I know, I know you're expecting Day 1 of Basically Christmas Cards and I promise they are coming, but I'm just so excited about how this is turning out! I'm in charge of our ward Christmas party for about 250 people and this is essentially the color theme and part of the display. (such fun because I got to pick!) This is in particular for the dessert table. Isn't it cute? The tin is from the $1 Spot at Target. I used rub-ons and loads of miscellaneous ribbon, straight pins, tacky glue, starlight red & white mints, spray adhesive and some "snow!"
I'm gearing up for a little Christmas fun on my blog. I promised myself that if I were going to send homemade Christmas cards out that they MUST be done by Thanksgiving weekend. As a result I came up with a plan. I am making 5 Christmas Cards of 1 design for 12 days in a row. At the end I'll have made 60 Christmas cards. Those coupled with the dozen or so I've already made and have stashed in my drawer and I'll be set! Dress warm and be on the lookout!
I'm going back to the basics. These cards are fun but most of all SIMPLE! They are completely doable and utterly copyable! So watch for what's coming, complete with cutting instructions so you can pull out your supplies and make them right along with me! Make 1 or 20 of one design. It will be up to you, but I promise if you have the basics in your stash you'll be able to do my basically Christmas cards!
and for my card class a little bit easier to relax and enjoy knowing they have at least some of their Christmas cards ready to go! I thoroughly enjoyed coming up with the 6 cards they made Friday night, but it was hard too. This may be one of the last 2 classes I am able to hold for a while. The economy has hit my family hard and like many we are in a huge position of uncertainty. I'm hopeful, but let all of my nearly 30 regular class members know that I may not be able to continue our scheduled classes. This for me, is one of the hardest parts of the trials my family is currently facing. I love to create, to teach and to be surrounded by friends regularly in my home; I'm sure that without it a very important part of my life will be missing. So here they are, I am hoping you find something here that inspires you!
My personal favorite. I love how this came out! A nice rustic look! So many possibilities with this idea! The glassine envelope holds snowman parts. . . a snowman for you! This cheerful card is easy to replicate and holds a warm sentiment framed on the inside. I tried to get a photo that shows the reflection of the snowflakes on the snowmen. Love the clear card look! This is a recreation of a card I made many years back. Just love to mimick Santa's belt on a card with his image. This card sparkles inside and out! It's fun to stretch a "Christmas Card" to the point where you're not quite sure if it is one. I borrowed this idea from Yvette West. She's amazing!
May this truly be the most wonderful time of the year for you and your family. I think I'll go roast some marshmallows now!
He will bring you through it. Gratitude. Naturally in November our thoughts to thankfulness. It's easy to be thankful for the blessing we see, but not always so easy when they don't appear in things that seem to be trials.
I keep a gratitude journal and when I get around to it I add to my gratitude blog. (If you click you'll see it is woefully behind.) I've seen several worthy bloggers posting 27 days of Thanksgiving and other equally named thankfulness posts, but the reason for my post can be found here. Erin is an amazing gal. She and I are "virtual friends" and if you spend a minute at her blog you'll know why I think so much of her. Please take the next 15 minutes and read her post, view the videos and then join me in looking for the blessings in your life; even if the blessings are disguised in things as difficult as missing all of your arms and legs.
May this be the month where our hearts and attitudes are turned in great ways to ones that Heavenly Father can use for His good.
This is my surrogate nephew Bennett. Dawn (his mommy) and I have been friends for almost 17 years. I waited a VERY long time for this little guy to be born. He was actually born in July and I made these hybrid announcements for her in late August, but things were really crazy at that time and I never posted them! I made 80 (hence the hybrid!) I'm nuts, but I'm not completely crazy! I did make all of his baby shower invites and goody boxes that you can see here.
He's already laughing, smiling and turning over. They grow up so fast!
I love pumpkin in just about any variety. Combine pumpkin in a simple recipe and it's a must share!
