Happy Thanksgiving !

At the heart of Thanksgiving 

is the spirit of gratitude,

which makes this the perfect opportunity 

to let you know how grateful I am

to each and every one of you

that have been following my blog 
and leaving comments! 

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday -
and thinking of those affected by
hurricane Sandy as well as 
our troops that our serving our country.
I am grateful to each and every one of our 
service members for the sacrifices they make. 

Simple hydrangea centerpiece. 

DO NOT LEAVE CANDLE BURNING UNATTENDED !

I only lit it for the photo,

I don't think I would light it otherwise.

Poke dried hydrangea blossoms into a wreath.

Use dabs of hot glue to hold into place.

Use an upside down heat proof bowl

as a base to stand a large candle on

in the center of the wreath.

You can add tufts of fabric, tulle, tissue paper,

bows, paper ribbon, etc to fill it in

and use less blooms if you'd like. 

Thanksgiving Facebook Cover - MDS project

Made with My Digital Studio, original version, from Stampin' Up!

I used several digital punches to create the turkey:
scalloped circles, circles, pennant, two step bird, small photo corner

Background paper from Wonderfall kit.

Cajun Craze grosgrain ribbons

Antique brad

HAPPY from stamp set (I don't remember which one)

Thanksgiving is a text box and font in Pumpkin Pie color




May the bounty of the season fill 
your heart and home!

Snowflake Card 4

I LOVE this brass template/paper piercing template of a snowflake. I bought it online several years ago.
It takes a bit of time to make, but sure is pretty.

Kraft, Bliss Blue, Whisper White card stock - Stampin' Up!
shimmery pearl paper
White craft ink
silver brads
snowflake border punch, unknown manufacturer


Thanks for looking

Snowflake Card 3

The scrap on this card from my scrap box is the piece of striped ribbon.
Bright blue and white card stocks.
I dry embossed two lines along the top of the white card stock piece.
Unknown manufacturer of the snowflake border punch and striped ribbon.
Sentiment is from Stampin' Up! and stamped with Brilliant Blue ink.
It might be fun to add a little bit of glitter on each snowflake at the bottom.....but messy !


Thanks for looking =)

Snowflake Card 2

Using up more scraps to make holiday cards............
Cuttlebug die and embossing folder to create the snowflake.
Shimmery lightweight paper mounted to red card stock on the outside of an acetate card.
The inside is lined with striped paper, unknown.
There are two small white pieces that are behind the front piece. One is mounted to the back side with a sentiment stamped on it (it was cut from an old card that I used the front of to make a different card seen here). The other is mounted to the striped paper to write a note on.
I'll add a brad or small banner with a sentiment on it to the center of the snowflake die cut.

Thanks for looking =)

Snowflakes Card 1

This was an experiment that did turn out very well. All supplies from Stampin' Up!

Night Of Navy card stock ran through the Northern Flurry embossing folder .
I inked the embossed areas and edges with silver metallic Encore ink.
Mounted to silver metallic card stock.
Added 5/8" silver organdy ribbon and metal edge tag.
This is a 4.25"  x  4.25" card.

Thanks for looking =)

Snowman Card 3

This is one of my favorite made from scraps cards

I've completed so far.

I keep working my way through the scrap box, 

trying to reuse bits and pieces of "ugly" old projects

or several old swap cards I came across.

There was quite a collection of holiday themed 

scraps left still since I used almost all of the 

everyday type of scraps last year for the 

over 350 cards I made and sent to 

Operation Write Home. 

This year I am working on using up those 

holiday bits and pieces to send some cards to

Holiday Mail for Heroes through the Red Cross.

The card above started out as just the snowman image

on a plain white card base. It didn't get totally inked, looked

really washed out. It was also stamped crooked, so it

went to the "one day I'll do something with it" scrap box.

Today was the day ! 

I trimmed the image out then colored it in with an 

aquapainter and ink pads.

I ran Kraft card stock through the Square Lattice

embossing folder from Stampin Up!

then lightly sponged Soft Suede ink around the edges.

It was mounted to Naturals card base. 

I like how this one turned out despite being washed out looking.

Thanks for looking !

Snowman Card 2

Let me tell you a story about the images on this card, one that is truly unbelievable, even to me and I am the one it happened to.


