"No Time Like the Present(s)"

Can you believe that tomorrow is the first day of 2012???    What a year 2011 has been!   For our family, our friends, and our church this has been a year of great blessings, but also great trials.   It's been a year of great joy, but also great pain.   I don't know what 2012 will bring, and honestly don't want to know, but I know whatever comes, the Lord will see us through!!!

Christmas was just last weekend.  So... why am I making Christmas cards?   Because it's "jingle belle" time!! 

jingle belles - "No time like the present(s)" use present image, or paper with presents, or even wrapping paper
Mojo Monday 221 - sketch (round or square)

It is hard to see but the gold on the dsp does shine

~Paper Studio Christmas Traditions paper pack
~Scrappy Cat stamp
~Tim Holtz 'peeled paint' distressing ink
~Prima poinsettia
~ribbon and bling from my stash

Thanks for dropping by!!    I'll be back tomorrow with my blogiversary post!! :)

Year end sales!!!

Just an FYI post.  Here are some of my favorite sites (and I'm sure there are many more!) that are having sales ending today....

Clear Dollar Stamps had all its clear stamps 50% off.  Use coupon code CHRISTMAS50
http://www.cleardollarstamps.com/

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps has everything in their store for 20% off.  EVERYTHING!  No coupon needed.
http://sweetnsassystamps.com/

This goes until January 2....

Doodle Pantry has 50% off regular priced digis.  Coupon code RINGITIN.
http://doodlepantry.com/specials.html

Just found another...
The Stamping Boutique has digis 35% off.
http://thestampingboutique.com/


Go check them out!!!

Sympathy cards

Yesterday, I went out shopping and went to 3 craft stores... ACMoore, Hobby Lobby, and Michaels.  Fun!!  But the best was Hobby Lobby!  They had all their Christmas stuff 66% off... including their Christmas scrap paper.  I got 5 pads (2-12x12 and  3-8.5x11) for less than $25!!  I am eager to make some Christmas cards -even though Christmas is over- and will soon, but I needed to make sympathy cards.  The day after Christmas, some of my relatives lost a close family member from the other side of their family . 

When I saw this week's Tuesday Morning Sketches sketch, I knew it would be good for sympathy cards. 

I made 3 of different colors... brown, burgundy, and blue. 
~Paper Studio cardstock
~Colorbok white cardstock
~Perfect Paisley embossing folder
~embossed the sentiment square by scoring edges
~Fiskars 'kind thoughts' stamp
~Hero Arts stamp on inside that says "Our caring thoughts are with you during this difficult time"
~ribbon and brads from my stash

Thanks for stopping!! 

Last minute Christmas cards

This afternoon, my husband took over the kitchen, and my daughter needed 7 cards for her friends (thanks for giving me lots of notice, kiddo!!!), so I headed for my craft room.  I knew they HAD to be clean and simple!!  They are CAS, and I was able to make them all in about 30 minutes!!
They are based on CAS's sketch 171 though mine are A2, not square.

I was really pleased with the way they turned out!

Basic Grey Wassail dsp

Recollections 'O Christmas Tree' dsp

Recollections 'O Christmas Tree' dsp

A piece of 'Wassail' with a piece of 'O Christmas Tree'

The stamp was a $1 Scrappy Cat stamp, ribbon from my stash.  Easy, peasy!!

This will be my last post until after CHRISTmas, so I want to wish you all a Merry CHRISTmas with your family and friends!!!!  


Thinks about this...

"You can never truly enjoy Christmas until you can look up into the Father's face and tell Him you have received His Christmas gift."  --John R. Rice

Thanks for stopping by!!!!

Merry Christmas -Tues AM sketch card

Here's my second card of the afternoon... (then I need to go do some more baking!!!!)  but first an announcement...

I just reached 100 followers!!!  Thank you, everyone!  100 followers plus my 1st blogiversary is next month, so I'll get my act together after Christmas and we'll have some kind of celebration with some blog candy.  Be sure to check back!

For this card, I followed Tuesday Morning Sketches sketch #125.

~Basic Grey Wassail paper (love this pack!!)
~free word art from Word Art Wednesday
~Scrappy Cat 'Merry Christmas' stamp

Thanks for looking!!!

Angel shaped Christmas card

I still need a few more Christmas cards and time is flying!  I made 2 this afternoon.  This first one has an angel welded to a rectangle to make a 'tall' card. 

sorry... should have cropped the pic!

Challenges...
Celebrate the Occasion - Christmas shape card
Stampin' Sisters in Christ - TRUE meaning of Christmas -and my digi is the verse they used! :)

What I used:
~Basic Grey Wassail paper (found this is a scrapbook store that I recently found and visited for the first time yesterday... I'll be going back!)
~silver paper is Slice embossed with Divine Swirls Cuttlebug folder
~angel from JOTS cut at 3.5" and welded to a rectangle
~free word art from Word Art Wednesday for last week's challenge that I missed!!  :(


Thanks for looking!!!

Popcorn balls and embroidered ornaments

I wanted a special treat for my Junior Church kids tomorrow and had seen this recipe a few weeks ago, so I made these Marshmallow Popcorn Balls from allrecipes.com.  I did as some reviewers suggested and added 1/2 c brown sugar to get more of a caramel corn taste.  I didn't have much left to taste after making them, but what I had was good.  Quite sweet, but that's fine with me! ;)

They took about 1/2 hour from start to finish which is another plus since I started them at 10:30 tonight because I was embroidering much of the afternoon and evening making ornaments for the kids, too.

These are made with Mylar and the designs are from Charming Station.  They stitch up so quickly and are so cute!  I added a back layer joined with a satin stitch and added the ribbon so they can hang them on their tree.  The round ones are left overs from what I made last year.   They came from Embroidery Library.

