Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I pray that everyone is cozy and warm... and having a great time with your family and the people you love. Today I will be with family and we will be feasting at around noon and will be hanging out all day (and eating some more later on!) 

Let us all remember to make it a daily habit to think about the things/people we are thankful for! God bless everyone! I am getting ready to roll up my sleeves and feast on some tasty homemade food!

Hugs,

Vanessa

Happy Birthday Aunt Betty!

It is 1:56 AM of November 20th, so it's officially Betty's birthday. I may be wrong but I think it is her 86th. She is very special to all of us, especially to me and John. At noon today, the family will be gathering and celebrating her birthday. : ) Everyone's bringing something and of course, I made the cake. So here's what I came up with...

The cake is inspired by one of Toni Brancatisano's creations. I just added a monogrammed tag that I cut with my Cricut Cake using the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge and I used the Elegant Cakes cartridge to cut the letter B

I had planned on chartreuse but my green food color didn't kind of work like I thought. But I think it turned out pretty good for a first time.

The cake came out really really moist and tasty. The fondant turned out really perfect. The gum paste was great... I just wish my work surface took it easy on me but that's fine, I had so much fun making it and the mat from Sweet Wise Inc worked like a charm!!! I can't wait for the next cake I am making!!! 

We'll find out later what Betty thinks! : )

Here's a very happy Betty!!! 

With Heartfelt Thanks - The Cuttlebug Spot

Hi everyone!!! Here's my piece for Cuttlebug Spot's November 16th Challenge. : ) It is a very simple THANK YOU card. I thought if I was going to be giving this away to family friends who have joined us for thanksgiving, I had better make something that is easy to mass produce. So I came up with this card... It's easy, clean and simple. I cut the oval layers with my Cricut using the Sure Cuts A Lot software and I used Basic Grey's Pyrus Stamp Set and heat embossed it.

Supplies:

Paper Trey Ink True Black cardstock 

Paper Trey Ink Poppy Red cardstock

White Cardstock

Yellow polka dot paper from DCWV

Dimensional Adhesive

Corner Chomper

Cuttlebug Divine Swirls Embossing Folder

Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder

To the One I Love - Explosion Box

Hi everyone! This is my contribution for the blog hop The Cuttlebug Spot is a part of. : ) Jannie's (member of the TCS DT) project,  inspired me to make an explosion box for the hop. Thanks for the idea Jannie!!! I have always wanted to make an explosion box but I didn't know what to put in it. I was digging through some boxes in my closet today and found these pictures of me and John. They are just pictures from some of our trips.  I just did one layer for this project and did some journaling behind the pictures.

I am not a lover of the purples or the lavenders, but I bought the DCWV Latte Collection for its patterns! I love stripes and florals. The whole collection is nothing but that!!! I used a Basic Grey stamp set for the sentiment on top of the box and I used Inkadinkado's Chelsea Alphabet to emboss I LOVE YOU inside.

The flower is handmade. I made a huge batch of these flowers in the summer while my craft room was being worked on to keep me from getting too stressed out. I went to Archiver's one day and bought all kinds of glimmer mists and slaved myself into working on these flowers.

The blog hop is now going on, and we have been told that The Cuttlebug Spot will be giving away a prize. : ) So head on over there and join in the fun!

From OWL of Us Clear Card

For a few weeks now, I have been making a ton of cards... Dozens of the same thing as a matter of fact!!! Yes, I am very very grateful that I am actually selling through my etsy shop but six dozen of cards later, I started feeling like a machine... My brain kind of quit working for a while there. So soon as I got all orders shipped out and my shop cleaned out, I immediately started free hand making stuff again!!! Oh it felt so great not having to keep glancing at the model card to make sure the whole set looked close enough to the same.

I have been wanting to try using clear cards for a while now and using transparencies on my scrapbook pages but I kept wimping out. A couple of days ago, as I was digging through some boxes to look for photos to use for the blog hop The Cuttlebug Spot is going to be a part of, I found a stamp set I so so love and totally forgot about. It's a stamp set from Basic Grey's Pyrus Collection.

Here's the card:

I used Sure Cuts A Lot to cut the scalloped oval, my Cuttlebug Divine Swirls embossing folder for texture on the card base.

All patterned paper I used on the card are from the Sugar Plum Collection, I think it is from Doodlebug Design (I could be wrong). 

This card by the way is going to a very special person who I haven't seen in a while and I miss so much. Brandi. She has been so sick... And we may lose her... My heart breaks at the thought of her life revolving around the ER, I feel like I am losing a sister or my best friend. :'( I wish I could wish for 20 more years to her life this Christmas, but all I could do is pray for God's will to be done for her, and for all of us.  I miss her so dearly... But she is in no form to have visitors over at the moment. If all of you could only be around her for five minutes, you will love this girl as much as we all do.