Christmas Ballerinas

GOOD MORNING and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

This photo was taken while I was sitting and waiting for my children to 

get out of class at their dance studio a few days ago.

The tree is simple and white with silver and teal decorations all over it. 

That was the inspiration for the cards I created to share with you today. 

These next cards were created using Fresh Brewed Designs

NEWEST digital stamps!

There were 7 stamps released today. 

Go HERE to check them ALL out 

{Excuse the poor lighting on these cards. It has been raining here the past

few days and I could not get a great photo ... :-( }

I decided to draw a few dance images.

 It is what I have been doing with most of my time after all. :-) 

I was not ever a dancer. 

I was a tom boy. 

I climbed trees and played with bugs. 

However, if I WERE a ballerina, 

I would be one who danced and had my latte in hand the entire time :) tee hee hee. 

This is also true for my daughters dance teacher, Marice. 

She LOVES coffee. 

We get along quite well ;-)

My first card features the new digi

Ballerina 2 with Latte

I tried to get a photo to show off the sparkle, embossed vellum

and the little snowballs, but, again, poor lighting. 

Hope you can see it a little bit ;-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My children are also performing in this years Nutcracker ballet

at the new studio. I am so excited. My daughter has a few parts and my 

son was asked to be in the party / battle scene with Fritz and the other party boys.

They get swords and don't really have to do ballet. Of course he was in!

I drew this image in honor of a beloved Christmas tradition for many- 

The Nutcracker - Ballerina

This card has a lot of shine. 

The background paper is shimmery and the paper behind the nutcracker image is a metalic 

silver card stock.  I added crystal stickles to the white flourishes

and to the ballerinas dress. And silver stickles make the nutcracker shine. 

*you will be happy to know that my artistic daughter looked at the first version of

this image and made a crinkly face. She said his face was too round and his

eyes looked mean. When I looked at it, it looked as if he were there to eat

the poor ballerina! HAHAHA!!!

So you get the good one. I will keep the bad one to go and look at from time

to time and laugh :-)

Thank you for stopping by and visiting with us today. 

It is such a lovely day to be spending time with our friends and family and giving 

thanks for all we have. I am so thankful for all the blessings God has given me. 

I could not even begin to list them all. 

Please know that I am so thankful for all of you who visit and who love 

creating with us at Fresh Brewed Designs.

I am also thankful for my very best friends. The ladies on my design team. 

I don't know what I would do without this wonderful support group of beautiful friends.

God truly has blessed me beyond measure.

Have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Card 1:

Jingle Belles - Christmas feast (ballerina with latte :)

                         hope that counts :-)

Crafty Creations: Embossing (card features embossed vellum)

Simon Says Stamp: AG

Clear it out - stash (all scraps - old papers and vellum) snowflake

Card 2

Crafting for all Seasons: tis the season

Fab n Funky - die cuts

Dazzling Diva - AG - but goes with the photo color / metalic theme

Sweet Little Ballerina

My children are participating in this years Nutcracker Ballet production

at their dance studio. This is their first year at this studio and it has been absolutely WONDERFUL

aside from the fact that they have made us broke, lol ;-)

The kids truly enjoy all of their classes and teachers and classmates.
This is the FIRSTyear that I have ever been able to say that about any dance studio
we have been a part of.

Anyway, my daughter is the lead maid, the lead lemon-drop, and dances in the Russian dance
 part of the production. My son was asked if he wanted to be in as one of the boys
 in the party scene. He doesn't take ballet, but once he knew it would not be girly dancing
and they got to pretend sword fight it was all good! :-)
Here is a photo of my sweet ones in one of their costumes:

Aren't they just too adorable?!?

I can't wait to see this on stage!

They have worked SO HARD giving up EVERY SATURDAY to practice. 

My daughter is also a part of their competitive troupe. 

She was assigned a 'little sister' to encourage and help out throughout the dance year

and look out for while at competitions. 

 She asked me if I would make a set of cards for her. I told her she could

make them herself but she insisted and said she would make something next time. 

She chose my newest digi: LITTLE CHRISTMAS BALLERINA

to set the stage so to speak. 

Here is the set of 4 cards I created little Caroline. 

These cards were pretty simple to make. I carefully colored them all

to look as close to the same as possible.
I then used  my cuttlebug and spellbinders lable 4 die to cut her out 
I let the die extend over the paper so I would have a clean straight edge for the embellishment
that I added to the base. I added little bits of sparkle to the nutcracker using a gelly roll pen.
I also added sparkle to her dress and hair bow using crystal stickles. 

The finishing touch to the image was a white gel pen. I added dots to her cheeks, 

highlights on her tights, on the nutcracker, and dots on the holly. I also drew little white

circles around the image to represent snow. It is hard to see in the photos, but

is visible when you hold and tilt the card to the light. 