Here is the recipe in 2 variations:
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 Box Carrot or Spice Cake Mix -Dry 1 Small Can Pumpkin 1 Cup Chocolate Chips
Mix well, spoon into Pam sprayed muffin tin or use paper liners. Bake at 350' for about 15 minutes. Use a toothpick to test doneness.
For a healthier version, omit chocolate chips. . . yeah right! LOL!!! You can also add nuts or raisins or a combination of all 3.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Sheet Cake
2 Boxes Carrot or Spice Cake Mix - Dry 1 Large Can Pumpkin 2+ C Chocolate Chips
Mix well, spread in sheet cake pan sprayed with pam. Bake at 350' for about 15 minutes, use a toothpick to test doneness.
When baked, mix 1 brick cream cheese, 1 bag powdered sugar, a splash of vanilla and enough milk to mix with an electric mixer to creamy. Spread on warm cake. Enjoy warm or cold! You can half the recipe and make a 9X13 as well.
I recently took the cake to a homeschool potluck and the sheet was devoured. I guess that means it's good! And to think they were so impressed that I brought something homemade! SHHHH! I won't tell if you don't!
My little spooks would like to wish you a Happy Halloween! Walker, the Warlock was very excited to have a green face. Wyatt, the little devil was thrilled to have a "moose tash." He also gasped a huge loud breath outward and exclaimed "I can't really breathe fire, I'm just a kid!" Ever since we studied about Julius Ceaser's love of Cleopatra, Jessica knew this is what she wanted to be for Halloween! I couldn't convince Mikensee to wear a real costume. She's at that age. This is what she came up with. Walker calls her a Sweet, Sweet Petunia, so that's what we decided she was. From our house to yours; Happy Halloween!
Am I the only one old enough to remember Mickey Mouse Club? I can't think of the big cheese without singing that silly song!
There is something about scrapbooking that's hard to explain unless you do it. Many people never try it because it can be so intimidating; especially when the magazines mostly show pages that the scrapbooker spent hours perfecting and frequently show only one or two photos on a page. I don't know about you but I have 8+ photo boxes from the old 35mm days and going on 25000 images on my external hard-drive (which I do back up, but I'll post more about that another day!) If I only scrapbook 1 or 2 photos per page I'll be 978 years old before I get caught up. Oh, but wait! If I live that long I'll have and average of 1.25 million photos left to scrap! You get the point. You will never be caught up. Sometimes, when you get a really great photo a one page layout is a must. Sometimes a close topic or subject is worth one really great page, but other times that would be plain overkill. Today I'm showing you the latest installment of my Get It Done Scrapbooking class results. I encouraged my class to bring ALL of their Disney photos, not just their latest trip or their favorite trip or the trip with the best photos. I went to Disneyland the first time when I was 12. I went again on a High School Acapella Choir Tour. I didn't go again until my now 11 year old was 2 and we've been a total of 3 times as a family. I chose the 3 family trips and scrapped all of them in one evening on 8 pages. I'm only going to show you the main 5 pages here, but the last page uses a CTMH True Fit Folio. You can see the remaining pages here. My boys had such a good time on the rides we took almost no photos of their first trip to Disney, but with so many of the "extra" photos being the same for each trip, it doesn't really feel that way at all!
Hidden Pockets and the True Fit Folio allowed for almost 100 pictures to be featured on 8 pages! All but 10 photos were taken in the 35mm era, so no photo editing, no re-do shots, just plain old family photos taken from a box. Another side benefit to this kind of scrapbooking is the gratitude you feel when looking back on these memories. My kids have had a blast looking at and talking about their Disney memories and even having a glimpse at moments they don't remember. While these pages won't end up on the pages of a magazine, they will be treasured by family for what I hope to be many generations to come.
