Art Journals

I had planned to make these for my girls for Christmas, but it didn't happen until afterwards.  After showing them their albums, I asked if they wanted me to put their names on them.  To my surprise, they wanted their gaming character names - so glad I asked first!  Last night I added the personalization to them and gave the albums to the girls.  They really liked them.

My DD's Painting

My oldest (13) received quite a few art items for Christmas.  One item was a set of canvases.  Last night she painted this beautiful scenic.  She's never had any real formal training but loves to draw.  It was great to see her use a different medium, and I really like how it came out!  Just had to share.  I didn't get my camera exactly flat to the canvas, but it's still pretty!

Happy Holidays to All!

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Ornaments!

I have a bunch of ornaments to share with you today! First up is the ornament I gave to my friend, coworker and SU! sideline, Darla. She loves purple and liked her ornament as well as the box I made for it. I got the tutorial for the box from Monica Weaver's Add a Little Dazzle blog (the link to the PDF is next to the image of the ornament, in red that says 'Click Here').

Tonight I FINALLY got our tree up.  Yes, December 22, and I'm just now getting the tree up.  I opted for the 4.5 foot one I bought last year instead of pulling out the full-sized one.  The full-sized one is beautiful, but it's a very full tree and I just didn't have the energy to set it up.  The short one is up on an end table and looks pretty with the new blue and white LCD snowflake lights I found for half price at CVS today.  I'd purchased some light blue ribbon with snowflakes on it last time I was at Michaels, and it looks good with the new lights.  The blue ornaments I bought last year finish the look nicely.  I used the silver garland that I'd put on the tree last year on the bannisters of our staircase with a few of the small ornaments hanging from it.  That'll have to do for our Christmas decorating, as I just don't feel like hauling down all of the boxes from the overhead in our garage to do any more.  I think this is the latest I've ever gotten the tree up - I need to get it up earlier next year!

After decorating, my youngest asked if she could make one of the glitter ornaments.  I grabbed some reinkers and glitter to get her started.  I had nine small glass ornaments left (three of which might be nearly as old as she is - 11!).  She did five, I did the remaining four.  It was some nice mother-daughter time.  My oldest wasn't interested, so her little sister made her one - a green one, big sis's favorite color.  They all came out beautifully, don't you think?

 

I used SU! reinkers (Tempting Turquoise, Lovely Lilac, Glorious Green and So Saffron), but not SU! glitter.  I have soooo much glitter that I've purchased during several years' visits to our local rubber stamping show, held at the end of January each year, that I'm trying to finally use it.  Most of the glitter we used was Susie Sparkle Hologram Glitter.  I have about 10 different colors of it, and this project was perfect for it.  I love that gold one - a glitter called Solara.

Well, enough of a break - I need to finish wrapping gifts tonight and get the dining room table cleaned off so that tomorrow all I need to do in the living/dining room is vacuum and dust.  Then it's off to tackle the kitchen/family room tomorrow, and bathrooms and bedrooms on Thursday.  The clock's ticking until family joins us for dinner on Christmas day, and I'm behind schedule (but then again, when am I not running behind?).  Merry Christmas, everyone, if I don't post again before then.

Glitter Ornament

I've seen these beautiful glitter ornaments around on several stamping blogs lately and this week found a video tutorial by Tami.  I love the cute box she made for the ornaments, too.  I have the envelope die on order and it'll hopefully arrive in time for me to use it for my stamp camp on Friday.  Either way, we're going to make these cute ornaments as one of our projects.  I tried one using clear glitter, but I wasn't too happy with the results.

For this one, I used turquoise Stampin' Up! Fine Cosmo glitter with a Tempting Turquoise reinker.  I LOVE how it shimmers!  I used a white Icicle rub-on to decorate it, and turquoise grosgrain ribbon and silver elastic cord tops it off.  It looks darker than it really is - when will I learn to photograph my projects during the day?!  Anyway, I hope you like it!

Hershey Bar Pull-Up Treats

Last year I saw a tutorial for these cute treats over at SplitcoastStampers.  Don't know why I didn't give it a try last year, but I didn't... but I did this week!!  Here's my first attempt.  I used Brocade Blue and Night of Navy card stocks (I love those two blues together!), Snow Buddies level 2 hostess from the Holiday Mini catalog, There are a few things I'd do differently next time:

1.  NO GLITTER - well, at least none on the cover itself.  A little to glam up the snowman is fine.
2.  Add something to the belly band - maybe a piece of Brocade Blue DSP or something.
3.  Pierce around the scallop circle punch instead of using Night of Navy marker to color in dots.

