It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

I love this time of the year -- parties, baking, family time together, the smell of the Christmas tree, Christmas music -- all of it.  Sure, it gets stressful but I love it!

This year seems to be especially busy and I haven't found as much time to get crafty in my studio.  So, I decided to post some photos of projects I made last year and will hopefully update with some newbies soon.

Happy Thanksgiving Party People

All is abuzz in the Sanchez household as we prepare for our annual Thanksgiving feast.  We took on a big project to get our house in ship shape and now, less than 48 hours from the big day we'll be scrambling to get it all done.  We decided to fix up our kitchen which required removing wallpaper, smoothing out the wall surface and then puting a fresh coat of paint on the whole thing.  Well, we have a 2nd coat of paint left to put on two windows, baseboards to paint and install. new curtains to put up and a good cleaning.  Keep your fingers crossed that we'll get it all done.

I love having Thanksgiving at my house.  The whole clan of extended family gathers and we enjoy conversation, laughs, food and wine.  My daughter especially likes the leftovers the next day -- sitting at the picnic table in her jammies.

I'm hoping to top off the weekend with some shopping, crafting and resting.  I'll be sorry to send my kids back off to college but glad they'll be back in a few short weeks.

This year I am truly thankful for my wonderful family and friend.  I'm also thankful we are employed and finding joy in the little things in life.

October Happenings

Well, October is coming to a close and I can honestly say it has flown by.  This month has brought a mixture of sadness (with the passing of my dear Dad) and happiness (with my being selected to join the design team at Crop Chocolate).  So much going on and not enough crafty time!

I did manage to finish a couple of projects both for fun and for challenges.  My favorite of these is the following altered notebook I made using a 50 cent notebook I found in the dollar bin at Michael's.

I free-handed the owl design and made the project with paper, stickers and alphas from Echo Park This & That Charming, burlap and felt from JoAnn's, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tea Dye and buttons from SEI.  I was going to give this away as a gift but I liked it so much I decided to keep it.  You can find instructions on how to make this on Instructagram by following this link:  http://instructagram.com/igrams?id=219

In the spirit of Halloween, I also made this card for my husband.  I have a ton of Halloween papers and used last year's Echo Park release, Apothecary Emporium paper and stickers to make it extra spooky!

Happy Halloween -- Be Safe.

Last Leg of the OWH Challenges

This weekend I finished up all my entries for the Crop Chocolate Operation Write Home Blog Hop challenge.  The thing I love about challenges is the chance to stretch my creativity and have some guidelines while I'm stretching.  The first two cards were done for Miwa's challenge -- this was another "use your scraps" challenge and I have no shortage of scraps.  I chose the Quite Contrary collection from My Mind's Eye because I love the bright colors.

The other supplies used are:  SRM sentiment stickers, red/pink Trendy Twine, green/white Twinery baker's twine and Bazzill card stock.
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The next challenge was from Kathy who threw down the gauntlet and listed two challenges.  The first was "Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Something Old and Something New".  Challenge #2 was to use 2 colors and bling.  I'm going to double-dip on challenge #2 since the card I made for the last challenge in the hop also fits this description.  Here they are:

 Something Old:  the patterned paper -- My Mind's Eye Good Day Sunshine and the stamps -- Hero Arts "Be Happy" and Katie & Co. "Thinking of You".  Something New:  The aqua twine from Twinery.  Something Borrowed:  the layout inspiration from a card made by Kathy Martin in the August issue of Cards Magazine.  Something Blue: the paper and the twine.  I also used TH Distress Ink in Vintage Photo to ink the edges and stamp the sentiment.

This card for Kathy's Challenge #2.  I used the My Mind's Eye Hattie paper, Authentique Genuine word sentiments "you make me smile", MME Lush brad, and punches from EK Success punch (large heart), Fiskars (scalloped circle) and Creative Memories (circle punch and smaller hearts).
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For Jenni's challenge (Use a Stamp and a Punch), I made the "Ewe" are Loved card.  I used paper from My Mind's Eye So Happy Together (yellow polka dot) and Fun Day Everyday (kraft with starbursts).  The stamps were from Basic Grey and the ink was TH Black Soot.  The navy cardstock is Bazzill and the punch is from Fiskars.

And now, drum roll please...
For the final challenge of the Blog Hop, I made a card with an unusual fold. I described it above and listed the materials up there.  Here is the full view so you can see the fold and the insides.  I made 20 cards in all for this Crop Chocolate Blog Hop.  I Hope you like them!

Use Your Scraps -- Operation Write Home Challenge

I know you've seen some of these in earlier posts, but they fit Brit's challenge to a tee!  I used scraps from my Echo Park Times & Seasons 6 x 6 and 12 x 12 paper packs to make all these cards.  I still have some paper left but these really made a dent.

Brenna's & Julie's OWH Blog Hop Challenge

Now on to Brenna's (Xanthippe) Operation Write Home Crop Chocolate Blog Hop Challenge. Brenna asked us to create cards that are subtly dimensional.  I took that challenge to heart and had some fun.  Here are my cards:

This next card was made for Julie's challenge (Muddy Paws, Inky Fingers) and followed a sketch from the OWH website.  I used Fancy Pant's Summer's End patterned paper and rub ons, baker's twine from the Twinnery (cantaloupe) and My Mind's Eye (Miss Caroline):

Michelle's OWH Challenge

Here are my cards for Michelle's (Stuff by Belle) Operation Write Home Blog Hop Challenge on Crop Chocolate:

The top 2 cards were made using My Mind's Eye Fun Day patterned paper, some Basic Grey buttons, Bazzill cardstock and some twine from the Twinery.  The bottom two cards were made using Echo Park Times & Season's paper (a favorite of mine) and mustache sticker, Bazzill cardstock, SEI brads and an old key found in my Dad's garage.  I tried to use cardstock that is a little more masculine.

Operation Write Home - Amber's Challenge

I have been participating in a blog hop on Crop Chocolate this last week and have been very busy making cards for Operation Write Home.  It has been so much fun doing the various challenges.  The first was Amber's challenge.  Here are the cards I made using the template from her post:

Now on to the next challenge!

Brand New Blog

After lots of hemming and hawing I finally started my own blog!  Not sure what I was waiting for, it's so easy to set up.  Now I've got to figure out how to make it pretty.

I plan to use this blog for posting my crafty endeavors and family adventures.  Thanks for taking this journey with me.

You might be wondering where I got the name. Well, it stems from my college days and my love of cold pizza in the morning.  My husband always thought I was so weird when I'd lovingly put the pizza away on a Saturday night and comment on how good that was going to taste on Sunday morning.  "Someday," he said, "you should open a restaurant that serves breakfast pizza because I know you're not the only one who likes it."

I never have pursued that restaurant idea but I do still likes me some cold, or slightly heated, day-old pizza in the morning.  So I guess if I can't have the restaurant, giving the name to my blog will have to do.