Christmas Tree...

Tanis' comment on my last blog entry struck me to go photograph my Christmas tree. HEHE.. Each year I shop for 11 people. And I usually end up spending a months salary on it.. So this year, since I am not working outside the home and I'm concentrating on Queen Kat Designs, I decided that everyone would get 1 box... and what ever could fit in that box is what they got. Well, as you can see there's more than 11 boxes there... I caved in.. Yet I still managed to fill the original 11 boxes I started with. ROFLMAO! The boxes are 12" X 12" X 8"... That's a LOT of scrap stuff!! Which I usually get for 5 out of my 11 and yes, their boxes are stuffed to the gil. 3 of the others are men, so they get socks and clothing. :) And this year, I got to shop for my nephew, Tyler. He's a kick in the pants. His thing right now is "You want a piece of me?" and he means it! He's a handful but honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. It's my first Christmas that I've been around him. The other 3 boxes are full of misc. stuff.

At my house, we have 2 Thanksgivings and 2 Christmas'... Christmas Eve is spent with my mom, step dad- Mike and lil sister Marci who will be 10 this year. We just hang out in the afternoon and open gifts then make a nice dinner and usually play video games until late in the night. Christmas Day brings my time with my dad, grannie, step mother- Judy and lil sis Alysha who just turned 9. We get together around 11am and open gifts and then hang out until dinner and have an excellent feast complete with Lemon Meringuq pie.. (mmmm.. I'm hungry now!) and then everyone goes home.

I'm not sure how this Christmas will work though, my dad is having surgery to remove his bladder (due to cancer) on December 13th and will be in the hospital for about a week. So, I suspect this Christmas will be a quiet and un eventful one. But, who cares? I just want my dad to be ok. If I could, I'd like to ask for prayers for him and my family as we approach that date. He's had to close his machine shop due to the illness and he's in the middle of moving everything right now.. I pray that he can stay "healthy" through this time and the cold weather we are having so his recovery is easier.

I just had to take this photo.. It's a good thing I went out there with my camera! Look what I found.....

I guess the cats think it's already Christmas!!! HO HO HO!

What are your Christmas Plans?

Daily Happenings...

Today was a pretty laid back day for once. :) I woke up and drank coffee while checking my emials.. (no I didn't spill it this time!) :) then grannie called and asked me over to her house.. so I waited until 2pm for the stupid UPS man to show up with a very important package.... He didn't show so I headed on down the road to Grannie's house.. (Boy that sounds like a bit out of LRRH.) Anyway... She actually got more done that I did. I just wasn't feeling the "juice" today so I just looked through a book..

Then we went to a nice dinner and chatted a while and I dropped her off at home... when I got home the men in brown had made the delivery FINALLY!! I was able to wrap up the last of my secret sister gifts and the rest of Amanda's gifts for her stocking. Check em out below! They are stuffed to the max and some of the stuff won't fit into the stockings. HA! If you know me, you know that when it comes to Christmas I tend to go OVER the top! :) The pink one is for my Secret Santa over at scrapbook.com and the red is for the host of the swap... we are doing a private swap of our own. :) There just something about getting suprise gifts under the tree on Christmas morning that make me happy. :) And more than that is knowing I was able to give someone something they've longed for. It's a great feeling to know there's still good in the world.



Have you finished your shopping for that special someone?

What a Day!

No crafting today!! Just picture clicking!! My dad's having a new garage put on his property so he can work from home after the surgery. The builders were there today FINALLY to put up the garage. It was all pre assembled except for the roof so all they had to do was put the walls up and anchor it then add the roof. I got a lot of good shots.. Of course today was the first snow day of the year so I couldn't go outside and click away. I think dad would have killed me if I would have gotten his camera wet. LOL .

When I got to his house, I promptly locked my keys in the truck. :( Me and dad tried to break in with a coat hanger and a home made slim jim and to no avail, I had to hitch a ride from step mom to grannies house to get my extra key.. I gave dad one when I moved here and he's lost it. Oh well.. can't win em all.

I wish I had something fantastic to talk about today or show you... I hope I can get some crafting done this week. I'm working on the December QKD newsletter right now so, sign up for it and look for it on Dec. 1.

