Designs by Latisha Yoast

Happy New Year's Eve!!  No big plans for us tonight.  I'm going to make some rib-eye steaks, baked potatoes, a nice salad and maybe some pasta.  We will play board games (me, hubby and our two children), and watch movies.  The kids will have Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider in champagne glasses when the time hits midnight.  We do live in the south, so we will hear many fireworks going off. I plan on staying in my pajama's all day, crafting, watching movies, and catching up on college football.  For those of you going out, be safe!!  Bring on 2010!!

Happy New Year's Eve Eve :)  Can you believe in just a few short days we will go into a new decade and year!  2009 was really amazing, and I cannot wait to see what 2010 brings.  My Dad left yesterday, so since I don't have to play hostess today, I actually got to sit down and make a card just for fun.  I need to make a bunch of thank you cards, so is my first one done.  The images are from Waltzingmouse stamps (LOVE them!!) and the designer paper is from the new Sugar Rush line from Basic Grey, and the polka dotted paper is from Bo Bunny. My house is so quiet right now, love that.  My children are engrossed in the new things that they received for Christmas.  I hope you all have a wonderful day! "for you"

Now that Christmas is over, its time to start making thank you cards.  This week I plan on sitting down with my children, to help them make and send out with their thank you cards.  Next month is winter CHA and all of the stamp & paper companies (well anything to do with the crafting industry) roll out their new lines of stuff.  So, that means I need to start using up my stash of paper.  This card is using some of my favorites, its the Early Bird line from Cosmo Cricket.  The stamps are from Artistic Outpost (love them!) Today, we are off to Savannah, Georgia.  Its a beautiful southern city.  My Dad has never been there before so it should be a fun trip, plus the drive is gorgeous.   Happy Sunday yall!

Merry Christmas I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas today.  Today brings me thoughts and feelings of gratitude.  Here are a few thoughts... That the excitement and joy I have always had for Christmas, my children have too. Watching my children open their presents is my favorite gift. Listening to the Nutcracker cd makes me wish I took ballet for more than 5 lessons (I liked gymnastics better) Watching my son go around the house searching for evidence that Santa was here. That my children love to give to charity, just like my husband and myself. That we are not affected by the economy, can pay our bills, have a home and can provide food for our children. That I get to eat some of my favorite food today. That the real 12 days of Christmas is starting today. That my children think their best present this year, is their Papa visiting them. My husband is home, and we get to make new memories. Thankful for all of the wonderful o...

Sorry I have not been blogging the last few days.  My Dad flew in from California, and we have not seen him in over a year.  The kids are so happy to have a grandparent here for Christmas, it just makes it extra special.  This week, we have ate lots of food, hung out, went to see Avatar at the Imax in 3d, and yesterday we took my Dad to the Magic Kingdom (Walt Disney World).  He has never been to any Disney park.  He was amazed at how much detail Disney puts into everything. Anyhow, I have lots of dt work and deadlines I'm trying to meet, so hopefully I can have a new project posted soon.  I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!! hugs Latisha

Making circles are so fun to make, and pretty easy too.  Cut and score your card stock as you usually do.  If you don't have any die cuts to cut out your shape, go grab a bowl, a jar, a mug or a cup... really anything round that is the size you want.  When using dies, place the die just a tad over the score line, this will keep the fold and the card together.  If you are using a cup, just put the edge of the cup a little over the fold (trace the circ. of the cup with a pencil and then cut out with scissors).  After my card base is cut out, repeat the process with double sided pattern paper.  Cut a couple of strips of the cut out pattern paper, and adhere to the card.  The paper I used, is by October Afternoon, and lucky for me, I had coordinating stickers.  So I applied a sticker toward the bottom corner.  To add ribbon, punch two holes at the top, run your ribbon through it, and tie a knot (add a button for added cuteness).  For a littl...

