The Canon Selphy ES2

Hi Everyone, just thought I would share a cool new toy with you, since many of you probably print as much as I do. It is a printer called the Canon Selphy ES2. I love many things about it. It is extremely compact, super efficient, quiet, fast and looks and works like a robot. You can plug your camera card and other cards into it directly. Another cool feature is the special effects, you can print calendars, frames, add clip-art, etc. The best thing is probably the ink/paper cartridge. It is all in one and has 50 pieces of paper with ink included, so it makes changing it out pretty simple and I think fairly economical for $24 per cartridge. My other ink was $45 for color $30 for B/W and I had to buy paper, so this is an improvement from that for sure. Anyway, take a peak, more than anything, it makes printing kinda fun :)

Have a great day!

Kxx

Happy Christmastime!

Hello everyone, I am cheating and copying and pasting my post from The Scrappy Tree that I just finished. I am exhausted but I wanted to wish you all, A Very Merry Christmas and hope you and yours had a wonderful and blessed day.


Today was my day to share my favorite Christmas traditions or memories and I thought of a few but each and every one lead me back to things my Mom did or traditions she started. What I remember most about the holidays and Christmas Morning in particular was how special my Mom made it for us. She not only kept the spirit of Santa alive by always filling our stockings after we went to bed but she always made sure we had a wonderful mixture of things we needed wanted and loved. She knew how to shop for each one of us so well, it took me years to understand how important that was. It wasn't about the gifts themselves, although they were awesome, it was that she took the time to show us how much she loved us by knowing us so well and in turn always making it perfect! Whether money was tight or we were finicky teenagers, her ability to give the perfect gift was always a constant.
Stockings were her very favorite thing and to this day, my favorite thing and hopefully in years to come, my childrens favorite since I have carried on the tradition. As far as stockings go in our house, she made sure they were pouring over with lots of toys and candy. Every year we each got a book of lifesavers, never fail. The best part was each and every little thing, from the wooden toys from World Market to the socks and underwear, were all wrapped and with each small surprise a new smile.

The next best thing was her ability to make it fun. One year, we all received bikes for Christmas, but instead of just putting them in the garage or in front of the tree, we got miniature bikes in our stockings with notes that read, " find the real thing". And yes, we had to search the neighbors in our pajamas until we found them, good thing we lived on a small street in the country with only a few houses (and I think she gave us a hint). I carried on this tradition as well. When we bought out daughters a trampoline, we assembled it and put it over the hot tub, then disguised it with a tarp. On Christmas morning, they opened all of their gifts under the tree but there was one left, on the bench by the front door. It was a wrapped box, addressed to both with a string attached that went outside, through the courtyard, around the side yard, into the backyard and was attached to the trampoline. By the time the girls got half way I think they knew but I will never forget them starting to cry and hold hands as they rounded the corner and ran toward the tramp screaming and I have my wonderful, fun Mother to thank for that.

Mom was a baker and a cook at heart, if that was all she did all day long, she was her happiest. During the holidays however she was in rare form! From the rolled out peanut brittle on the top of the pull out dishwasher to the candy thermometers working overtime, to the roasted duck, pheasant and whatever else she could get her hands on, the girl got serious when it came to holiday cooking and baking! I have attempted to carry on this tradition as well. I am a fairly good cook, an average baker and a meek candy maker but I am getting better thanks to melt-able chocolate and sucker molds.

This year was kinda hectic and rushed but in the end I was done early, so my husband helped me make some goodies last night, he is quite possibly the best guy in the world btw, just sayin':) We made his favorite (probably why I got help) peanut butter cup cookies, My Grandmother's, Mom's and my favorite, Crescent Moon Cookies (Mexican Wedding cookies shaped like moons), Sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies. I have to say, baking with your husband, drinking champagne on Christmas Eve is a nice date if you can get it, I highly recommend it and am starting to get why Mom liked cooking so much :)



(Note to self, Hipstamatic not good for pictures of food, sorry!)

Our last tradition is, Christmas pajamas! When I was a kid we used to get our new Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve or by our bed Christmas morning (depending on how on top of wrapping Mom was) I have carried this tradition on as well but will not embarrass my family with the pictures of us in matching pj's, instead I will share a few from our day today.


