Christmas Cards Done! - Now it's time to celebrate the season and relax

Ahhh, the Christmas cards are created, addressed, stamped and ready to go. I think I am finally done with all the Christmas preparations. I know, I know, I shouldn't create all the 75+ Holiday cards by hand, but I can't give it up. I know I should try My Digital Studio and make my life easier, but I enjoy creating hand made cards and have the mass producing process down; however, I did have too many elements and steps on my Christmas card this year but found time to work it all in. In addition,  I enjoyed the process of assembling the cards while I watched "Christmas Vacation" with my family in front of the Christmas tree. Here are the cards I created for for those who celebrate Christmas and a Winter Wishes card for my Jewish friends along with a few pics of the "assembly line".

Now it's time to load the 2 kids, the 2 dogs and the cat into the car and head to Mammoth which has accumulated 15ft of new snow over the weekend. There is a fireplace, a couch, a blanket and a Nook just calling my name.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and a very happy, healthy New Year!

Christmas Cookies

Melt Away Cookie

Each year it is a tradition to bake our favorite cookies for our neighbors and friends. You do not want to know how much butter and sugar I use to create all these little goodies. My kitchen always looks like a powdered sugar bomb exploded when I finish, but all the cookies are a pleasure to make and I believe my neighbors appreciate the effort. From left to right we have Heath Bar cookies, Million Dollar Fudge ( diabetic nightmare), Melt Aways, Lemon Blossoms and Russian Tea Cakes. Luckily each neighbor has a different favorite so I load their box with and extra portion of their preferred cookie. I vacillate between Lemon Blossoms, Tea Cakes and Melt Aways as favorites. None of my cookies are really gorgeous to look at but I believe their taste is very, very good.

One of the favorites that I have been making for YEAAARRSSS is the Melt Away cookie. Although not a handsome cookie, it is very delicious and lives up to its name due to cornstarch. It really melts away in your mouth. Here is the recipe which I hope you will try and enjoy for the holiday season.

Melt Aways Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cookies
3/4 c cornstarch
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 c flour
1 c butter

Frosting
3 oz. cream cheese
1 c powdered sugar
1 t vanilla

For cookies, blend all ingredients and place teaspoons full of dough on cookies sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Place gently on baking rack to cool. Add frosting.

Jolly Holiday Frame

I love adding beautiful Designer Paper to picture frames. Last night's stamp club created picture frames using designer series papers. I also demonstrated this picture frame using the Jolly Holiday DSP which is just fabulous. Add a few buttons and a greeting and you've got a pretty frame that would be perfect to send to your loved ones; however, mine is going right next to my living room chair so I can enjoy these smiling faces ( aren't they cute!)

Paper - Jolly Holiday, very vanilla, cherry cobbler and old olive card stock

Stamps - Four the Holidays

Ink - Cherry Cobbler

Accessories - Assorted buttons, wood frame, glue dots.

Christmas Tree

Megan and Jake Decorating the Christmas Tree

The Supervisors - Dempsey and Barney

It is always a special night when the Christmas Tree goes up in our house. We don't have a beautifully color coordinated tree that you see in decor magazines with matching balls, ribbons and embellishments but we LOVE decorating our tree with our special ornaments. We collect our ornaments when we travel and it is so fun to pull each one out of the box and remember our family trips. Many times we cannot find a traditional "ornament" on a trip so we alter an item that we find and hang it on the tree.  We also have special ornaments given to us by family members and friends. These all are very dear to us and we think of each person as we hang the ornament on our tree. Our Christmas tree may not be the type to grace the cover of magazines, but to us it is absolutely perfect.

Ornament from St. John

Christmas Tag

Here is the tag I created for our stamping group. I have been wanting to try my hand at the folded flower and had this design in my head for a while.  Even though the picture doesn't show all the detail, the branch is accented with white flock and a bit of dazzling diamonds to look like snow.  I think this tag would be the perfect holiday tag for a nice bottle of wine.

Stamps - Friends 24-7, Four the Holidays, Stampin' Around Music Notes
Ink - Staz-on black, cherry cobbler, old olive, chocolate chip, more mustard
Paper - Jolly Holiday, Love Letter DSP, very vanilla, cherry cobbler, black card stock
Accessories - Glass Glitter, flock, dazzling diamonds glitter, large brad, cherry cobbler seam binding, 1 3/8" circle punch, 3/4" circle punch, scallop border punch