We are introducing a NEW concept kit in January called Get Inked! it's going to be a great little kit. I'm working with Pooka on this kit. She's a great technique junkie and her writing is spot on. I'm very excited for this kit to debut. So... stay tuned for more info.

What pics have you taken lately?

Christmas Tree Forest...

I was inspired from the SCS gallery a couple weeks ago to make some of the paper Christmas trees that are so popular this year... And this is what I came up with...

For the medium and large trees, I used the new Figgy Pudding collection from Basic Grey and for the little one, I used some Christmas paper from Reminisce.. It's too cute! On the top of the tree, I used 2 Prima Sprites. The top of the medium tree, I used some paper and made my own "flower" it has a Karen Foster Biggie Brad through the center. For the top of the large one, I cut 4 scalloped circles and folded them in half and glued the white sides together to make a red n white circle topper. The ribbons are stitched grossgrain. The bottom pics are the small and large trees.

What inspires you?

After Thanksgiving Shopping...

Well as usual, I woke at 5am today to shop.. and if you know me, you know I'm CRAFT shopping today because my real Christmas shopping is done or almost done.. :) So...

We went to SCORE on a Cricut.. :) Of course.. the excuse was ... IT'S for CHRISTMAS, right?? so DH got up and went with me. We stood in line for an hour until the doors opened the 200+ people in front of us stormed the store and I shoved my way through the madness... grabbed everything that was in the bundle then stood in line for an hour to check out..

Well.. we came home I went to sleep and he got ready for work.. I woke up... expecting to find my new toy where I left it so I could sneek a play date with it before it was wrapped and under the tree....... I CAN'T FIND IT! That sneeky man hid my new toy from me..

The only stores we went to were M's and Roberts (the provo craft store) I got some styrofoam cones at M's to make some paper Christmas trees for my table and I got the cricut bundle at Roberts.. It came with a Zoobaloo cartridge, the machine and the roller tote for only $132.00.. So, I'm selling the tote and I figure after that I will have paid only $32 for my machine and Zoobaloo cartridge! :) GO ME!

What did you buy? Or were you sleeping?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I'd just like to wish you all a very Happy and safe Thanksgiving. :)

What are you thankful for?

Christmas cards by the dozen...

I went to every scrapbooking store within a 50 mile radius to find the Figgy Pudding paper by Basic Grey on Saturday... Of course it was found at a very expensive LSS about 50 miles from my house.. I spent $35 on paper that day!! So I thought I'd better make something out of it and not just hord it like I ususally do. :)

Today I made 12 Christmas cards with it.. 6 different designs and 2 of each. I'm not sure if I have enough cards yet or not, but we shall see. Here's the group of what I made...

If you'd like to see them up close and personal, come and check out my gallery. I used a ton of QKD stamps... Seasons Greetings, Doodled Flower (out in Dec), Large Flourish (out in Jan), Large Dot Flourish (out in Jan), Gift Set, and Flakey Friends...

Check the QKD blog for more info. We're having a huge sale for Black Friday! Click here to see the Black Friday Flyer for QKD!

Christmas Gifts...

So.. I wasn't feeling well today and instead of make everyone around me sick, I just locked myself up for the day. Where?? Is there anywhere else?? My stamp room, silly! :)

I finished up 2 clip it ups that I was making.. Yes, I made them from beginning to end. I couldn't afford $60 for one and I needed 2 so I certainly can't afford $120!!! So.. for less than $40 I was able to make 2 and have enough clips and ribbon left over to make 2 more! They probably don't hold as much as the real thing, but honestly the person who's getting one of them doesn't know what to do with one so I don't think she'll mind.. and the other I'm test driving to see if I want to make more. :) So, I'll never even know the difference since I don't have one of the real ones.

Take a look... This is what I came up with. It's 100% wood that's been painted black. I was going to paint them white but for one thing, I have no white paint! and for 2 I think the black will not show as much of the yuck that I know will get on it between inky fingers, sticky fingers and natural oils from hands I think black will do much better. (the blue coasters are from MME. I thought the base needed a bit of ME brought into it so what better than a big BEACH word?)

The next picture is a close up of the top of the thing. I used ID badge clips and some 1/8" making memories black n white ribbon to attach them with and secured the ends of the ribbon with hot glue. Looks great in RL.