P.S. I use CTMH LEVEL 1 Scrapbooking Kits plus a little extra for all my Get It Done Scrapbooking Classes. IF you haven't ever given those fab kits a look, you really should!
is more love. I know this is my 2nd video in 2 days, and I promise this won't be a daily thing, but I did have to share this. I woke up this morning to this in my email from a good friend who knows that I have a deep testimony of Jesus Christ, but also need a bit of strength at this time in my life. This was a wonderful way to start my day and I hope it brings something to yours too.
This video is titled Reflections of Christ. It is a photography slide show of the life of Jesus Christ constructed by a local photographer and most of the staging and scenery is local as well. Hope you love it!
I'm adding this as a side note.
A fetter is a shackle, or binding.
The phrase I raise by Ebeneezer comes from this; Samuel took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer—"the stone of help"—for he said, "Up to this point the Lord has helped us!" —1 Samuel 7:12, NLT
Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by thy help I'm come; and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God; he, to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood. —Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
For more reading on this topic you can click HERE.
I starved you for 2 weeks, but the feast you are about to receive should be worth it! You may want to get a bib so you don't drool on your computer!
I can't think of anything much better than eating or creating, but when combined together two of my favorite things are even better! The latest two installments of recipe club were out of this world. After spending Friday night and Saturday in the company of both of my Recipe Club Classes I have a lot to be merry about! Of course my week was spent in frantic preparation for the two events, but the efforts were truly worth it. It's an amazing process to take a typed recipe and transform it into a readable, creative 6X6 piece of artwork. I first come up with a concept based on the amount of information I have to include in the limited amount of space. Next I typeset the information into a hopefully legible and visually pleasing layout. I also have to include a title and from whom the recipe was obtained. Then I let the creativity take over and hopefully come up with something that brings out both the personality of the food but also the personality of the woman who provided the recipe. After my prototype is complete I prep the projects so that the class member can come together and recreate the art for their own kitchens. It's so much fun to enjoy each other's company as we eat the food and recreate the projects together.
I have to give special kudos to Mikensee (my 11 year old DD) who made the adorable pumpkin stickpins. She made them at my request (with the concept for my card still in my head.) The first batch she made burned and she cried. She was so disappointed. I convinced her it would be worth it for her to make them again so she did. I wish I had taken a picture of the pumpkin patch but I didn't think about. They were so cute in the pin cushion together; each with their very own personality! The card would not have been the same with out them! She did an amazing job. I'm very proud of her. That Makins Clay is just fun stuff!
Thank you all for you comments on my post. . . I do love em! Just one little thing, if you ask me a question and don't have an email in your profile it's very hard for me to get in touch with you. Of course I could leave another comment on the post, but I'm not sure that you would ever know I replied unless you stop back by to check.
You can always email me from the link on the right OR update your profile with an email so I can get in touch with you. Of course if your question is pertinent, I will always accommodate a new post for you!
So. . . Where did I bet my boxes? They are Bare Elements "Sam" boxes. They retail for $15. I have one left that I'm happy to sell for $12 plus postage to you. How much can an empty box cost to mail? (not quite empty, it includes dividers and base pages!)
My snow babies use their original hangers and I put them on my Christmas tree with coordinating ribbon, but I'm sure just a traditional Christmas hook will work well too!
Thanks again for your kind comments. Comments really make my day!
Just for fun; This is a card I made for a swap the first year I started with CTMH and the 2nd one I ever made (on my own). . . Go ahead and laugh, but hey, I had to start somewhere!
