Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you are having a Happy Thanksgiving! For this week's Twisted Thursday, I decided to make some items to be used on the Thanksgiving table. I used all the images from this set, except the turkey.

Instead of using these cute little pilgrims as place cards, I decided to use them as buffet cards, listing the names of some of the food items that I have cooked for this year. After coloring them, I just wrote in the name of my dishes.

I love the sunflower image and decided that they would look great as napkin rings around my fall napkins. This was they serve as both the napkin ring and the place card.

I have really been trying to focus on all the blessings in my life and wanted to share some of the things I am grateful for:

***I am grateful for all my friends. It's been a fairly rough year for me and without the support of my friends, I am not sure I would have made it through as well as I have. I am constantly amazed by all the friends that I have made online through blogging. People that I would have probably never have come in contact with any other way. All my friends have blessed my life this year, both my friends I see every day and the friends that live in my computer. My friend Angela makes work infinately more fun and since we have the same hobby she also makes the rest of my life happier too, my friends Janet and Elaine have especially encouraged and supported me this year, and Judy has been there to talk to me online late into the night offering advice and encouragement.

***I am thankful for my in-laws and the way they have welcomed me into their family. I am grateful that they are different for my family. I have never been an outsider with them, I am simply part of the family.

***I am grateful for my health. Even living with chronic pain issues, I know it could be worse. I am thankful that I can walk and that I don't have to use my cane all the time. I am grateful that my doctor and I finally after many, many years have finally found a medication that I can take that gives me some slight pain relief.

***I am grateful my two little crafting buddies. They bring such happiness to my life and they love crafting with me more than just about anything.

I am thankful for the library and that it is so close to where I live. I read a lot and spend a lot of time in there. There is no way I could afford to buy as many books as I read in a year.

***I am thankful for my Copic markers! Sounds a bit weird I know, but finding them has opened another creative outlet for me and the more creative I am, the happier I am. Coloring is something that I have always found very relaxing and since discovering Copics, I enjoy stamping even more.

What about you?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Riley Gift Tag

I was in need of some gift bags and decided to buy the plain kraft ones and make my own. I used Riley Carrying a Tree from Riley and Company. The tag was punched out using a Sizzix die. Since my Copics bleed through the regular card stock, I adhered it to another piece of card stock and then tied it on with a piece of raffia.

Here is a close up of the tag:

The madness of holiday cooking and baking has started at my house. There is a pot luck at work today and I made two chocolate fudge pies and a corn casserole. I am also baking a cake right now that will go to my grandparents house for Thanksgiving day. When I get home this afternoon, I will start making the cranberry sauce/chutney. It is actually a chutney, but if I call it that my family makes fun of me so they call it "that cranberry sauce Gina makes with all the stuff in it". Families, gotta love them, right?

Mo's Three Punch Challenge

See, I am working hard on my Christmas cards! I also decided to play along with the challenge on Mo's Challenge Blog. This week the challenge was to use three punches on your project and I used two different Martha Stewart punches and my Fiskars scallop punch. For some reason the red piece that I used the scallop punch on is blending in with the paper behind it, it stands out more ITK. The papers are from Basic Gray, the image from Mo's Digital Pencil and it was colored with Copic markers. I also added some Glossy Accents to the snow globe that she is holding.

I had a crazy afternoon yesterday. I was planning to run to the library and a couple of other errands and as soon as I shut the front door, I realized that in my haste, I grabbed the wrong key chain and I had no house key or car keys. I did have my phone so I could call my husband. He was kind enough to leave work and come and unlock the house. He was also kind enough not to laugh at me too much too!! I haven't done that in a long, long time. Fortunately it was a nice day so I just sat outside enjoying the fall day.

