I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas. It is so hard to believe that after weeks and months of preparation it is all over. I have a few project to share. I made these before Christmas but never got to posting them. I did some other cards (including one done with the new Valentine's Day bundle), but forgot to take photos before I packaged them up and gave them away.

I picked up this frosted glass candleholder at Dollarama and simply used a Stampin Up rubon. Voila - instant gift! Note - the candleholder is not as dark as this looks.




These are ornaments I picked up at Michael's (they were on sale for only $0.68 each). I embellished them with some of the chocolate brown rubons. I intended to use them as little gifts, but I was not able to part with them - maybe they will get tucked away for next year (or maybe not).

I saw these little chocolate boxes on a blog one night - marked down the address, but cannot remember where I put it. The little boxes are each made from two of the scalloped envelopes cut out with the exclusive stampin up die. The little boxes each hold 2 Ghiradellie chocolate squares - too cute! I cut them from Baha Breeze textured card stock and decorated them with a little bit of DSP from the Ski Slope pack, some of the Baha Breeze striped ribbon and some snow flurries.

If you have not seen these little reindeer, you must go to Angie Juda's site - click here to see her video and follow her directions. These are just adorable and only take a few minutes to put together.

I picked up some composition books and this is my first attempt at altering one. I used Soft Sky cardstock, DSP, ribbon and ink. It is pretty plain - I may have to do a little more, but right now can't think of what. I also put some matching DSP in the barrel of the pen. Not too bad for a first attempt!

Bye for now. Thanks for stopping by.

Marjorie

Can you believe that in just two short weeks it will be boxing day! Where has the time gone?

I still have a few gifts to buy and baking to do. I have not baked one single cookie, tart or tourtiere as of today. When I was working full time I always had all the shopping done and gifts wrapped long before this. The baking was always done by the end of November. Not sure what I am doing with my time (well stamping does take up a lot of my time).

I tried out the stained glass techinique to make this gift card holder. I stamped the image on vellum cardstock, embossed it and then coloured in the back with my SU markers. I used my nestabilities to cut out the circles and the white gel pen to make the dots. It is amazing that it only took a few minutes to complete.

Stamp Set - Cardinal Christmas

CS - Riding Hood Red, Basic, Black, Whisper White (placed behind vellum) and vellum.

I even stamped and coloured the envelope!

I tried stamping on mirror tiles this week as well (I had never done that before) and stamping on candles. I had done that before and given the candles away as gifts. Those candles sat on a tumbled tile that had been decorated to match.

This photo is not the greatest, but here it is anyway.

Stamp Set - Snow Swirled

Ink - Not Quite Navy (for the candle); white StazOn for the mirror tile

Again, it did not take very long, but they are beautiful. I am going to a dinner party on Wednesday, so one of these sets will make a perfect hostess gift!

I got the mirror tiles at Dollarama and the candles were in packages of 3 at Michael's.

That is it for today!

Marjorie

Not much has been happening - we finally got all our Christmas cards into their envelopes so they are addressed, stamped and ready to go to the post office. We are trying to get our Christmas shopping done and it is proving to be a little more difficult than I had imagined. On Christmas Day my parents are taking us out to brunch - we will be a total of 11. After brunch we are going to do a little gift exchange, but this year with a twist. Previously we each had to bring one gift each (so the girls would bring a gift appropriate for a lady and the guys would bring one appropriate for a man). We would then do a 'chinese auction'.


This year we are bringing an inexpensive gift for each person who will be there. So basically 10 gifts. Trying to find appropriate, nice gifts in the designated price range is driving me crazy. To further complicate it I volunteered to do the shopping for all the people in my immediate family (husband, two sons and one son's friend). Not sure I will do that again. I was able to do most of the gifts for the ladies while I was in Syracuse a couple of weeks ago. The gifts from me will be handmade, but I can't say what in case they check my blog. Yesterday I was able to get all the gifts for my dad and brother in law. Almost done!

We have a couple of birthdays this week - in fact today is my niece Roxanne's 13th birthday. My dad's birthday is on the 12th. Of course with all the cards and card fronts I have on hand, I was not able to choose one that I wanted to use, so I have spent the morning doing some cards.

I decided to try a popup card for Roxanne. It turned out not too bad - not sure this would be a project that I would do again.



Recipe:
Stamp Set: Crazy for Cupcakes
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Creamy Caramel and Sweet Always DSP
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Other: Ribbon (nonSU); Grommet

For my dad's card I decided to try the brayered sky technique that Michelle Zindorf does so beautifully. I ended up not using the brayer, but used my sponge daubers. I am quite pleased with my results and will definitely try this technique again.

