The Hamster is to blame ...

Nearly Thanksgiving and guess who completely forgot to pre-schedule her blog post ... yep me.  Sorry guys.  I dropped the ball.

Over on the Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 blog, we have a blast from the past sketch and the return of Deedee's Digis as our sponsor.  You are going to want to take a look over on her site because she has a major sale going on, 75% off everything in the shop!!!  It's Black Friday sales ... on a Wednesday!

So in between bites of turkey and pumpkin pie, we'd love for you to join us.  Hope your holiday is fantastic!

Stella Says Sketch 318

I am ridiculously thankful for the many blessings in my life: a wonderful family, great friends and lots of the things that make life fun.  And in case I haven't told you all lately ... thank you.  Thanks for reading my blather and looking at my cards.

I'm using the sketch over on the Bugaboo blog.  Stella Says Sketch and I DID!

I'm also using the thankful theme over on Dragonfly Journeys.

Papertake Weekly wants to see our snow.  I think a Yeti counts since he lives in a snowy area.

More Snowmen!

I'm sharing some more snowmen that I made into cards during our snow day yesterday.  I do have to report a VERY sad occurrence, yesterday.  We ran out of coffee around 10:00 in the morning.  In the future, when I make a run to the store to fill blizzard supplies (eggs, milk, etc) coffee will definitely go on the list!

This little cutie is Mr. Flurry from DigiStamp Boutique.  Don't forget that Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 is offering a prize to that store for their weekly challenge.  Some VERY cute stuff over there!

My second card is a Gerda Steiner card.  It's called Snowman with Birdie.  Super cute image too

Stay warm out there friends!

SSW2: DigiStamp Boutique

Happy Wednesday friends.

If you live where I do, I'm guessing that your outside view has quite a bit of the white stuff (19.9 inches new as of yesterday!).  I don't know if it's the fact that I grew up in Arizona, but I can not get enough of snowmen.  I probably have at least 50 images of snowmen in my collection of stamps and digital image (and really, do I NEED that many ... no, but I can't seem to stop myself from buying more)

This little cutie is called Sketchy Snow Person and he is available over on the DigiStamp Boutique shop.  Sally-Ann, the owner, is our sponsor this week over on the Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 blog.  We have a great new sketch and, of course, the fantastic prize of a  £10 voucher to the DigiStamp Boutique store.

Since I'm starting to panic a bit about how many Christmas cards I have completed, I decided to make not one but TWO cards this week with our sketch.  My second card features Christmas Milly.  I love her sweet singing face.

SSSC295 - Rocking Out Cards

I'm making the most of a snow day to get some more Christmas cards finished.  I'm nearly done with the extended family shopping.  I just need to do a bunch of wrapping and scoot off to the Post Office.  I'm trying to avoid last year's panic (and expense of mailing packages on the LAST day that the US Post Office takes packages without charging a million dollars to ship - ugh)

For my card, I'm using this little cutie from Gerda Steiner Designs.  He's currently free over on her blog.

I'm also using the sketch from Sweet Sunday Sketch this week.  I just turned it on it's side.

DP: Sketch Saturday

I'm just waiting for the "big" storm to arrive.

Initially they predicted 22 inches for us and now it's been downgraded to 12 inches.  Since the hubby and I spent all weekend battening down the hatches, we've jinxed ourselves.  We will get a dusting and that's it!

Sketch Saturday has a fun sketch this week.  But because I can't leave well enough alone (and MY image was long rather than tall), I had to rotate the inner rectangle.  I still like how it looks.

I'm using a fun image from Doodle Pantry.  This is Charlie Reindeer and he is available in the as a pre-colored image as well as line art.  The pre-colored images make for super quick cards (like when you are panicking about the lack of Christmas cards in your stack!)

SS386-Gerda Steiner

I'm taking a 5 minute breather from cleaning the carpets (I know, WHAT idiot cleans carpets on a snowy day? C'est moi!  Apparently I need to take after my hubby and watch the Weather Channel more often.) Any who, I'm taking a break to finish up my card for the progressive challenge over on the Gerda Steiner blog.

This little bear is the freebie for this month.  All you gotta do is post your card (before the end of the month) and BAM ... you get the next month's image for FREE.  I love free stuff.  Thanks Gerda!

I'm using the sketch over on Sketch Saturday.  It's quickly becoming one of my go-to sites for great sketches.

SSW2-74 Dearie Dolls

Snow.

Meh.

The first real snow of the season is here and I was not prepared.  I gotta admit to hoping for a snow day or at least a delay.  We got nuttin'.  My friend who lives across the street (yes, literally, walking distance) and in another school district called to smugly inform me that SHE had a snow day.  Seriously ... thanks for THAT call Carolyn!

But in better news it's Wednesday and there is a brand new sketch challenge over on the Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 blog.

Our sponsor is is Mary Ellen from Dearie Dolls.   She has a very cool site.  She posts poetry and her artwork on her blog and it's all there for you to enjoy .... free.