Again, I hope your day was a fantastic one and you made many memories or started or carried on a few traditions. Merry Christmas!

Kxx

Happy Christmas Eve!

Hi Everyone:)

Well we made it this far, one more day to go! I am officially done shopping and just have a heap of stuff to wrap (but I LOVE that part). I usually pop in Love Actually, Bridget Jones, Emma and depending how big the heap is, Pride & Prejudice (the BBC Colin Firth version of course). The other shocker is, I even have all of my grocery shopping done,
so basically, I'm good.


If you have found me today because of the lovely blog hop Gayle and Kel have put together, welcome! I wish I had more for you to look at but due to the activities above, not so much :) I do however have some information and pictures of one of our Christmas traditions we partake in every year. Our trip of the canals in Naples, Long Beach to see the Christmas lights. Due to a rare rain storm we just had for almost a week straight, we went by ourselves and kinda ran vs walked. Usually we gather as many family and friends as we can, pack the hot chocolate, coffee, cookies and other treats in the car and head out.


The canals themselves are really cool and the waterways a bit challenging to navigate via boat due to the connection of the Alamitos Bay, Pacific Ocean and the Long Beach Harbor, but well worth it once you find it. I used to live directly across the street and miss this area so much! My doggy Indy grew up running through all of the curves and over the bridges.

The outer waterways

The Canals

They run Traditional Italian Gondolas through the canals at sunset, complete with a bottle of vino, a stripe shirt navigator and some of Italy's finest tunes. That was our Christmas gift last year from our girls...awww. I even know people who have been married on them.


During the day

During the Annual Boat Parade




And finally, this years rainy tour:






And now a very scary thing!



If your are following the blog hop or would like to jump in, see the list below. If you are stopping by for the first time, thanks for coming and I look forward to chatting with you as I make my way around to you.For those who visit often, thanks so much, I am glad you return and I am thankful for your friendship.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

Kristin xx

Gayle - Altered Orchid http://alteredorchid.blogspot.com
Julie - A Creative Journey Through Life http://julieboeck.blogspot.com
Leanne - My Little Life Of Scrap http://littlelifeofscrap.blogspot.com
You are HERE :) Kristin - Places, Things & Me http://rurunews.blogspot.com
Sherry - Sherry's Simple Blog http://sherrysimpleblog.blogspot.com
Barbara - Baraginie And Co http://adventuresinyouke.blogspot.com
Diana - The Scrappy Tree http://thescrappytree.blogspot.com
Michelle - Happenings On This Side Of The River http://momma-paparazzi.blogspot.com
Kelly - Journal Journeys http://journaljourneys.typepad.com

Merry Christmas!

This never happens to me at the mall...Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy Accident!

I don't know about you but the Holiday Season seems to be on warp speeeeed this year! I say this because everything I do in connection to it seems like a. I should have done it three weeks ago and b. as I am attempting to complete it, I seem to be in such a hurry that I keep forgetting things or rushing so much that something gets forgotten, spilled, dropped or all of the above...BUT with this years rush came a HaPpY accident!

Rewind to my hubby and I dragging out the Christmas decorations, which have slowly become half of the storage facility, (NOTE TO SELF; clean out storage facility), anyway, because we had so many boxes, our brilliant minds decided to keep a few behind. Unfortunately one of those left behind was all of the left over wrapping paper we keep from year to year, bummer! Now fast forward to me rushing around to get a package wrapped and in the mail to Oregon in time for Christmas, this is where the happy accident happened :)

Of course being a crafter (pack-rat) I dug into my stash to see what I could wrap a few presents with. I found some old .99 cent wooden ornaments from Michaels, plain white butcher paper, twine and some fake cranberries. The PLAN, to use a Christmas stamp on the plain butcher paper, tie it with some twine, add the ornament and cranberries and call it a day. The ACCIDENT, I had one box wrapped, twine done and was working on adding the wooden ornament when I decided it needed some color, so I applied distress ink to one side and as I laid it down to dry on some extra butcher paper, it fell over onto the ink side and voilà a HaPpY accident! Because the ornament had a small layer of clear coat on it and the distress inks dry slowly, the ornament worked as a stamp itself and all of a sudden I had a whole new project on my hands :)

The top left corner are the wooden ornaments that I used, as I mentioned Michaels sells them and they are really cheap (.99-$1.99). I think Walmart and Hobby Lobby have them as well. They come with a small amount of clear coat it seems but not enough to stop the ink from eventually seeping into the wood,so you can also color these with ink and add them to a package (which was my original plan) just apply the ink and dab them then keep re-applying until they reach the desired color.

