I had a very CRAFTY Christmas, how about you?

Cory was so great to me this Christmas. He got me all of the crafty goodies I requested including a Giga scalloped oval punch (wow!!!), a white Staz On pad, Prima Got Flowers, Stardust gellyroll pens, envelopes, and more. I also got an incredible surprise of some beautiful stamp pad holders for my craft room. They are perfect and hold so much stuff that they freed up a lot of my room on my craft table. I couldn't be happier. How lucky am I???

Merry Christmas to all!

I know I've been slacking in posting cards as often as I was in the beginning, but the holidays are taking a toll. Here's a picture of our tree before I wrapped all of the presents. I'll have to take another one with the presents (because that's the best part!)

I hope to get some cards made during my break from work, so we'll see. In the meantime, I hope everyone has a joyous Christmas and a prosperous new year!

Merry!

I got a new set from SU! this week and had to play with it. I got the inspiration for the colors from the SU! website. Inspiration is everywhere!

The Santa hat is embossed with a mixture of red embossing powder and Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I used about 1 T. of red embossing powder and 1/2 T. of glitter. I put it in an empty jar and shook it up really well. Voila! I embossed like normal using Versamark ink. I love the way it turned out. The snowflakes are stamped in White Craft ink and embossed with iridescent ice embossing powder (mixture of clear embossing powder and glitter). 'merry!' at the bottom is stamped in White Craft ink with a small adhesive rhinestone on the exclamation point.

Thanks for looking!

Images Copyright Stampin' Up! 1990-2007

In addition to stamping

Another thing I love to do is make Christmas candy and cookies. This weekend I had help from my dear friend Betsie. We worked for 6 1/2 hours on Saturday and made gingerbread men, pecan tassies, and English toffee. Yum! Plus we painstakingly painted chocolate on mini muffin cups for homemade peanut butter cups. The PB cups are fabulous, but SO labor intensive. Here are a few pictures of our creations.

I'm starting to slip...

I know, I was on a roll posting every day for a while and now I've slipped. My scanner currently isn't working, due to a software upgrade at home by my dear techie hubby. :) So, I have to take pictures of all of my creations. That's all fine and dandy, but I just forget to do it. I will have to do some tonight and post over the next few days. So, sorry for the blip. Don't give up on me yet!

My favorite Christmas card this year

1990-2006 Images Copyright Stampin' Up!(r)

This is my favorite of all the Christmas cards I made this year. I got the idea from a Stampin' Up!(r) regional seminar so I can't claim it as a "Lesley original" but I still love it. I cut out the large and small poinsettias from a sheet of Holiday Thyme designer paper (sorry, this is no longer available - it was only in the Holiday Mini Catalog) and used the Versamarker on the petals. Then, I added Iridescent Ice embossing powder, tapped off the excess, and heated. I layered the small one on the larger one and voila! The rest of the card is Cranberry Crisp card stock, more Holiday Thyme paper, Always Artichoke card stock, gold embossing powder on the Season's Greetings image from SU! Many Merry Messages set, and some gold cord. Oh, and to pop up the poinsettia, I used a giant super sticky pop up glue dot. Those things are SO sticky put perfect for popping something up and securing ribbon at the same time.

I just love anything that sparkles. Glitter and sparkly embossing powder give that extra BLING that makes a card look more expensive. Not to mention that every time I'm done using glitter Cory loves to point out that I have glitter on my face. LOL!

Another Christmas card

1990-2006 Copyright Stampin' Up!

Here's another of my Christmas cards for this year. I used Snow Flurries, Perfect Ending, Bliss Blue card stock and ink, shimmery white card stock, White Craft ink, Holiday Thyme background paper (for the blue behind the white oval), stitched ribbon from the Seaside ribbon collection, pewter hodgepodge hardware, the two sizes of oval punches, 2-way glue, and Dazzling Diamonds glitter (all products Stampin' Up!(r) unless otherwise noted).

I loved this card because it was quick and easy while showing the versatility of the oval hardware and punches. The stitched ribbon is by far my favorite. SU! also sells it in whole rolls of Cranberry Crisp, True Thyme, and Vintage Violet. They just announced that even though it was in the Holiday Mini Catalog, which ended Nov. 30th, the ribbon will be available through June 30, 2007. Woo hoo! That's GREAT news!

Have a great weekend everyone and STAY WARM!