Thanks for looking!!

Christmas baking and embroidery

I'm so far behind on everything this year... just mailed my Christmas cards today... so decided to start some baking.  Good idea!!  I found this EASY but DELICIOUS recipe on a blog I follow...



Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies   click on name to go to the recipe.  :)  Yummy!!!!

Ready to bake...

 Ready to eat!!  Recipes says makes 24... I got 29 and may use small scoop next time to get more.  That way, I can eat more cuz they're small, right??

I've not started many of the gifts I planned to make and found out making this one that my embroidery machine may need servicing.  :/  The bobbin tension is not quite right but I was able to disguise it by using black for the outer stitching all around.  This is for one of my daughters to take for the white elephant gift exchange at the church teen Christmas party. 

I imagine that either guy or girl would enjoy covering up with this snowman!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Christmas favors, gifts, and goodies

Today has been a busy day!   With the help of my wonderful husband and daughters, we made 40 hot cocoa holders to give to my church ladies tomorrow at our Christmas meeting.  I made Pomegranate Hand Scrub for prizes, and I made Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars for the intermission at my daughter's band concert tonight.

Let me show you.... here are the cocoa packets based on the one I saw Mary over at CardzTV make.  Click HERE to go to her post and video.  (I didn't use my Cricut at all on mine)

 The snowman is a $1 stamp I got at M's last week.  The sentiment is from Sweet n Sassy.  Punches, brads, ribbon, and twine and we're all done. 

 Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars... so yummy!!  Got this recipe from Jamie Cooks It Up!  Check her out... her recipes are wonderful!!  (Note the fancy plate... I don't want to have to worry about bringing it home again!)

And last but not least, I found this next great idea over at Greenbean's Crafterole.  It is a hand scrub made from sugar and dish detergent!  My girls tried it out and LOVE it!!  Made some tags and we're ready to give these away.   (6 pt and 6 1/2 pt jars took less than 5 lb sugar and about 2/3 my dish detergent... very economical gift, too!!)  I'm going to try the body scrub next!!

Isn't blogging wonderful??  I love the crafts, recipes, and ideas for just about everything that can be found!!    I hope you are inspired by something that I have shared!!

CAS Christmas card

The CAS sketch that I followed on the weekend to make a thank you card was great, so I decided to do another. 
This is Clean & Simple #169

I used scraps from my DCWV Holiday Premium stack.
I found the tree and directions at InkspiredTreasures.com - HERE.  Love it!!
Recollections stamp, a little inking, and a brad finished it off.

Thanks for dropping in!!

Fun Christmas card

It is so much easier to make cards when I have the recipient in mind!  That's the case with this fun card.  When I saw this "Pain and Pride" set of stamps over at ipity, I had to get it!  For Christmas, we got ski gear for our kids, so knew this would be great for them, but then thought of this friend who skis and will get a kick out of this card!  

Challenges...
~Get Hippity with Ippity - follow sketch
~Celebrate the Occasion - Christmas card with no green  (they are having a DT call until Dec 20...check it out if you are interested)
~Cuttlebug Spot (soooo glad they are back!!)- "leftovers" use scraps (emboss in some way)

~all paper from my scrap box
~"Pain and Pride" stamp set from ipitty
~American Crafts and Zig markers, white gel pen
~Christmas stamp from ???
~Swiss Dots embossing folder
~EK success in on edges
~Fiskars scissors (1st use in years!!!!!)

I did a bit to the inside, too...

Thanks for stopping by!!!

CAS Thank you card

I needed a quick thank you card, but was having a brain freeze, so checked out some blogs and saw this CAS sketch at Clean & Simple Stamping Challenge #168. 

Less than 5 minutes!!  I can handle that!  Wouldn't this sketch be great for Christmas thank you cards??  I believe I will be using it!

   
Recipe:
~Recollectins "Charming" paper
~Fiskars "Thanks!" stamp embossed

Thanks for stopping by!!!

"Happy Birthday" card

We can never have too many birthday cards on hand, can we?  No, we can't!! 

The sketch at CTO inspired me and this paper made it easy!

Challenges...
Celebrate the Occasion - birthday (must follow sketch)
Stampin' Sisters in Christ - bird on project
Birthday Sundaes - birthday card

What I used:
~Recollections "Charming" paper (love the brown and blue!)
~CM 2" square punch
~Fiskars stamp with Timber Brown StazOn ink
~Fiskars scalloped circle punch
~bird from April Showers (I narrowed him in DS and trimmed off his perch)
~Tim Holtz distress ink
~adhesive pearl, ribbon, and pop dots

Thanks for stopping by!!

Merry Christ-mouse to you!! :)

I don't have nearly enough Christmas cards made and just might have to buy some at the store find some somewhere! :)  But I decided to keep trying, so looked for inspiration at some challenges, and here is what I came up with....

 Challenges...
~BBTB2 - mouse from "Meow" or any cart - I used Create A Critter
~Whimsical Wednesdays - Christmas or winter project with layers
~Tuesday Morning Sketches - use sketch
~Fantabulous Cricut - make a holiday card
~Creative Cutter Room - animal
~Get Hippity with Ippity - embossing
          (don't have any ippity stamps yet, but I ordered some!)

I used...
~Recollections "O Christmas Tree" dsp
~Paper Studio CS
~mouse cut at 2 2/1" from CAC
~Sizzix snowflakes #8 embossing folder
~Fiskars Threading Water border punch
~Fiskars punch for my computer generated sentiment
~red baker's twine
~and an ACTION WOBBLE!!!  :)  They are so fun!

Thanks for stopping by!!!