we *THINK* we may have found our house!

let me just say that one more time, because i frankly, i enjoy typing it, and i also enjoy reading it in print,

"we think we may have found 

OUR HOUSE!!!"

♥♥♥

yeah. pretty flippin' exciting, i can tell you. now, having said that, settlement is still quite a long way away, and in the informal poll i've taken recently of our acquaintances, almost no one we know actually wound up completing the deal and living in the very first house for which they signed a contract. huh. how 'bout that. so we're trying not to let ourselves be crushed if, for whatever reason, the deal fails to go through. although how one could possibly become committed enough to a property to be willing to go hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt WITHOUT simultaneously forming such a strong attachment as to not be crushed, is a mystery to me. but we're trying to be flexible and remember that when the house we think is the right house REALLY IS the right house, it will all work out in the end.

the other day my aunt asked me if i thought that after we move i will feel a bit sad or nostalgic for our apartment, and without really thinking, i delivered an emphatic, "nope!" having had a bit more time to consider this answer, i'd like to revise it... to an even more emphatic, "NOPE!!!"

of course, i will miss our neighbors, but i plan to keep in touch with them. i will miss the lambertville area, but we will still have plenty of ties to bring us back, and we'll only be about 25 minutes further away. i will miss being able to take my exercise walk outdoors on days with nice weather. i will miss having a GINORMOUS walk-up attic in which i can stow things for an indefinite period. i will miss being able to thoroughly clean my entire home in one afternoon.* i will miss having a landlord to call when something big and expensive breaks in the basement,** and i'll specifically miss this particular landlord, tom, who's become a good friend over the years, and whose behavior/management style is unfailingly fair, polite and ethical. and don't get me wrong, i am grateful that we had a safe, clean, inexpensive, convenient place to live all these years. but i'm ready to move on.

though, apparently, according to lovely husband jeff, BEFORE we can move into the new house, we have to PACK UP ALL OUR STUFF and take it up there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! holy carp! surely THAT cannot be right??!?! if you'll excuse me for a moment darlings, i need to call the lawyer back and see if we can’t arrange to have that bit be the seller’s responsibility!!! :) :) :)

*not that i do it often enough, but the capability is there, which is a sort of moral high ground, no?
**when relaying the news to that gentleman, i mentioned that factor and asked if i could STILL call him... he's getting back to me... :)

make your own challenge!

this week at shopping our stash we have one of my favorite types of challenge, in which miss carla has given us a few different options, and we get to decide which way to go. gotta love that, right?! so without futher ado i present:

challenge #87:

valentines/hearts/love/red

YOU CHOOSE!

being somewhat over-achievery... and also a full-on wise guy, lol... i did a bit of all of the above! :)

(patterned paper + typewriter sticker: american crafts; hello + arrow stickers: echo park; hearts: creative imaginations; tapes: love my tapes, recollections, freckled fawn, making memories; red cardstock + gluetape runner: staples; ink: colorbox; other: sewing machine) 

this is the kind of card i revel in, stash-wise: i've got some of my oldest stuff (the heart stickers and bright red 8.5x11 staples-brand cardstock!) mixed with some of my newest stuff (the 5th and frolic arrow paper plus amy tangerine dimensional sticker) and i've thrown in some of my beloved but not-used-enough washi tapes for good measure. also i'm quite excited that for the first time in a few years, i've managed a valentine specifically for lovely husband jeff which he did not see being made, so that when i pop it in the mail to our PO box (where he is in charge of mail retrieval) in the middle of next month, he will be completely surprised, wahey!

i used this week's rather fab retro sketch, though i rotated it 90 degrees, counter-clockwise:

and now you will surely want to be heading over to SOS, post haste, because the DT have really excelled themselves this week! ciao for now, darlings! ♥

so what was in the big box of awesome florida thriftiness??!

they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and i hope that's true because i just don't think i *HAVE* the thousand words in me right now! so here ya go:

basically i found at least a little bit of practically every type of vintage-paper goodness i quest for on these thrifting occasions: sheet music, children's books, old sewing patterns, maps, a bit o' christmassy stuff, flashcards and playing cards; this time we also lucked into some FAB stickers and vintage gift wrap, as well!

