HIYA!

**** PLEASE GO HERE FOR MY CATSHY CRAFTS FELT FLOWERS GIVEAWAY***



A quick card featuring more of Cathy's felt flowers! Aren't they so cool? These particular ones are adhered by just some glue dots. Please click on the link above for more deets on the giveaway I'm hosting.

Cathy is giving away some felt flowers similar to what's shown above to the winner. If you haven't seen her shop, click here for the felt flowers section. **SWOON!**

(Stamp is Hey Kaylee from SOG).

Sorry to post and run. It's dinner time, and the little one is cranky from teething!

Love,

Yellow and Gray...I love you!

****Please go HERE for my CatShy Crafts felt flowers GiveAway.****



Hi peeps! How are y'all?

For my card today, I did bridal shower creation for a colleague. Her wedding colors are gray and yellow (one of my current fave combos by the way). Pardon my coloring. I colored her late at night, under poor light, and need to refill my E00 and E000.



On the bottom right, I used another one of Cathy's felt flowers. They are hand-sewn and designed specifically for paper crafters. They are really very beautiful and intricately-made. Don't forget that I'm hosting a give-away of her lovely goodies here.

Thanks also for stopping by and leaving comments during the SCRS Anniversary blog hop. So much fun! Aren't Sparkle's new stamps cute?

See you soon!

A CatShy Crafts GiveAway.

**This Give-Away is now CLOSED.***

Hi all!

I'm ecstatic to announce that I am hosting a CatShy Crafts Giveaway in my l'il ole blog!!



For those of you who don't know about Catshy Crafts, it is an Etsy Shoppe that is run/ designed/ and made by Cathy Pascual.

I met Cathy about 8 years ago in the now retired scrapbooking forum/ gallery of SIS TV (anybody remember this?). I've always admired Cathy's creativity, her great design aesthetic, and her talent for layering digital embellishments! I've personally felt a connection to Cathy because of her children and her awesome eye for photography and mad party-decorating skills! You could read more about Cathy P. in her About Me section of her beautiful blog.

If you've been visiting my place of crafting bliss for a while, you may have seen a lot of Cathy's work. She specializes in felt, and I really love her flowers! She even takes the time to package her items beautifully!



Here are some of my older cards that incorporated her felt flowers/ leaves/ heart as the main embellishment.





















Aren't they amazing? I love their textures & dimensions! They add so much to my cards! And they could be used for scrapbook lay-outs, altered projects, anything really!

An example of the giveaway, although her items may vary (pic from Cathy):



Now, the rules:

To enter the giveaway, you would need to visit Cathy's etsy shop and leave a comment on my blog on your favorite item in her shop.

For additional entries, you could Like her shop on Facebook or Subscribe to her blog or Tweet about the Giveaway. You could also blog about my giveaway and link it back to this post. The first pic on this post is meant to be shared publicly and is from Cathy herself.

So just to be clear, comment on your fave item from Catshy Crafts & tell me if you've done any of the other four items for additional entries. The deadline is August 18th at 12 AM PST. Stay tuned for new cards featuring more of Cathy's felt flowers in the next coming week. And make sure you come back tomorrow for something extra special! :)

Toodles,

Smooches from Me to You!

Hi all!

I made this card a while back but I haven't posted it. It was for a dear friend who was having a tough time. I used Wryn and Friends with a Paper Smooches sentiment. And the beautiful felt heart was made by Cathy of CatShy Crafts.

Stay tuned! In the next couple of weeks, I'll be hosting a give-away from her amazing shop!

Smooches!

Tanya's card.

Didn't April just fly by?...

Pic is from my iPhone app Project 365.
I have another card for my lovely bloggy friend, Tanya. Tanya and I 'met' when we were team mates for a challenge over at TGF about two and half years ago. Since then, we've been sending each other cards and visiting each other's blogs on a regular basis. It's so nice to be able to share this hobby with women who completely understand the love for making cards! :)

A few months ago, Tanya talked about how she hasn't been able to blog because the weather has been nice and that she had been playing outdoors with her family. I had been feeling sad about not having the time to craft between my responsibilities at home and at work. And although I was still meeting my goal of posting/ crafting three times a week, I was envious of those who were making cards daily . T's post had convinced me that it was ok not to be able to do everything and that I was faring well with my one-word this year (at least in this department :)).

Thought these outdoors-y papers/ stickers/ brad from American Crafts were perfect. Doesn't SOG's Heartsy Mae look like she's thinking about planning the day's excursions? Isn't that just like a mom? Hee hee! I hope you had a great bday, T!
Toodles,

Current Events.

Hello, everyone!
I colored this image of Wryn - Grow a Little Love a while back so I am glad to finally make a card with her.
I'm entering this card for Tiddly Inks' Challenge 85 - Saying Thanks!
It's also for the Deconstructed Sketch No. 50. This sketch was tricky for me as i wanted to show most of the Cosmo Cricket papers.

In other news, I received this wonderful award from Cathy.

The Liebster Award is usually passed on from a small blog to another small blog (under 200 followers) to help spread the love! I'm so grateful you thought of me, Cathy! I am so honored!
Cathy and I 'met' in SIS TV, which unfortunately, have closed. I have always admired her scrapbook pages, and am especially impressed by her digital scrapping and photography. Cathy has recently opened up her Etsy store, Catshy Crafts. I really love her felt creations so I hope you check out her store! She and I have a little collaboration cooking up, and I can't wait to tell/ tease ya more about it later! Hee hee!

