It SNOWED in Danville

We woke up the other morning to snow in the yard and on the roof tops. Let me tell you, that is a big deal here. Mt. Diablo will get snow and we can enjoy the view, but it NEVER snows here. The last time it did was like in 1976.

Greg predicted that it might, being SO cold the night before but I was not a believer. The boys just had to go outside and play in it while it lasted. The snow was there in the morning, gone in the afternoon.

Hayden & Greg enjoyed a snowball fight and then some hot Cocoa to warm them up. Calyn enjoyed the view from the window, staying toasty warm inside.

Guess we will have to wait another 33 years for the next snow!

Elyse

Mini Pizza Box and Notecards

Hi Stampers,

I made this mini pizza box and 3x3 notecards for my Stamper's club last month. Really cute little gift to give someone in the office or one of your friends. There is a great tutorial on SplitCoast for the pizza box.
















Materials:

Tree Trimmings set
c/s: Garden Green, Real Red, Chocolate chip, VV
ink: Garden Green, Real Red, Chocolate chip
accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Real Red ribbon, Chocolate Chip ribbon, sticky strip, DSP Merry Moments

Enjoy,
Elyse

Stamping on Tiles, oh my.

I have been wanting to try this stamping on tiles for sometime. I finally decided to get it done this month so that I could give them as Christmas gifts. It is SO easy and the result is amazing. They really look good and are so personal.























Materials used:

4x4 tumbled tiles
Craft ink
Chalks
Acrylic sealer
cork or other for "feet"
Sets used: Asian Artistry, Friends 24-7

Start by cleaning the tile. Make sure it is dry. Stamp your image using Stazon. Color in with the chalks. I found the small tip applicators that come with the chalk the best. You could also use Q-Tips. Once you have the image colored as desired, spray with sealer. Do this outside in a well ventilated area, this stuff is powerful!

Presto, you are done. I did three per set and then used Stampin' Up! 1' ribbon to finish off.

Enjoy,
Elyse

Santa Claus is coming to town

Santa Claus came to town to make sure all the little kiddies were bring nice and to ask them what they want for Christmas.

Hayden was so excited for his visit with the man in Red this year. He got right up there on his lap and started going over his list of things that he wanted Santa to bring.

Calyn on the other hand, not so much. I could tell by the way her body sucked into mine and her fingers made dents on my arm, that there was no way that she was sitting on this guys lap this year. So, Mom got to be included in the Santa pictures this year.

Oh well, there is always next year!

Enjoy,
Elyse

Halloween, take three

This is the last of the Halloween posts. Calyn is Rasta! We put this wig on her head and she went all Reggae on us!

Ms.Piggy (AKA Mia), Lamby (AKA Calyn) and Mr. Punk Rocker (AKA Hayden). They took a moment before going out trick-r-treating to have their picture taken.

Halloween, take two

We were at friends for a Halloween party and Calyn had snuck into the dining room and was really quiet. On the dining room table were all the desserts for the evening. I had made cupcakes with gummy worms and crushed chocolate cookies on top, making it look like dirt. Well, she helped herself to one of the worms and this picture is her enjoying that worm! The look on her face was priceless.






This is Calyn thoroughly enjoying dancing. Just look at that smile! It melts hearts!

Dasher

Hi Stampers,

I made this card last month for my stampers club. I cased the layout from a card on SplitCoast. Love the new DSP Christmas Cocoa Specialty.

I used the Shimmer paint on Dasher's antlers.

Materials:

Stamp Set: Dasher, Delightful Decorations
C/S: Close to Cocoa, Ruby Red, Old Olive, WW
Ink: Old Olive, Close to Cocoa
Accessories: circle punch, Flower punch, Rhinestone, Taffeta ribbon, Shimmer paint, DSP Christmas Cocoa Specialty, Big Shot, Textured Impression folder Petals-a-Plenty

Enjoy!
Elyse

Halloween

This is my Punker son. He wanted to be a punk rocker for Halloween. We went to a Halloween party and another boy was Michael Jackson. Well, you can see here he is stricking a pose as Michael. He thinks he is too cool in these shades!























This is Calyn wearing the Michael Jackson wig. She is too cute!

More Delightful Decorations

This is another card I made using the Delightful Decorations stamp set. I used the Shimmer paint again but this time I stamped the image in the ink and then turned it over and dabbed the Shimmer paint on it before stamping it onto the paper.

Same colors and accessories as my last Delightful Decorations post.

