MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!

Here's wishing y'all a very Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!!!

Classroom gifts

There was a Scholastic Book Sale and I decided to get books for Kindergarteners instead of my original plan of candies. "Poor Puppy" was my choice. Initially, I was going to just stick labels directly onto the books, but decided I wanted to dress it up a bit more.
SO, I stuck it in a clear bag and added a tagged label on the top. Recipe: SU CS Forest Foliage (retired), SU snow roller with Whisper White ink. Used SU tag punch, and designer label punch. I used the LG oval scallop spellbinders. Stampsets: SU Party punch (Merry Christmas), SU Many Merry Messages. CS: SU Real red and white.

I like the way it came out. Kody is really excited to give his fellow classmates his gift to them.

Gifts for a GREAT Teacher

I made Kody's teacher this Christmas logbook. Recipe: Costco designer paper, SU CS (Apricot Appeal, Mint Melody & Pink passion) SU Pink Passion ink, SU Tidy Alphabet (retired) SU rounded punch, ticket corner punch & round tab punch; More Mustard brads, Penny black stamp image, used SU markers to color in image.
This is a notepad, using the same supplies. In addition, tied w/SU Bright pink organdy ribbon (retired).
Kody's kindergarten teacher is so enthusiastic & energetic. I had an extra set of these teacher's aid (retired) stamp set, that I decided to give it to the teacher. I added 2 stampin spots to use with the stamps.
Here I put it all together in a bag and used a tag that I made last year at Teri's tag class. I hope she likes it.... She's a wonderful teacher!!

Rudolph WAS HERE!!!

I had a surprise today when I went to pick up Kody from school today. He GREW ANTLERS...
When we got home, he asked me to take these pictures showing me that he would fly and lead the pack, just like Rudolph. I just could not resist and complied with the request.

You must admit, these are one of the many joys of having a young one. They just spread the enthusiasm of the holidays!!! What a fun day!!!

Secret Santa Gift for a fellow ANGEL

Last week Jen had a Christmas get together for her "angels" and we decided on bringing a secret santa gift. Here is what I did: I decorated a composition book using designer paper I bought from Costco, CS from SU, brads from SU, alpha stamps (retired) from SU, stamp image from Penny Black, marker pens to color image from SU. I used the SU tag punch and just attached the first tag. Made 5 more tags but left it for the receiver to use it however they chose.
Same supplies w/Organdy ribbon from SU (retired). This was a notepad.
Again, used same paper, the only difference is the stamp image is from TAC, and used prismacolor pencils and gamsol to color in. This was a POST IT pad.
Here's the set all together. I wrapped it in a bag, and off I went to a very very FUN get together.

Anniversary Card for "The Hidden Treasure Shop"

Here's another card I made couple of weeks ago for Jen's sister's 5th year Anniversary to her store located in Walnut Grove, Ca..called "The Hidden Treasure Shop". I read Jen's blog that her sister Nasha and friend Liz would be celebrating their 5th year anniversay. I think that's GREAT!!!! I used all SU cardstock, provocraft emboss folder, SU word stamp, SU retired flower eyelets, and TAC image stamp using prismacolor and gamsol. I made this one "quite" colorful for a "colorful" occasion.

I Got My Wings & Became an Angel....A....TAC Angel

I haven't been able to post for some time. My computer kept giving me a message that I didn't have enough virtual memory. I finally cleaned it out.

Back in November, I made a decision to switch to "The Angel Company" (TAC). It wasn't an easy decision, but after a lot of thought and "lots of questions", I decided to make the move. With the new year right around the corner, I'm always reflecting and looking at goals for the new year. I knew, I needed to "cut back" on my "hobby", but also knew I didn't want to "give it up" anytime soon. TAC had lower demonstrator requirements, & storage......Storage of the stamps....I now have them in 3 ring binders.....big SPACE SAVER.

I thought I wouldn't like coloring so much....but BOY OH BOY, I find myself doing more now, because I'm stamping a bunch of images on my white CS and then I take my prismacolor and GAMSOL to my table and just "COLOR AWAY". I don't need to lug any ink pads. This helps with the clean up. I can now do my stamping projects when I take my boys to their activities; and color with the pencil. For me, I didn't realize it, but it's now much easier. I always felt that I didn't have the time with my sons activities. I'm never home long enough to do any projects. But now, I can. All I need is my stamped images on the white CS, my prismacolor pencils, and my aquabrush (w/gamsol in it) and I'm set.

