Stocking Twist

I found this great idea on Pinterest! It is suppose to look like a sled. I ran out Christmas eve to the local grocery picked up two King size Kit Kat's, a bag of the small Hershey chocolate minis, and a box of candy canes! Use a Cuttlebug tag punch made some tags and with a little shipping tape, holiday bow and fun ribbon I had this completed in a matter of minutes! It was a nice change than going over board on the pocket buying bags and bags of stuff to put in stocking.

Gift Wrap Ideas 2014

This year I had a few ideas for wrapping gifts and trying to make the holidays a little more special!

Thank You Regina!

"Do you want to build a snowman?"...This handmade card by Regina Cooper is adorable! I just love her coloring and creativity! She also does orders if anyone needs Valentines or any other holiday card! This card was mailed in a special packaging I knew when I opened the envelope this card was going to be something special!

Thank You Marybeth!

What a wonderful handmade card by Marybeth Gregor Love the way the Snowflake opens up to the sentiment! So very beautiful!

Holiday cards Received

Besides sparkly holiday lights and festive music, my favorite thing about the holidays is the mail and cards I receive! So far this year I have been blessed with great friends and family who have not forgotten to let me know that I am in their thoughts. May all of you have this same inner joy and happiness from someone who thinks and cares for you. :) Have a wonderful holiday season.

 Merry Christmas! 

Spread Cheer with Handmade Cards

I had a few more children on my list to send cards to this year some of which are having health issues and this may very well be their last Christmas.

 This season I wanted to give to others so I joined a group on Facebook called Show Them We Care and I have really been trying to do all I can which right now consists of just being able to send a handmade card. 

I hope in the future to be able to help others with more needy families during the holidays especially.

Cards For Children

It has been a very crafty and productive day today. I have quite a few crochet projects going at once or on my to do list but needed to finish some cards for a group request. I joined a Facebook group called Show Them You Care. In that group a teacher posted asking for cards for her 13 children in her class. Being the handmade card maker I am and wanting to use up more of my old scrap supplies I decided to whip up some cards with holiday erasers attached for the children. I hope they like them!

Saturdays Winter Cards

Halloween Stationary Set 4

Here is another Halloween set I whipped up this week. Both of these cards were in the same set of 4.

Thank You, Kim!

Another delightful surprise I found in the mailbox today was this beautiful postcard of a Bull Moose from my new pen pal Kim. Isn't he majestic! I just love Happy Mail!

Thank You, Regina!

 

Regina, Regina! She's my friend! IF anyone can make me smile, Regina can!

Regina is such a sweetheart. I sent her a crochet Snoopy a while back for goodie pack she sent me of paper crafting supplies, sticky tape etc. .. What did she do she sent me this outstanding work of art she made, the beautifully designed and colored card above and this adorable Snoopy charm. She knows how much I love my Snoopy! Thank you so much Regina! I was having such a bummer day until I checked my mailbox and found this surprise!

Deco Envelope 5

Another doodled deco envelope for a pen pal. I hope she likes it. I added more to it but didn't get another photograph taken. I added grass around the tent stakes, and I stamped Snoopy carrying a letter passed the fire. I have bought stationary but I wanted to add some fun to the letter that my new pen pals receive. Since starting the pen pal group I have tried to send each of my pen pals a hand written letter on regular lined notebook paper and included a deco envelope. For the first few pen pals that I missed, I plan on eventually doing something for them like this to mix it up. I want to send something fun and different every time so when they see my letter they immediately smile!

Halloween Stationary Set 3

Today's project was an Autumn themed stationary set.

Halloween Stationary Set 2

This will be the cards for a set of 4 Halloween note cards.

Pen Pal Envelope 4

Really wanted to decorate my latest pen pal letter with a Fall theme. So I decided Pumpkins and spiders were perfect!

Card Fronts Need a Home

I finished piecing together a handful of card fronts I had made during my card design team days. This was one of the card fronts that I gave a home, as a finished easel card.

World Card Making Day

Red Envelopes

What an awesome day it is when you can get some retail therapy in at your local craft store. I went for yarn but I came out with more than yarn, like these adorable red stationary. You cannot see the stationary, I know. But look at these pretty red envelopes! I also found the sticky back ribbon and an Opaque marker. This would look great on holiday cards! The stationary was only $1! The pen was the most expensive item I ended up purchasing on this visit. Two special pen pals will receive my letters on this newly purchased stationary! As for the spiderman stamps, I did not pick those out, the Post Office Kiosk gave me them...lol!

I

Halloween Stationary Set 1

Halloween Stationary Set of 4 cards.

Pen Pal Envelope 1, 2, & 3

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I have searched across the internet for Pen Pal ideas and one of the first ideas was decorating my boring envelopes and turning them into something that any of my pen pal recipients would be overjoyed to receive in their mail boxes!  So these are the first two I have made and will be mailed very soon!

2

3

Celebration at DS4J!

Made a card for the latest "Celebration" challenge at Digistamps4Joy! Celebrating the Success of my daughter landing a new job in less than a week! We know for certain hopefully by Wednesday!

House Mouse Safari Swap

Thank you so much Marybeth for such and adorably cute card! I just love it!

Blog Love

Just stopping in to show all of my followers some blog hopping love! I may appear MIA for a bit but I have been busy digging into a multiple of crafts! I cannot show you just yet, what I have been working on because they are all for the various crafty swaps I have joined and my recipients cannot see what I have made till they receive  the items or that would kill the element of the surprise! 

I have joined two card swaps at the Paper Digital Art Center with the peeps in the House Mouse group, I just love those little mieces to pieces! I do ! 