This is my other creation of the day.. It's my dad's puzzle for the year. I like to make him something special each year to let him know I love him and that I'm always here for him. So when I was at the Making Memories warehouse, I saw this shadow box sitting there and thought... Dad's Christmas gift... So, I brought it home with me and put it up.. Then, When I was at the Rusty Pickle warehouse getting things for the kits, I saw the puzzle.. just sitting there all alone and what pops into my head?? Dad's Christmas Gift.. So I picked it up and brought it home. This is the puzzle before I framed it...

I used Cosmo Cricket cardstock/ patterned papers for covering the puzzle and for the brown backer behind the puzzle. I took 2 large chipboard circles and sandwiched them in between the puzzle and the backer to add more 3-D effect. then I took some AMM Coture letters and covered them with pp from the collection and decorated them. I added ribbon to the "D" along with a new stamp coming out in December.. Butteryfly wings.. Then I stamped and embossed the crown on the "A" and cut it out and "zotted" it to the letter. For the 2nd "D" I used a tab from the paper collection and put it onto the letter and then stamped and embossed the wing onto it. I used gold embossing powder for all of those images as well as the flourishes I stamped in the upper right and lower left hand corners of the actual puzzle. then I used various stamps and embossed them with white embossing powder to add some flair. :) I then stamped, embossed and cut out the "My Hero" circle and backed it with a smaller chipboard circle to add even more 3-D effect. The oval on the lower left side is Basic Grey Naked Chipboard covered with pp and I have 2 fleur du lis in the holes on each end.. and with my white Souffle' pen I wrote " I love you". The tab at the top right was made the same way and I drew the heart. When all of that was complete, I got out a metallic spray that I made with my pearl ex and spritzed the whole project. It gave a nice metallig gold glimmer and ties everything in nicely. for the frame, I just used some rub ons I had to decorate it. Here's the finished project...

Queen Kat Designs Stamps used: Flourishes, Butterfly wings (Out in Dec), Large Flourish (Out in Jan), My Hero, Friends, Great Brew, and Interchange Tattoo.

Christmas Already??

Yep! That's right the Kat's started Christmas.. YIKES!! After all.. It's only a little over a month away.. Thanksgiving will be here next week.. That means CHRISTMAS TREE TIME!! YAY.. I can't wait to go searching for the right tree this year. Since we have new Bamboo floors instead of yucky carpet, that means my tree can be a tad bit taller!! Ha, it seems like each year we think the roof raised and end up cutting the tree down when we get it home.. I think this year we should just cut a hole in the roof to accomodate my Christmas Tree. What do you think? :)

Well.. the moral of my ramblings today is Christmas cards, tags and ornaments!! That's right. I actually created something today. I took a December kit from QKD and cut it up, stamped it, distressed it and embellished it. I had a blast. The first few cards I did I was not pleased with so you won't see them here. :) But all in all, I was able to make 7 cards, 3 ornaments and 2 tags and still have a ton of paper, cardstock and embellishments left over. I bet I could get another 7 cards and maybe 2-4 more tags out of what I have left over and I only worked with the 6" X 6" kit!! Think of the possibilities you have with the 12" X 12" kit!

Cleaning out!

So, I've been cleaning my room making some space for more QKD stamps!!! :) I have the following Close To My Heart stamp sets for sale. I don't have pictures but most of them are searchable on the internet.

B1115 Merry Christmas Blocks: every stamp was used and is stained: $6

B1169 Sleigh Bells: 2 stamps used 1 time very very light black stain: $8

C1166 you and Me: Well Loved and well stained. $7

B1141 Flower Blocks: each stamp used 1-2 times very light staining.. $8

B1163 In Friendship's Garden: The only stamp used was the saying. It is stained: $8

B1050 Blossoms & Leaves: 3 stamps lightly stained: $8

C1111 Designer Christmas: all stamps used 1-2 times stocking stained others light stain: $9

B1197 Live Is: I honestly don't remember using this set one stamp looks a tiny bit used $9

A1027 Floral Twist: 5 out of the 9 stamps have red stain the others were never used. $6

B1144 Cheerful Thoughts: 2 out of the 4 never used, other two stained and the Happy Birthday has been cut to make 2 stamps: "happy" & "Birthday": $6

Take all for $65 plus shipping and paypal fees. Or take them seperatly. I accept paypal and credit cards. Thanks.