We'd like everyone to visit her site, download a favorite image and join in our sketch fun this week.  She has some wonderful images.

Our prize this week?  Why it's the instant gratification of freebie Dearie Doll images for everyone!!! Please be sure to leave Mary Ellen a sweet comment and let her know you found Dearie Dolls from SSW2.

FTH Progressive November

Since I have a tendency to be a tad bit of a procrastinator, and the big holiday is at the end of the month ... I'm trying to (as Mater says) "git'er done (early)".  Hopefully this will allow me to enjoy Thanksgiving a bit more, knowing that I'm up to date on everything.

So in the spirit of being organized, I present you my card for the November From the Heart Progressive Challenge.  The image is called: Deck the Halls Birdbrain, and he is awfully cute isn't he?   Remember, if you play along each month, Faith will e-mail the next month's image to you for free!

I'm using the sketch from the Share Joy Challenge over on the Taylored Expressions site.  I didn't want to use the suggested colors and I rotated the sketch on it's side to work with my image but other than THAT, my card kinda sorta fits their challenge EXACTLY!

I like my card but looking at it now, I wish my tree paper weren't sideways.  ((Sigh)).  Oh well, I doubt the recipient of this card will care.

Have a great week y'all.

Doodle Pantry: Send a Smile

Doodle Pantry is sponsoring a fun, new challenge over on the Send a Smile 4 Kids site.  Their challenge is to create and link any celebration card appropriate for a child.  Easy- Peasy right?

I'm using Laurie's Winter Critter's for my card.  I love that sweet Husky.  If you've never visited her store, I suggest a visit.  Plenty of fun "critters" to admire and grab.

I hope you can join in the fun this week.

TMS 325: Thank a Teacher

A friend of mine (for whom I would do anything) recently asked to have several of my cards to put in her school's silent auction.  I've been trying to think of cards that might be valuable.

For me, during the bustle of the holiday season, getting a great teacher gift is often a low priority.  Not because teachers aren't important (FAR from it) but because it's just ANOTHER thing to do during this crazy season.  I knew then that making her a few instant Christmas gifts would probably be a highly biddable item.

I'm thinking about getting a mug from an inexpensive place, putting this card and maybe a Starbucks gift card inside and BOOM -- instant gift for the silent auction.  Still thinking it through.  I'm sure I'll post a picture of the finished project later.

I'm using the sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches.  I tried putting the image behind the apple strip but kinda hated there so I DID modify it a bit.

I'm also using the "How 'Bout Them Apples" theme from Dragonfly Journeys.  I was kinda surprised to find that I DO have an apple themed image!

This card features the Doodle Pantry image "Books and Apple" (psst: it's currently FREE over on the Doodle Pantry site) I encourage a visit to Laurie's site.  There are so many cute school related images there sure to suit your needs.

SSW2-73: Bugaboo

It's Wednesday peeps.

There are 3 Mondays till' Thanksgiving and (insert shriek of horror here) only 7 Mondays until Christmas.  If that doesn't make you panic, you are a far more organized person than I am!!

I love making Christmas cards and when I get to use Jodie from Bugaboo's sweet images, I'm in heaven.  This week over on the Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 blog, we've got Bugaboo as our sponsor (yay).

Jodie is offering up 7 free images to our winner.  I'm using Gus' Christmas Aspirin  to make my card.  He just makes me chuckle.  Ain't it the truth? How many stress headaches do we get trying to make our holiday perfect?!!

I hope you find time to join in the fun.

Stella Says Sketch 317

I just got back from my PT appointment.  Eager to try out the band they gave me to work on my shoulder, I immediately put it in the door and started some of the resist exercises they assigned.  Apparently you need to insure that the door is actually CLOSED before you start pulling on the band.  Wham!!  The door popped my head.  Now -- not only my shoulder hurts but my nose as well.  Boy that PT is certainly helping!

I ran down to the happy place to work out my grumpy mood and saw the new sketch over on the Bugaboo blog.  Since I'm miserably behind on my Christmas card production, I decided to take this opportunity to catch up.

DP - AIMP November

Wow.

Can you believe that it is November 1st already?  Yikes.  Not that I am panicking here, but  did you know that there are ONLY 55 days left until Christmas.  I swear that the year speeds up as it progresses ... like a rock rolling down a hill, ready to flatten me.  I am sooo not ready for Christmas!

Since it IS the first of the month,  that means it's time for our monthly Ants in my Pantry Digital Challenge over on the Doodle PantryBlog.  As always, it's an anything goes challenge. However, you must use a digital image to participate.

I decided to use the Doodle Pantry set: Lil' Tin.  I love this sweet guy.  You can purchase these cute Wizard of Oz sets individually or as a group.  All of them are just darling.

I'm also participating in the Sketch Saturday post this week.  Since it's the 5th Saturday, you can pick any sketch from the Sketch Saturday archives to use.  I'm using #221.