Copics used: Skin R000, Roo, R02, RV00, RV02

Hair: E19, E21, E25, E27, E29, E93

Dress: R35, R37, R39, R59, R89

Ruffles and sash: C3, C5, C7, C9

Leaves: YG91, YG93, YG95, YG97

Christmas Card

Yikes, I just realized how few days I have to finish my Christmas cards. I always start early, get a few made and get distracted by making Halloween and other fall related cards. I have got to get in gear though. or perish the thought, I will have to go out and buy cards. Now I can't let that happen, can I? So now I am going into ful Christmas card mode! I generally make lots of different cards, most only one of but sometimes I will go ahead and make two or three of the same one and this is one of those I will be doing that with. This is also one of the cards that we made in the Copic class I taught this past weekend, so I made extra while I was doing all that cutting. I used Perfect Package from Amber Ink and colored her with Copic markers. Paper is from Little Yellow Bicycle and I used a little star clip from Hobby Lobby.

How are you doing with your cards??

Copics used: Hair E53. E55, E57, E59 Skin: E00, E11, E000

Shirt: R81, R83, R85 Pants: C3, C5, C7, C9

Package: G21, G24, G28 Bow: R89

Kip's Zombie Birthday

Here is the card I made for Kip for his birthday yesterday. He loves Zombie stuff and I was so happy to find Zombie images from Simply Betty Stamps. I tend to do themes for my gift giving opportunities so this birthday was definitely for the living dead! I pulled my Halloween stuff back out to find the fence and the tombstone, both are for Martha Stewart. My image is from Simply Betty Stamps and was colored with Copic markers. The sentiment was computer generated and I used DCWV papers and some brads from Jo-Ann's.

I always try and find Kip a puzzle along the lines of a Rubik's cube and one of the first places I look is ThinkGeek. While I was there I found this great zombie wrapping paper and a cool zombie mug to go with it. I also found this puzzle. I think that will keep him busy for a few days anyway! I already knew there was a new zombie game being released the week of his birthday that he would be getting so it was a total zombie birthday.

I even thought about making him a zombie themed cake, but I found a recipe for a Peanut Butter Chocolate cake and since he loves all things peanut butter and chocolate, I went with that.  The cake itself is peanut butter, then there is a peanut butter filling between the layers and then it was iced with a chocolate fudge icing. I make some extra of the filling and used that to decorate the cake. Wow, that cake was delicious, even if I do say so myself!

We went for dinner with family and friends at a local Thai restaurant and then went to the midnight release of Harry Potter. And that was Kip's birthday!

Twisted Thursday--Falling Leaves

Welcome to another S2G's Twisted Thursday challenge! The Twist this week is to use falling leaves on your project. I just adore scarecrow images and this one is just too cute I think. I used paper called "Falling Leaves" along with some card stock from DCWV. Image was colored with Copic markers and I used a Martha Stewart punch to punch out my leaves in different colors. Want to play along? Create your project then link it to the challenge blog for your chance to win a free digi. Don't forget to check out the rest of the DT, they have some cool stuff to show off too. 

I haven't been around much this week. We went to South Carolina last weekend so that I could spend some time with my Great Aunt. It was a wonderful trip, great weather, lots of time to visit and chat, but we both have really bad colds now. My nose is stuffy, I can't quit coughing or sneezing and my eyes are so runny I can't color or even read too long. It's just a cold, but it is really kicking my butt. I am hoping that soon I feel somewhat human again! Especially since today is my hubby's birthday and I have a dinner plans for family and some friends. I will show his card tomorrow since he sometimes checks my blog!

Twisted Thursday--Pumpkins

Super quick post this morning. I have had spotty internet connections last night and this morning and was not able to post my Twisted Thursday project until now. The twist is to use pumpkins on your project. I will come back when I get home from work and post the details on today's card. 

All about flowers

The challenge this week on In a Sweet Pea Dream is All about Flowers. My Sweet Pea stamps have been neglected a little over the past few weeks since all I have been doing is making Halloween projects. I had to remedy that so I got a few inky and colored and decided this would be the first one that would become a card. All of the Sweet Pea images are fun to color, but this is one of my favorites. Really, it's one of those things that whichever one I am working with becomes my new favorite! I do know I have used this one several times though. My image was colored with Copic markers and I used some flowers that I won a while back from Vicki's blog candy and I also added some stick on pearls from the Paper Studio and the pearls around the flowers are from the wedding department at Hobby Lobby. thanks for stopping by!

