Welcome to Wednesday! We’ve been busy here – getting ready for all of the Holiday Activities – and Nadya is enjoying playing with her Little People Nativity – though Baby Jesus spends more time on the roof of the Nativity than her Angel does – she says he can see the sky better from there.

In amongst laundry and last minute creative ventures, I have a little goodie for you. I used these:  to create this: Our family Christmas card for 2009.  Now, I’m hoping ArtsCow and the USPS have them delivered in time for me to mail them out!   I altered the background of our photo using Jodiann’s Snow Styles – as it was rather plain before.  I love how “festive” everything looks! The lovely Kristine of Designs by Kristine has graciously allowed me to offer the 4×8 card as a free goodie for her aptly titled Festive Kit.  So, you get a 4×8 300 DPI PNG like the card above – minus the photo of my cute lil one and handsome hubby! You can get your download here – and leave me comment if you do – I love reading them.

Have a fabulous Wednesday and don’t forget to visit Kristine’s blog if you didn’t arrive here from there, I have it on good authority that there’s a little something there in celebration of her daughter’s birthday (Happy Birthday Julez!!!)

Now, that you’ve picked yourself up off of the floor – allow me to show you my page:

Credits:
Kit: Fairyland – Designs by Kristine
Shapes: Bracket Frames – Scrappin’ Cop
Other: Brush – Bannerwoman; Effect – Meadows Designs
Fonts: Passions Conflict and Perpetua

This LO was semi-inspired by my friend Carmen – thank you for opening your home for a quick visit last week! 

Today is grocery day – so we’re off to Wal-Mart – wish us luck!

How’s that for a title?  If you haven’t bailed yet – let’s get started!

I spent the weekend playing with my daughter, my stamps, my Big Shot, and…my Wishblade!  One of Yasha’s friends is getting married and we opted for the oh-so-convenient gift-card option.  Martha, the list-mom of the Yahoo Wishblade group I’m in and owner of The Itty Bitty Scrap Shack, shared an awesome cutting file for gift cards that I’ve been just waiting to try – so Matt’s wedding gave me the perfect excuse!

The card base is comprised on Basic Black and Whisper White CS (SU). I used my blue Wishblade (yes it’s a relic), to cut the Basic Black base using Martha’s cutting file (thanks Martha!!!) and then cut the Whisper White front.  I added the small dots texture using my SU Texture Plates and my Big Shot. The “ribbon” was created using a 1.5” strip of Basic Black CS that I textured with hearts using a Fiskars texture plate and my Big Shot and then stamped with a running stitch from the Ribbons and Borders  collection (Clear Dollar Stamps) in White Craft Ink (SU). The Rings are from the Wedding Trio Stamp (Great Impressions) and were stamped on Whisper White in Tuxedo Black ink, colored with my Spica Pens, and then trimmed and mounted using my nestabilities.  I adhered everything together and  added the Pearls from Martha Stewart (EK Success) over the scallops.

Martha’s cutting file included the slit and scallop insert for the gift card – perfect!!! I didn’t use pearls here because I wanted the card  to close!

For the inside of the card, I used the Scalloped Edge Insert cut file from Great Scrappin Designs – I wanted to continue with the scallop theme. The paper is shimmery white from my stash.  I used the same shimmer paper to stamp the sentiment (SU) and my nestabilities to trim and mount onto Basic Black CS.

Then,  since Father’s Day is next Sunday – I needed to get my FIL’s card made so it could be mailed yesterday (I’ll work on my Dad’s today and Yasha’s this week). Yasha requested “something simple”, so here’s what I came up with.

The Peanuts Characters – Snoopy in particular, are a family favorite, so Nadya selected the Snoopy’s Convertible stamp (Stampabilities @ Hobby Lobby) I browsed this week’s Friday Sketch and we started creating.  Snoopy is stamped on Whisper White CS in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Copics and Spica pens.  I used my Large Labels nestabilities to trim him and my Large Rectangle Nestabilities for the Metallic Silver (SU) mat.  The textured card base is from Bazzill – one of their monochrome sets.  The designer paper is DCWV – the Glitter Stack. For dimension, we added Black Dew Drops – part of my goodie bag from Kristie at Hanna Stamps.  The inside is similar – I used the remaining piece from my mat stack at a  mat and stamped Happy Father’s Day (SU) on Whisper White. 

Kristine has released her new kit – Colors of Kristine – and it’s on-sale for a limited time. 

Plus, you get this QP album FREE with purchase – again for a very limited time (I might be biased towards the album since I made it!)

And now – for a little politics (and remember this is MY blog, so I’m allowed to post MY opinions here).

I couldn’t have said it better myself! It’s about time someone stood  up for this Nation and the all-too-silent majority (yes – I said majority).

That’s all I can think of for now.  Have a fabulous day!