For Unto Us a Child is Born *CCCB*

Hi all!!! Did you all have a fabulous week last week?! I hope so. This week we have a great challenge for you over at City Crafter Challenge Blog. Linda is our hostess and with Christmas right around the corner, she thought it would be nice to do a Christmas card/project..... not just any kind of Christmas card/project, but one with a theme! So the theme is "BLUE CHRISTMAS"... like the Elvis song. Do you know the song I am talking about? Anyway, for this week's challenge, we want you to create a Christmas Card/Project with a blue theme. Go check out the lovely creations from the DT and our Guest Designer. Linda herself is generously sponsoring this week with some fab prizes! I hope to see you playing along. I can't wait to see your inspiring creations. I am going to need some inspiration, too...I am sooooooo behind on my Christmas cards. I have a plan in mind to make 10 cards a day for the next 10 days...wish me luck! Yikes! I'll start sharing them next week and have a fun little give away with a 12 days of Christmas cards event that I will put on....so look for that next week on my blog! Have a fab week all!! BIG HUGS! Cheryl

Pretty with Pleats *GCD Studios + Tutorial*

I'm pretty much convinced that pleats make everything just a little bit prettier! That is why I decided to decorate this jar of homemade jam with these pleats made from GCD Studios paper. I am once again using their oh sooooo fabulous Joyful Peace collection. Here is a tutorial on how I decorated the jar lid with these pleats:

1. I used the Deck the Halls paper from the Joyful Peace collection.


2. I cut out the striped portion of the paper making two 1"x12" strips.


3. Just fold your paper to create pleats (the striped paper really helps make even pleats.


4. Take the ring from a mason jar


5. Glue the pleated paper around the ring


6. Tie with twine and embellish as you wish (I used a snowflake here cut with the Cricut using more of the Joyful Peace GCD Studios collection)


I hope you are able to use this tutorial to create some pretty pleats! *To add a little more oomph to the jar...I glued it on top of a wood candlestick holder spray painted black and I also added a wooden topper that was also painted black to the top of the lid. I also made a little card to go with the jam using papers from the Joyful Peace collection from GCD Studios.

*by using autumn colored paper and say pumpkins instead of snowflakes you could easily make this for Thanksgiving, as well! Wouldn't some pumpkin butter be yummy?!
Happy crafting and Happy Holidays!

Hugs, Cheryl

Warm Wishes *CCCB

Hi all and warm wishes to you! I am here with this week's CCCB challenge! We are off to Seattle, home of Starbucks, with our hostess Kirsty. Your challenge is to create a project that includes an image of a coffee mug, or teacups, or any image that is related to coffee, tea, hot cocoa or hot chocolate! Now doesn't that make you feel all warm inside?! Hop on over to CCCB and be amazed by all the marvelous creations of the DT and our GD! You just might learn a couple of facts about Starbucks, too. Our sponsor this week is the incredibly generous Pixie Dust Paperie! I hope your Thanksgiving holiday is filled with warmth and love! Hugs, Cheryl

Thankful

I just wanted to share the thankful banner that I made. It normally hangs above the big picture window in my dining area, but I couldn't get a photo without a glare there so this photo is taken with it on the fireplace. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays...when I think about it I just think about warmth and love and family and definitely being thankful. I love the colors of the season...I love to cook and bake so I love that part too...I love the gathering of family...I love the tone it sets. What a lovely way to usher in the Christmas season when your heart is filled with gratitude. Tomorrow I have Christmas goodies to share. I'll have a new CCCB post as well as a GCD Studios post. I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to post on Wednesday or not...so I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!! Hugs,Cheryl

Happy Birthday Bobby!- *CCCB

Hi all! I surely want to thank you all for your kind words and thoughts and prayers that you sent to our family and our son-in-law, Skyler's family. They have certainly been felt. I had the privilege of watching our little grandson all of last week and will be this week as well, so our daughter could be by her husband's side and with his family. I want to tell you that blessings have been POURED out upon them. The funeral was beautiful and uplifting. I am proud that my grandson is a part of this family. Now on to THIS week's card which celebrates the life of my other son-in-law, Bobby!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOBBY!!! How blessed I am to have TWO AMAZING son-in-laws. I loved the image from our sponsor,CircusBoard Graphics, that I used on this card.
It shows the boy planting. This is a perfect image for Bobby's card. Bobby is helping grow his family in love and righteousness. You should see him with our daughter, and our two grandchildren. He is just THE BEST!! We LOVE YOU, Bobby, and wish you the happiest birthday ever!! Come play along at CCCB this week...the theme is Little Children and your challenge is to simply use an image of a child on your project. Your are going to want to check out the DT and GD fabulous projects using product from our fabulous sponsor, CircusBoard Graphics! LOVE their product!!
BIG HUGS Y'ALL, Cheryl