Riley Challenge

Hello! I am posting late today, we spent the weekend out of town and I am running behind on everything. I haven't played with my Riley images in a while and decided to play along with the Riley and Co. challenge this week. It's funny that I haven't colored one of these in a while. Every time Samantha is over here, she pulls out the Rileys because they are her absolute favorite images to play with. And this is one of my favorite Riley images too. It's perfect for fall and is fun to color. I followed the sketch on the Riley and Co. site, colored my image with Copic markers and used papers from DCWV. 

We spent the weekend in Gatlinburg, TN. My husband's business partner got married this weekend and that is where the wedding was. (I will have some photos on my photo blog later in the week.) I had a great time, met lots of new people and got to go shopping at some of my favorite stores. The weather was nice, even though it was on the cold side and on Saturday morning we even had some snow on the ground, not a lot though. I got to visit the Scrapbook Superstore and picked up some new papers, some embossing powders, some Sizzix dies and some embellishments. Then we visited my favorite tea store where I got some yummy Chocolate Mint, Banana, and Raspberry teas. I love shopping in there because the people that work in there are very knowledgeable. I usually pick out two teas on my own and then take their suggestions for a third flavor. So far, I have not been disappointed with anything that I have bought there. Today was back to work and trying to catch up on the mountain of laundry and pulling out more of my winter wardrobe. I'm cold!

S2G's THANK YOU Blog Hop

Welcome to Twisted Thursday!

With fall in full swing and Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, we at S2G TT wanted to do a little more than share our weekly inspiration projects. This week we are giving thanks to all of our participants and visitors. That said, it's time to start the Thanksgiving Hop! You'll travel to each DT's blog to view her inspiration project for this week's challenge. There'll be all kinds of tips, tricks, and tutorials along the way! Also, there is a grand prize and some of the DT members have a hidden prize. In order to qualify for a prize, you need to leave a comment about what you are thankful for. What are you waiting for??...start hopping!! Your first stop will be at Ann's blog. She is one of the queens of Copic coloring!!! If you get lost along the way or find a dead link, come back here for the master list.  You should have arrived here from Chris's blog.

For my project I started with the Shirley's 2 Girls new image Salute. I have a friend who's son just graduated from Marine Boot camp so I made this frame with him in mind. It's funny because I have know this "kid" since he was about eight or so. He was so handsome when he came to  church a couple of weeks ago in his dress uniform. It made me fell a little old, but mostly proud of him. I know they took tons of photos and I know there is one of the whole family that would look good here. The frame holds a 5 x 7 photo. This was an unfinished wood photo frame that I first painted with a layer of blue paint, then a layer of crackling medium. I wasn't happy with the shade of blue, so I added a coat of white, then another layer of a darker blue, then a layer of the crackling medium. I really like the weathered look I ended up with and just enough of the white shows through without overpowering the dark blue. I added my image which had been colored with Copic markers and then matted onto a piece of red card stock. I added some white stars that were cut out with a Sizzix die. The twist this week was to use "THANKS". I added the sentiment to a personal letter that is on the back of the frame. Since it is a personal letter to a real person, I decided not to take a picture. But this image does come with three sentiments that would be great for any service person as a way of saying thank you. Veteran's Day is next week and this image would be perfect for that. Jane is your next stop!

Blog Hop Order

Ann

Cat

Chris

Gina

Jane

Judy

Laurel

Mae

Melissa

Wendy

Tracey

Georgia

***A crafting tip that I am thankful that I have learned: I love the look of sewing on cards, but do not have the patience to learn to sew and then try and drag out a sewing machine. I have learned that I can up my paper piercer to punch holes along my paper and then hand stitch on my card, following the holes like a lacking card. Not as fancy as some of the great stitching by a machine, but it looks pretty good!