Happy New Year!

Looking back upon the past year, I'd have to say I am very blessed. I was given a great opportunity on my first design team, sketches4all, and get the opportunity to start of 2011 right, with a chance to be a Lipstick Chick and a guest designer spot at Sketches in Thyme. Amazing! I have met so many great people here in bloggy-land who have provided great inspiration to me. I thank you all, and wish you and your families all the best in 2011, much love, peace, health, and happiness.

In my personal life, a lot has happened. We operate on a very tight budget, and this was the first year we actually enjoyed ourselves! We took family vacations, and the kids had the best Christmas they've ever had. This was the first year hubby and I could afford to get each other Christmas gifts. Not that we ever cared whether we got them or not, it was just really nice to be able to give him something to put a smile on his face after all of his hard work supporting our family. This was the year I had to adjust to his new 3rd shift position, and as hard as it was, I did it.

For my last post for 2010, I'd like to show a couple of things I did yesterday, playing with my new Cricut Expression for the first time, an upgrade from the smaller Cricut I had, which I just donated to a crafty family member, glad to make her day :) I made this card first, using the Playtime cartridge. The friend I made this for loves frogs, so this was perfect (her birthday isn't until the 20th of January, I'm ahead of myself this year, YAY!) Paper used: glitter cardstock (hard to see in the pics), MAMBI Coastal Culture for the frog body, and pale yellow DCWV cardstock for his belly. I cut out a thin rectangle of black cardstock and adhered behind his eyes, and inked the body/lily pad to make them pop.

I saw this idea on another blog a month or so ago (wish I could give some credit here, but the holidays fried my brain, so I won't be able to link to the original project BOOOOO) and after doing my Christmas cards for the year, realized it was time to give it a go, mainly as I was tired of hunting around to find all of the scraps of paper containing addresses. I created this address book (currently incomplete, awaiting the pages to be placed inside and tied together with some ribbon) by cutting out cardboard for the cover/back and adhering kaisercraft Le Chateau papers (I am so in love with the colors of these papers!) The birdcage is another fantastic embellie from The Chip Chop Shop (embellie shop of the year in my opinion), with a twist tie and a Tim Holtz clasp/chain attached to the top. Bo Bunny ribbon. The tag that has "address book" stamped on it using my MM Rummage magnetic stamp set is from The Paper Salon.

Look at the detail on this birdcage...fabulous!

The inside front cover features a mailbox from the Doodlecharms cartridge, again with the Le Chateau kaisercraft papers, and the inside back cover has an envelope from the same cartridge, and a file tab from The Paper Salon.

TFL, and try to make 2011 the best year yet! Stay tuned, January is full of fun contests over at sketches4all, and watch for my new DT announcement post on the 6th. Be safe if you are going out tonight!