Thank you for stopping by and visiting with me today.

I hope you have a very happy and blessed day,

challenges:

City Crafter One Word Sentiment

Cuttlebug Mania_ Girly 

4 crafty chics - sparkle

in the pink- sweet simple

CUTIE BUGS!!! New Digi Release at Fresh Brewed Designs

Good Morning!

I hope you have all had a wonderful, fun filled weekend. 

We spent some time at the water park with my family and had a lot of 

laughs and fun. It was really nice to de-stress and not worry about anything for a few days. 

I am so excited!

Today is THE DAY that we get to share our HUGE, NEW

Cutie Bug Collection with you!

There will NOT be a hop, but we will be having some fun games over at

our >> FACEBOOK EVENT << where you will have a chance to join in 

and win prizes! Doesn't that sound like fun?!? I think so!

I chose to create with the NEW Cutie Bug Luau Digital Stamp.

I printed this little dancer three times, and not until I did so did I decide that is how

I wanted them to appear on my card. Don't you LOVE when that happens?

Your whole creative outlook changes and your card is nothing like you had first planned :)

It's like magic :D

This card was created using the following items:

• White and Pink PTI Cardstock
• Prismacolor Markers
• white gel pen
• Cosmo Cricket 6x6 stack: DeLovely
• scrap paper
• printed sentiment

CHECK OUT OUR BLOG POST AT FRESHLY BREWED CHALLENGES

for more information on this release, to see DT cards all week long, 

and to find out how you can win prizes!

Don't forget about our FACEBOOK PARTY.

There will be lots of games and prizes given out all week!

Hope to see you there!

Heather

Coffee, Laughs, and New Digis

Happy Wednesday!

Wow, my day started off somewhat upside down. 

Here is a photo for proof... lol... 

I almost got two scoops in before I realized what I was doing ;) 

hehehe

Yes, I was filling my cup up with coffee grounds! lol!!

We have had a wonderful week filled with guest designer posts over at

Freshly Brewed Challenges. Be sure to stop in and check out all of the gorgeous

projects our April Guest Designer, Jeannie, has created for you >>HERE<<

Here is a little peek at what you will see there:

More fun Fresh Brewed News:

We have added two new images to the shop today.

They are called:

Lovely Dancer

and

Dance Dad

Here is a simple little card I created and personalized for a wonderful man from our 

old dance studio, Mr Gary. He is so loving and giving and is always there to 

help the kids and do all he can for them. We will miss him. 

Wishing you all a wonderful and blessed day!

Big hugs and smiles, 

Heather 

I live for the APPLAUSE!!!

Hello everyone.

I am here today with a somewhat personal post and a big ol'

WOOHOO shout out for my daughter. 

My daughter is a part of a dance troupe who competed last weekend.

My little girl and one other had competed last year with a larger group, 

but the other girls in her class were first timers. 

They scored very high winning a platinum award.

They were all amazing, I was (am) so proud of them.

Of course my daughter knocked my socks off. 

She amazes me every time I get to watch her dance. 

Blown away. 

(photo below. My daughter is the one in the middle doing a tilt)

I wanted to do something special for the girls in this troupe, 

but nothing too cheesy since they are all tweens and everything 

that an adult does is cheesy ;). 

I decided to draw them in their costume and make them all a 

personalized card. I do hope they like it and my daughter isn't 

embarrassed by my giving them out. We shall see ;)

Here they are:

JR. TROUPE ~ APPLAUSE

I used an OLD stack of 12x12 papers for these.

MME Garden Vignettes gitter cardstock. 

The other black and white cardstock base is from Papertrey Inc.

I colored the images using copic markers and added some black diamond stickles

to resemble the sequins on their outfits.

Thank you for stopping by today and listening to me brag on my little miss.

Please stop back by Monday for our NEW DIGI RELEASE BLOG HOP!

You won't regret it! ;) 

Christmas Ballerina

My second post for today!

GO ME!!!

Here is a card I created using the NEW digi

Christmas Ballerina 

 If you stopped by the challenge blog yesterday, you have already seen it :))

I just have not had the chance to post it to my personal blog yet. 

The cardstock for this card and the patterned paper is by papertrey inc. The diecut is a spellbinders lacy circles diecut. I used a deep purple velvet ribbon with lace from my scrap pile. The roses were RAKed to me. The image is colored using prismacolor and copic markers. She is glittered up with stardust stickles and I added white doodle dots using a white gel pen.

Challenges for this card include:  
ABC Christmas Challenge -  Anything goes, Just Keep on Creating - Christmas, Die Cuttin' Divas - Shimmer Glimmer Gloss,  Stampin' Sisters in Christ - peace or calm Word Art Wednesday: AG, Penny's Paper-Crafty  Ribbon and/or buttons

Just for Fun

GOOOD MONDAY MORNING!!! 

