Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas to ALL!

We are enjoying a wonderful Christmas in Upstate NY. This is the first time in 13 years that Todd and I have not spent Christmas in Florida. When I looked around our decorated church, the lights dimmed, pointsettas and Christmas trees sparkling gold, white and red, I knew this is where I was meant to be this year. This year, our family decided to stay home in NY. My brothers and sisters in law traveled from NC, my sister from California. The unexpected death of my uncle brought in cousins and Aunts/Uncles from Alabama and Arizona (who have since returned home to celebrate the holidays).

This Christmas has been a wonderful holiday of new and old traditions - of worship at church (a cupcake birthday party for Jesus after the service), of singing (the oldest 5 sang in the church choir), of wrapping and unwrapping presents, of last minute shopping, cooking....the most special thing was watching Christmas through my children's eyes. How wonderful it is to have my family here, healthy and happy....full of love and the magic and wonder of this time of year. We will eat delicious food tonight, celebrate the miracle of Christ's birth and relish in the memories of the year 2008. May the joy and wonder of the holiday season keep you young in heart. Peace!

FS98: PaulaTracy

I am sorry that I have not posted much this week. On Wednesday night, my mom's brother passed away. It was quite unexpected, so we have been doing quiet family time. It is also a really busy time of the year for everyone...getting ready for the holidays...so I have been able to occupy my thoughts to holiday peace and joy, instead of the sorrow of my family's loss.

Saturday is my day to stamp, and I am still in the holiday frame of mind...so here is my card. This is Snow Swirled from Stampin' Up! The sentiment is from Papertrey ink's Holiday Treats.

This week's featured stamper is Paula Tracy Here is Paula's card: {Baby Buttercup} in her SCS gallery. I don't have that adorable stamp set - so I decided to use the SU! Snow Swirled set. I started with a cream base, then added some designer paper. I used a strip of hunter with a layer of vanilla paper - stamped with moss, hunter and artichoke. I stamped the tree with papertrey ink's new vintage cream . I would have used my vanilla from SU! if it hadn't dried up! Dangit! I put the ink (still wet) and sprinkled glitter on it. The glitter grabs to the ink. Fun! (spritz with hairspray to seal it). I stamped the Papertrey sentiment (Holiday cheer) with vintage cream on the hunter and punched it with the small oval punch. The scalloped rectangle was done with a nestability. Some ribbon (cream organza) tied in a bow (I slit a small hole in the top of the card with an exacto knife). The main image is placed on the card with dimensionals.

The changes from the original card -

• eliminated the sewing (I took the bobbin out of my janome and I cannot get it re-threaded!)
• colors - I did a monochrome green, vanilla instead of the pinks and whites in Paula's card
• stamp set - I used SU! Snow Swirled
  
• punch - I did rectangle instead of the ovals. I used the small oval punch instead of the tag punch.

stamps: Stampin' Up! Snow Swirled and Papertrey Ink Holiday Treats
ink: vintage cream, moss, artichoke, hunter
paper: cream (unknown source), {SU! vanilla, hunter, designer paper}
misc: glitter, dimensionals, oval punch (small, SU!), nestabilities

Ice Storm 2008:

We were hit in Upstate NY with quite an ice storm on Thursday. The storm wreaked havoc across the area, downing power lines, breaking limbs on trees and creating treacherous driving conditions. Todd and I went to a wonderful holiday party which was held in the dark! It was actually still very fun (despite no heat!). Who need heat when you have candles, a gas fireplace and cold appetizers (plus alcohol)!!!

I love the beauty of the ice. I am just glad that we didn't have any damage here at the house (especially to all the beautiful pear trees which we planted this summer).


Here are some of the photos from the storm's aftermath...

More photos in my facebook {photo album}

FS97: Cards By America

Sometimes a gallery catches my eye and I take note....America's gallery was just that type of gallery! She has beautiful stuff in there! Lots of layers. I use the Featured Stamper's gallery to springboard my stamping. Most of the time, I keep the same general layout, change the colors, the stamp sets....
such is the case tonight. If the featured stamper has multiple layers upon layers...I tend to cut back.

Here is {the card} which I cased. America's Fallen snow card is BEAUTIFUL! You know the blue rule! :) Haven't shouted that out in a while! I changed: colors, stamp set - eliminated the snowflakes, kept the pearls - added sewing in lieu of paper piercing.