I'm thinking of going to the Ladies' Luncheon after the late church service next week and they are asking for all types of demos/reps to show their wares so that the ladies attending the luncheon can do a little Christmas shopping.  I thought I might participate and bring some stocking stuffers like Snowman Soup (I've got nine made so far), maybe some matchbox die nugget boxes and these cute pull-up treats.

November Stamp Camp Buffett

This month I repeated three projects for my stampers and added two new ones.  I think everyone liked being able to pick and choose what they wanted to make and to make as many as they wanted.  From last month, I had the Big Shot Owl Treat bag, the cute Sweet Treats Turkey from Connie Collins, and the three-drawer Matchbox Die Dresser.  New this month was the Christmas Card I redesigned based on Dawn Olchefske's original card, and an oldie but goody - Snowman Soup.

Isn't this turkey just the cutest?  I saw him on Connie's stop on a blog hop about two months ago.  I ended up participating in her Big Fat Ribbon Share, and much to my surprise, she included that cute turkey in my ribbon envelope!  I knew my stampers would get a kick out of him, and I finally got to make a few myself this time around.  I couldn't find the Jelly Belly Autumn Mix that Connie used in hers, so we ended up with another Jelly Belly mix that had some browns and reds in it (Soda Shop, I think it's called).  Darla made 8, Laura 5, and 6 for me.

Maddie and Holly each made the Christmas Card and both made several packets of Snowman Soup.  I forgot to take a picture of the back, but I used My Digital Studio to type out my poem and used some of the graphics from Christmas Jingle on MDS to decorate it.  I found these cute tree and star marshmallows at Walgreens early this month and thought they'd be cuter than normal marshmallows (although I did give the gals the option of using regular mini marshmallows - they both chose to use the special ones).

I always love it when I can get together with the ladies at work to spend some stamping time together, and it was great to have four of them join me yesterday, even though it was the Friday afternoon before our week off for Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving Card - MDS Style

Wanted to play with My Digital Studio tonight since I can stay up a little later than usual due to the Veteran's Day holiday tomorrow.  I'd found this wallpaper that I've been using on my computer for a few weeks now, and decided to feature the image on a card.  I toned down the image by setting the opacity to 80, added some ribbon and a sentiment (strangely, I couldn't find a Thanksgiving sentiment in MDS).  The sentiment I chose is in Pumpkin Pie, with an opacity setting of 70 to better match my image.  I'm so glad I made the plunge and bought MDS - love it, love it, LOVE IT!

Christmas Card for 2009

Today I had my first workshop at someone else's house in a LONG time!  We made the brag book I posted last month.  While the gals were making their brag books, I decided to work on my Christmas cards.  I was so impressed by this one that Dawn made (scroll to the bottom of the post to see it), I wanted a variation of it.  This is what I came up with, and it'll be our Christmas card this year.  Simple enough to mass produce, as we only send out 25 or so cards a year.  I managed to get most of the pieces cut out during the workshop (Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, and Very Vanilla cardstocks).  I love this pinecone stamp (from Autumn Days) and the glitter just adds that little extra touch.  I used Chocolate Chip and Old Olive markers to color the image, punching it out with a 1 1/4 inch circle punch and framing it with the 1 3/8 inch circle punch.  The pinecones are popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals, as is the square behind them.  The sentiment is stamped in Chocolate Chip and is from the level 1 hostess set, Holiday Best.  The embossed image is from the Petals-A-Plenty embossing folder.  Love it!

Matchbox Die Chests

I had fun making these cute matchbox die chests for my next team swap.  We were supposed to meet today, but two of us weren't feeling well today, so we had to postpone.  I hadn't used my matchbox die yet, and it's SO EASY!

This was also one of my stamp camp projects this past Thursday.  I used a clear rhinestone brad and the small filigree brad piece for the drawer pull (although it's more decorative than functional).  I used retired Parisian Breeze specialty paper, and I'm so sad it's gone!  I bought three packs of it, and it's quickly dwindling.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a GREAT week!