Stacy challenged us to make a card that has a lot of white space (clean and simple).  Which is right up my alley, a quick and simple card right before the holidays.  Stacy has a tutorial and samples over on the Flourishes Newsletter . So do you have all of your Christmas cards done?  If not, take a little blog hop to get some inspiration on how the design team, made different clean and simple cards.  Sometimes a clean card is the way to go, especially if you have to make a lot of them.  Well I'm off to finish making cookies, fudge & brownies for my children's Christmas parties (I'm typing this Thursday night). Warm Wishes check the design team out with their white space cards Christine Cindy Julie Laura Leslie

Only 10 days until Christmas!!  My Dad gets here in just a few days, and things are busy in my house.  The holidays always seem jam packed, but I really like it.  All the hustle and bustle, wearing jackets, drinking hot cocoa, the excitement of opening presents.  I love love love Christmas, its probably my favorite holiday.  Plus with both of my children in Christmas plays and choral performances, listing to the children sing, really make you feel warm inside.  Just last night my daughter has a Winter Choir concert, and I got goosebumps.  She was asked to sing with the High School Chorus, and they have beautiful voices.  Anyhow, here is a Christmas card I made a while back and never posted to my blog.  The paper and chipboard are from Basic Grey and the sentiment is from the Flourishes Santa set.  I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday.  I'm going to go have lunch with a good friend at a place that has good guacamole (so she says, and ...

Today is the last day of peaks, so the design team will be showing the Year of Flowers calender set 3.  Which is months September, October, November and December.  With fall just behind us, I wanted to make a rich fall card.  So I inked up the October flowers which are Chrysanthemums.  I colored the flowers in with copic markers, then distressed the edges of the panel with Tim Holtz distress ink.  The designer paper is from SEI, the Julliete line of paper.  Its very beautiful paper, and feels like velvet.  For your chance to win this stamp set, head on over to the Flourishes Newsletter , they are having a one day only blog candy.  Tonight is the power hour release party over on SCS , so if you don't have any plans, come and visit.  There will be games, prizes and the full reveal of the set. For more inspiration and sneaks, visit the rest of the Design Team Christine Okken Cindy Lawrence Julie Koerber Laura Fredrickson Leslie Miller ...

Hey there, today brings us the Year in Flowers Calender set 2.  Which includes the months May, June, July & August.  For my project, I made a tag using the Iris flower, and the printable calender that Flourishes will be offering.  You can buy the downloadable calender for $2 or get it free if you buy all three stamp sets.  So, I printed out the calender and then cut it down to the size I wanted.  I then stamped the Iris flower and colored it in with Copic markers.  I took some Tim Holtz distress inks and inked up the white card stock with Green and a Walnut stain color.  After I applied the ink, I coated the tag with some Rock Candy Crackle paint.  To speed up the process of the crackle paint drying I used a heat gun, you don't need to use a heat gun, I just didn't want to wait.  I then wanted to age it just a little more, so I took the script stamp that is in the Thank You set, and inked it with some green ink again and just stamped dire...

Can you believe its that time of month again for a Flourishes release!!  Today I'm showing you a sneak of the Year of Flowers calendar set 1.  I chose to use the March Pansy.  Did you know you can eat the leaves and flowers of a pansy plant?!?  The flowers can be dipped in sugar to decorate cakes, or just wash the blossoms and use them to garnish soups and salads, or whatever.  One of my cousins wives, she makes cakes and on my bridal shower cake, she put pansies on it, boy was that cake beautiful and tasty. Anyhow, onto the card. I was inspired by this photo of this pansy (isn't it beautiful!) I didn't color in my image exactly the same, I was just more inspired by the colors.  The really rich oranges, yellows and reddish pinks.  I colored the image on white card stock, then cut it out and adhered it to a kraft card base.  I'm trying (really trying) to make a complete set of cards with this months releases.  So there will be 12 cards, o...

Happy Monday!  With December in full effect, that means lots of Christmas parties, chorus performances, children's parties, finishing up and mailing out Christmas cards...yep I'm busy.  We had a wonderful weekend which started on Thursday.  My husband and I went to an All Hands Christmas party for the Squadron he is stationed at.  Then on Friday, my daughter had a Holiday Chorus performance at her school.  After the program, we went and ate at a Japanese hibachi restaurant.  We always have such a good time, plus its fun to get to know the rest of the people at your table.  Saturday, my husband and I got dressed up to go to the Change of Command dinner.  I have to say, I had a lot of fun and enjoyed some Christmas Spirit (belvedere vodka, cranberry juice with a twist of lime lol).  Good times, good times. Anyhow, well I am just making the deadline, but I am playing along with the Christmas in the Old Country challenge over at Moxie Fab World...