Recipe:

Stamp Set: Lovely as a Tree (is this not the best set!); Upsy Daisy for the sentiment

Paper: Basic Black, Riding Hood Red, Glossy CS

Ink: More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Riding Hood Red, Basic Black

Thanks for stopping by

Marjorie

While shopping in Syracuse a few weeks ago, I picked up some Holiday M&M's. The candies are red, green and white and are mint flavoured. I knew I wanted to package them somehow to give as little friendship gifts to some of the people at my office and for my husband to give to some of the other volunteers at the Heart Institute. When I was at Michael's yesterday I was just browsing and I found a package of 20 clear boxes that are intended as wedding favours. They were on sale for $14.99 so I picked up a package (I am going to have to go back and get more!). I hope I can find some of the M&M's here in Ottawa because I am going to need more of those as well!

I filled each box with some of the candies, taped it closed and then decorated them with SU's Real Red grosgrain ribbon. To that I tied a little medallion with silver cording. The image on the medallion is from the Holiday Trinkets stamp set. It was stamped on Whisper White using Real Red ink. I punched that out with my 1 1/4 inch circle punch and mounted that onto a 1 3/8 circle punched from garden green. The whole was then adhered to a real red scalloped circle. I finished it by adding little dots in each scallop with my signo gel pen.

I was playing with the pillow box die again. This time I embossed the card stock using the Cuttlebug Snowflake folder. It gives a very subtle texture. I had some white ribbon and some snowflakes embellishments from Michael's and used those to decorate. The box holds a Ghiradelli chocolate very nicely. This would make a great table favour or a cute little thank you to tuck into a customer's order!

This is the birthday card I made for my mother in law. I followed the same layout from previous post where I used all blues. On the card I used DSP from the Pink Pirouette pack. I used Pink Pirouette textured CS, Purely Pomegranate and Whisper White. The greeting is stamped with Purely Pomegranate ink.

This is going to be my husband's christmas card. Since we started watching Sesame Street with our oldest son (who is now 33) my husband has loved Oscar the Grouch. I saw Ros Oakes' card and knew I would have to CASE it. Here is my version - just a tiny bit different from Ros'. You can hers here. I used Whisper White, River Rock (textured), Real Red, Basic Black and Old Olive cardstock. DSP is from my precious supply of the retired Dashing. The ink and ribbon are both Real Red. The sentiment is a non SU stamp and is framed with a piece from the Silver Hodgepodge. The little bit of glitter on the pom pom is Stardust Stickles.

Thanks for looking.

Marjorie

I have finally made the cards from the Upsy Daisy Class Planner designed by Andrea Walford. I have had the planner for quite some time now but was concentrating on making Christmas cards and getting the cards for the troops done and sent. I can now relax a bit and start making cards. The next four cards are all from the class planner. All use the Upsy Daisy stamp set - a set that initially I did not like. As I use it I am realizing how versatile it really is. The cards all use different papers from the Urban Garden DSP. You can see all of Andrea's class planners here.


This first card is stamped on Whisper White using Kiwi Kiss classic ink for the flowers and Not Quite Navy for the sentiment. The band in the middle is Not Quite Navy CS and is embellished with several dew drops. Andrea's original used two silver brads - one on each end of the blue band. The DSP as mentioned is from the Urban Garden package.






This next card is stamped on Whisper White with Not Quite Navy ink - both the sentiment and the flowers. It also features some of the striped Kiwi Kiss ribbon.

This card is also stamped with Not Quite Navy. The ribbon is Baha Breeze.

This final card from the Upsy Daisy class planner also uses the Baha Breeze striped ribbon. The flowers are stamped with Baha Breeze classic ink and the sentiment is Not Quite Navy.

While visiting some blogs recently (and after clicking links within blogs, within blogs .....) and saw these next two cards. The first one is again using Upsy Daisy and the Urban Garden DSP.

This next one has almost no stamping (only the sentiment). The flowers are from the Urban Garden DSP.

I love this next card and wish I could remember whose blog I saw it on. The flower from the Inspired by Nature set is stamped with Baha Breeze. The papers are Baha Breeze CS, Urban Garden DSP and Not Quite Navy CS. The sentiment is from the level one hostess set Best is Yet. Features the wide oval punch and the designer label punch. A quick, but very beautiful card.

I had a little fun with my punches last week and created this little ATC. I saw it on Ros Oakes blog and had to make one myself. What fun!

And finally here is a Santa gift tag I made this morning. I saw the santa face (you guessed it, I can't remember where) and made that. I got to thinking how I could make it into a gift tag and decided to cut out a tag with my Sizzix die as a starting point. I added the strip of whisper white and then the black belt. I cut out the buckle from brushed gold CS. I tied the cord (I wish I had some gold) and then mounted the santa face with dimensionals. Is it not cute!

That is it for today - thanks for stopping by.

Marjorie

Now that I have sorted, packed up and taken the cards we made for the troops (final count 360) I have been able to just 'play'. I saw a card while blog surfing yesterday and although I downloaded the picture, I forgot to note the site. Although almost exact, I did change a few things (but not very much). I used: CS - Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Brushed Gold; DSP - Holiday Treasures; Ribbon - Riding Hood Rood Taffeta; Stamp Set - A Flower for all Seasons

I had an opportunity to try out a couple of the Big Shot dies this weekend - a huge thank you to Tracie St-Louis.