What's new?

Well.. Not a lot. The QKD Gallery crashed yesterday or the day before.. And I was up until 2am fixing it last night.. ok.. so it wasn't fixable. I had to install a brand new one so we have to start all over. I can't tell you what a PITA that is. It's nearly 1:30 am now and I'm still up I've been surfing Tim Holtz's blog and visiting all his links. That man is talented I tell yah, my new goal is to meet him in the not so distance future. He'll be in CA this weekend I wish I could be there to meet him but unfortunaltey it looks like I'm not going anywhere until next year.

While I was uploading stuff to the gallery to make it look not so barron.. I came across some oldies well.. they're not sooooo old but they are not "fresh" creations I wanted to share with you before I log off for the night. I hope you'll enjoy them or re-enjoy them if you've seen them before.

I actually took an entire day off from work today! I locked myself, lucky and grannie in my studio and we kaboot-zed and I made this calendar book. It's pretty awesome if I can toot the old horn myself.. Take a look...

For the cover, I used some Fancy Pants Designs paper, a bunch of ribbon and rick rack.. Then I took some overly huge flowers I had and cut them in half and tombow'd them onto the front cover. Then I took Hollyhock ink from CTMH and stamped the 3 paisleys on them and used some crystal lacquer to add some shiny dots. The stamp set is a new release from Queen Kat Designs. You can find it here.

The inside cover is so me right now. :) I used the Royal Wings Stamp set from Queen Kat Designs along with the Dotty Scrolls #1. The scrolls are embossed in white on textured black cardstock. I stamped the wings in black ink on white cardstock and then stamped the red heart and cut them all out. The red heart was embellished with some crystal lacquer for polka dots. The wings are layered onto a black and white polka dot flower from Doodlebug and I added a pink ribbon for another touch of color.

For January, I used the new "January" Stamp from Queen Kat Designs, Prima flowers, crystal brads, polka dot ribbon, bazzill cardstock and doodlebug black n white paper. I took a little white rhinestone and placed it on each of the holidays throughout the book, so you'll see a little blurb on popular dates in the pics.

February was too much fun to make. I broke down and bought the Rock Star mini stack of cardstock at J's when it hit the shelves along with the All Dressed Up stack (which you'll see later). For this month, I used a couple of the papers from the Rock Star stack. I love foil on paper it looks so neat! I used the new Happy Skullz stamp set from Queen Kat Designs, Prima sprite flowers and a crystal brad.. And I embellished it with some fuzzy thin fiber. The ink is Watermelon from CTMH.

I got a little creative with Prima's in March! I used some almost olive colored large ones and cut one petal down to be a "stem" so I'd have a 4 leaf clover. I used the new fancy paisley stamp set from QKD and the new "March" word stamp.

Here's the All Dressed Up paper... It's so neat! I love the swirls and glitter in this collection. The colors are Ab-Fab! I kept April and May pretty simple.. I used the new calendar stamps from QKD for these two pages.

June is my favorite month of the book.. Can anyone guess why? :) I used some paper that I got last Christmas that came in a stack and now I can't remember who makes it. The stamps are from QKD.. The Hibiscus and the new "June" stamp from the calendar set. I used my new jumbo scallop scissors on the brown cardstock behind "June" and I tied a bit of ribbon to accent the page. Very simple and fun.

July was so simple to make yet I'm in love with the way it turned out. the flower is a new release coming out in December! So, stay tuned. It's HUGE and simply awesome!! I embossed the "July" stamp and the flower with Mirror Platinum Embossing powder from CTMH and embellished with some brads from AMM and a bit of ribbon and a staple.

August and September....
Man, Grannie went gaga when she saw these. :) I think that these two pages make up for my distressing obsession that he dislikes. :) Or at least it should. I used the doodled birds stamp set from QKD and the "August" and "September" stamps from QKD. The paper is from a pack I got.. probably 4 years ago and I have no clue in the world as to who's it is.

