Hippo-birthday card!

Today I would like to share with you a card I created using Skdigis' Happy Hippo digital stamp.  SKdigis is a new site offering cute digital stamps at very affordable prices!  The digital images are created by the very talented Sonia Kertznus.   If you like what you see, please stop by her site, SKdigis.  She has lots of cute digital stamps and she even has some freebies for you to try!  Sonia is officially launching her site on September 3rd and to celebrate it she will have a blog hop.  She will also have challenges every other week.  I'm honored to be part of her design team and I'm looking forward to creating with all of her wonderful digital images.  Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by!

Materials:

• SKdigis Happy Hippo digital stamp
• SU! Patterns Pack II pad (retired)
• SU! Crushed Curry ribbon (retired)
• Metallic mini brads (from Joann's)
• GP white cardstock
• My Pink Stamper More Punny-licious acrylic stamp set
• SU! Crushed Curry cardstock

Tools:

• Brother laser printer
• Crop-a-dile
• Copic markers 
• Sewing machine
• Tuxedo black Memento ink

I'm back!

Hello my friends! It has been over six months since my last post.  So many things have happened in my life since then... On April 10th we found out I was pregnant and even though we didn't plan it, we were very excited about the good news.  Unfortunately on April 18th, I started to have some bleeding and went to see my Ob gyn and he couldn't hear a heart beat... it has been the most painful experience in my whole life.

I do have to thank God for putting in my life my wonderful friends Jesus, Sergio and Ricardo. My husband was out of town when it all happened, so my beloved friends were there for me and my son.  I'm specially thankful to Sergio who took me to all the doctor's appointments and baby sat my little one while we were there. Good thing my dear husband made it in time for the procedure and gave me the support and strength I needed to share the bad news with my little one. My little one took it very well and I have to say that I'm amazed on how kids can understand things like this.  For me, it has been very hard but I'm trying to stay positive and thankful for the precious little one I have here with me and for my little angel in heaven.  

As you could imagine, I wasn't in the mood for crafting and I even considered selling all my stuff.  Funny thing, the same day I was going to prepare my stuff to sell,  my friend Sonia from http://skdigis.blogspot.com/ sent me an email inviting me to be part of her design team since she was launching her new digital stamps.  I took it as I sign that I should keep creating and accepted the offer.  So I will be posting my creations using her digis here in my blog and also in here challenge blog. Starting September 3rd, Sonia will have a challenge every other week where you can submit your creations for a chance to win one or two of her cute digital stamps.  You can check them out here: http://shopskdigis.blogspot.com/.  She even has some freebies for you to try.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy my post in the future.  Hugs and kisses.

Cuttlebug_fan

Home made Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Hello friends, today while my son, DH and I were watching PBS Kids Sprout, and a TV commercial about chocolate covered strawberries showed up on every commercial break.  The berries looked so delicious but after hearing how much half a dozen would cost ($19.99 plus shipping),  and since I already had all the ingredients on hand, I decided to make some myself.  First, I washed and dried the fresh strawberries.  I put them in the freezer for 15 minutes.  Second,  I melted the chocolate following the instruction from the package. I used Ghirardelli premium chocolate chips for baking, bittersweet chocolate and white classic.   Then I dipped each strawberry into the melted bittersweet chocolate, covering it in a layer of chocolate almost to the top.  I let the chocolate to drip off the excess and then placed each strawberry on a tray lined with wax paper.  I put them in the fridge for 5 minutes while I was preparing the white chocolate to decorate them.  As you can see, it was very easy to do and so much fun that even my dear husband helped me to decorate some of them.  They looked very good and tasted delicious!
Thanks for stopping by!

Problems with Blog's Background/Design

Hello friends, I hope you are having a wonderful week! I'm experimenting some problems with my blog's background/design and still need to figure out what is going on. I will try to fix it in the next couples of weeks, so I want to apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause. Thanks for your patience.  Hugs and kisses,


Leirad

Christmas cards, neck warmers and tree skirt

Wow, I cannot believe it's been almost two months since my last post.  There have been a lot of things going on in my life for the past weeks, some good, some bad, so almost no time to be creative.   

Last week I decided it was time to go back to my craft room and start creating. Due to the time constraint, this year I only made one third the number of Christmas cards that I usually do, just for my closest friends and family.  I'm learning how to color with Copic Markers and wanted to use my brand new Magnolia Tilda stamp I bought last month.  For the card base I used Bazzill textured paper.  Patterned paper is from My Mind's Eyes (12 days of Christmas).

I also knitted a neck warmer for my sister and an infinity scarf for her fur baby (a tiny Chihuahua so into fashion), my niece Lola.  Hope they like them.  This is first time I make crochet flowers. I just followed the instructions from a Youtube video I found through Pinterest and I think they turned out okay.  Hope my sister and Lola like their presents.

Finally, I made a Christmas tree skirt using some felt for the base, some left over brown fabric, burlap in light brown, ivory and olive green, tons of hot glue, and some SU! Chocolate Chip felt ribbon (retired).  The tree skirt idea is not mine and I also found it on Pinterest. Can you tell I'm loving Pinterest?  I just modified it a little bit and instead of using 2" burlap strips, I used 3" strips. Isn't it pretty?

As you can see, it was a very productive week.  This week I will be getting ready for the Christmas Eve dinner (I'm cooking again this year) and want to make some baked goodies for my neighbors.  I will try to post pictures of all of it, but if I don't have a chance, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2012. Thanks for stopping by!