miss gina most graciously packed everything up and mailed it, so i wouldn't go over on my luggage weight flying home! she sent this AMAZING card, as well, which i'm making space for in the area near my desk that i reserve for handmade treasures!

speaking of treasures, last year gina painted a pair of gorgeous canvas shoes for herself and i was soooooooooo jealous that she made me my very own set!!! and i ♥LOVE♥ them!!! want to see?

gorgeous or WHAT??!!! now i am even more anxious for summer to come, so i can wear these babies every single day!

another reason i'll be happy about the change of seasons is because the temps here in new jersey were in the low teens all week, and whereas i realize that my lovely canadian darlings consider that sort of thing practically A HEATWAVE at this time of year, i am just constitutionally unable to cope. i wonder if i can stuff myself into that box and mail *MYSELF* back to miss gina?! hmmmmmm... talk amongst yourselves, darlings, i've got measuring to do!!! :) :) :)

scandinavian style, redux

one of my favorite things about ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ this year and last is that since we've gone fortnightly instead of weekly, it means i get two shots at every single prompt. which is awesome, because i get to try out ALL my ideas! admittedly not all of them come out quite as fabulously as i envision, but i genuinely do believe it's better to "go big" and perhaps fail, than to play it safe all the time. case in point: i had this great idea about red-on-white handstitching for my second "red white and jul" card. i even found some leftover cross-stitch-able ribbon that my aunt had given me, which made it super-simple to make said stitching immediately into an attachable border strip-- big win, right?! wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllll... ok, truthfully... i'm not in love with this card; but on the other hand it's bright and festive and it's one more for the stash of cards that's already getting me closer to a stress-free december! gotta love *THAT* right?! :)

(patterned paper: reminisce, paper co, sei; florals: we r memory keepers, prima; red rub-ons: making memories; snowflake stickers: martha stewart; other: 14ct aida ribbon, dmc embroidery floss; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, hot glue, sewing machine)

speaking of second shots, i usually don't make more than one sketch card, but i really came down to the wire this week, time-wise, and retro sketch #47 (happy almost anniversary, retro sketchers!!!)  was still sitting on my work table, so i just grabbed it and went to town!

if you'd like to "go to town" in the creative sense, i should mention that both stephanie AND all of our fellow ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ have been sooooooooo totally rockin' the scandinavian style... you should definitely pop over and grab a little inspiration for yourself! ♥

SOS86: show us your OLDEST ribbon!

because you know at shopping our stash we're ALL ABOUT using up the things we have, and for 2013 the lovely miss carla is determined to push us even further in this quest by having us dig out our very oldest supplies and see if we can't fall in love with them all over again!

for once i actually *KNOW* what the very first pack of "designer ribbon" i ever bought was, so i'm pretty psyched! it was from basic grey's "gypsy" line, which i had seen used quite magnificently by the very first design team i ever paid attention to, the lovely ladies who hosted the boards at the (sadly now defunct!) "lifetime moments" gallery and store.  that website was also the first place i ever saw (and became obsessed by!) chipboard, and where i learned that inked edges cover up a multitude of sins. :) ah... happy days...

anyway, despite the fact that i absolutely love that ribbon collection, for some reason, i still have quite a bit of it left! which came in handy when i wanted to make this:

(patterned paper: echo park, crate; ribbons, dimensional stickers and flag: basic grey; rhinestones: recollections; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

my card uses this week's uber-fun retro sketch and pretty faithfully, at that!

do you remember the very first ribbon ♥YOU♥ bought to use in papercrafting? do you still have some? why not go dust it off, and then check out the DT cards at SOS?! i'm pretty sure you'll thank me later! :)

hello, sunshine!

we were lucky enough to spend most of last week in clearwater beach florida, which was absolutely as ♥AWESOME♥ as you'd imagine, so g'head and be jealous, i don't blame you one bit, lol! since it was a short trip, and since we planned to spend most of it sitting in lounge chairs doing as little as humanly possible, i had more or less decided not to bother taking along my traditional travel book kit. that is, i had actually decided NOT TO; until, in the course of packing on sunday, when lovely husband jeff inquired, "hey! where's the travel book?!" and i found myself unable to stick to such a course of action in the face of the adorably disappointed look that followed. turns out, he really *LOVES* helping me collect "the stuff" and looks forward to seeing the completed book when it's done. it occurred to me that i've never shown one of my 4x6" mini books in action, and this would be a good time, so i threw together a little something sunny!