Enjoy,
Elyse

More Disneyland Pictures

Pictures of the kids waiting in line for "Mr. Toad's Wild ride" and Mommie and the kids on the rocket ride in TomorrowLane.

Delightful Decorations

This is a card that I made for my club meeting last month and then did not use. I used Delightful Decortation stamp set from the Holiday mini, along with the ornament punch that matched that set. Thank you Stampin' Up! for that punch. I just loath cutting things out!

I also used the shimmer paint on the stamped image. I used a dauber to add the shimmer paint to the image once it was stamped on the cardstock. I inked the small flower in shimmer paint and then stamped on the colored cardstock. It gives a cool shiny versamark effect.

Materials:

Stamps: Delightful Decorations
C/S: Old Olive, WW
Ink: Old Olive, Real Red
Accessories: Ornament punch, Shimmer paint, DSP Christmas Cocoa Speciality, Gold cord

Enjoy!
Elyse

Disneyland in October

I promised my Mom that I would get some photos uploaded so that she could see the kids, they are in Mexico until mid December. This is our Disneyland trip that we took October 22nd. We went with another family that we are good friends with. A great time was had by all. This is our 3rd consecutive year going to Disneyland in the fall. The parks are decorated for the fall with pumpkins, scarecrows and all the fall things, even the characters are done up for the Halloween/Fall season. Here we are with Minney Mouse and Calyn is in her "Minney" ears.

Hayden smiles as we wait in line for a ride. The last picture is our of family outside "Mr. Toad's wild ride.

Enjoy!
Elyse

Top Note Halloween Treat Holder

Hi Stampers,

Another Halloween share. This is a gift bag topper using the Top Note die. I also used the Spooky Treats rub-on's. I was able to rub onto the the plastic bag, pretty cool. I took a couple of Peppermint Patties and used the scallop & circle punches to cover them up. Too cute!

Materials:

Stamp Set: Batty for you, From the Crypt
Ink: Perfect Plum, Basic Black
c/s: Perfect Plum, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, WW
Accessories: Scallop & Circle punches, Spooky Treats rub-on's, Top Note die, Designer & Modern label punch, plastic bags

Enjoy,
Elyse

Halloween Matchbox

Hi Stampers,

This is a project I made for my Stamper's club last month. It was all about Halloween. We made 4 projects: two cards and two treat containers. This is one of the treat containers. You can fit about 5 of the small size chocolate bars in here.

I used the Spooky Treats rub-ons and added a rhinestone to the eye. I popped the rhinestone out of the metal so that it was a more flat fit on the box.

Materials:

C/S: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Matchbox die, Spooky Treats rub-ons, rhinestone, Pumpkin Pie Striped ribbon, Cast-a-Spell DSP, Sticky Strip

Enjoy,
Elyse

Halloween Franky

This card I made for a demonstrator swap that I am part of this weekend. The card base is the Big Shot Top Note die. You fold the cardstock and insert it into the Big Shot. You can see a tutorial on how to do this on Patty Bennett's blog. She posted this last year around Christmas.













I thought it would be cute if Frankenstein was the card himself, rather than him popped into a base of the card. Hope I explained that right.

This would also be cute using Cello bags, I might do that for my son's class. I bet the kids would love it!

Super easy. Layer the black c/s on the Green Galore before running it through the Big Shot, that will ensure his "hair" fits perfectly with his head! I used Dotto adhesive so that I could take it off to "cut" his hair.

I sponged his eye lids, nose and around the edges of his face with Green Galore.

Materials:

Ink: Green Galore
C/S: WW, BB, Green Galore
Accessories: Big Shot, Top Note Die, 3/4" & 1" circle punches, Round Tab Punch, Signo White Gel Pen, Sponges, Basic Black Stamp-n-Write marker

Have fun with this!
Elyse

Spooky Halloween

This is a card that I made for my stamper club. We did four projects, three using the Spooky Treats rub-ons. I found this layout on SplitCoast and thought it worked well with the skeleton image from the set "From the Crypt". Wondering were the birds on the ribbon came from? They are rub-ons! Yep, you can rub-on to our Grosgrain ribbon. How cool is that?! The "Oct 31" is also a rub on. Rub on to the cardstock and then punch out.







Materials:

Set: From the Crypt
C/S: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, WW
Ink: Stazon Black
Accessories: Spooky Treats Rub-ons, DSP Cast-a-Spell, Old Olive Grosgrain ribbon, 1/4" punch (which I did not realize was retired!), Large Oval Punch

Enjoy,
Elyse

Medallion Card

This is another card that I made for my Stamper's club in August. Again, I got the idea for this card from the Great Patty Bennett.

