December Chill

Morning Peeps!  I've got a snowy Victorian to share with you today.  If only our place had this lovely dusting of snow on it right now.  Latest forecast for Christmas in New England will have us in the 60's on the big day.  I hear some of our friends in Virginia may hit 70!!! Crazy!

This little love was made using Amuse stamps and apparently I had stamped and Stickled this image a while ago.  When I was digging through all my Christmas stash I discovered this image and all the cut parts ready to go.  Yay!  All I needed to do was add the bakers twine and black wash tape. Sweet!

Have you had any paper crafting "miracles" this season?

Wishing Peace

Thought I'd pop in and share a quartet of Christmas cards I made to send out this year.  I'm tickled with these (and most of my stash) because I used oodles of goods from my hoard stash!  These cards use a stamp I've never used before from a set from PTI. 

The little aqua doilies were a treat from a crafty friend.  They were the super-perfect extra touch of pop for these.  I'm gonna have to get more of these!!!!!!

I'll be lucky if these make it in mailboxes before Christmas.  We haven't started writing, signing, or addressing any them yet.  I ran into a friend when I was out running errands today and we both agree that Friday Christmas' are not our favorite.  Feels like it makes things more rushed because we have only this weekend to get things finished.  Oh well.  I guess that means that what gets done, gets done and what doesn't get done wasn't that important to begin with- right?

Have a good final-weekend-before-the-big-day!

Take some fries with that

Just a quick post today.  I always forget how busy it is this time of the year!!! Last week I had a pop-up fair at a friends house, then over the weekend I had a booth at a craft fair in Quincy, this weekend we are hosting a work party, and I'm terrible behind getting my Christmas cards made- never mind signed & mailed--EEEKKKK! 

It'll all work out though.  It always does. :) The treat I'm sharing today is a fun, quick, easy stocking stuffer.  I made a bunch of them.  These went home with one of my classroom roomie (hence the wacky photo taken with my phone at work). I need to make 1 more to complete an order for another co-worker.  I dug into my stash of cut papers, stickers, and embellishments to jazz up the kraft French fry boxes. Then I filled them with mini chocolates in a cello bag.  Tied ribbon, sparkly yarn, or twine on all of them.  Easy-peasy!

Guess I should get off the internet and work on cards huh.  Gonna go see what Christmas movies are on TV or on demand.  Might help me get my tushie in gear! ;-)

A Pink Thanksgiving

Thought I'd share a few pics from Thanksgiving while I procrastinate on getting other things done! ;-) It also gives me a chance to play around with my new camera.  I'm loving how great my pics came out.  No editing for exposure issues!

We go up to my SIL's place for Thanksgiving and my nephews always make fun Lego centerpieces.  This year we were treated to a family feast and a ship.

Tom, Cida, and I are displayed here.  I forgot to get the house try built for us too.  Poor Tom looks mean!

Always worry when kids and dogs get quiet.  Watcha' doin' up there Cida?????

Why a "pink" thanksgiving??? Well, there is always pink because my SIL inherited the pink depression glass (Rose is her middle name, so these glasses are a sweet fit).

There's the pink sherbet that tops the fruit cup at the start of the feast.  Y-U-M!

There's the jello that looked neon hot pink on my nephews camera.  It was kinda funny how bright it looked when we were checking out his pics.

The main reason that this Thanksgiving was truly pink were these potatoes.  Yuper, those are mashed potatoes.  Pink. Mashed. Potatoes.  LOL! Very good friends of my BIL and SIL have a farm and these potatoes were in the latest farm share.  I think it was mentioned that they were an heirloom kind, but I don't think anyone caught the name.  They were the regular size, if a bit purpley-pink when peeled (I didn't see the pre-peeled version), but once mashed they looked like frosting.  They made for quite the conversation piece at dinner!  My favorite quote of the night was from my SIL.  I think it went something like "I can't taste them.  The color is too loud.". Hee-here!

After all the adventures, Cida was ready to chill.  He managed to wrap himself up in his wubby and wander around the house like a corgi burrito.

Guess I should go get some stuff finished.  I have a craft fair tomorrow in Quincy at The Woodward School.  If you are in the area, stop by!  It is a great fair with lots of really wonderful vendors and goods!!!

Fall Roses

 

Good Morning! How are you doing post-Thanksgiving and post-Black Friday?  Thought I'd share some non-holiday goodies today.  I figure there will be plenty of time to share more Christmas & Hanukah creations, but these seem kinda fall-ish colorwise.  I'm running outta fall time!