usually i print my day pages on the computer, but this time i had a LOT of 4x12" scraps from another project and i really wanted to use them up. mostly they were paper-weight though, and i was worried they' be too flimsy, so i used the xyron to attach them smoothly back-to-back before trimming to size, and thus came up with sturdy pages about the same weight as the cardstock i usually use. a nice fringe-benefit of this is that all the brightly patterned fronts also have brightly patterned backs!

since i couldn't then print my text on the computer* i decided a little hand-stamping was in order. this ancient set of making memories (or k and co?!) acrylic letter stamps is one of my all-time faves. i don't think they make them any more, which is a shame; but i'm sure you have SOMETHING that would work! you could use stickers, even, or rub-ons; or mix it up and use the remainders of lots of sets of letters for a super-fun and funky vibe!

i don't usually adorn the pages too much before a trip, but i had half a packet of those little recollections blingy palm trees, and i just couldn't resist using them! i made the book's covers from sturdy chipboard with panels of two favorite "tropical" patterned papers affixed. (MME clouds on one side and ancient SEI "fruit stand" oranges on the other!) i always use a big sharpie marker to color the edges of plain chipboard; covers just as well as paint, but you don't have to wait for it to dry! :)

the other advantage of a 4x6 minibook is that it fits perfectly right into the lid of the little plastic "school box" i use to tote my supplies!

so what's in my tool kit? my tiny hole punch; scissors, a ruler, small ink pad, and a plastic bag in which to keep the book itself. all the rest is either for ATTACHING stuff or WRITING, since i've found that's what i need most while i'm actually ON vacation! i've got a selection of pens and pencils (black, white, permanent, eraseable, etc); my go-to adhesives (tiny stapler, gluetape runner, gluestick, foam tape, some clips and brads); and that's about it! i used to take stickers and stamps and other "artsy" touches, because they are so much fun to use, but i've discovered that while i make a priority of collecting the fun ephemera and writing down what we did each day, the "embellishing" part of the book almost always gets done after i'm at home again.

it's actually possible to be even MORE minimal than i am... (i know! shock, right?!!) :) ...when i set up a travel book and kit for my (non-crafty) friend liz's trip to israel last fall, luggage space was at a premium, so i found a small plastic case to carry a mini hole punch and stapler, plus a couple of pens... and she had everything she needed!

so do you want to see the finished book with all the photos and fun stuff from the trip? yeah, me too-- but it's not quiiiiiiiiiiiiite done yet! c'mon back in a day or two, though! i can already tell you that heavily featured within said pages will be my favorite day of the trip: wednesday; my favorite activity of the trip: a serious MEGA-thrifting expedition which encompassed half a dozen stores in the clearwater area; and my favorite vacation guest star: the lovely miss gina!!!

yep, after a couple of false starts, we finally got to meet up "in real life" as they say, and the result was, if anything, even more fun than expected--which was already preeeeeeeeeetty danged fun, i can tell ya! :) to sum up eight hours of hilarity, chatting, shopping, eating, and hijinks in one sentence, let me just say this: if you planned on hitting a few thrift shops in southern florida to buy books, magazines, flashcards, stickers, or ANYTHING made of vintage paper... you might want to wait a week or so, as there's actually not much left! (sorry!) :)

in fact, rumor has it that SOME PEOPLE, who were flying home to new jersey after this little shindig, may have had to ask OTHER PEOPLE, who were staying in florida, to take a GIANT BOX of papery goodness to the post office the next day. i can't say for certain it's true, but that's what i heard. (...looks around innocently, whistling nonchalantly...) it's possible that if such a box existed, a photo of its contents might show up on a certain blog, after its arrival... just sayin'... ;)

ciao for now, darlings! ♥

*ok, technically, i could have, by using the 4x6 photo tray on my printer, but i was too lazy, and also i just sort of felt like playing with the stamps right then! :)

hooray for the red, white and ♥JUL♥!

