Blog Hop - 2nd post of the day!

*****Scroll down for my Honey Bee post feature Fred She Said*****

I received an invitation from the fabulous Jen to be a part of  December 1st blog hop! I was delighted!

The theme is Christmas Cards so hopefully this will get your juices flowing.

If you just got here you need to start back at Jen's blog because there is blog candy to be found along the way! 

I have linked up the products I used for your shopping convenience and if you haven't checked out Pumpkin Spice - online retail store - then you should because her prices are fabulous and her shipping rates are the lowest I have seen - which is why I buy things there :) What can I say? I'm a girl who likes to think she is smart with her money. 

Recipe:

Cartridge: Winter Woodland™
Embossing: Snowflakes Emboss Folder™
Paper: My Mind's Eye: I Believe "Candy Cane Stripes"™(red top and hat/scarf accents),  "Wreaths" ™(blue bottom), and "Trees"™ (polka dot hat/scarf)
My Pink Stamper: Winter Punnies™
Versamark™ Ink
a la Mode™ black embossing powder
Black bling from Hero Arts self adhesive gems (small) and Want2Scrap Black Rhinestones™(large)
EK Success Heat Gun

Hopefully you got here from Norma's blog. I am the last spot on the hop! :)

Just in case you got lost here is a list of the blog hop participants:

Jen jennyscards.blogspot.com

Carol carolssweetcreations.blogspot.com

Momo madebymomo.blogspot.com

Nicole http://canadiannickelscrapn.blogspot.com//

Karey www.creativecraftcorner.com

Karen thebusybug.blogspot.com

Saundra luvscrappingtogether.blogspot.com

Celeste ccscards.blogspot.com

Jeanine scrappinwithjc.blogspot.com

Roma romascards.blogspot.com

Norma http://pinkblingcrafter.blogspot.com 

Me! Court from CourtsCrafts.blogspot.com

I hope you enjoyed my inspiration. Make sure to scroll down to see my Honey Bee post and if you like what I create, I would love it if you would become a follower, but it is definitely not required for the blog candy!  

What is the blog candy, you ask??? 

How about My Pink Stamper's Winter Punnies and a Houndstooth Embossing folder? 

My blog candy is open to US residents only unless the international winner wants to pay the shipping in which case I will send them a PayPal bill for the shipping. Sorry, but I bought these for you so it gets a little expensive to ship them internationally. :(

I will draw a random winner on Friday the 3rd, so make sure to get your comments in! :) The winner will have one week to claim their prize. 

Come back on December 4th for another blog hop that My Pink Stamper is sponsoring! :) I may or may not be giving away a Cricut Cartridge and some sponsored goodness from EAD Designs..

I also decided to enter this into Wee Memories Challenge #33: Use ribbon! :) 

Fred She Said Honey Bee Showcase!

Good Wednesday mornin' to everyone! After that long weekend last week I am ready to get to the end of this week! 

We have been SO blessed that Fred She Said has decided to sponsor us Honey Bees!!! We got to pick out a couple of our favorite Christmas digital stamps and I just love this Christmas Cardinal! Wanda showed a great tutorial on how these beautiful images could be used during our Monday Motivation! 

Alright... I admit it... I don't enjoy coloring very much. I really enjoyed it as a child. Maybe I just got colored out! So I was thrilled that Fred She Said makes pre-colored images of their digital stamps. This is one such image.

I just printed it out on my computer twice. I cut out the cardinal, stuck it to some white card stock, popped it on top of the other image, and added glossy accents.

The image really does all of the work on this card. 

Products:
Digital Image: Fred She Said Christmas Cardinal™
Paper: My Mind's Eye: I Believe "Thin Stripes Glittered Paper"
Ribbon: Paper Trey Ink: Satin: Dark Chocolate™
Stickles in Christmas Red™
Sentiment: My Pink Stamper: Winter Punnies™
Ink: Momento in Cocoa™
Adhesive: Glue Arts Extreme adhesive squares™ (for the bow) and Glue Glider Pro with Perma Tac™

Fly on over to Betty Bee's Buzz and see what the other Honey Bees have created for you! Also, there is  a giveaway going on from November 15- December 15th and you just have to leave comments!

