Latest Christmas Cards

This card was made for my sister. She loves the feel of the heat embossing - so anything I make for her MUST have something shiny for her to feel! :) I love the Debbie Mumm paper so much - these penguins just are so perfect.

I have some fantastic co-workers at my new school campus, and I just wanted to let them know how much I appreciate all their help in adjusting to a new building.

I made this one especially for our cafeteria manager. She's allowed me to use a little space in her ovens to heat some food for our pot-luck gatherings. I appreciate her so much!!

My husband requested a card for his sister and her family.. so I came up with this one. It looks a little busy, but is very nice in person! I also decorated the inside, but took the picture after he's written in it... so sorry!

All photo corners are from the Cricut Cartridge Jasmine. I cut a sheet of many different colors, and have them in individual baggies. I then store the individuals in a gallon bag, so I have photo corners in any color just when I need them!

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Christmas Cookies! 2009

We've had some wonderful neighbors welcome us to our new neighborhood, and since I do LOVE to bake at the holidays, I made up these trays. We went to deliver them tonight. I really do enjoy surprising people!!! My husband even made the rounds with me tonight to deliver the cookies. My dad and his dad would have never done anything like that!! Kudos to my husband for sure!!

This is the tray as it was delivered. I wrapped it in green saran wrap, and attached a note showing everything that was included on the tray.



My snowmen look a little sad, but they were fun to make! They do taste great!! It might be a sugar cookie recipe (here on the blog), but I added orange flavoring and orange zest to the dough. Yummy!!

I like these trees much better! It's a Wilton cookie cutter set. Bake each piece separately, and then 'stick' them together with frosting. I really like the sparkle gel frosting!!

Here are the meringue cookies I love so much... Snowballs, as they're sometimes called. I added mini chocolate chips as a surprise.

Who doesn't love chocolate dipped pretzels? I had a great time with the chocolate drizzle on the top.. can you tell?

These haystack cookies are my absolute favorite. They have some unusual ingredients for cookies - but they're absolutely delicious!!!! Can't you smell them?

Here's a picture of the saltine toffee I made. I'd looked at this recipe for almost 3 years now... and decided to try it. I shouldn't have waited this long! I wrote it down in my book immediately!

I hope you've enjoyed looking (and hopefully smelling) my selection of Christmas cookies and candy. My grandma, mom and aunt used to get together one weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas to make the Christmas cookies. My sister and I always helped... it was a HUGE job! They made just about anything you could think of. I don't do that much by far, but it's one of those traditions I must keep going!

Let me know if you'd like any of the recipes!

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It's HAPPENED!!!!! I now have 100 (+) followers!!! RAK

WHEW!

Today, December 8, 2009 after starting my blog in early July 2008, I finally hit 100 followers!

Why am I so excited??? Because I'm doing a RAK!

BUT

Only the people that are my first 100 followers are eligible to be entered for this RAK!

I'm doing this to show how much I appreciate your visits, your comments, and encouragement as I move through the stages of beginner, novice, intermediate and as far as I can tell... middle-intermediate paper crafting skills.

SO, in a few days (I have another craft show coming on Saturday) I'm going to post what the RAK will be, and I'm going to pick from among my first 100 followers!

I just want to let you all know how much I SO appreciate your visits and comments on my blog!

I'm planning on doing this for every big milestone number of followers when I get there.... just to show my appreciation!!

I'm thinking that I'll make a few things... and then I'll see what else to add to the RAK.

Again... THANK YOU!!!

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This weekend I...

This wreath comes from an Origami projects from activitytv.com One of our students showed his entire class this awesome project! I wanted to try it with some of my patterened paper, and this is what I created. I added some extra embellishments as well as my new Stampin' Up Delightful Decorations stamps and the punch. And, any wreath must have a bow! This shiny red ribbon I had was just perfect!

This Christmas light is from the Very Merry Tags cart (Limited Edition) and is cut at 5 1/2 inches. Yes, way too big, but it was my first cut, and I needed the smaller solid pieces for a tag book. I decided to use these Christmas bulbs as the tags. They're the perfect size for adding pictures and journaling in the book. :) I didn't want to waste this cut, so I added lots of stickles! Gotta LOVE stickles! (Platinum, Diamond, and Purple)

I also worked on storage solutions for my Nestabilities - someone had an awesome idea for storing them neatly with magnets! An inspired idea... pictures coming soon!