As far as using them as stamps, I do have a few helpful hints if you plan to try it. It is a messy project, so I actually got out some gloves just for the inking part and then took them off before laying it down on the paper to stamp it so I didn't get ink on the paper. The ink stays wet for awhile, which is why it is so awesome for embossing, so you really don't have to rush to get them down. You can ink several at a time then lay them down and stamp them. Another helpful thing I discovered, is both sides work, so you can turn it over and do another color. When I turned it over however, the other side was still inky so as I applied pressure to the paper, I put a paper towel between my hand and the wet side so I could apply pressure and not get a hand full of ink.
Overall it really did make me happy and was fun to play with :)

Now I just need to finish my shopping so I have more to wrap :) Are you done shopping?

Thanks for stopping by!

Kxxx

Colds Stink!

Birthdays and colds sure do get in the way of blogging. Sorry for the lack of posting and visiting your blogs as of late, I got a cold for my birthday so it has slowed me down a bit. Now that it has passed, the cold and the birthday, I feel like I quickly need to wrap up this foolishness of my favorite 40, the problem is, writing down 40 memories is a bit of a task, I hadn't thought it would be this challenging and take so long :) Prior proper planning, bla bla bla...anywho, Thanks for all for the kind words about the first 12, oh and for indulging me by pretending to care about them:) It was an extra special birthday gift. I plan to share the next 28 or so as I get time to properly pay tribute to them, most likely a few at a time and I may back track a bit. BTW, as lengthy as this process is, it is very therapeutic and I highly recommend it! If you are keeping up with my fav 40, find the Pages tab to the right and click on Fav 40.

Now, on to some Christmas cards I created using Julie's Inspirational challenge at The Scrappy Tree. This was her inspiration:


It's not too late to join, go HERE for more details!

This picture initially inspired me to create this one above but I have found I have a hard time creating one of anything :) I used a stencil and acrylic craft paint on canvas, sewn to ivory burlap. The trees have random rhinestones scattered about the tree and some silver trim cording to act as garland.

This one has a bit of glitter instead of trim.

And this one I switched it up to gold accented garland and brown pearls. The Believe tag is one of my fav elements. I just stenciled the words on to canvas and then glued it to a piece of ivory felt after cutting it out with pinking shears. I don't love it here on the card but it will definitely be a sample for some gift tags.


Lastly, don't miss our Featured Guest Designer Sandy Ang over at The Scrappy Tree Today, she has some amazing Holiday projects she is sharing with us, check it out, HERE.


Thanks for visiting, I hope you all are getting more shopping and decorating done than I am!

Have a wonderful week!

K xx

~Some New Groups and Swaps at The Scrappy Tree Community~

We all hate when our favorite shows go on hiatus for a month, so let's keep busy with some ATC's that represent our favorites. Sign up for our Grey's Anatomy or GLEE ATC Swap and join the Fun!


Click here for Grey's;



and here for GLEE



A few samples I did for the Grey's swap to get us inspired :)





Also, we added a new Monthly Challenge I will be hosting. It's called the WCP challenge , which stands for Words, Colors & Pictures. I will post a new challenge on the first Saturday of every month going forward, with new words, colors, pictures and the type of project we will create (each month will be different) You will have a week to turn around your project and share it with us or just come and visit, chat and learn a new technique or meet new Scrappy friends.

December's WCP is the following:

Type of project: Layout
Word: GIVE
Color: BLUE
Picture:
See my Project at The Scrappy Tree.

We hope to see you there for one or all of our new activities.

Take care,

Kxxx

Remembering those we have lost...

This year, like every year since I lost my Mother, I am missing her so much around the house as we decorate and celebrate the holidays. I think about our past holidays together, things she used to say to calm me down in the middle of hectic shopping sprees. Traditions we shared, jokes we laughed at but mostly just being able to pick up a phone or drive on over and have a cup of coffee and a long chat. I imagine this is a common thing for many of you out there as well and for that I send you a big virtual hug and encourage you to remember those times, cry it out if you need to or scrap a project in their honor,
I chose all three :)

Below is a LO I did to celebrate her love of the color Teal, Nature and I used my all time favorite picture of her I took on our last trip to Victoria, BC. I will always treasure that trip, it was the last time I really remember her smiling and being fairly clear headed before she unfortunately had several strokes and was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.