I decided to enter this into Wee Memories Challenge #33- use ribbon! :) 

Want2Scrap Blog Hop!

Happy Monday to everyone! :) 

Passionately Artistic is teaming up with Want2Scrap for this fabulous blog hop! 

Here's how the owner of the Passionately Artistic blog describes Want2Scrap bling: 

Want2Scrap Scrapbook Manufacturer is proudly sponsoring the Passionately Artistic blog hop! 

Let me tell you, the line of rhinestone bling and embellishments they currently have is fabulous. 

Seriously! If you just can't stop yourself from putting bling on anything that doesn't move, you need to go visit them. Want to know the best part? Their prices are really great too.

I have to say their adhesive backed bling is really fabulous. It even stuck to my glitter paper below! I used the LeCreme Baby Pearls.

Make sure to leave a comment on this post and all of the other hoppers' posts as two of the blogs have hidden prizes and you have to have left a comment on all of ours to find out which ones! 

There are TWO grand prizes which are $25 to Want2Scrap! One will be announced on the Passionately Artistic blog and the other will be announced on the Want2Scrap blog on December 18th!

This is a fabulous way to jump start our 12 days of Christmas celebration starting on December 1st. So join us then for some more fun, inspiration, and Christmas gift giving ideas!

One Christmas Tradition:

In the family that I married into (LOVE them) we get little silly gifts for each other and write poems about them. We read the poems out loud and then the person has to guess what their present is.

The first one that my husband gave to me was a pasta measuring tool. There are little holes of different sizes that says how much pasta goes through the hole to feed x amount of people. (Maybe I should take a picture of this tool as well so you don't think I'm crazy.) --- You see, when we were dating, I used to make WAYYY to much pasta for just the two of us! It was really embarrassing. So this was a perfect and funny gift. I hope you are enjoying reading the other Christmas traditions along the hop!

If you just found us, hop on over to Passionately Artistic to begin the hop. 

If you got here from Dana's blog, you are on the right track. Now head on over to Melissa's blog and see her fabulous album!! 

Flour, Sugar, Brown Sugar - Home decor project

This project was really fast! 

I did this for the Honey Bee Showcase over at Betty Bee's Buzz. We Honey Bees (the DT) use the tutorial presented on Monday to come up with something that is inspired by the tutorial for Wednesday. 

This week I decided to do a home decor project. 

This was my first time working with felt and I did it so that this would qualify for one of the Cricut Circle contests going on. I had a great time with it and I think I will definitely be using it again in future projects! 

OUT FOR PUBLICATION!!! :)

Recipe:
Jars from Michaels
Cuttlebug™
Cricut™
Vinyl: EAD Designs™ (of course!)
Cartridges: Straight from the Nest™, Cake Basics™
Embossed felt from Michaels
Card Stock: Paper Trey Ink: Ripe Avocado and Spring Moss™
Embossing folder: Perfectly Paisley™
Scissors
Adhesive: Glue Arts Perma Tac™
Ribbon: Paper Trey Ink Perfect Match in Ripe Avocado -Saddle Stitch™

OUT FOR PUBLICATION!!! :)

Now pop on over to Betty Bee's Buzz to see what the other Honey Bees have done using Betty's tutorial!

My Best Friend Kourt's cards and blog awards! :)

So, I am beaming with pride - these are cards from my best friend Kourtni (yes, she is also named *Courtney*).

She wanted to show some support for my new DT (Artful Delight) and wanted to play along with the sketch. I've already warned Leeanne (owner of Artful Delight) that her interpretation was a little... artistic. :) I'm so proud of the way she incorporated all of the elements and made it her own.

Here is the sketch:

Here is her card:

So the title and the holly leaf are easy to get because they are in the correct location. The snow is the strip that goes across the bottom. The North Pole sign is the square and the white embossed snowflakes with the rhinestones in the middle are the 6 boxes. I told you it was artistic! 

She also made this card that day:

Check out her faux stitching and you can't see it that well here, but COLIN is done in white embossing powder (we rubbed it in the versa mark and added the powder) and then she used the blue stickles on the bottom half of the card to look like snow since he is a winter baby.