A group of us decided to get together and have a fun Snowman blog hop.  All of the blogs will feature Snowman projects.  Be sure to visit all of the ladies blogs, most of them are giving away blog candy!!  How fun is that!  I decided to make a Snowman tag, I got my inspiration from Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags (from day 1).  The Snowman and sentiment are from the Unity Stamp Company. Here is an up close picture of the tag.  It doesn't show very well, but I had put some Tim Holtz rock candy crackle paint over the tag, its a really cool effect, I'm so glad I bought some of the paint, its one of the coolest techniques I have done in a while.  I loosely followed Tim's directions on how he did his tag, so head over here to see how he made his. Links : Angella Crockett - http:// bodymindspiritandstamps. blogspot.com/   Barb Foster -  http://fosterdesignhouse. blogspot.com/   Deb Felts -  http://withastampandasong. blogspot....

Wow, can you believe next week is the December release of stamps for Flourishes!!  There are three new sets being released, and I have to say, I have not seen sets like this in a while.  Versatile is the perfect word to describe them.  Anyhow, the Sr. Design team is having a pre-release challenge, where you use the colors of your favorite flower to lead the way in making a card.  I was inspired by the colors of a red tulip.  The only colors in my card are red, ivory and green all colors you would find in the flower and stem of a red tulip.  If you choose to play along, you could win all three releases next week.  For more details, head on over to the Flourishes Newsletter . For my card, the sentiment and image are both from the Christmas Tea stamp set.  I still have quite a few more Christmas cards to make, so clean and simple is the way I'm going!!  I colored in the cups using the Spica Glitter pens by Copic, they color in your image and s...

Wow December 2nd!!  Boy has this year just flown by.  I have been busy trying to finish up my Christmas cards, getting dt work done and just having fun creative time, not to mention Christmas shopping, recovering from Thanksgiving and getting ready for my Dad to come for 10 days.  Anyhow, I have a sick child home this morning, so Home Alone the movie is on right now, and that gave me a little time to whip this little ditty up.  I started out my embossing the card front using a Spellbinders Impressabilities die, I love love love these and you really get a deep impression.  The kraft label looking thing, was on a sheet of Hambly Screen Prints journaling spots, that I decided to cut out.  The sentiment is a rub on from K & Co.  Before I adhered the label down, I ran some red satin ribbon around the front of the card and tied a bow.  The gems are from a Kaiser Crafts red jewel pack. Well I hope you all are having a wonderful day!  Are you do...

These ATC's are on their way to Colorado, to be soon swapped out.  I joined a winter themed ATC swap on SCS .  ATC stands for, artist trading card.  They are sized 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches.  I stamped the Santa image, and put some Diamond Glaze on his glasses, then stamped the sentiment in the corner. Did all of you have a nice Thanksgiving?  We had a really nice day, hubby got to take a few days of leave so it was fun staying up late and sleeping in.  The kids helped me make and prepare a lot of the food we ate, and my daughter made cookies all by herself.  Then she brought them to neighbors as a good deed. Today its a little chilly, but its so beautiful outside.  I have lots of errands to do today, so I hope you have a great Monday!!

Flourishes is having a sale today, be sure to enter the keyword JINGLE at checkout to get 15% off your entire order.

H a p p y  T h a n k s g i v i n g I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I am so thankful for big and small blessings in my life.  For those of my friends or family who may be feeling down or depressed, give thanks to unknown blessings on their way.   My family is spending the day enjoying each other, food, football, Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, board games, apple pie, pumpkin cheesecake, lots of naps and maybe some craft time for me. "For flowers that bloom about our feet; For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet; For song of bird, and hum of bee; For all things fair we hear or see, Father in heaven, we thank Thee!" -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Here is a pretty that I made a while ago, well to be honest its a reject for my November Dirty Dozen gallery lol.  I still love it, it just didn't make the cut.  Today I am making Pumpkin Cheescake, chopping lots of vegetables and I might make some brownies too, if I feel really ambitious I may even make the stuffing tonight.  Can you believe Thanksgiving is tomorrow!?!  Wow has this year just flown by, it just seems like yesterday we moved to Orange Park from San Diego, but it has been 11 months.  Anyhow, I hope you all get to have some time to enjoy with your family in the next few days.  I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. "you inspire me"