And now, to pass on the Liebster Award...
1. My BFF'ers, Jo of JoBoogie Stamping.
2. My good bloggy friend, Sheena of KanataNewf - Time Well Wasted.
3. My darling scrappy friend, Ady of Live, Laugh, Love, Scrap.
4. My fellow bliss-ful friend, Lalo of Crafting in La-La Land.
5. And my new cute friend, Eva of Crafting This and That.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Steampunk Precious.

Good Saturday morning, everyone!
I'm hoping that my dear bloggy friend, Sheena, has received this birthday card already. If not, sorry to ruin the surprise, my friend!
I know that Sheena likes Steampunk, and so I used my Tiddly Inks image of Precious. Now, I am totally enamored by Steampunk -- if you don't know what that is, go to Wikipedia. I first heard / saw about it when Tori Spelling planned a Steampunk wedding. It was really very cool!
I used Deconstructed Sketch 45. It was a pretty old sketch, but I'm so glad it's still open today! :)
And lastly, I am sorry this post is so short. With this new blogger format, I'm having trouble uploading pics so I'm going to have to talk about the award I received another time. Boo!
Have a great weekend!

A Remembrance.

Good morning, everyone!

I am doing pretty good with my goal of posting here three times a week. These last couple of weeks have been pretty difficult though as far as crafting and blogging as my two kiddies have been sick.

First, Mattie and now, Oli :(. In fact, I am home from work because Oliver still has a bad cough and fevers. The last two nights (& my hubby, the night before those) have been spent sleeping upright on our couch with the babe on my chest or in my arms. My back is killing me, especially since work has also been really busy.

But you gotta do what you have to do. In this case, I would just about do anything to have my baby back to his normal, jolly, healthy self. Holding him comforts him and allows him to breath better. I think he's starting his way to recovery though...cross your fingers.

Anyway, for my card today, I made a sympathy/ support card for someone dear to my heart. I have to warn you though that my post here will get more somber so I'd understand if you stop reading here.




I made this card to show sympathy but also hope to my darling friend who just had a miscarriage. She and her DH were trying for a short while, and was ecstatic when they got pregnant. Only the pregnancy was cut short and left my friend devastated.



I wanted to make her a card and fill it with words to make her feel better, even though I know that nothing I or anybody else could take the pain away. I also wanted to be there for her in another way for I had gone through the same thing years before.



I also suffered a miscarriage right after our wedding in 2008. I wrote about the loss vaguely in my post here so you may remember it if you had been following my blog for awhile.

It was hard for me to talk about it here. I was still grieving, and I also thought it shouldn't be discussed in such a public place. But now, years later, I have coped with it and would hope that my experience would somehow help another person.

How I longed to talk about with someone else. It's sort of a taboo topic. Some don't consider a pregnancy that early (mine was 6 weeks) a baby yet. People told me I was lucky that it happened early, that it was just 'mother nature,' that it was not meant to be. I know they meant well and that they were right. But it was still painful and horrible for me. At the time, there were a lot of couples having 'honeymoon babies' as well. I didn't even know how much we wanted a baby until we lost her/ him.

A colleague had shared her story with me a couple of years ago. She said letting balloons go helped. I also read about planting plants. I think giving it closure is easier when you do these things.



I got together with my dear friend, and we wrote letters to our angels. Mattie helped me by drawing around the paper. We tied them to the end of balloons that my friend bought.



I chose a paper that had stars because the event was altogether not a sad one for me. It symbolized hope for my friend and I, and sort of see-you-later. My friend believed in reincarnation. And we both believe in angels and that things happen for a reason.





We lit candles, and I said a prayer I found on the internet for my friend. It was also for me. We took pictures and let the balloons fly.

**Note: we found out later that these balloons were the wrong ones for this. They are not safe for the environment, and often go down and get tied to electric wires. What I really wanted to use were those tissue-paper lantern balloons that are lit up with candles - used in the movie "Tangled."







It was an emotional but joyous feeling to watch those balloons and letters fly. For me, I finally had some closure and was glad I got to memorialize the baby lost from my first pregnancy. I highly recommend doing this not just for miscarriages but for any type of loss you encounter.

My friend wrote me a note of thanks, and we will both cherish this day.

Thanks so much for listening. Hugs to you all!

Faves for Christmas 2011

Hi y'all! No crafty post today... although it's heavy with pics!

Just wanted to show you my favorite moments of the Holiday Season so far.

It includes new outings to a nearby Global Wonderland and the traditional trip to Union Square in San Francisco.

A lot are of my parents' decorations in their home (courtesy of my sis).

There's Mattie's Preschool concert and his first gift for me (awwww).

The homemade wreath on our front door was bought from Cathy's Etsy shop (Catshy Crafts). Isn't it stunning? I first 'met' Cathy on SisTV, and she is one talented gal! (Ignore the extra yarn hanging pls...I should've cut that part off!).

Then there are my fave decorations at home. Our homemade ornaments. 'Argyle' candles. Cool wrapping from my beloved Borders (miss this store :(). Mattie's projects. LOVE!


























I really need to do a December Daily album. So busy though...maybe in January??

Are you all ready for Christmas? I'm not! :) LOL!