. No pictures but if you're interested, here they are:

1. Walk the dogs at least once a week.
2. Eat more vegetables (this may sound funny coming from a vegetarian but I don't really eat a lot of veggies.)
3. Keep an exercise journal.
4. Run in a race. (5k, 10k, whatever)
5. Find (or create) places to put all the stuff in my room.
6. Spice up the blog and Etsy store.
7. Sew more (pictures of projects I'm working on coming soon.)
8. Submit cards for publication.

I'll be doing a little contest on my blog soon. Stay tuned.

Welcome to my holiday open house

Several of the Stamp Shack ladies are participating in a holiday open house. I'm just one of the stops along the way. Here are some pictures of my home and family that I hope you will enjoy.

If you didn’t join the Open House Around the World at our very first stop you are now invited to visit Far North in Alaska http://farnorthdesigns.blogspot.com/

If you have already visited her blog you are invited to return to the Stamp Shack. http://stamp-shack.com/

Some Early Christmas Cheer

I'm teaching a card and tag class at church on December 5th. Most of the ladies are new to cardmaking so I'm keeping the designs pretty simple. Below is a fun card that I made with my new Fiskars Twinkle Twinkle Squeeze Punch with Heidi Grace and scrap cardstock papers. Easy Peezy.
I made the tag below for Christie's Christmas tag swap. It actually has a lot of texture IRL. Wreath stamp from OBP. This isn't for the church ladies. I have more cards and tags to share another day.

Thank you Veterans!

I orignially made this ATC for my friend Heather whose birthday is the 4th of July. But, I think the message works today for U.S. Veteran's Day. I have 3 cousins currently serving in the military so my heart is with all those who serve. I found this little list of opportunities to help boost the moral of our servicemen and women. Some of them sound like great family and classroom projects.

Like a Princess

Here are 2 last creations that I made for WCMD. I made the top one for Thanh's think pink challenge. I used 2 cardboard die cuts I've been hording for a while along with some fabric flowers and OBP crown, five petal flower and owl.

I had a lot of fun with the ATC. I used the stamps and stamps (ha!) from my OBP Vintage Ladies Limited Edition Kit. I paper pieced using lots of scrap papers and added OBP Strut Your Stuff sentiment. I finished her off with a little sparkle on the flowers in her hair and on her earrings via Stickles.

Dog Pops

Every year for my niece's birthday I make a different variation of Krispie Pops to go with her party theme. This year, I made dogs and dog houses. Here's a tutorial and a few other variations that I've done. And, if you're interested, here's football pops, bunny pops, Christmas pops, and a duck/chick pop.