Can you believe Thanksgiving is just a few days away!!  It really is one of my favorite holidays (2nd to Christmas).  Thanksgiving is probably the last holiday that hasn't been commercialized with buying stuff.  It has remained the same...turkey dinner.  We spend the day waking up the the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, lots of appetizers, watching nostalgic movies, Turkey dinner and of course football.  Then after all the dishes are done and I have had a nap, its then crunch time to get those Christmas cards done! Today this little pretty, was a fun card to make and involved zero stamping.  I just looked at some things I might have been hoarding (wink wink).  I started off with a kraft card base, layered with a pretty floral Jenni Bowlin paper, then a Jenni Bowlin mini bingo card & I adhered those down.  Then, I wrapped some satin ribbon around the card front and tied a pretty bow.  To finish the card off I placed a Basic Grey reindeer w...

Wow its Friday!  The countdown until Thanksgiving is going on in my house.  My menu is written, free range turkey order is place (getting fresh eggs and sausage too), all I need to do is get a few items at the grocery store and I'm all set to start cooking.  The day before I will probably make a pumpkin cheesecake and fudge, along with potato salad and sage sausage stuffing, then chop & prepare all the veggies and side dishes that I will cook on Thanksgiving.  Do you all cook on the same day, or spread it out? Anyhow on to my post lol, so Julie challenged us to make some tags for the Flourishes Friday Focus.  I like to use tags to stick on gift bags, wine bottles, or packages of desserts, it just makes the packaging look polished and well thought out, not to mention it just classes it up a bit. I started out with a 2 1/2 inch by 4 inch piece of cardstock, and I stamped the music background in a green ink and put a strip of designer paper towards the botoo...

Here is a quick and simple vintage holiday card.  I crumpled up some Graphic 45 paper, the sewed it to an ivory card stock panel.  Before I adhered the panel I distress the edges with ink.  Sometimes I take the ink pad directly onto the paper, but this time I used a sponge, I have a little more control that way.  The sentiment was stamped in rich cocoa Memento ink.  When I first went to put the tag on, it didn't seem right.  Maybe because the paper is crumpled.  So I popped the tag up with foam tape.  The red twine is from Martha Stewart. I want to say a big thank you, to everyone who has wished me a congratulations.  The outpouring of support really has been overwhelming!!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!! "Merry Christmas"

The Flourishes sets are now available to purchase go to www.flourishes.org to check them out. Here is a card I made this week, but didn't have a chance to put up on my blog, it was for a color challenge on SCS. Next, guess who got asked to join the Dirty Dozen on Splitcoaststampers?!?!  Me!!  Oh my goodness, this is such a dream come true.  Thank You to all of you for visiting my blog day after day and leaving me such sweet comments.  They are always so appreciated! huge hugs latisha

Today is the last day of sneaks, and I'm showing you a little project I did with the new Christmas Tea set.  I decided to make a little mini pizza box, and put some 3/ 3/4 x 3 3/4 inch square cards in it (you can find the tutorial here ).  It a very very simple tutorial, believe me, if I can do it, you can do it!  Its a fun way to give someone note cards.   Flourishes has a nice coffee set, so its so nice that they have added a tea set for all of us tea drinker, I think you are going to like what you see. If you like the look of this set, head on over to the Flourishes Newsletter for your chance at a one day only blog candy.  Also don't forget about the release party tonight, all the details are also at the Flourishes blog. Check out what the rest of the designer did with this set: Julie Koerber Christine Okken Stacy Morgan Cindy Lawrence Laura Fredrickson Leslie Miller "Christmas Tea"

Are you ready for another set?  Today I'm sneaking a set called Lamp post Greetings.  It has the lamp post, and then different flags to attach to it plus sentiments.  Its very versatile, and after I colored this image, I fell in love with this set.  I think using the American flag is fitting since yesterday was Veteran's Day.  The image was colored in using Copic markers, cut an embossed with a Spellbinders die and then mounted on the card.  Sometimes with an image like this one, you can go clean and simple because the coloring does all the talking for you.  For your chance to win this set, head on over to the Flourishes Newsletter.  They are having a one day only blog candy and giving away this set!! "God Bless the USA" Please take some time and visit the rest of the designers and what they did with this set: Christine Okken Latisha Yoast Stacy Morgan Laura Fredrickson Leslie Miller Flourishes Newsletter

