Holiday Stress

The countdown to Thanksgiving is on.....and I am clearly not ready. As I mentioned before, this will be my first time hosting Thanksgiving at my house and I am simply overwhelmed.  Nobody told me how difficult this would be.  We have relatives coming from out of town and almost all of them will be crashing at our house.  I have no idea where to stash 14 people in our 3 bedroom house.  Also, we don't have enough dishes to serve 18 people....Somewhere in the midst of all this hustle and bustle I have lost the true spirit of the holiday and the reason we celebrate it.  The name itself says it all "Thanksgiving".  It is a time to gather with people that we love and to break bread and Thank God for all the blessings that he has given us. My spirit of gratitude has been sorely lacking and I think it is time for me to refresh my spirit and look at this holiday from a different perspective.  So my house and food will not be Martha Stewart worthy; it doesn't matter.  As long as I have another day to celebrate with my husband and my family, then I will be grateful. So how do the rest of you get through this craziness called "The Holiday Season"? 

My card for the day is ironically........

I used my "Martha Stewart" doilies and punch for this one :)

Letter tiles are from "The Girl's Paperie" Pattern paper is from "Melissa Frances"

Flowers are "Prima"

Thanks for stopping by today. I am very much "Grateful" for all of you :)

Elizabeth

Sick but Crafting

Yesterday was one of those days where you just don't want to get out of bed.  I had been up all night with a terrible stomach ache and a sore throat.  I just wanted to curl up in my sweats and stay inside all day long and that is just what I did :) Luckily for me, my time was spent creating a few cards and tags to share with all of you today :)

Since I never am really able to find the time each year to create a gingerbread house of my own. I thought I would be able to create one in card form. I glittered the house all up with fine glitter from "Stampendous" and some white "Flower Soft." The stamps are from "October Afternoon" and my good old trusty lacy border punch is from "Martha Stewart."  

The last project I have to share is cute old "Holiday Owl" tag.  I decided that I wanted to take a supply from my stash that wasn't traditionally a christmas item and turn it into a holiday project.  I jazzed my little owl from "Hero Arts" up by stamping him on christmas pattern paper from "Echo Park" and perching him up on a jolly old candy cane. 

I just wanted to thank you all for the kind comments that you have been sharing with me. I cherish every single one :) 

Have a great weekend

Elizabeth

Grandmas are love

  My grandma came this week from far away to visit us. We had a beautiful time with her. Grandma's are really the best.  She loved all the trees that Northern California had to offer and lucky for her the trees were changing from green to a beautiful deep wine red color. It was just a gorgeous week. We took her to the Golden Gate Bridge and to Santa Cruz to experience the ocean. She loved to just sit there on the bench and look out at all the seals and the surfers catching their waves.  She blessed us with a lot of love and warmth. It was very sad to see her leave. Since we were off having such a great time with Grandma, very little got accomplished but I managed to complete a few cards to share with all of you today :).....

I found this beautiful vintage image of two little angel girls. So sweet :) 

Once again, I used this "Wreath for all Seasons" stamp from Paper Trey Ink.  I think this is probably my favorite stamp by far that I own :) I simply love it!

Thanks for dropping by today...

Elizabeth

Tags for Christmas

The Holidays are quickly approaching and as usual I am caught off guard. I have dozens of things to do before Thanksgiving and haven't even approached the thought of Christmas (which is just around the corner).  This year my husband and I will be hosting our first ever Thanksgiving meal at our house.  This has got me a little bit frazzled because I have never in my life cooked a turkey.  But there is always a first time for everything, and my husband has done it several times so hopefully with his expertise we will be able to pull it off.
Since my week has been so busy, I started crafting on a smaller canvas this week.  Tags are such a fun way to create little mini masterpieces in half the time of regular full sized cards.

I added some crepe paper to create the effect of a candy wrapper on the peppermint.

I had so much fun making "gingerbread cards" a few weeks ago that I decided to make some matching tags. I love how cute this little guy is :)

Thanks for dropping by today. I hope you all have fun this holiday season....

Love 

Elizabeth

Don't Stress the Little Stuff

Housework! I am piled up to my ears in it....But thats ok because it means that we are living and eating and breathing and enjoying our home.  Every now and then I begin to complain but then I remind myself that housework will never end. If I get around to it then that is great but if I don't then why stress it because it will always be there....Not stressing the little things is something that I am learning and trying to be more successful at. Halloween is already here this week and pretty soon Thanksgiving will be around the corner and our house will be hustling and bustling with the sounds of family members and the smell of roasted turkey....I am trying to get all my housework preparations done now so the week of Thanksgiving I won't be so stressed out. But like I said, I am learning to take everything one day at a time.....
I have a few cards to share today........

On this card, I used a basic house stamp from "Hero Arts"and turned it into a cute "holiday" house by using christmas pattern paper to paper piece the house together. I also added a soft snowy feel to the card by using some "Flower Soft" all over the card and on the roof of the house.

This card reminds me of an old vintage victorian Christmas. I added a few rhinestones to my stamped "christmas tree" to add a little sparkle and shine :)

Thanks for dropping by today. I hope your day is filled with beautiful blessings...

Love

Elizabeth

Pumpkin Festival and Gingerbread Men

This week has been quite a long one for me.  My husband and I spent the weekend at the pumpkin festival in Half Moon Bay.  It is our yearly tradition to go there.  It is fun because the festival is located right off the California coast and driving to the festival you can see beautiful pumpkins growing alongside the ocean. At the festival, there are several artisans selling their handmade goods and lots of pumpkin pie and pumpkin ice cream to go around. I found a booth there that sold gorgeous wreaths for the holiday seasons and I bought a couple. I can't wait to hang them up on my door :)
  I have a few cards to share with all of you today to give you all a little holiday inspirations.....

Here are some sweet and shabby Gingerbread men to brighten the holidays :)

Sentiment stamps are from "Paper Trey Ink"

I cut out the gingerbread shape on my SCAL program.

I had so much fun with this card set. It will be up in my Etsy shop later on today.

I hope you all have a very merry Wednesday. 

Love 

Elizabeth

I just wanted to start this post off by saying thank you to all of you who sent such sweet comments and virtual hugs to me and my husband.  I really appreciate all of your kind comments....This past week, my husband and I were able to get out and go to the movie theatre for the first time since chemo treatments started. It was such a joy to join the rest of the world. The smell of popcorn and the hustle and bustle of people buying movie tickets made me smile and forget the troubles of life for just a little while.  It is amazing how little things like going to the movies can really make my day :)

Today I have some quick projects to share with all of you.......

I used the new stamp set from "Paper Trey Ink" called "Wreath for All Seasons".....Love this stamp set sooo much :) I just had to have it :)

I used the same wreath from the Paper Trey stamp set to create the wreath on this heart. I also used some liquid pearls in "platinum" to add the berries to the wreath. 

All of these cards will be available for sale in my ETSY shop. I am also hoping to upload more cupcake toppers and party decor items soon so watch out for those :)

Thanks for dropping by today. I hope you take time to enjoy the little things in life today :)

Elizabeth