Love and appreciate the friends and family that still surround you and keep making new memories.


I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, thanks for stopping by:)

Kxxx

Canvas love ♥♥♥

I love making my own Christmas cards but more often than not, I run out of time. This year I decided to start early and simplify. Ever since I got out the stencils and the canvas I have been a painting machine, so it was easy to narrow it down to a few designs.

This first set is my favorite, just simple and clean but with a natural look.

I added a little glitter to make these stand out. The edges are inked in red, I love the red/blue combo for Christmas and the glitter worked like a charm :)

This last set are larger cards and not my favorite but they are growing on me.

Well that's this years design, I hope my friends and family like them :) Now I just need to make about 100 more...wish me luck!


Thanks for stopping by,

Kxxx

Christmas Music...

Well it's officially freezing in California(no for real, look it up)
and Thanksgiving is over, so Christmas must be close, right?
Right :) so, I thought I would share some ATC's I made for a swap with my Sheilas.
The theme, our favorite Christmas music and how it inspires us.

This was a cool swap for me, not only because I love music but Christmas music in particular just puts me in a great mood! Each of these songs have a special place in my heart, whether from my days spent in a cold Parade building during the holidays with goods friends, my memories of my Mother and my Grandmothers singing aloud or decorating the tree with my family every year, each one makes me smile. I hope you enjoy them and they inspire you to think about your favorite Christmas songs and the memories that go along with them.


**Above picture: Songs: Deck the Halls & Let it Snow! Both are on canvas, I painted the surface of the Let it snow ATC with a white acrylic and used Tim Holtz seasonal papers. For the Deck the Halls, fired brick distress ink and Autumn Leaves stamp.


Songs: Merry little Christmas & Joy to the World. Again both are on canvas (my new favorite thing) Merry Christmas is stamped with acrylic paint, using a chunky stamp (not sure of the name) and another Autumn Leaves stamp for the merry Christmas in peeled paint distress ink, with Martha Stewart golden berry fine glitter. The Joy to the World, is black ink and a Autumn Leaves stamp.


Songs: Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas & It's the The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Merry little Christmas has a combo of Webster's pages and Tim Holtz seasonal papers, with more Martha Stewart glitter and some twine. Most wonderful has a few layers. I first painted the surface with a creamy yellow, then coated it with a layer of Martha Stewart Mica flakes glitter, the Santa image is Graphic 45. I used foam squares to add dimension and some twine.


Songs: Here comes Santa Claus & Sleigh Ride. Here comes has a Tim Holtz Seasonal paper background of a Christmas song and Santa image, with a splash of canvas strips in the corner to soften. Sleigh ride is a Lasting impressions background paper, with Graphic 45 images, vintage pipe cleaner and Dymo title.


Song: Carol of the Bells, My favorite Christmas song of all time, not my favorite ATC however. I used the Tim Hotlz Seasonal paper for the background, some Webster's Pages ribbon, gold transparency paper and a bad image of a bell, with some Stickles to make the lights pop and the song title is Life's Journey clear alpha stickers.


Songs: Noel & A Merry Little Christmas. Noel is painted canvas with white acrylic, a Graphic 45 image, Webster's pages ribbon, Life's Journey alpha stickers and an American Crafts brad. Merry Christmas is another painted canvas with green acrylic, Tim Holtz seasonal image a top of burlap with 3D foam squares for dimension and twine.

Song: Let it snow, both are images from the Tim Holtz seasonal papers, the one on the left has a frame of Martha Stewart mica flakes and Making Memories letters, the one on the right has some twine wrapped around the bottom and Lasting Impressions polka dot paper as the background.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great week!

K xxx

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends. No matter where you live, I hope you are thankful for the good things in your life. May you have a wonderful day with Family and Friends.

A few inked Thanksgiving tags for my MIL and SIL. They both love to cook, so that was the theme. I used some of Tim Hotlz Holiday papers, burlap and several inks to capture the Fall colors.