I have a fun little project to share with you today. 

I say fun because it is not fantastic :)

Just something I got in my head and started creating - throwing all caution into the wind and not really over thinking anything.. and just did it :D lol!

This is a little clipboard I created for my daughters ballet teacher from last year. Hannah loved working with her, but in moving up, she has a NEW teacher whom she is getting used to (it is a guy :) so you know that it is a big change... but he is amazing!) 

Anyway - I created a stencil of sorts using thick cardstock and my cricut. I then placed the paper over the clipboard and spray painted chalkboard paint in the corner. The rest of the clipboard was hand drawn then painted with acrylic paint. The image was drawn to look like the person who is receiving the gift. I drew it  with a sharpie marker and colored it with  prismacolor color pencils. I colored the dress with a red sharpie, covered it in glossy accents and then sprinkled it with a fine glitter. Wish it was more glittery... looks sugar coated. I messed up the middle, touched it too soon. So I had to add a glass microbead belt.  THEN I had a brilliant idea to cover it with stickles. Did not work so great! it did not spread well with the paint brush, but soaked up into it instead. We live and we learn right? But overall, I had a blast getting messy and creating it.

 I hope she likes it :)

Have a wonderful day today!

BIG HUGS!!!!

Dance Baby Dance

My little girl is growing up WAY TOO FAST and these pics I found while hopping through my own blog are just even more proof of how fast time goes by. I have seen so many photos of my babies this morning. Some that were just so cute and silly that I laughed, some that were so sweet and precious that I cried and some that reminded me of all God has brought them through. The photos of when Han was so sick a few years ago and all of the things we went through as a family. The photos of my son lifting his arm in praise and in prayer in church. The different times and changes we have been through. Some good, some helped us grow and others we desperately need to get back.

My little girl auditioned for Competitive Troupe at her dance school. I was so proud to stand back and watch her perform and dance. She is quite the little dancer. She was BEAMING when she found out she made the team. The last time she was able to compete was approximately 3 years ago when she was at a different (but not so great) dance school. She LOOOOVED it and is so happy to be able to do it once again.

Here are a few photos of my little dancer, then and now :)

Just go ahead and know I am a babbling mess right now. 

Oh how much they grow in  just a few years!!!

My sweet little wonderful baby girl

It was not that long ago that I first held her in my arms, looked into her eyes for the first time and got to hold and love her. OK... I cant even see to type anymore..... ahhhhhhh!!!

Back on track...

I bought her some more 'grown up' looking dance wear as a surprise for her making troupe. I ordered it Sunday and told her all about it Monday! HAHAHAH!!! I just could nto stand it! She will be sporting some really cute (clearanced) tops and some fun shorts including a pair of zebra print shorts that she is SUPER excited about :D They should be here by the weekend or early next week. She wants them now!

I made this card for her to be given with the outfits. At least she doesn't know about the card :D hehehe!

Our challenge at Freshly Brewed Challenges is to create a Distressed Card. 

I distressed the edges of all of my patterend paper to make it really girly and soft looking

Loves To Dance Digi

Thank you for stopping by today! 

Don't forget our BLOG HOP this weekend!!!

Whew!!!

so happy to find out that you are no longer seeing RED when you get here... and that it was not a hard fix... just a mean ol hoax at Shabby Blogs site. Thanks to my friends who 1) let me know it was there and 2) for helping me know how to fix it and 3) for leaving me all of the sweet comments yesterday when I was testing out the blog to see if it was working or not. You ladies rock!!!

We started a new challenge yesterday at Freshly Brewed Challenges. 

We have a SKETCH Challenge for you to try. Woot Woot!

I love sketches, but have the hardest time with my own, lol. Why is that?

Here is my card for this weeks challenge. 

I chose to use the FBD Loves to Dance digital stamp

Here is the Sketch

My little sweeties dance days for this year are drawing to an end. Her BIG recital is on June 9th so that means we have 4 four hour days of practice next week, one full dress rehearsal and then the BIG SHOW! We will indeed need a vacation after this week :D HAHAHAH!!! She is so nervous, but is going to be AMAZING!!!

This image was colored with prismacolor markers, the papers are all scraps 

the cardstock base is from Papertrey Inc, and the ribbons and roses are RAKs.

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you all have a lovely day. Tomorrow is our last day of school. We are rewarding the kids with a 'field trip' to see the Avengers. My little miss will not be so thrilled, but she will get new dance stuff for her recital so that will make her happy and it will make them both even. I do think she will enjoy it when she gets into it, she just wont ever let on that she did ;). 

 God Bless,

Heather

Thank You!