Your kind comments are always welcome!

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AMAZING tutorial for Peppermints!

I just can't believe how amazing these Peppermint Candies turned out. AMAZING!

Check out the link to the FairyLand Dreams Designs Blog.

What did she use? Paper, markers, and glitter!!!

They look good enough to eat!!


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Birthday Card for My Favorite Uncle

My very favorite uncle's birthday is coming up this week, and I wanted to make him a VERY special birthday card....I didn't want to make it too fancy, but I wanted it to be special! The blues and browns really work well together in person. I like how the 'plain' front doesn't give away the very busy inside of the card.

I used LOTS of techniques, and my NEW cricut cartridge, Sweet Treats! My husband got blackmailed into buying for me (tee hee) so I thought I'd start making good use of it.

If you look closely at the cake and cakestand, I used the "new" Stampin' Up shimmer paints in Champagne Mist. When it dried on the blue and beige cardstock, it looked SO nice!!!

Products I used:

PK Glitz Indigo Embossing Powder

Sweet Treats DCWV cardstock

Hobby Lobby cardstock in lt. blue, dk. blue, beige, dk. brown, and white

2 Stampin' Up stamps, and 1 Hobby Lobby stamp

1 Stampin' Up punch, and the

Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page punches

Stampin' Up marker to color the cherry

Scor-Pal to score the vertical lines

Versamark pad

Cocoa Bean Brilliance Ink pad

Sky Blue Brilliance Ink pad

Cricut Cart - Jasmine for the photo corners

Cricut Cart - Sweet Treats for the cake stand and cake

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My Craft Room! Not finished, but shaping up!

Just a short post showing 2 pictures of my craft room (in progress)!

The shelving I had in the kitchen of the house we were renting, because the pantry was in such a weird place. Here, I have an AWESOME kitchen, and more than enough storage, so my Williams Sonoma shelves can be used for my crafts... YAY YAY YAY!! LOL

My dear friend Antonio was kind enough to send me the 4 rods holding my punches. I thought 4 would be enough, and now I'm finding that it isn't even close... but I will use only these, and rotate the punches by season.

More to follow!

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My very FAVORITE card!

Every time I look at this card, I can't get over how much I LOVE it!! It wasn't easy to make by far. I think this is one of the more difficult projects we did during my card club.... but it's SO gorgeous~!!


I just had to share this one in a special post.

THANKS Kathy!!

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Special Order - Altered Notebooks!

During the craft fair on November 7th, I had a request for 2 special notebooks. One of the girls liked peace signs, and after talking to her, I found out she loved all the "flower child" things... which I TOTALLY get! It took me about 2 days to find the perfect paper for the first notebook.

The second notebook was requested for a girl that goes to OSU, and is really into softball - so this is the other notebook I came up with.

Each pen attached to the notebook has a coordinating design with the binding paper in the barrel.

They were delivered today, and the big smile I got over the peace sign notebook was AMAZING!

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Quilts for Soldiers!

Follow this link: http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=11554995 to the story about the Plymouth quilters!

In the top left corner is a video link to the story! My mom is featured in the video - doing what she loves SO much... sewing! She's helped them before, but since the shooting at Ft. Hood, they've gotten much more attention!

Dan Krueger is also featured in the video... we were in school together. It's good to see him! He's done a great job stepping up as spokesman for the family.

As you know from my posts, I make lots of Cards for Soliders (and will start again in January)... and Mom's always been very active in community projects - so this is just another way she loves to help!!

Thanks for looking!!




**Added December 5th... Here's the link to our local paper, and there's MOM! She's in the 2nd pic. just loving sewing away!!!  http://www.iwantthenews.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=11212&SectionID=9&SubSectionID=11&S=1

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Very Merry Tags!

I've mentioned before about how I just don't "get" the tags craze. To me, gift tags were just a necessary evil you needed to mark who gets which package.