And here is a picture of the two of us laughing - as always :). The blinds are down in the middle of the day because Kourt had her eyes dilated. So the pictures were a little dark, but she was crafting anyway! :) 

Now, I was given this blog award from Julieta a while ago. THANK YOU!

I was also given one by Jen today (THANK YOU) and that has instructions as well. Here it is!

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this (done).

2. Share 8 things about yourself.

3. Pay it forward to 8 bloggers that you have recently discovered

4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their awards

8 things about me... hmm.. okay...

1. I am married to the most wonderful and handsome man a girl could ask for and I feel lucky everyday.

2. *When I grow up* I want to be a Hello Thursday girl and a My Pink Designer!!... maybe a Cricut Circle DT member, but I'm not sure yet. :)

3. My favorite color is olive green.

4. I'm aware that my blog URL has a punctuation error and it drives me crazy every day but all the blog names I wanted were taken. I made a decision to have a punctuation error and I wish I didn't. But sometime I will upgrade and you better believe it will be grammatically correct. 

5. I'm a redhead... naturally... I didn't used to like it but now I am finally starting to appreciate it. I think this is mostly because my husband loves it and because we are the last ones to lose our hair color. The average is around 70 years old! 

6.  I LOVE flowers.

7. I am a fiercely loyal friend. I often get my feathers ruffled when someone treats one of my friends poorly. I get the "momma bear" syndrome. 

8. I confess I used to thing that blogging was dumb and I didn't get why people did it.... now that I have "met" some of the nicest people out there - I can't tell you how much of an advocate of blogging I am now! You girls are the BEST and I appreciate your encouragement, support, and friendship every day. THANK YOU.

8 blogs... hmm.... 

Minta: http://mintascreations.blogspot.com/
Cristi: http://scrappin5littlecupcakes.blogspot.com/
Carol: http://carolssweetcreations.blogspot.com/
Emily: http://coolcricutcreations.blogspot.com/
Denise: http://lalasworldblog.blogspot.com/
Christy: http://sammysayshi.blogspot.com/
Denine: http://pumpkinspiceblog.blogspot.com/

These ladies are getting the blog awards because they are always there to encourage me. There are many more that I would like to give out, but this will have to do for now. Thank you so much!

Imaginisce Sketch Challenge

I had a really tough time getting pictures of these as it has been raining for days. So the colors look washed out to me. :( They will have to do though! 

You all know I don't normally do layouts, but I was making this for another thing... and didn't like how this came out compared to what I was going for. It's so busy. It didn't have to be. Some of the other ladies made it much simpler, but of course I went over the top. Anyway, it's for the Imaginisce Sketch Challenge. I did more work than I would like to admit on this for 2 days. There is a lot of detail once you start to look at it. Okay, enough talking, here it is:

Recipe:
Paper: Imaginisce Cottage Christmas™ line - everything but the white paper which is Bazzill Diamond White card stock
Ribbon: Imaginisce Cottage Christmas™
Chipboard: Imaginisce Cottage Christmas™
Snow Flowers: Jolly™
i-rock and hot rocks - Crystal™
Rub-ons (title): Imaginisce Cottage Christmas Season's Greeting Rub-on words™
Cartridge: Cake Basics™
Embossing: Snowflakes™, D'vine Swirls™
Glitter Glue: Studio G™
Button Twine: Paper Trey Ink™

It was based on this sketch by Melinda Spinks:

I'm not ready to show it just yet, but here is a sneak peak of the layout that I decided to go with instead. They asked that it be very "me" and the one I decided on is much more "me" :)

It's a Boy!

Happy Friday! 

I decided to participate in Scrappin' 5 Little Cupcakes (Cristi's) Challenge!

The challenge was to use black, blue, and one other color. It was also to use the Life's a Beach cart, but I don't have that, so you were allowed to use one other cart. I chose Cake Basics™. I was thinking of cartridges that had an umbrella on them so that at least it could have been found on Life's a Beach. 

