Still No Snow

I cannot believe that we have made it (well, almost made it) through December without any snow this year. For the past two years we have had snow in the first week of December. We must be one of the few states in the Union that haven't had snow yet (not in Northern VA, anyway). Seriously, even Texas has had snow!

So, in the spirit of winter fun that we are not having, I thought I'd share a quick card that at least conjures the feeling of snow and winter.

I used the stamp-off technique to create the faded trees look in the back. I also was practicing my colored pencils techniques that Julie does so well. I had a brief tutorial from her when I was in Seattle last month and felt that I really needed to practice. I like what I've got so far, so you may just see more in the future.

card info: notecard, deer and tree stamps, ribbon, sentiment by A Muse, Koh-I-Noor pencils, glitter by Stampendous, quickie glue pen.

It Was All A Blur

We had a wonderful Christmas yesterday, celebrating with our own little family, then later in the day we celebrated with my larger family. We had an unconventional meal - almost like tapas - because my mom's stove decided it was going to retire about ten days ago. But, there was still lots of good food.

I forgot to post just a few things for you. The first is a card made for our good friend, the priest. He married us, baptized our children and we continue to keep up with him by playing Fantasy Football in the same league with some other college friends. I used some stamps from The Saltbox Studio for this one.

This next photo is a gift card holder I made a long time ago. Back when I was making my girls' Halloween costumes, I thought it would be cute to have a mitten card holder. I cut out a pattern, sewed it together, then inked the edges and added the sentiment. Really easy!

This last photo is just a favorite from the last two weeks. If you have kids, you know that it can be hard to get them to sit still for YOU (they'll do it for others, though). But my husband had the ingenious idea to get a peck on the cheek from them while I snapped a photo.

Have a great day, everyone!

*** ALERT!!! If you got spending money for the holidays, you'll want to set some aside for some new Valentine's Day images coming your way in early January. The sneak peeks start January 2!!! ***

card info: stamps by The Saltbox Studio, notecard, paper (for the mitten), twinkle stickers and sentiment by A Muse, Copic markers - sand and powder blue, pop dots.

What's In The Box?

Do you want to know what I packed up in my little countdown box that was featured on the A Muse News blog on Dec. 14?

Since I chose the dove as the image for the box, I chose Dove chocolates for the inside, too.

I had forgotten to take a photo before leaving my box in Seattle, so the lovely Heather Meeson did the honors for me (isn't she a terrific photographer?). Thank you, Heather!

Have a happy Holiday!!!

1588

Does this number mean anything to you? It is my magic number this year. It is the number of cookies I put away for my family's annual Cookie Party. Wanna look in my freezer? Yes, there are only cookies in there.

Here is a look at my table from last year.

Now, here is a look at my table, at the beginning of the party, from this year, as well as some close-ups of the cookies.

This was the peppermint plate. My candy canes came out GREAT this year, so I finally found the keeper recipe.

This is the peanut plate, set way back in the middle of the table for the few attendees that have a peanut allergy.

My kids helped decorate the sugar cookies this year. They showed tremendous restraint helping me by not licking fingers or sneaking the fun stuff. Instead, they just loaded down some of the cookies with a little bit of everything.

Oh my goodness, these are so good. I found this one - Super Duper Chocolate Kisses - in the 2008 Better Homes and Gardens Cookie magazine.

Some simple shortbread and one of my all-time favorites, Knock You Nakeds. These are so rich and yummy, I cut these small so that they last a little bit longer.

These are my apothecary jars that I added to the center of the table at the last minute. I adorned the necks of the jars with some of the Martha Stewart gingerbread boy felt ribbon.

Last, but not least, a look at the bag of cookies that went home with each household. Most of the bags had one of every kind of cookie that was made. We had more family and friends than ever before and I actually ran out of three (of the 31) varieties of cookies! I guess that means I need to make even MORE cookies next year!

A Few Quick Crafty Things

My preschooler had her final day of school on Thursday and I had to get her teachers' gifts together. I made some yummy treats for each of them and packaged all of the items in a small gift bag. This is the tag that was on the bag.

I made some small loaves of pumpkin bread for each teacher. This is the wrapped up loaf with a fun tag.

I also made some "Reindeer Munchies" and placed some in clean Starbucks Frappuccino bottles and added a fun, flocked tag (are your sensing a theme?). By the way, this is such a GOOD treat for kids to make and leave for Santa to take to his reindeer ;)

I also made some extra fancy cookies for the teachers, packaged those and adorned it with another cute tag. My preschooler thought the tag was "so cool" that she had to touch it while the liquid applique was still tacky - see her fingerprint there?

And, finally, I got a little more crafty with a paper mache cone I've had for about a year. I used one 8.5" x 11" piece of paper to cover the cone and a small paper mache star covered in Ultra Thick Embossing Powder for the top. The two smaller trees were made following these instructions. If you do this, though, be advised that the instructions for folding are a little off. It says to fold four times, but you really need to fold more than that (I think 8 times?) if you want it to look like the picture. The tiny tree I made using my scallop punches in all the Marvy sizes - extra jumbo through giga. It is really cute!