Yes, I broke down and ordered 2 of the 3 limited release carts... and after I saw the Very Merry Tags cart with the Christmas Tree (my great weakness) and the Christmas Tree light (my 2nd great weakness) I just HAD to have this cart!!

About a week after I received it - I actually had a chance to play! Scraps were the word of the day, and look what GREAT things you can make with scraps!

I used 3 colors of stickles on these; Holly, Crystal, and Christmas Red. The peppermint ribbon is from Hobby Lobby - isn't it adorable? After I used it on the Christmas tree pop-up cards, these peppermint tags were the perfect fit for this ribbon.

Your comments (about my work) are always welcome and appreciated!

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November's Stamp - a - Stack!

This card uses vellum, white embossing powders for the trees, and sentiment on the front, as well as the frosted white shimmer paint, and the Patterned Pines stamp set.


This one has to be my very favorite! I love anything Christmas anyway (can't you tell?) and the ornaments are SO pretty!!! Can you see the shimmery snowflakes on the white background?



Cardinals singing in the tree.. this card had lots of steps to it, but it just looks like the perfect winter scene!!



There's just something about pink and green together that are perfect. It's not your typical Christmas card, but it's so elegant in person!

Friday night my card club got together, and we made 12 Christmas cards... 3 of each of the designs above.

Kathy, our Stampin' Up rep is always SO prepared, and has the absolute cutest ideas for cards! GO Kathy! Contact her here to set up a show, or order Stampin' Up product! She's the BEST!!


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More things FROM the craft fair!

Hello Kitty notebook with matching pen.

Christmas Tree gift boxes - just fill them with whatever you wish, and it's a cute little gift!!



These are the cards with the pop-up Christmas trees... open them up, and WOW!!! Such an awesome thing to watch people open the cards. I love it!!

These are more of the cocoa/cider/drink sleeves. I'm now waiting for my next batch of Cuttlebug embossing folders to make some more of these for stocking stuffers.


The Heart of the Crafter Fair was yesterday, and when I got home, I realized I did pretty well. I had lots of wonderful comments - Cute! Clever! How Pretty! OH! What a lot of work! WOW! Colorful! I could never be that creative! How creative!

Most of the people were very, very nice.

For my very first craft fair, I'm pretty happy.

The very BEST thing is... 2 of my friends here in the area came, and I was invited to be a vendor at a craft fair at the beginning of December! How exciting is that!!??

I also got an order for 2 more notebooks - they are special design requests... so I'll be working on those this week.

One lady also asked me about making Thank You cards for her business. I'm very excited to work with her on colors and designs!!

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Heart of the Crafter - Craft Show - Saturday!!!

It's HERE!!!

The craft fair I've been working towards since August is finally here. I'm a vendor, and excited about doing my very first craft show. I've got everything ready to go - just finishing some final touches!

Saturday, November 7th, 2009 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
First United Methodist Church in Broken Arrow, OK
It's on the corner of Main and College right in the
"downtown" area of BA.

If you live in the area, I hope you'll come!!!

I've been working very hard for months on getting things ready! I have lots of very cute Christmas gifts! See some of the other posts that show my Craft Fair items.

If you aren't in the area, wish me luck!! My success on this show will determine if I do any more!!

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How to use Sizzix Bigz XL dies in your Cuttlebug!!

SO.... you LOVE the Bigz XL dies... but don't want to purchase a Big Shot or Big Kick??
ME TOO! :)

I saw lots of how-to videos on You Tube on how to use all the other dies in a Cuttlebug... but no one had one for the Bigz XL or 3D dies!

Here is a series of pictures I took while making more of my pop-up Christmas Trees for cards.

**Click on any picture for a screen-size view - then hit the back button to return to the tutorial.

You will need 4 B plates for this. I always have 4 since I use two for die-cutting only, and 2 for embossing only. Just keep your embossing plates on the top, and they won't get marked with the die.


First, I took a 12x12 sheet of green, and folded it in half.
I laid the die on the platform, the cardstock for cutting, then the first B plate over the die.
Next, I placed the 2nd B plate and slid it about an inch forward over
the front of the die. This allows the die to run through your Cuttlebug (CB).