With all that said, I received a "NICE WELCOMING SURPRISE" in the mail, several weeks ago, from my Upline.....the one and only...I'm sure you can figure this one out...."JEN". I was very touched when I received this card. THANK YOU JEN!!! Prior to me signing up, she was very patient with me, asking her many questions, and then asking her if I could go over to see the quality of their cardstock paper, and all that kind of stuff. I look forward to TAC's new catalog and their "CUTE, CUTE" stamps. Don't you think the card I received is just "too cute"!!

If any of you readers would like learn more about TAC, please email me at llagena4@gmail.com and I'll be more than happy to answer your questions. If I'm not able to, I will find out for you.

WE MET SCAR from LION KING...How cool is that!!

With the holiday season here, my son's choir is very busy practicing all of their Christmas carols. Today, they were treated with a SPECIAL GUEST, KEVIN GRAY, better known to all of us as SCAR in Disney's LION KING. (Thanks to one of the boy's parent who arranged everything.) He sat through a portion of their practice, way in the back, as an observer. Then he was introduced to the boys and.....WOW!!!....he was an absolutely GREAT motivator. I'm sure the boys were inspired and very encouraged with the experiences that was shared with them. Finally, we were treated with him singing "O HOLY NIGHT" (which is the song he heard the boys practicing). This was a "CHICKEN SKIN" moment. It was ABSOLUTELY BEEEEEAUUUUTIFUL!!!

It was at this moment, a lot of us started taking pictures.....then it dawned on me...HE'S SINGING THIS BEAUTIFUL SONG....WHERE'S THE VIDEO CAMERA??? We were all doing the "still" shots. {chuckle}...We all wanted to "catch the moment"..... I know..I know...in the "awe" of the moment, I forgot my camera can do movie shots which could've caught a good "sound" of his singing........SHUCKS!! I didn't post the picture of him singing, cuz...no one will be able to "hear" it...{chuckle, chuckle}

Lastly, to the boys surprise, he had a "private" autograph session with all of them. This is when I decided to catch the moment. The picture above shows my son, Skylar with Kevin Gray.

Don't you think it's a great picture??!! Even Mrs. Gray made a comment how great this picture would be for our Christmas card . I agreed, BUT, it's missing another VERY IMPORTANT PERSON (VIP in our home)...Kody.

What a GREAT PRACTICE!!!!

I'M IT!!!

I've been tagged a while ago from Jen. She is definitely Miss Creative and fun to be around. Check out her site.

Here goes:
1. If you could have 100.00 pounds worth of scrapbook paper or assorted embellishments, which would you choose? I would definitely choose scrapbook paper...I feel like I can never have enough of it.

2. If you had to choose between using only stamps or rub ons, which would you choose.
STAMPS, of course. I feel you can do a lot more with stamps.

3. If you knew how to do both awesome cards and layouts, but could only do one for a year, which would you do? I would do cards. HMMMM, you can do mini layouts within your cards, right?

4. Would you rather own a scrapbooking store or have your own scrapping room at home (can't have both, LOL)? I would rather have my own scrapping room at home. So, how do I do it now? That's just it....I need to find a place. I would love it if I had my own scrapping room; that would make me VERY HAPPY...

5. And the last but not least, what is your current card making or scrapping style? At this very moment, it seems to be watercoloring. I'm still learning the different "coloring in" type of things, and I'm having a lot of fun with that. It makes me feel like an "artist" (hehe). I'm such a "Beginner" that learning all the different things you can do is so much fun.

Now, I'm supposed to tag others. You know, I looked on a lot of sites and realized that a lot of you were tagged. Being that this is a fun one, if you haven't done it yet, please consider yourself tagged!!!

A COASTER CREATION FOR BABY GIRL

Baby girls are so adorable. As mentioned in previous posts, I love TAC's baby steps stamp set, and decided to use this stamp set to make a card. As you see, I colored the top pink, thinking it was a bow, only to look at it really well and realize, IT'S A BUTTERFLY. Oh well, I think the pink is cute anyways.