Say Hello to My Little Friend

Look what came to help me make the most of my time on Sunday. My husband, kind and generous man, gave me a brand spankin' new Mac Book for my birthday. I was so surprised! I don't have lots of time to spend on the computer most of the time and have been warned by some that new computers can be time-sucking devices, but I find that I am way too busy to over use it. I have a few new programs on here that I am going to try to use, including a blog helper called Blogo. We'll see if I can get the hang of things soon.

This is a picture of my birthday cake. I didn't take one before we cut into it! It was really yummy. It is from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. It is called Chocolate Mint Cake and it has a ganache type frosting and marshmallow filling with crushed candy canes on top. So good!!!!

And, finally, something a little crafty. I bought a couple of paper mache ornaments at the new Paper Source store in Reston, VA a few weeks ago. I hadn't had time to do anything with them until last Friday. I pulled out some scraps of paper and ran those through my Xyron, adhered those to the ornament, then added embossing ink down each pointed side, added Ultra Thick Embossing Powder, heated and repeated the last step a couple of times to get a nice amount of gold on the edges. I then punched a hole through two sides on the top, added a small thread loop, then added the larger bow to the top. I think it is a lovely addition and I hope I can make the other blank ornaments like this. But that has to wait for me to get the holiday cards written and in the mail (my goal for the day). Hope you have a wonderful day!

VMAA Bonus Challenge (just a little late)

I did not have time on Friday night to complete the last challenge that Geeta through at us. I was just too dang tired. Plus, I couldn't really decide on my favorite movie. I love Rudolph, Bing Crosby, the Grinch, Charlie Brown and all the others (my newest favorite is "Love Actually"), but there is another movie that has nothing to do with any winter holiday other than the fact that you can often catch it on TV this time of year. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but you can probably guess just by looking at my card. So, here it is:



Everything on this card is by A Muse except the "favorite things" stamp which came from a clear set of stamps I found at Target ages ago on sale for $2.00 (it is mostly words for scrapbooking but I don't know the manufacturer).

I really enjoyed the night of virtual stamping. I don't know how the others could stamp and chat online at the same time - I am not that talented! I hope that I can participate in the next VMAA, whenever it is.

My favorite Holiday Movie

Well, this challenge is going to have to wait for another day. I am really tired and need to get up early if at all possible, so I am off for tonight. I hope to get to the last challenge sometime this weekend. I had fun stamping. Thanks to Rhonda, Michelle, Jennie and Geeta!!!

#4 - Home Alone

For this challenge we needed to make a card that reminded us of our childhood Christmases. Most of what I remember was chaos. I come from a family of five kids, so you can imagine the paper flying and noise.

However, I distinctly remember my mom participating in the neighborhood ladies Cookie Exchange for a few years. My sister told me that she remembers the group being called "JUGs" (not to be confused with the periodical "JUGGS") - "Just Us Gals." And I remember my mom going off to trade yummy Creme de Menthe brownies for lots of other cookies, some good, some not so good, but when you are a kid, you don't turn away sugar! I always loved looking over the plate or container that came back and all the lovely colors.

I also recall my mom baking in the kitchen. I don't remember an apron, but I do remember the wooden spoon. I think she may still have one from a loooongg way back, too. So, I decided to make a tag that I could put on a package of cookies for a friend instead of a card. I cut a wee slit on the pocket of the apron so that I could slip a wooden spoon in and out of it, but I am not sure that you can see that in the picture.



Ok, one more to go, I think...

#3 - Scrooged

Well, here is another movie I have not seen, "Scrooged" with Bill Murray. Apparently there is a scene involving antlers and staples. So, for this challenge, we needed to use staples somewhere on the card. Luckily, I have a stapler in my craft hole. Unluckily, there were only a couple of staples and I have no earlthly clue where more are at the moment, so I only managed two staples. Here is what I made:



I had the kraft card base laying on my desk. It is a 4-bar size card, but the fold is along the long side of the card. Ok, had the chocolate, I might just make it!

The Polar Express

Ok, confession, I have yet to sit through this whole movie. I've read the book a few times, but my kids watched this one with my husband and in-laws. I have no idea what I was doing! But, maybe this year we will all get to watch it together.

So, the challenge was to make a card using blues and whites and "LOTS of glitter." Well, glitter in 30 minutes? Ugh. BUT, I was up to the challenge. I decided to use the clear tree sets to make a wintry scene. I know, I added brown and a bit of red, and, well, maybe not a lot of glitter, but, my goodness, it is almost 10pm and I am TIRED! I'm not sure if I am going to make it for all the challenges. Anyway, here is my card:



I think I am almost ready for the third challenge! Maybe I need some chocolate...

VMAA - TONIGHT!

Hi all. I have been so busy this week with holiday baking and cleaning and shopping, so I haven't done a lot of stamping. However, I decided a while back that I was going to try my best to participate real time with the VMAA (Virtual Meeting of A Muse Addicts). The first challenge is to create a card for a child. Here is what I did in my thirty minutes (actually it only took about 10 minutes):



I've been wanting to use this "naughty/nice" sentiment for a while but I hadn't made time to do it. It is a great sentiment for a child, though, isn't it? I think I can give this one to my son, maybe encouraging him to keep up his good behavior for the next few weeks. Worth a shot, anyway ;)

Just for tonight, I am not going to reference everything that I am using, but all the stamps and papers will be by A Muse. If you have trouble finding it on the A Muse website, send me an email.