Here is another view just as I'm going to run the die through the CB.

This shows the first 2 plates almost through, and now I'm "butting" the other two B plates tight to meet the first 2 plates.

When the 2nd set start running through the pressure rollers, be sure to hold them by either pushing or giving pressure from the top and bottom as the next 2 plates go through.

This photo shows all the plates on the other side, run through the CB. I always run the die forward, then backwards. It seems to give a cleaner cut, but you don't have to!

When running the die backwards, be sure to give pressure on the first top plate as it goes back through the pressure rollers.

**See caption on picture.

I hope this little pictorial tutorial helps!!! I have 3 of the Bigz dies, and LOVE them!!! You can see the Christmas Tree in the very next post as you scroll down.

PLEASE leave comments - I'd LOVE to know if this helped you!!!

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I LOVE Christmas!!

I love anything and everything to do with Christmas!!! I really, really do!

When I saw this tree in the Stampin' Up catalog, I HAD to have it. After looking at some You Tube videos on the different dies used in the Cuttlebug, I have 3 of these Sizzix Bigz XL 3D dies... the Birthday Cake, the Gift Card Holder, and this Tree.

Assembling it is something of a to-do, but it's so CUTE... and I just love showing it and seeing the surprise when they open the card! LOVE it!!

This tree shows stickles on the top edges, and the ornaments, but when I get settled into my craft room, I'm going to run the trees through the Xyron, and sprinkle them with green glitter... won't THAT be cool! An entire glittered tree, popping up out of your card!

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A very dear friend of mine has agreed to do me a HUGE favor to help me acquire some punch holders for my new craft room... so in addition to sending the money needed to buy the things I need, I made this card!

The patterened paper comes from Debbie Mumm stacks!! Isn't it absolutely adorable!! This is some of the paper I used for the Thanksgiving cards... it's just TOO cute to pass up.

On the envelope, the stamp is from a Stampin' Up set of trees.... so SO perfect for fall.

One of the ladies at my monthly Stamp Club always decorates the envelopes with either the same stamps we're using, or something coordinating. I just loved the idea, and have taken to using it as often as I can. "Thanks Sandra!"

The photo corners come from the Jasmine cart! Just a tip: I used the Auto Fill feature on my Cricut Expression, and cut an entire 12 x 12 piece of black, red, purple, etc. and have each color in the snack baggies. Any time I need a photo corner, they're ready to go!! If I remember correctly you can get almost 300 from one sheet.... they do seem to last forever!! :)

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Hot Cocoa/Apple Cider Sleeves

I FINALLY figured out the technique for inking up the Cuttlebug Embossing Folders!!!


The real trick is to make sure your Craft ink pads are nice and juicy (full of ink.) THEN be sure to get a nice even coat on the plastic. I have a rubber brayer that works beautifully! You don't have to work THAT quickly, because the ink won't dry onto the embossing folder. There is time to get an even coat.

I used purple, this green, blue, and red for the sleeves... and almost all of my holiday embossing folders! The holly just screamed for some red stickles... but the rest will be presented just as they are....

I then used my Glue Glider Pro to complete the sleeves so they wouldn't accidentally open.

I still need to punch and add the ribbon... but the 'hard' part is done!!

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CD Case Calendar

Making these calendars was so much fun!!! I used the daisy punch from Martha Stewart, and my Stampin' Up 5 petal flower punch for the leaves, and just layered, layered, layered!!

Even with the dimension on the flowers, and colored/detailed skittles for centers, they still closed!




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Commissioned Card - Thinking of You

One of the girls I'm working with requested a card for a friend... after a few questions about this friend, this is what I came up with!

Gotta LOVE the Paper Doll Dress Up cart for its versatility! The guitar and name staff is from the Hannah Montana cart, Jasmine is the cart with the photo corners, and the Thinking of You came from Wild Card.

I think I need a Jukebox!! :) :)

The patterened paper is from Michelle Anderson's stacks - this one is called Americana. I also LOVE the Illusions stack she designed!

The detail on the envelope is from a new Stampin Up wheel I just bought off ebay. It came in the mail today... How perfect!

Thanks for looking!

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