After doing the previous coaster creation, I knew that wouldn't be my last.

Check this one out:
This is the front of the coaster. I'm obviously having problems with rotating the picture.

This is the back of the coasters.

Shown below are each coaster, with a total of 12 coasters (One for each month of baby's first year). Sorry, but they aren't in order. I'm having a problem with posting the pictures, and my computer is taking forever to download the pictures. In my previous post, I mentioned that I had another one I wanted to do (thanks to Jen; who gave me this idea), but I didn't want to post it until my friend's SURPRISE shower was done. Here it is... I used the SU Special Delivery Girl Scrapbook kit along, with SU Rhinestone brads and buttons, and the Groovy Guava Double Stitched Ribbon. I connected it all together using TAC (The Angel Company) Boot Loopy Brads. These are so cool. I used recycled boards as the coaster, which allowed me to size it bigger than usual. I used the Crop a Dile to punch the holes. These boards I used are thicker than the coaster, so the finished product was a lot heavier than it would've been if I used the coasters. Luckily, the loopy brads along with the floss is tough and it could handle this weight. PHEW!!!

I'm making a couple of boy ones too. They'll be similar to these but no rhinestones will be used.

I think this will be really cute, once the actual pictures are on it. Don't ya think so?

COASTER CREATIONS

Here's my coaster creation that I did from Jen's class. I copied Jen's almost to the T. I sure had a lot of fun. Like I told Jen, I've heard a lot about Mod Podge, but I've never used it. I recently went to Wal-Mart to pick one up for myself. I'll be using that a lot. I love the idea that I have a Crop a Dile, but I just didn't realize how "STRONG" and mighty that tool is. It pierced the coaster so nicely, I was "stoked"

Here's the front.

Here's the back.
Now, I can't wait to put pictures in it, but for now, Kody wanted to be included in this picture, so I asked him to hold it up.

What a HAM, huh!!!

I have some ideas, that I'd like to try using this concept. Moreso, since I know how strong and mighty the crop a dile is and how great that Mod podge is with sticking. Once I'm done, I'll post for everyone to see....

Can't wait....

TRICK or TREAT!!!

I had to think of something to do for Kody's kindergarten class. I knew it needed to be something quick, because it was the night before Halloween that all of this planning was taking place. So, I said it needs to be supplies that I already have. This was the outcome:

I used all SU CS, ribbon and stamp colors. I can't remember all of the colors of the CS but the stamp color was Really rust, and the scallop punch is also using the Really Rust CS. The background stamp was SU's On the Spot. The die cuts were all from Provocraft and I used my cuttlebug. Of course, I then made good use of my 150 zyron to stick everything on. I crimped the bottom the packet.
Then I stuffed it with famous Amos cookies. I chose cookies over candy for kindergarteners.

Meanwhile, I asked my husband Larry to take pictures of Kody and his cousins with their costumes, because Skylar and I would be late. Skylar had his choir practice, and didn't finish until 5:30 pm. Now, the traffic was "horrendous" and we didn't get to my uncle's (where we spend every halloween together) until 8 pm. By then, the kids were done trick or treating and out of their costumes. PLUS, no camera arrived. EVERYONE FORGOT THEIR CAMERAS!!!! I can't believe it. Oh well, no pictures of all the keikis (children) in their costumes. "BUMMERS"!!

I hope everyone's halloween was SAFE & FUN!!!

CHECK OUT OUR KAUAI TRIP

I'm currently playing catch up....On the weekend of Oct 20th, my family went to Kauai for a surprise birthday party. It was a very last minute decision on our end, but a choice that I'm very happy we made. I rarely see my relatives, and some of them, I just met on this trip. Check out some of the pictures:
This was Kody's first airplane ride. He really enjoyed it and felt being above the clouds were "GREAT"!! For those of you who aren't familiar with Kauai, check out this mountain that's located in Wailua...it's called the "Sleeping Giant". I tried to take a clear picture so you can see the forehead, the eye brow hairs (hehe), even some eyelashes (which are couple of trees) the nose, mouth, and its chin. Can you see it? My 2 boys had a hard time. I can see it, can you?
Here's Skylar & Kody standing on the back side of the Wailua Marina Restaurant. I'm not sure if you can see the peacock in the background. Boy, there's a lot of chickens and their chicks running around in Kauai. For those of you who visit the Wailua Marina Restaurant, you just gotta gotta gotta try their stuffed chicken, or stuffed pork chops. It's "DA BEST" HMMMM..GOOD... I just heard about the prawns stuffed with crabs. Doesn't that sound good? Okay, I need to stop now, because I'm getting hungry. So any of you that head out to Kauai...check out the Wailua Marina Restaurant.