JOY of the Season *GCD Studios*

Are you just feeling the JOY of the season?! I am! I LOVE this time of year. Now I'm going to get a little personal here. We are not supposed to get really personal with our GCD Studio posts, but in this intance I can not refrain without feeling like a complete hypocrite. So forgive me Heidi and all of you. I am keenly feeling the joy of the season today...both the season of Thanksgiving and the season of Christmas. I have such an abudance of things that I am thankful for but the greatest of all these things is the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ and His plan for me that includes the plan for families to be forever. This knowledge sustains me EACH and EVERY day of my life. It is especially true today. My son-in-law unexpectedly lost his father yesterday and my heart goes out to my daughter and son-in-law and all of his family. I am comforted to know that they, too, have this knowledge of Jesus Christ and they KNOW they are a forever family. They have a son, like my two children, who is currently serving as a missionary for our church in Brazil. He is sharing this message with the world. I can't think of a more important message than this one of PURE JOY. So, please forgive me if I don't post on your blogs in the next couple of days. I will be helping my daughter with my grandson. Now about this project that truly does reflect my heart right now: I made this "joy"ous home decor item to give as a neighbor gift. I just love the Joyful Peace line from GCD Studios that I used for this project. It is so elegant.
I used the GCD Studios chipboard for the "J" and the "Y" and painted them black and then used a gloss coat on them. The "O" was made with the lovely GCD Studios paper cut with the Cricut to make an ornament. These were all glued to more GCD Studios paper cut to size and put into a simple frame. I hope you all are feeling JOY in your life, regardless of the circumstances!

HUGS, Cheryl

THANK YOU!!!! *CCCB

Hi all!! I'm back as the hostess this week at City Crafter Challenge Blog and our theme this week is THANK YOU!!...and I mean it...THANK YOU!! Thank you to Kirsty who came up with this wonderful blog and started the challenges and is just a terrific friend...Thank you to all my fellow DT members who are such an inspiration EACH and EVERY WEEK...Thank you to all of you that have been our guest designers and have shared your tremendous talent with us...Thank you to our super generous sponsors...and most of all THANK YOU, all of you that participate here at City Crafter Challenge Blog!! You are THE BEST!! *and a sweet thank you to June who created the beautiful pin on the card and so generously sent it to me along with some more of her fab creations!
We, all, at City Crafte Challege Blog LOOOOOOOVE to view your work and we are sooooo very thankful you choose to participate with us and share your extraordinary talent!! OK...so what's the challenge? Just create a THANK YOU card or any Thanksgiving project! I am the sponsor this week so get on over to City Crafter Challenge Blog and see what I have put together for the prize package. I hope you like it!! You are also going to want to load up on the inspiration from the DT creations that are FABULUOS!! We also have the AMAZING Amy Duff as our Guest Designer this week! I can't wait to see what you come up with again this week!

Back for an Encore *Digital Doodles*

My frosty friend is back for an encore! Kathy Martin's CUUUUUUUUUTE digital stamp Frost Friend is now available HERE! He arrived just in time to use on these gift tags I made for the "12 Days of Christmas" I'm sending to my daughter in Paraguay. I'm off to the post office this morning to send them off. It is HOT right now in Paraguay so I know she will love how "COOL" these are! I hope you are feeling the "coolness" too! Hugs, Cheryl

CIty Crafter Challenge Blog- It's A Hoot!!

Hi all!! It is time for another City Crafter Challenge! This week we're getting our digi on and I just LOVE this "Hoot" stamp from our sponsor Some Odd Girl! Your challenge this week is brought to you by our hostess this week, Linda. She is asking you to get your digi on too! Our challenge this week is to use a digi stamp.
Have you tried one yet?! Now is the time to try! Some Odd Girl is providing the winner of the challenge with 3 images of their choice! You can find the challenge HERE! Check it out and check out all the fun projects the DT and our Guest Designer Clare Buswell created. Hope to see your fab creations over at CCCB! Happy Crafting! Hugs, Cheryl