I had the Pillow Box, Pennant and Baskets & Blooms dies. I did not make very much, but I did cut out a bunch of each. Here are a couple of the pillow boxes I did - would they not make great table favours? Although they are not big enough to hold a gift card, I have heard that they are the perfect size for the Laura Secord mini chocolate bars!

I used: CS - Real Red, Kraft, Whisper White; Ribbon - Real Red Striped, Alpine (Felt)

Here is my version of the Rudolph displayed at Convention. It uses the Pennant Die (Small). I did not have the Tulipz die, so used a punch for the antlers. I think next time I would use big googly eyes rather than the punched ovals.

I used: CS - Creamy Caramel, Basic Black, Real Red, Chocolate Chip; Holly Leaves (non SU)

Here is another use for the small pennant die. Is he not cute!

I used: CS - Real Red, Whisper White, Blush Blossom; White Signo Gel Pen

Last week I participated in a fundraiser for GI Cancer Research. The event was actually held in London, Ontario on November 8 and was organized by Heather Summers. I had read about it on her blog so signed up. Heather shipped my package to me after the event - it included the Holiday Trinkets stamp set and all of the instructions and supplies for 10 projects. I was thrilled to find out that I had won a doorprize as well.

Here are a couple of the projects.

The first is similar to the Santa project above - the only difference is that the hat is not cut out with the Pennant die. The real red card stock is simply cut into the triangle shape. On the back there is a little pouch to hold a gift card or small note.

All colours are the same as the project above.

These are the three cards that were included in the package - there were enough supplies to make two of each. They all feature images from the Holiday Trinkets stamp sets and paper from the Ski Slope Designer Papers.

On this next card I added the medallion on the upper left side. It is from the Hostess Level 1 set Punches Three.

Thanks for stopping by

Marjorie

Yesterday my mother and two of my sisters came over to bake mum's christmas shortbreads. This has become an annual event and we always have a lot of fun. 33 dozen shortbreads and several dozen bird's nests (you may know them as thumbprint cookies) made my house look like we were in a bakery.

We did a count of the cards for the troops - 335 - and sorted the cards by theme in preparation to shipping them to Angeie Zuber. My friend Judy had not 'signed' a few of the ones she had made so they are not included in the count yet. Once they are added in I think we will have over 340.

One of the projects for UStamp Holidays was a cute little scrapbook made using the SU clear envelopes. I did not have any more of those on hand, but I did have some others. My envelopes open on the long side, so I had to adjust the dimensions for the cover. I am very pleased with the results. There are 10 pages inside the book held together with brads from the silver hodgepodge.

Card Stock - Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White

DSP - Holiday Treasures

Ink - Basic Black, Riding Hood Red

Ribbon - Alpine

Other - dimensionals, crystal effects, brads (Silver Hodgepodge), clear envelopes

I made this one pretty plain because I used the felt ribbon. I plan to make more using other DSP and felt flurries!

Thanks for looking

Marjorie

More Cards for the Troops

Here are some more of the cards we made on Sunday. Again, sorry for the glare - I sealed the cards into their protective envelopes before remembering that I wanted to take pictures.

This next card is one I made following instructions from UStamp Holidays. To say I followed the instructions is a bit of a stretch. When I adhered the blue panel to the card, it should have been on the bottom. I had my folded card upside down without realizing it and after it was stuck down I also realized that I had not cut the blue panel to the proper size. I adapted and am pretty happy with the results.

Have a great day and thanks for looking.

Marjorie

A Card for Home

This past Sunday Judy and I hosted a get together to make cards that will be sent to our military bases overseas (particularly Afghanistan). These cards are made available to our brave men and women so that they have a selection of cards to send to their loved ones back home. Our group had a fantastic day! We ranged in age from my 77 year old mother to my 2 year old great niece. There were 13 of us in all. In addition to the 2 year old, we had two thirteen year old girls and one who is twelve. We had all the younger ones include their age when they signed the back of their cards beside the Handstamped by image.

Everyone was just so proud and thankful to be able to show support for our soldiers. What a sense of accomplishment we felt as the box of cards filled up. When we finished up there were close to 250 cards in the box - and that did not include mine or Judy's. With ours, the count is about 300. By the time we send them off I expect we will be close to 350 - maybe more!

None of the cards were made with layers. We are unsure of the conditions overseas and did not want to risk any 'adhesive failure'. What a challenge - but I think we did very well. We also could not use glitter - we read somewhere that if the glitter flakes off and gets onto the clothing it could be highly visible to anyone observing them with night vision goggles. So, no layers, no bling.

Here are a few pictures - I should have taken the photos before sealing the cards into their plastic protective envelopes. Please excuse the glare.

Thanks for looking.

Marjorie