Here's a picture of my family. I'm standing next to my father, and then there's my brother Dean and my niece, Joydean. Oh yeah, and of course, there's Larry, Skylar & Kody to the left of the picture. I think this is the first family picture I have with my dad, but it's still not complete with my brother's family. Oh well, that is something that must go on a "DO TO" and GET COMPLETED" type of list.

Here's a picture of Skylar & Kody with cousin Zion. They had so much fun and we were all on the same flight back to Honolulu. We were all very tired but very happy we were able to be a part of this fun occasion.

IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!!

Geez Louise!!! I love reading & looking at everyone's blog and creations, and I tell myself how I'll keep up. Well, guess what!!! I "white" LIED. Boy, I give all of you who are able to post daily, every other day or 3 times a week, A LOT OF CREDIT!!! HOW do you do it?

I've been tagged about 3 1/2 weeks ago by Rhonda to list 7 facts about myself: (before I go on, I must tell all you to check out Rhonda's blogspot. It's totally awesome!!)

1. Like Rhonda, I love the color purple. (What, my blogspot is pink? I know, I know...when I initially set up my site, I looked for a purple background, but couldn't find a premade one that I liked....so I will change it, once I have more time to play with it).

2. I am definitely a PACK RACK. I've been meaning to "clean out" my family room, and organize that room to be my children's study as well as my stamping area. My dilemma is that I don't know what to "throw away", I want to keep everything. One day, I'll just "grab everything" and close my eyes. You know the saying, if you didn't use it the past 6 months, then you don't need it. Well, that's what "Mission Organization" on HGTV keeps saying (haha)

3. One of my favorite things to eat, that not too many people care for is "Natto". For those of you who are not familiar with what this is, it's fermented soy beans. It has a "stinky" smell and is very gooey, but I just love it with rice. Some days I'll just eat natto with rice and I'm happy.

4. I love music. I enjoy singing (can't say everyone loves hearing me). When I feel down at times, I'll go to my piano and just "attempt" to play some of my old "music pieces" that I sooo hated practicing when I was younger, much younger :). Some days, I'll grab our ukulele and have my older son "pick" some songs on his ukelele, while I strum the chords on mine. We're very rusty, but no matter what.....music is nice; and lastly, I have the privilege of listening to the choir my older son is in, practice Christmas music every Mondays & Wednesdays. There's days, they give me "chicken skin".

5. I am "claustrophobic". This all came about in 1976. I was at a convention in New York, when several of us got "STUCK"..."IN BETWEEN FLOORS" with just the inner door of the elevator opened for what felt like 3 hours (I think it was actually 20 minutes). I remember just seeing a whole bunch of wires. This was all during the time the movie "Earthquake" was popular and there was a scene where the people were stuck in the elevator when the earthquake hit. The elevator dropped to the bottom, splatting their "blood" all over. Does anyone remember this movie??? Okay, I could not help but think this was going to happen to us, and I literally went "beserk" Can you imagine the other persons who were in the elevator with me? POOR THINGS!!!. When the service people finally got it open, they needed to assist all of us out of there, because, like I said, we were "IN BETWEEN FLOORS". The service personnel asked the elder couple to start first, but they insisted I go first...HMMMM...I wonder why..... Since that incident, I can't stay in enclosed areas for too long, or you'll see "little sweat buds" on my face, then you'll see me start fidgeting....then...figure out what's next......

6. I love dogs!!! I didn't have a dog for the longest time, but in March, my husband agreed that we could have this puppy, who is part lab, siberian husky, and pit bull. He's so cute and lovable. His name is "Biggie".... if you saw him now, you'd know how he got that name. He's still very friendly and lovable, but he definitely is big. I've seen his siblings, and most of them aren't close to his size. I thought he would be an indoor dog, but he's "currently" outside. I'm hoping to re-train him so he can be inside at night. Just not telling my husband my plan. Not yet anyway.

