Christmas Goodies

Christmas time is here! The gifts are wrapped, the stockings hung, Santa is on his way. The cookies are made and ready to be put in a pretty Stampin' Up! treat box. Each year I make Christmas cookies for my neighbors and friends. I was so happy when Stampin' Up! created their own treat boxes that are not only beautiful but very affordable. Now I can present my cookies in a pretty, Stampin' Up! package. This year I have made tea cakes, lemon blossoms, melt aways, chocolate crinkles and million dollar fudge. It's a good thing the calories don't count in Christmas cookies because there is close to 3lbs of butter and over 1lb of chocolate in all those cookies.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cards

So I haven't posted for awhile due to focusing all my free time on our Christmas Cards. Yes, I make all of our cards. I know sometimes I should just let it go and send them out to Costco and be done with it, but I caaaannn'tttt. It is something that I just HAVE to do. I have been making our Christmas cards since I attended my first Stampin' Up! workshop over 7 years ago. I am hoping to finish my cards by Wednesday. Above is the photo we took while in Mammoth to use for our cards. I am using Old olive and whisper white since I think the monochromatic color scheme will work well with our picture. I am adding a little glitter and using the Petals-A-Plenty impressions folder to add a little interest.

Stamping lots of Delightful Decorations - after I punched these I added some dazzling diamond glitter to the swirls.

My card list and piles of cut paper ready to be assembled once I finish the Delightful Decorations ornaments.

So Boo is not in the Christmas picture, but she is ALWAYS on my worktop demanding attention. The dogs just peek their head in every once in a while to say hello but this little girl is relentless. She is in my lap as I type this out.

I hope everyone's holiday preparations are going well.

New Background Stamp

When I received my new Fine Flourish background stamp, I was immediately pulled into it. The design is so beautiful I wanted to work with it right away. Since the design IS so lovely, I didn't want to put anything over it or use it to "kiss" another stamp. So I started coloring it. Well, my coloring skills are not what they were when I was younger but I had so much FUN coloring again. The kids were chillin' downstairs so I put on "Christmas with the Rat Pack" and colored away. It was a relaxing, great evening. I will definitely do it again after the holidays. Just imagine the many applications of this Fine Flourish stamp. You can use it as a background, kiss other stamps with it or color it using a multitude of colors and use it for a focal point.

This beautiful Fine Flourish stamp as well as the teal background paper from the Sweat Pea Designer Series Paper Stack will be available for purchase January 5th from the Occasions mini-catalog.

Mojo 116 - Sketch Challenge - Santa Came Early

Santa came early to my house driving a big brown UPS truck! I received my Occasions mini catalog pre-order. Wooohooo! All the new "toys"in the box were so beautiful, I didn't know where to begin. I also confess at times I "save" paper or other products because it is too pretty I don't want to use it for just anything . It's like the good china that only comes out at Christmas . Well, I had to overcome that urge when I saw the new Sending Love DSP. It is really fabulous. So I held my breath and cut. What should I gush about now, the gorgeous satin real red ribbon, the amazing Beautiful Wings embosslits that emboss and cut or how lovely all the stamps are in the Vintage Vogue stamp set? The butterflys are made with the Beautiful Wings embosslits. I added a few beads for their bodies. The Friends stamp is layered over the scripted flower from the Vintage Vogue stamp set. The corduroy buttons are also things I save so I let go and applied the beautiful real red corduroy button to the satin ribbon. Wow, what a cathartic morning letting go of this beautiful stuff. But isn't that what it's for? All these fantastic items will be available for purchase January 5th so put them on your wish list now.

PPA19 - Inspiration Challenge - oh by gosh by golly.

This weeks challenge is to gain inspiration from a vintage sled and holly picture. I ended up with a vintage wreath and bow. The beautiful ribbons from the inspiration picture really caught my attention so I started experimenting with bows and greenery. I don't have many tools to create greenery so I used the Medallion stamp as a wreath. I removed the center using my nifty Circle Scissor Plus. I then cut it out and added red glitter to the dots to give it some sparkle. I distressed the edges of the papers ( very vanilla and real red) to give a vintage feel and used dimensionals to mount the wreath. The card is finished with a bow made with 1" double-stitched grosgrain ribbon in real red.

On another note, the weather has finally turned cool here in So. Cal and I no longer have the assistance of the sunshine to take my pictures. I will be experimenting with different lighting methods so bear with my pictures while I try and create decent lighting to photograph my items. (the kids are missing lamps from their rooms) hehehe.