I stopped along the way to my favorite cooking and baking challenge website called Daring Cooks. I participated in the most recent baking challenge making Chimney Cake. Please hop on over to my cooking blog at Aunt B's Cookin' see what messes I make in the kitchen.

On Ravelry, a site for the yarn enthusiasts of all kinds. I joined a 12" square block crochet a long. I have been a tad behind on those squares so I have whipped up April & May just yesterday to be exact! I will post pics later. At the end of the year I will put all the squares together and Afghan 2014 complete!

I couldn't stop there. No, no, no, I joined a few crochet groups on Facebook. Oh yes I did! We are also having fun crocheting a square and mailing to our swap partners every month. #2 Afghan of the year will be complete by the beginning of 2015. 

We also swap other items every month of various kinds but all are crochet. And how could I forget, the temperature scarf we have been working on and swapping every month for everyone to add their temps based on a color chart for temperatures. It is is so colorful I look forwrd to getting mine at the end of year and seeing the colors from everyone around the nation!

With all of the crochet projects I have been getting myself into, I have picked up a few customers along the way requesting crochet items! It couldn't get any better than this! Or can it? I hope to find out! Stay tuned!

Runner Up at DS4J

What a nice surprise! I am a runner's up over at DS4J blog challenge!

I wanted to whip up a card to try and get that card making mojo back and had no thoughts on winning or being a runner up at all! What was starting out as an aggravating day trying to figure out the darn TV remote control has now turned into a wonderful day with this bit of pick me up news! Thanks everyone!

Baby Boy Gift Tag

Using one of my Digistamps4Joy digi images. I made a baby Boy gift tag to go onto the baby boy afghan I am working on at the moment. The challenge over on the DS4J blog is all about "NEW" so what better to pick than a newborn baby! This is the first card I have made in 8 months and I feel very rusty, to say the least.  My photographing skills are lacking along with my card making mojo, So when I get my hand made light box back together I will change out the photo with a better picture, as for the mojo well all I can say is practice, practice, practice!  :)

Woot! I'm Back!

Yes I am back! I was without internet service for the last few months and could only connect to free wifi from local restaurants. The connections were not good so checking any blogs was definitely out of the question. So today I updated my blog postings to show you all what I have been doing to stay busy while without the world wide web to occupy my time.

Easter Card Happiness!

Thank you Mary Gregor for sending me this adorable Easter card! My first card of the season! I was so happy to open this adorable card up and see such a pleasant surprise! Thank you so much for thinking of me and lifting up my spirits! I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend with their family or friends!

A Sad Day...

It is a very sad day today. I decided to take a step down from Digistamps4Joy's design team until I get my personal life in order again. I absolutely adore the ladies here and would highly recommend the digistamps as well as being a designer, designing cards for Margaret Kieser. She is one of the sweetest kindest people I have ever met online in the crafty world. I am truly thankful she gave me the opportunity to do what I love, designing cards as well as being a part of a team again! I have renewed hope for design teams thanks to Digistamps4Joy and the wonderful ladies on my team. Thank you all for the many EGO boosts I so desperately needed...lol! Thank you all for being there for me if it weren't for you ladies I may have gone insane, it is a true blessing to know that there are still caring, wonderful people in this world! 

Puttin' On the Glitz

I was selected to be the Bombshell stamps January PinUp!  Above is the card I made with glitter and Clear grafix paper!

Glitter and Sparkle!

It is time for a NEW challenge at Digistamps4Joy! This card was inspired by my daughters best friend since before Kindergarten who recently married on December 7th. Her gorgeous wedding dress was white with some gold accents, we love you Darissa! Congratulations! 

Come on lets shine in 2014 with some Glitter and Sparkle! Show us your twinkling cards at the DS4J Blog! I'll see you there!

New Release Sunday!

Another Beautifully drawn image by Margaret Kieser. You can find it in the DS4J store! My card reads on inside I LOVE YOU.. Till the end of TIME!

Bombshell Pinup!

Thats right I am a January 2014 Bombshell Pinup!  

Angela Bonanno is Bombshell's Ms. January!


1. Brief info about yourself, including your name, where you live, your family (if you want), etc. 
I'm Angela Bonanno and I live in Edmond, Oklahoma. I have two young adult children, a son and a daughter.


2. How long have you been stamping and/or crafting?
I have been crafting all my life and had an alphabet stamp set at a very young age but I really dove in to stamping and card making in 2008 when I decided to join a card swap for the soldiers.

3. What are your favorite Bombshell sets and why?
I love the Bombshell Angel set! She reminds me of 50's era and I love vintage!

4. What kind of projects do you like to do?
I most make cards and crochet.

5. What are your favorite coloring mediums?
I use Copic Markers.

6. Describe your crafting "style".
I don't have a style I just go with it!

7. Describe your crafting process. Do you start with a stamp set? A sketch? A technique you want to use?
 All of the above! I like to try new techniques and love new stamps to play with! Sometimes I have crafter's block and need to look at a sketch for inspiration!

8. Do you have any other hobbies?
I have many hobbies and am a master of none. I get bored easily. I like to paint resin figurines and have canvas to attempt acrylic painting. I am a beginner crocheter, sewer, hand embroiderer, recently machine embroiderer as well. As I said a beginner of all, master of none! :)

9. Free for all including little facts, etc. about you.
I have three blogs. My main blog is for my crafts. I also started a camping blog because my husband and I love camping and RVing. I thought by joining some cooking challenge groups it would help me improve my cooking skills so I started a blog to journal my progress. I didn't keep up with the classes. Go figure.

The challenge will be posted next Wednesday, January 8th!