I made this card in 25 minutes - which is basically a record for me. It usually takes me about an hour a card because I can't commit to something and have to change it around. I had an idea in my head for this one and just executed. It was a really nice feeling that I am going to try to repeat. :)

Recipe:
Cartridge: Cake Basics™
Card Stock: Paper Trey Ink™"Spring Rain", "Enchanted Evening", "True Black", and "Lemon Tart"
Design Paper: KaiserCraft: Iris
Stickles in "Waterfall" from Artful Delight's November Kit
Glossy Accents™
Half "pearls" by Imaginisce + i-rock™
White Gelly Roll™ gel pen

This card also qualifies for Kim's Off the Wall Craftiness Challenge. Here is the inspiration photo:

Have a fabulous Friday!

Artful Delight Shape Card

I have been having such a great time on the design team for Artful Delight! The ladies are fabulous and Leeanne is so fun to work with! So, on a recent flight to North Carolina I designed this on my Gypsy™ and I am so glad that Leeanne likes it! :) 

Recipe:
Artful Delight November Kit
Gypsy™
Cartridge: Winter Woodland™ (the font) 
Brads: My Mind's Eye: Madison Avenue "Happily Ever After" Decorative Brads™
Glossy Accents™
Paper Trey Ink Lavender Moon™

Design Notes:

I used Glossy Accents™ where the lavender cracks are. I used the Stickles that came in the kit to dot on all of the polka dots. Finally, I used a hot glue gun to attach the flowers to the card. I used my acrylic stamping block to help keep it upright for the photo - that is definitely a downside to shape cards. ;)

Here is a photo flat on the table:

Have a beautiful day! 

Honey Bee Wednesdays!

---Scroll Down for my Be Inspired Wednesday Thanksgiving Favor Box! :) ---

So on Wednesdays the HoneyBees are invited to show our versions of whatever the tutorial was on Monday! Last Monday Roe gave an awesome tutorial on place setting cards for your Thanksgiving Table (or any table). 

I found myself saying, "Thank you Roe for making my life so easy." out loud while I was doing this project. So THANKS ROE!

Anyway, here is my version of it. Jim is my dad so this will be his place-setting for Thanksgiving! 

Recipe:
Paper: Imaginisce Apple Cider Line: Changing Leaves™
Card Stock: Paper Trey Ink Pure Poppy™
Stamp: Imaginisce Apple Cider Line: Snag 'em Ups: Frame™, Martha Stewart Alpha Stamps™
Cartridge: Thanksgiving™
Filigree Gold Heat Embossing Powder from Paper Trey Ink™
Heat tool by EK Success™
Glossy Accents™
Button Twine by Paper Trey Ink™

Now head on over to Betty Bee's Buzz and see what all of the other Honey Bees have created for your inspirational delight! :)

---Don't forget to scroll down for my earlier post! :) ---

Thanksgiving Favor Box!

Hello my blogger friends! :)

Today at Passionately Artistic we were given the option to do several projects. I chose to do a favor box.

I used the tutorial found here:

It was really easy and quick and how cute they come out! 

Recipe:
Paper: Cosmo Cricket: Earth Love: "Recycle", "Repeat", "Relive"™
Cartridge: Thanksgiving™
Glossy Accents™
Rub-ons: Imaginisce™ Apple Cider Collecton™
Leather Straps that came out of my stash from some old gift packaging (up-cycling!)
Grunge Tags I won from a contest on Mad Hatter Stamps™

Now hop on over to Passionately Artistic to see what the rest of the very talented Design Team came up with! Don't forget our 12 days of Christmas are coming up December 1-12! You will be filled with inspiration for the holidays! :) 

Artful Delight set of cards

--I accidentally published this early, so wait to go over to Artful Delight until Tuesday morning! Silly me! ---

I'm not sure this is even okay to call this a card "set" as they are all so different, but I wanted to show you some of the versatility of what comes in the November Kit from Artful Delight!

Everything here came in the kit except for the rhinestones (Imaginisce + i-rock™), green ribbon (stash), My Pink Stamper: Family and Friends™,  and plain white card stock (Stamper's Select White by Paper Trey Ink™ and plain cards and envelopes from Recollections which is by Michaels). All adhesive was from Glue Arts™.