7. My family (my husband, 2 sons, myself, and my step daughter) are all left handed. We don't ever have problems in a restaurant deciding who's sitting next to who, because we won't be bumping elbows. So any right handers are considered "minority" in our household. (Neat-o, huh?!)

Well, that's all folks!!! Hope you enjoy reading this. Now, I'd like to tag, Angel, Michelle, and Robyn. ALL of them have "Great" sites...so check it out!!!

FUN, FUN, FUN!!!!

I received my TAC order and I just love this "babysteps" stamp set. I think it's so cute. I just had to try it out as soon as I got home. I couldn't find my aqua brush. So, I decided to try and use my SU stampin pastels. I've had the pastels for a long time, but rarely used it. I got the blender pen and rubbed it on the chalk and colored away. I used the "Staz ON" black to stamp the image. I really had fun coloring the image. I stamped the "Congratulations" and obviously, it's off, but overall, I still like the way it came out. This one is for a girlfriend of mine who gave birth a while ago to a healthy baby boy.
For this card, I tried coloring in the image using the swab (stick) that comes with the stampin pastel set. Then, I used the blender pen, and rubbed it on the chalk and outlined the image. I like the effect it gave. In this picture, it looks really light, but I'm really happy with the way it came out. This one is for my cousin Glenn and his wife Yvette. Yvette recently gave birth to their son. He'll be one lucky fellow, cuz he has 2 older sisters that will surely take care of him.
This was TAC's September special stamp. I don't have any Bella stamps, so although a little smaller, I think "Lilly Ann" is "purty" too...Don't you? I'm obviously not a good photographer, so my color looks "orangy" when in fact it turned out "quite" bright. Lots of pink shades. I sponged "chocolate chip". Then, I decided to add the brown ribbon. I feel like there's still something missing but I still enjoyed coloring in and making this card. This is for a belated birthday.

With all of the cards, I've used SU designer paper, CS & the ticket punch. This was fun for me. I know I'll be using these stamp sets a lot more.

I'VE BEEN TAGGED!!

I've been tagged by by Teri. Here's how it works :

The NAME GAME. The name of the game is to list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life, for each letter of your middle name. If you don't have a middle name, use the name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your middle name and game facts. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged and to read your blog.

The truth is I have a difficult time writing about myself. So, I asked several people to put an adjective next to each letter that explains me. You know...this actually turned out to be a lot of fun!!! Believe me, I treated them really nice, so they would be nice to me (HAHAHA)!!! See the results:

H- Hilarious, happy, hopeful, heartful, (too) honest
I - Insane (i guess I wasn't really nice to this person), Intuitive, inspirational
S - Sassy (huh...don't know what she's talking about), silly, sociable, selfless, sensitive
A - Abnormal (OK...she definitely made a mistake..hehe), Analytical, Approachable, Ambitious
E - Easy...target (yeah, I'm always getting picked on), enjoys life, entertaining, easy (she meant..easy going, easy to get along with..)

Goodie..goodie..now it's my turn to tag...(since I'm not sure on first names, I'll tag by blog names:

H- Hawaiian Angels
I - Ink Something
S - Stampin Inspirations
A - Angelosity
E - Everyday Celebrations

Check out their blogs...It's really awesome. I must say, this was fun!! Thanks Teri and thanks to all of you that helped me out on this one :)
Hope it was as much fun for you as it was for me!!!

WHAT's TAKING SOOO LONG????

I guess I should've said wait until next week instead of tomorrow. My tomorrow sure did last a really long time. Here's my cousin Joy, with all of the goodies. It sure looks like the pants will fit her fine. In addition, I know she'll create some wonderful pages for her ADORABLE daughter Ashlyn.

I had another picture, but seem to be having a problem posting. As soon as I can clear my connection, I'll post another picture.

Finally, BOY (Girl) it took me a while for this one....EBAY anyone???