 

I had fun using up the tags I had cut from the pumpkin tags I shared last weekend.  They had a little bit of color on the tags and these were all plain woodgrain.  Rather than use glossy accents to adhere the buttons, I used gold Stickles. Just a hint of sparkle peeks out when you look closely at the buttons.

I love the shabby-chic vibe of these tags.  They'd make a great decoration on birthday, anniversary, or thank you gifts!  Well, I'm off.  We might go to see the trees at the Methuen Festival of Trees.  Gotta go early to beat the crowd!!

Snowmen and Hot Cocoa

It's not really cold and wintry today, but since we are going to "Deck the Halls" here at my abode, it seemed like the seasonal thing to share. :-)

These are from a recent Etsy sale I had at my shop.  The gal wanted 8 snowman themed hot cocoa sleeves, BUT they had to all be boy-ish.  No pink, no bows, no sparkle.  Kinda tricky with paper crafts.  I hope she, and the boys, like them!

They were a great opportunity to use my jumbo bag of snowflake buttons that were an impulse purchase last year.  It was fun to make these, especially since I watched/listened to "Christmas with Holly" on the Hallmark Channel whilst I worked on them.  I really like that movie!  It is just so sweet!!!

I'm off to manage the Christmas Chaos!!!  Wish me luck!

A little turkey

Thought this was a particularly festive card for today what with having a turkey and all. ;-)

This is a bit of a cheater card for me.  No stamping!  I made up for it by stamping the sentiment in 2 layers of color and giving the envelope some love. :-).

I have a very thankful heart this Thanksgiving.  We are headed up to my sister-in-law's house to meet up with everyone and tomorrow everybody comes down to our place to decorate our abode for Christmas.  Eek! I'm so excited for turkey, mashed potatoes, and guilt-free Christmas song listening (I listen all year long, but I'm not allowed to force it on others until after Thanksgiving!)

The Pilgrims and the Wampanoag sat down and broke bread together in a beautiful celebration of sharing their bounty. I'm thankful to have a wonderful husband, family to share this holiday weekend, a fairly well-trained dog, good jobs, roof over our heads, food in our 'fridge, no blizzard-caused power outages like last year, and a safe neighborhood.  Not everyone can say that this Thanksgiving as is evident every day on the news.  Please take a moment to think of those who don't have as much when you say your blessings. May we all remember to share our bounty with those less fortunate not just these next few weeks, but even in the heat of Summer and may next Thanksgiving find bounty for everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Thanksgiving Eve

 The big day is almost here!  It's Thanksgiving Eve.  Are you ready?  I'm sure I probably am not ready, but I'm kinda used to running around like a chicken turkey with my head cut off.  It is very typical of me.  I make all these lists to avoid being exhausted and then end up thinking up 22 extra things to do anyway.  Oh well.  I'm thankful to have the ability to get exhausted and to have a reason to get exhausted!

This card is off to family up in Maine.  Had hubs decide who we should send each card out to, with a couple changes from me.  Originally, I was going to send this to my parents-in-law because they live on Red Fox Drive.  Hubs liked that idea, but thought that one of the cards with the squirrels was funny because they drive his dad nuts.  Since one of those cards also had foxes peeking out, that's the one they are getting! :)

This seemed good for the family up North since we enjoy so much sweet family time with them!  They feed is wonderful meals and entertain us quite often!  They are another reason we are thankful this holiday season!

I guess I better start finishing off that list huh.  Can't I just hang with you guys instead?????

Grateful Heart

 

Here is a beautiful, and easy card for y'all today.  I was able to use a variety of bits 'n pieces from the mess I had made making 100 hot cider wraps, 12 place cards, and the original 8 Thanksgiving cards I talked about on Saturday.  Cleaned up without having to clean- wish my house would do that!

  The washi-tape is new.  I didn't use it on the other projects.  I totally would have.  It's brand spanking new to my stash.  I'm trying to use washi more.  I even dug up several old black 1950's office tape dispensers and filled them with tapes I thought I could use for autumn projects.  It's been working well for me.  Let's hope I keep it up!  I've lots to use up!!!