Today, I'm showing you a sneak of the Christmas Borders set from Flourishes.  I plan on using this bag around the holidays, so I didn't want to put too much time and effort into it knowing it could get thrown away. I took a normal kraft colored bag, and re-decorated it.  I can see this set being used in so many fun ways, making your own stationery, cards, decorating bags or what about making your own wrapping paper, now that would be cool!!  For your chance to win this set, head on over to the Flourishes Newsletter , they are having a one day only blog candy.   "Christmas Border holiday bag" Pay a visit to the rest of the designers to see what they did with this set Leslie Miller Christine Okken Julie Koerber Laura Fredrickson Stacy Morgan Cindy Lawrence Flourishes Newsletter

Day 2 of Sneaks Today some of the Flourishes design team along with the blog team are showcasing projects using the new set called Fancy Labels created by Lauren Pope.  You will find some of the elements in this set will coordinate with some of your favorite Spellbinder dies.  For my project, I made some banana nut bread mini loaves, packaged them into glassine bags, added some pretty trim and ribbon along with a tag using images and sentiments from the Fancy Labels set.  I'm pretty sure the die I used to cut an emboss my image is the Labels 3 die.  If you don't have this particular die, thats okay, this image would be very easy to cut out, using scissors. For your chance to win this stamp set, head on over to the Flourishes Newsletter , they are having a one day only blog candy. "From the kitchen of Latisha" Be sure to visit the rest of the designers Christine Okken Julie Koerber Stacy Morgan Flourishes Newsletter also visit the bloggers too!! ...

Today is the start of 5 days of sneak peeks, of the new stamp sets being released this Friday from Flourishes. You are going to notice the designers have done a lot of projects other than cards.  There will be lots of ideas to jump start your holiday gift giving.  Today I'm showing you some tags that I will use to attach to gift bags and presents.  Until I decide to use them, they will sit pretty in a cute little wire basket.  The stamps previewed are from the Christmas Bouquet stamp set.  The main image included comes in two sizes (love that).  I used the smaller of the images on the tags below.  For your chance to win this stamp set head on over to the Flourishes Newsletter for a one day only blog candy. "Christmas Tags" Pay a visit to the rest of the designers to see what they have created with this set!! Christine Okken Cindy Lawrence Julie Koerber Laura Fredrickson Leslie Miller Stacy Morgan Flourishes Newsletter Today is my son'...

Here is a fun project you can do with your children.  I took the Santa stamp set from Flourishes (now available at Paper Maniac ), stamped it onto kraft card stock.  Then I colored in the holly leaves and berries, stamped "ho, ho, ho" at the bottom, and scored the card stock 1/4 inch from the edge.  To finish off the front, I added lace at the bottom and tied ribbon at the top corner. For the back, just take a pen and ruler to make lines, and have your child right their letter to Santa.

I'm in a PTI swap with some fun ladies, they are due this coming up Friday, so I finally got them finished up.  My daughter helped me with them, as I have lots of looming deadlines, not to mention my allergies are in full effect, it was nice to have her help.  I'm in a Christmas kind of mood.  Maybe because its November?  Holy moly its November lol, this year really has flown by!!  Well I hope you are enjoying your weekend.  We went to dinner as a family last night at a really good seafood restaurant, then today and tomorrow we are going to go see the Blue Angels (they are in town) and also we are going to see A Christmas Carol movie.  Monday is my son's 9th birthday, so this is a fun packed weekend!! "warm winter wishes"

It's amost time to unwrap the latest batch of sets from  Flourishes ! And, to get ready, they are issuing you a challenge! Its called ... the Favorite Things challenge. How does it work? Be inspired in some way by the words of the decades old Christmas favorite from the Sound of Music! Be sure to tell us which line of the music inspired your card! Here's just a bit of the lyrics.... Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens Brown paper packages tied up with strings These are a few of my favorite things Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings These are a few of my favorite things Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes Silver white winters that melt into springs These are a few of my favorite things For my card, I took inspiration from the "brown pa...