I forgot to post my Twinchies from my virtual vacation, these are the places I took us to this year and they will be the stamps in my passport :)








Have a wonderful day!

Kxxx

Sunday Randomness...

My Sunday started out with a fairly clean desk, so I thought I would tic a few things off my To Do list... turns out that list is always longer than I think it is, so I'll start with a few things and see how far I get...



I recently took a vacation, no, not that one, another one, a kinda fake one, but not really. I mean, it felt real, I traveled to far away places (via youtube videos) with great friends, experienced cranky travelers, got held up at the airport, had some fun stories to tell and best yet I didn't get felt up by the TSA agents. But, the stamps in my passport are actually twinchies and it was a virtual vacation. I have to say, all in all, it may be the way to travel in the future :) The trip could not be completed without the following awesome Sheilas, whom I hope to take an actual vacation with some day; Tonz, Julz, G, Di, Megz, Melz, Melanie, Joyce, Erica, Conz, Debz, Lori & Kelz. A few sheilas were not able to make the trip (Amber & Rob) but we hope you can join us on our next one. Thanks for the memories Sheilas :)

My Photo album cover from the trip


Our lovely destinations
Edinburgh Castle, Scotland~Eiffel Tower, Paris France~Trevi fountain, Rome Italy~Wulai, Taiwan~London Eye, England~Sugar loaf & Rio, Brazil. I can't wait until next year.

Unfortunately the below story happened toward the end of the first day of travel...




~Delayed Reaction~

My daughter was in a car accident recently and maybe because she was banged up pretty bad (a fractured sternum, bruising...everywhere and a banged up foot with staples) and we were freaked out, I didn't mention it. Now that she is on the mend, can I just tell you not all teaching hospitals have Hot Attendees and Sassy interns. I know, I know Grey's Anatomy is only a TV show, but Seriously! I would have much rather watched Cristina Yang come waltzing into the ER complaining about how boring and beneath her staples are, than the three that did stumble, literally into the room and ask if she was the one with the huge gash in her foot. Needless to say, probably not the best thing to ask my worried daughter who was convinced she couldn't breathe because her heart was broken :) Together, the three musketeers could barely figure out where the staples went, let alone how to take out the one that was put in the wrong place...whoops?! Sadly among the 10 other people that were in and out of the room, taking x-rays and poking random parts of her body, not one McDreamy or McAnything was on that list BUT we still have a daughter breathing and walking with, I am happy to report, no broken heart
and for that we are thankful :)

On the upside, the hospital had just gone through a remodel so that looked like
Grey's Anatomy :) The banged up couple
(who could not stop holding hands...awww,
young love :)
my stir-crazy husband, and pretty decor around the hospital.
*Please note, the bottom right picture was not on the hospital patient menu but was our dinner that night when we finally got home!


On to Scrappy stuff!

I cleaned up a bit in my studio which also inspired me to capture some of the happy corners of it. These are the corners that when I am stressed out and trying to BE creative, they make me smile, relax and eventually BE creative...I thought I would share a few:

















































My Scrappy Creation of the weekend and my new favorite corner in my studio:
My Thankful Project for The Scrappy Tree




Last, but certainly not least, my first award from my dear friend and fellow Scrappy Treeer, Gayle, who is one of the most creative people I know and I am so glad to call her a dear friend. She can, with the smallest amount of effort, make the most beautiful textured background that screams look and admire me because I'm fabulous! Check our her work here!
Thanks Gayle :)

The Cherry on Top Award;

The 3 requirements for accepting this award;

1. Post the award- ✔

2. Share 3 things I enjoy-
a. Taking pictures (good or bad) I do it all the time!
b.Being creative (good or bad) it doesn't leave my brain...
c. Spending time with the people and things I love, nice work if you can get :)

3. Pick 5 fellow bloggers to pass it on to (So unfair that we can not play tag backs here); let's see...

a. Julie- A joy to see what she creates and the Salt of the Earth!
b. Michelle- A master picture taker and professional Mom.
c. Joanna- One of the most unique scrappers I have seen.
d. Erica- Always a pleasure to see what vintage find she has up her sleeve.
e. Jennie- Always Fab! Enuf said :)

I hope you have an enjoyable week &
find that you are Thankful for the good things in your life

Kxxx