Alter Something and a Little Bit More Blue and Green!!

Happy Sunday everyone!!!

I hope all of you have been having a wonderful weekend. Sorry I was MIA yesterday but it took a little bit longer to move Tracy into her new place than I thought. The good news is she is almost all moved and unpacked!!! Yeahh!!! I am so glad she hired the movers, I don't know how we would have gotten everything moved. She moved from a three story house with a basement into a second story flat. So lots of stairs. And both houses are pretty old so the stairs are steep and uneven. Luckily there wasn't too much for me to have to carry up the stairs. Mainly I helped unpack, move around furniture and organize. Those are some things I can handle.

Well, I didn't wind up getting home last night until around ten and I went straight to bed. I would love to say I slept the night away, but I woke up at 11:30 to a loud bang that shook the whole house. In my sleep dazed mind I thought that someone had run into our house. Thank goodness that wasn't the case. I young man had driven his car into the tree in our front yard. So Jason and I spent another hour and a half calling the police and making sure everything was okay. The young man appeared to be fine, although his car was not. I am happy to report that the ambulance deemed him okay to be released but I don't think the police did. I have a suspicion that he was intoxicated so he was taken to the station. It just goes to show you the hazards of when you drink and drive.

Enough with the sad news and on to the good news. Izzy is doing better and better at going to the potty on her own. She really enjoys it and tries to go every chance she gets. I can't wait until she is completely potty trained. Yeah no more diapers!!

For today I have two gift ideas to share and a card. I have been thinking more and more about gifts for Christmas (ACK!!! Only18 more days!!!!) and obviously most of you have since the challenges all revolve around gift tags or altered objects. (Thank you, I need all the motivation I can get!) For my first project today I want to share an altered gift I made for the December Guest Designer Challenge at MFT. The challenge this time was to create something that you altered. I decided to create a little gift for Izzy!!!

Isn't this adorable! I can't help it, I love it! I think it has to do something with the picture in the middle, hee hee!! I am telling you, this project came together perfectly. I had been thinking about this challenge for a long time and finally went to Michaels to see if any ideas sparked. Well I walked in and checked out the dollar ribbon rack and found this completely awesome spool of pink with brown polka dot ribbon! I of course picked it up and figured, I'll use that sometime. I then wondered around the store pointing out different things to Izzy when we got to the wood alterables isle. I kept thinking that I wanted some sort of book shape, when I came across a plain, pine, square frame. The best part was that it was only a buck. That is when the creative juices started to flow. When I got home, I took out a white piece of card stock slightly bigger then my frame and ran it through my cuttlebug using my swirl embossing folder. I then sponged on pretty in pink ink to highlight the swirls and wrapped the frame in my paper. I cut out the middle with a craft knife. Next, I tied a bow and loop using my cool ribbon and stapled it to the front of my frame. I then added three brown brads down the side. I stamped Reading Flopsey by MFT stamps on white card stock and colored him in with copics and prisma color pencils. I cut him out and adhered him to the bottom corner of my frame with dimensionals. To finish the gift off, I printed off one of my favorite pictures of Izbiz and placed it in the middle. I can't wait to hang it on the tree or in her room!! What a cutie!! The best part is this gift only cost two bucks!!!

My next gift idea is for two challenges, both of them in the Hanna Forum. The first challenge was to create a gift tag for the holidays with the color red somewhere and containing at least one embellishment. The second challenge was to incorporate the color pink and some brads. Here is my idea.

I decided to make a package of hot chocolate. I filled a pastry bag with hot chocolate and attached a tag with some orange and red polka dot ribbon. I started the tag off by coloring a prestamped image of Coffee Riley by Hanna stamps. I colored him in with my copics, markers and pencils. I then adhered him to some pink DP and green card stock. For the tag itself, I cut out two tag shapes using my Cricut machine out of two different kinds of DP (some of the flowers are red, but it is hard to tell in the picture!). I then threaded through my ribbon and added three blue brads. Quick and simple! Just what I need for the holidays.

My final project for today is a good old fashioned card!!! And, drum roll please, it is a boy card! This card was made using the sketch for Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge.

I cannot wait to give this card to my nephew Patrick for Christmas. I just love the little belly on this stamp!! So cute! Okay so I started this card off by stamping Sugarplums Pajama Christopher and the tree and presents from Sugarplums Christmas Scene both by All That Scraps on white card stock and colored them in with my markers and copics. I cut out Christopher and the presents and used my nesties to cut out the tree. I then layered all four images on top of each other, popping Christopher off the background. I then cut out green and blue card stock with my nesties and adhered them to my image. Following the sketch I layered brown, blue and green card stock as well as two different kinds of DP. I added a piece of brown ribbon and some brown brads. I really hope that Patrick likes it!

Before I sign off today I wanted to answer a question I received in my comments section. One of my wonderful blog visitors asked me "when you say that you colored your image in with your markers and copics did you mean that you used different ones for different parts or are you using them in conjunction with one another." This is such a great question and I am sorry for the confusion. I actually use my stampin' up markers and my copics in conjunction with one another. I find that if I don't have the right copic color, one of my stampin' up markers will fit the bill so I use it to create shadows with and my copics to blend. I hope that answers your question.

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend and thanks for stopping by!!