Good Morning!

We have lots of fun things going on at FBD lately. 

If you have not stopped by for November you have missed over 30 new digis, giveaways, challenges, blog candy and more! TODAY we have a featured post and special giveaway... 

but you have to stop by HERE to know the full deets :D

I have something fun to share with you today. 

My daughter dances, as most of you know, but this year she is also in Show Choir.

She absolutely LOVES it!!! 

Well, the instructors worked so hard with the young and older kids, I wanted to make something special for them. I decided to try something new and created this card / gift/ autograph book for the kids to pass around and sign and give to their teachers.  I colored the digi to match what the kids were wearing the night of the performance to give  it that extra touch of 'special'.

Thank YOU for stopping by today. 

I hope you have a wonderful, bright, cheerful and blessed Monday!

Challenges for this card:  

Cupcake Craft - Two's Company, Corrosive Challenges -  Give Thanks , Allsorts - Black White and one other, Challenge Up Your Life - Friendship, My Sheri Crafts   Be Thankful, Rogue Redhead Designs Dress down only one designer paper, Card Makin' Mamas - thankful, Crafty Catz  use a digital image, Fashionista Friday - try something new, Fussy and Fancy - 2W - be thankful and feature a sentiment, 

All Dressed Up...

.. with nowhere to go :D

HAHAHA! Now that is something I could really say :D I wonder what would happen if I put on one of my best dresses and greeted the kids at 'school' (aka the kitchen table)  all decked out :D It would be a great way to shock them, that's for sure!!!

All Dressed Up Rubber Stamp

This card was so much fun to make. I used one of the newly released Fresh Brewed Designs Rubber Stamps (go here to check out our sale + bonuses to celebrate the release!) She is called: All Dressed Up.
I created this card using prismacolor markers, papertrey inc cardstock, a black spica copic pen, DCWV Lemon Flower (a gift from a sweet friend), and MME Garden Vignettes.

This card was created for the following challenges
Tuesday Morning Sketches: sketch*
Shopping Our Stash - C11-  Vintage or Distressed or Shabby Chic
Simon Says Stamp - song or film title inspired (pretty woman movie and song)
Papercraft Star - #62 anything goes
Crafts and Me - #52 heart
Paper Creations Ink - 2W - (2nd week) Vintage or Distressed Look  
Pile It On - Layer it 
2 Sisters - #56 Black, White + one other colour
Challenge Up Your Life - 2W, 1E - 1stW #52 Paperpiecing
Sweet Stampin - 2E, must Stamp - For a teenager (prom - dance)  
City Crafter Challenges: hearts  ((FBD IS SPONSORING THIS WEEK!))

Just Dance

Life tends to throw us some curve balls sometimes, and I know that when it does, I am not the one who dances or looks for the best. I have been working on that. I do get anxious and do think and overthink and tend to go into panic mode.... but there in the midst of it all I am thinking of the one who is in control of all things. God. And as I dwell on that and remember all the times he has been there for me or a loved one... all the times he has held us, loved us, healed us; my fears and worries start to slip further away.

This image just reminds me that even in the hard times we should praise God. He is worthy of all of our praises even when we do not feel like praying or praising. We should be joyful always singing unto our Lord and being thankful in all things and situations. Easier said than done. I know, but he tells us to

Proverbs 3:5-6

King James Version (KJV)

 ⁵Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
 ⁶In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

2 Samuel 22:31
As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

Psalm 7:1
O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust

Psalm 18:2
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. 

Matthew 8:26
And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.


Matthew 9:22
But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.



John 14:21
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him

John 14:28
Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

John 15:9
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

Romans 5:8
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Galatians 2:20
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

 This card was created for the Freshly Brewed Challenge #61 _ Emboss It. 

You can read more as well as get updates on hops and all that wonderful stuff at the blog HERE

Thanks for stopping by and have a beautiful and blessed day!

Celebrate!!!

This weeks challenge over at Freshly Brewed Challenges is to create a themed something. The theme: Celebrate (and/or) New Year. The ladies have created BEAUTIFUL cards for you to enjoy, so I hope you will stop by and check them out.

I created this card using sketch #182 at Card Positioning Systems
and a Fresh Brewed Designs Digi: Emma Dancing.Patterned Paper: DCWV Glitter Stack
Ribbon: Heidi Grace
Birds Nest silver
Prismacolor markers
Silver Stickles



She can be found in the category called Girly Things over at the shop. Also, we now have a freebies section for you! Images are subject to be removed and changed ever so often, so if you see something you like, grab it now :D!!!

My Daughter

So ... I am way behind on my card posts ... but I WILL get caught up!
I waned to share some pics of my daughters dance competition and from her making the Dream Team with her class.

Hope you enjoy~