The flowers are from PTI.  It's my first time using this set that I HAD. TO. HAVE.  I got them for my birthday. In August. Yeah, I'm grateful I finally used them. ;-) Along with my washi, I'm trying to burn through enough enamel dots to freckle my whole house.  How is it that I can rarely have the color I need when I have a bazillion of these?????  I'm sooooooo crushing on this green that I have been hoarding them.  Gotta let go sometime I guess.  Thanksgiving cards seem like the right time. :-)

Sneaky peek at the embellished envelope.  It is simple, but gets right to the point. It's hard to tell from my pic, but it is stamped in a dark evergreen.  I just got a new camera and, hopefully, some of my pictures will look better next week.  We shall see!

Hope you have all your Turkey Day shopping done.  I don't envy anyone having to venture out any time until, well, maybe Monday?  I remember having to go to the grocery store twice on Thanksgiving Eve for stuff I ran out of and even though I live in a fairly small town- it was traumatic.  Of course I find the grocery store fairly traumatic most of the time unless it is between 1 and 2 on a Tuesday.  Then no one is around and the shelves are still stocked. ;)

May you have an uneventful week!

Blessed

I thought I had shared this last year.  I've made several of these Thanksgiving mini albums over the years.  I don't even remember how the idea came about, maybe from my friend Michele.  I think her family has been doing something like this for many years. The first one was for my mother-in-law as a birthday gift (her birthday is today BTW- Happy Birthday Barb!).

The albums get decorated, but I try to leave enough space for what we put in our albums.  Of course there are family photos.  One smiles and one goofy!  Last year my youngest nephew and I made photo booth style props with pilgrim hats, turkey waddles, and feathers. :-)

Everyone in the family adds what they are thankful for in a small 1" square.  Keeping the square small both helps make it easy to talk everyone into doing, and it keeps some of us from writing all afternoon!

My sister-in-law also adds the menu from that Thanksgiving, she has really cool handwriting so it looks even better because she writes it!  Mostly the meal stays the same, but something gets tweaked each year.  For example, I get bored making the same dessert every year.  Pecan Pie is a must, but sometimes I make mini pies in mason jars, or cakeballs, or pumpkin mousse pie, or cookies, or what I'm making this year.  It's a surprise, so I can't share until after. :) I try to stick to only two things, but it all depends on my mood.

Each year usually only takes 2 pages front/back.  That way you can look through an album and see a bunch of years.  Always a treat to look through the pages of Thanksgiving past!

I've loaded this album into my Etsy shop and can ship it out ASAP.  Take those pictures, write those thankful notes, and when the album comes all you need to do is adhere the pics & notes!

Pumpkins!

My goodness, but I have stamped this pumpkin a bunch this season!  Lots of folks have wanted this pumpkin on their place cards.  I took a little time to add them to some tags, just to change things up in my studio a little.

I used some vintage lace that I got in a bag of trim someone didn't want anymore.  Score!  I got bored with having them all be identical, so I trimmed 4 each with bakers twine in gold, green, and cocoa, and then 3 in a dusty aqua.

I thought these might make pretty place cards (or turkey doggie bags!).  12 more pumpkin place cards shipped out yesterday. Poor gal has 12 on the way already, but she gave me her old address!  We decided to ship the newest place cards to her in-laws where she'll be having her feast.  That way they will, fingers-crossed, arrive in time for use!!!

I'll be back soon with more Thanksgiving cards.  Until then, have a great day!
 
PS If you want these tags, or even a pumpkin banner for your mantle, stop by my shop.  I'm headed to the 24 Hour Post Office today to ship out priority packages.  If I mail today/tomorrow it'll mostly likely make it in time to deck your Thanksgiving House (another Hallmark movie I adore).

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Hiya Peeps!  Thought I'd pop by and share a couple Thanksgiving cards with y'all today.  I made a bunch of these last weekend, but before I could mail them out, I ended up selling them to a gal from a club I'm in- that meant I had to hustle to come up with some more to get mailed out this weekend.  Can you believe that Thanksgiving is this week already?!?!  Where does the time go????

I was inspired to create these cards from one that Melissa Phillips made for Rosh Hashanah.  I am so used to using this die cut to make Christmas tags and honestly hadn't thought of trying it for anything else! 

These are 4 of the original 8 I made.  There were more layers with this first set, but with the second set I already had gotten extra ideas so I only made 2 of this sorta style. 

Whenever I get stuck for an idea, I like to think like my artist friends.  They got sent to museums to copy a "Master" to develop their technique.  Luckily I have Pinterest to help me get the mojo flowing. ;-) I look through my different boards and then see how I might be able to riff off a card or idea I saved. 

Making all these Thanksgiving ornament cards got me on a roll. :)  Stay tuned this week to see some of the other cards that I made!