I have found myself reaching for my BFF's Silent Night stamp set. Nichole must know that sentiments with a religious tone really set my heart a'flutter! I love the elegance of this set SO much! I needed to tone back the card America made and focus on the beauty of the stamp set. I started with a layer of river rock. I really miss this paper (good thing I have a little left in my stash). River rock paired with real red was one of my favorite color combos! I used the river rock ink to stamp on the base of the card. I used the flourish, the small star and in the top right corner - the larger star with the dotted "radiance". It's like the star is singing "SHA-ZAM! Here I am!!!!" {grin} I stamped the sentiment in white craft on the real red, layered it on white, then red. Instead of the paper piercing (just because I cannot find my dang mat!) I Mounted it to the card with dimensionals...then added some red ribbon. I added a few pearls under the sentiment. Two big ones - three little....what do you think?


stamps: Silent Night {Papertrey Ink}
paper: river rock, real red, whisper white
ink: river rock, whisper white
misc: pearls (Target $ spot), Ribbon (unknown source), sewing, dimensionals

Hanna Stamps December Challenge: Scraplings

So this little number is so cute, it makes me want to use my baby voice! These adorable cards are called Scraplings! I got the idea from my friend Val Stangle, who got the idea from the amazing Cindy Lyles, who learned about them from the Hero Arts site.

Who makes square cards (raise your hands)? What do you do with that little strip of paper left over (the 1.25x4.25 folded piece of the end of the card)? Here is a new use for them! They are called Scraplings.

You take your scrapling - and you GO NUTS! Okay...let me explain this little scrapling I made.... I took my folded 1.25x4.25 piece of wasabi cardstock (it was the leftover textured wasabi that SU! had the bulk buy on a few months ago)...I have wasabi coming out my nose (OH! that would really hurt).... Set your scrapling base aside. Take out an avery address label. Stamp on the label - I used the snowflake from Hanna Stamps! Tis the Season. I stamped the snowflake in celery, real red and wasabi. I placed the avery label on a strip of real red cardstock, trimmed and mounted it to the wasabi scrapling. I tied a ribbon around the scrapling, then added the sentiment. I went through my stash of buttons and found these Dress Em Up! buttons. I snip off the button loop, add some glue dots to the back of the button and apply the buttons to the label of the card. How cute and simple is that?

This week's challenge on Hanna Stamps! is hosted by ME! My challenge is - create a scrapling. Please post your completed scrapling on SCS and put it in the comment section of this post! All entries will be entered into a drawing to win a free watermark! Please post your entry by next Monday (10 pm EST). That gives you all weekend to stamp and post! Enjoy your weekend and please play along on the Hanna Stamps Member Company Forum! This is Hanna Stamps Challenge 47 (scs keyword HSC47)

stamps: Hanna Stamps! {Tis the Season, Just what I wanted to Say}
paper: real red, wild wasabi, avery address label
ink: real red, certainly celery, black archival, wild wasabi
misc: ribbon (mayarts/startlitstudio), Dress Em Up! buttons, glue dots (SU!)

Neighborhood cocktail party

Ahhh! Life with kids. So our neighborhood playgroup decided to have a progressive holiday supper (each person has a different course) The idea is we go from house to house one evening....just hanging out - eating and drinking - no kids....

The problem - none of us could get a sitter! LOL! So - Plan B: we decided to put all the kids in the basement (it's finished) with some holiday movies and pizza... the adults enjoy cocktails and appetizers upstairs. Since I have the most kids - I get to host the party (lol - I offered). I made some quick (I am talking 5 minutes) invitations for the party. I printed out the details on the computer - then left enough of a blank space on the side to stamp. I made 4 invitations with one sheet of cardstock. I stamped the flourish (Silent Night/papertrey ink) with white craft ink, then stamped the small snowflake (snowfall/papertrey ink). While the craft ink was still wet, I sprinked it with ultra fine glitter. DONE! Finished - put them in clear envelopes and slip them in the neighbors mailboxes - simple, elegant!




stamps: papertrey ink {silent night, snowfall}
paper: ruby red
ink: white craft
misc: glitter, computer font

Silent Night:

Wow - I just love the stamp set Silent Night from Papertrey Ink. I adore the flourish, the sentiments....I used the flourish for the WT196 challenge on Splitcoast. The challenge (half baked) was to use half an image on your card. WOW! I tried a tree from Lovely as a tree, but it looked like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. This flourish is beautiful - only half is still stunning. I also used half the star. I stamped on a precut scalloped chocolate chip oval with white craft ink. While the craft ink was still wet, I spread extra fine glitter over the top (you can seal it with hairspray). Then I layered the chocolate chip on a scalloped white oval with dimensionals. The edge of the main card was punched with the scalloped edge punch and a strip of chocolate chip cardstock was placed underneath. I stamped the flourish in celery ink on the base and finally stamped the sentiment (also from the Silent Night set) in chocolate chip ink in the lower corner. A chocolate ribbon (papertrey ink) is tied in a simple knot on the side of the card. A small rhinestone in the center of the star.


stamp: Silent Night (papertrey ink)
ink: celery, white, chocolate chip
cardstock: white, chocolate chip, celery
misc: ribbon (chocolate polka dot/papertrey ink), nestabilities (oval, scalloped), scalloped edge punch (SU!), glitter, rhinestone, dimensionals