I've had this simply scrappin kit for over a year. I got this for my cousin who had an adorable girl. Of course, baby Ashlyn already celebrated her first birthday. My cousin is very creative and I'm sure she'll make some wonderful pages with this kit. This is a retired kit, but still very cute.

Meanwhile, I used this love note card to create a little card to go with the simply scrapping kit. It's just something really small & simple.


I'm sure a lot of you ebayers out there will be able to relate to this situation that I'm about to tell you . When scoping out some of the items I wanted, I came across this cool blue ROXY pants. It came with tags, and had the logo on the bottom of the left leg. I decided to go for it. All the details looked right and I thought, hey...I'll try to win this pants...so when it got to closing, I was determined to win it but not go over the $$$ amount I was willing to pay. Well, I was able to win it for a $teal....I was overjoyed. The pants was new, and it looked really nice. As I looked closely at all of the information, after winning the bid, I realized...OMG....it's a junior, not a misses....BUT, there was still a chance I could fit it. When I received it in the mail, I opened it like any child opening a gift, with a big smile. The pants was really nice, looked like I could fit it..okay...so far so good....let me try it on......WELL, it was slightly snug....well, a little more than slightly....it was...picture the visual of this....it looked like an old fart, trying to squeeze into her younger clothes, and trying to look "hip"....okay...this just wasn't right. Now, I couldn't find someone I knew that would fit it. I knew people who were either smaller or bigger. When I ran into my cousin at a baby shower last week, same cousin that I've waited soooooo long to give the scrapbook kit to, I realized...hey...Joy (who's the proud mother of Ashlyn) or her sister Renee would fit it perfectly. So, I made mention to them and told them that my mother will take it to another family get together we have tomorrow and they can decide who will take it. I'm curious who'll take it....Oh well....we'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out.....

50 Christmas Card class

Today, I had my 50 Christmas Card class. Teri created these cards and shared it with her downlines. Thank you Teri. The cards were created using SU's Winter Bright Scrapbook Kit, along with some of their stamps and supplies. With this class, each person had the following supplies: Winter Bright Simply Scrappin Kit, Whisper White Card Stock, Snail Adhesive, Whisper White Med Envelope (40), and the Wild Wasabi Double Stiched Ribbon. Although all of these added to slightly over what the class cost, I enjoyed doing it. I threw in the additional 10 envelopes, and the eyelets, brads, glitter, cord, and other "blings". All extra remaining, was for them so they can either create more cards, or create couple scrapbook pages. There was enough white cardstock to create a lot more cards.

Here's a photo of what each person received.
I precut the supplies for them. There were only 2 in attendance, plus myself. So I only needed to prep 3 supply kits. :)
Here's my friend Tami with my younger son, Kody, who needed to be included, showing off 2 of the cards they made. Sorry, I thought this picture was clear at the time I took it, but I guess my bifocals on my glasses is not correct any more. Boy, what age does to you. Here's cousin Cyd, showing off 2 of her cards as well. If I'm not mistaken, this picture is a little clearer, right???? For anyone wondering, what in the world is in the background, it's Kody's creation of himself. It is the same height as he is, and I know a lot of work went into this, so I taped it to our cabinet. He's proud that it's on display. You're just seeing the bottom half.
Now, at any of the classes, moreso because this one was all day, we needed snacks. So my husband Larry, prepared chips with the 3 layer dip (purchased from Safeway). We also had malasadas (thanks Cyd). Larry, later made sandwiches for everyone. They were able to order it to their style (that was nice). Of course, here's Kody, getting first gibs at snacks because we're too busy trying to finish all of the cards.

I'll let everyone know now.... 'cuz in the future, you'll take notice, Larry does a lot of the food things...it's like that here in our household. He loves to cook, so he does all the cooking. That works out fine for me because I really don't like to cook. If I did cook, we wouldn't need to lose weight (tehehe).

After creating all of the cards, here's a snapshot of what is remaining from the supplies everyone was able to take home.

Below is a snapshot of all the cards made.

Below's a view of each individual card that was made. It was 2 sets of 25 cards = 50 cards. Some of the cards were slightly different from the other.

Overall, that was a fun, and exhausting day. As a whole, I really love SU's simply scrappin kits. It's great to make scrapbook pages as well as cards. Everything coordinates well with each other. It just makes it a whole lot "simpler".