On the October page, I used the Making Memories Halloween 3 Collection that we featured in the October kit club at QKD. The pumpkin is from a special stamp set we had this year for Halloween. It came from the "Spooky Tree" stamp set. I used a wide orange ribbon for the knot and the "October" Stamp from the new line.

The November page used up some of my scraps from the November kit club @ QKD! That kit rocks!!! We still have a couple for sale. If you haven't seen it, rush over! and check out the gallery too. I uploaded a bunch of samples there from the kit. Anyhow, it uses the True paper from Fancy Pants Designs. I used some brown flowers and burgundy ribbon. The stamp is the new "November" stamp from the calendar collection at QKD.

Last but not least... December.. I used some very old paper from a "slab" OMG... That's a SIN right? Oh well... Call me a sinner! :) I used the "Merry Christmas" stamp from the Deer Stamp set @ QKD along with the snowflake from the Christmas Tree set.

I really hope you enjoyed seeing my year in advance. :) Do you have your year planned?

PS.. For the book base, I used a Chipboard Paper Bag Calendar Album from Queen Kat Designs.

Took the time!

I actually took the time today to sit down and learn how to make a blinkie! OMG, it's so easy. I've been putting it off for 4 years and I just decided that I had to do it today. I made I don't know how many blinkies today it's unreal. Here's some of what I made..

I'm so happy with how they came out. If you'd like to take the top one and add it to your blog or to a sigi on a message board, please feel free.

Long Day...

It's been a long day here. It's 11:30pm and I'm still up designing new stamps. Tonight I released 6 new stamps that were supposed to wait until December, but I just couldn't wait. QKD is running a contest to see what the customers want. The design team and I have been busy working on new stamp designs. All I have to say is I'm pooped! There are soooooo many new stamps coming out in December and January it's not even real.... I've been working on journaling stamps, Bev's been working on Asian, Pooka's been working on rock n roll stamps and Anam is getting in the groove of being with the team. I'm so excited to have Anam on board. She's so nice and I can't wait to debut her stamps in December.

QKD has 23 new stamp sets for November. This month, we will celebrate our 1st anniversary as a stamp line. It's been a huge learning curve for me as a stamp maker and designer.. but I think we've got the bubbles worked out and everything's going well. I receive lots of great comments about the stamps and all the designs. It's really neat to see that people truely apprecaite and love what we do. I hope you'll come by and check out the new stamps. And make sure to stop by the Queen Kat Designs blog. We'll have something fun going on for the anniversary later this month. Until next time... Live.. Laugh and Stamp Alot!

My Stamp Room

I get questions all the time about organizaion and my work area.. So I have photographed various parts of my 'room' that help explain how I organize. :) I didn't used to be this organized.. But last August, I was given this fabulous furniature to get myself cleaned up. :) I have an entire room that is dedicated to my stamp stuff. Below is a little diagram of the layout of my room.

I've got samples hanging on the wall between the two doors. When I get a RAK it's usually hung on my wall. My goal is to cover the remaining wall space in my room with samples. There's not a lot of room left, but there's some. :)

Here's a picture of my work table. It's always a mess, I can't seem to work with a clean space. If it's clean, my creativity itsn't flowing. I work in an area on my table that's usually smaller than 12X12!

This following picture is of a series of bookcases, a dresser and a cubbie thingy that my grannie gave me last August. We have matching furniature in our rooms. :) This thing holds sooo much. I'm lucky my room is in the basement because I think if I were to put everything upstairs, it'd fall through the floor.

Let's see.. these next pictures are of some storage carriers that I bought at the craft store about 5 years ago. I have 6 or 7 of them full of all kinds of embellishments..

These are pics of what I keep in my "dresser" that's in the big picture above. I used to have fiber in the bottom drawer (when these photos were taken) and now, I have MORE stamp CD cases in there. The fiber has been moved to plastic storage bins on a book case.

These are storage cabinets that sit behind my chair. I have all kinds of stuff in there and on it too. :)

These pictures are the storage things I have on top of the cabinets above. They are home made ink pad holders.. I think at last count, I had 150 ink pads and who knows how many embossing powders.

These pictures were taken recently... This is a picture of the corner that has my cropper hopper storage in it (royal waste of money!) and my floor lamp...

I hope you've been inspired to organize your room.. Or.. mess it up to get creative!