This is my 2nd post for today, so if you want to see the other, please scroll down. :)
For a long time I've been concerned about what posterity might know of me if I didn't leave anything behind for them. I love to scrapbook, but scrapbook pages can often be superficial in natural. By this I mean that we don't often tell about our real self -- our true thoughts and feelings. They usually cover life events of our children and families and I know that the pictures I haven't scrapped by far out weigh the ones I have. I know I also tend to scrapbook the joyous times in life of which there are many, but life isn't always joyous. Sometimes life is painful and hard. What have I learned? What do I wish I'd done? For this though I felt photographs were secondary. I wanted to show a picture of myself from the inside out. Where is my heart? What do I value? What hurts? To this end I began working on a list for myself titled Just 5Things. There are 50 topics on my list. This is some of them;
5 people important to me 5 friends I have known 5 things I would do if I had no limitations 5 things I live for 5 things I don't want to forget 5 things I don't want to live without 5 pieces of advice I wish I could have given myself at 18 5 things I'm passionate about 5 things I wish I could change 5 things I do every day 5 challenges that have changed me 5 things I wish I didn't care about 5 days I'll never forget 5 things I spend too much time on 5 reasons I cry 5 things that might surprise you
The list goes on and on. Like I said, I've worked on this list since last March. I also teach a Pictures In Art Class and this is what my list has become:
There are 6 dividers (shown on my class blog) and the 2nd class will be the pages. The class has been instructed to choose 10 things and I've provided worksheets with questions so that they can journal their true thoughts and feelings. This is to be about them. Even if they choose to tell about 5 people they love, it must be what this has done for them, not just a tribute to the someone else. We will be making scrapbook pages (5X7) for the main 5 things x 5 items (which I've instructed them on how to choose) and then the last divider will hold 5 pages bullet style of the remaining 5 things x 5 items. They have photo instructions to help illustrate the first 5 things. My hope is that the class (me included) will continue to complete the list of 50 things and stuff our boxes so that once we are no longer here to tell our stories our posterity will know us. They won't just have our memories, but our thoughts and feelings in a way I know without this I would never explore. I've told them that I hope they won't even share the boxes with their families now. I think it will be of much more value as a treasure later.
Here's my question for you. What 5 things would you want your posterity to know about you and how are you going to tell them?
It's still 100' outside here in AZ but what more could you ask for than a little snowman in your life? I've had several posts recently asking me about my snow babies from last year. I know my friend Jen Peterson made about 100 of them last weekend. She is getting her socks this year at the $1 Store. She made some with some pink and brown socks and oh my are they cute!
Here is a quick photo for those who didn't see last year or who want a sneak peek again! :)
Anyway, to address some questions I've been asked;
I used white acrylic paint. I used 2-8 oz bottles for the troupe I made. I cut my socks before I put them on my babies and it doesn't really matter how you do it, i just cut them in half at the toe and then tried to just keep cutting in halves until the strips were thin and curly enough for the poof on top. I used a little bit of glue to attach the hats on the first ones I made, but I really felt it was more trouble than it was worth. They seem to stay on perfectly with the elastic in the ankle band of the socks. If you wanted to be sure I think I would use Scotch Quick Dry Tacky Adhesive. Redline (Bologna) or Terrifically Tacky Tape would all work, but I would use a square in the front and one in the back, not all the way around.
I put the hangers (the round cap with the loop for a hook) on after mine were completely finished.
To do the paint you want to use WAY more than you think you need. I tipped them upside down in a cup and used the paint again and again transferring from one baby to the next. I just did housework and dropped in my office occasionally to do the next one. I let the paint dry for about 48 hours before I did any of the decorating. I used a black paint pen (found mine at Michaels) that looks like a marker. I think you could use a Sharpie, but this gave them way more personality than using a stamped face I think. I used some acrylic paint dyed with reinker and then end of a pencil (eraser side) for their rosy cheeks. You can also use the pearly white ornaments that are also easy to find. I made some of each, but prefer the craft white to the pearl.
If you make some, link up a post. I would love to see how many snow babies are delivered at your house this year!
I love fall. Even living in Arizona where fall mostly consists of 100' days, fall means that it is cooling down, nights will soon be cool enough to open the windows,the holidays are approaching and that warm PJ's, peppermint tea and way too many goodies are on their way! I made these several years ago, but after seeing one published in Paper Trends (never thought of submitting mine) I thought you might enjoy seeing them too. I used a foam pumpkin, paper from CTMH with a few stamped images, some inked edges and ribbon and buttons for embellishing.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
+(2).jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)