Both Leeanne (owner of Artful Delight) and I play in Kim's challenges over at Off the Wall Craftiness. We just think Kim is the sweetest! Anyway, this first card qualifies for her current color challenge. Here is the inspiration photo: 

I used patterned paper and rub-ons from the kit. This card was my husband's favorite of the set.

 Everything on this one came from the kit. It's definitely one of my favorites that I made that day. :)

This is actually the one I made first. I made it for the EAD Designs Color Challenge and for the Torendi Inspiration Challenge. Here is their inspiration photo and colors:

Here is the card I was inspired by:

Here is my version:

 This is my favorite of the day. I had actually been dreaming about this card and had a pretty good idea of which products I wanted to use and how I wanted it to look. I am pleased with the result. Simple and classy. I am entering it into Wee Memories Challenge #31 -Dust off that Patterned Paper.

Head on over to Artful Delight as I think another project from another design team member will be posted! :) Leave them some love! :)

Thanksgiving Menu!

Courtney Lee

Good Monday morning to you!

I am doing the tutorial this morning for Passionately Artistic and was asked if I could make a Thanksgiving menu to put on the plates before dinner. I was excited to do it!

These are the actual dishes that I made for Thanksgiving two years ago (the food items, not the plates :).

Recipe:

Machines: Gypsy™, Cricut Expression™, Cuttlebug™, i-rock by Imaginise™

Cartridge: Tie the Knot™, Thanksgiving™, Winter Woodland™

Embossing Folders™: Swiss Dots™ and Victoria™

Card stock: Paper Trey Ink: Dark Chocolate™, Ripe Avocado™, Stamper's Select White™, Pure Poppy™, Orange Zest™

Metallic Pearl Glam Rocks™

Ink: ColorBox Olive™, Momento Rich Cocoa™

Buttons: Paper Trey Ink Vintage Holiday Mix™

Twine: Paper Trey Ink Rustic Cream Button Twine™

Adhesive: Glue Glider Pro Perma-Tac™, Glue Arts Extreme Adhesive Squares™

Glossy Accents

Three-dimensional foam

Instructions:

1.  I used my Gypsy to elongate a tag from Tie the Knot Cartridge™ and I hid the hole that is at the top. Then I made one slightly smaller to nest inside of it.

2. I cut these out of white Paper Trey Ink™ cardstock and Dark Chocolate from Paper Trey Ink™respectively. (Ignore the Pilgrim's hat - I decided not to use it when I got to the end.)

3. I inked the outside of the white cardstock with Olive ink from ColorBox™

4. Next I printed out the Menu on my computer in brown ink and used the brown layer as a template to trace and then cut around.

5. Then I burnt the edges of the paper - please be careful that nothing catches on fire and allow for the burning to take in more of the edge than you expect even after you've blown it out. As you can see - I lost my word "gravy" and part of my "M"!

6. I used my i-rock by Imaginisce™ to heat set the Metallic Pearl Glam Rocks™ next to the main titles.

7. Next I cut out leaves from the Thanksgiving Cartridge™ at 1.75" and 3".

8. Then I Cuttlebugged those leaves using the Victoria Embossing Folder™.

9. Next I cut out the leaves from the Winter Woodlands Cartridge™ in various sizes ranging from 1" to 5".

10. I Cuttlebugged those leaves using the Swiss Dots Embossing folder.

11. I then inked around the edges of those leaves with Momento ink in Rich Cocoa™. I also used a paper towel which I had inked up to run over the top of the Swiss Dots embossing.

12. I selected my buttons and tied bows using the Paper Trey Ink Rustic Cream Button Twine™

13. I adhered the leaves and all layers to the different locations using the Glue Glider Pro Perma-Tac™ cartridge. I did pop dot the Dark Chocolate layer to the white card stock layer.

14. I adhered the buttons using Extreme Adhesive Squares™ (those things are amazing! They really mean "extreme adhesive" and I am totally addicted!)

15. Lastly, I used Glossy Accents™ over the green leaves which were inked.

Enjoy your hard work and how impressed your family members look when they read over your menu! :)

I hope this helps you personalize your own Thanksgiving menus! We would LOVE to see them if you decide to link them up to Passionately Artistic! You may get featured and win a prize! :)