Holiday Traditions

I love hearing about other people's holiday traditions. This is a fun little questionnaire that will help you learn a little about my holiday traditions. Feel free to copy and paste into an email and send it to me. I'd love to hear more about you! hoosierstamper@gmail.com

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Mom and Dad wrapped and made some presents from Santa

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White icicle on house, multi-colored on tree

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Outside, around Thanksgiving when it’s not too cold. Inside, a week or so after Thanksgiving.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Dad's breakfast on Christmas morning and step-dad’s ham

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Coming downstairs Christmas morning to a beautiful tree with piles of presents. Also tracking Santa’s progress on Christmas Eve.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I honestly don’t remember.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Now I open all of my presents at my mom and step-dad’s on Christmas Eve. As a kid I think I could open one, but that was it.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Lots of multi-colored lights and a variety of ornaments.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Somewhere in between. I love the look of it, but don’t like driving, walking, or jogging in it if it covers the sidewalks.

12. Can you ice skate? Not well.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Wow, I’ve had so many over the years. I remember one I was TOTALLY psyched about – a Tiffany (late 80’s singer, not the jewelry) tape and walkman.

14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Giving to others.

15. Favorite holiday movie? Elf

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Going to see the Nutcracker ballet here at Indiana University and making Christmas candy.

17. What tops your tree? An angel.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? They’re both fun in their own way. Nothing beats seeing the look on someone’s face when you give them a total surprise and they absolutely love it.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas – Gayla Peevey (1953)

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Ok, but not great.

21. Stockings? Or no Stockings? I LOVE stockings! I love filling them for others too.

22. Do you like sledding? Not anymore. Loved it as a kid.

23. Farthest you've traveled for Christmas day? 50 miles to my dad’s house.

24. Do you leave out cookies or carrots for when Santa comes? Not anymore. I used to leave him a note with cookies and milk. I also left some lettuce and water for the reindeer in the backyard.

25. What gets you into the holiday spirit? Decorating and listening to Christmas music.

26. Do you wrap all of your gifts in the same paper? No way! I love the variety.

27. Favorite gift you've ever given? Hmm…can’t think of anything right now.

28. Most fun holiday memory? Going to see a theatrical production of A Christmas Carol with my mom and dad.

29. Do you wrap your own gifts? I wrap all of the gifts I give to people. I also used to wrap all the ones my step-dad bought for my mom. LOL!

30. Most missed memory from childhood Christmas? The anticipation of seeing the beautiful tree on Christmas morning.

Christmas is coming...

So I'll continue sharing some of the items I've made for Christmas this year. As many of you know, I make all of my own Christmas cards every year. I've been doing this for the past several years. Usually I do one or two designs and mass produce them, but this year I took a new approach. I did several designs and fewer of each card. It definitely helped eliminate the boredom factor. With 50 cards to make the boredom factor is definitely something to consider.


1990-2006 Copyright Stampin' Up!(r)
This card is the most recent one I've created. I call it my attempt at retro. Something about those round snowflakes just looks retro to me. I like it. It was super easy too. I started out with SU! Old Olive card stock and rubbed it with the embossing buddy (to prevent stray embossing powder from sticking where it shouldn't). Then, I stamped the round snowflake in SU! Always Artichoke. Next, I stamped the second snowflake in SU! Vanilla Craft ink which is slower drying so I had time to add SU!'s Iridescent Ice embossing powder. I tapped off the excess then stamped 'noel' with Versamark ink and added silver embossing powder. I tapped off the excess and heated with my embossing gun. Finally, I tied a piece of olive organdy and silver cord around the card. Repeat 12 times. :)

Hello!

So I finally decided I would start a blog. Here goes! It's almost Christmas so I'll share some of the projects for my upcoming stamp camp. It's Sunday, December 3rd from 1-4:00. Now if I can just figure out how to upload pictures... :)


Altered Altoid tin - Very easy project. I purchased the tins from ebay, cut some paper to layer on top, and decorated with images from SU!'s Yule Bits & Borders.
Domino magnet - Another easy project that wows them every time. Use regular, ol' dominos and scuff up the plain white side with a sanding block. Then, stamp the image with Jet Black Staz On. Color the background and image with chalk on a q-tip. Cover the image with Crystal Effects and add glitter, if desired. Let dry and spray with a light coat of sealant.
Bookmark card - This nifty little card uses the small snowflake from SU!'s Snowflakes set to create the wreath. Then, stamp the tiny snowflakes on top to create berries. The perforator tool from the cutting tool kit is used to score a line at 8 1/2" which creates the bookmark.

Gift guide - I thought this little notebook would be a great idea for folks to keep track of gift ideas and purchases during the holidays. I bought these little books at Wal-Mart last year. They are packaged as mini scrapbooks with stickers and die cuts all for the bargain price of around $.50! Can't beat that! I stamped the snowman in Basic Black and layered him on some of the Holiday Thyme paper. There you go! Easy as pie.