yes, we're appreciating all things scandinavian this fortnight at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ as we make holiday cards inspired by this gorgeous photo that miss stephanie found:

of course, you can be as loose... or as exact... in your interpretation as you want; for instance you could choose to use only the colors, or just the hand-stitching, or the shapes or... well, whatever inspires *you* in the picture. i love everything about it, and was surprised to find that i actually own products which would allow me to re-create a number of details quite literally. so i did! :)

(patterned paper: dcwv, crate, october afternoon, imaginisce; snowflakes: felt=michaels, chipboard=basic grey, metal=tim holtz; chipboard heart: basic grey; border sticker: reminisce; vintage: buttons and lace; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine)

the only thing i didn't do on this card, that i wanted to try, was to replicate a little bit of the hand-stitched effect from the knitted stocking ornament. i thought i might work that into the border somewhere, but at some point with all of the other elements i'd added, the card just felt DONE to me, so i stopped! however, my favorite thing about making a christmas card every week, but only having a new ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ prompt every other week is that it means i get TWO SHOTS at each theme, so you miiiiiight just see a bit of embroidery next time!

right now i think it's time for you to head over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥, see stephanie's gorgeous card, and start plotting what YOU will do with some fabulous scandinavian inspiration! ♥

suits you to a "T"...

...is the wonderful and whimsical brief at shopping our stash this week: make a card which features two (or MORE!) ingredients beginning with the letter T! for instance: tag, tape, twine, trees, tinsel, tattered angels products, tin foil, tin cans, trim, tea bag, tea cup, tomahawk, tangerine, tigers, turtle, etc; be sure to list what they are in your post, because you know we LOVE to see how creatively you can interpret these challenges! :)

now i'll show you my card, and then i'll tell you what i've chosen!

(patterned paper: crate + scraps of basic grey and some doodlebug glitter paper for the stars; tag: making memories... masked with additional star diecuts and sprayed with glimmer mist; tape: love my tapes, recollections, smash; cardstock: core'dinations; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine; other: typewriter)

have you found all the "T" elements? i'm proud that i worked in quite a few! there's teal (or turquoise?) tattered angels glimmer mist on my tag; some typing for my text; three different kinds of tape; and totally terrific amy tangerine thickers! woohoo!

i'm also pretty pleased with this just generally, as a "guy card"... which is good because around here we have more guy birthdays in january than any other month! so i need to get moving and make a few more o'these, i think!

and now ♥YOU♥ need to get moving over to SOS and see what the rest of the gang have come up with, it will be worth the trip, i PROMISE!!! ♥

my favorite xmas gifts... to *MYSELF*! ;)

i believe i mentioned recently that there was a sale at the papaya art store right around thanksgiving, at which time some people (ok, ME!) went a little crazy. mostly i bought gifties for a few pals, and re-stocked my "present shelf" for the coming year, but i did treat myself to a bit of super-luxurious giftwrap, a lovely new wallet (see below), and some AMAZING glitter stickers. being as how our current prompt at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ involves using and showing off one's latest crafty gifts and acquisitions, this seemed like a great time to bust those out!

(new stuff: papaya art holiday glitter stickers, prima mulberry paper & gem flowers; other: red paper scraps by crate, adhesives, machine stitching)

i was pretty happy with my card, seeing as these are my FAVORITE new embellishment, so imagine my surprise when i went to upload to our official ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ post and saw that stephanie had used the very same stickers (which were part of her present from me!) as her "new item" this week!!! so if you were ever wondering, "do they confer or coordinate beforehand on their cards?" you will now realize that NOPE, we really don't; we like to surprise each other, lol! :)

oh yeah, totally unrelated to cardmaking, but here's the wallet i bought myself in the same sale. in my defense, the one i had was literally beginning to come apart at the seams!

if you've ever felt like ♥YOU♥ might (metaphorically) "come apart at the seams" when contemplating the massive amount of holiday cards you need to make in december, why not hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and join us?! we make just one card per week, throughout the whole year. it's fun while we're doing it, of course... but it's even MORE FUN to hit december 1st holding a box that already has 48 unique christmas greetings in it! so come and play! ♥♥♥

we're gonna kick your buttons!!! :)

this week at shopping our stash, i mean. and ok, not so much "kick" as "encourage you to USE" your buttons; and because we're all about re-discovering and USING what we already own, we mean your oldest ones, at that! the ones you're either so sick of... or, conversely, so ATTACHED TO... that you haven't even thought about using them in ages. yep. those buttons. go get 'em out! (g'head... i'll wait...) awesome. now use 'em on a card, or a layout, or some sort of paper-crafty goodness and then come on over to SOS and link up with us! in the meantime, here's my card:

(super stashy: genuinely OLD--but not really "vintage" buttons from a big tin i got at a garage sale, bit of an old sewing pattern, lady from a vintage sewing book, scraps of lace; patterned paper: amy tangerine; tag and (super-old!) florals: prima; fabric thickers: american crafts; embroidery floss: dmc; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine)

as you know, i spent a good chunk of last week at home, sick, so i did my best to try to get a little ahead on cards. i'm not actually convinced such measures constitute a real economy, because it takes so much longer to do anything when you feel unwell, and for that matter, i don't entirely LOVE what i made, but on some level, to have anyhing besides nose-blowing to show for the week, feels a little bit like a "win" to me right now. :)

this card was actually 90% done when i was ready for bed one night, but i wanted to sew around the edge, which didn't seem like a great idea at 11pm, so i put it aside, and as it turns out, i was glad. because when i woke the next morning i decided i didn't love how much contrast there was between the original (blue) background and the tag+embellishment cluster. here's what it looked like in my "first draft":

luckily, the lace was only lightly tacked with gluetape, and everything else was just sitting on top, so i made a second card base (don't worry, i SAVED the first one; you'll be seeing it again!) in a more monochromatic shade of yellow... et voila... instant makeover!

and now it's your turn to raid your stash of buttons and see how you can give them a new lease on life! why not start by popping over to SOS to see what our incredible DT has done, i guarantee inspiration galore will be yours for the taking! ♥

we started the new year with HORRIBLE colds... and WONDERFUL news!

about the colds, the least said the better; although i am currently in talks with the guinness people, since i'm pretty sure i've exceeded all existing world records for tissue use in the course of the last week! :) 

but enough of that, because the thing i really want to tell you is the WONDERFUL NEWS:

we are officially shopping for a house!!!!!!!

(sadly, this is actually very true in my case, lol!)

ok, sorry to shout, but this will be our first experience owning our own home, and we've waited quite a few years for it to happen, so we are really REALLY excited!!!!!!!!!!!! (ok, sorry again!) of course, arguably, if one were going to pick a time of year to add a lot of extra activity, stress and paperwork into an already busy schedule, i think most people would immediately say, "ok, but NOT right around christmas!!!" yeah. we must've missed that memo. :) :) :) but luckily now we're into the rich heartland of january and thus only bad weather and jeff's incredibly crazy work schedule can come (briefly, one hopes) between us and our dreamhouse! keep your fingers crossed for us, ok? and please excuse me for a tiny bit longer if i seem a little more distracted than usual; my head is full of floor plans, square footage, lot size, property tax appraisals, mortgage rates, and daniel craig!!!* ♥♥♥

*strictly speaking he's got nothing to do with the home-buying process, but there's only so much time a gal can spend thinking about  floor plans, square footage, lot size, property tax appraisals and mortgage rates, kwim?! ;)

SOS83: all white now! :)

(yes, it's "two-post-tuesday" over here! scroll down for the first JINGLE BELLES prompt of 2013!)

white-on-white is (imo) one of the hardest design assignments to accomplish. ok, maybe tied with the ever popular "cardstock only" challenge, where pattern is taken away, rather than color. i think it's because in both cases, one is required to strip down to the very barest of essentials--something i always find challenging; and with less detail, fewer colors, etc, one has no distractions to rely on, and the more laser-like the focus on what is actually left. at such times, if you don't have "good bones" you're sunk! so perhaps no one will be shocked that i was just a tiny bit nervous about the first shopping our stash challenge of the new year, which is to make a card using only shades of white: cream, ivory, ecru, eggshell, magnolia, marshmallow, vanilla, chalk, talc, bone, bright white, winter white, etc, are all IN... but everything else must go! even more daunting is the fact that, looking at the other cards in this week's inspiration post, i realized i'm the ONLY one who finds this tough; my fellow SOS design team members have ALL TOTALLY ROCKED IT!!! in fact, you should go over there and SEE; but first, here's what i finally came up with:

(recycled: page from a datebook; patterned paper scraps: pink paislee, basic grey, rhonna farrer, the paper co; floral: prima; rub-ons: fancy pants; other: scraps of lace, ribbon and doily; inks: ranger; adhesives: staples brand glue tape runner, gluedots, sewing machine)

i've semi-CASE-d this card i saw at the shabby tearoom (by michelle bala), and used nothing but scraps for my design, including an off-cut card base, and a re-purposed background paper (from an old datebook, which; has printing on the back!); all the "banners" are from my big box of little strips; even the half-doily was already a half-doily, and the ribbon and lace were leftovers from other projects. the prima flower and the rub-ons are relatively new, but a girl's gotta be allowed a little luxury when she's displayed this level of frugality, right?

so what do you think? are you up for making an all-white card to start off this fabulous new year? why not drop in at SOS and soak up some inspiration before you decide! ♥♥♥

it's january 1st... time to start on CHRISTMAS CARDS!!! :)

ok, yeah, admittedly that sounds like a CRAZY statement, and maybe it is; but it seems like i, personally, can only manage *two* ways of achieving enough hand-made christmas cards for everyone on my (50+) christmas card list, and those are:

1. spend the weeks between thanksgiving and mid-december engaged in a frenzy of rushed and repetitive holiday card-making... ugh. (this is crazy and also stressful!!!)

OR

2. start on new year's day and make one unique holiday card per week with my lovely and amazing friend stephanie, not to mention the wonderful company of my fellow ♥JINGLE BELLES♥! (this is perhaps equally crazy... but totally inspiring and FUN!!!)

having spent more decembers than i care to admit in pursuit of method one, in 2011 and 2012 i opted for the relative sanity of method two, and i am here to state publicly: i NEVER want to go back!!! :) if  you can relate to any of the above, or even just find yourself at a loose end on this new year's day, why not come along with us and give it a try? we usually think up and post a new inspiration every other friday, and then stef and i "remind" you what the prompt was on the following week so you still have time to play along if you haven't yet... or play again if you're trying for 48 cards at the end of november. we invite some lovely guest stars to join us throughout the year, and occasionally even have a fun sponsor or little prize of crafty goodies! so whaddaya say, are you in? awesome! let's go!

for our inaugural outing of 2013, we're tossing you an extra-easy prompt AND extra time to accomplish it; that's right, for "look what santa brought me!" all you need to do is create a holiday card using any kind of crafty goodness--tools, paper, stickers, etc-- you received over the holidays... and i know you got swag galore, so there's NO excuse not to play! here's my card:

(NEW stuff: gorgeous almost-real candy cane from ros; color copied page scan of vintage "night before xmas" book from gina; basic grey "kissing booth" papers from stephanie; xmassy mulberry paper from prima's "12 days of xmas card" prize; plus not-so-new: webster's pages fabric ribbons (from leslie, last spring!); crate (non-xmas) paper; prima flower spray (cut down); fancy pants border sticker; red silky ribbon from a holiday package; inks: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, hot glue, sewing machine)

i have to say i'm pretty pleased with this one, but then, it's got LOADS of new stuff from loads of lovely friends, so how could i *not* love it, eh?! the centerpiece is a (slightly reduced) scan of a page from one of the two new-to-me vintage copies of "the night before christmas" that gina gave me! i think this might be my FAVORITE version in my collection-- i have about a dozen different copies of the clement c. moore book, which has been a favorite of mine since childhood, but the illustrations in this one are just soooooooooooooo irresistible, don't you think? i really wanted the picture to be the centerpiece of the card, so i didn't add in too many embellishments... but ros shared some of her gorgeous i-can't-believe-i-can't-eat-them candy canes with me, too, so i had to sneak in one of those!

and now i really think you should head over to  ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see what miss stephanie made, because i assure you it is well worth the trip! while you're there, you can also check out the prize that's on offer for one lucky (random!) cardmaker who links up with us, so grab your new goodies from under the tree and get CRAFTY, darlings!!! ♥