I ordered this cute snowman stamp set from Stampin' Up! many years ago and never assembled it.
I finally decided to make the above image a few years back, it was on the front of a small white card I was going to use as a tag for a gift. I never used it because I couldn't find teeny tiny pom poms like I wanted to finish it off.

This year I made it into a card, but still no pom poms. Before taking this photo I totally forgot I was going to add bits of crinkled tissue to make snowballs or maybe punch out little letters to spell something, such as M E R R Y instead. One or the other of those ideas will get done before sending it off.

Sorry, I rambled.... let me get to the unbelievable story: the little bird rubber stamp image was lost right after I made this card. It was my fault, I hadn't mounted it to the wood block yet (none of them had been, I still needed to seal the wood). I left them out after making the card, not even thinking anything would happen to the pieces. I'd get back to cleaning up after I finished making dinner for the kids who had just gotten home from school.

Well, lo and behold when I went back to my craft dungeon, the teeny tiny unmounted rubber stamp bird was gone. I had no idea where it went. I searched all over the table, the floor, under the edges of the storage tubs that are under the table, everywhere in the immediate area in case I had knocked it off without realizing it. I even emptied the trash can, no bird. Sigh........ I asked for it by not picking up right away, as I normally do.

All I could think that may have possibly happened was one of the cats jumped onto my work table and did something to it, batted it onto the floor perhaps. Maybe it would turn up elsewhere in the basement one day.  I would just have to try to draw that little bird if I ever wanted that image again.

Life went on .........

Fast forward to the early spring. I was taking the garbage cans out to the curb when a little bit of red caught my eye on the sidewalk. It was laying near the edge of my flower bed on the sloped part of the walk where all the water runs when it rains. I thought it looked like a rubber scrap, kind of weird to see a piece of it there. I picked it up and could not believe my good fortune, it was the bird image !!!!!!!!!!!! I kid you not  !!!! Now I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a miracle because there are far more miraculous things that happen, but it sure was amazing that after a few months it turned up - outside, no where in the basement craft dungeon or elsewhere in the house. I can only speculate that it was stuck on a cat paw (or even my shoe?) , fell off in the yard and worked its way out of the grass after the spring rains, washing down that slight slope and getting caught at the edge of the flower bed the way dead leaves and such do. I have another theory, but it is gross ;)   Anyway, just unbelievable. I was pretty excited !

Needless to say I IMMEDIATELY mounted it to the bare wood block =)

Thanks for looking!

Snowman Card 1

The snowman image is one I stamped and colored long ago,

never using it for a project - until now. 

Unfortunately because it sat in the scrap box for so long,

I don't recall the name of the set the snowman came from.

It'll probably come to me at some point

(or if I dig out old catalogs in search of it!).

All supplies Stampin' Up! 

card stock:

Whisper White

Poppy Parade

Cool Caribbean

ink:

Basic Black

Poppy Parade

stamps:

Many Merry Messages

snowman from I have no idea what set

Snowflakes embossing folder

Stickles brand glitter glue

4 Lovely As A Tree Cards

The tree portions above were leftovers from an old class I taught.

When I was a demonstrator (ha, ha.... !) I had a few

classes. ALL of which were never successful, ever.

The Hostess would tell me X number of people were coming

"for sure" then it would always be half that number, or less.

I'd have so many supplies cut up for the make and takes

then be stuck with them.

Once I thought I'd NOT make as many as I was told were 

coming then bring extras with me to cut there.

Wouldn't you know it that is the one time more 

people came so I was unprepared.

The Hostess offered to cut up the card stock for me

while I did other prep.

but unfortunately somehow all of the pieces were 

cut the wrong sizes. I never did that again ! 

Anyway, the tree parts are from an old class I taught on crayon resist technique.

I made several extras for this particular class knowing that the ladies

would not be happy with the outcome and want to do it again.

These are the last two pieces of glossy card stock

to be used with that tree image and crayon resist technique !

The dark green scallops along the edge of the top sample are

from a scalloped edge die cut square I made and never used.

The bottom card has glitter glue details.

The sentiment on the front was punched out from the inside of

one of the tree cards I posted yesterday. 

Crayon resist and masking on white glossy paper;

shimmer mist.

Run an embossing folder through a Big Shot machine

with a chipboard oval frame on top to create

the selective embossed frame .

thanks for looking =)