Materials:
s/s: Medallion
c/s: Crushed Curry, WW
ink: Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Rich Razzleberry ribbon, Razzleberry Lemonade DSP, Designer Hardware Grommet, Jumbo Brad, Modern Label Punch, sponge

Happy Everything

This is a card that I made for my Stamper's club in August, yes, a little late in posting. I cased the lay out from Patty Bennett, changing up the colors.

Materials:
s/s: On a Pedestal
c/s: Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry, Chocolate Chip, WW
Ink: Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: DSP Razzleberry Lemonade, Crushed Curry ribbon, Scallop punch, circle punch, handheld 1/16" circle punch

Enjoy!
Elyse

Pillow Box Happy Birthday

I made this birthday pillow box for a friend. It is hard to see in the photo, but I used the Texturz plates before sending it through the Big Shot using the Pillow Box die.

Materials:
s/s: Bitty Birthday
c/s: Tempting Turquiose, WW, Close to Cocoa
Ink: Basic Black, Close to Cocoa, Tempting Turquiose
Accessories: Texturz Plate Backgrounds 1, Big Shot, Pillow Box die, scallop punch, circle punch, white gel pen, handheld punch, Organza ribbon, Linen thread.

Enjoy,
Elyse

Halloween Tin

This is a Tin that I bought at Richard's and decorated with SU's new "Cast-a-Spell" DSP. I also used the Halloween rub-ons "Spooky Treats". Hope you like it.

Materials:

Cast-a-Spell DSP, Old Olive c/s
Spooky Treats Rub-ons
Old Olive Ribbon 5/8" Grosgrain
Circle Scissors Plus & Glass Mat
Silver brads

Hayden's 1st day of School

Hayden started Kindergarten on August 25th. He was so nonchalant about his first day. I think that Dad & I were more nervous & excited than he was. We took pictures at the house before getting into the car and then at the school. His school is Vista Grande Elementary. We had him stand in front of the school sign.




























There is a picture of Hayden standing on "California" on the map of the states that is in the middle of the school yard. And another of him in his class working on a project. The teachers(he has two, they job share) had the parents spend the first hour in the class, so we got to watch them do some projects, have circle time and then recess. It was cool. My baby boy has started school. Cry, Cry!

Thanks for visiting,
Elyse

Sitting on my Nest?

More photos from our trip to Monterrey. The first is a confused little Penguin. He is sitting on a next with a fake egg in it. The handlers said that they do this in order to get the Penguins ready in case any do end up mating. This Penguin and his mate take turns sitting on the nest

This photo is of Grammie & Hayden. He had such a good time looking at all the fishes and such.

More swaps...

This is the last of my Clubbers swaps that we did several months ago. The one on the left was done by Ronda Jaramillo.

The second "birthday" card is by Cindy Colombo.

The last was created by Jeanann Birder.

Hello there!

This is a card that I did for one of my club projects a few months back. I will start posting soon after the project has been completed along with materials....

This card was something that was pretty much cased from SplitCoast.

Enjoy!

Sea Otter at play!

More photos of our trip to Monterrey. This picture is of the very playful Sea Otter, this little guy was having so much fun chasing his tail. You can see Hayden's reflection in the glass, very neat.

The next photo is Hayden sitting in a viewing window looking into one of the big Sea tanks.














This last photo is of me and the kids. We are in a little cave that looks into the Sea Otter tank. Calyn was really freaked out about going in until Hayden & I got in and showed her it was no big deal!

The Secret Life of Seahores @ The Monterey Bay Aquirium

My Mom & I took the kids to Monterey the week after Calyn's birthday. On the first day, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They have a SeaHorse exhibit there called "the Secret Life of Seahorses". Tons of different types in all sizes.

Before kids, Greg & I dove a lot. Seahorese were one of my favorite little creatures to seek out in the ocean.

This is s great exhibit. If you can, you should go see it!

The first photo is of tiny little seahorses, but it is hard to tell, because they are all small. They are about 1/2 inch long.
The second photo is of a bigger "horse" swimming. Check out the fin on his back. That is how they propel themselves through the water.

The last picture is of me & the kids in front of a statue of a male seahorse. Did you know that make seahorse give birth to live babies and then watch over them? Really cool stuff!