Treehouses make my heart HAPPY

Someday, when I own my own home, I will find a house with a sturdy tree in the backyard. Whether our home is filled with gallivanting children or not, this tree will hold a tree house, for sure! As a child, I was always jealous of my friends who:
a) had a giant trampoline
b) had pet chickens
c) were allowed to pin up posters of hotties such as J.T.T on their walls with push-pins
and
d) had a tree house
I would most certainly be jealous of this adorable squirrel and his blue-jay friend, for their tree house is fit for a king!

 

I drew out the house shape, stamped the wood grain by Hero Arts, embellished with some adorable patterned papers by My Little Shoebox, and set to work on that scalloped roof using my SU! punch. The adorable mushroom and squirrel stamps are by Prima and were a total score at their warehouse sale for 50 CENTS EACH!
I really enjoyed adding in all sorts of bitty details on this card, especially this Tim Holtz pin and paper cloud:

Oh, I couldn't resist embellishing the inside either! Check out this sweet sentiment from Michael's dollar bin:



I can see myself getting a bit carried away with these little tree house cards-I have a TON of cute tree-dwelling critter stamps...SWOON!
I'm off to map out my ideal tree house...send me pics if you happen to have one in your own backyard! :)
Hugs and HOOTS,
<3 Alicia

...after a while, crocodile!

After a while, all of us crafters seem to look around, scratch our heads, and ask ourselves where in goodness' name all this crafty crap came from! With all the "pretties" that are constantly manufactured, it can be difficult to keep up with all the new product, but most of us tend to save things "for later". We just seem to *know* that *someday* the most *perfect* project will come along and we will instantly know that *IT IS TIME*.

Hmmmm.

I really enjoy watching Kristina Werner's Make a Card Monday and Finally Friday videos on YouTube because she is always piling on the "gems" of her stash as if there is no tomorrow. Don't pretend you don't hoard these little bits away and save them for just the right moment...;) It's both painful and exhilerating to watch her dive in and annihilate an entire package of $5.99 3D stickers on one card. I admire her gusto!
Recently, an online scrapbooking friend passed away unexpectantly after her battle with breast cancer; my heart aches for her family and all of her someday plans...she was much too young. I watched her post entry after entry of beautiful scrapbook pages, and entry after entry of "hauls" ful of "pretties" that she'd never get to use. :(
The point is, both of these situations have really made me think about how I approach a new project. After some pondering of my existence, I decided to head to my scrapbook room to unwind and I started by grabbing up a pile of coordinating products that I ADORE and have been saving "for later".
Meet Albert and Sirius...aren't they adorable? I piled on my favorite retired SU! ribbon and buttons along with several Sassafrass Lass chipboard shapes, some WRMK Bakers Twine, and even some bitty black pearls for eyes on my friends.

 

I hope you will contemplate your own existence and really ask yourself just how long you will hang on to all those "pretties"...go one, dive in...I DARE YA! ;)
Hugs and HOOTS,
<3 Alicia

What's old is *new*...

Greetings night owls! I'm up late tonight playing in my scrap room and it is ooooh so lovely! Cruisin' around SplitCoastStampers.com this afternoon, I was struck by this week's sketch challenge and HAD to play along.

I've been drooling over the new Stampin' Up! catalog so I decided to pull out some oldies but goodies from my retired pile and tie 'em in with a couple new toys to liven things up. I am really enjoying the twine, this new lace punch by EK Success, and this doily stamp set by Martha Stewart Crafts. :)

Most of all, I had fun stamping the sentiment from two different stamp sets by stamping "cherish" first, then by omitting "thinking of" and only inking up "you" from the teeny tiny wishes stamp set. I will have to think outside the box more and challenge myself to this more frequently because I loved the results!
Thanks for stopping by my friends and happy stampin'!
Hugs and HOOTS,
<3 Alicia